Page 103 of I’ll Be Watching You

“But they were funded shortly after, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, thinking. “When the Phase 2 trial started, they received an influx of money. So maybe he just had to wait awhile.”

“And when the drug goes to market, maybe he’s in line for more,” Jack suggested. “So when Liz Swanson found the oddities in Novak’s file, he panicked and killed her.”

“Dad said Devin told Willa Blankenship about the problems in the trial, so she knew. She’s alive. She’s Mildred’s niece, so did she tell Mildred? Willa’s daughter said that she was a disinterested mother, but very close to her aunt. I can’t see her keeping this a secret, but maybe she knew all along and her surprise was an act.”

I needed to talk to Willa, and now that I knew she was Mildred’s niece, I wanted to go back to Mildred and ask more questions. Stockman had no reason to talk to me, but I might just need to confront him. Spontaneously, so he didn’t have time to come up with lies or find a way to avoid me.

Still, I wanted something tangible before I talked to Stockman. Something he couldn’t refute. Proof that the medical records were deleted or, as Luisa explained, “merged” with another file.

I called Lu. “Where are you with the medical records?”

“Tess and I are running backgrounds on the staff. But my own independent research has narrowed it down to two people who were in the office Monday afternoon who could have merged Novak’s record.”

I knew what that meant. “And?” I asked. “Give me something to do.”

“I’ll send the names to you. Do you want me to come when you interview them?”

“I have Jack,” I said.

“Oh. Right.” She sounded disappointed.

“If you need to get out, you can come.”

“Naw, I’ll stick here. Just let me know if one of these pans out.”

I ended the call.

“What did Luisa do?” Jack asked, his voice stern.

“Don’t know what you mean. I have two names.”

“Margo, you know we can’t break laws to get information.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said and headed out.

I definitely couldn’t tell Jack what Luisa and I had done. We had to get the information legally another way, or we could lose our license. Or possibly go to jail.

I wasn’t going to think about that right now. Not when our father’s freedom was on the line. And there could be a chance we would never have to explain how we had identified the staff in medical records.

I glanced over my shoulder. “Are you coming?”

He was. But he didn’t look happy.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Margo Angelhart

Jack and I scored with the first name Lu gave me, Tim Miller, and I didn’t even have to bring out the screws.

Tim was thirty-two, had worked in VA Medical Records for the last five years. He was single, owned a one-bedroom condo in downtown Scottsdale, and drove a new but practical Toyota Tacoma truck.

And he was the nephew of Zachary Ames, the head honcho of the VA medical center itself.

We waited for him to leave work at four that afternoon.

“Hello, Tim,” I said before he could open his door. “My name is Margo Angelhart, this is my partner Jack, and we’re private investigators with a few questions about a complaint we received that you may have illegally altered the medical records of James Novak.”