“I need you here, Robert,” Marissa said.
“The more I think about-Wendy’s death, the more I think it was caused deliberately.”
“Please, Marissa. You’re overreacting. You’ve had a tremendous shock. Shouldn’t you just get on a plane and come home?”
“But I think I should stay.”
“I cannot come to Australia,” Robert said.
“I told you business is_” Even though she realized she was being unreasonable, Marissa hung up on him before he could finish his sentence. Then she realized there was something he could do. Snatching up the phone, she dialed Robert yet again.
“I’m glad you called back,” Robert said.
“I was hoping you’d come to your senses.”
“I want you to find out something for me,” Marissa said, ignoring Robert’s comments.
“I want to know if there is any business connection between the Women’s Clinic in the States and Female Care Australia.”
“I can check in the morning,” Robert said.
“I want you to do it now,” Marissa said. She knew Robert’s computer was hooked up to several business data banks.
“If I do this,” Robert said, “will you come home and stop asking me to come to Australia?”
“I’ll stop asking you to come to Australia,” Marissa said.
“Give me your number and I’ll call you back.”
Five minutes later Marissa’s phone rang. Robert had been faster than she’d expected.
“You were right if you guessed they were associated,” Robert said.
“Both the Women’s Clinic, Inc.” and Female Care Australia Limited are controlled by an Australian holding company by the name of Fertility, Limited. I found it out by reading the back page on a prospectus on the Women’s Clinic.”
“What are you doing with a prospectus on the Women’s Clinic?” Marissa asked.
“I thought it was a private company.”
“They floated a big stock offering a few years ago to finance their nationwide expansion,” Robert explained.
“It’s been a good stock. I’ve been very pleased with it.”
“You own stock in Women’s Clinic?” Marissa asked.
“Yes,” Robert said.
“I have a significant position with both the Women’s Clinic and
FCA.”
“You own stock in FCA as well?”
“Sure do,” Robert said.
“I bought it on the Sydney Exchange.”
“Sell it!” Marissa shouted.
Robert laughed.
“Now let’s not confuse emotions with business,” he said.
“I see both stocks splitting in the near future.”
“I think there is something seriously wrong with these companies,”
Marissa said with vehemence.
“I don’t know what it is they’re up to, but I think it may be linked to these cases of TB salpingitis.”
“Don’t tell me you’re back on that crusade,” Robert whined “Just sell the stock,” Marissa said.
“I’ll take your recommendation under advisement,” Robert said evasively.
Marissa slammed the phone down, cutting off Robert before he could say more.
Anger had now overcome to a large degree her sadness about Wendy. Although she thought that her hormone-induced hyper emotional state might have had something to do with her change in mood, she didn’t care. Instead of giving in to depression, she opted for action. Picking up the phone, she called the Royal Flying Doctor service in Charleville.
“Yes,” the woman at the other end of the line told her, “Dr.
Tristan Williams is with us, but he’s out at isolated cattle stations at the moment. He won’t be back for several days.”
“Does he have a specific schedule?” Marissa asked.
“Indeed he does,” the woman said.
“Unless there is an emergency.
Our doctors have a regular route whenever they leave for a loop of the outback.”
“Could you tell me where he will be two days from now?”
Marissa asked. She thought that should give her enough time to get there no matter how far away it was.
“Hold the line,” the woman said. She was gone for several minutes. When she came back on the line she said, “He’ll be near 4 a town called Windorah. He’s to make a call at the Wilmington Station.”
“Does Windorah have a commercial airport?” Marissa asked.
The woman laughed.
“No, not quite,” she said.
“In fact it doesn’t even have a bitumen road.”
Marissa next called the airport to see about connections to Charleville. With reservations made on an airline called Flight West, she quickly packed her bags and went down to the lobby.