Chapter Thirty-Three Ava Angelhart #2
record that he should be transferred back to Arizona. Maybe not Eyman. I know that would make it difficult on you to visit,
but another prison may be the best option.”
“Okay,” she said and looked at Rita. “I just want him safe. That’s a good plan.”
“I’ll do everything I can to make it happen,” Rita said.
“I still want to see him.”
“Of course,” Rita said. “I already put in the request, but I’ll talk to the assistant warden again, see if we can expedite.
Sit tight.”
She left and Ava let out a long sigh and sank back into the chair.
Quincy squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll update Jack. They need these names to compare to their list, and I’ll steer them onto
the money trail. Are you okay here alone for a few minutes?”
“Yes. Go. Remind Jack that I’m worried and he needs to be doubly careful.”
“I’ll tell him.” Quincy left her alone again in the small dingy waiting room.
She put her head down on the table and forced herself to relax. Deep breaths. In. Out. She closed her eyes.
The door opened. She must have dozed off for a minute.
It was Rita. She stood with a short, trim older man with close-cropped hair. “Ava, this is Assistant Warden Waddell. He’ll
take you to see Cooper.”
Cooper looked as tired as she felt, but when he saw her, his green eyes lit up and her heart soared.
She hugged him tightly.
They were in a small room reserved for conversations between lawyers and prisoners. No guard, though there was a camera in
the corner. Waddell had read Cooper’s file and told Ava that everyone understood this was an unusual situation and they wanted
Cooper safe and protected while he was here.
She was grateful.
Ava sat across from Cooper and squeezed his hands before reluctantly pulling away.
“I have been frantic,” Ava said.
“You know why I was transferred,” he said.
“Now I do. But no one knew anything on Wednesday. Margo and I went to the prison to talk to you, and you had been moved. I
thought for certain it was to keep you from talking, but the real reason is far more terrifying. If the AUSA hadn’t received
the warning, if they hadn’t taken it seriously—”
“Shh,” he said. “I’ve been treated well, and solitary isn’t too bad, at least for a few days. They gave me a Bible, and this
afternoon the guard said he’ll bring a cart of books from the library. I’ll keep my mind engaged.”
“Our children know about the threats.”
“Rita told me.”
“They’ve already learned so much. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to prove you confessed under duress, but if they
find the killer, if they—”
“I’m not going to think about what might happen. I don’t regret our decision, Ava. At the time, we didn’t have another choice.
I really believe they would have killed someone we love.”
“Me too,” she said, her voice cracking. “I’m worried about all of them, but I can’t stop them. We need to help. You gave Rita
some names, but is there anything else you remember?”
“The names I gave Rita are the people who either knew or suspected that Devin was going to blow the whistle on the trial.”
“Tess and Luisa learned that Willa Blankenship is Mildred Maddox’s niece. They have worked together in the past.”
Cooper frowned. “Niece? They were related?”
“You didn’t know?”
He shook his head. “Is it important?”
“Maybe.”
“Rita told me you talked to Naddy.”
“Yes. She was helpful.”
“I never meant to keep my conversations with her private.”
“You do not have to explain yourself to me.”
But she was hurt, and she sounded hurt.
“I love you more than life itself,” Cooper said. “You have been the foundation of my life since the day I laid eyes on you.
I’ve consulted with Naddy a few times over the years, but it was never more than a conversation here and there. She tried
to help Devin, but I honestly didn’t think about that after he was killed, because he told me she wasn’t able to give him
what he needed. I just forgot because it wasn’t important.”
“I understand.”
“She came to the prison nearly a month ago to tell me the Phase 4 trial was nearly finished and that the Neurovantix drug
was almost certainly going to be approved. She had been following it because of what Devin told her, keeping track of the
serious adverse effects. There are some, but that’s to be expected. The benefits seem to outweigh the negatives, and that’s
how these things work. But she believes the formulation may have changed because the percentage of adverse effects in the
first trial was substantially higher than in the subsequent trials, if we assume that the ten missing patients all had bad
side effects.”
“Cooper, I know she’s helping, it’s okay.”
“I should have told you after she visited. I think—I was cautiously hopeful that she would find something to stop the drug from being approved. I didn’t honestly think she’d find information that would help me, but .
. . well, in the back of my mind there was a chance.
I didn’t want to get my hopes up, or yours. ”
He sounded sincere, and she believed him. She squeezed his hands. “I know that. I’m not mad. I love you. We’re going to find
a way to prove who killed Devin—our children are not going to back down. And when we do, you will come home. I know it.”
“But if—”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “No buts. I have hope. I miss you so much, Cooper. I’m so lonely. I have friends and family
and work, but at night, all I think about is that you’re not in bed beside me. And then I feel guilty because you have no
freedom, you sacrificed yourself for us, and what right do I have to be lonely?”
She didn’t want to cry, but her eyes were wet.
“I’m worried about everyone,” Cooper said. “Especially Margo.”
“Me too. So . . . you really weren’t keeping anything to yourself about the drug trial?”
“I told you everything back then. If I suspected who killed Devin, I would have told you.”
“Okay. I’m going to stay here, in Florence, until you’re transferred.” He opened his mouth to argue, and she shook her head.
“I am,” she said.
He smiled. “Okay. Now, tell me good things,” he said. “Tell me about Margo’s new boyfriend. She’s so closemouthed about him,
but she told me that he cooks.”
For fifteen minutes, until the assistant warden came to escort Ava out, Ava caught Cooper up on everything their children were up to, about Cal Rafferty and how good he was for Margo, about Tess and Gabriel’s wedding plans, about her brother Tom looking into expanding and opening another restaurant.
And she almost felt like everything was going to be okay.
Almost.