Read The Helena Diaries - Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law Series Novellas) for Free Online Page B

bodyguard—and one more capable of handling bad guys than me—I decided to head to the beauty shop and see what the gossip was about the will-reading.  
    Tongues wagged some about my gifts to the orphanage and the town of Mudbug, but the big topic of discussion was my cutting Hank and Harold out of everything. It made me happy that all of the women agreed with my decision, although some of the comments about my selection of husbands and child-rearing abilities were rather insulting. Unfortunately, they weren’t untrue, so I really had no room to complain.  
    But the one thing no one ever mentioned was the possibility that I’d been murdered, and that surprised me just a little. Usually when someone with money died, everyone was a suspect, but in my case, everyone seemed quite willing to believe the coroner and go on with life. Which made me wonder whether they had that much respect for the coroner or whether they didn’t care all that much that I was gone.  
    I suspected the latter. Bitches.
    The biddies launched into a discussion of grandkids and I made my exit, not even remotely interested in teething rings and diaper coupons. I’d been gone from the hospital for a while and figured Luc would take Maryse to Mildred’s hotel. I didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to take another swipe at her with so many people milling around, but I wasn’t taking any chances.
    Maryse was right about one thing—all of this was my fault.
     
    Wherein Helena sits guard
    It took a lot of looking through walls—sometimes at things I had zero interest in seeing—before I found Maryse. She was in bed and already asleep, either from drugs or sheer exhaustion. That raggedy cat of hers shot under the bed as soon as I walked into the room, so I headed back into the hallway, not wanting to set the cat off and awaken Maryse.
    I slumped down on the floor across from her room and leaned against the wall. It was going to be a long evening and an even longer night, but I wasn’t moving from this spot. If anyone tried to come after Maryse, I would sound the alarm.
    I stared at that wall all night—all two thousand hours of it. Several times, it crossed my mind to get up and work on ghostly things, but I couldn’t summon up the energy. Instead, I sat, stared, and thought, but I was no closer to figuring out this mess by morning than I had been the night before.
    When I heard Maryse stirring that morning, I hid in the empty room next door until she headed downstairs. I hated to admit it, but I wasn’t ready to face her. For the first time in my life, I felt weighed down by guilt. The worst part was, I wasn’t trying to do any harm when I’d left Maryse the land. I’d actually thought I was doing something that both of us could appreciate.
    But it was my fault that I hadn’t read the estate agreement since I was a teen. It was my fault that I didn’t ask Wheeler to dig deeper into the “what ifs.”
    Bottom line—if anything happened to Maryse, it was on me.
    When I heard her head downstairs, I tiptoed down and peeked into Mildred’s office and saw the psychic nut, the hottie scientist, and Mildred all looking sheepish. Ha! they’d obviously been busted trying to plan Maryse’s life. My money was on my daughter-in-law making them all feel guilty before it was over.
    She was an expert at handing out the guilt.
    Since Maryse had more than enough guards and none of them were likely to leave her alone, I left the hotel. I hadn’t gotten a good look at the man who blew up Maryse’s house, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t find him. I was fairly observant—well, except for the slight faux pas that I’d apparently allowed someone entry into my house to kill me. I figured I’d head to a couple of the boat docks and see if anything rang a bell on the boats. If I saw the man walking, something might click in relation to height, size, and gait.  
    It was worth a shot, anyway. And at the moment, it was the only thing I could