Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(43)

“And now you have other issues?”

“Jeez, LeJeune, haven’t you been paying attention the last couple of days? My mother-in-law is dead, and Hank has yet to show up so I can serve him. The worse part is that’s the least of my worries at the moment.”

Intrigued, Luc leaned forward in his chair. “So what’s the worst?”

“The worst is wondering what the hell Helena Henry has been up to all these years. I mean, the woman was the Antichrist of Mudbug. Even you had heard of her, and then she goes and leaves me the game preserve.”

“Okay. But that’s a good thing, right? I mean, if she’d have left it to Hank, he would have sold it off right away.”

“Leased it,” Maryse corrected. “The trust prevents an outright sale, but that’s not the point.” She picked up a pencil from the desk and started tapping it on the desktop.

Luc leaned back in his chair, giving her his full attention. “What else is there?”

Maryse looked over at him, her face full of uncertainty. “When Hank ran off, he owed money to a lot of the wrong kind of people. I had to borrow from Helena to pay them off.” Then she told him about the payments she’d been making to Helena that had most likely been used to pay down her loans.

Luc sat back in his chair and stared at Maryse, now crystal clear on her confusion. “What the hell?”

Maryse shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I have no frig-gin’ idea. And it just makes me wonder how much manipulation has gone on behind my back. I get the feeling I was used, but I can’t put my finger on how or for what purpose. There is no way Helena Henry paid that money on my loans to be nice. Helena doesn’t know nice. Without an ulterior motive, she had no reason to get up in the morning.”

“I agree. It sounds really strange, and given the source, I guess it would make me sort of nervous, too.” He shook his head. “Too bad you didn’t find out about the payments before the old bat died. You could have asked her yourself.”

Maryse frowned and stared down at the floor. “Yeah, that is a shame.”

Luc studied her for a moment. It was obvious from the way her eyes dropped to the floor that she was hiding something. But what? Given the weird situation she was in, it could be anything. In fact, Luc was surprised she’d even told him as much as she had. Obviously Maryse was in some mild level of shock if she was carrying on a personal conversation with him. Especially after that stunt he’d pulled yesterday, kissing her over the copy machine.

“I wish I had some advice,” Luc finally said, “but I have to admit, I’m as stumped as you are. The whole thing is just too bizarre.”

“Well, I’m not going to figure it out sitting around here.” She gave Luc a small smile as she rose from her seat. “Thanks for listening. I know I haven’t been the most pleasant person to be around, but I swear, I’m not usually this bad.”

Luc shrugged. “You’ve got a lot going on, and I’m not the easiest person to be around, either.”

Maryse laughed. “Yeah, you got that right. Anyway, I’ve got to get some work done today, whether my mind’s in it or not.” She pulled open a drawer in her desk and swore. “Crap, the map I need is at my cabin. I completely forgot I brought it home last week.”

She pulled her sunglasses from her pocket. “Guess I’ll be taking a detour before I work, huh? I’ll see you later, LeJeune.” She gave him a backwards wave and walked out of the office and down to the dock.

Luc watched as she threw the tie line into her boat and stepped down inside, pushing the boat from the dock as she went. What the hell was going on? Maryse was right—according to everything he’d ever heard, Helena Henry didn’t do nice. And why charge her that outrageous interest, then pay her debts? Luc had no idea what Helena had been up to, but he had a feeling it wasn’t much good. And he wondered just how much of a mess Helena’s shenanigans had left Maryse in.

Something didn’t feel right. And although he didn’t like to talk about his feelings much, they were something Luc didn’t ignore. He was much more intuitive than most—it’s what made him so good at his job—and right now his senses were on high alert. Maryse Robicheaux was smack in the middle of something bad…he was certain.

And he was even more certain that she had no clue what it was.

He pulled his boat keys from his pocket and headed out of the office. If anything happened to Maryse, he’d feel guilty the rest of his life. She might not like him lurking around, but he saw no other way to figure out what was going on and offer her some protection. He’d just have to figure out a way to either watch her without being seen or come up with a reason for hanging around.

He had a five-minute boat ride to figure it all out.

Chapter Ten

All Maryse wanted to do was get the map and get into the bayou. With any luck, she’d be able to get some work done for the state and locate the plant she needed for the trials. But when she pulled her boat up to her cabin dock, Helena Henry was there, looking more upset than Maryse have ever thought possible.

“You can’t go in there,” Helena said, her face tense.

“Try to stop me. You still have some things to answer for, Helena, and don’t think I forgot them just because you pulled a disappearing act this morning.” Maryse stepped onto the dock and strode toward her cabin.