Missing in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #5)(37)

He whirled around and stalked back to start up his boat. He threw it in reverse, then tore off down the bayou without so much as a backward glance.

“He’s in a hurry,” Colt observed.

“Yeah,” Jadyn agreed. “Makes you wonder why. He was pissed to find us here, but I got the impression we weren’t who he was after.”

Colt nodded. “I wonder what’s going on.”

“No telling. I figure by the time we get back to Mudbug, someone will have an answer.”

“I’m sure,” Colt said.

“I’m glad you didn’t tell him we were lodged on a car.”

“He’s already got one black car to tow out of these swamps. I don’t want to muddy the waters with a second. Besides, Old Man Humphrey’s car has nothing to do with Ross or Raissa. No use allowing him to make my job more difficult. I already got to tell Humphrey the car he took Melvina Watkins’s virginity in is at the bottom of the bayou.”

“Sucks to have your job.” Jadyn hoped the game warden position didn’t ever involve hearing about people’s sexual conquests, especially from a hundred years ago.

“Some days,” Colt agreed. “Guess we best get a move on.”

He threw one leg over the side of the boat and pushed down. “It’s solid as a rock. Can’t have been in the water for long.”

He swung his other leg over, then pushed the boat off the car. As the bow cleared the last of the top, he jumped inside and knelt down, inspecting the boat bottom. Several seconds later, he cursed.

“Damage?” she asked.

“Yeah. A pretty good tear. It’s easily fixed but I don’t think we should risk using the boat the rest of the day. We’ll have to backtrack to town and pick up my boat.”

Jadyn’s spirits fell a bit. Backtracking to Mudbug would cost valuable time, and time was already the one thing they didn’t have enough of. “Well, if it can’t be helped, then it can’t. We’ll take another look at the maps when we get back to Mudbug—revise our coverage this afternoon if we need to so we can account for the loss of time.”

Colt nodded and started up the boat. “I don’t think we’ll lose more than an hour.”

Jadyn took her seat as Colt pushed the boat up the channel as quickly as he dared maneuver in the narrow space. Sixty minutes of lost time probably meant cutting ten camps off their list for the day. Ten more chances to find Raissa was a big loss. Even though Colt was trying to downplay it, she knew he was as frustrated as she was with the setback. But all that frustration had to be pushed down, closed off in the back of their minds so that they were fresh and alert while they were in the swamps.

Distraction caused mistakes. Caused you to overlook things that you might otherwise see. They couldn’t afford any mistakes with this. Not a single one.

Colt swung the boat out of the narrow channel and back into the much wider main bayou. As he increased his speed, Jadyn wondered what had caused Ross to rush away from them so quickly. Something was up. Otherwise, she had no doubt he would have stuck around to harass them longer. No, Ross had been after something when he’d come across them, and whatever it was he deemed more important than their trespass against his orders.

As Colt made a hard right turn in the bayou. Jadyn got a full view of Ross’s problem.





[page]Chapter Nine


The other boat was drifting, just off the center of the bayou and so close to the middle that Colt had to break hard to the left to avoid hitting it. He killed the power immediately, and the bow of their boat slammed down on top of the bayou.

Jadyn clutched the seat to avoid being thrown again and looked over at the other boat, holding in a groan. At first glance, it appeared that a person was in the boat, but with a closer look, Jadyn knew Colt was staring at an empty boat.

Helena Henry sat on the middle bench, her hands covering her eyes. As Colt inched Jadyn’s boat closer to the other, Helena removed her hands and Jadyn could see that her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. Helena stared at them, blinking, then finally locked in on Jadyn. She jumped up from the bench, her eyes wide, and waved her hands above her head, as if she needed to flag them down when they were already headed straight toward her.

“Thank God you found me,” she said as they drew alongside her boat. “I’ve been out here for hours. I thought I knew the way back, but I got lost and every time I tried a new direction, I always ended up back here. Now I’m out of gas.”

Jadyn glanced over at Colt, who stepped into the other boat, then looked back at Helena and put her finger to her lips. Colt was one of the lucky people who couldn’t see or hear Helena, so no way could Jadyn respond. Helena looked over at Colt, then her eyes widened and she nodded. Jadyn rubbed the back of her neck, a million questions hovering at the edge of lips.

Colt reached into the steering column compartment and grabbed some documents from inside. He scanned them quickly, then shoved them back inside.

“This boat belongs to the FBI.”

Jadyn cringed. She’d already expected as much, given the source, but it was still slightly startling to have her worst fear confirmed.

“I could have told you that,” Helena said.

Jadyn stepped up to the side of the boat and glared at Helena.

Colt scanned the bank in both directions. “I don’t know how it got here.”