Chapter Fourteen
Morning came far too soon for Maryse, and she groaned as she pressed the buzzer on the alarm. She forced herself to a sitting position and looked at Jasper, who was curled up at the foot of the bed, giving her a hard stare. She reached over to rub his head. “I know you don’t like being cooped up here, Jasper, but I swear it’s only temporary and it’s for your own good.” She sighed and rose from the bed, hoping a shower would help her clear her mind and focus on the day ahead.
The shower refreshed her far more than she’d thought possible, and Maryse decided that staying alive for another day probably had a great effect on her mood. She dumped one of her Wal-Mart bags out on the bed and pulled a pair of gray yoga pants and a pink T-shirt out of the pile. The pink and white sports bra would do nicely, so she pulled that on first. She was just putting her first leg in the yoga pants when she saw the pink panties peeking out of the pocket of her sweats.
Damn. She’d forgotten about those undies. She bit her lower lip and stared at the tiny bit of string and lace. It’s not Sunday. She tore her gaze away from the sexy panties and stuck her other foot in the yoga pants. But they match. She looked at the undies again. You have no business dividing your attention right now. She closed her eyes, trying to block the pink lace from her mind. What if someone kills you and you’re not wearing underwear? They’ll talk about you forever.
That did it.
Before she could change her mind, she stepped out of the yoga pants and grabbed the panties. The barely-there scrap of fabric clung to her curves, revealing more than they covered. The shade of pink was perfect against both the tanned and non-tanned parts of her body, and since a lot of both was showing, that was a good thing. Maryse turned to face the mirror and was surprised at the woman that looked back at her. She was almost…well…sexy.
She lifted one hand to her hair and fluffed her bangs a little. Okay, so she needed a cut, and a few highlights wouldn’t hurt, and the combination of too much stress and not enough sleep had left bags under her eyes that her tinted sunscreen wouldn’t put a dent in, but the rest of her wasn’t all that bad. Which surprised her. How long had it been since she’d taken a real interest in her looks—months, years? She couldn’t even remember.
And now Luc LeJuene had her longing for highlights and a better brand of makeup. Like she didn’t have more important things to worry about. But even the thought of sudden death didn’t stop her from pulling out the sunscreen, teasing her bangs just a bit to get that fluff she wanted, and positioning her breasts in the sports bra for the best display possible. By God, if she was going to croak, at least she was going to look good in the coffin.
With all her vacillating over underwear and makeup and eye bags, she was twenty minutes late for the morning meeting and still racking her brains trying to come up with assignments. Her goal was to make everyone feel useful while cleverly keeping them from harm’s way without them figuring out what she was doing. A bit of a challenge to say the least.
“Good morning, everyone,” Maryse said, and tried to sound cheery as she entered Mildred’s office. She poured a cup of coffee and glanced around at the sober group. Luc still looked as frustrated as he had the night before when she’d delivered the bad news about the plant used to kill Helena. Sabine and Mildred both wore grim expressions, and she figured Luc had spent the last twenty minutes filling them in on the hospital escapades and subsequent lack of information they’d gained.
“Try and look a little more festive, people,” Maryse said. “As far as I’m concerned, every day I can stay alive is cause for celebration.”
They looked a bit guilty, and Maryse could feel some of the tension lift.
“Sorry, Maryse,” Sabine said. “You’re right. We should approach this with a positive attitude.”
Like you approached your testing? Maryse wanted so badly to ask her friend that question, but now was definitely not the time. She looked closely at Sabine but couldn’t find a single item different than it had been for years. Her skin looked fine, her hair was as thick and lustrous as ever, and although she seemed a bit less perky than usual, it was not quite seven-thirty in the morning and a good two hours before she usually awoke.
Maryse was just about to start in with her plans for the day when Helena entered the room through an exterior wall. Maryse did a double take. The gloves were gone, thank God, and so was the boxing/pink suit outfit. It was replaced, however, with blue jeans, the Nikes, and a T-shirt that read “I See Dead People.”
Maryse tried to contain herself over the T-shirt but made the mistake of looking over at Luc, who had his face buried in his coffee mug, obviously straining not to laugh. She shot Helena a frown and cleared her throat to begin the meeting. “I suppose Luc filled you in on last night’s hospital raid?”
Sabine and Mildred nodded, not saying a word, but Maryse noticed that Mildred’s lips were pursed. Oh, boy. Maryse knew that as soon as Mildred got her alone, she was in for it. And since Mildred didn’t know about Helena’s rising from the dead, it was going to be hard to convince the hotel owner that last night was a necessary risk.
Maryse held in a sigh. It seemed that at almost every turn, she was pissing people off. Except Helena, who spent all of her time pissing Maryse off. “Okay,” Maryse said finally, “so you know that we’re back at square one with trying to figure out who might be trying to kill me. I have assignments for everyone so that we can cover more ground.”
Maryse looked around the group, waiting for dissenters, but no one said a word. “Mildred, I need you to check in with your friends at the beauty parlor and find out where Harold’s living and what he’s been up to. I need to give Wheeler a way to reach him, and his cell phone’s been disconnected.”
Mildred nodded. “I think I know some people to get in touch with about that.”
“Good. Luc, I need you to contact your uncle with the state and see if he can get a line on any of the oil companies who’ve shown serious interest in the Mudbug preserve. I know a corporation is a lot of ground to cover, but if we know who’s interested, we might be able to find out who’s been talking to them about the land.”
Luc looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, “I’ll call him as soon as the office opens this morning. He should have some ideas.”
“Good. Were you able to find out anything about Harold’s military service yesterday?”
Luc glanced at Helena again and frowned. “My sources seem to think we’re on the wrong track there. Regardless of what Harold bragged about in Johnny’s, they don’t think there’s any way the man had the skills for anything beyond cleaning toilets—and that’s a direct quote.”
“Got that shit right,” Helena said. “Not that he actually ever cleaned a toilet.”
Maryse shook her head and sighed, careful not to even glance in Helena’s direction. “I’m inclined to agree with your source. So we’ll leave that one alone for now unless more information comes to surface.”
“What can I do?” Sabine asked.
Maryse glanced around at the group, not knowing at all how her next statement would go over with them. Finally, she looked back at Sabine. “I need you to make a trip to New Orleans and talk to Raissa.”
Sabine gasped and her mouth formed a small o. But the reaction was only temporary. Apparently, her memory of Helena following Maryse around kicked in and the request no longer sounded strange.
Mildred cleared her throat and gave Maryse the ole lifted eyebrows look, and Maryse knew she wasn’t buying one word of it. Given that Mildred didn’t know about Helena, Maryse figured the hotel owner thought she was assigning Sabine something trivial to get her out of town and to safety, and she wasn’t entirely wrong. But there was also the flipside. Now that Maryse had been forced into believing in the “spirit world,” she figured she’d tap all sources. Raissa had made some interesting revelations in the past—all of which turned out to be true. Maybe she could do it again.
At this point, Maryse would take any edge she could get.
“What are you going to do?” Sabine asked.
“First, I’m going to check with the police and see if they have any information on my cabin exploding, and then I’ve got a couple of things to check at the office,” Maryse replied. “Luc can drive me, so you don’t have to worry about that.” She looked over at Luc for confirmation. “That okay by you?”
Luc nodded, casting a sideways glance at Helena. “Fine by me.”
“Okay, then, it’s settled, and everyone knows the plan.”
Mildred started to speak when the bells at the hotel entrance jangled. She jumped up from her desk and hustled out front to deal with her customers. Sabine waited until Mildred had closed the office door behind her before giving Maryse a shrewd look. “Helena’s here, isn’t she?”
“Oh, yeah. Sitting right next to you on the couch, as a matter of fact. How did you know?”
Sabine looked at the space on the couch next her, then back at Maryse. “You got that look on your face.”
“What look?”
“Well, for lack of a nicer description, a look like you had really bad gas. Then Luc almost spit up his coffee, and I knew he could see her, too.” She turned to look at Luc. “You can see her, can’t you?”
“Every bit of her,” Luc agreed, “which is sometimes very unfortunate.” He gave Maryse a grin.
“I don’t have to take this grief,” Helena said.
“Yes, you do,” Maryse said, and translated the conversation for Sabine.
Sabine shook her head in dismay. “This is so unfair. Why do you two get to see her and I can’t? All those séances and midnight cemetery ceremonies trying to call my parents, and nothing. I’ve spent my entire life studying the paranormal to get the answers I need about my family, and I’m the only one in the room who can’t see a ghost.”
Luc shrugged. “It’s not really all it’s cracked up to be, Sabine. And believe me, you should be grateful you can’t see and mostly hear Helena. She’s no Casper.”
Sabine tried to continue her pout but couldn’t stop the giggle that finally erupted from her. “I guess you’re right. Helena certainly isn’t my first choice of the dead person I’d like to speak to.”
Helena crossed her arms in front of her and glared. “You people should have more important things to do than rag on me. Why don’t you get on with them?”
Maryse narrowed her eyes at Helena and smiled. “Funny you should bring up everything that needs to be done, because something I need done involves you directly. I just couldn’t say anything in front of Mildred.”
Helena gave her a wary look. “Okay, so what am I supposed to do?”
“Find Hank.”
There was one beat of silence before everyone started in on her at once.
“I don’t like it,” Luc began.
Sabine jumped at the same time. “For Christ’s sake, Maryse, what if he’s the one trying to kill you?”
“Calm down, people. I didn’t say I was going to confront Hank. I just want to know what he’s up to. It’s the only way to figure out whether he is the one trying to kill me. Do you think I just want to wait around waiting for it?”
Helena pursed her lips. “All of this is irrelevant because I have absolutely no idea where Hank is. I checked that pad of paper at my house. It was a motel room on the outskirts of town, but he’s not there anymore. I checked.”
“If we play this right,” Maryse said, “we may be able to get him to come to us.”
“How’s that?” Helena asked.
“I’d bet my boat that Harold’s still talking to Hank. As soon as Mildred finds out where Harold is staying, you can sit tight with him until he talks to Hank or leads you to where he is.”
“Absolutely not,” Helena said, and shook her head. “I am not spending my day watching over that man and whatever whore he’s taken up with. No way.”
Maryse leaned over, her face just inches from Helena’s. “You’ll do it all right.”
“Or what?”
Maryse pointed at Sabine. “Or she’ll start the proceedings for an exorcism.”
Helena looked back and forth between Maryse and Sabine, not entirely convinced Maryse was serious but afraid of the alternative. And since Helena knew as much about ghosts as Maryse, even though she was one, she had no way of knowing whether or not an exorcism would do something harmful to her.
Which is what Maryse was counting on to keep her in line.
“You’d do that?” Helena asked, looking at Sabine and Maryse made the translation.
Sabine gave the couch a solemn nod. “In a heartbeat.”
“Well,” Helena said, and huffed. “Fine lot you are, ganging up on a defenseless ghost.”
Luc snorted. “You’re about as defenseless as a rattlesnake, Helena.”
Sabine smiled and rose from her seat. “Means to an end, Helena. I’m going to get out of here. I need to put a closed sign on the shop and head to New Orleans to catch Raissa before she gets too busy.” She leaned over to give Maryse a hug, then gave Luc a stern look. “Don’t let anything happen to her.”
Luc raised one hand as if giving his oath. “I promise.”
As Sabine left the office, Helena turned to Maryse. “So what am I supposed to do until Mildred finds Harold—plot ways to kill him, write my memoirs, bikini wax…?”
Maryse grimaced. “Sit tight at the hotel and keep a watch for anyone who might attempt to blow it up. When Mildred gets the info, Luc and I will pick you up and take you wherever.” She looked over at Luc, who nodded in agreement.
“Stay at the hotel?” Helena pouted. “This has got to be one of the most boring places on Earth.”
Maryse grinned. “There’s a whole group of traveling salesmen on the second floor. I bet they’re on the pay-per-view movie log.”
“Yuck,” Helena said as she rose from the couch and disappeared through the wall.
Luc raised his eyebrows, and Maryse smiled. “Old joke.”
Luc shook his head and put one arm around her shoulder, giving a light squeeze. “Let’s go take care of things at the office.”
Maryse nodded and started toward the door, not wanting to think about how nice Luc’s arm felt draped across her shoulder. Not wanting to remember how her hair raised on her arm when he’d kissed her the night before. But that thin strip of lace beneath her yoga pants gave her away. She may be fooling Luc for now, but she wasn’t fooling herself.