Chaos in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series) (25 page)

“Sure. Let me check my phone. I made some notes the last time I was harvesting in that area.”
 

Colt looked over at Jadyn, who lifted her hand with her fingers crossed. He nodded. If Maryse didn’t have a work-around, then he didn’t know who would. As the minutes ticked by, he started to lose hope, but finally the radio screeched and Maryse came back on.

“I’ve got a way around for you. Shouldn’t take you more than a mile out of the way of the main channel. Are you ready to write?”

“Go ahead.”

Colt hurried to make notes as Maryse provided directions and coordinates. At first he thought she’d missed the mark completely, but then he saw the logic of the path she’d given him. It wasn’t the most direct route, but they shouldn’t have any problems running around in the channels she’d chosen.

“This is great,” he said. “Thanks!”

“No problem. Hey, will you do me a favor?”

“Of course.”

“I know it’s a pain, but can you check in every hour? I’ve got a hotel full of worried people, and I’d feel better if I knew my directions hadn’t gotten you stranded.”

“Will do.”

Colt looked over at Jadyn. “Between Mildred worrying about you and Taylor and Sophia worrying about finding her husband, I bet Maryse hasn’t gotten a moment’s peace all day.”

“You know it,” Jadyn agreed. “I’m glad I’m out here with you sweating and itchy.”

He handed Jadyn the map. “Do you mind navigating?”

She scanned the map. “Looks simple enough. As long as things haven’t changed since the last time Maryse was out here.”

Colt started the boat. “Let’s find out.”

Jadyn folded the map so that she could see the notes and the area they were traveling and held it behind the column to avoid the wind. A second later, Colt took off down the bayou. This was the last card they had to play. Either they found something, or they had to deal with the fact that they may never know more than they knew right now.
 

Thirty minutes later, he cut the engine and the boat glided to a stop in front of a dam of cypress trees. He cursed as he scanned the trunks that completely blocked the last channel they needed to traverse. Another hundred feet and they would have been in the area the other fishermen had seen Clifton exiting.

“I guess this is new,” Jadyn said.

Colt nodded. “Maryse said there were a couple of trees down here but there was still enough room to pass on the left side.” He looked at the huge trunk that now covered the previous entry point. “It hasn’t been in the water that long.”

“It might have happened during the storm that sank Vines’s boat.”

“Probably.”

Jadyn walked to the side of the boat and peered over the barricade. “Looks fine on the other side. I don’t suppose we could pull one of these out of the way?”

Colt shook his head. “It would take more than this boat to move a tree that size. And the last thing we want to do is risk the motor when we’re out here alone.”
 

And with someone stalking you.

He didn’t say it, but he knew Jadyn was well aware of the risks.
 

Jadyn frowned and leaned over the side of the boat, peering at the trunk. “There’s a rope here, tied around a big branch.”

“Could have been a snare someone set before the tree fell.”

Jadyn shook her head. “The rope’s too thick and rough for a snare. Something looks weird.”
 

She reached out and pushed the trunk. Colt stared in amazement as the enormous tree glided easily a couple of inches away from the boat. Jadyn glanced back at him, then rapped on the trunk. There was no mistaking the echo.

“It’s hollow,” Jadyn said. “Could insects have done this?”

“No, or we’d see damage on the outside. And insects certainly didn’t tie a rope to it. The other end is tied off behind one of the trees that were already here.”

Her eyes widened. “Very clever.”

He leaned over the side of the side of the boat and released the rope from the old fallen tree. Afterward, he gave the trunk a good shove and it glided across the water. He started the boat and eased through the opening, stopping on the other side to push the log back into place and toss the rope over the connecting log.

“Shouldn’t you leave it open?” Jadyn asked. “I mean, in case we need to get away quickly.”

“I thought about that, but if he’s not back here and approaches, he’ll know someone untied the trunk. If we have to make a run for it, I should be able to strike the trunk with the boat to get away.”

Jadyn didn’t look completely convinced that his idea would work, and he didn’t blame her. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure it would work either, but it was the best thing he could come up with that wouldn’t blow their cover if Vines had left the channel.

He pulled his firearm from his holster and placed it on the dashboard of the boat. Jadyn removed her pistol from her holster and clutched it as she scanned the banks on both sides of the boat. The channel was a good twenty feet across at first, but narrowed as they progressed deeper into the swamp. Finally, they reached the end where it dumped out into a small pond, maybe one hundred feet across.

“Look,” Jadyn said and pointed to a pile of brush on the far left side of the pond. Colt studied it for several seconds and finally made out the back of a boat, hidden by the brush. “He acquired a boat somewhere.”

He retrieved his binoculars from the storage bench and looked past the hidden boat and into the trees. “I don’t see a cabin,” he said and passed the binoculars to Jadyn.

She looked for a bit, scanning the trees from left to right, and finally lowered the binoculars. “I don’t either. But there has to be something back there, even if it’s just a tent.”

“If Vines spent time back here, I’m willing to bet it’s more than a tent. It’s probably just set far enough back that it can’t be seen from the pond.”

“You know what that means?”

“That Vines was building a hideaway before his boat sank.”

Jadyn nodded. “I’d love to know why.”

Colt lifted the CB and called Shirley, giving her the code phrase to change to another channel. “Has everyone in the search party checked in at the dock?” he asked once they’d both switched channels.

“Everyone but one,” she said. “One of the volunteers came across Peter Vincent on his way in and said Vincent wanted to continue searching other areas. He tried to talk Vincent out of it, but he wouldn’t hear it.”

Colt clenched the CB with his hand. “I’m going to switch back to the regular channel. Let me know if Vincent turns up.”

“You got it.”

Colt hung up the CB, not at all happy with this new bit of information. “I don’t like it.”

“Me either, but it plays right into our theory that Vincent is hiding something and Vines may know what it is. Maybe Vincent sabotaged his boat and Vines managed to make it to his hiding spot.”

“Or Vines had a backup boat ready and faked the accident hoping that he’d be declared dead.”

“Either way, it appears he’s trying to get away from something.”

“And that something has to be big. Otherwise, why go to all this trouble?”

Jadyn nodded. “So how do we approach this? If we’re to believe Sophia, he may have already killed one man in an explosion and stolen a stack of cash. How do we know the swamp isn’t set with trigger devices or other security measures?”

“We don’t know.”

“So what’s the plan?”

Colt scanned the bank to the right, looking for a safe place to dock. “I’ll pull up to the bank over there next to those cypress roots. We can traverse the swamp straight back, then make our way to the left. Hopefully, if Vines set up any security measures near the bank, they’ll be where he docked his boat.”

Jadyn nodded and Colt started the boat and directed it toward the bank of cypress roots on the opposite side of the pond from where the boat was hidden. He secured the boat to the roots and pulled two shotguns out of the back bench, handing one to Jadyn. He stepped out onto the bank and remembered he needed to check in with Maryse. He turned around and was about to ask Jadyn to make the call when he heard a twig snap behind him.

Before he could react, a rifle shot boomed and he heard the bullet whiz past him, then the sound of plastic breaking. Instantly, he dived back into the boat, crouching on the bottom next to Jadyn, who’d dropped the instant the shot rang out. He looked up at the console and cursed when he saw that the shot had taken out the CB radio.
 

No chance of calling for backup.

###

Maryse sat in the hotel break room with Mildred, Taylor, Helena, and Sophia, all of them staring at the CB as if their attention alone would cause Colt to check in. Maryse glanced at her watch for the tenth time in as many minutes and felt her frustration tick up another notch.

“How long?” Taylor asked.

“Ten minutes overdue,” Maryse said.
 

“Maybe they forgot,” Taylor suggested.

Maryse shook her head. “They both know we’re waiting to hear from them.” She picked up the CB and called for them again, but the only reply was light static.

Sophia jumped up from her chair and paced the tiny room. “I just know something’s wrong,” she wailed.

“Good God,” Helena said. “That woman is driving me insane. I haven’t seen such dramatics since I was married to Harold.”

Maryse struggled not to reply. It had been easier to navigate conversation before Sophia showed up thirty minutes ago, hand-wringing and woe-is-meing. But since Sophia couldn’t hear or see Helena, the rest of them had switched to stealth mode. Except Helena, of course. Helena was her usual brash, loud self. The fact that she was clad in the Hello Kitty pajamas and the diving mask, which she still hadn’t managed to remove, made her even harder to ignore.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Maryse said. “They could be having problems with the CB.”

“But if that’s the case,” Mildred said, “they wouldn’t be able to call for help either. More than a couple of people have gotten into a bind with their boats back in those less traveled channels.”

Maryse bit her lower lip, a flood of possibilities racing through her mind. What Mildred said was 100 percent true. She’d been left stranded herself so many times she couldn’t even count them, but at least her radio had worked and she’d been able to call for help. If she assumed their CB was disabled, then that left two choices—waiting, potentially hours, to see if they turned up or heading into the bayou to see if they needed help.

It took her only a second to know which option was the right one.

“I know exactly where they were going,” Maryse said. “I’ll head out there and see what the situation is, then radio back for help if it’s something we can’t handle.”

“You’re not going out there alone,” Mildred said.

“It’s safe for me now,” Maryse reminded her.

Mildred shook her head. “
One
bad guy has been eliminated. We have no way of knowing if Clifton Vines is dangerous or not, but I’m going to err on the side of caution.”

“I’ll go with you,” Taylor said. “I don’t know the swamps, but I have a pistol and I know how to use it.”

“I’m going too,” Sophia said.

Maryse shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“He’s my husband,” Sophia said. “If anyone can talk some sense into him, it’s me. Please. I feel responsible for putting all of you in this position. I don’t want things to go badly.”

The last thing Maryse wanted was Wailing Sophia in the boat, but the woman did have a point. If Clifton Vines was her missing husband, then she was the only emotional connection available. She might be able to talk him out of actions he’d regret later.
 

Assuming things hadn’t already gone south.

She took in a breath, forcing that thought out of her mind. She wasn’t willing to go down that path. Not yet. She grabbed a pad of paper and wrote down the coordinates for Mildred. “Call Shirley and tell her to send Deputy Nelson to this location.”

Mildred looked a bit relieved at the thought of backup, but Maryse could tell she still hated their plan. Mildred leaned behind Sophia’s back and glared at Helena. The ghost was doing her best to appear nonchalant, but Maryse could tell she was worried.

“Fine,” Helena mumbled through the diving mouthpiece. “If it will make you happy, I’ll get in a boat with the drama queen and traipse around the swamp. But I want an entire tray of cinnamon rolls tomorrow morning.
Fresh
cinnamon rolls.”

Maryse glanced at Mildred, who gave her a barely imperceptible nod. Leave it to Helena to capitalize on the situation by adding food bribes to the mix. Her ex-mother-in-law was nothing if not predictable. Of course, she was going to have a hard time eating if she couldn’t get that mask off, but Maryse couldn’t be bothered to worry about it. Helena hadn’t eaten all day and Maryse hadn’t noticed her energy for complaining waning one bit.
 

Maryse pointed at Sophia’s Prada-clad feet. “You look like a size eight. I only have one pair of work boots, but I can lend you tennis shoes.”