Page 77 of I’ll Be Watching You

What should I ask her? I didn’t see how she was involved considering she’d retired more than a year ago and Liz Swanson had been killed this week, yet I couldn’t make any assumptions. If she was involved in some way with the falsified drug trial, that didn’t mean she was guilty of murder or conspiracy to commit murder. And just because she was de facto in charge of all research at the VA didn’t mean she was involved with the details. Administrators administrated. They were, essentially, high-ranking bureaucrats.

Neurovantix wasn’t a publicly traded company, so I didn’t know if she was financially tied to them. She wasn’t on their board of directors—Tess had already sent that information and none of the names were familiar—but nonetheless, I sent Tess a text message asking her to look into Maddox’s financials. When she called me back, I would wing it—feel her out. If she was involved, I might tip my hand, but then I could watch and see what happened.

We were all on high alert.

Whatever you can find will help. Thanks, sis.

As I hit Send, my cell phone rang. It was Mom.

“Did you talk to Dad?” I asked.

“No,” she said. “I hope tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure you and everyone else were okay.”

Mom sounded both exhausted and worried.

“We’re good.”

“Have you learned anything?”

“We’re working on it,” I said. I didn’t want to give her a rundown because it wasn’t any information that she could use. “When you talk to Dad, any name he can give us will help. We have a long list that we’re going through—we need a way to narrow it down. Tess will send it to you. If he doesn’t have a name in his head, show him the list, it might spark a memory.”

My phone vibrated with another call, so I said, “Mom, Tess is calling. I need to go.”

“Be careful, Margo. I love you.”

“Promise. Love you too.” I switched over to Tess and let out a long breath. “Hey.”

“You okay?” she asked.

“I was talking to Mom.”

“How’s Dad?”

“She hasn’t seen him yet. Give me good news.”

“Not good, not bad, but I found some interesting things about two of the people I’m researching.”

“I love interesting things.”

“Mildred Maddox is on the board of Honor House.”

That was interesting, but I didn’t see how the information helped us. Mildred Maddox had worked at the VA for years; it wasn’t a surprise she supported veterans’ causes.

“Maybe a coincidence, maybe not,” Tess continued. “Zachary Ames, the administrator, is retiring at the end of the year. They’re bringing in a person from outside of the VA.”

“Don’t waste your time,” I said. I couldn’t imagine someone who had no ties to the VA being involved in Klein’s murder. “What about the other guy? The one who took over for Maddox?”

“Peter Stockman. Forty-five, divorced long ago, ex-wife and two kids live in Maine.”

“That’s a long way to go to get away from your ex,” I said. “Is that where they’re from?”

“Hmm,” Tess said, clicking. “No. They were married here in Arizona twenty-one years ago. They were both twenty-four. They lived in Oklahoma for a while when he worked for a pharmaceutical company in their R & D department. Hollander & Wyck Laboratories. That company has no connection to Neurovantix or their parent company, and was acquired by yet another company ten years ago. Peter and his wife returned to Arizona, now with two kids in tow. He started working at the VA then, under Maddox. Wife filed for divorce six years ago, moved to Maine. Kids are both girls . . . um . . . based on the wife’s social media they’re fourteen and twelve now.”

“Bet the wife would have something interesting to say,” I said.

“Do you want me to call her?”

Tess sounded like I would be asking her to eat scorpions. “No, I wouldn’t do that to you. But get me all her information if you don’t mind. I’ll call her, but I’d like more about Stockman’s background first.”