Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(29)
“I really should be going,” Maryse said, and rose from the table. “I’ve got a ton of things to catch up on this morning.”
Luc looked up at her and nodded. “I won’t be in the office till later. I’ve got to run some errands in the city.”
Maryse felt a momentary surge of disappointment but quickly squelched it. “Okay, then. Guess I’ll see you later.” She turned and walked out of the café, cursing Mildred for engineering her exposure to yet another facet of Luc LeJeune. Like she needed to find anything else about him attractive.
She shook her head as she crossed the street, mentally tabulating her list for the day. All she had to do was check on her truck, talk to the insurance company, meet Wheeler about the inheritance, get in eight hours of work for the state, avoid a ghost, locate a plant that she had absolutely no idea where to find, and figure out a way to wash Luc LeJeune from her mind.
Piece of cake.
Luc stood in the dealership garage in New Orleans, staring at the heap of mess that used to be Maryse’s truck. He knew what he was about to hear from the Service Manager—had been thinking about it pretty much since the accident, but for the life of him couldn’t make the facts add up. Someone had tried to hurt Maryse and used her truck to do it, but he didn’t know why.
He was still having trouble believing Maryse could be his informant. It just didn’t fit what he knew about her, although some of her actions were a bit suspect. But if it wasn’t the chemical company trying to shut her up, then who was? If that ridiculous will reading had been before the accident, he’d say someone was out for the inheritance. Most likely Harold or Hank.
So his next guess was it had something to do with what she was working on in that lab of hers. All he had to do was get the proper tools, find a window of opportunity to break into the lab without being discovered, steal that notebook, make copies, and find someone to decipher it before things got any worse.
Piece of cake.
“You occupy space here much longer,” a voice broke into Luc’s thoughts, “I’ll get you a set of coveralls and put you to work.”
Luc looked over at his high school buddy, Jim, the Service Manager, as he walked across the garage to stand beside him. “Damn shame,” Jim said and pointed to Maryse’s vehicle. “The truck’s got high miles, but the lady that owned it has taken care of it nice. It was in great shape before that crash.”
Luc nodded. “You checked into the scheduled maintenance?”
“Yeah, pulled it off the computer first thing. Lady had that truck in here just a week ago for regular maintenance and everything checked out fine. I talked to the tech that worked on it, personally, and he said everything was in top shape.”
“So why did a well-maintained, reasonably new vehicle lose its brakes?”
Jim pulled his hat off with one hand and rubbed his temple with the other. “You ain’t gonna like the answer.”
Luc looked at him, the inevitability of his friend’s words already weighing heavy in his mind. “Someone cut the lines.”
Jim nodded. “Yep. Almost clean through. They left enough so that the brakes would work for a couple of miles, then they would go to nothing almost immediately.”
“So they fixed it so she’d think everything was working fine and hopefully build up enough speed before noticing anything was wrong, which is exactly what happened.” He gave the truck one more look, then nodded to his friend. “Thanks, Jim. And if you don’t mind, can we keep this between us for now? And remember, I’m a zoologist. No one can know what I’m really up to.”
“Hell, I don’t know what you’re really up to, but I get what you’re saying.” Jim looked at the truck again and scratched his head. “What do you want me to tell the insurance company—or the lady?”
“Make something up that they’ll both buy.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Something that doesn’t have anything to do with attempted homicide.”
Jim swallowed and looked at Luc, his expression grave. “You’re gonna protect her, right? I don’t really know her, but every time she’s been in, she’s always been so nice and friendly. This is a nasty piece of business, and I just can’t imagine something a girl like that would be mixed up in that could get her killed.”
Luc gave the truck one more look and shook his head. “She may not know herself.”
Chapter Seven
Maryse made a mad run to her cabin, hoping to get in and out before anyone could discover her—namely Helena. She’d showered and changed the Band-Aids on her scrapes the night before at the hotel, so all she really needed was a fresh set of clothes. But her hopes were dashed as soon as she opened the door. A very irritated Helena Henry sat on her couch, staring at the wall in front of her.
“Where the hell were you last night?” Helena started bitching before she could even get the door closed. “I had to crawl through an open window to get in here, and the damned thing closed after me. I’ve been stuck in here all night with no way to get out. Do you have any idea how boring it is when you can’t read a book or turn on the television? I spent hours reading the labels on cleaning supplies that happened to be turned in the right direction.”
Maryse’s head began to pound, and she walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water and one of Dr. Christopher’s little pills. Mildred’s aspirin weren’t going to do the trick at all.