Mischief in Mudbug (19 page)

Even if it meant lying about her being family until they could kill her.

As he turned the corner for the hallway to his room, he caught a glimpse of something white moving at the far end of the hall. He turned his lantern down as low as it would go and crept to the end of the hallway, then peered around the corner. He could see a lantern across the room, but the light cast from it was too dim to make out the person carrying it. Suddenly, a flash of lightning lit the sky and filtered through the far wall of what must have been a sunroom since the wall was all glass. In the burst of light, he saw Frances opening a door to the gardens. She was wearing a long white dressing gown and carrying a shovel. Without so much as a backward glance, she walked out into the storm.

Sabine followed Adelaide into a room several doors down from Beau. He probably wasn’t going to like the distance between them, but there was really little she could do. “It looks fine, Adelaide. Thank you.”

“Would you like for me to get you some hot chocolate, Ms. Sabine? I figured we could all do with a little warm milk and chocolate.”

“That sounds wonderful.”

The housekeeper nodded and started to leave the room.

It’s now or never.
“Adelaide, wait!” Sabine grabbed
the woman’s arm and closed her eyes. “The spirits are talking. They said your name.”

Sabine felt the woman stiffen and opened her eyes to see if she was up for the game. Adelaide stared back at her, eyes wide as saucers. “The spirits said my name?” Adelaide asked. “Why would they do that? I’m nobody.”

Sabine shook her head. “You believe, Adelaide. The spirits are highly selective about who they speak to. It’s an honor.” Sabine waved one hand in the air, signaling Helena to get to work.

A dim glow began to form next to the bed and Adelaide grabbed Sabine’s hand in hers and squeezed so hard Sabine was certain she’d broken something. “Look at that,” Adelaide whispered. “You didn’t say they’d show themselves, too.”

Sabine shook her head. “They rarely materialize. I think it takes a lot of energy. This must be very important.”

Adelaide nodded but never took her eyes off the expanding light. In the center of the light, two people began to come into shape, and Sabine had to hold herself back from giving Helena a high five. The ghost had chosen William’s mother and father to create. Who better to get Adelaide to part with her secrets than the people she’d served the longest?

“Oh, my Lord,” Adelaide said as the figures sharpened.

Sabine leaned toward Adelaide and whispered. “I think they want to ask you something.”

“Anything,” Adelaide said, “they can ask me anything. Aren’t they beautiful? Just like in the picture over the fireplace.”

“No shit,” Helena grumbled and Sabine cut her eyes at the ghost. Helena huffed once and turned her concentration back to the apparition she was creating.

“I can hear her,” Sabine said. “She’s saying your name, Adelaide.” Sabine closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then looked at Adelaide. “She wants to know why.”

“Why, what?” Adelaide asked.

Sabine shook her head. “I don’t know. She’s just saying ‘why, Adelaide, why?’ ”

Adelaide dropped Sabine’s hand and put her hand over her mouth. “Oh no! I’m so sorry, madam. I’m so sorry, but I swear I didn’t know. Not until a long time had passed.”

The possible scenarios raced through Sabine’s mind, but she couldn’t hit on one. She made the split-second decision to go vague again. “She wants to know why you didn’t tell anyone when you found out.”

“I wanted to,” Adelaide cried. “Oh, I wanted to so bad, but Catherine told me that no one would believe me, and if I said anything, she’d just say I did it. That I hated you and wanted you gone. But I swear I had nothing to do with the car wreck.” Adelaide let out an anguished cry. “Catherine said no one would take the word of a pagan housekeeper over the lady of the estate. And there was the babies. What would have happened to Frances and Adam? And my brother in that nursing home in New Orleans? Catherine was paying for it all. What would have happened to him? Oh, madam, please forgive me, I beg you.”

Sabine’s mind whirled with every statement Adelaide made. Surely she’d gotten it wrong. Adelaide couldn’t possibly be saying that Catherine had killed
William’s parents. What was the point? William was going to inherit everything. She would never have wanted for anything. Sabine searched her mind for the next question to ask, but before she could formulate the words, the door to her room flew open and Beau hurried inside.

“Shit!” Helena griped as she lost concentration and the apparition vanished.

“No!” Adelaide cried. “Don’t go, madam. I’m sorry. I’ll make it right. I swear to you.”

Beau barely glanced at the housekeeper. “Thank God you’re all right,” he said to Sabine. “When I was coming back from the car, I saw Frances leave the house. She was carrying a shovel.”

“Oh, no,” Adelaide said, her face filled with fear. “I have to stop her. Her mind is so fragile. I can’t let her do it again.” Adelaide rushed out of the room, and they could hear her footsteps pounding down the hall. Sabine glanced at Beau and they ran out of the room in pursuit of the housekeeper.

“This way,” Beau yelled at Sabine when they reached the end of the hall. “This is where Frances went outside.”

The door to the sunroom stood wide open, rain pouring inside. Adelaide was nowhere in sight. Beau held the lantern out in front of them and they ran out the door and into the storm. “Which way?” Sabine yelled, straining to make herself heard over the wind.

“I don’t know,” Beau said, turning from one direction to another. “There!” He pointed to a spot in the far end of the garden. Sabine could barely make out something white before Beau grabbed her hand and pulled her with him.

The rain felt like needles on her skin and almost blinded her. Beau slowed and Sabine knew he was having as much trouble maneuvering in the storm as she was. She pulled her hand from Beau’s and held it over her eyes, hoping to get a better look ahead. Beau glanced back, then did the same, and they crept across the backyard until they were close enough to see what was happening.

Frances was digging like a madwoman around some old blackberry bushes, and Adelaide was frantically trying to get her to stop. So far, it looked like she’d gone at least two feet deep. No matter how hard Adelaide tugged, Frances kept lifting more mud from the hole she’d created. Frances’s eyes were fixed on the ground, never blinking, never wavering, despite the torrent of rain hitting her face. She didn’t seem to hear Adelaide or feel the housekeeper’s hands on her arm.

Beau handed Sabine the lantern and went to assist Adelaide. He tried to take the shovel from Frances, and Sabine saw the shift in her face. Her eyes went black as night and anger coursed through her. She screamed and tried to attack Beau with the shovel, but his hold on it was strong and she couldn’t break his grasp. She let go of the shovel and launched at his face with her hands.

Before Sabine could even take a step to help, Beau had grabbed one of Frances’s arms and twisted it behind her, then wrapped his arms around her entire body. He lifted her completely off the ground and turned toward the house. Sabine took a step toward them and stepped into the completely forgotten hole. She cried out as her ankle twisted on impact and Beau stopped short and turned around to look at her.

“I’m fine,” Sabine said as she moved her foot around, making sure she hadn’t broken anything. And then she hit something solid. She leaned over with the lantern and put her hand down in the water-filled hole, trying to locate what her foot had hit. Finally, she felt something long and hard and worked her fingers around it.

“Sabine, c’mon,” Beau yelled over the storm.

Sabine pulled her bounty from the water, and Frances screamed. Then Sabine took a good look at what she held: a human bone.

Sabine flung it to the ground and jumped out of the hole. Frances thrashed about, screaming like a banshee, and Beau struggled to maintain his grasp. Adelaide instantly dropped to her knees, praying to God Almighty to forgive her.

“Go!” Sabine yelled to Beau, and he started toward the house, struggling to maintain control of Frances. Sabine pulled Adelaide to her feet. “Pray later. You’ve got to help with Frances.” Adelaide nodded and hurried toward the house. Sabine grit her teeth and bent over to pick up the bone. The smooth, hard surface shouldn’t have caused so much emotion, but it was knowing what that surface was that made Sabine almost wretch.

She ran to the house and into the sunroom after Adelaide, then followed the housekeeper down the hall and into Frances’s room, where Beau was trying to keep the woman restrained on her bed. She was soaking wet, and the white gown clung to her scrawny body. Her hair stuck to her face, the silver almost translucent in the lantern light. She turned toward Sabine and Adelaide as they entered the room, but she looked right through them, her eyes wild with fright.

Sabine hid the bone behind her back, certain that Frances would launch off again if she saw it. Adelaide rushed over to the bed and rubbed Frances’s head as if petting a dog. “Now, now, child,” Adelaide said, “you’re going to be fine. It was just a scare is all. You don’t like storms, remember? It’s just the storm.”

Frances seemed to calm a bit at Adelaide’s words and slumped back on the bed. Adelaide picked up a cup of water that was sitting on the nightstand and lifted it to Frances’s mouth. “You just need to drink a little water and relax, okay, child? You’ll feel a lot better once you’ve had your water.”

Beau released his hold on Frances and stepped back from the bed. They watched as Frances took one sip and then another, then quietly drifted off in what appeared to be a restful sleep. “Drugs?” Beau asked.

Adelaide nodded. “She’d had some of the water before she went outside, which is why it kicked in so fast now. But she was so worked up earlier that her body was still moving even though her mind was shutting down. Poor thing. She’s always been afraid of storms.”

Sabine held the bone out to Adelaide. “Maybe this has something to do with it.”

Adelaide nodded. “I thought she’d forgotten, but many years ago it rained so hard and for so long that one of the bones washed up from the ground. Frances ran out in the storm in a fit and saw it. I dragged her away, but it was too late. Ever since then, she’s always been afraid when it rains. That’s why I drugged her as soon as I heard the storm moving in.”

“Who is…was this?” Sabine asked. “And why are they buried in the backyard? Don’t lie to me, Adelaide. I know this is human.”

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.”

“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.”

Sabine inched over to Beau. His jaw was clenched, and Sabine knew he was calculating every risk, every percentage of success if he reached for his pistol. But as long as Catherine was pointing her gun straight at Sabine, she knew he wouldn’t take the chance. And that was most likely going to get them killed.

“I think,” Catherine said, “I’ll take this golden opportunity to clear up all my problems. I mean, I’m going to claim that Frances went crazy and killed everyone. When she wakes up she won’t know whether she did or not.” With that, Catherine whirled toward the doorway and shot Lloyd twice in the chest.

Sabine covered her mouth as she screamed. It was as if time hung suspended. The shock registered on Lloyd’s face as he looked down at the red stain growing on his white dress shirt. He touched it and held up his hands, staring unbelieving at the blood dripping from his fingertips. He looked at Catherine, bewildered. He took one step toward her and stumbled, then crashed to the floor in a heap.

“Finally,” Catherine said, “I can live the life I wanted without hiding in this musty old estate. Lloyd never could manage to act like William in public, so I had no choice but to become a virtual recluse. It’s been like living in a prison. Worthless husband, crazy daughter, meddling housekeeper. But that’s all about to change.”

In the doorway, something moved, and Sabine squinted in the dim light, trying to make out what was in the hallway. A second later, Helena walked into the room and right through Catherine to stand between the murdering matriarch and her next victims.

“What a fucking mess,” she said. “I can probably knock that gun out of her hand. If you want me to do it, blink twice.”

It was a long shot, depending on Helena to get her ghost skills right on demand, but it still wasn’t as long as the possibility of Catherine shooting and missing them from a distance of ten feet. Sabine said a silent prayer for all of them and blinked twice. Helena nodded and her brow wrinkled in concentration as she turned to face Catherine. At the same time, Catherine lifted the gun and pointed it directly at Beau’s chest.

“I think I’ll start with lover boy here. Might as well clear the room of men. And after all, if not for him, we wouldn’t be in this position to begin with, would we?” She smiled at Sabine and her finger whitened on the trigger.

And that’s when Helena struck. She jumped across the room, faster than Sabine would have ever given her credit for, and hit Catherine’s arm with a semblance of a karate chop. The chop probably wouldn’t have been hard enough to make Catherine drop the gun under normal circumstances, but being assaulted by an invisible assailant was apparently enough of a shock for her to loosen her grip. Catherine cried out as the gun fell from her hand and skidded a couple of feet across the floor.

“It’s the spirits!” Adelaide screamed and threw her arms around Frances.

Catherine instantly recovered and dove for the weapon, but Helena drove her into the hardwood floor in a body slam the WWF would have been proud of. Catherine hit the ground with a thud and started to move when Beau said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Helena rose from the floor with Catherine’s pistol, a huge grin on her face. “How was that for a save? You owe me big, Sabine.”

Catherine’s eyes widened at what looked to her like a floating gun. Adelaide started to pray again, and Sabine had little doubt that the Catholic church was getting a new member come Sunday.

“Now, Helena,” Sabine said, looking uneasily at the gun. “Be careful with that. The safety’s not on. It could go off.”

Helena turned to face Sabine. “What, do you think I’m stupid? I know how a gun works, see?”

Before Sabine could stop her, Helena reached up with her other hand and tried to engage the safety. She must have pushed too hard because she lost her grip on the gun and it spun around on her finger that was placed in the trigger hole. “Shit!” Helena said and tried to catch the gun, but instead, she pulled the trigger.

Luckily for all the good guys, the gun was turned backwards and facing straight at Helena’s chest when it went off. The bullet passed right through the perturbed ghost and hit Catherine in the thigh. The murdering bitch went down with a cry and wailed as if she were dying.

Sabine took a step forward and grabbed the gun out of Helena’s hand. “Give me that before you kill someone.” She shot a look back at Beau, who was shaking his head.

Beau motioned to Catherine. “Move over by the bed. Sit next to the post.”

“I’m fucking shot, you asshole,” Catherine shot back.

“Then crawl, bitch,” Beau shot back, “unless you’d like me to give the gun back to the ghost and have her put a bullet in your other leg.”

Catherine shot daggers at Beau and pulled herself
across the floor to the bed. “You’ll never prove any of this. Bunch of devil-worshippers, bringing demons into my house. I’ll press charges against you, and the local police will never believe a word you say.”

“Oh, that’s rich,” Helena complained. “The bitch killed half the local population but
I’m
a demon.” She looked over at Sabine. “Can I poke her in the leg, please? Or maybe pour alcohol in the wound?”

“No, Helena, as much as I would like you to, I can’t allow you to pour alcohol into Catherine’s bullet hole.” She looked down at Catherine and smiled. “I wouldn’t keep calling her a demon if I were you.”

“You’re all crazy,” Catherine said.

“No, they’re not,” Adelaide said, breaking off prayer long enough to put in her ten cents. “And the police
will
believe them, because I’m going to tell everything. Like I should have done all those years ago.”

Beau motioned to Sabine. “I brought a backpack in from my truck and dropped it somewhere in the hall when I saw Frances with her shovel. There’s a set of handcuffs in the front pocket.”

It only took Sabine a minute to retrieve the pack and less than that for Beau to secure Catherine to the bedpost. Sabine looked down at her, still amazed and appalled all at the same time at all the evil stemming from one central source. All those people murdered, and for what—money…a title…a house? Sabine would never understand.

But Catherine had denied any attempt on Sabine’s life.

“The least you can do,” Sabine said to the murderess, “is tell me why you were trying to kill me. It’s all coming out anyway. I deserve to know.”

Catherine gave her a dirty look. “I already told you I couldn’t be bothered.”

“Then what about the peanut oil and syringe that were in Lloyd’s jacket pocket?” Beau said.

Catherine frowned. “The jacket in the hall closet?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll be damned,” Catherine said, a thin smile on her face. “Lloyd’s jacket is in our bedroom. The jacket in the hall must belong to Mr. Alford.”

Sabine stared at Beau in horror.

“Damn it!” Beau cursed and ran from the room, his gun in the ready position. Sabine rushed out behind him.

At the end of the hall, Beau pushed open the bedroom door and stuck the lantern inside. An open briefcase sat on the bed and Sabine could see a glow coming from underneath the bathroom door. Beau eased the bathroom door open and peered inside as Sabine lifted a folder from the briefcase.

“No one’s there,” Beau said.

Sabine opened the folder and looked at the black-and-white photo on top. It wasn’t recent, if the woman’s hairstyle and clothes were any indication, but there was something about her face…She flipped the photo over and read the penciled words at the top corner.
Mom
,
1955.
She flipped the photo back over and took a second look. Still nothing. She handed the photo to Beau for his inspection and looked at the next document. It was a death certificate for a Sandra Franks, identifying the cause of death as drowning. Sabine frowned.

Sandra Franks was one of the names she’d found when searching for the women from her aunt’s jour
nals. But what in the world was Alford doing with her death certificate?
Mom
,
1955.

Sabine stretched her mind to recall the conversation they’d had at Alford’s office. He’d mentioned losing his parents at a young age. She flipped to the next sheet and found a copy of a journal page. Her pulse began to quicken:

I’m afraid for me and my children. I haven’t heard from William in over four months, and even with him in Vietnam
,
that’s a long time. He promised to put a stop to this charade his family is putting on about his engagement to Catherine. He swears I am the only one he will ever love
,
and I believe him. He’s told Catherine he will never marry her
,
but I think she has her mind set on being a Fortescue. I’m afraid for my babies. If his family finds out
,
I’m not sure what they will do. Even worse
,
I’m not sure what Catherine will do.

She claims to love William and want a life with him
,
but I see the way she looks at Lloyd in church and I know the way the wind blows. There have been noises outside of my house three nights in a row
,
and now the dog is missing. I’m afraid someone has found out William is the father of my children
,
and that has put us all in danger.

I pray daily that I will hear from my love
,
but there is a stone deep in my stomach that tells me it is already too late
,
and I will never see my William again.

Sabine’s heart pounded in her throat as she turned to the next page. A birth certificate.

Twins. A boy, Martin Samuel born at 10:10 a.m. and a girl, Mildred Grace born ten minutes before.

Sabine sucked in a breath as her whole world came crashing down around her. She yanked the photo from Beau, not wanting to see what she already knew was there, not wanting to believe that this was far from over. But it was right there staring her in the face. The curve of the smile, the wide-set eyes and upturned nose. Sandra Franks was Mildred’s mother. The woman who had raised Sabine was adopted, and Mildred had never said a word.