Page 109 of I’ll Be Watching You

I went to let Cal in, following all Nate’s security rules about disarming and resetting the alarm. I thought it would be rather foolhardy for anyone to try anything with five Angelharts, a security expert, and a fed inside, but desperate people and all that.

“I smell pizza,” Cal said and gave me a kiss.

“There might be some left for you,” I teased and led him to the kitchen where we were eating.

Jack and I had already filled everyone in on our conversation with Tim Miller, and Jack had called Quincy to tell him there was a fifty-fifty chance Miller would ask for him at FBI headquarters. I wasn’t giving it fifty-fifty—I thought Miller would talk himself out of it and assume that we weren’t serious or couldn’t prove anything. Jack also sent Quincy the recording. Arizona was a one-party consent state, so it was legal, but I wasn’t certain Quincy would be able to use it to launch an investigation.

But that was out of my hands.

Once everyone was satiated, we moved to the den where Tess gave a brief rundown of where we were and what we still needed to learn.

The information from Tim Miller was the most damning—we played the recording for everyone—while the information from Stockman’s ex-wife gave us motive. He was a gambler, he needed money, and the Neurovantix drug—if he had invested in it—would give him more than enough to pay for his lifestyle, or pay off his bookie.

Because apparently, according to Nico, even though gambling was now legal in Arizona, there were many illegal betting operations throughout the area for people who wanted to gamble without paying Uncle Sam. Or high stakes tables unregulated by the state.

I never understood the allure of throwing my money away, other than maybe a friendly game of poker with the family where we all put in twenty dollars and received twenty-five-cent chips. I didn’t even play the lottery, though my mom had been known to buy tickets when the jackpot was big.

Tess had made the connections between people we suspected were involved, and she went through them quickly.

“Fifteen years ago, Mildred Maddox owned a small pharmaceutical company called Hollander & Wyck Laboratory. Willa Blankenship was her head of research and development, and Peter Stockman also worked for them. Mildred sold the company after developing a prosthetic device that was marginally successful. Mildred and her husband made well over twenty million from the sale.

“Mildred then took a job here at the VA when the company sold. Willa went to Neurovantix, and Peter stayed with the new ownership until six years ago, when Mildred brought him into the VA as her assistant.

“There are several drug trials that Mildred has been involved with since coming to the VA fifteen years ago. I still have a lot of records to go through, and many are incomplete because I only have the public records. The problem is that Mildred is not required to file any financial statements in her position.”

“So she can profit from projects she worked on without declaring a conflict of interest?” Jack asked.

“Yes,” Tess said. “It may not be illegal—this is an area of the law I’m not familiar with—but on the surface, it seems highly unethical.”

Cal said, “It’s a problem in virtually every government agency. Some positions are heavily regulated and require conflict of interest reports, and others—even positions where you can profit independent of your position—there are no reporting requirements.”

Luisa said, “There are several people from Hollander & Wyck that we haven’t found yet, but we were prioritizing those who worked at the VA medical center. We found two more there from Hollander & Wyck, but they don’t seem to have any connection with the research branch of the hospital.”

“That’s not to say,” Tess said, “that they definitely aren’t party to Mildred and Peter’s crimes.”

She pointed to the names: Regina Dunlap, lab technician; and Christopher Hernandez, RN.

“Chris is a registered nurse, but he works in the IT department and primarily trains staff on how to use the electronic health records system. Regina is in the lab. Both are in positions to be helpful to any conspiracy—Chris because he knows the EHR system better than most people, and Regina because she has access to not only samples, but results.”

“Five people potentially involved?” Cal said. “That’s a good-sized conspiracy. And keeping quiet for all this time?”

“Stockman was paying Tim Miller three thousand a month for computer consulting,” I said with an eye roll. “They could have been paid off-book and used only when necessary. Or they are convenient scapegoats.”

“This isn’t to say that Mildred and Peter didn’t recruit others on staff, like the VA director himself,” Tess said. “We don’t know how many people are involved.”

I glanced at Jack and he knew what I was thinking. He said, “When Margo and I talked to Mildred, she seemed both helpful and a little . . . well, I don’t want to say forgetful, but she had a vibe of being a bit clueless.”

“How can someone clueless have orchestrated a conspiracy like this?” Luisa asked.

“I think,” I said, “that either she really has Alzheimer’s, or that she was trying to play us. Because a woman as accomplished as she is couldn’t have been clueless her entire career.”

“You think she knew what Stockman was doing?” Jack asked, surprised. “Do you think that she was involved?”

I didn’t know for certain, but I was leaning that way. “Don’t be easy on her just because she’s older and polite.”

“I’m not,” Jack said. “I just didn’t get the feeling that she was a killer.”

“That’s jumping ten steps ahead,” I said. “Maybe she knew, maybe she didn’t. Maybe she really is forgetting things. But do you remember the whole conversation? She didn’t ask any questions about Dad.”