Page 125 of I’ll Be Watching You

“And he called for an ambulance from here?”

Childs shook her head. “Nope. His girlfriend called. She had been sleeping upstairs when he came in. He put on music and it woke her up. She found him in that chair.” She gestured to where most of the blood was centered. “He was losing consciousness, she called 911.”

There were both police and crime techs going through the house. Two federal agents were talking to the top cop in Paradise Valley, who Jack knew well. They nodded to each other before Childs led Jack upstairs and into a huge master bedroom suite, then into the larger of two walk-in closets. A crime tech was there processing an extensive gun collection.

The closet had been converted into a high-tech storage room. The tech said, “We had to remove the doors, they were secured electronically. Took us hours, but wow, it’s impressive.”

More than a dozen guns were neatly displayed on shelves, and another six in evidence boxes spread out just outside the closet.

Also in the room was a computer, currently dark, and a file cabinet that had been built into the wall.

Jane handed him gloves, which he put on.

“This has all been photographed and printed, but my boss wanted you to see it and didn’t want to send it electronically.”

She opened a file and placed it on the table in the middle of the closet that was bigger than the bedroom Jack shared with his brother growing up.

Inside were photos of everyone in his family. His anger grew as he flipped through them. Margo. Tess. His son, Austin. More.

They were older, from three to four years ago. These were the pictures he guessed had been sent electronically to his father to compel him to confess to Devin Klein’s murder.

“What else is in these files?”

“Financial records, more photos—but not only of your family. This guy was watching a lot of people. According to Rafferty’s statement, he’s a hired gun. Maybe we’ll find out who hired him somewhere in these files.”

“Do you have any idea who?”

“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you. You know that. This is an active investigation. My boss just wanted you to know that these pictures existed, that they’ll be logged as evidence and if you needed them for one of your cases to just call.”

She waited to find out why her boss was being so generous with a PI, but Jack didn’t share any more information.

The photos were one more piece of evidence that might help his dad.

He thanked the detective and went back downstairs. He looked around the great room. The windows with the view. The simple but clearly expensive modern furniture. The sleek bar that took up one entire wall.

He saw a bottle of Macallan 18 on the floor near the chair, the contents spilled out. Yellow numbered markers littered the area. What a waste.

A coaster was on the floor near the bottle. Jack leaned over. He didn’t touch it, because there was a crime scene marker next to it. But he could read what was printed on it.

Marconi’s

Whiskey & Wine

Marconi. Mildred Maddox’s mother had remarried a Marconi.

Jack didn’t believe in coincidences.

Chapter Forty-Four

Mildred Maddox

Mildred left Roger at the club restaurant and took the golf cart back to the house. She had played poorly and told their friends that she was feeling under the weather.

The truth was, she had too many things on her mind. If there was any hint that the Neurovantix trial was tainted, it would kill the sale. There would be investigations and lawsuits and she would be dealing with that for years. It would go through next week as long as the Angelharts hadn’t learned the truth.

How had they found Tim Miller? That question had kept her up half the night.

Mildred had told Peter not to involve anyone else. Too many people created potential leaks. But Peter needed Miller because of the problems with the medical records. All because Devin, that bastard, had started to complain that some of his patients had bad reactions to the Phase 1 drug formulation.