Chaos in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Mystery/Romance Series)

by Jana DeLeon

  Colt frowned for a moment, then everything she’d just put together must have come together for him as well. His eyes widened and he nodded. “That’s it. Everything fits.”

  “Except,” Jadyn said, “why poison me only enough to make me sick? Maryse said it wasn’t a high enough dosage to kill me.”

  “Most likely to buy him time,” Colt said. “Maybe he had another drop coming up and was afraid you’d be watching too closely. Maybe he was going to change the way he did business and needed the time to make it happen. Killing you would have brought the FBI here. And the first thing they would have done was retraced your steps for the last week or two.”

  Jadyn nodded. “You’re right. Killing me would have brought more heat. Getting me out of the way for a couple of days was the safer route.”

  “I guess a lowly fisherman’s boat explosion wouldn’t have brought the FBI to town,” Vines said.

  Jadyn glanced at over at Vines and frowned. Although she believed his story, a lot about it bothered her. For starters, they still didn’t know how Vines came to have a hideaway or how he escaped his sinking boat.

  “Should we assume,” Jadyn asked, “that you built this cabin, then faked your boat wreck to hide from the Vincents?”

  Vines hesitated a moment before nodding. “I know it sounds extreme, but after I saw the explosives, I panicked. I figured if the Vincent brothers thought I was dead then I could hide out until they got caught. I removed the explosives and went out the next day, figuring I would sink my boat in the storm. I’d already acquired a spare bass boat to use for my getaway and stashed it close to the channel where I sank my boat.”

  He looked down at the floor a moment, his face flushed. “I didn’t have time to get all the things in place that I needed, so after I sank the boat…”

  “You stole things from Mudbug residents.”

  His eyes widened. “Yes, but only minor things like tarps and food. I swear I was going to pay them all back.”

  “If you lived,” Jadyn said.

  Clifton swallowed and nodded.

  “So you were going to send an anonymous tip to the police?” Jadyn asked.

  “Uh, yeah, that was the plan.”

  Jadyn watched his expression carefully. He was an accomplished liar, but not good enough to avoid tells completely. He was lying. Which sent her right to another thing that bothered her. For a fisherman, Vines knew an awful lot about explosives. And given that Sophia’s father had been killed in one and Vines might be Samuel, it didn’t leave her with a comfortable feeling.

  “How is it,” she began, picking her words carefully, “that you know all that stuff about explosives? It seems a strange thing for a fisherman to have in-depth knowledge of.”

  Vines stiffened and stared at her. He was trying hard not to let his panic show, but her question had unnerved him. He didn’t have a good answer, and was struggling to come up with something. Before he had a chance to fabricate something, Jadyn moved in for the kill.

  “Are you Samuel Perkins?”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Maryse directed her boat down one of the many channels she needed to traverse to get to Jadyn and Colt’s destination. She had pushed her speed as much as possible, but a storm was moving in and the strong gusts of wind blowing against the incoming tide had made the water so choppy that she found herself decreasing her speed the more time that passed.

  Sophia sat on the seat next to her, clutching the side of the boat and the console in front of her so tightly that her knuckles were white. Her face looked a bit pale as well, and Maryse hoped she wasn’t going to get sick. Taylor was perched on the bench in front of them, scanning the banks as they went. She didn’t appear to have any issues with the rough ride, and Maryse felt her respect for the young PI tick up a notch. She’d really been thrown a curveball with this case, but she hadn’t backed off for a minute, insisting that she’d taken the job and would see it through to the end.

  Her sheer stubbornness on the matter reminded Maryse a lot of herself, which was probably why she liked her. Not to mention they had that whole “I see dead people” thing in common, although Taylor saw a lot of dead people, not just Helena. Maryse wasn’t sure how she stayed so calm about it all.

  Unfortunately, the last occupant of the boat wasn’t as quiet as the other two.

  “All this bouncing is killing me,” Helen complained. “Can’t you slow down?” The fact that the ghost was sitting on the back bench of the boat—the least bouncy spot in the vessel—only made her complaining more annoying. Even more frustrating was the fact that Maryse couldn’t turn around and yell at her without looking like a crazy woman.

  “I’m sorry about the rough ride,” Maryse yelled into the increasing wind. “I want to get there and back before this storm hits or we’re going to be far worse off.”

  She shot a glare at Helena, who looked up at the darkening skies and clamped her mouth shut.

  “It’s okay,” Taylor shouted back.

  Sophia gave her a nod, which Maryse took to mean keep going, so she pushed the accelerator just a bit more. As she rounded the corner to the channel where she thought they would find Jadyn and Colt, a wall of trees appeared in front of them. She cut the speed on the boat to nothing, sending Helena sprawling into the bottom of the boat. Taylor and Sophia braced themselves and managed to maintain their seats as Maryse let out a string of cursing.

  Taylor stood up and looked at the tree trunks that completely blocked the channel. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

  Maryse nodded. “Positive. I mean, I’m positive this is where they asked directions to, but if they couldn’t get past…”

  She didn’t finish her sentence, but she didn’t have to. Everyone in the boat knew they had reached a literal dead end. If Jadyn and Colt weren’t where they indicated to Maryse they were going, they could be anywhere.

  “How come this trunk is bouncing up and down with the waves?” Taylor asked.

  Maryse looked at the trunk, then frowned. She walked to the front of the boat and pushed the trunk, then stared in surprise as a rope slipped off the adjacent trunk and the bobbing trunk floated away. “It must be hollow.”

  “But it was tied to that other trunk,” Taylor said. “Why would anyone do that unless they were trying to prevent people from getting back there?”

  “Exactly,” Maryse said. “This must be where Vines is hiding. He blocked the entrance so that people would pass on by.”

  “Do you think Colt and Jadyn are back there?”

  Maryse nodded. “They’re smart. I think they would have seen through this.”

  “Then I guess we should go in, right?” Taylor asked.

  “Actually,” Sophia said, “this is as far as either of you will be going.”

  Maryse and Taylor whirled around and saw Sophia standing in the middle of the boat with a pistol trained on them. “Both of you, jump in and head to the bank. Follow my instructions and no one has to get hurt.”

  “What the hell are you doing?” Maryse asked.

  “I’m going to settle a really old score,” Sophia said. “But none of that is your concern.”

  Maryse shot a look at Helena, who was staring at Sophia in shock. Maryse widened her eyes at the ghost in an attempt to prompt her into action. Helena jumped up from the bench and swiped at Sophia’s hand. Maryse sucked in a breath, not sure whether to hope Helena would be successful or be afraid that she’d make things worse. But her worry was wasted when Helena’s hand passed right through Sophia’s arm.

  “I don’t have all day,” Sophia said and gestured to the bank. “Get moving and you have a chance. Stand there three more seconds and I start shooting. Your call.”

  “You’re not going to get away with this,” Taylor said.

  Sophia smiled. “Yes, I will. My company just opened a new facility in Madagascar, selected exclusively for beauty and the lack of extradition laws. When I leave this bayou, I’ll be long gone and untouchable.”

  Taylor loo
ked at the water and then Maryse. “Are there alligators?”

  “Not here,” Maryse said, lying through her teeth. She had no way of knowing what lurked beneath the surface of the water. Usually, alligators dived for the bottom during a storm, but that wasn’t a guarantee.

  “Now!” Sophia yelled.

  One look at the gun-toting heiress and Maryse could tell she wasn’t in her right mind. Whatever had been holding Sophia together all this time had completely vanished. Maryse lowered herself over the side of the boat and motioned to Taylor to do the same, then started swimming for the bank that was about ten feet away.

  As she used the cypress roots to pull herself onto the embankment, Maryse looked back to see Taylor right behind her. Sophia was starting the boat with her right hand and still clenching the gun with her left. Helena stood at the back of the boat, clearly terrified with the way things were going. Maryse waved at her and crossed her fingers, hoping to convey that she was counting on Helena to figure out a way to prevent Sophia from killing anyone.

  Helena nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. A second later, the diving mask disappeared and the ghost was decked out in full military gear—camo, boots, painted face, and Holy Mother of God, an assault rifle.

  As Sophia guided the boat away, Taylor looked at Maryse, her eyes wide. She didn’t have to say a word. Maryse was already praying.

  “Come on,” Maryse said and motioned Taylor into the trees. “We’ve got to get to the far side of that pond. That’s got to be where Vines’s hideout is.”

  Taylor lifted a mud-clad foot. “This is going to suck.”

  “Yeah, but we can’t depend on Helena.”

  Taylor nodded and Maryse set off at a quick jog through the swamp. The trees provided cover from Sophia’s prying eyes, but also slowed progress more than running on the clear bank would have.

  Dead brush and weeds scratched her bare arms as she pushed through the swamp as quickly as her heavy boots allowed. All the time she hoped that Colt and Jadyn were in a position to defend themselves against Sophia. Maryse had no idea what was going on in the woman’s deranged mind, but she’d managed to fool them all. That was disconcerting enough.

  Waiting for thirty years to settle a score was just plain insanity.

  ###

  All of the color washed completely out of Vines’s face, leaving Jadyn no doubt as to what the answer was. He looked back and forth between her and Colt, and she would have given anything to know what was roaming through his mind, but he appeared to be struck silent.

  “It’s a yes or no answer,” Colt said. “Are you Samuel Perkins?”

  “Why…why would you ask me that?”

  “I take that as a yes,” Jadyn said.

  Finally, he nodded. “In another life—a life that went horribly wrong—I was Samuel Perkins. I suppose you ran my fingerprints when I came up missing. It was the one catch in my plan, but I hoped I’d have other options before it got that far with law enforcement.”

  It hadn’t been a fingerprint that had identified him, but for now, Jadyn was content in letting him believe that’s how it happened. “You intended to disappear again, didn’t you?” she asked. “All that talk about hiding out until the Vincent brothers were out of business was just talk. You were waiting until things cooled down and then you would reappear in another place with a new identity.”

  Vines stared down at the floor.

  “What I don’t understand,” Jadyn said, “was why you didn’t just leave in the first place? You have millions. Why go through this elaborate plot to make everyone think you’re dead? Do you really think the Vincents have the capability to track you to another state or country?”

  Vines frowned. “I don’t have millions. I have fifty thousand in a 401(k) account and a couple thousand in checking. That’s everything I have to my name besides my house and boat.”

  “Then what happened to the money you transferred from your joint bank account when you disappeared after the explosion in New Orleans?”

  Vines eyes widened. “I don’t know anything about missing money. The only thing I escaped New Orleans with was my life, and I was lucky to have that. If I had millions of dollars, why would I have spent the last thirty years breaking my back as a fisherman?”

  It was the question that Jadyn had most wanted an answer to, and now she found herself someone deflated. Every indication pointed to Vines telling the truth, but if he didn’t take the money, then who had?

  “Do the New Orleans police think I stole the money?” Vines asked. “Are you supposed to arrest me?”

  “According to information we received,” Colt said, “you’re suspected of stealing the money and causing the explosion that killed your father-in-law. And given your knowledge of explosives, I don’t think that’s a stretch.”

  Vines jumped up from the cot. “I never killed anyone!”

  The door to the cabin flew open and Jadyn jerked her head around to see Sophia standing in the doorway, a pistol leveled at them.

  “Hello Sammy,” Sophia said. “Did you miss me?”

  Jadyn’s blood ran cold. They’d been wrong about everything.

  Horribly wrong.

  Chapter Twenty

  Maryse slid to a halt where the tree line turned into a huge span of marsh grass. She frowned, estimating the distance between where they were and the next available set of trees. The two-foot-high grass that covered the half acre gap between their current position and where the trees began again offered no cover at all unless you were one of the lower-stature swamp creatures.

  “Do we make a run for it?” Taylor asked.

  Maryse looked to the left to see how far out of their way circling around the marsh grass would take them and blew out a breath. It would be a minimum of ten minutes to circle around. Only ten seconds to run across. Assuming, of course, that no one shot them before they got to the other side.

  Taylor pointed to the bank on the opposite side of the pond. “There’s your boat.”

  Maryse squinted, trying to locate Sophia and her pistol, but didn’t see the psycho anywhere. “Looks like Colt’s boat is on the other side but I can’t get a good look through these bushes.”

  She poked her head out of the trees for a better look and saw Helena disappearing into the swamp. “Helena just went into the trees right behind where the boat is docked,” Maryse said.

  “Far less chance Sophia will see us now.”

  “True. But you don’t need to do this. Why don’t you wait here and flag down Deputy Nelson when he shows up?”

  Taylor shook her head. “I brought that crazy woman here. I’m not about to let everyone else clean up my mess.”

  Maryse recognized the determined look on the young investigator’s face. She’d worn it many times herself. She nodded. “On three.”

  Maryse counted off and they sprang in unison from their hiding spot and sprinted like cheetahs across the open field. They slowed a bit when they reached the tree line but only in order to traverse the thick foliage. The boats were a good quarter mile away, and Sophia already had the jump on them.

  With every step Maryse prayed that either Helena figured something out or Jadyn and Colt had the reaction time they needed to stay alive. They wouldn’t be expecting an ambush.

  Sophia had fooled them all.

  ###

  Jadyn sucked in a breath as she stared up at the heiress. Both she and Colt had holstered their pistols when they’d entered the cabin. Vines had placed his rifle on a wall shelf. None of them had a chance of gaining access to a weapon before Sophia opened fire. And given the crazed and evil look Sophia wore, Jadyn had no doubt not only that she knew how to use the gun she held, but that she’d also enjoy it.

  “What’s wrong, Sammy?” Sophia asked, her cloying tone sending shivers up Jadyn’s spine. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  “Sammy” looked more on the verge of a heart attack than anything. His face was so white there couldn’t be more than a drop of blood remaining. His eyes looked as if t
hey would pop out of their sockets, and his hands shook as they clenched the edge of the cot.

  “I know you’re upset, Ms. Lambert,” Colt said, “but this isn’t the answer. I will take Mr. Vines…er Perkins into custody and the New Orleans police will sort everything out.”

  Sophia laughed. “You fool. There’s nothing to sort out. Sammy didn’t steal my money or kill my father. He doesn’t have the backbone for such things.”

  “I had the backbone to leave you,” Samuel said quietly.

  Sophia flushed and she pointed the gun directly at his head. “You dare insult me, when I control everything?”

  He shook his head. “You don’t control me now and you never will again. Kill me if that’s what you want to do. But you’ll never again get the satisfaction of forcing me to cover for you.”

  Sophia stared. “You’d rather die than be with me.”

  He nodded. “Every single day.”

  Sophia’s expression contorted into a rage that Jadyn had never seen the likes of. Her fingered whitened on the trigger and Jadyn watched closely, waiting for her to squeeze off the shot. That split second of distraction may be the only chance she and Colt had for accessing their weapons, and even then, it was likely only one person was walking out of the cabin.

  The rest would be leaving in body bags.

  As Sophia’s finger squeezed the trigger one millimeter more, then another, Jadyn prepared to spring. Just two more seconds and it would be time to make her move. She had no doubt Colt was thinking along the same lines.

  One second.

  But before Jadyn could spring, she heard someone yell “Rambo” and Helena Henry crashed into Sophia, knocking her away from the doorway and into the brush at the side of the cabin. Jadyn and Colt both sprang up at once, accessing their weapons in a flash, then Colt hurried to the door to see where Sophia was.

  As he peered around the doorframe, a shot ricocheted off the door hinges only inches from his head and he ducked back inside and crouched down. “What the hell happened?” he asked.