‘What are you up to, Donnelly? What’s this about?’
‘It’s straightforward.’
‘You’re treating someone, aren’t you? That’s it. You’re trying out your crazy idea on someone and you’ve run out.’
‘That needn’t concern you. You give me the Valdevan, I pull the paper. That’s the deal. What d’you say?’
‘And if your highly illegal experiment should work — not that I think it will, mind you — you’ll splash it all over the papers.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. Who’d print a story like that? Student cures cancer? Jesus.’
‘It must be someone close to you, right?’
‘Like I say, that doesn’t concern you, so what’s it going to be? A few grams of Valdevan or a mega-buck hit for GS?’
‘In the unlikely event of my agreeing to this, where would you want it sent?’
Gavin swallowed and dared to allow himself a small, inward sigh of relief. ‘Send it directly to me at this address.’ He read it out. ‘There’s no need to involve the university. I need therapeutic grade Valdevan in injection vials.’
‘So you are treating someone. You know, Gavin, for such a bright guy...’
‘I need it in two days.’
Gavin put the phone down and spent a long time just looking at the wall in front of him. He’d played the only cards he had left, and he was bluffing. He wondered if Ehrman would check with the university about Frank. Even if he did, being told that Frank was off work might sustain the lie he’d told. He had two days to tough it out. He called Caroline. ‘There’s a chance I can get some more Valdevan,’
‘How?’
‘It’s a long story, but there’s a chance Grumman will change their minds. It should be here in a couple of days if it’s coming, but there’s no guarantee.’
‘Then I won’t say anything to Mum or Dad.’
‘That would be safest. Your mum must be at rock bottom right now?’
‘You could say. I think Dad’s started blaming me again for giving her false hope.’
‘Shit, I’m so sorry.’
‘Gavin... are you all right?’ asked Caroline. ‘I mean, you sound a bit distant?’
‘I’m just tired.’
‘I’ll bet. I wish I could hold you. I miss you, but I don’t think I can come back right now.’
‘I miss you too. I’ll call you the minute the stuff arrives.’
Two days later, Gavin was woken by the sound of mail coming through the letterbox. His flatmates were all out at work and he had a hangover, but his first clear thought was that the postman should have rung the bell. The package from Grumman Schalk should have been too big for the letterbox, and it should have needed a signature for coming express delivery. Alarm bells were ringing inside his head as he got out of bed and padded across the hall in bare feet to pick up the untidy bundle. There was only one letter addressed to him, but it did have the Grumman Schalk logo on it. He took it to the kitchen table and slumped down, staring at the white envelope for a full thirty seconds before summoning up the courage to open it.
Dear Gavin,
Further to our telephone conversation, I and my colleagues have decided after much consideration to decline your request for further supplies of Valdevan. Although your research findings in recent months have proved interesting, we still feel that they do not comprise any sound basis for encouraging false hope in cancer sufferers, and certainly do not warrant any kind of therapeutic experimentation. We have conveyed our feelings to your university. They in turn have assured us that all relevant scientific journals have been warned that any material submitted by you will not carry university approval.
We feel sad that we cannot come to an understanding to work together for the common good of cancer patients. With this in mind, we are prepared to offer you sponsorship to continue your studies, with a view to designing a more acceptable form of treatment, based on your research findings and matters discussed in our recent telephone conversation. We understand that this would be acceptable to your university and such studies would count towards your PhD and, hopefully, to subsequent employment by us. We urge you to consider this offer, which we feel could lead to a happy outcome for all of us.
Yours sincerely,
‘Tossers,’ growled Gavin, scrunching up the letter and throwing it across the room. ‘Devious, fucking tossers.’ He got up and walked over to the window to stare out at the rain, while gripping the edge of the kitchen sink until his knuckles showed white. The implications of the letter came at him from all angles. Carrie’s mother would now die and, although the suggestion to treat her had been hers, Carrie would always see the extra dimension to her mother’s death as being down to him. Her father was already seeing it that way. The suggestion of ‘therapeutic experimentation’ had been made to the university, and it wouldn’t take Inspector Morse to figure out what had been going on, should they decide to call in the police. The bottom line was very clear as he continued to look at the rain through the tears that were running down his face. You either play the game our way or you don’t play at all...
When Gavin didn’t call about a new supply of Valdevan, Caroline called him, but failed to get an answer. He didn’t respond to either the flat phone or his mobile, and a call to the university revealed that he had not been seen in the department. This was to go on for three days before she became so anxious that she packed a bag and told her father she was going up to Edinburgh to find out what was wrong. Her first port of call was the flat in Dundas Street, where Tim Anderson told her that Gavin had not been home ‘for a couple of days’. He invited her in and offered her coffee when she told him who she was, and said, ‘I thought maybe he had gone south to your place. I understand your mother’s not well.’
‘No. I haven’t managed to contact him since Tuesday.’
‘He seems to have been a bit low lately,’ said Anderson.
‘Could I see his room?’ asked Caroline.
‘Sure, on you go.’
Caroline swallowed as she entered Gavin’s room. Maybe it was what Tim had said, but she was filled with foreboding. Something was dreadfully wrong. Gavin didn’t have much in the way of clothes but most of them seemed to be there, except perhaps for his beloved green jersey, and his denim jacket, which wasn’t hanging on the back of the door. He certainly hadn’t packed up all his belongings and gone off somewhere. His laptop was lying on the floor beside the bed, with what she saw when she picked them up were three copies of the Valdevan paper. She froze when she saw the white envelope that had been lying underneath. It had her name on it. She opened it with trembling fingers.
Dearest Carrie,
Grumman Schalk refused to play ball. No more Valdevan I’m afraid.
I’m so sorry for all the heartbreak I’ve brought into your life and the lives of others. I just hope that you will find it in your heart one day to forgive me and, if you should ever find yourself alone on the road to forever, you’ll find me waiting there.
All my love,
Caroline’s sobbing attracted Tim, who knocked gently on the half-open door. ‘I couldn’t help but hear...’
Caroline handed him the tear-stained letter. ‘Oh, God, what’s he done?’ she sobbed.
Tim accompanied Caroline to the police station, where they reported Gavin missing and showed the desk sergeant the letter so that they would be taken seriously.