Showdown in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #3)(82)

After ten minutes of disbelief from the officers and swearing and hand gesturing from Sonny, Zach stepped across the hall to the visitor’s lounge to pour himself a cup of coffee. What a night. What a mess. Raissa had blown the lid off of one of the most bizarre and corrupt things he’d ever heard of in his life. And she’d taken a bullet for her trouble.

His heart clutched when he thought about how close he’d come to losing her. And as much as he knew that Sonny Hebert belonged behind bars, he couldn’t hate the man who’d saved the woman he loved.

Holy shit.

He set his coffee down on the table and the liquid sloshed over the rim of the cup, burning his hand. He shook the coffee off his hand and grabbed a napkin from the counter to wipe off the rest.

You’ve really done it now, Blanchard.

He stepped up to a window and stared out into the darkness. How the hell had he allowed this to happen? He’d fallen for a woman who was going to disappear like the wind as soon as she checked out of the hospital, and the worst part was, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it. Raissa would never be safe with Sonny still gunning for her. She’d move off and become a bank teller in Idaho or a waitress in Seattle, and he’d never see her again.

He’d just go on the same way he always had.

No. He shook his head. Things would never be the same again.





Raissa sat propped up against the pillows of her hospital bed, her head still throbbing. The only good part was, the pain in her head had caused her to completely forget the pain in her leg. Maryse and Mildred had arrived earlier, and Raissa had filled them in on everything. Now they sat at the side of the bed, listening to Helena, who was perched on the bed, telling them everything that had happened when the New Orleans police arrived after Raissa had been taken away.

“The police were confused as hell, but the long and short of the immediate situation is that the only bad guy in the mix was Dr. Breaux, who is dead.”

Mildred shook her head, the dismay on her face clear as day. “I still just can’t believe it. How could we have been so wrong? We never noticed anything at all.”

Maryse patted her hand. “It’s not our fault. Obviously he’d been at this for a long time. We had no way of knowing that he was someone completely different. How could we?”

“I’m dead proof of that,” Helena said. “He admitted to Raissa that he killed me.”

Mildred gasped. “Oh, my God. Raissa, is that true?”

“Yes,” Raissa confirmed. “I’m sorry. With everything else going on, I left that part out. I accused him, and he said he couldn’t afford Helena finding out Hank wasn’t her biological son.”

“And if she found out about the leukemia,” Maryse finished, “then she’d have asked for a donor match and found out then. Shit.”

“But he didn’t say how he did it,” Helena said, “so I still don’t know.”

Maryse frowned. “I have an idea, but we’ll never be able to prove it.”

“I don’t care if you can prove it,” Helena said. “Just tell me something that makes sense.”

“When we were planting that listening device at Sonny’s you said you hadn’t paid for medicine in years—that you’d gotten samples.”

“That’s right,” Helena said. “Damned pharmacy was always out of my inhaler.”

“And Dr. Breaux gave you samples from his office.”

“Yeah.”

“I think the poison was in the inhaler. Try to remember, Helena. Did you use your inhaler before you drank the brandy?”

Helena’s eyes widened. “Holy shit, I did. That must be it.”

Raissa shook her head. “Genius. It evaporates into her system, and there’s no record of where she got it even if anyone asked. It was the golden opportunity. I think you’re right, Maryse.”

“It makes sense, as much as anything does,” Helena said, then sighed. “I want you all to know that I really appreciate everything you’ve done…for me and for everyone else. I can’t believe this is finally over.”

“Not quite over,” Maryse said, “or you wouldn’t still be here. But I have an idea about that, and I’m going to run it by Sabine tomorrow. I’ll fill you in as soon as I know more.”

“Thanks.”

“So, Helena,” Raissa said, “finish telling us what happened when the police got here. Did they arrest Sonny?”

“Oh, right,” Helena said, growing animated again. “They didn’t arrest Sonny for killing Dr. Breaux, because Zach backs his story that Dr. Breaux was holding you two hostage with the intent to kill when Sonny burst in, and that Dr. Breaux fired the first shot. Probably good for Sonny that Dr. Breaux at least grazed him with that shot.”

Raissa nodded, then flinched as her head throbbed more. “Makes him more sympathetic.”

“Exactly. And Sonny Hebert needs all the sympathy he can manage. Then the FBI showed up, all mad and everything. They told Sonny they want to question him, but I’m not sure if they can make anything stick, as he wasn’t actually the one kidnapping the girls.”

“Probably not,” Raissa said. “Sonny can always claim he didn’t know about the kidnappings until after the doctors killed Monk and he found the alien suit.”