Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(22)

“I would really appreciate that,” Jadyn said and pulled a card from her wallet. “Here’s my contact information. Please call any time and thank you.”

The man looked at the card, then back at Jadyn and grinned. “Game warden, huh? I knew you looked like a woman who could take care of business. You ever interested in company, look me up at Mike’s in Rabbit Creek.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jadyn said. “If I’m ever in the area, I’ll do that.”

“Liar,” Helena’s voice sounded behind her. “Dude looks like Grizzly Adams meets Prisoner Number One.”

Mildred coughed. “Thank you,” she said. “I really appreciate your trying to help.”

“No problem,” the man said. “I hope they find her soon.”

He and his buddies gave them a nod and left the café.

Jadyn and Mildred turned back around to face Dee. “Well,” Jadyn said, “I guess that’s all we’re going to get, but it’s something. At least we know why Zach was found down the highway away from everything.”

Mildred nodded. “And I feel better now that we did something. I guess we best head home or neither of us will want to get up for work in the morning.”

Dee gave them both a sympathetic smile. “Would you ladies like some coffee for the road?”

“That would be great,” Jadyn said.

“And apple pie!” Helena yelled from the back.

“No way,” Mildred muttered under her breath.

Jadyn held in a grin. She agreed with the sentiment, but had a feeling they’d both pay for it on the way back to Mudbug. Helena’s mouth never ran out of gas.

They collected the coffee and Jadyn slipped a twenty and one of her business cards onto the counter. Dee’s eyes widened and she stuffed the money into her apron. “I’ll keep asking around. If I hear anything, I’ll call.”

“We appreciate it,” Jadyn said and they headed outside to the car.

As they climbed inside, Jadyn looked back toward the front of the café. “I wonder if the cooks said anything.”

“You mean besides arguing over that sandwich Helena stole?”

“Yeah. Besides that.”

Mildred shook her head. “We have got to figure out some way to get her under control.”

“Don’t look at me,” Jadyn said. “I’m new to all this, but if you couldn’t figure it out last time, I’m not holding out much hope. I mean, what punishment can you come up with for someone who’s already dead?

“And therein lies the crux of the matter. You can talk until you’re blue in the face, but if she doesn’t want to cooperate…”

“We need to get creative. Think outside the box. That exorcism threat is only going to last so long before she calls our bluff. Where is she, anyway? Surely they’re not still trading secrets in there.”

A second later, Jadyn wished she hadn’t asked.

The two cooks walked around the side of the café from the back, smoking cigarettes and looking like they’d gotten past their earlier argument. Just as they rounded the corner to the front of the café, Helena burst through the wall, running for the car and clutching a pie.

Jadyn would have liked to say that the Batgirl mask looked better when the entire costume was in view, but that would have been the lie of the century. The black spandex bodysuit clung to every square inch of Helena’s body, identifying rolls in places Jadyn hadn’t even known it was possible to have them.

“I’m going to need therapy,” Mildred said as Helena changed direction and headed straight for the car.

Jadyn started the car, threw it in reverse, and squealed out of the parking space. The car hadn’t even stopped its backward motion before she shifted to drive and took off from the café. Helena ran about ten yards before giving up. Jadyn didn’t even want to imagine what the poor cooks were thinking, standing there watching a hovering pie.

“Should we leave her there?” Mildred asked.

“Yes.” Jadyn shook her head. “But I probably won’t. I need to give the cooks a chance to get back inside before we pick her up.”

“You think they’ll call the cops?”

“And say what—that an apple pie floated through the wall of the café and hurried down the highway?”

Jadyn slowed down and made a U-turn in the middle of the empty highway, then idled back toward the diner. When she was about a quarter of a mile away, she turned off the headlights. “Watch for cars.”

Mildred nodded. “How are we going to see her in the dark, especially with that getup she’s got on?”

“Heck if I know. Maybe we can—”

A loud thud sounded in front of them and a second later, something large and black crashed onto the hood and rolled up and over the top of the car. Mildred threw her hands up and screamed. Jadyn stomped on the brakes so hard she almost banged her head on the steering wheel. The two coffees exploded in the cup holder and sprayed all over both of them.

The abrupt stop sent the object on top of the car rolling back down and onto the hood where it came to a heaped stop. The apple pie running down the windshield gave away the black heap. Helena looked up at them, and Jadyn could see her guilty expression, even with the ridiculous mask.