Mischief in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #2)(67)

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing. Alford called. I’m officially a Fortescue.”

Beau ran one hand through his hair. “Well, that’s a good thing, right? I mean, considering everything else. Jesus, I never thought I’d be glad for you to be related to those nuts.”

Sabine smiled. “Perspective is a real bitch sometimes.”

“Definitely.” Beau looked over at the window and frowned. “I can’t believe we slept that late.”

“I’d like to believe I wore you out,” Sabine said and grinned, “but I’m guessing the murder games were probably a bigger exhaustion factor.”

“Well,” he said and looked her up and down, “since we’re already starting late, what’s another half hour?”

Sabine’s body immediately responded to his suggestion. Her nipples hardened and she felt an ache in her core. The same ache that Beau had quenched the night before. She hesitated for a moment, knowing this was a really, really bad idea, but then the memory of incredible pleasure overrode all common sense and she took one step toward him.

And that’s when someone banged on the motel room door.

“Sabine, Beau!” Raissa’s voice sounded outside the door. “Are you there?”

Sabine froze for an instant, then went into overdrive, tossing Beau his clothes and tugging on her own. The oddity of calm-and-collected Raissa banging on her hotel door at a time when she’d normally be opening her shop had sent Sabine into a bit of a panic. Fortunately, Beau sensed her urgency and was dressed, of sorts, before Sabine yanked open the door. Raissa burst into the room, holding a folder and looked relieved when she saw Beau there as well. “I’ve been trying to reach you since last night,” Raissa said. “Don’t you people answer your cell phones?”

Sabine felt the heat rise up her neck and shot Beau a sideways look. He didn’t look any more comfortable. At least neither of them planned on volunteering exactly why they had ignored their phones. “I overslept and was just checking messages,” Sabine said. “I’m sorry we worried you. Did you drive all the way over here for that?”

Raissa shook her head. “I’ve got some information for you, but I’m not sure what to make of it.” She opened the folder and stepped between Beau and Sabine so that they could both see the stack of papers inside. “That whole issue with the missing medical records concerned me, so I called in a favor. A lot of hospitals have started making digital backups of all their files, so I did some poking around to find out if Mudbug General had joined the wave of the future.”

Sabine stared down at the first sheet of paper. “Holy crap, Raissa. This is my dad’s file.”

Beau raised his eyebrows and looked at Raissa. “People owe you favors that include hacking a hospital’s database? I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what you did for them?”

Raissa looked a bit flustered but waved one hand in dismissal. “I don’t suppose I am. I expect you to use the information and pretend you have no idea how you got it. And don’t, for any reason, let anyone see it. My friend broke at least a hundred different laws to get this.”

Beau smiled. “Given the type of friends you have, Raissa, I’m not really interested in becoming one of your enemies. So I assume there’s something interesting in here and not just your usual run of the flu and athlete’s foot?”

“Anyone insane?” Sabine asked.

“Well,” Raissa said. “There’s nothing on Frances until she was seventeen and she was hospitalized for meningitis, but after that the rest of her file reads like something out of a Stephen King novel. That woman has some serious issues.”

“What’s wrong with her?” Sabine asked.

“Paranoid schizophrenic, according to this. Apparently they keep her fairly well-medicated so there’s minimal outbursts, but it says in her file that the last time they hospitalized her, she swore someone was coming out of the ground to get her. It’s no small wonder she’s been kept in the house and drugged to a stupor.”

“God, that’s awful,” Sabine said.

“Another interesting thing,” Raissa continued, “is that all the Fortescues are allergic to peanuts. It’s in all their records, except Catherine, but she’s a Fortescue by marriage.”

“So any of them could have guessed I had the same allergy, given that it was that prevalent in the family.”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Raissa said, “but that leads me to the really interesting part.”

Sabine stared at her. “There’s more?”

“Oh, yeah, and it’s a doozy.” Raissa flipped through a couple of sheets and pulled one from the middle of the stack. “This is part of your father’s file, except, well, take a look at the test.”

Sabine and Beau leaned over to read the line Raissa was pointing to. Sabine gasped. “He was impotent.” She read the next line out loud. “ ‘Impotency most likely as a result of scarlet fever as an infant.’ But it’s not possible.”

Raissa stared at the paper, then looked at Sabine. “Maybe it’s a huge coincidence that you favor them. Maybe you’re a distant cousin—”

“No,” Sabine interrupted. “Alford left a message this morning. The results of the DNA test were positive.”