Mischief in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #2)(61)

“I’m sure if they could understand any of this and take a vote, they’d all agree that you not being murdered is worth my borrowing my own books for a couple of days. You’re going to have to stop being so uptight, Sabine. Killers don’t play by the rules. If you want to get ahead of him, you’re going to have to ignore them, too.”

Sabine sighed and started down the hall and out of the hospital. She really, really hated it when Helena was right.

“Pull over here,” Helena instructed and pointed to a huge hedge that stretched the length of her former residence. Maryse pulled over on the shoulder of the road in front of the stretch of bushes. Helena hopped out of the car and ran through the hedge.

Sabine shook her head. “Thank God she’s a ghost. Otherwise those bushes wouldn’t have survived.”

Maryse nodded in agreement.

A couple of seconds later, Helena emerged from the hedge carrying a stack of albums that had managed to make it through the hedge-passing with only some scratches. She tossed the albums onto the backseat through the window, then slipped into the car. “Now, pull up in the next drive where that magnolia tree is,” Helena instructed.

“Why?” Sabine asked. “We’ve got the books.”

“I forgot something,” Helena said. “What does it matter? Remember that whole ‘rule’ discussion we had?”

Sabine sighed and motioned for Maryse to pull into the drive. Maryse shook her head and muttered, “This feels way too familiar.”

Helena rolled her eyes and jumped out of the car as soon as Maryse stopped. “Back in a minute,” she said as she started off across the lawn to the huge home next to her own estate.

Sabine sat us straight in her seat. “Where’s she going? That’s not her house, or her garage, or her boat house.”

“You think I don’t know this?” Maryse shot back. “That’s Lois Cormier’s house.”

“What could Helena possibly want there?”

“I don’t know but I’m positive it’s not going to be good.”

Ten minutes later, Helena still hadn’t emerged from the house. Sabine looked over at Maryse, who was alternating between looking at the house and checking her mirrors for visitors. “I think we should leave,” Sabine said. “We have the books and Helena can find her own way to the hotel.”

“You’re right,” Maryse agreed and started the car.

“Wait!” Sabine said before Maryse could put the car in gear. “I think the front door’s opening.”

“Oh, no,” Maryse whispered. “I hope the alarm isn’t on.”

“Get out of here. Now!”

Maryse put the car in reverse just as the front door of the house flew open and Helena came running out dragging an enormous garbage bag, stuffed to the brim. “Hurry up!” Helena yelled. “That alarm is going to go off any second.”

“Crap, crap, crap,” Maryse said as she threw the car in drive and floored it. “I thought I was done with this nonsense.”

“Just leave her,” Sabine said as she scanned the neighborhood, hoping to God no one had seen them yet.

“That will only make things worse, trust me,” Maryse said as she screeched to a stop next to Helena. The ghost yanked open the car door and lifted the bag just high enough to get it onto the floorboard before she jumped in herself, slammed the door, and collapsed on the backseat. Maryse floored the car and they were pulling out of the driveway before the alarm went off.

Sabine glanced over at Maryse, who was slumped as far down in the driver’s seat as she could be and still see over the steering wheel. If dealing with Helena wasn’t so aggravating, it might have been funny. Maryse had been driving the same rental car ever since she and her truck had taken an unexpected dip in the bayou weeks before. Everyone in Mudbug knew it was her just by seeing the car, so unless she was planning on reporting it stolen, hiding while driving wasn’t really going to get her anywhere.

They pulled onto the highway and were a good mile down the road before a cop car came racing past in the opposite direction. Maryse let out a huge breath that she’d probably been holding for the last two miles and sat up a little straighter in her seat.

“Helena!” Sabine yelled at the ghost, who was laid out on the back seat like she was having a heart attack. “What in the world was so important that you risked getting us arrested? And it better be good.”

“It’s a surprise,” Helena said, but the guilty look on her face gave her away.

Sabine reached over the seat and grabbed the trash bag, which was surprisingly heavy. She yanked the bag over the car seat, its contents clanking and rattling. “What did you steal? Their silver?” She opened the bag and looked inside, then groaned.

“I’m afraid to ask,” Maryse said.

“It’s food! She broke into someone’s house to raid their pantry.” Sabine looked back at Helena. “This is low, even for you. How could you justify stealing food when you don’t even need to eat?”

Helena sat up in the seat. “Lois is on a cruise for the next two weeks. The food would have gone bad and been thrown away. What’s the big deal?”

Sabine reached into the bag and pulled out a can of sweet potatoes. “This expires two years from now.”