The official investiture of Sir Martin Peat-Smith by Her Majesty would be at Buckingham Palace in the first week of February. Celia, learning of this during a congratulatory telephone call to Martin, said, "Andrew and I will come over the week before, and after you've been to the Palace we'll have a party for you and Yvonne.”
Thus, near the end of January, Celia and Andrew were in London, accompanied by Lilian Hawthorne whom Celia had persuaded to join them. In the seven and a half years since Sam's death, Lilian had grown accustomed to living alone and seldom traveled. But Celia pointed out that the occasion was, in a way, a memorial to Sam since the Harlow institute had been his idea, and Martin, Sam's choice to head it. Celia, Andrew and Lilian were staying at the latest "in" place for affluent travellers- Forty-seven Park Street in Mayfair, where hotel convenience was combined with private luxury apartments. Lilian, who would be sixty at her next birthday, was still a strikingly handsome woman, and during a visit by the trio to the Harlow institute Rao Sastri was obviously attracted to her, despite the twenty-year difference in their ages. Sastri conducted a special tour of the labs for Lilian and afterward the two of them took off for lunch. Celia was amused to learn that they had arranged an evening in London--dinner and a theater-for the following week. On Monday, two days before the investiture, Celia received a transatlantic call from Bill Ingram.”I'm sorry to burden you with bad news," the executive vice president began, "but Childers Quentin just called. It seems that in Washington all hell just broke loose.”
The news, he explained, concerned the FDA, Dr. Gideon Mace, the Department of Justice, Senator Dennis Donahue and Hexin W. "The way Quentin tells it," Ingram said, "is that Mace got tired of what he saw as inaction at the Justice Department. So on his own, unofficially, he took all the Hexin W papers over to Capitol Hill to one of Donahue's aides. The aide showed them to Donahue, who grabbed the whole schmear as if it were a Christmas present. According to Quentin's informant, the senator's words were, 'I've been waiting for something like this.' "Yes," Celia said, "I can imagine.”
"The next thing," Ingram continued, "is that Donahue called the Attorney General and demanded action. Since then--again as Quentin tells it-Donahue's been calling the A.G. every hour on the hour.”
Celia sighed.”That's a lot of bad news at once. Is there anything else?" "Unfortunately, quite a bit more. First, it's now definite that a grand jury will be empanelled to look into the Hexin W delayed reports, plus something else that's come out. And the Attorney General, who's taking a personal interest because of Donahue, is sure he can get indictments.”
"Against whom?" "Vince Lord, of course. But also, I'm sorry to tell you, Celia, against you. They're going to argue that you were responsible--and that's on Donahue's urging. According to Quentin, Donahue wants your scalp.”
Celia knew why. She remembered the Washington lawyer's warning after the Senate hearings.”You made him look a fool... 1f any time in the future, he can do harm to Felding-Roth or to you... he'll do it and enjoy it.”
Then she recalled some words of Ingram's spoken moments earlier and asked, "Bill, you said there was 'something else that's come out.' What?" This time Ingram sighed. Then he said, "This gets complicated, though I'll try to put it simply. "When the clinical testing data on Hexin W was submitted to Washington with our NDA, it contained the usual gamut of medical studies, including one by a Dr. Yaminer of Phoenix. It now turns out that Yammer's study was a fake. He listed patients he didn't have. Much of his data was fraudulent.”
"I'm sorry to hear that," Celia said, "though it happens occasionally. Other companies have had the same problem. But when you find out about the faking-if you do-you tell the FDA and they go after the doctor.”
"Right," Ingram agreed.”What you're not supposed to do, though, is include the data in an NDA after discovering it to be false.”
"Of course not.”
"Vince did. He initialed Yammer's report and let it go.”
Celia asked, "But how does anyone know that Vince was aware
"I'm coming to that.”
She said wearily, "Go on.”
"When those federal marshals were with us, doing their search and seizure, they took away files from Vince's department. Among them was one for Dr. Yaminer. In that file were some rough notes in Vince's handwriting, showing he'd discovered Yaminer's report to be false before he let it go to FDA. The Justice Department now has the original report and Vince's notes.”
Celia was silent. What was there to say? She wondered: was there any end to infamy? "And I guess, that's all," Ingram said.”Except "Except what?" "Well... it's about Dr. Mace, and the way he seems antagonistic to us. I remember you saying once that you had no idea why.”
-I still haven't.”
"I think Vince knows why," Ingram said.”I have an instinct. I've watched Vince too. He seems scared stiff any time Mace's name comes up.”
Celia weighed what she had just heard. Then suddenly, in her mind, Ingram's words linked up with a conversation she had had with Lord at the time of the Senate hearings. She had accused him then of lying on the witness stand and... Making a fast decision, she said, "I want to see him. Over here.”
"Vince?" "Yes. Tell him it's an order. He's to get on the first available plane and report to me as soon as he arrives.”
Now they faced each other. Celia and Vincent Lord. They were in the living room of the Jordans' Mayfair apartment. Lord looked tired, older than his sixty-one years, and under strain. He had lost weight so that his face was even thinner than before. His face muscles, which earlier had twitched occasionally, were doing it more often. Celia remembered an incident from her early days as assistant director of sales training, when she had often gone to Lord for technical advice. In attempting to be friendly she had suggested that they use first names, and Lord had replied unpleasantly, "It would be better for both of us, Mrs. Jordan, to remember at all times the difference in our status.” Well, Celia thought, for this occasion she would take his advice. She said coldly, "I will not discuss the disgraceful Yaminer affair, Dr. Lord, except to say that it gives the company an opportunity to dissociate itself from you, and leave you to defend yourself about everything-at your own expense.”
With a glint of triumph in his eyes, Lord said, "You can't do that because you're going to be indicted too.”
"If I choose to do it, I can. And any defense arrangements I make for myself are my concern, not yours.”
“If you choose...?" He seemed puzzled. 'I will not make any commitment. Understand that. But if the company is to help with your defense, I insist on knowing everything.”
“Everything?" 'There's something in the past," Celia said.”Something that you know and I don't. I believe it has to do with Dr. Mace.”
They had been standing. Lord motioned to a chair.”May I?” “Yes.”
Celia sat down too. 'All right," Lord said, "there is something. But you won't like hearing it. And after you know, you'll be sorry that you do.”
"I'm waiting. Get on with it.”
He told her. Told everything, going back to the first problems with Gideon Mace at the FDA, Mace's pettiness, the insults, the long, unreasonable delays in approving Staidpace-in the end, a good, lifesaving drug... Later the attempt to discover something harmful about Mace, resulting in Lord's Georgetown meeting in a homosexual bar with Tony Redmond, an FDA technician... Lord's purchase from Redmond of documents incriminating Mace. The cost: two thousand dollars--an expenditure approved by Sam, who later agreed not to disclose the information to a law enforcement agency but to hold the papers secretly, thus making Sam and Lord accessories to a crime... Two years later, when Mace was delaying FDA approval of Montayne, the decision, shared by Sam, to blackmail Mace... The blackmail succeeding, despite Dr. Mace's unease about the Australian report on Montayne and his honest doubts about the drug... Then it was done. Now Celia knew it all and, as Lord had predicted, wished that she did not. Yet she had had to know because it affected future judgments she would make as president of Felding-Roth. At the same time so much became clearer: Sam's despair and guilt, the real and deeper reason for his suicide... Dr. Mace's breakdown at the Senate hearings and, when asked why he had approved Montayne, his pathetic answer, "Ijust don't know. Mace's anger at Felding-Roth and all its works. Celia thought: If I were Mace I would hate us too. And now that Celia knew the sorry, dismal story, what came next? Her conscience told her there was only one thing she ought to do. Inform the authorities. Go public. Tell the truth. Let all concerned take their chances-Vincent Lord, Gideon Mace, Felding-Roth, herself. But what if she did? Where would it leave everybody? Lord and Mace would be destroyed of course-a thought which left her unconcerned. What did concern her was the realization that the company would be disgraced and dragged down too, and not just the company as a paper entity, but its people: employees, executives, stockholders, the other scientists apart from Vincent Lord. Only she herself might look good, but that was least important. Equally to the point was the question: If she went public what would be achieved? The answer: After this length of time-nothing. So she would not do the "conscience thing.”