Resurrection in Mudbug (13 page)

“Hey, wait a minute—what do you mean the water will come rushing back toward me?”

“Hold on tight!” Jadyn yelled, no time to humor Helena and her fifty questions.

She paused only long enough to see Helena’s eyes widen as she grabbed the edge of the bench before she shoved the throttle down, forcing the waterlogged boat to jump forward.

It lagged for a couple of seconds, then the momentum got the better of the additional weight and it popped up on top of the bayou. The water, which had increased to several inches by that time, came rushing from the front of the boat to the rear, crashing into Helena like a tidal wave. Helena responded, of course, by screaming as if someone was killing her.

“Pull the plug!” Jadyn yelled. With the speed she had to maintain to keep the boat on top of the water in the curvy bayou, she couldn’t even afford a backward glance or she may clip the bank, a stump, or even worse, a fisherman. 

“It’s stuck,” Helena cried.

Jadyn felt the boat slow and checked the gauges. The additional water weight was straining the engine. “Unstick it or we’re going to sink.”

She turned onto a long straight stretch and was just about to tell Helena to take the wheel while she removed the plug when the boat’s speed increased. She glanced back to see a drenched Helena holding the plug and glaring at her.

Her tiny gray pigtails were plastered flat on her head, which oddly enough, was almost an improvement. Unfortunately, her soaked vest and skirt now clung to every bulge on her body and that was an awful lot of bulging. 

Jadyn couldn’t begin to fathom the reasons the ghost would be soaked, and she didn’t even try. She’d stood in a shower for a good twenty minutes that morning and come out completely dry. The entire thing boggled the mind. 

But the bottom of the boat was now empty of water, and that was all that mattered. “Put the plug back in,” she said and slowed the speed to a more manageable level while still maintaining the hydroplane.

“Pull the plug out. Put the plug in,” Helena complained. “I didn’t sign up for this kind of abuse. This outfit is ruined.”

Jadyn looked back at Helena. “I didn’t sign up for being shot at, and according to Maryse, that wouldn’t be happening if you weren’t here.”

Helena crossed her arms and stuck out her lip, like a petulant child.

Jadyn whipped around before Helena could see the smile that forced its way through. Maryse definitely had Helena’s number with that guilt thing. She just hoped it was enough to keep her in line. She really didn’t want to play the exorcism card unless things were dire.

It took about ten minutes to get back to the dock, and she made a wide swing out before directing the boat straight at the muddy bank just to the side of the concrete launch.

“Hold on,” she told Helena as she increased speed and ran the boat straight up the sloping bank. 

The boat hit the bank at a good clip, and Jadyn almost lost her grip on the steering wheel. She heard Helena scream followed by a splash. The boat lurched to a halt and she looked back to see a bedraggled Helena pulling herself up from the bayou behind the boat. She glared at Jadyn, then stomped up the bank, trampling the marsh grass as she went, her shoes squeaking.

“You could have let me off at the pier,” Helena complained.

“The boat would have sunk before I could get the trailer and get it out. I need to figure out what happened.”

Helena threw her arms in the air. “Someone shot at you. How much more explanation do you need?”

“We can start with why the boat was sinking.”

“The Mudbug city councilmen are the cheapest bastards in the world. Do you know I gave this city millions’ worth of real estate and all they did was have some horrible sculptor make a statue of me that they erected in town square? To add insult to injury, the sculptor made me fat. I am not fat.” 

“What does any of that have to do with the boat?” Jadyn wasn’t about to touch the issue of the statue. She’d seen the artwork, and now that she’d seen the real thing, she knew the artist had been kind with the trim work.

“I’m just saying they wouldn’t pay for the best equipment, not even for their own law enforcement, and they probably don’t contribute enough money to keep things properly maintained. The light at the end of Main Street was out for two months—two months, I tell you, before they finally got it changed, and they’re all too dim.”

“Maybe they were busy with more important things.”

“Not even. They said it cost too much to bring a truck out with an extension bucket that could reach the light. I said one of them should shimmy up the damned thing if they were that worried about money, because the rest of us were more worried about being mugged.”

Helena’s tirade only half registered with Jadyn as she scanned the bottom of the boat, trying to locate the source of the leak. It didn’t take her long to discover the hole in the bottom of the boat, but the location was a surprise. She’d suspected the bullet had traveled through the aluminum somewhere on the side, allowing the water to seep in, but the clear round hole was directly in the bottom of the boat.

“This doesn’t make sense,” she said.

“Tell me about it. I told them that if they didn’t want to pay for lightbulb changes, they should have bought shorter light poles—”

“Not that.” Jadyn waved a hand in dismissal. “The bullet hole. It’s in the bottom of the boat.”

Helena stomped over to the edge of the boat and stared down at the hole. “Makes sense to me—they shot a hole in the boat and we were sinking. Even a six-year-old could figure that one out.”

“They couldn’t shoot a hole in the center of the boat from the elevation of the bank. They weren’t high enough.” She sucked in a breath. “He was in a tree. That’s why you couldn’t see him, and why he could get a bullet down into the boat.”

Helena’s eyes widened. “Then why didn’t he pick you off when you pulled up to the bank? Wouldn’t that have been even easier?”

“He must have been farther up the bank and didn’t have a clear shot through the trees. Think about it—he didn’t fire another shot until I pushed away from the bank.”

“Holy shit. You’re right.”

“I suspected this already, but the tree thing confirms it.” Jadyn looked at Helena. “You know what this means, right?”

Helena shook her head.

“That call to dispatch was to lure me into the bayou. Unless you think someone who wants me dead just happened to be sitting in a tree with a rifle and a silencer hoping I would pass by.”

“Who made the call?”

Jadyn glanced back at the sheriff’s department and frowned. “I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.”

Chapter Thirteen

Colt left the morgue and headed to the elevators. Leroy was in a room on the second floor, and Colt had just received a call from the nurse that the man was out of shock and rambling on to anyone who’d listen. Colt figured after what Leroy had seen that day, there were only a handful of people who had the stomach to hear what Leroy had to say, and he was one of them. 

The coroner had still been passed out cold when Colt had returned to the cabin from the chase in the swamp. It had taken a cup of cold water dumped square in his face to jolt the man back into consciousness. He’d bolted upright, sputtering and scattering the water everywhere, then taken one look at Duke and probably would have passed out again if Colt hadn’t grabbed his shoulders and shaken him.

It wasn’t the nicest thing he could have done, but the paramedics hadn’t arrived and Colt was out of patience. They all had a job to do, and he figured if the new game warden managed to not only stomach the scene but process it from an investigative standpoint, then the least James could do was stay awake and do his job, especially as he’d already pointed out to Colt how competent he was.

He could hear Leroy ranting as soon as he stepped off the elevator. A harried nurse came from the direction of Leroy’s room and hurried over. 

“Sheriff Bertrand?”

“Yes.”

“Thank God. He’s disturbing the other patients, but we can’t get him to quiet down. Dr. Henning said we couldn’t sedate him until you spoke to him, so we’ve been trying to manage, but I have to tell you, it’s not working out well.”

He fell into step beside her as she motioned him down the hall in the direction she’d come from. “I take it he’s completely lucid?”

“He’s plenty lucid. Unfortunately, I can’t vouch for sane. Some of what he’s saying…he didn’t really see that, did he?”

“I’m not sure what you heard, but if it was the most awful thing imaginable, then yeah, that’s exactly what he saw.”

The nurse’s hand flew over her mouth and she paled a bit. “Oh! I feel bad for complaining, given the circumstances.”

Colt gave her an encouraging smile. “Your job is to take care of all the patients. Regardless of how valid the reasons, you don’t need one upsetting everyone.”

They stopped in front of the door to Leroy’s room. He’d gone strangely silent as they approached and Colt wasn’t sure which was more unnerving—the man’s yelling or his silence. 

“I will make this as fast as possible,” Colt said, “and as soon as I’m done, you can give him elephant tranquilizers for all I care. He’ll probably appreciate it.”

“Thank you so much, Sheriff.” The nurse’s relief was apparent.

Colt said a silent prayer that Leroy could give him some answers, then pushed open the door and entered the room.

“About damned time you got here!” Leroy bolted up straight in his bed and glared at Colt. “What the hell are we paying all those tax dollars for if you’re not going to do your job?”

A litany of answers sprung to Colt’s mind, but it wasn’t worth stating them. Leroy was worked up and determined that someone else would take the blame for it. 

“I’m sorry it took so long for me to get here,” Colt said, “but I had to handle things at the cabin and arrange for transport of the body. I know you want things taken care of correctly so that there can be a proper funeral.”

Leroy looked a bit mollified. “I suppose a situation like that would take more time than usual.”

Colt nodded, knowing it was the closest he would get to an apology or an acknowledgment that he was doing his job. “The sooner I get started on this investigation, the more likely I can catch the perpetrator. I know I’m asking you to do something really hard, but if you could tell me exactly what happened this morning, it would be a big help.”

“Duke’s been my friend as long as I’ve been on this earth. Doesn’t matter how hard it is. I want that bastard caught—unless you get the opportunity to shoot him outright.”

“I promise, if the killer gives me any reason, I will definitely shoot him outright.”

Leroy gave him a single nod. “We was supposed to go fishing early this morning. Snapper are biting right after dawn over at Vernon’s Point, and we wanted to get the good spot by the cattails. I went to pick him up, just like we’d agreed.”

“Did you see anyone at his cabin when you pulled up?”

“Not a soul. His front door was standing wide open, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Duke is…” Leroy choked a bit and coughed. “…was a tough old bastard. Didn’t have AC. He wouldn’t have thought twice about leaving his doors and windows wide open.”

Colt nodded, patiently waiting for Leroy to get to what he needed to know, and hoping that if he let the older man process it at his own pace, he’d be more thorough with his description and less inclined to get off-balance again.

“I honked the horn,” Leroy continued, “but he never came out. I figured maybe he was changing out his tackle so I headed to the house to see if I could hurry him up.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “The smell hit me as soon as I stepped onto the porch. I got a nose like a prize bloodhound. Usually, it comes in handy, but today, I would have given anything to have a cold.”

“You showed a lot of bravery, going in there,” Colt said.

Leroy shrugged. “He was my friend. What else was I gonna do?” He looked out the window, then down at the blanket that covered his legs. “I stepped inside, already figuring I was gonna see something bad, like Duke had accidentally shot himself while cleaning one of his guns. But I never thought…I ain’t never…”

He looked up at Colt, his expression haunting. “Whoever did that ain’t human. Ain’t no way a normal man could do such things.”

“I agree, and you don’t know how sorry I am you had to find Duke that way.”

Leroy nodded. “It didn’t take but a glance to know he was gone—had been for a while. I got dizzy and grabbed the doorjamb, trying to keep my balance, then as soon as I could move, I stumbled back outside. It was all I could do to get to my truck and call the sheriff’s department. My chest hurt and my vision blurred. No matter how much I breathed, I couldn’t catch my breath. You ever had that happen?”

Colt nodded. “Yeah, I have.”

A look of relief passed over Leroy’s face. “I managed to call dispatch and as soon as Eugenia answered, I panicked. My heart was beating so hard, I thought it would pop my chest. I started yelling and crying and damned if I’m going to feel bad about either.”

“You have nothing to feel bad about.”

“I stumbled around the front yard while I was talking and finally collapsed on the steps to the cabin. Then it’s like my whole body went numb and I got real cold. Didn’t even notice when you drove up. Didn’t even know you’d been there at all until the paramedics told me on the ride to the hospital.”

“You were in shock.”

“I gotta tell you, it feels like shit. I don’t ever want to see something so bad it puts me in shock again.”

“I don’t either.”

“Did it put you in shock…seeing Duke?”

“No, but it was hard to maintain control, even with all the training I have and all the things I’ve seen working in New Orleans.”

“Then I guess I ain’t doing too bad, given that I ain’t had no training and such.”

“You’re doing great. Is there anything else you can think of to tell me about this morning?”

“No. That’s all I seen and all I know.”

Colt studied the man’s face closely and decided he was telling the truth—at least about this morning. The question was, did he know more?