Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(15)

[page]Chapter Four


Colt hurried into the sheriff’s department, greeting Eugenia, the night dispatcher, without even slowing. Jadyn practically jogged behind him, trying to keep up, but he was too anxious to slow his pace. When he hurried into the restroom, Jadyn slid to a stop in front of the door. He pulled a blow-dryer out of the bathroom cabinet and motioned her to his office.

He plugged in the blow-dryer and shoved everything on his desk to one side, then motioned to Jadyn for the packet. He placed it in the middle of the desk and pointed the dryer at the flap. When the flap separated from the rest of the packet, he directed the air inside until he was able to shake the papers inside onto the desk.

He glanced up at Jadyn, who inched closer to the desk, then directed the dryer at the papers. A few minutes later, the papers started to curl a bit, separating from each other. He flipped the stack over and attacked it from the other side until he was able to pull the top paper away from the stack without damaging it.

They both leaned forward to see the blurry ink.

Coupons.

It was a discount coupon printed off a computer.

Colt worked on the remaining papers, but they were all sales ads or discount rates on common items like laptops or cameras. Not a single one of them indicated who might have printed them.

Jadyn stared at the document for several seconds, then sank into a chair. “So we still don’t know for sure.”

Colt shook his head. “Not for sure, but I’m willing to bet that’s Raissa’s car. Those tread marks through the swamp were recent and the car couldn’t have been there long or it would have sunk much lower. There were bullet holes in the back windshield. The odds are seriously against any other explanation.”

“Then what the hell is going on here?”

Colt shook his head. “I can’t put together a scenario that works with all the elements we’re aware of. Maybe Zach was hit by another vehicle while he was firing at their car, but if it was accidental, then why hasn’t the driver of the other vehicle come forward? And if they ditched the car, they either got what they wanted out of it or it wasn’t the car they were after in the first place. But what does someone want with Raissa?”

The even worse question in his mind was “what were they doing to her” but he didn’t even want to say the words out loud. He hoped to God that if someone was holding Raissa hostage, it was to use her as a bargaining chip, and that they understood that harming her would bring the FBI down on them like a hurricane.

“Zach wouldn’t have fired if Raissa was in the car, right?”

Colt considered this for a minute. “The shots were all concentrated on the driver’s side of the car. If he thought he could make the shot—take out the driver in order to stop the car—he might have tried it. If it had been someone I cared about in that car, I would have.”

“The passenger window was open. Is it possible…”

“I don’t think she could have been thrown out when the car hit the water if that’s what you mean, but it’s possible that the body was dumped before that.”

“But there’s no good reason to dump the body separately from the car, is there?”

“Not that I can think of.”

“Then I’m going to keep believing that Raissa is alive somewhere.”

Colt nodded, trying not to think about all the things that could be happening to her as he sat at his desk, without a clue as to where to start looking. “Agent Ross and a couple of his men took rooms at the hotel. We better head down there and tell them what we found.”

“What about the car?”

“Technically, it’s their jurisdiction now. The feds have better equipment than us. Let them get it out. There’s nothing to see anyway.”

Nothing he hadn’t already seen.

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Agent Ross had cropped hair and the stiff posture that Jadyn recognized as former military. With her, Colt, Ross, and two other FBI agents all standing in Ross’s hotel room, the combination of the men and the testosterone level made Jadyn felt a bit claustrophobic. On the positive side, Ross didn’t so much as blink when Colt introduced her as the game warden and that was definitely points in his favor.

“Why didn’t you notify me immediately when you got the call from this Burton?” Ross asked, looking slightly perturbed.

“Notify you that a fisherman reported a sunken boat? Do you know how many times a week that happens here?”

Ross’s jaw flexed. He knew Colt had skirted the fed’s jurisdiction, but there wasn’t a thing he could do about it given the circumstances. “You should have called me in as soon as you realized it was a car.”

“Maybe, but if there had been anything of value to retrieve, it might have been damaged by the time you arrived, and likely, the gators that usually occupy that pond would have made their way back. Things are rarely black and white in the swamps. I’ve got more to consider than jurisdiction.”

A flush crept up Ross’s face and Jadyn inwardly cringed, wondering how much their failure to contact the agent in the beginning was going to affect what they could do in the future.

“Fine,” Ross said finally, “but from now on, you stay out of the swamps. Stick to your jurisdiction. I don’t want to hear that either of you were anywhere near that pond again. Are we clear?”