“How’s Gary?” Alexa asked as she placed her purse in one chair and sat down in the one beside it.
“He’s going to pull through,” Casey replied. “They won’t know how much brain damage he has until he regains consciousness. Bad concussion, but thankfully not bad enough to be fatal. He was horribly dehydrated. They’re very hopeful, though. He’s being moved this afternoon by air ambulance to the Mayo Clinic because of the hurricane. They think he’ll be stable enough in a few hours. We can’t risk him being in a hospital here without power or water, and the best doctors are there.”
“Casey, I need to tell you some things about all of this before you get blindsided. I’m not sure it’s my place, but I thought it might be better coming from me than-”
“The reporters,” Casey interrupted. “I’ve been getting calls, but I’m not taking any from numbers I don’t recognize.”
“Good idea.”
“I can’t get Grace on the phone to tell her we have Gary back. Have you spoken with her? Maybe she left with her parents, but she should have called.”
Alexa looked at the cook, then back at Casey. “This is something I think you alone should hear.”
Casey scooted back her chair. “Mary, could you finish feeding Deana? Coffee, Alexa?”
“No. Thank you.”
Casey led Alexa to the den.
“Grace is dead,” Alexa said bluntly.
“Oh, no! It can’t be true! How? When?”
“Yesterday afternoon. She was in her bathtub.”
“She fell?”
“No, she didn’t fall. Coroner says suicide. There were no signs of foul play. She had bathwater in her lungs.”
Casey stared at Alexa. “Not an accident?” she said in disbelief.
Alexa shook her head. “It looks like suicide.”
“So, she was involved in Gary’s kidnapping?”
“Yes, it appears she was.”
“Was there a suicide note?”
“We didn’t find one.”
“Poor, poor Gracie!”
“Maybe she did it because, even though they might have gotten away with the ransom, she must have been sure we’d figure out her part in it. Or maybe she regretted her involvement. Couldn’t live with the betrayal,” Alexa said. “I believe her accomplice, the man you wounded, was connected to Dorothy Fugate, maybe even related to her. He killed Dorothy and then stole her diary to blackmail your uncle. It appears he and Grace took Sibby to a motel and tied her up. I have positive IDs on Grace and her accomplice.”
“Why?”
“The diary Fugate kept might hold some answers. I don’t know yet.”
“So she kept a diary? Who gives a damn if Unko sleeps with a nurse? Was it because of Sibby and the hospital?”
“Yes, that was detailed in the diary pages. But I’m afraid there’s more that is far worse than that. Casey, your uncle treated a young psychiatric patient. He got her pregnant.”
Casey gnawed her lip, then shook her head. “He had an affair with a patient? And Fugate knew it?”
“She did. The baby was born in Fugate’s house, and taken away from the girl. It was adopted. Your uncle had a judge friend handle the placement. Nobody knew the patient was pregnant. She had gone missing and her family was sure she was wandering the city, which she’d done before.”
Casey shook her head dazedly. “Unko has an illegitimate child somewhere? He’d be a blood heir. That would explain why Unko wanted the diary so badly. The money is far more important to him than Gary ever was.”
“Sibhon Danielson was the patient.”
Casey’s eyes were blank with disbelief. “I have an illegitimate cousin whose mother is an insane murderer? The woman who murdered my parents has a child who’s related to me?” Her frown grew deeper. “You can’t mean little Bill. He died. He wasn’t Sarah’s son?”
“It wasn’t a boy. Your uncle gave her to a couple who desperately wanted a child but couldn’t have one of their own. Someone in the family.”
“In our family? Like a distant cousin? Who?”
“Your parents.”
“But I’m the only daughter my parents…” Casey faltered, and the color drained from her face.
Alexa nodded.
Casey stood, stumbled, and collapsed.
76
“Sit here. I’ll get you some water,” Alexa said.
“It’s impossible,” Casey insisted. “I don’t believe it. Fugate lied in her diary.”
“I’m absolutely sure she didn’t,” Alexa told her.
“How can you be one hundred percent sure it’s true?”
“I’m sure DNA will confirm it. According to Fugate’s diary, your uncle spent a great deal of money to buy silence. Decell was first on the crime scene, and he freed you from Sibby. Fugate’s diary says that Decell knew about Sibby being your mother, but not how he found out. Sibby could have told Decell that night or maybe he saw Dr. LePointe there. That secret explains his connection to your uncle, more than the fact that she attacked him when he interceded.”
“Me? I’m…?” Casey was totally stunned. “My uncle and that woman? Unko is my father? My birth mother is a schizophrenic psychopath?”
Alexa nodded.
“She killed my parents. Was she going to kill me?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so.”
“She was here to, what, take me back? Motherly instincts?”
“It’s possible, I suppose.”
“It’s totally preposterous! Four years after I was born she just decided I was here and came here and murdered my parents. Don’t you see, if it’s true she knew I was here, then Dorothy Fugate must have been the one who told her.”
“You may be right. That was twenty-six years ago, though, and I doubt we’ll ever know.” Again Alexa thought about those missing pages.
“After the murders, Sibby was committed to River Run, where your uncle was practicing. He and Fugate made sure Sibby never said a word about what had happened. The two of them conspired to keep her in a mental fog. Just in case she came out, your uncle performed a prefrontal lobotomy on her, which was not recorded. The doctors at Charity confirmed that by the scars.”
“Where’s the Fugate diary? I want to see it for myself.”
“I have it in a safe place. I intend to use it to build a case against your uncle. I just wanted you to know what’s in it before it becomes public knowledge.”
“Where’s Sibby now?”
“She’s hospitalized for observation at Charity.”
“What will happen to her?”
“She’ll be going back to River Run, or someplace like it, I imagine. I don’t know how dangerous she is now. They’ll have to evaluate her and make that decision.”
“I can’t believe my mother is…that woman. And you think Grace knew it?”
Alexa nodded.
“How?”
“This is the man she called Doc.” Alexa took out the picture of Doc standing with Grace and handed it to Casey. “He had a connection to Fugate and another inmate at River Run, who helped them kidnap Gary and kill Dorothy. Grace had a copy of the diary at her house.”
“I’ve seen him before. Wait. He’s that orderly at River Run. Just a minute. Is he the man I shot?”
“He may be a relative of Fugate’s. She mentioned her nephew in the diary, but not by name. I think he targeted Grace and somehow enlisted her help.”
“Grace was so alone that it probably wasn’t hard. He probably seduced her, poor thing. What’s his name?”
“Doc is the only name we have. That’s what I heard Leland Ticholet call him.”
“Grace is -was my closest friend. She was loyal.”
“Maybe you were her friend, but it appears she wasn’t yours. I’m sorry to have to tell you all this.”
“You were suspicious all along.” Casey shook her head. “You said I shouldn’t tell her anything you told me…” She put her head in her hands, ran her fingers through her hair. “My grandmother told me never to trust anybody. She said those closest to me would be the most envious of what I had. She didn’t care for Grace, but allowed us to be friends because Grace was socially acceptable. My grandmother wasn’t much fond of anybody.” Slowly, Casey tucked her hair behind her ears. “Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe Grace was framed and that man I shot killed her so we wouldn’t know. It’s possible, right?”