Showdown in Mudbug Read Online Free PDF Page B

left business.
    He looked down at his watch.
    Kinda late for a business meeting. He watched another thirty minutes and finally saw them rise from the table. A minute later, the man slipped out the front door, scanned the street, then took off in the direction of a lone truck parked at the other corner. Zach hunched down in his seat so the man wouldn’t notice him as he drove past.
    He watched the rearview mirror until the man had turned the corner, then started his car and took off after him. The truck turned again at the end of the next block, and Zach pressed the accelerator. His quarry was entering the highway, which gave Zach the perfect chance to get his license plate without being made.
    He followed the truck onto the highway and eased beside it in the next lane. Zach gave brief thanks that the license plate was clean and easily readable and jotted the number down before continuing on the highway past him. Two exits later, he merged right and exited the highway, heading for the police station. It should be almost empty this time of night. A great time to run a plate without someone looking over his shoulder and asking questions.
    Only one cop manned the front desk when he walked into the station. Zach gave him a nod and went to his own desk. It only took a minute to open the database and plug in the truck’s license plate. Another minute and he was looking at pages of information on one Hank Henry. He scanned the pages, shaking his head. This Hank was a piece of work, and stupid.
    He seemed to have the uncanny ability to be involved with the wrong thing at the wrong time.
    But for over a year, his record was clean as a whistle. Interesting.
    He checked another database, but no prison system had a Hank Henry listed as a recent resident. So the question remained: what was a man of questionable background and character doing hiding outside Raissa’s store? And why did she invite him inside for drinks?
    Questions he couldn’t answer. Not yet. But Raissa Bordeaux definitely required more looking into.
    It was a bright and sunny morning in Mudbug when Raissa pushed open the door to the Mudbug Hotel. Little bells tinkled above, alerting anyone inside to her entrance. No one was at the front counter, but she’d barely stepped inside before she heard Mildred, the hotel owner, yell, “Raissa, we’re in the office. Come on back.”
    Raissa stepped down the hall, wondering who “we” was. For whatever absurd reason, Helena had insisted Raissa meet her at the hotel to “discuss an action plan.”
    Since Hank’s visit last night, Raissa figured she had much bigger things to deal with than forming an “action plan” with a ghost, but on second thought, she decided an invisible partner did come with some advantages. Raissa had assumed the ghost intended to meet her outside the hotel, but after several minutes of waiting, she decided to try inside, even though she had no good explanation for Mildred as to why she’d be visiting her hotel in Mudbug when Raissa should have been preparing to open her shop in New Orleans.
    Based on Mildred’s greeting, an explanation wasn’t necessary. Which meant that Helena must have talked to Sabine or Maryse, or both, and they were waiting at the hotel to come up with a plan. At the end of the hall, she stepped through an open doorway and into Mildred’s office. The hotel owner was perched in a huge office chair behind her desk, eating a muffin and playing cards. Even more disturbing was her opponent.
    Helena Henry sat across the desk from Mildred, grumbling about her hand. “I see you three doughnut holes and raise you one muffin.” Helena was dressed in a long, flowing, pink gown made of some type of gauzy material. On her head sat a wide floppy hat in the same shade of pink as the dress, with a ring of white and red roses around the top.
    Mildred looked up at Raissa and smiled. “I’m making Helena earn her breakfast.”
    Raissa stared for a couple of seconds, not sure what to