Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(41)

“Five hundred twenty-five dollars. Are you sure you’re all right, Ms. Robicheaux? This conversation is really starting to concern me.”

“I have a doctor’s appointment today,” she managed to mumble. “Thanks.” She hung up the phone and stared out the window over the bayou. She’d never sent the bank checks for five hundred twenty-five dollars, but she’d paid someone else that exact same amount every month for almost two years. “Helena!”

She stalked into the living room, but the ghost was nowhere in sight. It didn’t take long to check every nook and cranny of a one-bedroom cabin, so it was only minutes before Maryse was certain the ghost had fled. And she’d bet it was during that phone call.

Maryse smelled a two-year-old rat. And she’d bet her truck payoff check that rat’s name was Helena Henry.


Luc made it into the office a little early, but not for any reason except he just hadn’t slept well. God knows, he wasn’t attempting another break-in of Maryse’s lab unless he did so in the dead of night. And given the woman’s strange behavior, probably even that wasn’t safe. Besides, he’d delivered the notebook to his buddy back at the agency. If anyone could get to the bottom of what Maryse was up to, it would be Brian.

He flipped his cell phone open just in case he’d missed a call but was once again disappointed by the blank display. Frustrated, he sat back in the chair and propped his feet on the desk. What the hell was he supposed to do now? Maryse was certainly easy on the eyes, so following her had been no hardship but had definitely been a study in bizarre. Still, it hadn’t gotten him anywhere. From where he sat, the only thing Maryse was mixed up in was something to do with her in-laws and her missing husband, and he was no closer to finding the informant than he had been the first day here. If only the DEQ would let him branch out a bit and investigate some of the other residents, but his orders were clear—he was a zoologist and was to do nothing to make people think otherwise.

He rose from the desk and headed to the coffeepot on a corner table. At least making coffee was doing something productive. He dished the grounds up and was just about to fill the pot with water when his cell phone rang.

He reached into his pocket and, recognizing the agency’s main number, he pressed the Talk button. “LeJeune.”

“Luc, it’s Brian. I got that information on the notebook.”

Luc felt his hand tighten on the coffee pot handle. “And?”

“It was definitely chemical formulas—you were right about that.”

“Okay, but for what?”

There was a slight pause on the other end. “We don’t know exactly.”

“Damn,” Luc muttered. “Well, what do you know?”

“She’s mixing up different plants, it looks like. Each combination is clearly identified by species and anything other than plants used to make the sample. They’re all labeled with trial numbers, the way a big lab would do things.”

“Okay, so she’s trying to create something. Do we have any idea what?”

“Hell, it could be anything…weight-loss pills, hair products, a cure for insomnia…there’s just no way of knowing unless we can see what she’s testing this stuff on. You said there’s no animals or anything like that in her lab, right? No refrigerators with little dishes with some of the mixture in it?”

Luc cast his mind back to his lab tour. “No, nothing like that. It’s a tiny room. All that’s there really is a couple of tables with the test tubes, burners, that sort of thing. I didn’t see any evidence of testing on anything.”

“Well, she’s testing somewhere. All that effort is not for nothing. Have you gotten the trace on her phones yet? Maybe that will give you an idea where to head next, although I got to tell you, Luc, it doesn’t look like this has anything to do with our case, and if the boss-man finds out, he’s probably going to pull the plug on you.”

“There’s something going on with her,” Luc argued. “Someone intentionally cut the brake lines on her truck.”

“Unless it has something to do with our case, it’s not your problem. Don’t get involved, LeJeune. It always turns out bad.”

Luc flipped his phone shut without answering. Don’t get involved. Like it was that easy. He didn’t understand his attraction to Maryse at all. Sure he’d dated plenty of women, but never for any reason other than a good time for a short time. Maryse pulled at him in a different way, and that made him very uncomfortable.

Usually women just hit him below the belt, and that was an easy fix, but Maryse challenged him on an intellectual level, and not just with his investigation. She was a complex woman, something he usually avoided like the plague. But for the first time in his life, he found himself wanting to figure her out rather than run for the hills.

No matter his discomfort, he wasn’t about to leave her unprotected if someone was trying to hurt her. She may not be part of his case, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t have some help.

He finished filling the coffeepot with water and turned it on. Glancing at his watch, he realized Maryse should be at the office any minute, assuming she wasn’t off on one of her many mysterious adventures. He turned on the computer and bypassed Maryse’s sign-on screen using a hacker tip he’d picked up from Brian the day before. As soon as the operating system loaded, he double-clicked the internet icon and logged into his e-mail. Surely the phone trace was back by now—at least the last couple of days’ worth.