Page 104 of I’ll Be Watching You

His face went white and he staggered, leaned against his truck. I thought he might faint.

“Wh-what?”

His voice was so quiet I almost missed it.

“On Monday, Novak had an appointment. He was admitted to a rehab center, and they stated that his medical files are now gone. Not misplaced, but disappeared. According to our sources, the only way to get rid of a medical file without a trace is to merge it with another file. A nurse put in a request to your office on Monday to research the file. You were working on Monday, and based on information we have obtained in the course of our investigation, you would have been the most likely to field that request.”

I was bluffing. They had fourteen staffers, of which four to six were in the office at any one time. Lu had given me a list of two who worked Monday who had also been on staff three and a half years ago. But as I spoke, his expression grew more panicked. Wow, definitely would want to play poker against this guy. He’d lose every time.

“Did you?” I pushed.

“Yes?” His voice squeaked.

“Margo,” Jack said, “we need to turn everything over to the FBI. This is now a federal investigation.”

Jack was a fantastic foil. The stern, no-nonsense, gruff partner to my more charming, yet blunt, self. I’m glad we had discussed our approach before Tim arrived.

“No,” I said. “I’m not turning this over to the feds, they’ll screw everything up. They always do.”

“He committed a crime, Margo. The FBI has jurisdiction over the VA. Maybe the military police. I’m not sure. Anyway, we’ll call Agent Truman, he’s been looking for something like this. He’ll know who will prosecute.”

I was watching Miller out of the corner of my eye. He was moving from scared to full panic at the word prosecute.

“Maybe you’re right,” I conceded to Jack with an exaggerated frown. “It’s bigger than just one guy in the medical records office getting a bribe. Could go all the way up to the administration.” I glanced at Miller. “Did your uncle put you up to it? Don’t look at me like that, I know your mom is the sister to Administrative Director Zachary Ames. Did he tell you to get rid of Novak’s file? Maybe a few others over the years?”

“Don’t drag my uncle into this!” he said. “Please. What do you want to know?”

“It’s not us,” I said innocently. “But once we turn this over to the FBI, they’ll want to talk to everyone. Your uncle is, like, the number one guy here, right? Buck stops with him. I get it, your family is close, your uncle asks you to do something unethical, you might not want to, but he’s family, right?”

“My Uncle Zach would never do anything like that!”

“Then who asked you to make Novak’s medical records disappear?”

He bit his lip.

“Margo,” Jack said, “seriously, this guy is going to jail. They’re not going to let accessory to murder walk.”

“Murder?” Miller looked like he was going to throw up. “Wh-what? I never!”

“My partner’s right. You’re an accessory to the murder of Liz Swanson and her husband. The nurse who put in the medical records request on Monday when she noticed her patient’s file had vanished. She was killed the next day.”

It took him a few seconds, but then he made the connection.

“Oh. My. God.”

He slumped all the way down to the asphalt and put his head in his hands.

I grinned at Jack. He wasn’t grinning, but he gave me a nod. Job well done.

I squatted in front of Miller. “Tell me the truth. Is your uncle involved with the disappearance of medical records? Was he involved in covering up the adverse effects in the Neurovantix trial?”

Miller shook his head. “No. Uncle Zach . . . He didn’t ask me to do anything.”

“Who did?”

“I can’t.”

“You’re already in trouble, Tim. But you come clean, you might not go to prison.”