Mischief in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #2)(78)

Adelaide nodded and looked at the floor, her face full of shame.

Sabine waited a couple of seconds for a response, but when none was forthcoming, she pressed again. “You as much as admitted to me earlier that Catherine had killed William’s parents. There’s no way they were buried in the backyard, so this is someone else. Who, Adelaide? Who else did Catherine kill?”

“Lloyd,” Beau said. “It has to be. He came home, and the family couldn’t risk hiding him so they took the easy way out.”

Adelaide lifted her eyes to Beau’s. “It weren’t that simple. Catherine killing the elder Fortescues was all part of her plan.”

“Her plan to what?” Beau asked.

Sabine stared at Adelaide, and suddenly it hit her. “Her plan to marry Lloyd and still inherit everything.”





[page]Chapter Eighteen




“Lloyd?” Beau repeated. “Oh my God, you’re right. Everyone thought he’d changed because of the war, but it wasn’t the war at all. He’d changed because he was an entirely different man.” Beau looked at Adelaide. “It’s William that’s buried in the backyard. You knew all these years and never said anything?”

Adelaide wrung her hands together, tears streaming down her face. “I swear I didn’t know what they’d done until years later. It was Catherine who got Lloyd back from Vietnam and hid him at her family’s lake house until they’d finished setting it all up. I mean, I knew Lloyd was pretending to be William. I’d practically raised those boys. They could never have fooled me, but Lloyd told me William was killed in Vietnam and that he’d taken his dog tags so that the military police wouldn’t arrest him.

“I didn’t know they’d killed William until Frances dug up the bones in the garden. My poor Frances. Her mind was already gone when Adam found her that night. She’d uncovered the bones and started screaming. That’s how he was able to get you away. Oh, my sweet, sweet Adam. He tried to do right.”

Sabine’s head began to spin. “What are you trying to say—that Frances was going to bury me alive in the backyard? Frances is my real mother?”

Adelaide nodded. “Please don’t blame her, Ms. Sabine. It weren’t her fault. My Frances was crazy from the disease.”

“What disease?”

Adelaide blanched. “Lloyd brought it back from the war and gave it to Catherine. She never knew until Frances’s mind started going. When Frances got meningitis, the doctors found it. She’d had it since she was born—passed from Catherine.”

“Syphilis,” Beau said, the disgust in his voice apparent. “Adam had scarlet fever when he was an infant. That’s what his medical records said, remember? They would have given him penicillin. Catherine had the scarlet fever too, so neither of them carried the syphilis any further.”

Sabine covered her mouth with her hand. “Oh, my God. But Frances didn’t get the scarlet fever, so she never got the drug. That disease ate away at her for all those years. And my father? Who is my father, Adelaide?”

Adelaide shook her head and rubbed the unconscious Frances’s arm. “I don’t know, I swear. Someone hurt her. I found her in the bath scrubbing herself with steel wool. She’d already started to bleed in some places. I’m so sorry, Sabine. I would have told, I swear, but someone had to take care of Frances.”

“Adam knew, didn’t he?” Beau said. “He saw the bones and knew his mother and father had killed someone. That’s why he took Sabine and ran.”

“Yes, and since he worked with the doctor, I’m guessing he peeked at Frances’s medical reports and knew she was losing her mind and why.” Adelaide said. “I begged Catherine to let him go, let them be, but she couldn’t risk it. She tracked Adam and his girlfriend down and messed with their car. She never thought you’d find the family, Sabine, or she would have hunted you down, too.”

“Is that why she’s trying to kill me now? So that I won’t find out the truth?”

Adelaide started to answer but then froze. A horrified look came over her face. Sabine knew even before she turned around that Catherine was standing in the doorway. What she hadn’t planned on was the pistol that Catherine held, pointed straight at her.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Catherine said, “I had no reason to harm you. You thought Adam was your father and had no reason to think otherwise. I would have settled a nice trust fund on you and you would never have been the wiser. Killing you would only have served to draw attention to the family, and that’s the last thing I wanted.” She stepped into the room, and Lloyd stepped in behind her. “It’s a shame you couldn’t hold your tongue, Adelaide. I knew it was a mistake to keep you all these years, but you were the only one who could care for Frances. She’s been a trial since birth.”

“She’s lying,” Beau said. “I found the peanut oil and syringe in Lloyd’s pocket. They did try to kill you.”

Catherine spun around and looked at Lloyd, who shook his head. “No way. Catherine’s right. Sabine wasn’t a threat to us until now, and if I’d tried to kill her, she wouldn’t be standing here.”

“Well,” Catherine said with a smile. “It won’t be for much longer.” She motioned Sabine and Beau toward the other side of the bed. “I really don’t want to get blood on this suit. I’m trying to avoid complications in my story for the police.”