Showdown in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law, #3)(77)

“Trust me, Zach. If I’m right, I’m going to blow the lid off all of this.”

Zach shook his head, knowing he was making a big mistake. A career-ending, prison-sentence sort of mistake. But if Raissa was right…if she really could wrap this up with a couple of pieces of paper, Zach was almost to the point of risking it. He’d figure out a way to get to that point before he pulled into the hospital parking lot.

The lot was sparsely populated, but then, it was eleven at night. This was it, he thought as he parked in front of the building and turned off the car. He either followed Raissa into the hospital because he had no doubt she’d go in with or without his help, or he backed out of the parking lot and kept his record clean. Sort of.

Raissa hopped out of the car, then looked back inside when he didn’t follow her. “Are you going to sit here and wait to be discovered by security?”

Zach pointed through the glass front of the hospital to the security guard, flirting with the nurse at the front desk. “Do you have a plan?” Zach asked. “Or are you just going to hijack the front-desk computer when they’re not looking?”

Raissa laughed. “I have a plan, but I need to find Helena. I’m hoping she’s still here.”

It was crazy—a plan to help an FBI fugitive hack a hospital’s computer system, with a ghost as the primary advantage. And it was a plan that he’d never, ever be able to tell to anyone else. Essentially, if he was caught, there was no way out of this. No rational justification for his actions. But it was also the last option they had, and time was running out.

He hopped out of the car and flashed his badge at the security guard, who nodded. With all the traffic in and out of Hank Henry’s room, the security guard wouldn’t suspect anything was out of order. Raissa pointed at the hallway to Hank’s room, and they headed down it. They were halfway down the hall, when Raissa stopped short. Zach looked back, wondering what was going on.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” Raissa said. “Helena’s right here. She’s leaving Hank’s room.” Raissa quickly explained to Helena that she needed to get into the medical records of several hospitals, then turned to Zach. “She knows just how to help us.”

Zach squinted, staring at the air in front of Raissa, wishing he could make out something…anything…that would prove he wasn’t crazy for believing in ghosts. “Help us do what?”

“Break into the medical-records room. Listen, if you’d rather stay out of this, I understand. It’s not exactly the sort of thing you want on your record.”

“Of course I’d rather stay out of this, but it’s too late now. Worst case, I’ll say you’re a suspect in an investigation, and I followed you into the hospital to apprehend you. I will have to arrest you, though, if we get caught.” And no one’s likely to believe it, but what the hell.

“Fine by me. C’mon. Helena says the medical-records room is this way.”

“Why medical records?” Zach asked as they walked. “Can’t you use a computer somewhere else?”

“Yes, but the IP address of every computer is unique, so when I dial into another hospital asking for medical-records information, the security system is going to see the request coming from a medical-records-department computer at this hospital. I’m hoping it’s enough to avoid setting off alarms. At least long enough for me to get what I came for.”

“Which is? You still haven’t covered that part.”

Raissa turned down another hallway and stopped in front of the door to the medical-records room. A couple of seconds later, Zach heard the door unlock from the inside and it opened. He looked inside, but couldn’t see a thing.

“Hurry up before someone sees you,” Raissa whispered, motioning him inside.

Zach hurried into the room and shut the door behind him. Raissa had already slipped behind a desk in the far corner of the room. “Sorry,” Zach said, “but that ghost shit still gets to me.”

“As soon as I solve the mystery of Melissa Franco, I’m going to help Helena leave.”

Raissa motioned for the folders, and Zach handed over the stack. “Help her leave?”

“Yeah, didn’t I tell you? Helena was murdered. We’re pretty sure that’s why she’s still hanging around. So the general consensus is that if we can figure out who murdered her and why, she’ll be able to cross over.”

Zach shook his head, trying to absorb all of that into anything that resembled rationalality.

Raissa picked up the first file and handed it to Zach. “You read. I’ll type. That will be faster. Give me the town the first girl lives in.”

“Orlando, Florida.” Zach pulled a chair next to Raissa and watched the screen flicker as she worked her magic. Finally, the screen stopped whirling and Zach looked at the header at the top left. “I hope I don’t regret this.”

Raissa laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ve been doing this for years for my fortune-telling clients. Why do you think I’m so accurate?”

Zach placed his hands over his ears and hummed. “I am not hearing this.”

Raissa swatted at him. “Give me the first girl’s name with exact spelling. Middle name, too.”

Zach read from the file and Raissa typed the girl’s information into the hospital medical-records database. “All the girls came from families with moderate incomes and lived in outlying areas of small towns, sorta like Mudbug. I’m hoping they used a local doctor who worked out of the hospital.”