The Helena Diaries - Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Series Novellas) by Jana DeLeon Read Free Book Online

think of to do.
     

Trouble in Mudbug—Chapter Twelve
     
    Wherein Maryse finally comes up with a plan
    None of the overweight, half-limping, potbellied men I saw at the boat dock remotely resembled the man I’d seen leaving Maryse’s cabin. Over half the boat slips were empty, though, so I decided I’d probably arrived too late for the serious fishermen, and was instead left with all the rejects—hence the abundance of potbellies and complete lack of urgency to get on the water.
    The tide was coming in, so I hopped on it and coasted downstream, taking an occasional pit stop to inspect fishermen tucked away in inlets.  
    Do you have any idea what those men do when they’re supposed to be fishing?
    No wonder the half-ass restaurants in Mudbug stay so busy—no one’s bringing fresh fish home. Most of them were sleeping. Several were reading car or hunting magazines. A couple were reading—or looking at—the kind of magazines you don’t leave out on your coffee table, so I hurried on by. I’d seen enough of that in the hotel. A couple of them were listening to the radio, and only two were actually fishing.
    But the best one was the husband of the beauty shop owner, who was making his own X-rated movie with the woman who used to babysit their daughter. If his wife hadn’t said such mean-spirited things about me, I might have been outraged, but I had bigger things to worry about than the poor choices of Mudbug husbands.  
    After several long hours of cruising the bayou, I grabbed a ride with one of the non-porn fishermen and headed back to the dock. Even though I knew she was surrounded by people who weren’t going to let anything happen to her, I wanted to check on Maryse. After all, someone had managed to poison me in my own house and get away with it. Whoever was behind this was clever, and while Mildred and the hottie scientist seemed like reasonably intelligent people—jury was still out on the psychic nut—neither of them was qualified to handle a murder investigation.
    Maryse was back in her room with the hottie scientist. It was the only time I almost wished I’d caught someone in a state of undress—the scientist anyway, not Maryse—but of course, my boring daughter-in-law was just talking. She looked like a sad Walmart fashion model, but given that I was wearing a pink polyester suit with Nikes, I didn’t figure I had room to comment on her wardrobe choices.  
    That silly cat scattered as soon as I walked through the wall, then the hottie scientist started in on me, like I needed anyone reminding me that my decisions about the land could get Maryse killed.  
    I was a bitch. I wasn’t dense.
    Maryse broke up the arguing before it got good and surprised the hell out of me by producing keys to the hospital that she’d taken off of Dr. Christopher as he’d fled the storage room. I have to admit, I didn’t think the girl had a sneaky, underhanded side, and I was more than a little thrilled to find out I’d been wrong.  
    Maryse’s plan—and it was a good one—was to break into the hospital and get a hold of my medical records in an attempt to identify the poison used to kill me. She thought the type of poison would help narrow down the list of suspects. I was impressed.
    Hottie Luc was not.
    He argued that she could go to jail if caught. Maryse argued back that having people try to kill her and me follow her around the rest of her life were worse than jail. It was a fairly rude sentiment, but it worked with Luc, who apparently didn’t like having me around any more than Maryse did.  
    People in this town are so judgmental.
    Then Luc hit me with the question that I’d been expecting since the beginning—why was I so certain when I’d willed the land to Maryse that she wouldn’t let the oil companies in and rake up the billions?
    It didn’t happen very often, but I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to answer. Then he turned on Maryse, and I could tell he wasn’t going to let up until it