by Jana DeLeon
“I take it that wasn’t supposed to happen?” Mildred asked.
“Not even. Nothing I’m working with should react to water that way.” She picked up the test tube and shook it. The solution bubbled again, then settled down after several seconds. The color looked normal and the fishy smell was no longer present. She was just about to chuck the whole thing and try again tomorrow when she caught sight of something in the bottom of the test tube.
She lifted the tube up to the light and studied the bottom. “There’s something in here. Like tiny grains of white.”
“Something in the plant you were using, maybe?”
“I don’t see how. I strained the juice myself.” She glanced at the water bottle and frowned. “Surely not,” she said and lifted the water bottle up to the light. In the bottom, she could barely make out tiny granules. “I’ll be damned. It’s in the water.”
“Isn’t that a heck of a note,” Mildred said. “You pay a premium for that water because it’s supposed to be pure and you’re telling me it has strange things floating in it.”
“Not floating, sinking.” She shook the bottle and the granules disappeared. “And dissolving. This isn’t right. Hand me some of those empty test tubes.”
The urgency must have come through in her voice because without a single comment, Mildred shut the door and passed her the box of empty test tubes. For the next thirty minutes, Maryse ran tests on the water, making notes as she went. Mildred worked silently beside her until she finished with the last test and placed the tube in the holder. Maryse stared at her notes for a minute, certain that she’d made a mistake somewhere, but she knew she hadn’t.
She took two steps back and sat on the bed, completely at a loss. Mildred inched over to her, clearly worried. “What is it?”
“Cocaine.”
Mildred sucked in a breath, her eyes so wide Maryse thought they would pop out of her skull. “No. That’s not possible. Jadyn would never…”
“I know. But the alternative isn’t much better.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The bottle had already been opened, but it didn’t appear as if any water was missing from it. I figured Jadyn had opened it, then got interrupted or realized she already had another open—whatever—then capped it and put it back in the refrigerator for later.”
“That sounds logical, but what does that have to do with drugs?”
Maryse looked up at Mildred, a wave of nausea passing through her. “Someone must have put the cocaine in her water bottle.”
Mildred’s mouth fell open and she stared at Maryse for several seconds. Then she turned slowly and dropped onto the bed as if her legs would no longer support her. “But who? Why?”
Maryse shook her head. “I have absolutely no idea.”
“Why would someone want to kill Jadyn?”
“Unless she has an intolerance to cocaine, it wouldn’t have killed her. But it probably would have made her pretty sick.”
Mildred scrunched her brow. “But what would that accomplish?”
“Maybe someone has a grudge. Mudbug has some strange residents, and some aren’t walking the right side of the law.”
“That seems especially true lately. You’re sure it’s cocaine? You didn’t make a mistake with your tests?”
Maryse shook her head. “I’m positive.”
Mildred looked directly at her. “And how exactly are you sure it’s cocaine? Why would you even know how to test for that?”
“It was one of the base components for one of my previous trials.”
Mildred popped up from the bed. “You what? With cocaine? Have you lost your mind? Your husband works for the DEA. Good God Almighty!”
“Calm down. It’s not like that. The drug company supplied the cocaine. It was all completely legal and aboveboard.”
Mildred huffed. “That’s the most insane thing I’ve ever heard. What in the world will they think of next?”
“Who knows.” Maryse looked up at Mildred. “What are we going to tell Jadyn?”
“The truth. What else can we do?”
Maryse slumped back on the bed. “Tell her. Crap. How do you tell a person that someone is trying to poison them?”
“Carefully?”
Maryse sighed. “This needs work.”
###
Taylor trudged into the hotel around 7:00 p.m. It had been a long, frustrating day, with no answers for her client. The longer the day had gotten, the less enchanted Helena had become with investigative work, especially when Taylor refused to buy her hot dogs every time they saw a convenience store. Taylor had barely stopped her vehicle before the ghost fled her car, claiming she needed a hot shower and a good night’s sleep. Taylor was so tired she didn’t even try to process those comments. In a single day, Helena had given her more to think about when it came to ghosts than she’d considered in her entire lifetime.
And she would have preferred not knowing at least half of it.
Mildred walked into the lobby from the back of the hotel and gave her a wave. “How did it go?” Mildred asked.
“Not very well, I’m afraid. At least not for my client. No one recognized the man from the drawing.”
Mildred gave her a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry. Maybe you’ll get lucky tomorrow.”
“Maybe. I knew it was a long shot when I took the job, and so did my client. As long as both of us remember that, everything will probably turn out all right.”
“And Helena? I’d love to imagine it went well, but I can’t suspend disbelief long enough to muster up the thought.”
“Ha. Yeah, that’s a loaded question. She’s quite a piece of work.”
“That’s the polite way of putting it.”
“I have to be honest, I don’t know what to make of her at all.”
Mildred sighed. “Damn. We were really hoping you’d have some insight.”
Taylor shook her head. “I’ve never seen or heard of anything like her. I wish my great-grandmother were still alive. She was a ghost-talker, too.”
“Did she teach you?”
“No. I didn’t get to spend as much time with her as I would have liked. My mom…well, let’s just say she didn’t like talking about any of this.” Taylor stared down at the floor, the way she usually did when she talked about her mother.
“That’s a shame, but it can’t be helped now. I hope Helena didn’t cause you any trouble at least.”
“Based on your comments this morning, I’m going to assume that she was reasonably well-behaved. I did have to cut her off after sixteen hot dogs. I don’t have anything personally against gluttony, but my wallet couldn’t keep up.”
“She’ll eat you into bankruptcy if you let her, so don’t. She doesn’t need to eat, no matter how much she will try to convince you differently.”
“Mostly I fed her so that she’d shut up.”
“That’s how she reels you in. Did she try to help at all?”
“Yeah. She stayed behind and listened to the gossip after I left people. If anyone had known something relevant, it would have been great. Mostly, the women talked about how my jeans were too tight and the men talked about how they liked my tight jeans.”
Mildred smiled. “When someone young and pretty turns up in these tired old towns, it tends to bring out the worst in some.”
“It sorta grossed me out. Those men were old enough to be my father, some of them grandfather.”
Mildred patted her arm. “Honey, in their minds, they’re all still eighteen and off to conquer the world.”
Taylor grimaced. “Don’t they have mirrors?”
Mildred laughed. “Haven’t you learned yet—mirrors lie?”
Taylor smiled. The hotel owner was unlike anyone she’d ever met before. She had a way of putting her at ease that she’d never experienced with another person, especially someone considerably older. Mostly, Taylor always felt that older women were mentally tallying all the things she was doing wrong. God knows, her mother always was. But w
ith Mildred, she didn’t feel that judgment. It was refreshing and unexpected.
The bells on the front door of the hotel jangled and Taylor looked over to see Jadyn and Colt walk inside. They both looked exhausted.
Mildred, who’d been relaxed just seconds before, hurried around the front desk and Taylor could almost feel her anxiety spike. She knew about the missing fisherman and the search party, but Mildred had never indicated that she knew the missing man. Something else was troubling the hotel owner. Something to do with Jadyn or Colt. It would probably be obvious even to a normal person, but with her special “skills” it was more like a flashing neon sign.
“Did you find anything?” Mildred asked.
Jadyn nodded and they filled Mildred in on their discoveries in the cove. “We called everyone to the area and searched until we started losing daylight. We’ll head back out tomorrow.”
Mildred nodded, but didn’t look more or less relieved.
Jadyn looked over at Taylor. “I’m glad you’re here. We need to talk.”
“Me?” Taylor didn’t bother to hide her surprise. She had no idea what the game warden could possibly want with her.
Jadyn nodded and shot a glance at Colt before stepping over to the front desk. “I think I know who the man in the drawing is.”
Taylor’s pulse spiked. “You’re kidding me. Who is he?”
Jadyn frowned. “He’s our missing fisherman.”
Of all the things Jadyn could have said, that was one Taylor would never have seen coming. “Wow. That’s crazy.” She knew she sounded silly and unprofessional, but at that moment, they were the only words that came to mind.
Jadyn nodded. “It’s quite an odd coincidence, and I’m not all that fond of coincidences.”
“Me either. I mean, I know they exist, but not nearly as often as people think they do.”
“Agreed, but in this case, I can’t find a strand to connect the dots. And even if we assume our missing fisherman is the man in your picture, there’s still no proof that he’s your client’s husband. Colt’s office is tracking down everything they can find on Clifton Vines, the missing man. Hopefully, they can put together a profile that clearly eliminates him as an option for you.”
Jadyn frowned. “That sounded harsher than I intended it to. I’m sorry. I’m exhausted.”
“No, that’s okay,” Taylor said. “I get what you’re saying. As long as I can prove to my client that the man her friend saw can’t be her husband, then she can move on from this.”
Jadyn gave her a grateful smile. “Yes, that’s it exactly.”
“Well, I can’t be of any help with local tracking, but if someone’s willing to point me in the right direction and keep me from getting lost, I’m happy to help with the search tomorrow.”
Colt nodded. “We can use all the help we can get. I’ll pair you up with a couple of the locals. We’re meeting at the sheriff’s department tomorrow morning at eight.”
“Great. I’ll see you then. If you don’t need me for anything, I’m going to have a hot shower and a big dinner.”
“That sounds like the best plan ever,” Jadyn said. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Taylor gave them a wave and headed upstairs. Before she hit the second floor landing, she glanced back down into the lobby. Mildred had been oddly quiet during the entire exchange, but Taylor could tell she was biding her time. Whatever she needed to say to Jadyn, she was waiting to say in private. Taylor knew it was none of her business, but she couldn’t help but wonder what had unnerved the seemingly calm hotel owner.
If you weren’t naturally curious, you’d make an awful private investigator.
She cast one more glance at them before continuing up the stairs and down the hallway to her room. With any luck, she’d soon have answers for her client. She was 99 percent sure they weren’t going to be the answers Sophia wanted, but as long as they were the truth, Taylor would be satisfied with her work, if not necessarily the outcome.
Chapter Twelve
Colt watched as Taylor disappeared upstairs, then turned to Jadyn. “I’m going to take off. I think Taylor has the right idea.”
“Wait!” Mildred grabbed his arm. “I need to talk to you both, in private.”
Colt stared at the hotel owner, not bothering to hide his surprise. Mildred was hardly the sort of woman prone to dramatics, but she was so tense it was visibly apparent.
“What’s wrong?” Jadyn asked, her voice sharp.
“My office,” she said. “We’ve been waiting for you.” She spun around and hurried off down the hallway.
Colt looked over at Jadyn. “We?”
Jadyn shrugged. “Whatever it is has Mildred seriously stressed, and in my limited experience, that’s not easy to do.”
“No, it’s not. We better find out what’s going on.”
Colt brought up the rear as they filed into Mildred’s office. Maryse was already standing there, answering the “we” question, and just finishing up a call on her cell.
“Luc?” Mildred asked.
Maryse nodded. “He’ll be here in ten minutes.” She looked over at Jadyn and Colt. “I guess all you law enforcement types had a long day. I’m sorry I’m holding you up even longer, but this can’t wait.”
“What’s wrong?” Colt asked. He knew why Maryse had been sticking close to the hotel during working hours and hoped her situation hadn’t gotten more dire.
“I ran out of bottled water today,” Maryse said. “I only had one test tube left in my experiment so Mildred suggested I borrow a bottle from you.” She looked at Jadyn.
“Of course,” Jadyn said. “You’re welcome to anything you need. You don’t even have to tell me about it.”
Maryse waved a hand in dismissal. “That’s not what this is about.”
“Something was wrong with the water,” Mildred interjected, apparently unable to hold it in any longer.
Jadyn stared at Maryse. “What was wrong with it?”
“Well, I thought it smelled slightly fishy,” Maryse said, “but I don’t think that had anything to do with the real problem. When I added the water to the solution in my test tube it reacted in a way it shouldn’t have.”
Mildred nodded. “Then Maryse noticed something in the water and started running tests. It was cocaine. There was cocaine in your bottled water!”
Colt stared at Mildred, waiting for the punch line, but one look at the hotel owner’s horrified expression let him know this was no joke.
Jadyn’s eyes widened. “But how can that be? I bought that case last week at Walmart.”
Maryse nodded. “Did you put it in the refrigerator then?”
“No,” Jadyn replied. “I wasn’t quite out yet. I restocked it last night before I went to bed.”
“Did you open any of the bottles?” Maryse asked.
“No. I already had half of one left.” Jadyn looked from Maryse to Mildred. “Are you telling me that someone broke into my room and put cocaine in one of my water bottles?”
Maryse nodded. “We don’t see any other explanation.”
Colt drew in a breath and slowly let it out. It was a curveball he’d never seen coming, and he had absolutely no explanation for it. Certainly game wardens made their share of enemies, but Jadyn hadn’t been in town long enough to create such discord, except with a handful of people who were either dead or in jail.
Colt narrowed his gaze on Maryse. “You’re certain it’s cocaine?”
“Positive,” Maryse said.
“She’s worked with it before,” Mildred said. “The drug companies gave it to her just like that. Can you believe it?”
Jadyn nodded. “It has certain numbing components for surgical procedures, right?”
Mildred threw her hands in the air. “Am I the only one in the room who finds that insane?”
“It’s sorta insane,” Colt agreed, hoping to calm Mildred down. “So sometime between this morning and when you took the bottle, someone spiked it. What time did you take the bot
tle?”
“Around five thirty,” Maryse said.
“That leaves most of the day.” Colt tapped his finger on Mildred’s desk.
“Forget the when,” Jadyn said, “I want to know why.”
“We all do,” Colt said. “You haven’t gotten any strange phone calls, seen anyone following you, things like that?”
“No. Everything has been normal. For Mudbug, anyway.”
Colt looked at Maryse. “Would the dosage have killed her?”
Maryse shook her head. “Not unless she’s allergic. It probably would have made her sick for a couple days.”
“So either he didn’t know the proper dosage to kill someone or he only intended to make her ill.”
“Exactly,” Maryse said, “but why would anyone want to do either?”
“That is the real question,” Colt said.
“I feel really bad about this,” Jadyn said. “Maryse could have drunk that water, or Mildred. Someone could have been seriously hurt because of me.”
“Don’t even go there,” Mildred said. “None of this is your fault.”
“To some degree it is,” Jadyn said. “Obviously, I’ve made an enemy somewhere.”
Colt had been mulling over the entire situation since Mildred first made her cocaine announcement, trying to make some sense of it. “Maybe it’s not an enemy,” he said. “Not in the sense we’re thinking about it, anyway.”
“What do you mean?” Jadyn asked.
“We’ve been poking around other towns looking for the missing boat captain. And although we haven’t started down that path yet, there’s still the chance that the damage to the boat was deliberate.”
Jadyn’s eyes widened. “Which means the footprint we saw in the bank could have been made by the person who sank the boat, and not Vines.”
“Assuming that train of thought is correct, then yeah, it’s more likely the saboteur went ashore than Clifton.”
“And if one of the people I questioned was the saboteur…”
“Then he might not want you taking a closer look at things,” Colt finished. He pinned his gaze on Jadyn, whose eyes widened as she locked in on the unspoken thought he had—that someone had also taken a shot at her the day before. Two attacks in as many days.
