Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (14 page)

Maryse started walking again and Helena fell in step behind her. Suddenly, she drew up short and Helena piled into the back of her, almost knocking her over.

“What are you trying to do?” Helena complained. “Get us injured?”

Maryse whirled around and stared at her. “You’re not here because we’re all going to be in danger again, are you? I need you to tell me the truth on this. First Jadyn was in danger and now Raissa’s missing…”

Helena held up her hands. “I swear, I didn’t have anything to do with either. And if my being sent here was because of those reasons, no one filled me in.”

Maryse narrowed her eyes at the ghost, but Helena appeared to be telling the truth. “Hmmmm. Just because no one told you anything doesn’t mean that’s not the case.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Helena said, looking slightly miserable.

“Well,” Maryse said as she took off again. “Nothing to be done about it now, so we may as well do our best while it plays out.”

“I hope our best doesn’t include snakes and spiders.”

“I’m guessing your best doesn’t include stealing food, so a few snakes and spiders might even the score.”

Helena huffed. “Rude.”

Maryse stopped walking again and scanned the swamp surrounding them. “Okay, here’s where we part directions. Follow this path about half a mile. Walk twenty yards or so to the right and you’ll be on the road. Stay on it until you get to the pond.”

“Walk on the road? What if someone sees me?”

Maryse stared at her for a moment.

“Oh, right, no one else can see me.” Helena frowned. “Hey, I could have been walking on the road this entire time.”

“Oh, I guess you could have.”

Helena glared. “You did that on purpose. Probably hoping that a snake would fall on me or something.”

“One can always hope,” Maryse said before setting off deeper into the swamp.

She skirted through the swamp some distance from the pond, but because she knew the swamps so well, she knew exactly when to break right and head for the back side. She’d told Helena she was going to watch from the other side, but in thinking it over, decided her view would be too restricted from that distance to get much out of it. But she could watch from where the pond curved around to the left. It would be far enough away that no one should notice her, but close enough that she would be able to see anything worth seeing.

Even at a fast clip, it took her almost twenty minutes to get where she wanted. As she crept toward the tree line, she lowered herself to remain unseen behind the decreasing height of the brush. Finally, she stooped behind a shrub and pulled out her binoculars. Using a couple of sticks, she created a hole in the bush, then lifted the binoculars and focused on the crowd of men standing next to a tow truck about fifty yards from her.

She recognized Agent Ross immediately as he stood in front of the other man, waving his hands and giving out orders. A couple minutes later, the men dispersed, each moving to his assigned task. Ross walked to the edge of the pond with the man wearing scuba gear. The tow truck backed up as far as possible toward the muddy bank and the diver grabbed the tow hook and started walking with it into the pond.

Where the hell was Helena?
 

The ghost had one-third the walk Maryse had, and should have been in place already. Maryse scanned the entire area, looking for some sign of the ghost. She almost missed her completely before realizing that the black lump on the bank, which she’d originally taken for a bag of gear, was actually Helena, decked out in a scuba suit. For the first time since they’d left the hotel, Maryse was glad she had to keep her distance. The scuba suit looked bad enough from a distance. No way did she want a closer view.

As the diver disappeared below the surface of the pond, Helena popped up, or at least, Maryse assumed she did, as the wetsuit got taller but not much thinner. Then she started walking toward the pond.

“Oh no.”
 

What in the world was Helena thinking? The woman ran screaming bloody murder from harmless spiders, but she was walking into a pond that contained alligators and God only knew what else. And how the hell was Helena supposed to find out what Ross was up to if she was playing Jacques Cousteau?

Aggravated beyond belief, Maryse rose up and crept around the edge of the tree line, closer to where Ross and his men were stationed. If she could just get a little closer, she may be able to read his lips. It was something she’d always been fairly good at but never copped to. It got her a lot of information that other people thought she couldn’t overhear.

She was about thirty feet away before she could make out things out clearly.

“Did you talk to Assistant Director Richards?” he asked the other agent.
 

The agent nodded, but Maryse couldn’t tell what the reply was as the agent’s back was to her.

“Does he think Agent Bordeaux’s disappearance has anything to do with the Riley case?” Ross asked.

The agent shook his head.

“She was carrying her ID. Whoever took her has got to know she’s a federal agent.”

The other agent shook his head again.

“Let me know as soon as you hear something. I need to get this wrapped up before the local law enforcement messes up my investigation. Speaking of which, I need you to run a check on a couple of locals—”

Ross abruptly stopped talking and looked toward the pond. Maryse panned over with her binoculars, expecting to see the diver emerging from the pond, but it was much, much worse.

A section of the pond was whitecapping, as if something large thrashed about below the surface. A second later, Helena bolted out of the water, screaming like someone was killing her.

“Alligators! They’re everywhere.” She streaked past Ross, running at breakneck speed.

Directly toward Maryse.

Chapter Eight

About halfway to the tree line where Maryse was hidden, Helena tripped over a rotted tree trunk and went sprawling into a clump of dead brush. The brush broke under her weight and went flying into the air in a hundred different pieces.

Crap. Helena had gone solid.
 

Maryse prayed that Ross hadn’t noticed the exploding brush, but her prayer was a second too late. Ross’s head jerked in her direction, and he yelled to the other agent as he started running in her direction, gun drawn.

Do something!

But she couldn’t move. If she ran, Ross would fire at her. If she stayed still, maybe he’d stop at the brush and wouldn’t see her at all. She dropped down as low as she could get, taking refuge as much as she could behind a cypress tree, and peered around it.

Ross stopped where Helena fell and leaned over to inspect the ground, then straightened and scanned the surrounding area. Helena popped up out of the nearby marsh grass and took off running again. Maryse could see the grass collapsing with her every footstep and knew she was still solid. Unfortunately, Ross saw the footprints as well and headed right after her.
 

Are you watching, God? Negative ten points, at least!

Helena was about twenty feet away from Maryse’s hiding place when she screamed again, and stopped so abruptly that she almost toppled over.

“Snake!” she screamed and spun around, tackling Agent Ross like an NFL linebacker.
 

Ross discharged his weapon as he fell, causing the other agents to run toward him. Maryse popped up from the ground, ready to sprint for the far reaches of the swamp while everyone was distracted. But as soon as she whirled around, she heard a footstep behind her.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” a man’s voice sounded behind her.

She turned around and found herself looking directly into the barrel of a nine millimeter.
 

“This way,” he said, and waved the gun back toward the pond.

Stupid!

She’d completely forgotten about the other agent. He must have circled around while Ross came straight at her. As she stepped out from behind the tree, she saw Ross showing the smashed weeds to the other agents and waving his hand toward the pond. She scanned the area, but Helena was nowhere in sight. With the panic she was in, she might have run all the way to Canada.

If only Maryse was that lucky.

As they approached the group of agents, a boat engine roared to life and took off down the bayou like a gunshot. Everyone spun around, including the FBI diver, who was halfway up the bank. Maryse held in a groan. There was no mistaking the very rotund driver, clad in a diver’s suit.

Agent Ross spun around and fixed his gaze on her. “Who are you working with?”

“I…I’m not working with anyone.”

“You expect me to believe my boat drove off by itself?”

“I don’t care what you believe. I’m not here with anyone else.”

Not anyone alive, at least.

Ross’s face flushed with anger and he lifted the binoculars from her chest. “Someone sent you to spy on me,” he said, shaking the binoculars, “and I want to know who.”

“No one sent me. No one is working with me. I’m a botanist. All my work is based on the plant life in these swamps.”

Ross let go of the binoculars and they thumped against her chest. “Not anymore it’s not. I suggest you find a nice rosebush in someone’s front lawn to study. No one is allowed to go poking around this area of the swamp until I say so.”

Maryse felt the blood rush up her neck and onto her face. His arrogance had finally put her in the red, and although Maryse knew it was probably best to be political about the entire thing, she had never managed polite when she was pissed.

“Nothing you or anyone else can say will keep me out of this swamp.”

“Really? If you push the issue, I’ll have you arrested for trespassing and interfering in a federal investigation.”

She gave him a smug smile. “I own the entire game preserve. Good luck making either of those stick.”

“The state owns the game preserve.”

She shook her head. “The state leases the game preserve from me, but I own the land and have the legal right to occupy or work on any square inch I see fit. Read the lease documents sometime.”

Ross threw his arms in the air. “You can’t possibly have purchased an entire swamp.”

“No. I inherited it from my former mother-in-law, Helena Henry.”

Ross froze, apparently recognizing the name. “Helena Henry?”

Maryse nodded.
 

Ross cursed under his breath. “You’re Luc LeJeune’s wife.”

“The one and only, and he’s going to be thrilled when he hears how you’ve manhandled me.” She lifted the binoculars. “I bruise easily.”

Ross’s eyes widened and he spun around to yell at one of his men. “Get her to the hospital and make sure she’s not injured. Drive slowly and don’t let her out of your sight until I get there to question her. No phone calls to her husband, either. If the hospital wants to release her, ask for a psych eval, but whatever you do, don’t let her leave before I get there.”

“Yes, sir. What’s the reason for the arrest?”

“We’re the damned FBI. It’s none of the hospital’s business why we’re detaining her. Now someone get me a boat so we can go after her accomplice!”

The agent grabbed Maryse by the arm. “This way.”

His grip was tight enough to make her wince and she held in a smile. She hadn’t lied about bruising easily. Ross was just digging himself a deeper grave. The agent directed her to a truck and motioned for her to get inside. Then he reached into the glove compartment and brought out a pair of handcuffs.

Maryse stared at him. “Seriously?”

“You’re a suspect.”

“Suspected of occupying my own property? Technically speaking, you guys are the ones trespassing.”

He clicked the handcuffs around her wrists. “You can tell all that to your attorney.”

Before she could reply, he slammed the door. She watched as he walked around the vehicle, unable to believe how ridiculous the entire situation had become. Looking in the side mirror, she could see Ross, directing the extraction of the car from the pond. Farther up the bayou, a boat approached. Apparently, Ross’s backup had arrived.

The arresting agent climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled away from the pond. Only then did the entirety of her situation hit Maryse, and a sliver of panic ran through her. Not because she had been arrested—she knew good and well they couldn’t make anything stick—and facing a judge didn’t worry her in the least.

Facing her husband was an entirely different story.

###

Jadyn climbed back in the boat, mentally calculating how many cabins they’d covered, then checked her watch. “That makes twenty so far.”

Colt nodded and directed the boat down the bayou. “And we haven’t found a single thing. I’m beginning to wonder if we’re going about this all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe it was a miscalculation to start near where the car was found. Maybe he dumped the car away from wherever he’s hiding to throw us off track.”