Page 119 of Deadly Misfortunes

Which left Red’s mother as the only suspect in the family, Sascha was thinking.

"Okay, so then I looked into Brendan's mother. She lives in Dallas still. She has no alibis for any of the accidents. She tried to say she was at tea parties or other events with friends, but when I checked with them, they said that she had mixed up her days. So in every instance, she was available to commit the crime."

"Which doesn't make sense," Gregory said. "She wanted me to be her son, not Brendan. Why would she try and kill me?"

"Because," Sascha said, "if she couldn't have you, then your parents couldn't."

Hank said, "Yeah, that could certainly be a motive. I couldn't learn if she has any psychiatric issues, but I did find that she had had several interviews with local news shows and podcasts over the years about the baby mix-up. So it's like she can't let go of it."

"Great. What about Brendan?"

"I still haven't found what his alias is."

"Check on Red."

"Your bodyguard?"

"Yeah. He had an alibi for one of the attempts on my life—the first one. I want his other alibis verified. I'm beginning to believe he's covering for someone."

"His mother?"

"Possibly. We all assumed a man tried to kill me. But it's just as possible that a woman could have tried."

"Okay, he didn't go to work for you until after you were in the two accidents."

"And I gave him time off when the truck hit the limo on the bridge. I want to know where he was that time and when I was getting the dragon cake. As I said, he alibied out for the first attempt."

"Okay, I'm on it," Hank said.

Then they ended the call, and Sascha couldn't believe the turn of events. "We need to resolve this because if Red wasn't the one who did this, then the attempted murderer is still out there."

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a while, pondering the news.

"Red said you should be safe because you have the other bodyguards working for you while he tries to renovate the farmhouse," Sascha said.

"Yeah. Why would he say that if he was the one who was out to get me and now no one should be?"

"That's exactly what I was thinking. I'm still wondering how he or she knew about your movements. We should have asked Red. I didn't even think about it when we were talking to him."

"That's because we thought he had done it and there was no reason to delve into it further."

They had been driving for about thirty minutes back to Dallas, and it would take another two and a half hours to get there. “Should we turn around and ask Red?” she asked.

"I'm afraid they'll be busy with other business."

Sascha drummed her fingers on the console. "Okay, then call him."

Gregory chuckled. "I'm afraid they'll still be busy."

"Yeah, but you can leave a message if he doesn't pick up."

"All right." Gregory called Red's number on Bluetooth.

Red answered to their surprise.

"I hope we're not interrupting anything, but Sascha and I were curious about something."