Page 98 of Deadly Misfortunes

“Okay. I’ll see you soon. Love you.”

“Love you too, honey.”

Then they ended the call so he could answer the other call, and he realized it was from one of his private investigators. “Yeah, Hank, what did you learn?”

His PIs never contacted him unless they had news.

“I checked into the family history of Sam’s descendants, and I was looking into the case with the supposed mixed-up babies at the hospital. It turns out that the kid’s mother, Francine Drury, is a descendant of Sam’s. She was very vocal about changing the family history to prove that her great-uncle wasn’t a traitor. But she also knew your dad’s ancestor was the one who had Sam killed.”

“Hell. So she was even madder when she thought my parents were keeping her son at the hospital. Is she the one who has been trying to kill me? I thought she wanted me to be her son.”

“I suspect it’s her son who is trying to kill you. His name is Brendan Whitehouse.”

“Not Drury?”

“No, that’s her maiden name. She never took her husband’s name. When I looked into Brendan’s background, I learned that he had been in the Army and has worked various jobs. He has no criminal history. Maybe he feels the world owes him. Perhaps he believed you stole his childhood because his mother treated him like he was never her son. And compound that with the business with Sam, it would mean she believed her son was the descendant of the man who killed Sam.”

“When in truth, I’m the descendant of the Landry’s.”

“Correct. But there’s no convincing that family of the truth.”

“A woman just called Sascha and said she knew someone was trying to kill me, but she abruptly hung up. Does Brendan have a sister or girlfriend? Or even a wife?”

“He has a younger sister and an ex-girlfriend.”

“Oh-kay. So where does Brendan live?”

“He lived in San Antonio, but he has vanished. No one knows where he is. Not his mother or dad, sister, or ex-girlfriend. None of his friends know. He worked at a car dealership after he left the Army, and he’s missing from work.”

“When did this happen?” Gregory asked.

“About the time you started having trouble with the attempted murderer. Brendan’s ex-girlfriend is worried about him. She says she still loves him, but that he has been anxious about something and wouldn’t tell her what. And they broke up over his dysfunctional relationship with his family.”

“If he’s trying to kill me⁠—”

“He needed a new identity. But we still don’t know for sure that Brendan is the one who is responsible for the attempts on your life, only that he has vanished. If it is him, what caused him to come after you now?”

“Yeah, if it is him, something must have triggered him.”

This was the first possible lead they’d had. And if Brendan was the cause of all this, they had to find him and stop him.

“Okay, well, I’m sending you a picture of the girlfriend, Janie, and his sister, Belinda. She’s two years younger. Beyond that, I’ll keep digging,” Hank said.

“All right.” Before Gregory had a chance to look at the pictures, he got a call from Timothy Overbright about a merger, and Gregory thought this might be the one he was looking for.

23

Sascha felt Gregory’s mood had darkened by the time he returned home from work, and she wanted to know what was wrong so she could help him through it. Then she read his mind; her eyes widened when she realized one of Gregory’s PIs had told him that he had learned something about the case. The stories she had brought up about Gregory’s family’s involvement in France to help the resistance during WWII and the killing of the traitor and the supposed mix-up of babies at Memorial Hospital were connected.

“But why did he go after you, if Brendan is the guy who has done so?” Sascha asked.

Then Gregory gave her one of his award-winning smiles and pulled her into an embrace. “You read my mind.”

“Yeah, you can’t keep your feelings secret from me.”

He kissed her and sighed. “I’m glad, really.”

She led him into the living room. “Okay, so what triggered him to come after you?” Then she frowned when she envisioned a blond-haired woman who had been on a date with Gregory in the past. They were having drinks at a bar and then danced, not close, not like when Sascha and Gregory danced with each other, like they weren’t really into each other. “You dated Brendan’s girlfriend.”