"But you know this guy Kaidanov?"
"I know who he is. He works in R and D. I don't know him personally."
"And he's working with these monkeys?"
"No. Not to my knowledge."
"What does `not to my knowledge' mean? You're not holding out on me, are you? This letter could cost your company millions, if you're lucky, and it could sink Geller if you're not."
Schroeder was sweating. "I swear, Arthur, I've never heard of a single study that we've conducted that came back with results like these. What kind of company do you think we run? If I got wind of a study of Insufort with those results, do you think I'd okay human trials?"
"I want to speak to Kaidanov and Fournet immediately, this afternoon," Briggs said.
"I'll phone my office and set it up."
When Schroeder walked over to the credenza and punched in the number of his office, Briggs turned toward Daniel, who had tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Briggs held out his copy of the Kaidanov letter, which had sustained serious damage.
"Explain this, Ames," he demanded in a soft tone that was more frightening than the screams he'd expected.
"I . . . uh, Mr. Briggs . . . I've never seen it."
"Never seen it," Briggs repeated. "Was Flynn lying when he said that you gave it to him?"
Daniel glanced at Susan. She averted her eyes, but her body language revealed her anxiety. Daniel looked back at Briggs.
"Well?" Briggs asked, his voice slightly louder.
"He didn't mean that literally, Mr. Briggs. I was told to review five large boxes of documents that Geller produced in response to a demand for discovery." Daniel was the only one who saw Susan release her pent-up breath. "I was told to deliver the discovery first thing in the morning, eightA.M. I didn't see the boxes until eight the night before. There were roughly twenty thousand pages. I stayed at the office all evening. I even slept here. There were too many pages for me to review every one of them in that time."
"And that's your excuse?"
"It's not an excuse. Nobody could have gone through every page in those boxes in the time I had."
"You're not a `nobody,' Ames. You're a Reed, Briggs associate. If we wanted nobodies we'd pay minimum wage and hire graduates of unaccredited, correspondence law schools."
"Mr. Briggs. I'm sorry, but-"
"My secretary will set up the meetings," Schroeder said as he hung up the phone. To Daniel's great relief, Schroeder's statement distracted Briggs.
Schroeder reread Kaidanov's letter. When he was done he held it up. He looked grim.
"I think this is a fraud. We never conducted a study with these results," he declared emphatically. "I'm certain of it."
"You'd better be right," Briggs said. "If Judge Norris rules that this letter is admissible in court, and we can't prove it's a fake, you, and everyone else at Geller Pharmaceuticals, will be selling pencils on street corners."
Briggs started to lead Newbauer and Schroeder out of the room. Daniel hung back, hoping to escape Briggs's notice, but the senior partner stopped at the door and cast a scathing look at him.
"I'll talk with you, later," Briggs said.
The door closed and Daniel was left alone in the conference room.
Chapter Seven.
Daniel spent the afternoon waiting for the ax to fall. Around two, he dialed Susan's extension to find out what was going on, but her secretary told him that she was at Geller Pharmaceuticals with Arthur Briggs. An hour later, when he realized that he'd never get any work done, Daniel went home to his one-bedroom walk-up on the third floor of an old brick apartment house in northwest Portland. His place was small and sparsely furnished with things Daniel had transported from his law-school apartment in Eugene. Its most attractive feature was its location near Northwest Twenty-first and Twenty-third streets with their restaurants, shops, and crowds. But today the apartment could have been in the heart of Paris and Daniel would not have noticed. Arthur Briggs was going to fire him. He was sure of it. Everything he had worked for was going to be destroyed because of a single sheet of paper.
Something else troubled Daniel. He had been so worried about being fired that it was not until he was in bed, eyes closed, that the true importance of Dr. Sergey Kaidanov's letter dawned on him. Until he read the letter, Daniel had been convinced that there was no merit to the lawsuit Aaron Flynn had brought on behalf of Toby Moffitt, Patrick Cummings, and the other children allegedly affected by Insufort. What if he was wrong? What if Geller Pharmaceuticals knew that it was selling a product that could deform innocent babies? Daniel was part of a team representing Geller. If the company was knowingly responsible for the horror that had been visited upon Patrick Cummings and Daniel continued to defend Geller, he would be aiding and abetting a terrible enterprise.
Daniel tossed and turned all night and was exhausted when his alarm went off. By the time he arrived at Reed, Briggs the next morning, he was certain that everyone in the firm knew about his blunder. Daniel managed to get from the elevator to his office without meeting anyone, but he was barely settled behind his desk when Joe Molinari walked in and his day started to go downhill.
"What the fuck did you do?" Molinari asked in a hushed voice as soon as he shut the door.
"What do you mean?" Daniel asked nervously.
"The word is that Briggs has a hair up his ass the size of a redwood and you put it there."
"Shit."
"So it's true."
Daniel felt utterly defeated.
"What happened?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Look, compadre, I'm here for you."
"I appreciate the support. I'd just rather be alone now."
"Okay," Molinari said reluctantly. He stood up. "Just remember what I said. If there's something I can do, ask."
Molinari left. Daniel felt exhausted and the day had just started. It suddenly dawned on him that he had never gotten around to discussing with Susan her role in the discovery fiasco. If Susan went to Briggs and told him that she was partly to blame, it might help, and from what Molinari said, he could use all the help he could get. Daniel walked down the hall to Susan's office. She was wearing a cream-colored blouse and a gray pantsuit and looked as fresh and untroubled as a woman who had slept for twenty-four hours.
"Susan?"
"Oh, hi," she answered with a smile.
"Got a minute?"
Daniel started toward a chair.
"Actually, I don't." Daniel stopped in his tracks. "Arthur needs this yesterday."
"We really have to talk."
"Now is not a good time," she said firmly. Her smile was starting to look a little strained.
"I was hoping that you'd tell Arthur that you were supposed to review the discovery and that I helped you out."
Susan looked surprised, as if the idea had never occurred to her.
"Why would I do that?"
"So he'd know how big the job was and that I didn't get started until the last minute," Daniel answered, trying to rein in his temper.
"Even if I was supposed to review the discovery, you're the one who did," Susan answered defensively. "If I tell Arthur, it won't help. All that will accomplish is getting me in trouble, too."
"If Briggs knew that we were both to blame it would take some of the pressure off of me."
Susan looked nervous. " Ididn't go through the discovery. You're the one who missed that letter."
"You'd have missed it, too. Briggs would have missed it."
"You're right," Susan agreed quickly. "Look, you'll be okay. Arthur gets angry easily, but he'll be distracted by this mess and forget you delivered the letter."
"Fat chance."
"Or he'll see that you're right. That the letter was a needle in a haystack that no one could have found unless they were incredibly lucky. You don't have to worry."