Showdown in Mudbug by Jana DeLeon Read Free Book Online

asks me what’s wrong with their marriage, Ifollow the husband and find the girlfriend, or the doctor’s office. Then I hack the girlfriend’s computer, since usually women don’t destroy the evidence, like mushy e-mails, that the cheating husband asks them to. Or I hack the doctor’s office and find out what he’s being treated for. I feed them enough information to sound like a vision but send them off on the right track for exposing whatever is going on.”
    “No shit.” Helena stared at Raissa in admiration. “That whole psychic gig is a genius way to use those skills. I take back every time I called you a nutbag.”
    Raissa laughed. “Thanks, Helena. Coming from you that means…well, damned near nothing, but I’ll take it anyway.” Raissa rose from her chair. “Are we done here? Everyone satisfied with the master plan?”
    Mildred looked over at Helena who nodded. “I’m as satisfied as I’m getting,” Mildred said. “But I really wish you’d reconsider staying here full-time.”
    “No can do, Mildred. I’m not trying to upset anyone, but this whole thing is far bigger than just me.”
    Mildred straightened up in her chair and stared at Raissa, her eyes wide. “You’re going to try to catch that guy, aren’t you? You have no intention of lying low or leaving this to the cops.”
    “This may be my last chance,” Raissa said. “Think about those girls. Think about their mothers. And then tell me what I should do.”
    Mildred was silent for a couple of seconds, and Raissa knew her mind was racing to find an argument, anything that would hold up to Raissa’s logic. Raissa also knew that Maryse and Sabine, Mildred’s surrogate daughters, would be lodged in her mind, too. Finally, Mildred slumped back in her chair and nodded. “I don’t like it, but I shouldn’t expect anything less fromyou.” She rose from her chair and surprised Raissa by giving her a hug.
    “I don’t even know if you have any family or if they even know you’re alive,” Mildred said as she released her, “but I want you to know that I consider you my family, another one of my girls. I’m not going to ask you to promise not to do anything dangerous, but I am going to make you promise not to die on us.”
    Raissa’s eyes moistened and she rubbed her nose with one finger, sniffling. “That’s a promise I’ll be happy to make.” She gave Mildred’s hand a squeeze, then hurried out of the hotel before she embarrassed herself by becoming just another weepy woman.

Chapter Four
    At two thirty P.M. , Raissa closed the door to her shop after her last appointment and put the CLOSED sign in the window. There were a million things that had to be done before she could commence her part-time-living adventures in the Mudbug Hotel, but one absolutely couldn’t wait.
    She entered her upstairs apartment and opened the closet, scrutinizing her choices. This excursion wasn’t exactly a jeans-and-T-shirt sort of call, not unless she wanted to stick out by a mile. She made her selections, then began a midafternoon transformation.
    Twenty minutes later, she peeked through her shop blinds, scanning the street for Detective Blanchard’s unmarked police car. Clear. Thank God. She left her shop and drove to a corner bar on a seedy side of town. Unlike most bars, this one was always open and always had clientele. It tended to cater to people who didn’t keep regular business hours—drug dealers, hookers, petty thieves, and not-so-petty thieves—just the kind of people she was looking to see.
    She was certain she made quite a picture walking down the sidewalk to the bar. The whistles and catcalls confirmed her choice of the short, tight, black leather skirt and blue sparkly top with a plunging neckline. Her six-inch stilettos put her right at six foot two, and the platinum wig put the finishing touches on the entire getup.
    Satisfied that she looked like any other working girl, she opened the door and walked into the bar. The man she