Showdown in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #3)(53)

“Does the father know?”

Zach shook his head. “I don’t think so, and the mother’s definitely hiding something. She looked scared to death when I mentioned the mayor’s connection to the other kidnappings.”

“Please don’t tell me this kid’s going to die.”

“Dr. Spencer doesn’t think so, but the longer she goes without her medication…”

“Shit. Can you find this Bordeaux woman?”

Zach shrugged. “I don’t know. Are you telling me to go against FBI orders and look for her?”

The captain stared out the window for a while, then looked back at Zach. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m telling you to do.”

Zach rose from his chair, holding in a smile. He’d just been officially given permission to be in Raissa’s company, and God help him, that was something he wanted badly. Plus, he tried to tell himself, it would make things much easier going forward…for the investigation.

“And Blanchard,” the captain said as Zach stepped out of the office, “keep this between the two of us.”

Zach nodded. It went without saying.





Maryse rang up a candle purchase in Sabine’s store and handed the woman her change and a bag with the candle. “Thank you, and please come again. Sabine will be back this weekend. I’m sure she’d be happy to schedule a reading for you.”

The woman smiled. “Thank you. I look forward to meeting her.”

Maryse watched until the woman left the shop and crossed the street before hurrying from the counter to the break room. Raissa was perched on a chair at the break-room table with a laptop in front of her. Maryse pulled a chair next to her and took a seat. “Did you get in yet?”

Raissa nodded. “Piece of cake.”

Maryse looked at the screen that prominently displayed the hospital’s medical rec ords and felt her pulse quicken. “You’re sure no one will track it back to you?”

“Someone would have to know I’ve broken in to even begin a trace. Mudbug General has simply horrible security. A high-school student could hack their system and never leave a trace.”

“That’s great to know, considering all my medical records are stored there.”

“Don’t sweat it. No one bothers with hospitals unless they’re looking for something to blackmail people over. And since most people go to clinics and pay cash for the blackmailable sorts of health issues, hospitals aren’t exactly hopping with hackers.”

“Okay,” Maryse said, not completely convinced. “So did you find anything?”

“There were five babies born during the time Helena was in the hospital having Hank. Three were girls, so that leaves only baby Frederick Agostino.”

“What a mouthful.”

“Tell me. Take a look at that birth weight.” Raissa pointed to a line on a birth record. “Surely if Hank had been an eleven-pound baby, Helena would have mentioned that.”

“Are you kidding me? If Helena had given birth to an eleven-pound baby, we’d have heard about it every day of her life, and she’d still be complaining after death. No one does persecution drama like Helena.”

Raissa closed the program with the hospital records and accessed a Web browser. She typed in a search for Frederick Agostino, and Maryse was surprised when a number of hits were returned. Raissa laughed and Maryse leaned in to read some of the results.

“A family-owned Italian restaurant. That explains the birth weight. Mama Agostino probably ate them out of restaurant and home while she was pregnant.”

Raissa clicked on one of the links and a news article about the restaurant appeared, complete with a picture of the Agostino family. It was obviously taken with a wide-angle lens.

“Well, that blows another theory,” Maryse said with a sigh. “Frederick is the spitting image of his mother.”

Raissa shook her head. “That is truly frightening, but you’re right. There’s no way Frederick isn’t Mrs. Agostino’s son.”

“Which means we still don’t know what happened to Helena’s baby,” Maryse said.

“Or where Hank came from.”

“Maybe when those aliens take one person, they leave another.”

Raissa shrugged. “It’s as good a theory as any other. You think Helena will buy that her son’s from another planet?”

Maryse sighed. “I would.”





Hank walked Lila to her car, anxious over what he was about to do. It was a risk. A huge risk, and Hank Henry was not the risk-taking kind of guy, not anymore. But Lila was standing there in her yellow sundress, her long brown hair falling in gentle waves across her shoulder, and Hank was mesmerized.

He opened her car door for her and stood there with his hand still on top of the door. She placed her notebook inside and turned to smile at him. It was a smile that turned his insides into jelly and other places on him into something far less squishy. In all his years on earth, Hank had never met a woman who left him so unbalanced.

“Thanks,” she said. “That first set of cabinets looks fabulous. I can’t believe you got them built so quickly.”

Hank blushed. “I might have worked a little overtime. I wanted to have something for you to look at when you came today.”