Resurrection in Mudbug (12 page)

In her poking around, the woman must have found the key, and he was sure she understood the significance given the manner in which it was hidden. The question was how long would it take her to figure out what the key opened, and could he find the location before she did? The sheriff wasn’t cause for concern as the Mudbug native would never suspect him, but the woman was a problem. She wasn’t a local. To her, everyone would be suspect. 

That meant the woman had to go…soon.

He had to make this right with his associates. No way was he going to end up like Duke.

Chapter Twelve

Jadyn had planned to head straight back to the hotel, dump Helena, then ask Mildred about the mysterious key, but as she drove into Mudbug, her cell phone rang.

“Ms. St. James? This is the sheriff’s department dispatch.”

Jadyn clenched her phone, praying that a second crime scene hadn’t been uncovered. “Yes, this is Jadyn.”

“We got a call saying two men are poaching alligator in Johnson’s Bayou.”

“Who was the call from?”

“I don’t know. The reception wasn’t good and the call dropped altogether before I could ask any questions.”

“Well, then I guess I better check it out.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Jadyn disconnected the call and looked over at Helena. “Do you know where Johnson’s Bayou is?”

“Of course. It’s the big one that shoots off Mudbug Bayou, just west of town.”

“I don’t suppose there’s a road that follows it.”

Helena raised her eyebrows.

“Never mind.” Jadyn swung her Jeep around and parked on Main Street. “I left my boat docked behind the sheriff’s department.”

Helena climbed out of the Jeep and followed Jadyn around back to the dock. “Why are you going to Johnson’s Bayou?”

“To catch some poachers.”

“Is that really a priority?”

“Given that I’m the game warden, I’m going to go with ‘Yes, it’s a priority.’”

Helena shook her head as Jadyn untied the flat-bottom aluminum boat. “You and Maryse both have the same annoying addiction to doing your job.”

“I have an addiction to eating and having a roof over my head. That’s why I do my job.” Jadyn tossed the rope into the boat and jumped in after it. “Are you coming or not?”

“If I don’t, I’ll never hear the end of it from Mildred and Maryse. Those two could win an Olympic event in nagging.” She plopped down on the bench at the front of the boat, then turned around as Jadyn pushed the boat away from the dock. “But for the record, you poor people and your jobs are exhausting.”

Jadyn threw the accelerator down and the boat launched away from the dock, sending Helena tumbling backward into the bottom of the boat. Unfortunately, her plaid skirt was up around her neck and Jadyn could clearly see her giant white granny panties, so the joy she’d hoped to feel at her spiteful prank was considerably diminished.

Helena flopped around like a fish for a bit before getting herself upright. She climbed back onto the bench, this time facing backward, and glared at Jadyn. “You did that on purpose.”

Jadyn shook her head. “I’m not used to this boat yet. It’s got a sensitive throttle.”

Helena didn’t look completely convinced. “Well, stop manhandling everything. You’re a woman, for Christ’s sake. Try a little finesse.” She hefted her large legs over the bench and whirled around to face the front.

Jadyn held in a laugh. Finesse advice? From Helena Henry? Maryse and Mildred would get a huge laugh out of that one.

“That way,” Helena said, pointing to a left fork in the bayou.

Jadyn guided the boat to the left into the smaller channel and continued down it at a decent clip. At about fifty feet wide, the bayou was larger than most, but she could easily scan both sides for signs of the poachers without drastically reducing her speed.

“How far out will a cell phone get reception in this channel?” she asked Helena.

“How the hell should I know? Do I look like someone who fishes?”

Since she looked like a hooker long past retirement, Jadyn elected to remain silent. Instead, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and checked service—two bars. Whoever called may have been farther out, assuming his service company was the same as or similar to Jadyn’s. But if he had worse service, he could have been standing on Main Street and still had bad reception.

She slipped the phone back in her pocket and pushed on down the bayou. Cypress trees lined both sides, sometimes leaving a little space for a muddy bank, but most often creating walls of gnarled roots. Periodically, they passed a fisherman or two, but all of them had shallow boats and none of them were loaded down with alligators.

As she rounded a sharp left turn, a loud ping rang out. 

It took a second bullet whizzing only inches from her face before Jadyn realized someone was shooting at her. 

She dropped to the bottom of the boat and pulled out her nine. Helena looked completely shocked and confused, but hesitated only a second before leaping onto the bottom of the boat beside her. 

“Someone’s shooting at me,” Jadyn whispered.

Helena’s eyes widened. “Where is he?”

“That bank,” Jadyn said and pointed to the left side of the boat. Taking a deep breath, she peered over the edge of the boat, but couldn’t see any sign of movement in the dense foliage.

“I can’t die again, right?” Helena asked.

“How the heck should I know? I’m a little more worried about me dying the first time than the possibility that you can die twice.”

“Then I’ll go look,” Helena said.

“You’re going to swim to the bank?”

Helena grinned. “I can walk on water. Didn’t they tell you?”

Jadyn couldn’t even formulate a thought, much less a response before Helena popped up from the bottom of the boat. Despite her attempt to sound confident, Jadyn could tell she was nervous. She froze for several seconds, staring at the bank, as if waiting to see if the shooter would fire at her. She must have decided she was invisible because she climbed over the side of the boat and onto the bayou.

Jadyn’s jaw dropped as Helena did exactly as she’d claimed and started walking across the bayou. Unfortunately, the tide was coming in and it swept her too far upstream. She changed to a jog and worked at a diagonal until she reached the bank, then climbed up the bank and disappeared into the trees.

Every second ticked away like an eternity as Jadyn kept her gaze locked on the bank. Finally, she saw Helena emerge from the swamp and scamper back down to the bayou. When she got to the water level, she gripped a tree root with one hand and waved the other at Jadyn.

“Come pick me up!” she yelled. “I’m exhausted.”

“Is it clear?”

“I walked along the bank a good half mile each way. No one’s there.”

Jadyn inched across the boat and crouched behind the driver’s column. She started the engine and directed the boat toward the bank, trying to keep as low as possible behind the column. When she got to the bank, Helena climbed over the side and collapsed in the bottom of the boat. 

“Are you all right?” Jadyn asked. This was the second time in one morning that Helena had made a mad dash, and Jadyn was starting to wonder if all that exercise couldn’t be detrimental to the ghost. It seemed a ridiculous thought, but then nothing about Helena was logical.

“I’ll be fine when I get my breath back—you know, in a year or two.” She pushed herself off the bottom of the boat and sat on the bench. “I didn’t see a sign of anyone. Maybe he left.”

Jadyn frowned. “Maybe,” she said, but it didn’t make sense. Why would he leave without finishing the job? 

“Do you think it was a hunter who made a bad shot?” Helena asked. “He might not have been shooting at you.”

“Did you hear a gunshot?”

Helena scrunched her brow. “Now that you mention it…”

“Exactly. I didn’t either. Do most hunters in Mudbug use a silencer?”

“Oh, I get it. Damn.”

Exactly that. Damn.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jadyn said. She pushed the boat away from the bank and reached for the accelerator, but before her hand could grip the control, a bullet tore right through the dashboard.

Jadyn dove to the front of the boat and tucked herself in front of the driver’s column.

“Drive!” she yelled at Helena, who was staring at her as if she’d lost her mind. “He’s shooting at me. Get the hell out of here!”

Helena bolted up from the bench and ran to the driver’s seat. “How do I make it go?”

“The throttle is that lever on the right. Push it down.”

The boat leaped away from the bank and Jadyn heard Helena scream, then crash to the bottom. The ninety-degree turn was straight ahead and the boat barreled toward it, complete out of control.

“Helena, the bank!”

Jadyn’s pulse spiked so high her head ached. She braced herself against the bench in front of her and watched in horror as they flew toward the bank of cypress roots. 

This is it. I’m going to die.

She clenched her eyes shut, not wanting to see the impact, but instead of the expected crash, she found herself flung across the boat as it made a hard right turn. She opened her eyes and saw Helena clutching the steering wheel with both hands, looking as panicked as Jadyn felt.

“Slow down—what the hell!”

Jadyn heard someone yell from a boat as they sped by at top speed and could only imagine what the fisherman thought. From his point of view, it looked like an empty boat was careering down the bayou. 

One look at Helena’s face and Jadyn knew the ghost had completely checked out. 

She checked behind them, trying to gauge the amount of distance they’d covered and was pleased with the progress. Unless the shooter could run like a cheetah, she should be in the clear. Before she could change her mind, she crawled around the driver’s column and yelled at Helena to move.

Helena remained frozen at the steering wheel, so Jadyn finally reached through her and pulled the throttle up until the boat slowed to a manageable pace. A chill ran up Jadyn’s arm and she yanked it back from the throttle, more than a little creeped out.

“Helena, move out of the way.”

The ghost didn’t even flinch.

“If we stay here, people might start shooting again.”

She released the steering wheel as if it were on fire and bolted from the driver’s seat. “I’ve never driven a boat,” she said.

“You don’t say?”

“You don’t have to be so pissy about it. I saved your butt, didn’t I?”

Because that statement was reasonably accurate, Jadyn decided to let the whole thing drop. “Fine, but you and I are going to have a boat training session at first opportunity—just in case I need you to drive again.”

Helena plopped down on the bench at the front of the boat. “Being dead is exhausting.”

“Oh yeah? Try staying alive.”

“Hmppffff.” Helena crossed her arms and stared at the bottom of the boat, apparently out of valid comments.

“Are you all right?” A man’s voice sounded behind Jadyn and she whirled around to see a boat coasting beside her. 

The man in the boat was Bart, the guy who’d started the fight with Junior in the bar the night before. 

“I’m fine,” Jadyn replied, forcing her voice to normal.

Bart frowned. “I saw your boat tearing down the bayou, but I didn’t see you in it. I thought it was a runaway.”

“It was,” Jadyn said, latching onto a potential explanation. “The throttle was stuck and no matter how far up I pulled it, it hung at top speed. I was crouched down trying to fix it. That’s probably why you couldn’t see me.”

Bart shook his head. “You came awful close to nailing that bank head-on. It probably would have been smarter to bail.”

“Yes, I suppose it would have been, but I thought I could fix it.”

“Did you?”

“It seems to be working fine now, but I’ll have a mechanic give it a once-over before I take it out again. Was that you who yelled when I went by?”

“No. That was Old Man Broussard. He’s a real grouch about this sort of thing. Don’t be surprised if he asks the sheriff to arrest you.” Bart grinned.

She forced a smile. “Something to look forward to. Hey, I was out this way because I got a report that someone was poaching alligators on this bayou. Did you see anything like that?”

Bart shook his head. “You’d have to be pretty stupid to poach on Johnson’s Bayou in the broad daylight. Besides Mudbug Bayou, this is the busiest channel in the swamp. Maybe your call-in gave you the wrong channel.”

Jadyn nodded. “Dispatch said the reception wasn’t good. She may have misunderstood. Well, I need to get back to the office. Thanks for stopping and for the information.”

“Anytime. If you’re ever interested in finishing that beer, let me know. I’d be happy to buy you another.” He flashed a smile at her and backed his boat away.

“Looks like you’ve got a boyfriend,” Helena said.

 “Not hardly. A man is the last thing I need. I’ve already got enough trouble. Speaking of which, I thought you said no one was on that bank—so who the hell was shooting at me?”

Helena shook her head. “I swear, I didn’t see anyone. I looked all up and down the bank. No one was there.”

“Clearly, you’re wrong, unless you’re not the only ghost in Mudbug and the other one carries a gun and wants to kill me.”

“I guess it’s more likely that I didn’t see him, huh?”

Jadyn sighed. This whole ghostly bodyguard thing wasn’t working out as well as Maryse and Mildred had hoped. 

“I think we have a problem,” Helena said.

“You’re just now cluing in to that?”

Helena rolled her eyes. “The boat is sinking.”

Jadyn looked down and realized she was standing in two inches of water. What the hell? 

“Grab a seat behind me,” Jadyn said as she reached for the throttle. “I need to get this boat on top of the water if we’re going to have any chance of making it all the way back to the dock.”

Helena plopped down on the bench across the back of the boat.

“Do you see that plug at the bottom of the bench?” Jadyn pointed. “When I take off, the water is going to come rushing back toward you. As soon as you feel the boat settle on top of the water, pull that plug so that it will drain.”