by Jana DeLeon
Mildred clenched the steering wheel so tightly, Jadyn could see her knuckles whitening.
“You’re sure this is the right way?” Mildred asked again.
“No, I’m not sure,” Helena said. “The last time I was here was over fifty years ago. I can’t remember shit I did yesterday. How am I supposed to be sure about something that old?”
“I can remember everything I did yesterday,” Jadyn grumbled from the backseat. They’d already been driving around in the swamp for over an hour and had wound up on at least ten dead ends, none of which had ended at Helena’s family cemetery. Jadyn was starting to wonder if Helena had imagined that entire scene from her childhood.
“Try that way,” Helena said and pointed at an overgrown path to the right.
Mildred gave a long-suffering sigh and steered her car onto the narrow path. “This is the last one. If we don’t find the cemetery here, you’re going to return that key to the sheriff’s filing cabinet and Jadyn is going to tell him what it might unlock.”
Mildred gave both Helena and Jadyn a stern look. “Are we clear on that?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jadyn said. At this point, she was out of arguments and as frustrated with the lack of progress as Mildred. Even Helena appeared more frazzled than usual.
The trees that lined the path seemed to encroach farther onto the makeshift road, cutting out most of the fading sunlight. At any moment, Jadyn expected Mildred to put the car in reverse and start backing out of swamp, but as they rounded a corner, Mildred slammed on the brakes.
“Holy crap!” Mildred cried as the car slid a couple of inches on the gravel and dirt and stopped right in front of a huge iron gate.
“That came up out of nowhere,” Mildred exclaimed, still clutching the steering wheel.
Jadyn peered up at the massive iron fence and wondered just how long it had taken to erect it. Helena hadn’t been joking when she said there was no way over it without a crane. The fence was at least fifteen feet tall with each post spaced approximately four inches apart and with a giant spike on the top. One wrong move up there, and you’d be impaled.
She climbed out of the car and pulled the key out of her pocket. Mildred climbed out and stood next to her, an anxious look on her face.
“Here goes nothing,” Jadyn said and slid the key into the ancient lock.
She held her breath as she tried to turn the key, but it didn’t budge. Figuring it had been forever since the lock had been used, she twisted harder, but to no avail. The breath she’d been holding came out as a sigh and she looked over at Mildred and shook her head.
Mildred’s shoulders slumped. “Well, we knew it was a long shot. I’m afraid you’re going to have to get Colt’s help on this. I’m still sure I’m onto something about the type of lock that key opens. It just isn’t at this location.”
“You’re probably right.” Jadyn struggled to control her disappointment. “Still, since we’re already here, I’d like to take a look around the perimeter, if that’s okay.”
Mildred glanced up at the increasingly dim sky. “We can’t take very long. The sunlight will be gone completely in about thirty minutes. I don’t want to try to find our way out of here in the dark.”
Jadyn nodded, completely agreeing with Mildred’s unease. They’d made so many turns and backtracks that the way back to Mudbug wasn’t exactly obvious. The last thing she wanted was to be stuck in the swamp all night in a car, and certainly not with Helena, who she was certain wouldn’t give them even a moment’s peace.
Jadyn opened the driver’s door and peered in at Helena. “The key didn’t work but I want to take a look around the perimeter while we’re here. Just in case there’s another entrance that isn’t visible from the road. Do you want to come with us?”
“No way. I’m not getting any closer to that place than this car seat.”
“You’ll be here all alone.”
Helena looked momentarily conflicted, but fear won out and she shook her head. “I’ll just practice changing clothes. I’ve been watching Project Runway.”
Before her mind could begin to process the potential horror, Jadyn closed the car door and set out into the swamp to the left of the gate, Mildred creeping behind her. The brush was thick and scratched her bare arms.
“I should have brought a long-sleeved shirt,” Jadyn said, looking back at Mildred. “You don’t have to come with me. No sense in both of us getting scratched to hell.”
“I’d rather be out here with you, the bugs, brambles, and potential spooks than sitting in the car with Helena.”
Jadyn had no valid argument for Mildred’s statement, so she gave her a nod and continued pushing her way through the brush until the fence made a ninety-degree turn to the right. “I guess this is one end of the cemetery.”
She peered down the top of the fence line, but it disappeared into the cypress trees twenty feet from where they stood. “It doesn’t look like anyone has passed this way recently.”
Mildred nodded. “From the looks of the undergrowth, it’s been decades.”
“Let’s check in the other direction, then get out of here before the light fades completely.”
“Good idea.”
They tromped back through the swamp toward the gate and were about twenty yards away when they heard Helena scream bloody murder. Jadyn pulled the nine-millimeter from her waistband and ran through the brush, afraid to even think about what was happening.
She burst out of the trees and onto the path and skidded to a stop. Helena was outside of the car, running around it and screaming as loudly as possible, which was disconcerting, but that wasn’t what had Jadyn staring.
Helena’s speed was currently hindered by a dress that appeared to be constructed completely of interwoven lettuce. She looked like the Jolly Green Giant, minus the jolly part. As she sped past Jadyn, a piece of her dress flew off and smacked Jadyn in the face. She grabbed the piece and gave it a closer look. Yep, definitely lettuce.
“What the hell is she doing?” Mildred stopped beside Jadyn, panting.
Jadyn shook her head and waited until Helena rounded the car for another pass. “Stop!” she yelled and stepped in front of the wall of green.
Helena bounced to a stop, losing enough of her dress to make a decent salad, and looked around, her eyes wide. “Do you see him? Is he gone?”
Jadyn’s grip tightened on her pistol and she scanned the brush. “Where did you see him? What did he look like?”
Helena gave her an exasperated look. “I saw him in the car, of course. He slid right through the door and into the driver’s seat. Has to be a relative. All the men in my family have these enormous foreheads and practically no hair.”
Jadyn dropped her arm down, feeling the tension leave her body. “A ghost? All that screaming and running over another ghost?”
Helena glared. “I told you ghosts give me the creeps, but you had to haul me out here anyway. Where, I might add, not only was I terrified by a ghost but one of my father’s family. That’s even worse.”
Jadyn grimaced as a piece of lettuce fell off Helena’s top, exposing far too much of her ample white chest, and looked over at Mildred, who looked as exasperated as she felt.
“What in the world are you wearing?” Mildred asked.
“It’s my grocery store challenge dress,” Helena said. “This one is dual purpose. I can wear it out for a night on the town, then eat it with blue cheese dressing for a midnight snack.”
“That’s gross,” Mildred said. “And you’re not wearing it in my car. It’s like you’re doing a striptease without even trying. Put on something made of cotton or I’m leaving you here with your family.”
“You’re a real disappointment when it comes to fashion,” Helena griped. “I suppose you think I should dress like you.”
“That would be fabulous,” Mildred said.
“Fine.” Helena waved a hand and a second later, she was clad in blue jeans, polo shirt, and tennis shoes that exactly matched Mildred’s outfit.
She shot a final glare at both of them before stomping around the car and getting in the passenger seat.
Jadyn and Mildred looked at each other before shaking their heads and climbing into the car. With no room to turn around, Mildred began to inch her car backward down the path. Helena reached inside her polo shirt, pulled out a slice of lettuce and started munching on it.
“You didn’t say anything about undergarments,” Helena said.
Mildred looked over at her in dismay. “I’m never eating a salad again.”
Helena grinned. “You should see what I did with the croutons.”
###
Before they got back into Mudbug and with much grousing on Helena’s part, Jadyn changed seats with the ghost. Mildred had pointed out that this way, if anyone had been looking for Jadyn, she could say she’d gone shopping with Mildred. The fact that they were returning with absolutely no items whatsoever was a dead giveaway that they were lying, but Mildred didn’t figure anyone would have the nerve to ask her to produce receipts.
She was wrong.
The second they entered the back of the hotel from the garage, Maryse stepped into the hall from the front lobby and glared at them. Jadyn didn’t know her cousin well, but it didn’t require familiarity to know Maryse was royally pissed.
“I knew it,” she said. She walked up to Mildred and shook her head. “You lied to me.”
Mildred didn’t even bother trying to mask the guilty look. “I couldn’t tell you the truth.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I had, you would have told me it was a ridiculous idea and I shouldn’t do it?”
“So?”
“You would have been right,” Mildred said sheepishly.
“After the earful I got from Bill this evening, I have no doubt. Is there a good reason why none of you bothered to tell me what was going on? Or does that fall under the ‘I would have interjected common sense into your lives’ category as well?”
“Well…” Jadyn began, but didn’t really have a good argument to back their position.
“That’s what I thought,” Maryse said. “You may be interested to know that Colt stopped by here looking for both of you, and he thought it was strange that neither of you were answering your phones. You might be able to explain things to me, and one day, I might forgive you for putting me in this position, but you can’t give Colt the real explanation—not if it involves Helena eating her bra strap.”
Maryse spun around, grabbed her purse from behind the counter, and stalked out of the hotel.
Jadyn winced as the hotel door slammed shut. “How mad is she?”
Mildred sighed. “Pretty mad. She’ll get over it, but as Maryse is an introvert, she can hold a grudge longer than most.”
A pang of guilt knotted Jadyn’s stomach. This was all her fault. She’d driven a wedge between the two women who’d been nothing but helpful and nice to her. “I’m sorry,” she said, but the words didn’t sound like near enough.
Mildred patted Jadyn’s shoulder. “It will be all right. She’s upset about a lot of things, not just our disappearing act. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
“Hello!” Colt’s voice sounded from the front door and they looked down the hallway and into the lobby as he walked inside. “Good. You’re back.”
“Here goes nothing,” Jadyn said under her breath and strode up front, Mildred and Helena in tow.
“What’s up?” Jadyn asked, trying to sound nonchalant.
“What’s up is that I’ve been trying to reach you for hours and couldn’t. I find it strange that you pitched a fit to be part of this investigation but the second I try to contact you about it, you’re nowhere to be found.”
“I needed some fresh air,” Jadyn said. “Mildred was going shopping, so I went with her. I thought it might take my mind off things.”
Colt raised one eyebrow. “Someone tried to kill you, and I’m supposed to believe that you went shopping to make yourself feel better?”
“I don’t care what you believe,” Jadyn said, sticking to her lie. “I was with Mildred the entire time, or do you plan on calling her a liar as well?”
Colt stared at Mildred for several uncomfortable seconds. “I have no doubt Mildred can lie and do it quite effectively. You make the mistake of thinking that just because I know people, I trust everything they say.”
“Ha!” Helena laughed and jumped up onto the lobby counter, now munching on a carrot stick. Jadyn tried not to think about where it might have been.
Mildred drew herself up straight and gave Colt a stern look. “I can appreciate the difficulty of the job you have to do, but your tone is bordering on disrespect, young man. I’m certain your mother raised you better.”
Colt nodded. “Yes, but my mother never saw what Jadyn and I did today. See, an intelligent person would take one took at that and think, ‘If I’m in any danger at all, maybe I should stay put and be highly visible to law enforcement.’”
“I am law enforcement,” Jadyn said, “and I see myself clearly, thank you.”
“Uh-huh,” Colt said. “So if you were shopping, you won’t mind showing me some receipts.”
Crap. Jadyn raced to come up with an explanation that made sense, but nothing remotely sane came to mind.
“We didn’t buy anything,” Mildred said. “I just went shopping for the hotel last week. I didn’t need more supplies. I lied to Jadyn that I did so that she would come with me. I didn’t think it was good for her to hole up in her hotel room, dwelling on the things that happened today.”
“And you thought she’d be safer shopping?” Colt asked.
“We were in a warehouse with hundreds of other people,” Mildred argued. “No one in their right mind would attempt something in that kind of crowd.”
Colt narrowed his eyes at Mildred. “Do you really think that whoever did that to Duke is in his right mind?”
Mildred paled a bit. “Fine, you’ve made your point, Colt. What do you want?”
“Jadyn…and it’s going to take a while.”
“Whoohoo!” Helena hooted. “He could take all the time he wanted with me!”
It took all Jadyn’s self-control to lock her gaze on Colt and prevent herself from attempting to backhand Helena off the counter.
“I’m sure Mildred will let us use her office,” Jadyn said.
“No thanks,” Colt said. “It’s past quitting time and what I have to say is best served with a beer. Besides, I’m hoping to run into someone at the bar.”
“Who?” Jadyn asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it when I have a beer.”
“Fine, then let’s get going.” Jadyn shot a what-the-hell look at Mildred as she followed Colt across the lobby. Mildred shrugged and shook her head, apparently as in the dark as Jadyn was. Helena, who was now pulling grapes out of her shirt, seemed to be the only one unaffected by all the tension in the room.
Colt was completely silent as they crossed the street and entered the bar. Bill waved as he saw them come in and winked at Jadyn. She smiled at him and followed Colt around the counter to the back corner, away from the other patrons. Bill came right over.
“I know you can’t talk about it,” Bill said, “but I heard what kind of day you’re having. Anything you want is on me.”
“Thanks, Bill,” Colt said. “Just a beer for me.”
“Same for me,” Jadyn said.
Bill popped the caps off two beers and slid them across the counter. “If there’s anything else I can do…”
“Thanks,” Colt said.
Bill gave them a nod and headed across the bar to serve up more drinks. Colt took a drink of his beer, then stared across the room at the wall, still not speaking.
“So who are you hoping to see in here?” Jadyn asked, unable to stand the strained silence any longer.
“Junior.”
“My favorite person. What’s he done this time?” she asked as she took a drink of beer.
“The money boat belonged to him.”
She plunked the bottle down on the counter so hard, beer sloshed out of the top and onto her hand. “What? How? That boat had no identifiers on it.”
“Not that we saw,” Colt said and told her about the recent painting on the back and his experiment with charcoal.
Jadyn slumped back on the stool. “I still can’t believe anyone would hire him for something like this…petty stuff, sure, but that was a lot of money.”
“I agree, but I’m pretty sure it’s Junior’s boat.”
“I suppose you’ve already been by his house?”
“Yep, three times now, and that’s the interesting thing. His truck is there, but he’s either not home or he’s sitting in the dark and not answering. And I haven’t been able to run him down anywhere in town, nor has anyone seen him since yesterday.”
“You think he’s missing?”
“If he is, he’s not the only thing.”
Jadyn felt her back tighten and she cringed, certain she knew what was coming. “What do you mean?”
“The key is missing.”
Chapter Nineteen
Jadyn forced a look of surprise and hoped it was good enough for Colt to buy it. “I thought you took it to the sheriff’s department.”
“I did, and locked it in my filing cabinet.”
“Then how could someone take it?”
“I’m going to take a guess that the incident with Shirley’s car was staged to get you out of the building.”
“Wow. In broad daylight, right there in the middle of town? That’s brazen.”
“Yes, it is. Shirley said you were in the office at the time and rescued her car. I want you to tell me everything that happened.”
Intense relief washed over Jadyn as she realized Colt didn’t suspect her of stealing the key. As ridiculous as Helena’s plan had been, it had actually worked. “Sure,” she said. “I got to the sheriff’s department maybe ten minutes before the car incident, looking for you. Shirley said you’d be back in thirty so I decided to hang around.”
“Why did you want to see me?”
She raised one eyebrow. “You know why,” she said, taking full advantage of his earlier boorish behavior.
