Page 96 of I’ll Be Watching You

“How did you get that?”

Lu hesitated. “I’d rather not say.”

Tess sighed. Lu was going to get them in trouble if she hacked into the wrong system. “I won’t ask.”

“We’re on the right path, I think,” Lu said. “I’m going to run through some of these names and see who was working on Monday. But first, I just got an idea on how I can get Annette Blankenship talk to me.”

“How?”

Luisa grinned, pulled out her phone, and a minute later said, “Yes, hello, this is Luisa with Banner Health in Phoenix. I need to speak with Dr. Annette Blankenship regarding one of her patients who was admitted to our hospital this morning. Yes, I’ll hold, thank you.”

Luisa winked at Tess, who realized this was exactly something Margo would do. Tess couldn’t lie that smoothly.

A minute later, Luisa put the call on speaker and said, “Dr. Blankenship? Yes, this is Luisa Angelhart with Angelhart Investigations. I’m calling about your mother, Willa. Don’t hang up. I need to talk to her, but can’t seem to locate her.”

“I’m not in contact with my parents. Why do you need to speak with them?” Annette said.

“It’s about a drug trial she worked on four years ago with Neurovantix and the Veterans Administration.”

“And you’re with which health care system?”

“I’m a private investigator hired by someone who was harmed by the Neurovantix trial, and it’s imperative that I speak with your mother about the records we have uncovered in the course of our investigation.”

Annette laughed. “You want to serve her papers, don’t you?”

“It hasn’t come to that yet,” Luisa said. “I’m simply reviewing the raw data from the trial and need to ask clarifying questions.”

“Well, good luck. I don’t even have her phone number.”

Odd, Tess thought and sat down on the couch. She leaned closer to the phone, though she could hear perfectly well.

“What about an address?”

“Sure, I’ll do that. One minute.”

Annette put her on hold and Luisa frowned. “If she hangs up, I’ll be pissed.”

“You’re good,” Tess whispered.

Luisa grinned. “Thanks. It’s fun.”

A few seconds later, Annette returned. She rattled off an address and then said, “That’s in Booker Bay, Australia.”

“She moved to Australia?”

“Yes. A little over three years ago. Took a position at a research hospital in Sydney, didn’t even discuss it with my sister or me. Our family has never been particularly close, but moving across the world? It was a shock. And at the time, my sister was in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy. She was very sick and needed help with her other kids. Our mom had planned to spend two months with her before and after the birth, then canceled and said they were moving. I can’t say it was out of character, but it did surprise us.”

“Do you know what hospital she’s working at?”

“No,” Annette said. “They send birthday and Christmas cards and that’s it. Dad has called a couple of times, but whenever I ask questions about when they’re going to visit, he says they’re too busy. My dad was a high school chemistry teacher. He says he’s teaching at a school there, but . . .”

“You don’t believe him?”

“No. I don’t know. Look, I don’t mean to sound bitter, but my parents, and my mother in particular, has never been all that interested in our lives. I don’t even know why they had children in the first place. I look at my sister and think she was made to be a mom, and it certainly wasn’t because of the example our mother set.”

Tess and Luisa exchanged looks.

“Do you know of anyone who is in contact with your mother? Maybe someone she worked with at Neurovantix or another company?”