Chapter Seventeen Margo Angelhart
Chapter Seventeen
Margo Angelhart
I slept like a rock for four hours, but at six fifteen Thursday morning I was wide-awake, my mind spinning with everything
I had to do.
I tried to slide out of bed quietly, but Cal reached over and pulled me back toward him.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey.”
He kissed the back of my neck.
“No time for fun,” I said.
“There’s always time for fun.”
But he turned me to look at him. He’d been asleep when I got home, but woke up as soon as Lu and I came in at two in the morning.
I was glad I’d warned him my sister was coming over, because he came out of my bedroom wearing sweatpants instead of the boxers
he liked to roam around in after hours. He had already made the guest bed for her, and I gave him a brief summary of what
we learned before I crashed.
“I’ll make breakfast. You can pay me back tonight if you get home at a decent hour,” he teased.
“You don’t have to cook for sex, but I sure won’t complain about either,” I said with a grin.
I got up, showered, and by the time I was dressed, I smelled bacon.
I love bacon but hate cooking it.
Lu was drinking coffee. When I came out, she went into the bathroom with a warning. “If you eat all the bacon, I will shoot
you.”
“Oh, I’m so scared,” I said to the closing door.
“I made enough for both of you,” Cal called out from the kitchen.
“Don’t be so sure about that,” I said.
I kissed him, then poured coffee. I was beginning to expect him to be here, to be a sounding board, a friend, a lover. He
had become so important to me so quickly I was having a hard time processing.
“You’re amazing,” I said.
“I know.”
“You don’t have to cook all the time.”
“Do you cook?”
“Yeah,” I said noncommittally.
He laughed.
“I can, I just don’t like to.”
“What’s the best thing you cook?”
“Hmm,” I thought. “Hamburgers.”
He laughed again.
“Hey, don’t knock them till you’ve had them. They’re the best hamburgers on the planet, even my brother says so.”
“What do you do to them?”
“Save some of that bacon grease and maybe you’ll find out.”
“Ooo, I love them already.”
“When my dad is out of prison, I’ll make them.”
“I’m holding you to it.”
I hoped I’d be cooking them next week as opposed to in eleven and a half years.
Lu came out dressed in jeans and a faded USMC T-shirt, her wet hair braided efficiently down her back. She wore no makeup
and was still gorgeous with unblemished light brown skin and the same hazel eyes I had, though hers looked more amber than
my muddy green.
Cal put the food out and Lu and I both grabbed for the bacon. We each came away with five pieces. Cal put two on his plate.
He’d made scrambled eggs with cheese and mushrooms, wheat toast, and cut up fresh fruit. I rarely had fresh fruit except bananas.
They weren’t my favorite, but they were the easiest to eat on the go.
I went to the fridge to grab a bottle of Abuela’s hot sauce and liberally poured it over the eggs. Cal said, “Is that hot?”
Lu and I looked at each other and laughed.
“Try it,” I said mischievously.
“That’s okay, I like my taste buds to actually work.”
Lu poured some on her eggs and we ate. “You must have gone to the store,” I said with my mouth full. “I never have this much
food in my house.”
“That’s true, on both counts. I like cooking. It relaxes me.”
“The gun range relaxes me,” I said.
“What about you?” Cal asked Lu. “What do you do to relax?”
She shrugged. “Puzzles.”
“Like jigsaw?”
“No, like a computer coding problem that needs to be solved.”
“That’s work.”
“But it relaxes me.” She chased down some eggs with water. “I guess swimming.”
“Lu was on the swim team in high school,” I said. “She broke a lot of records.”
We chatted a bit, then Cal said as we were finishing, “I have to go in today, but if you need me I can take tomorrow off.
And I’m not on call this weekend, so I’m all yours.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” I said, though I didn’t really want to drag Cal into this. Especially if I had to bend—or break—a
couple laws. I glanced at my watch. “Shit, we have to be at Mom’s in fifteen minutes to call Nadine Pierce.” Lu and I decided
on the drive back that Mom needed to be the one to talk to Dad’s ex-girlfriend who seemed to know more about what was going
on than any of us did.
Lu and I simultaneously got up and cleared the table.
“I’ll do the dishes,” Cal said as he shoveled food into his mouth. “Damn, you girls eat fast.”
“I have time,” I said. I rinsed, Lu loaded the dishwasher and wiped the counter, and I put the rest of the food away. By the
time Cal came in with his plate, the kitchen was spotless. I put his plate in the dishwasher, slammed it closed.
“Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone clean so fast.”
“I hate cleaning,” I said, “but I like a clean house, so I learned to do it quickly.”
“Ditto,” Lu said and we fist-bumped.
I kissed Cal goodbye, but as I was heading out, I turned back and asked, “Do you know anything about Honor House?”
He nodded. “Rehab for veterans, among other things.”
“Good rep?”
“I haven’t heard anything bad about them. Why?”
“It’s where Georgia and Liz used to volunteer, and my dad used to donate to their charity. I’m just trying to put together
pieces. It might not be important, but I want to check it out.”
“I’ll run a query when I get to the office, see if they’ve been flagged for anything criminal, but I doubt it.”
“Thanks,” I said.
He grabbed my hand before I could follow Lu outside.
“Margo, you know I think you’re amazing and smart and know what you’re doing.”
“Why do I hear a but?”
“You don’t. If you are right—and you probably are, because in the two months I’ve known you, you’ve only been wrong once.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Keeping track?”
He grinned, but it disappeared pretty quick because this conversation was serious.
“There is more than one person behind the murder of Devin Klein and Liz Swanson. No matter how you slice it, I don’t see how
one person could not only kill them, but also have the power to get your dad transferred to a federal prison so quickly. And
very likely, whoever killed Klein and Swanson has a direct connection to the VA medical center, right? Because that’s where
they both worked, and where Swanson noticed the deleted record. Killing that nurse . . .” He sighed, closed his eyes. “Damn.
It was cold. I do not want you to be next. Listen to your gut, Margo. If it tells you to duck, duck.”
There was so much to unpack in Cal’s commentary. He had been giving this a lot of thought, more than I had realized.
“I’ll duck,” I whispered.
When he leaned in to kiss me, it was warm and steady and full of emotion. That threw me for another loop. All these loops
were tying me in knots.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said as I walked out.
Lu was already in the car behind the wheel. “I like Cal,” she said.
“Me too,” I said, still thinking about the kiss. We had kissed a lot over the last two months—among other things—but that
kiss was more than a kiss, and I didn’t know how to process it.
I glared at Lu as she started the ignition. “I like to drive.”
“I got here first,” she said and pulled out.
I didn’t live far from my mom, and it only took five minutes to get there even after hitting half the lights on Central.
We parked Mom’s Escalade in the driveway and went inside. Jack’s truck was there, but no other vehicles.
Jack was eating a bowl of oatmeal at the counter when we walked in. “Mom still sleeping?” I asked.
“Getting dressed. She’s set on going to Colorado today. Rita will be here at ten, their flight is just before noon. Quincy
is going with them.”
“Really?” I was surprised. Quincy was a jerk. The only thing he wasn’t a jerk about was my brother Nico, which is why I tolerated
him. I thought for certain that he would bail on this project because he probably thought we were bending or breaking laws.
He didn’t bend anything.
“I laid it on pretty thick yesterday. Concern about their safety, the unusual transfer. He agrees about that, looked into
it, but wasn’t able to find out any more than we have.”
“What good is having a Fed practically in the family if they can’t get info?” I said, half joking. Then, “Have you heard from
Tess?”
“No. Did you send her the info on that drug company?”
“Before we even left San Diego,” I said. “Lu spent the entire drive trying to find Willa Blankenship, but nada.”
“I wouldn’t say I found nothing,” Luisa said. “I found her on paper, I just don’t know where she is right now.”
“What did you learn?” Jack asked.
“Born Willamina Ann Turnly in Chicago to two doctors, only child, fifty-nine years old, parents both deceased. Married to Vince Blankenship for thirty-two years, two children, Annette and Madelyn. Annette is single, a doctor. Madelyn is married, a stay-at-home mom with three young kids. I have Willa’s education and work history, and the last known job was working for Neurovantix, which ended last year. ”
“Last year, not three years ago?” Jack asked.
“Yep. Up until then, she had a permanent residence in Syracuse, where her husband taught high school chemistry, but she also
had a condo here in Phoenix during the Neurovantix trial and traveled frequently. Then last year they sold their house and
I don’t know where they went. They’re a little young to retire, but as far as I know they are both alive. Maybe they did well
enough to retire early and travel the world, but I couldn’t find anything on social media to support that theory. Neither
has a social media presence on any platform.”
“Lu found the two kids. We can talk to them,” I said.
“Annette is a resident at a hospital in Virginia, and Madelyn lives outside Dallas. The family doesn’t seem to be close,”
Luisa added. “Willa has never had social media, other than LinkedIn, which was used only professionally and hasn’t been updated
in years. The girls both have some social media—Annette rarely posts, and Madelyn posts about her kids and husband and church
extensively, but never mentions her sister or parents.”
“I don’t know, that seems a little weak,” Jack said. “Some people don’t like to post personal stuff. I don’t have social media
anymore.”
I remembered when Jack deleted all his accounts after he took a continuing education class through Phoenix PD about cybercrime.
At the time he was working in crimes against children and Austin was a toddler. He had tempered his paranoia, but still wouldn’t
let Austin get social media until he was a legal adult and Austin could make the decision himself.
“Maybe that’s the case for Willa and her husband, but not their children,” Luisa said. “I would suggest reaching out to Annette
to find Willa.”
“Why?” I asked. “You just said Madelyn was the one who shared everything with the world on the internet.”
“True, but Annette is in the same field as her mother, in a way. Willa wasn’t a medical doctor, but she had a doctorate in
molecular biology. They might still be in touch. And because Madelyn doesn’t post about her parents, I’m wondering if they
had a falling-out.”
“All the better to get her to talk,” I said. “But we’ll try your way first.”
“I sent everything to Tess. She might have other ideas to find them. When we’re done here, I’ll help her.”
I glanced at my watch. We’d been here for nearly thirty minutes and Mom had yet to come out of her room. “I’m going to check
on Mom,” I told them.
I was worried about her. I could be angry and concerned at the same time. But my anger was fading and my worry was increasing.
There were too many things that could go wrong. Too many people I loved who could be hurt.
Uncle Rafe told me more than once that forgiveness wasn’t for the person who wronged you, but for your own soul. When you
held a grudge—and I’ve been known to hold grudges—it hardened your heart, which separated you from God.
I thought about that a lot over the last three and a half years. I had let a lot of grudges go, but this had hit me like a
train. The two people I loved and trusted more than anyone—my parents—had lied to me, had lied to all of us. They had kept
this dark, dangerous secret for so long that even when I tried to remember Uncle Rafe’s wise words, I was having a hard time
letting go.
But no matter what Mom and Dad had done, or why they had lied about Dad’s guilt, I would do anything to protect them.