Resurrection in Mudbug

by Jana DeLeon

  “That sounds like your father,” Mildred agreed.

  “Yep,” Helena agreed. “He even put a clause in his will that stated if he wasn’t buried in Mudbug Cemetery, he was allowed to sue the coroner posthumously.”

  “And you were buried in Mudbug Cemetery, too,” Mildred said.

  “Actually, I wasn’t buried at all,” Helena replied. “The casket they buried was empty. I asked to be cremated, but figured some people in Mudbug would have a coronary over something that progressive.”

  Mildred stared. “So an empty casket went into the ground and the casket with your body went to a crematory?”

  Helena nodded.

  “I know I’m going to regret asking this,” Mildred said, “but where are your ashes?”

  Helena smiled. “They were distributed in a secret place of significant importance to me.”

  Mildred’s eyes widened and Jadyn cringed, all sorts of bad possibilities running through her mind.

  “What place?” Mildred asked.

  “Well if I told you,” Helena said, “then it wouldn’t be a secret.”

  Jadyn turned to Helena and interrupted before Mildred got more flustered. “Does your family cemetery use a key like that?”

  “I don’t know,” Helena said. “I’ve only been there once when I was a kid. That was the day my father insisted on spitting on Grandfather’s grave. I was a little freaked out by the whole thing. I don’t remember much else but my father ranting and the spitting.”

  Jadyn wondered briefly what the hell kind of people Helena had descended from, but pushed the thought aside. She’d have plenty of time to delve into Helena’s family-of-origin issues with Mildred as soon as the man trying to kill her was behind bars.

  “If a key like the one I found opens your family cemetery,” Jadyn continued, “where could we find one?”

  “That’s a good question,” Helena said. “It wasn’t in my house, so I guess the attorney has it.”

  “Wheeler?” Mildred asked. “The attorney in New Orleans?”

  Helena nodded.

  “Crap,” Mildred said, then sighed. “He’s not likely to give me a key just because I ask.”

  “Can’t we just climb over the fence?” Jadyn asked.

  “No way,” Helena said. “One of the few things I do remember is looking up at those giant spikes. I swear they were taller than trees.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Mildred said. “We’re just guessing it’s a key to a cemetery gate, but it could be a key to any old gate.”

  “True,” Jadyn said but instinctively, she knew they were on the right track. “But I still think it’s worth looking into.”

  Mildred nodded. “Do you want me to give Colt a call and see if he will bring the key to the cemetery?”

  “No!” The word came out harsher than Jadyn intended.

  Mildred raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem between you and Colt?”

  “You could say that,” Jadyn said and gave Mildred the CliffsNotes version of their conversation.

  Mildred’s expression cleared in understanding. “I knew you were mad about something when you stomped upstairs earlier. Scared and frustrated, but also mad. I wondered if Colt was at the bottom of it.”

  “He’s at the bottom all right,” Jadyn agreed.

  “Well, if he’s got the key, I don’t see how we can leave him out. It’s not like we can stroll in there and take it out of his desk.”

  “I can,” Helena said.

  “Absolutely not,” Mildred said.

  Jadyn looked at Helena, then back at Mildred. It was wrong and she knew it, but part of her relished the thought of solving the case and proving to Colt that she was just as capable as he was.

  “Colt said he won’t have time to look into the key until tomorrow,” Jadyn pointed out, “and who knows what could happen in that span of time.”

  Helena nodded. “You could be sleeping with the fishes by tomorrow, or even worse, stuck here with me.”

  Mildred blanched and Jadyn knew they’d made a chink in her armor.

  “She is getting better at picking things up,” Jadyn said.

  “You’re just saying that,” Mildred argued, “and you’re also suggesting we steal evidence from the sheriff. Is that really the way you want to end your career?”

  “No, but I don’t want to end my career in a coffin, either.”

  Mildred sighed and Jadyn held in a cheer. The battle was almost won.

  “I’m not saying we should do nothing,” Mildred said finally. “I just think if you gave Colt a chance, you’d find him supportive.”

  “So if your life was in danger, you’d let some chauvinistic male stick you in a corner and feed you information about your own safety as he saw fit?”

  “You know,” Helena interjected, “I have to say that’s pretty crappy, and I’m rarely opposed to letting someone else do all the work.”

  “Trust me,” Mildred said, “the feminist in me is screaming, and she’s a loud bitch, but the bottom line is it’s too risky. Look what happened today in broad daylight and on a heavily traveled channel. Why go deep into the swamp and make his job even easier?”

  Jadyn leaned forward. “What if I told you I didn’t have to be at risk at all?”

  Mildred narrowed her eyes at her. “How?”

  “You’re assuming he’s watching me—waiting for another opportunity?”

  “Yes.”

  “But he doesn’t even have to know I’ve left the hotel. Your car is in the garage. I can hide in the back until we’re out of town. He’ll think I’m still in my room.”

  “That could work,” Helena agreed. “And I can keep watch and see if he sneaks into the hotel to kill her.”

  “You’re coming with us,” Jadyn said.

  “No way!” Helena shook her head.

  “How are we supposed to find the cemetery?”

  “I’ll draw you a map. I’ll draw it in color even, but I’m not going with you.”

  Jadyn threw her hands up in exasperation. “Why the hell not?”

  “Dead people creep me out.”

  “You’re kidding me.” She looked over at Mildred. “Is she kidding?”

  “You would think so, but I doubt it,” Mildred said.

  “It’s not up for discussion,” Jadyn said to Helena. “This is all your fault, and you will do your part to fix it.”

  Helena crossed her arms and huffed. “Fine. I’ll take you there, but I’m not going inside.”

  Jadyn jumped up from her seat. “Then let’s go steal that key.”

  Mildred stroked the bottle of scotch. “Wait here for me. I have a feeling I’m going to need you when I get back.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jadyn paused on the sidewalk just before the sheriff’s department and looked over at Helena. “Are you ready?”

  “Yeah, yeah. We’re just stealing a key, not doing brain surgery. How hard can it be?”

  Jadyn held in a sigh. “The office isn’t empty, remember? Even though Sheriff Bertrand is gone, the dispatcher is there. You can’t just burst in and start flinging things around, or you’ll give the woman a heart attack.”

  “I know. I know. I have to make sure you have her distracted before I move things. We’ve covered it a million times.”

  Despite good common sense yelling at her to abandon this somewhat sketchy long shot of a plan, Jadyn continued to the sheriff’s department and walked inside, Helena hurrying in beside her. Shirley gave her an apprehensive look, but Jadyn couldn’t really blame her. She hadn’t exactly been easy to deal with when she’d been there before.

  “Is Sheriff Bertrand here?” Jadyn asked, knowing full well that Colt had driven away ten minutes before.

  “No, but I can call him if it’s an emergency.”

  “I don’t want to interrupt him. Is he going to be gone long?” Jadyn turned around and pretended to look out the window while waving Helena toward Colt’s office at the back of the building.

  “He said he�
��d be back in thirty minutes or so.”

  Jadyn turned back around, watching as Helena disappeared through the back wall. “Is it all right if I wait for him?”

  Shirley’s eyes widened a bit. “Sure,” she said, but the hesitation in her voice told Jadyn she wasn’t sure of anything.

  Jadyn walked toward the back of the building, then stopped and pretended to peer outside again. The glass on Colt’s office door was frosted, so she couldn’t see inside. She hoped Helena wasn’t having trouble touching things. If so, this entire excursion would be a complete waste of time.

  Suddenly Helena’s voice boomed out from the closed office, but the screeching opera of this morning had been replaced with rap. Sort of rap. Jadyn cringed and started back toward the front of the building, hoping that more distance between her and the sound would make it better, but with every step, her optimism decreased.

  “So the weather seems nice right now,” Jadyn said, trying to drown out Helena by talking. “Does it get a lot hotter by the end of summer?”

  Shirley nodded. “Gets another good ten degrees hotter on average, but it’s the humidity that makes you run for air-conditioning.”

  “I have noticed the humidity is a lot worse here than in north Louisiana. I guess it’s the proximity to the water.”

  Good God, St. James, can you sound more banal?

  The singing got louder and Jadyn looked over as Helena walked out of Colt’s office. She looked at Jadyn and shook her head. Crap. Jadyn had already cased the rest of the tiny office and the only likely place Colt had stored the evidence was a filing cabinet against the back wall. Unfortunately, Shirley had a clear view of that filing cabinet from her desk and the keys to the cabinet hung on a hook behind her.

  “Any other ideas?” Helena asked as she walked up beside Jadyn.

  “The filing cabinet,” Jadyn whispered.

  “Pardon me?” Shirley said.

  “Sorry,” Jadyn said and smiled. “Just clearing my throat. I think I have a touch of allergies here.”

  “How can I get in that filing cabinet with her looking?” Helena asked.

  Jadyn turned around and faced the window again. “We need to get her outside long enough for you to get in the cabinet.”

  “Oh, that’s easy.”

  Before Jadyn could say a word, Helena walked through the front wall of the sheriff’s department and disappeared. Jadyn prayed whatever Helena had in mind didn’t cause more trouble than they already had. She stepped up to the front window and looked out at Main Street, just in time to see Helena slip inside a old sedan in the parking area across the street.

  Oh no.

  A couple of seconds later, the car started and Helena pulled straight out of the parking lot and onto Main, then cut the engine off. Main Street sloped slightly downhill so the car continued to roll down the center of the street. As the car passed the barbershop, two men ran out of the building and started yelling as they hurried down the street after the car.

  “Oh my God,” Jadyn said. “There’s an old brown Cadillac rolling down Main Street with no driver.” She pushed open the door and rushed outside. It was too late to call Helena off. She might as well play along.

  Shirley rushed outside behind her and they both stared as the Cadillac rolled past. A second later, Helena popped out of the side of the car and rolled to a stop in the middle of the street.

  “That’s my car!” Shirley wailed and hurried down the street after the Cadillac, which was now picking up speed.

  Jadyn stared at Helena, her concern growing with every second that the woman remained motionless. She walked over to the ghost and whispered, “Helena?”

  “What? Oh!” The ghost jumped up from the street. “I think I knocked myself out. How is that possible?”

  “We’ll discuss it later,” Jadyn said. “Go check that filing cabinet. The keys are on the peg behind Shirley’s desk. I’ve got to help chase that car or I’ll look suspicious.”

  Jadyn took off at a jog down the street, hoping Helena understood her rushed instructions. She caught up with Shirley half a block away, where the woman was bent over panting.

  “Are you all right?” she said as she slowed.

  Shirley waved a hand. “Get my car.”

  Jadyn picked up speed and raced down Main Street, passing the two men from the barbershop and drawing abreast of the Cadillac just before Main Street made a hard ninety-degree turn, running parallel with the bayou. She grabbed the door handle, praying Helena had left it unlocked, and yanked the door open. As Jadyn jumped inside, the car rolled onto the grassy bank of the bayou. She jammed her foot down on the brake as hard as she could. The brakes squealed in protest and a wave of panic came over her as the water grew closer by the second.

  She pumped the brakes, but it was no use. Apparently, brakes were not one of the items Shirley felt she needed to maintain. Jadyn opened the door ready to jump and as a last-ditch effort, engaged the emergency brake. The car lurched to a stop, slamming her head into the steering wheel, and she staggered out just as a crowd of people ran up.

  “Are you all right?” one of the men from the barbershop asked.

  “I think so,” she replied.

  The man looked at her forehead. “You’re going to have a good shiner there tomorrow.”

  She reached up and felt the knot that was already beginning to form. “Probably so.”

  “We could hear the brakes grinding all the way up the street. How did you stop it?”

  “Emergency brake.”

  The man nodded as Shirley ran up, panting. “How could this happen?” she wheezed.

  The man poked his head inside. “The car’s in neutral instead of park. And you should fix your brakes, Shirley. You could have killed our new game warden.” The man clapped Jadyn on the back and grinned. “It was just like one of them Hollywood movies, you jumping in that runaway car. Heck, you chasing this car and shooting up those bags of money are probably the most interesting things that’s happened around here in months.”

  “Glad to oblige,” Jadyn said and forced a smile. Clearly the details of Duke’s death hadn’t made all the gossip circles yet. Her recent exploits were going to pale in comparison to that tidbit.

  “The tide’s coming in!” a man at the edge of the bank shouted. “We need to get the car back now or it’s gonna be floating.”

  “The keys are under the floor mat,” Shirley said.

  The man shook his head and sighed.

  “If you guys have it from here,” Jadyn said, “I going to head back to the hotel and put some ice on this bump.”

  She didn’t even wait for an answer before starting up the street toward the hotel, making sure she stayed on the opposite side of the street from the sheriff’s department and in clear view of the people who’d stepped outside to see what all the commotion was about. Helena hurried across the street as she approached, a big grin on her face.

  “I got it!” she yelled.

  “Thank God,” Jadyn mumbled under her breath, relieved that all of this hadn’t been for nothing.

  She smiled and nodded as residents congratulated her on her car rescue, but pushed past them to the hotel as quickly as she could, Helena jogging behind her and yelling at her to slow down the entire way. It seemed to take forever, but finally, she made it to the hotel and hurried to Mildred’s office.

  Mildred was on her cell phone and hung up when she saw Jadyn come in. “Please tell me that Helena did not drive Shirley’s car down Main Street.”

  “Not exactly,” Jadyn said. “Are you ready to do this? I want to make sure there’s at least a little daylight given where we’re going.”

  “Ha!” Helena shouted. “Dead people scare you too.”

  “I know at least one who does,” Jadyn said.

  Mildred sighed and grabbed her car keys. “Let’s get this over with.”

  ###

  Colt pulled open the filing cabinet and felt in the back for the envelope with the key. Flashing it around Mudbug wasn’t a
good idea given what happened to Duke, but he knew a locksmith in New Orleans who had helped him on a couple of cases. He figured he’d take a picture and send it to him and see if he had any ideas.

  His hand touched the cold bottom of the cabinet and he frowned, certain this was the drawer he’d left the key in. He pulled all the folders tightly to the front and peered over the edge into the drawer, but the bottom was empty. A trickle of worry ran through him as he opened the remaining three drawers and searched them.

  No key.

  He turned to look at Shirley, his blood starting to boil. “Didn’t you say Jadyn was here earlier?”

  Shirley nodded. “Said she wanted to talk to you. Why? What’s wrong?”

  “The key I put in the filing cabinet is missing.”

  Shirley’s eyes widened. “You don’t think…”

  “That’s exactly what I think. She wasn’t happy that I took the key as evidence, but I never thought she’d stoop this low.”

  Shirley bit her lower lip then spoke, her voice hesitant. “But I don’t see how it could have been her.”

  “Why not? She was here when your car took a trip down Main Street, right? She could have easily snagged the key when you ran outside.”

  Shirley shook her head. “She ran outside before I did. And she’s the one who saved my car. I pulled into the parking lot just as she was walking back—on the other side of the street. She went straight into the hotel after that, and I came in here. Been here ever since.”

  “You’re sure she couldn’t have taken it?”

  “Unless she can be in two places at once, I don’t see how.” Shirley gave him a disapproving look. “I know the girl’s a little high-strung and on the aggravating side of what I prefer to listen to, but after seeing that scene at Duke’s she did get shot at. And she risked a dip in the bayou to save this old lady’s Cadillac. You may want to cut her some slack.”

  Colt tried to clamp down on his ever-increasing frustration. He already felt bad about the way he’d handled Jadyn that afternoon. He didn’t need someone else pointing out his less-than-stellar reaction. “Well, if she didn’t take it, who did?”

  “I suppose anyone could have taken the opportunity to slip inside while we were all running down the street. I feel really bad about this, Colt.”