by Jana DeLeon
No need to deal with all the feelings she’d been throttling for weeks now.
She pulled on her boots and exited the room. The bathroom door was closed and she could hear water running in the sink. She headed into the kitchen and dug around for coffee to brew, then located a couple of thermoses in the kitchen cabinets. Colt’s laptop was open on the kitchen table, so she sat down in front of it to check her e-mail.
The browser was open to Colt’s e-mail and she glided her finger over the touchpad to close the window. But before she reached the X, her eyes caught sight of the words “Hey Sexy” from someone named Maria. She glanced at the hallway but the bathroom door was still closed.
She knew she shouldn’t open it. Whatever was in the message, it was private and intended only for Colt. But for the first time in her life, she threw logic and ethics both right out the window. She hovered for several seconds and finally clicked. The e-mail opened and she began to read.
Hey Sexy,
I know you said when you left NOLA you were done with big-city crime, but I’m hoping I can change your mind. Our old boss Captain Franks is creating a task force specializing in special victims of violent crimes. I know how much you valued your work on those types of cases and always wished there was a special division for them. Well, now there is. Ace and I have already been accepted into the unit, but there’s one more space.
It’s yours if you want it.
It’s the job you always wanted, and it couldn’t be offered under better circumstances. Franks practically foamed at the mouth at the thought of getting you back on his team. And he’s not the only one who feels a little weak at the thought of you returning.
I miss you, Colt.
I know I didn’t do a good job showing you how important you were to me, and it’s my biggest regret. When you left, I thought I’d be able to handle it, but I was a mess. And you know me. I don’t do sentimental.
I guess that means I care for you. A lot.
We were great together once before—on the job and off. I know we can be great together again.
Maria
Jadyn felt as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed. Of course, she’d known Colt had other women in his past. How could he not? But it sounded as though whatever he’d had with Maria was far more than a passing fling. Maryse had hit the nail on the head with her call that Colt’s failure to expound on his New Orleans time was due to a woman. Jadyn had called the law enforcement part.
Colt had told Jadyn he left New Orleans because he was weary of seeing the horrible things people did to each other, but if the past months were any indication, he hadn’t gotten the respite he was looking for in Mudbug. And if a job he’d always wanted was on the table and all he had to do was ask, what was stopping him from leaving?
Unable to stop herself, she opened another window and Googled Maria. News stories of the very accomplished detective flooded the screen. She clicked on one of them and her heart fell even more. The woman was so gorgeous she didn’t even look real. If Jadyn hadn’t known any better, she would have thought it was a photo of an actress playing a cop on a Hollywood movie set. She closed the window without reading any of the articles. The headlines alone let her know that Maria was not only beautiful but a total badass at her job.
She switched back to the e-mail and marked it as unread, wishing she’d listened to her conscience and never opened it in the first place. She jumped up from the kitchen table and turned to stare out the front window at the sun coming up over the bayou.
What have I done?
She’d given her body and a good chunk of her heart to a man who had never given her the first indication that he was interested in anything long-term. With the job he’d always wanted and the stunning, accomplished woman he’d once cared for waiting for him in New Orleans, Jadyn couldn’t help feeling she would be a distant second.
“Are you ready?” Colt’s voice sounded behind her, causing her to jump.
“Sorry,” he said as she turned around. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I guess I was lost in thought,” she said.
He circled his arms around her and pulled her in for a soft kiss. “We’re going to figure this out. No one is going to get to you. Not on my watch. Not ever.”
He squeezed her in closer and she buried her head in his chest. She knew he meant every word he said. Now.
The question was, would he feel the same way after he read the e-mail?
Chapter Fifteen
“Wake up!”
Taylor bolted upright in bed just as Helena dropped through the ceiling and slammed into the mattress, sending her vaulting off the bed and onto the floor. She was still only half-awake when she struggled up from the floor and glared at Helena over the edge of the bed. She was almost sorry she did.
The ghost wore a flight suit, but Taylor was fairly sure a person of Helena’s size had never been in the cockpit of an airplane. Her head was covered with what looked like the helmet from a space suit, and she wore a backpack that looked as though it contained a parachute. Mildred and company hadn’t been kidding about the wardrobe thing. She hadn’t seen anything this out-there since she’d last visited Aunt Freda in the mental hospital.
“Sorry,” Helena said, at least having the decency to look a little sorry.
“If that’s the way you wake people up, I can see why someone killed you.”
Helena rolled her eyes. “Like I haven’t heard that insult before. You’re really not a morning person, are you?”
Taylor rose from the floor and checked her arms and legs for potential future bruising. “I hate mornings, actually. They always come too early.”
Helena looked up at her. “What time do you go to sleep?”
“It varies. Three, sometimes four.”
“In the morning?”
“No, in the afternoon.”
“What do you do all night?”
Taylor shrugged. “Sometimes I work on a case. Sometimes I read.”
“No television? I’ve been watching a lot of television lately.”
“Yeah. I heard about the deer head.”
Helena waved a hand in dismissal. “She deserved it.”
Taylor glanced at the window and realized the sun was just beginning to peek over the bayou. She looked at the alarm clock and groaned. “It’s not even six a.m.”
“I know, but Mildred said to get you, so here I am.”
“Mildred? Is something wrong?”
Helena nodded. “There’s some crazy weepy woman in the lobby asking for you. Says her entire world is on the line and she’s not leaving until she speaks with you. She has good taste in handbags, though. Her purse cost at least a thousand bucks.”
Taylor groaned. The only thing worse than being awake at a completely indecent hour was dealing with an emotional client before she’d had a decent night’s sleep and at least one pot of coffee.
Helena’s eyes widened. “She’s not your mother, is she?”
“No! She’s my client.” Taylor turned to grab a brush from the dresser and attempted to tame her bed hair.
“Thank God. I usually don’t start insulting people’s parents until I’ve known them for at least a week.”
“Well, if you ever have the misfortune to meet my mother, you have my permission to forgo your week rule.”
“That good, huh? So is the client the missing husband woman?”
“The one and only.”
“I guess you called her last night and told her about Clifton Vines. Probably not the best idea if you don’t like mornings. All it takes is ten seconds in the same room with her and you know everything about her is drama. She got a flat driving into town and had an entire weeping session about her car as soon as she walked in the door.”
Taylor held in a sigh, wondering just how much Sophia was going to make her regret taking this case. “How did you know about Vines?”
“Mildred told me. She’s worried about Jadyn on account of someone trying to poison
her.”
“What?” Taylor whirled around to face Helena. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone sneaked into the hotel yesterday and spiked Jadyn’s water with cocaine. Lucky for Jadyn, Maryse needed bottled water for one of her stinkweed experiments and she realized something was wrong with it and tested it. Maryse said it wasn’t enough to kill Jadyn unless she was allergic or something, but it would have made her pretty sick.”
Taylor tried to process this information, but was having trouble absorbing it all. She’d had little interaction with Jadyn, but from what she could see, the game warden was honest and capable, and cared about the town she served. “Why would someone want to hurt Jadyn?”
Helena shrugged. “No one knows, but Colt will figure it out. He’s got the hots for her. I see the way he stares at her when she’s not looking.” Helena grinned. “She stayed at his house last night.”
Taylor knew she shouldn’t encourage the ghost to gossip, especially about a law enforcement officer’s potential sex life, but she couldn’t help but be interested in the people she’d met here. She’d never met other people who could talk to ghosts, but here in Mudbug, she’d found not one but three women who did so every day and didn’t think anything of it. Well, except for thinking about the aggravation that Helena brought, but that was a whole other thing.
“Why did she leave the hotel? Wouldn’t she be safer here?”
“Maybe, but she said by her staying it put others at risk.”
Taylor began to understand Jadyn’s train of thought. “Like Maryse could have drunk the water rather than using it in an experiment.”
“Exactly. And Colt has this badass security system at his house, probably because it’s in the middle of the swamp. He claims he’s better suited to protect her, but I bet he just wanted to get her naked.”
Taylor tried not to smile. She was firmly in the heterosexual camp, but only a blind person would fail to see how attractive Jadyn was. As far as she could tell, Colt’s vision was just fine. “Maybe he was using her as bait,” she suggested.
“Bait? Is that some new sex game you young people are playing?”
Taylor laughed. “No. I mean since the stalker was unsuccessful the first time, he might try again. And if Jadyn was in a more isolated location than the hotel and with good security, it could give Colt an opportunity to catch him if he made a move.”
“That’s pretty smart. But I still think he wanted to get her naked.”
“The two are not mutually exclusive.”
Helena’s eyes widened. “Ah, I get it.”
Taylor placed the brush back on the bathroom cabinet and pulled her hair into a ponytail. “I guess I better get downstairs and absorb some of the crazy and drama before Mildred charges me extra.”
She looked over at Helena, but the ghost didn’t respond. Instead, she sat stock-still, her eyes still opened wide and now her mouth wide open as well.
“Helena?” Taylor took a step closer to her.
“Can’t breathe.” Helena huffed out a breath and the glass front of her space helmet fogged over.
“Crap!” Taylor rushed over and reached out to pull the helmet off Helena’s head, but her hands passed right through it. A spike of panic rushed through her. “I can’t touch it.”
“Starting to lose consciousness,” Helena said, her voice starting to drift off.
“Stay awake, Helena! You have to change clothes. Concentrate on changing clothes now!”
Helena’s eyes had started to close but popped back open when Taylor yelled. “What? Oh, yes, clothes change.”
“Something simple, and hurry.”
Helena lifted her arms and Taylor could tell the ghost was weak by the effort it took to get them off the bed. She waved them a bit in the air and clenched her eyes shut. A second later, the paratrooper-with-space-helmet outfit was gone.
Now, Helena wore a wet suit complete with diving tank and mouthpiece, firmly affixed in her mouth. She’d gone from having no air to having air shoved directly into her mouth. The entire thing boggled Taylor’s mind.
Helena dragged in huge gasps of air, and Taylor could see some color returning to her face. She lifted one hand to pull away the mouthpiece, but no matter how many times she popped it out of her mouth, another appeared in its place. Her aggrieved expression left Taylor with no doubt how Helena felt about it.
“Are you all right?” Taylor asked. “I mean, considering? Just nod if it’s okay for me to leave.”
Helena gave her a begrudging nod and Taylor headed for the door. “I’ll send Mildred up to help. Or…something.”
She closed the door behind her and hurried downstairs. What the hell had just happened? Could a ghost die twice? Did Helena actually experience the symptoms of lack of air, or was she just being a drama queen? As soon as this case was behind her, she was going to spend some serious time picking the ghost’s brain. Somewhere in the mess that everyone put up with had to be logical, consistent reasons for things. If she could figure out how to help Helena control her more random and hysterical impulses, it would make life easier for all those who could see her.
Sophia was standing in the lobby, wringing her hands and staring out the picture window. Mildred looked a bit worse for the wear, and Taylor felt instantly guilty for exposing the hotel owner to her over-the-top client. Life with Helena was difficult enough without adding another crazy female to the mix.
Sophia looked up when she heard Taylor’s footsteps and rushed over to her as she stepped into the lobby. “After what you told me last night, I couldn’t stay away. I spent hours tossing and turning in my bed and finally I couldn’t stand it anymore. I have to talk to you, and I think it’s best that I say what I have to say to the sheriff as well. That way, I don’t have to repeat anything.”
Taylor glanced over at Mildred, who shook her head. Whatever was up with Sophia, she hadn’t shared it with the hotel owner. Looking at her client now, Taylor could tell she was agitated but something else was present—fear, anticipation—she couldn’t put her finger on it any more than she could in her first meeting with Sophia. Whatever it was, maybe she’d find out when she put Sophia in front of Colt.
“I talked to Jadyn a couple of minutes ago,” Mildred offered. “They were on their way to the sheriff’s department. Might even be there already.”
“Thanks. I guess we’ll head that way then.” She started for the front door, then remembered Helena. “Oh, I almost forgot. There’s an issue with my room.”
Mildred frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“A…uh, leak, I think. A particularly loud leak.”
Mildred expression cleared in understanding. “I’ll go check it out right now.”
“Thanks,” Taylor said as she opened the front door and gestured Sophia outside. “The sheriff’s department is at the other end of Main Street.” Taylor glanced over at the flat tire on Sophia’s pristine Mercedes. “I don’t think your heels will appreciate the sidewalk or the brick road much, so I’ll drive us over.” She gestured to her vehicle.
Sophia looked at the car and wrinkled her nose for a moment, then glanced down at the end of Main Street. A second later, she headed for the passenger door and slid inside. Taylor managed to hold in a smile as she climbed into the driver’s seat and headed down Main Street.
The heiress was oddly quiet during the ride to the sheriff’s department. Granted, it took ten seconds or less, but it was still the longest stretch of time Taylor had seen her client go without speaking. She hoped Sophia wasn’t going to waste Colt’s time, but she wasn’t counting on it. Given what Sophia had told her before about her missing husband, Taylor couldn’t see anything requiring law enforcement involvement.
Taylor’s anxiety ticked up a notch when Colt’s truck pulled in next to hers and parked in front of the building. She stepped out and waved.
“Morning,” he said. “Is something wrong?”
Sophia climbed out of the passenger’s seat and extended her hand to Colt. “You
must be the sheriff. I’m Sophia Lambert and it’s imperative that I talk to you before you begin your search.”
Colt shook her hand and looked over her shoulder at Taylor. She shook her head and shrugged, feeling bad that Colt had to deal with her client when he needed to be doing his job.
“Then let’s head inside. I can put on some coffee and we’ll all talk.” He waved a hand at Jadyn as he unlocked the door. “This is Jadyn St. James, our game warden. She’ll be partnering with me today, so anything I need to know, she’ll need to know.”
Sophia glanced at Jadyn and nodded. “Of course.”
Colt motioned them inside and to his office at the back of the building. Two chairs sat in front of Colt’s weathered desk and Sophia perched on the edge of one of them. Jadyn moved to the back wall of the office and sat on a window ledge near Colt’s chair, so Taylor took the seat next to Sophia. A minute later, Colt walked in and took a seat behind the desk.
“I put on a pot of coffee,” he said. “Can I offer anyone a glass of water until then?”
Sophia shook her head and Taylor noticed her knuckles were white as they clenched her purse.
“No, thank you,” Taylor said.
Colt looked at Sophia. “How can we help you, Ms. Lambert?”
Sophia glanced at Taylor, then looked back at Colt. “Ms. Beaumont informed you of my situation?”
Colt nodded. “We’re aware of the circumstances surrounding your husband’s disappearance.”
“Then you understand how overwhelming this is for me.”
“I can see how it would be, but I have to be honest with you. Just because it’s not impossible that the fisherman we’re searching for today is your husband doesn’t mean it’s likely.”
Sophia nodded. “I’d feel the same way if I had only the knowledge you do.” She looked over at Taylor, a guilty look on her face. “I’m afraid I owe Ms. Beaumont an apology. I wasn’t completely honest with you.”
Taylor straightened in her chair and looked down at the floor. Whatever Sophia had neglected to tell her during their interview, Taylor had the uncomfortable feeling that she wasn’t going to like it at all. Every single time she ignored that voice in her head, it caused her problems. She already knew this time would be no exception.
