Showdown in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #3)(11)

“Right,” Mildred said. “But the only thing in your life that changed from that moment to an hour before was you talking to the police about that missing girl. Helena was there when you talked to that detective, but you couldn’t see her then. So we know it has something to do with the missing girl and your talking to the police. We just need you to tell us what.”

“What makes you think I know?” Raissa asked.

Mildred glanced over at Helena, then back at Raissa. “I’ve always known you were hiding from something. I figured it was an abusive husband or the like, which is why I never pressed you for answers. But after knowing you as long as I have, I’ve decided you’re too strong to have been abused. Which means that whatever you’re hiding from is a lot worse than one angry, vindictive man.”

Raissa nodded. “You’re right. It’s not one man.”

Mildred narrowed her eyes at Raissa. “You were a cop, weren’t you?”

Raissa felt a wave of anxiety pass over her. She shifted in her chair and looked down at the floor, millions of denials already forming in her mind. Finally, she looked back up at Mildred and in an instant, she knew.

It was time.

Time to stop running. Stop hiding from her past. From the truth.

“I was an FBI agent.”

Helena sucked in a breath and stared at her, wide-eyed. “Holy shit! You were a supercop. No wonder nothing fazes you. You’ve got balls of steel.”

“Ha!” Raissa spit out that single word. “If I had balls of steel, I wouldn’t have spent the last nine years hiding behind scented candles and tarot cards. If I had balls of steel, I’d have taken out the entire Hebert family so I could have my life back.”

Mildred put one hand over her mouth. “The Hebert family…as in Sonny Hebert, the Don Corleone of southern Louisiana?”

“Yeah. As in, not one man—but a ‘family.’ ”

“Holy shit,” Mildred repeated Helena’s words, then downed her entire cup of coffee. “Okay, this is far worse than I had imagined.”

Helena nodded. “That’s not the kind of family that does barbecues and beer.”

“No,” Raissa agreed. “They’re more into extortion, and money laundering, and God knows what else.”

Mildred refilled her coffee cup, pulled a bottle of scotch from the bottom drawer of her desk, and poured a generous amount into her coffee. She handed the bottle to Helena, who took a huge gulp straight from the bottle, then doctored her own coffee and passed the bottle to Raissa. Raissa, who had never been one to drink after another person, wasn’t quite sure the ghost counted, but it still bothered her on too many levels, so she passed on the whiskey altogether.

“Okay,” Mildred said, “so there’s a bit of a setback in our original thinking, but there’s no cause to panic.”

“Are you f*cking kidding me?” Helena said. “Hell, I’m panicked, and I’m already dead.”

Mildred frowned. “Well, at least they can’t kill you twice.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Raissa said. “I died nine and a half years ago when one of the Hebert clan put a bullet through my chest. They resuscitated me in the ambulance. On paper, I’ve been dead ever since. So in this case, if the Heberts get me, then technically they have killed me twice.”

“We’re not going to let that happen,” Mildred said, her voice growing strong again. “I promise you, Raissa, we will see you through this. The first thing we have to do is find you someplace safe.”

Raissa laughed. “I know you mean well, and I love you for it, but I’m trained to hide, and they still found me.”

“I didn’t say you should hide, since you’re right, that’s obviously not going to work. But I do think relocating to a more defensible location would help.”

“You mean move? No, I can’t move. I have a business to run—”

“Which,” Mildred interrupted, “you’ve already offered to cut down to part time to cover Sabine’s store for her honeymoon. Sabine will be at Beau’s place in New Orleans to night, and they fly out tomorrow. There’s no reason for you not to move here temporarily.”

“I don’t know,” Raissa said, her mind racing with all the reasons that involving more people in her mess was a really bad idea.

“You should do it,” Helena urged. “It’s not like just anyone can come and go in Mudbug without being noticed. And you could stay at the hotel.”

Raissa struggled to come up with a good argument, but had to admit that the idea wasn’t the worst one she’d heard. In fact, it came with the advantages Mildred had mentioned and a few that she hadn’t thought about. Finally, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll move, but just for the rest of the week, and I’ll still have to commute to my store a couple of times. I can reschedule my readings, but I don’t want to cancel on my regular customers.”

Mildred frowned, and Raissa knew she’d wanted a full-time commitment, but it was something that Raissa just couldn’t offer without lying. One, because remaining in Mudbug wouldn’t allow her to do the investigating she needed to do in New Orleans, and two, because if her situation even came remotely close to putting her friends in danger, then Raissa was out of Mudbug like a gunshot.