Maryse woke up the next morning in the Mudbug Hotel with a headache to beat the band. It had been late by the time she had finished explaining the entire Helena disaster to Sabine, and even longer before Sabine had managed to absorb it all. Once her friend had been able to breathe normally again, she’d given Maryse tons of good advice both for Helena and how to get rid of Helena. It was around midnight when they’d left Johnny’s, and the late hour coupled with the fact that Helena might be at her cabin waiting had sent Maryse straight to the hotel for the night.
Maryse pulled on her clothes, trying to figure out how to leave the hotel without running into Mildred again. Exhausted as she’d been, she hadn’t gotten to bed without sharing the saga of her wild day—well, everything except Helena. That was a bit too wild even for Mildred. And right now she didn’t really feel up for any more lectures or discussion.
Her hopes were dashed when she found Mildred in the lobby instead of her office. The hotel owner was standing in the front lobby peering between the front window blinds. Her gray hair pointed in fifty different directions, and her long red nails made a sharp contrast with the bright white blinds.
“What’s so interesting?” Maryse asked, and Mildred jumped, then cast a guilty look back.
“Nothing.”
“You were concentrating pretty hard on nothing.” Maryse stepped over to the window and lifted a slat to look outside. Downtown wasn’t exactly bustling yet; it was still too early, but it was easy to see what had caught Mildred’s attention. Luc LeJeune was bending over the newspaper machine outside of the café, and the hotel offered the perfect rear shot angle.
Maryse looked back at Mildred. “You really ought to take another look. He’s bending over now.”
“Really?” Mildred yanked the cord on the blinds, and they flipped open, allowing both of them a full view of the street. The hotel owner looked across the street just as Luc stood and turned, allowing her a full front view. She clutched one hand over her heart. “Lord have mercy. That has got to be the best-looking man I have even seen in person.”
Maryse held in a sigh. Like she needed any more reminders of just how attractive Luc was. “Mildred, I’m surprised at you.”
Mildred turned to stare at her. “Are you kidding me? Only a woman with no pulse or the taste for women could look at that man and not wish to be younger, hotter, and in really good shape.” She looked back out the window as Luc walked toward the café door. “The things I could do with that.”
Now Maryse did sigh. She didn’t want to think about doing things to “that” and damned sure couldn’t afford to think about Luc doing things to her.
Mildred turned from the window and stared at Maryse with a critical eye. “It’s official then—you died two years ago when that stupid Hank left, and you’ve been a walking corpse ever since.” Mildred shook her head. “I know you’ve got a lot going on. Hell, you babbled for an hour after you staggered in here at midnight high on pain killers. The will, the money, your missing husband. Things are really weird, and I get that, but Maryse, when a woman fails to appreciate a man like that, well, she might as well hang up her bra.”
“It’s not that I failed to notice him. It’s more like I already know him, and his type, so the new has worn off the butt-looking festival.”
Mildred’s eyebrows rose. “You know him?”
Maryse shrugged. “Yeah. He’s a zoologist for the state, and he’s set up shop in my office. Apparently we’re going to be sharing space for a while.”
Mildred reached into her shirt pocket, pulled out her inhaler, and took a quick puff. “You’re sharing an office with Adonis? No wonder you’re exhausted.”
“It’s not like that. It’s work, and he’s a total playboy and sorta annoying. Besides, I’m still married, remember?”
“Hmmpf. Some marriage. I’m thinking God would probably give you a pass on finding someone else since He hasn’t bothered to produce Hank in the past two years. Maybe since you never manage to leave the bayou, God just brought a man to you.”
Maryse rubbed her temple, thinking this conversation was way worse than the one she’d originally been trying to avoid and the biggest reason she preferred not to leave the bayou. “I’m sure that’s it, Mildred. God sent me a man. Anyway, I really need to get going. I’ve got a ton of work to do today, so if I could just get some coffee and some aspirin, I can get on my way.”
“The aspirin are in the cabinet, same as usual, but my coffeepot broke yesterday, and I haven’t had time to get a new one.” Mildred paused for a second, then smiled. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. We could step across the street to the café and have coffee and a muffin. I haven’t had more than a ten-minute phone call from you in months. You can grace me with a half hour of your presence.”
Bullshit. Maryse knew good and well why Mildred wanted to have breakfast at the café, and it had nothing to do with Maryse’s less-than-stellar visitation record. Not that Maryse could really remember the last time she’d spent any quality time with Mildred, but that wasn’t the point. Even though Mildred was trying to be sneaky and deceitful and conniving, Maryse couldn’t say no to the woman who had dated her dad for over twenty years and practically raised her.
Maybe Luc would be so engrossed in his newspaper and his breakfast that she could slip in and out without a huge production. “Fine,” Maryse said finally. “But we have to make it fast. I really do have a ton of stuff to do today.”
Mildred practically ran to her office to grab her purse and some aspirin for Maryse, then rushed them both out the door. They had barely stepped inside the café when Maryse heard Luc call her name. So much for slipping in and out.
Mildred paused for a millisecond, but when it was clear that Maryse wasn’t going to move, the hotel owner turned and headed straight toward the smiling zoologist. She stopped at Luc’s table, Maryse in tow like a petulant teenager. “You must be Luc, the new zoologist,” Mildred said. “I’m Mildred, and I own the hotel across the street. Maryse has been telling me all about you.”
Maryse felt a flush run up her neck, and she fought the desperate urge to flee from the café as if on fire. Luc looked over at her and smiled. “All about me, huh? I didn’t think you’d noticed.”
Maryse waved a hand in dismissal and tried to sound nonchalant. “She’s exaggerating. I barely know anything to tell, much less all.”
Mildred slid into the chair next to Luc and motioned for Maryse to sit across from them. “Well,” Mildred said, “we’ve got some time. You can tell us all about yourself over breakfast.” Mildred waved at the waitress for coffee, then turned back to Luc. “So, are you married?”
Maryse downed the aspirin with a huge gulp of water and willed herself to disappear.
“No,” Luc said.
“Girlfriend?” Mildred pressed.
“Not even close.” Luc grinned.
Mildred narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not gay, are you?”
“Hell, no!”
“Thank God,” Mildred said under her breath, but Maryse was certain Luc heard every word by the way his lips quivered with a smile. Maryse searched her mind for a way to stop the freight train of humiliation when Mildred rose from the table. “I just remembered I need to finish the books from last night,” the hotel owner said.
Maryse stared. “You close the books every night at nine.”
Mildred waved a hand in dismissal but didn’t meet Maryse’s eyes. “I went to bed early last night. There was a special on Lifetime I wanted to catch.” She gave Luc a broad smile. “It was a pleasure meeting you. I’m sure Maryse will enjoy working with you.” Then before Maryse could say a word in protest, Mildred spun around faster than a large woman ought to be able to and hustled out of the café, the door banging shut behind her.
Maryse counted to five, then looked over at Luc. “I’m really sorry about that. Mildred is…well…Mildred.”
“I like her, although her subtlety could use a little work.”
Maryse sighed. “That was subtle.”
Luc laughed. “So I guess the Lifetime story doesn’t hold?”
“Not even close. Unless it’s forensics, cop shows, or a hockey game, you won’t catch Mildred anywhere near a television. She likes her entertainment a bit violent.”
Luc shook his head. “Wow. With friends like that…”
Maryse reached for the cup of coffee as the waitress slid it across the table and dumped a ton of sugar in it. “She’s more than a friend. Mildred dated my dad after my mom died. She pretty much raised me.”
“How old were you when she died?”
“Four.”
Luc gave her a sympathetic look. “That’s tough.”
Maryse shrugged and stirred her coffee. “I had Dad and Mildred, so it was okay.”
“Yeah, but it’s not the same. My dad died when I was eight. I had tons of uncles and my grandfather, and my mom was super, but there’s always that feeling that it’s incomplete.”
Maryse stopped stirring and looked at Luc. “Incomplete. That’s the perfect word.”
“Yeah, well.” Luc shrugged and picked up his knife and the butter.
Maryse watched him as he buttered his toast, his eyes not meeting hers. It wasn’t fair. No man should be this sexy and be in touch with his emotions. And no man should be able to touch her heart in the way he just had.
“So do your dad and Mildred still date?” Luc asked.
“No,” Maryse said, her voice catching in her throat. “He died of cancer a little over two years ago.”
Luc stared at her for a moment. “I’m sorry. I can’t imagine burying both parents so young.”
“I really should be going,” Maryse said, and rose from the table. “I’ve got a ton of things to catch up on this morning.”
Luc looked up at her and nodded. “I won’t be in the office till later. I’ve got to run some errands in the city.”
Maryse felt a momentary surge of disappointment but quickly squelched it. “Okay, then. Guess I’ll see you later.” She turned and walked out of the café, cursing Mildred for engineering her exposure to yet another facet of Luc LeJeune. Like she needed to find anything else about him attractive.
She shook her head as she crossed the street, mentally tabulating her list for the day. All she had to do was check on her truck, talk to the insurance company, meet Wheeler about the inheritance, get in eight hours of work for the state, avoid a ghost, locate a plant that she had absolutely no idea where to find, and figure out a way to wash Luc LeJeune from her mind.
Piece of cake.
Luc stood in the dealership garage in New Orleans, staring at the heap of mess that used to be Maryse’s truck. He knew what he was about to hear from the Service Manager—had been thinking about it pretty much since the accident, but for the life of him couldn’t make the facts add up. Someone had tried to hurt Maryse and used her truck to do it, but he didn’t know why.
He was still having trouble believing Maryse could be his informant. It just didn’t fit what he knew about her, although some of her actions were a bit suspect. But if it wasn’t the chemical company trying to shut her up, then who was? If that ridiculous will reading had been before the accident, he’d say someone was out for the inheritance. Most likely Harold or Hank.
So his next guess was it had something to do with what she was working on in that lab of hers. All he had to do was get the proper tools, find a window of opportunity to break into the lab without being discovered, steal that notebook, make copies, and find someone to decipher it before things got any worse.
Piece of cake.
“You occupy space here much longer,” a voice broke into Luc’s thoughts, “I’ll get you a set of coveralls and put you to work.”
Luc looked over at his high school buddy, Jim, the Service Manager, as he walked across the garage to stand beside him. “Damn shame,” Jim said and pointed to Maryse’s vehicle. “The truck’s got high miles, but the lady that owned it has taken care of it nice. It was in great shape before that crash.”
Luc nodded. “You checked into the scheduled maintenance?”
“Yeah, pulled it off the computer first thing. Lady had that truck in here just a week ago for regular maintenance and everything checked out fine. I talked to the tech that worked on it, personally, and he said everything was in top shape.”
“So why did a well-maintained, reasonably new vehicle lose its brakes?”
Jim pulled his hat off with one hand and rubbed his temple with the other. “You ain’t gonna like the answer.”
Luc looked at him, the inevitability of his friend’s words already weighing heavy in his mind. “Someone cut the lines.”
Jim nodded. “Yep. Almost clean through. They left enough so that the brakes would work for a couple of miles, then they would go to nothing almost immediately.”
“So they fixed it so she’d think everything was working fine and hopefully build up enough speed before noticing anything was wrong, which is exactly what happened.” He gave the truck one more look, then nodded to his friend. “Thanks, Jim. And if you don’t mind, can we keep this between us for now? And remember, I’m a zoologist. No one can know what I’m really up to.”
“Hell, I don’t know what you’re really up to, but I get what you’re saying.” Jim looked at the truck again and scratched his head. “What do you want me to tell the insurance company—or the lady?”
“Make something up that they’ll both buy.” He clapped his friend on the shoulder. “Something that doesn’t have anything to do with attempted homicide.”
Jim swallowed and looked at Luc, his expression grave. “You’re gonna protect her, right? I don’t really know her, but every time she’s been in, she’s always been so nice and friendly. This is a nasty piece of business, and I just can’t imagine something a girl like that would be mixed up in that could get her killed.”
Luc gave the truck one more look and shook his head. “She may not know herself.”