Deadly deception, p.16
Deadly Deception, page 16
The receptionist put them on hold. At least the music wasn’t rap. After a few moments, the music stopped.
“Our corporate attorney is Thayne Livingston. His offices are in our Manhattan Office. They’re located on the 58th floor of the Woolworth Building. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“No, you have been very helpful. Thank you,” Lashelle said as she clicked the end button.
“Interesting. I can only conclude he works for both medical companies.” Booker shot a glance at his partner. “What do you make of it?”
“We have only talked to the people who face front every day. The security guard and the two receptionists, but they see more than their big wig bosses realize. I think we have a fairly good idea of what is going on.”
“Yes. Livingston is employed by Boche and Zinnal. Mr. M doesn’t get his hands dirty. Donavan’s the fixer. Gordon is the hired gun. And Jonas Faraday was an obstacle that needed to be removed.”
He could see the park in Fort Greene. The police were out in force already. He saw a spot and maneuvered the SUV in.
“It’s a nice day for a little walk don’t you think?”
“Sure, Booker.” Lashelle glanced over her shoulder as she climbed out of the vehicle. “You know we’re cops and can park anywhere?”
“True.”
Booker lifted the hatch and they both reached for their weapons, not that they would be needed, but for protocol.
“Do you have any personal time?”
Lashelle finished holstering her gun then looked at him. “You want to visit Zinnal.”
“Yes, and I doubt mister double agent attorney works on the weekends.”
“You know I was thinking about a drive to our lovely state capital Monday would be a nice way to spend the day.”
“Funny how I have those same thoughts.” He slammed the hatch down. “After our little visit we may have enough leads, and with the recorder, to go to the captain and open a case.”
Lashelle walked in silence for a moment. “I think that is a distinct possibility. Then it would be police work not personal.”
“Let’s go find out what’s up at the park, later we’ll check in with Marcie and KaDee and see if they were able to get any more information out of Martin.”
No sooner than the words were out of Booker’s mouth than his phone rang. He fished it out of his pocket and they both paused while he answered. He tapped on the speaker and held it in front of him.
“Dixson.”
“Booker, this is Marcie. I called Zinnal. Livingston was in a meeting. I wanted to touch base with you two before I called again. After talking to the people at Boche do you have something for me to ask him?”
“We’ve been called to a crime scene. Now is not a good time to go over everything. We found out some interesting gossip and we also found out that Livingston is still employed by Boche. Lashelle and I are going to take a trip up north on Monday. I think a surprise visit would be more productive. Did you leave your name?”
“She asked for it, but I said I’d just call back and hung up.”
“Good, let’s surprise the son of a bitch.”
Chapter Seventeen
Sophie Donato had different plans for Leo’s retirement. And it had not included battling cancer. For as long as she remembered they had planned a trip to Italy when he turned his practice over to their daughter. Over the years they had meant to take a quick trip, but for one reason or another, mostly their schedules never coincided enough to do so. All the more reason she’d anticipated his retirement.
They had both been disappointed when their only daughter had moved to Brooklyn to pursue a career at a firm in New York City. To be fair, neither Leo nor she had informed Marcella of their dream that one day she would be a partner in the Donato Law Firm and take over when Leo retired.
When she moved home, even though the circumstances were not what she would wish on anyone, they’d been delighted that maybe that dream would come true.
Then cancer happened.
Sophie wiped the tear that dared to slither from the corner of her eye, which only managed to make her cheek wetter as she was washing dishes. She loved the calm of washing them letting her thoughts wander. It was a bone of contention with Leo as he’d bought her a top-of-the-line dishwasher for Christmas one year. She loved it but there were times, like now, that she needed her thoughts to calm.
“Sophie.”
Leo’s voice startled her not only from breaking the silence but the urgency in the tone. The plate slipped from her hand. Water covered the front of her blouse, but the plate was saved from destruction as it hit the water.
She wiped her hands on a towel and hurried into the living room where Leo was watching the evening news.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can’t see.”
Sophie blinked. She looked to the television and back to her husband.
“You can’t see what?”
“Anything.”
Alarm clutched her chest. “You can’t see me?”
He turned his head in her direction. But his eyes gazed blankly over her shoulder.
She twirled toward the hall table where her cell always sat. “I’m calling Dr. Graham.”
She picked up the phone and started to scroll through her contacts.
“Wait.”
She kept looking until she found it. “It’s ringing.”
“No wait, come here.”
She glanced toward him, and he was looking at her. He could see her. She didn’t care, the doctor needed to know about what had happened.
“He’s busy. Don’t call. It’s okay now.”
Sophie ignored Leo’s instructions and listened to the recording. However, the office was closed for the day. She was instructed to call the answering service if it couldn’t wait until Monday, or 9 1 1 if it were an emergency. She broke off the call and went to sit next to Leo on the couch.
“Should I call the answering service and talk to the on-call doctor?”
“No. Liam said to write down any side effects in order and rate the intensity, remember? I’ve been doing that with the headaches. Hand me my notes.”
She looked to her other side and found them on the end table. She paused to read. Relief swept over her when she read the detailed entries.
“Here you go. Now, tell me what happened.”
“I was watching the news and a sharp pain stabbed. It had been much like the others I get at the beginning of my headaches. But this one was so intense I instantly felt my stomach turn. I was about to rush to the bathroom when a bright light flashed, then darkness.” He drew in a breath, she could see his hands shake. “Scared the shit out of me.”
“Is that when you called me, or had it been a minute or two?”
“I think I called as it went dark.”
“It lasted maybe a full minute? Or two? You want to make sure to write that down.” She waited while he did. “I better call the on-call doctor.”
“No. We’ll wait and talk to Liam on Tuesday at my appointment.”
Concern settled in her stomach. “I’m not sure we should, Leo.”
“Yes. It’s a trial, we knew things could happen. Let’s just monitor it.”
“I think we should stop it now.”
“We will determine that on Tuesday after we talk to the doctor.”
She was surprised he agreed to even think about it. He’d been so adamant. She still didn’t feel good about not calling anyone. He finished writing his entry and handed her the notebook. She read it over and felt a little sick herself.
“Go finish up your therapeutic dishes. I’m going to take a little nap in the recliner. These headaches exhaust me.”
She sat for a moment as he stood and went to settle in the chair, popped up the footrest, and closed his eyes. A moment later his breathing deepened. Only then did she feel she could leave him to return to the kitchen.
She took her phone with her and tapped in Marcie’s number.
Chapter Eighteen
“What do you think?”
Marcie disconnected the call with Booker, it had been on speaker. Livingston worked with both medical companies. She glanced to KaDee and Martin. Martin stood and paced to the balcony window, then turned to face them.
Before Martin could voice what he’d been about to say, Marcie’s phone blared out Mamma Mia. Marcie held up a finger for him to hold on.
“Hey, Mamma, what’s up?”
She listened while her mother told her about her father’s latest episode. Her entire body heated, then it flashed cold. Tremors from her core ran to her fingers until she thought she was going to drop the phone.
She needed to go home. Jonas and Tori had waited two years to be at peace a few more days wouldn’t hurt. Besides, the detectives were investigating now. They could reach her if needed.
“I’ll come home tonight.”
But her mother was adamant she not cut her trip short. She said she wanted her to know because she wanted her support on Tuesday when she planned to put a stop to the treatment.
“You have my support.”
After she disconnected, she turned to the other two. She drew in her breath. It was difficult being coherent in explaining to the others what had happened to her father.
“Are you all right? You’re shaking.” KaDee started to stand, Marcie waved her back to her seat.
“I will be fine when we figure this out. I want to know more when I go home. I want to know in my heart we have made some progress putting my family at rest. Then I can focus on my papi.” She glanced at Martin, he still stood by the balcony regarding her with a serious expression. “Martin, you were going to tell us your thoughts.”
“I think Gordon was doing his best to dissuade Jonas from going to the interview.”
Marcie studied Martin for a moment. “I agree, but why?”
“I didn’t know until listening to everything you found. Then digging up the recording to hear it again...”
Sounds from the traffic on the avenue filtered the room. Marcie folded her arms and settled further into her seat. She’d wait him out. KaDee was patiently waiting, tapping on her laptop. She was doing a chronology of everything they learned. That way they could discuss it on the train ride home.
“Martin?”
He gave a huge sigh and seemed to draw himself up. “Sorry. I was thinking. My take is this company, Boche, Livingston works for, wants him to steal the patent for the new technology. And if Jonas was hired by Zinnal it couldn’t have happened. They needed him out of the way. But when Gordon saw how much he knew about the other attorney that was when he decided he needed to do more than dissuade him from the interview.”
“And I have a terrible gut feeling the groundbreaking technology is the same as the clinical trial my father is in.”
KaDee looked up for her laptop with a frown. “Marcie, I thought you said the FDA approved the clinical trial.”
“I did. Why? Dr. Graham sent me the link for me to read about it. Zinnal was in the middle of getting the approval when he asked my papi if he would like to join the trial.”
“I remember your dad was not happy you wanted to have more information, he was ready to go with it.”
Marcie stood and went to stand behind KaDee. “That’s the site.”
“But there is no information about the High-Intensity Microscopic ElectroProbe. I have searched in every way I can think possible. Even just the acronym HIMEP. Could they have found something wrong and taken the approval back?”
Marcie picked up her laptop from the table and settled back in her seat. She had bookmarked the link. Once the page loaded, she frowned. The same site and the new trial was on the first page, she followed the link and went to the treatment.
“Refresh your page KaDee, I’m looking at the treatment.”
“I have never been to this site before, so there would be no cache. But...” After a moment she looked back to Marcie. “Same, no treatment.”
KaDee set her laptop on the table and went to Marcie. Martin went to stand next to her as they looked over Marcie’s shoulder.
“It is the same site,” KaDee said. “Wait a moment.”
She put her laptop on the chair and scooted it next to Marcie’s. After she moved the laptop to sit, she sat it on her knees, so the two screens were side by side.
Martin leaned and reached over them to point. “It’s identical except one minor detail.”
Both of the women turned in their seats, to stare at him.
“What?” They said in unison.
He pointed at KaDee’s screen. “See this one says fda.gov/science-research/clinical-trials-and-human-subject-protection. It’s the main page of the trials. It’s identical to yours except for one thing.
“The HIMEP isn’t listed anywhere on there.” KaDee leaned a little closer.
Marcie looked back to hers there was High-Intensity Microscopic ElectroProbe (HIMEP) with a blurb and a picture of the headset used on her father. Marcie read it over again, what the hell was he talking about.
“Why does my page have the HIMEP on it? I can’t see the difference.”
“Look.” He pointed to Marcie’s screen. “Your link is fda.gov/science-research/clinical-trials-and-human-subject-protection.”
“That’s the same thing, Martin, except the name of the trial.”
“No, look closer Marcie.” This time KaDee pointed to the URL. “The ‘a’ in human is a different font.”
Marcie returned her attention to her screen and leaned in closer and still couldn’t tell. She copied and pasted the link to her notepad then clicked on home. Then clicked on the link for clinical trial. Sure enough, the trial wasn’t there she copied this link directly under the link the doctor had given her.
“Look at these,” Marcie said. The two leaned in. “How on earth did you catch that? The fonts are so close I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t pointed it out.”
“Whoever sent that link to Browning Medical has some mad technical skills.” KaDee grinned as if in awe of the skill. “And they didn’t anticipate you or the Medical facility to do anything other than click on the trial and stay there.”
“Until you decided to check out the site, I hadn’t done anything but go to those two pages. There hadn’t been a need.” Marcie had navigated to the HIMEP page again. She clicked on home. “It goes back to the FDA home page though. Somehow, it’s linked to the live official site. Wait, no it’s not. Everything is here, and when I click on the link it goes to the clinical trials. And again, mine has the HIMEP link to take me to the page. The clinical trial link has a different font on only that one letter.”
“Definitely someone knew what they were doing. It’s copied perfectly.” Martin wandered to the balcony window again. Then back to his seat. “I think the detectives need to know about this.”
“You bet they do.” KaDee didn’t lift her eyes from the screen.
“They’re probably busy with the crime scene. How long do things like that take?” Marcie asked.
Martin gave a one-shoulder shrug. KaDee finally glanced up. She shook her head in the negative. Marcie looked at her smartwatch. Where had the time gone?
“Martin, do you mind leaving the recording and the piece of paper with the message with us?” Marcie glanced down at his bag. “Do you have any other files that will be useful?”
“I have the official file on Zinnal. Maybe it should have stayed with the company.”
Again, that feeling of unease that Martin was holding something back. Though he’d seemed very willing to help track down who caused the accident. No, it was something more personal about Jonas. Was he having an affair and Martin knew? Maybe Jonas had loved the woman, but he wanted to break it off and move to save his marriage?
“Marcie, what is it? You’ve turned pale and you’re shaking.”
KaDee’s words pulled her from her thoughts. Not a minute too soon, she was about to go down the rabbit hole.
“Just letting my thoughts wander.”
“They hadn’t looked like they’d been good.” KaDee returned her attention to her endless notes. After another tap or two, she powered off. “I think I have finally documented our trip. What’s next?”
She looked from KaDee’s questioning expression to Martin. He seemed lost in his thoughts as he gazed toward the balcony. The file in his lap. Did she want to ask the question about Jonas? Did she really want to know? Maybe, for now, it was best to keep to the file.
“What is in the official file Martin?”
He started and turned to her. “Sorry.”
He lifted the file, opened it, and was about to set it on the table when he lifted his gaze to them and nodded toward the clutter. Marcie powered off her laptop, put it in the bag, and set it next to her chair. KaDee had just finished doing the same when Martin laid the file open on the table.
“When I cleaned out his office, I just shoved it in with the rest of his files. You know the handwritten ones about his perception of the client of the company, etc. I gave all of those to you.”
“Why didn’t Alderman, Faraday & Conrad keep the account open?” KaDee asked.
“It wasn’t an account. It was a position with Zinnal. The firm had turned down the account.” He shrugged. “I think Jonas had brought the file with him from the meeting. I’m not certain because he didn’t tell me about it until later. That is why I kept it, it wasn’t the property of the firms. I honestly don’t remember much about the position.”
“Have you looked through the file, Martin?” KaDee asked.
Martin turned his attention to her. “I did last night after I retrieved it from storage along with the recorder. I didn’t see anything of importance. But then I didn’t know what I should look for.”
“Did it mention any research that could have been this cutting-edge technology we heard about on the recording?” Marcie asked.
“Let’s look.”
They all leaned forward and read. Martin flipped the pages when they were ready. It wasn’t a thick file, and many of the papers were flyers and research information.
“That’s it.”
Marcie stared at the prototype. It had been modified in the two years of testing, but it was close enough for her to know it was the treatment her papi was on.
