Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #1)(84)

Johnny nodded. “And no insurance. As long as I keep the chemical company’s secret safe, they’ll keep paying for my treatments.”

“But other people could die because you haven’t told.”

“I was going to report them as soon as I was in remission, but then you had to get in the way, and I couldn’t afford to have them busted just yet. I’ve got another year, at least, of chemo to go.” He leveled the gun straight at Maryse’s head. “I’m sorry it has to be this way, Maryse. Sorrier than you’ll ever know. But I promise you won’t feel a thing. Not after the first few seconds, anyway.”

Maryse felt her blood run cold as she watched Johnny’s finger whiten on the trigger. This was it. The end of the line. An entire life devoted to one cause and her work left unfinished. What had been the point? She clenched her eyes shut and waited for the shot to enter her body, waited for her life to fade away, and when the shot came, she almost passed out from fear.

It wasn’t until she heard Luc shouting that she opened her eyes. Johnny lay splayed in front of her, his vacant eyes staring up at the night sky, a single bullet hole through his temple. Luc crouched in front of her and pulled her up from the ground, his eyes searching every square inch of her body.

“Am I dead?” Maryse asked.

Luc let out a strangled cry. “No!”

Maryse started to cry, and Luc pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her forehead. “I wasn’t sure,” she said between sobs. “I mean, with you being able to see dead people. I just wasn’t sure.”

Luc let out a single laugh and held her even tighter. “I didn’t even think about that.” He pulled back a little and placed his hands on each side of her face. “You are very much alive, Maryse Robicheaux, and you’re going to stay that way to a ripe old age.”

Maryse rested her head on Luc’s chest and relaxed as his arms tightened around her. For that moment, she would choose to believe him.


It seemed Maryse had barely gotten her breath before the backup arrived in the form of cops, an ambulance, and the coroner. She felt the thrill of victory pass through her as she realized the morgue could just as easily have been there for her if not for Luc’s shooting accuracy. She still didn’t know how he’d found her, or why he was even looking, but at the moment, she didn’t care.

The paramedics whisked her off to the ambulance to assess the damage, and Luc joined a group of cops over to one side, probably giving his statement of the events. One paramedic was bandaging her shoulder while another tended to her cut feet when Mildred came rushing up. The hotel owner took one look at Maryse sitting in the ambulance and Johnny lying dead in the alley and began to sway.

She sucked in air like a drowning woman, and a paramedic shoved an oxygen mask over her face until her breathing became regular again. Maryse waited until she had taken a few normal breaths before explaining what had happened, leaving out, of course, the part that Helena had played in everything. Which brought Maryse up short. Where was Helena, anyway?

Mildred listened to Maryse’s story, her eyes growing wider and wider with each sentence until finally she’d finished her tale of horror. Mildred gasped as Maryse finished, and the paramedic hovered, oxygen mask in hand. She waved one hand in dismissal and told Maryse her own version of the night’s events.

She’d jumped up as soon as the alarm sounded and ran straight to Maryse’s room. When she found the door standing wide open, the window broken, and the empty bed, she’d run back downstairs to call the police, expecting the worst but hoping for the best. Maryse kept waiting for Mildred to blast her for running out of the hotel rather than to her for help but was relieved when it seemed that her substitute mother was going to let it go. Or was reserving it for a later date when she needed a good guilt trip to use.

Family was a wonderful thing.

Since Maryse’s injuries were minor, the paramedics released her to Mildred, and they headed back to the hotel with instructions from the police to await questioning within the next thirty minutes. Maryse looked around for Luc, anxious to speak to him, to fill in the missing pieces of the story, but she didn’t see him anywhere.

Disappointed, she followed Mildred into the hotel lobby, wondering why Luc had left so abruptly. In the alley, it had seemed like he’d really cared. Was that all just part of his job? She was just about to march outside and insist on seeing him when Sabine burst through the doorway in a panic.

As soon as she locked her gaze on Maryse, she ran across the lobby and grabbed her in a hug. “I’m fine,” Maryse said as Sabine squeezed harder. “Okay, well maybe now I have a broken rib, but other than that, I’m fine.”

Sabine released Maryse and brushed the tears from her face. “Don’t you dare joke about this, Maryse Robicheaux. I could have lost you.” She hugged her again, and Maryse felt the tears well up in her eyes once more.

“It’s all over now,” Maryse said through her tears. “It’s all over.”

Sabine released her once more and gave her a smile as Mildred hustled into the room with a glass of water and some aspirin. “You sit right down on that couch,” Mildred directed, “and I don’t want one bit of lip. All these goings on, it’s a damned wonder you haven’t had a heart attack—or given me one. You’re going to relax for a minute if I have to sit on you.”