Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(31)

Keeping that fact in the forefront of your mind minimized disappointment.

Colt walked up the steep steps leading to the camp, trying not to dwell on the disappointment he was going to feel if this case turned out badly. He already knew quite well the odds against a happily ever after, but when it was personal, you tended to push those odds back in place of hope.

He twisted the front doorknob and the door creaked open.

“It’s not locked?” Jadyn asked.

“No. A lot of locals don’t bother,” he said as he stepped inside. “There’s not much traffic this deep in the bayou. Visitors tend to fish in the ponds closer to town. Sometimes kids go into camps and have parties, but they won’t haul a truckload of beer through the swamp on foot for a half mile when other camps are closer to the roads.”

She followed him inside and glanced around. “Not much to see.”

“No. A lot of these places are one big room and a bathroom. They’re not meant for full-time living. But that makes them easier for us to search.”

He crossed the tiny structure and opened a door on the far wall. “Looks like no one’s been here for a while.”

“Then on to number two,” she said, clearly trying to force optimism she didn’t feel. “Do you mind giving me a rundown on the owners as we cover the cabins? If it’s not a bother?”

“It’s no bother,” he said as they left the camp and headed back to the dock. “The better you can do your job, the easier it makes mine.”

“Great.” She released the boat from the dock.

“The next camp is owned by Roscoe Bartlett. He owns the general store. It’s been a while since I’ve been inside, but if I remember correctly, his is nicer than most of the others. Has a separate bedroom and the finish out is more like a house.”

Roscoe’s camp was indeed nicer than Old Man Humphrey’s, at least on the outside. The front of the camp possessed no collection of broken appliances and didn’t show any signs of recent passage, until they got to the steps. Two sets of prints showed in the thick layer of dust and led up the steps to the door.

Colt pulled out his nine millimeter and motioned to Jadyn to do the same. “I’ll go up first,” he whispered. “Wait until I’m on the porch before following. I want to minimize creaking as much as possible.”

She gave him a silent nod, and he started up the steps, slowly shifting his weight onto each step. When he stepped onto the porch, he motioned to Jadyn, then pressed his ear to the door. At first, he heard nothing, then he heard a low moan. He checked behind him as Jadyn stepped onto the porch.

“I heard someone inside,” he whispers. “Sounds like they’re hurt.”

He gently turned the knob and was surprised to find it unlocked. He eased the door open and inched his head through the crack until he could see the front room.

It was empty.

On the back wall were two more doors. He crept toward the door on the left, which he thought was the bedroom. As he drew up right in front of the door, a woman screamed.

Immediately, he threw open the door and launched inside, pistol ready for firing. “Stop or I’ll shoot!”

The scene inside stopped him so short that Jadyn bumped into him before moving to the side to see what the holdup was. She probably regretted looking.

The screaming woman was clad in hooker-red lingerie and was handcuffed to the posts of the bed, but she wasn’t Raissa and the cuffs were plastic. The man in front of her wore black underwear with silver studs and a black mask. He held a leather whip and whirled around to stare at Colt, then froze, the panic clear in his eyes.

Colt grimaced at the sight and shook his head, frowning at both of them. “Sorry to interrupt, Bob. We’re looking for a missing person. We’ll just get out of here and let you and Jenny get back to…to whatever the hell this is.”

He managed to hold in his grin until they left the camp. Jadyn jumped off the steps and hurried up next to him.

“Okay, spill,” she said. “Was that Roscoe in the mask? Because you called him Bob. Do you know the woman?”

“No, that definitely wasn’t Roscoe, and he’d probably have apoplexy if he knew what was going on in his camp. Despite the mask, I know exactly who the man was—Bob Brant, our illustrious mayor.”

Jadyn sucked in a breath. “You’re kidding! I’ve only met him once and he totally gave me the creeps, which makes a lot of sense now. But isn’t he married to some woman with a drawn face and entirely too big hair?”

“Yes, that woman is not his wife. She’s an eighteen-year-old high school student who babysits his ten-year-old twins.”

Jadyn stopped in her tracks. “Oh my God.”

He turned back to look at her and grinned. “That’s one way of putting it.”

She caught up to him and jumped into the boat. “I don’t get it. The man’s cheating on his wife with essentially a child. So you want to tell me why you’re so amused?”

“Because last night Deputy Nelson was on a call about drug use behind the school.” He started the boat and headed down the bayou. “The supplier was the mayor’s seventeen-year-old son, and he would have made my life hell if I pressed charges. But now…”

“He’s not going to say a word.” Jadyn smiled. “I wonder what his son will think when daddy doesn’t bail him out again.”