[AccessD] LDB File Left Over

An inherited app I am working on has a pesky habit of leaving the LBD (to
the back end) on the hard disk, even though I close the app gracefully. Here
and there in the app I have noticed some code, the likes of which I have
never written, that sets a global variable to point to the BE database. I
have no idea why it might be essential or even useful to do this, nor any
idea whether it is this code that might be the culprit.
What I do know is that when this happens, even though all occurrences of
Access are closed, I cannot delete the LDB file because Explorer claims that
some process is using it. If I try to open the BE, I can do so, but if I try
to compact and repair it I am informed that I do not have exclusive use. If
I reboot, the LDB is still there but now I can kill it.
Any suggestions, people?
TIA,
Arthur