“I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, we need to stop that lot number from being distributed.”
“How do we do that?”
“I can talk to my supervisors, but I’m guessing they’ll say that at this point we don’t have enough to approach PTPharmaceuticals about any kind of recall. Right now any decisions like that would probably need to come directly from the pharmaceutical firm. After all, no one at pharmacies or distribution centers really verifies those numbers unless they have to. The only practical way to stave this off would be to stop all Calydrole from being shipped and used.”
“I’ll see what I can do on that front.” My vibrating phone showed a text from Dr. Neubauer that said it looked like he would be done with the analysis of the pills by two thirty, earlier than I’d expected.
“Anything else?” Jason asked me.
“I can’t think of anything right now. You’ve been helpful. Keep me up to speed.”
“I will.”
“And by the way, all that information about counterfeit drugs — pretty disturbing.”
“You’re telling me. I’ve been trying, and failing, to slow down the avalanche for years.”
We exchanged cell numbers, he left, and I put a call through to Margaret to see if we had some way to approach PTPharmaceuticals with the request to pull one of its most profitable drugs off the market until we could ascertain if more people were at risk.
While I waited to hear from her, since the cafeteria was closed, I grabbed a quick, albeit late lunch — a turkey sandwich, Snickers, and a Cherry Coke — at the Board Room, the Academy’s deli and snack shop across the hall from the dining area, then I returned to my office to record my thoughts from my meeting with Kantsos before heading to the Lab to meet with Dr. Neubauer.
60
The secretary ushered Tessa into Assistant Principal Thacker’s office.
“Good afternoon, Tessa.”
“Good afternoon.”
Even though she wasn’t at all excited about the idea, she geared up to tell him her “Death of Everything in the Universe” speech synopsis and hoped maybe he would decide she wasn’t the best person to speak at graduation after all. Then she wouldn’t be bailing, Aiden would have no reason to think less of her, and she would still get out of it.
Perfect.
Thacker, who was built sort of like a human penguin, laid a stack of papers on his desk. “Mr. Tilson has informed me that you’re on your way to an incomplete in his class.”
A beat. “Excuse me?”
“It appears you failed to turn in your senior project last week.” He consulted the report in front of him. “A paper I see you were writing about Edgar Allan Poe’s impact on modern gothic literature.”
“No, I handed that in.”
But Thacker shook his head. “There’s no record of that.”
Ah, so this was what she got for standing up to Tilson in class.
What a jerk.
“How can I get this cleared up?”
“You’re going to have to work that out with Mr. Tilson on Monday — he’s out sick today.”
Of course.
“One other thing.”
Okay, here it comes.
“I also wanted to check in with you about your graduation talk. How’s your progress on that coming along?”
“Yeah, um, okay. I’m… what about if I get an incomplete? Do I still get to graduate on time?”
“I’m confident that you and Mr. Tilson can straighten this out. Don’t worry, you’ll be on that stage come graduation day. So do you need to run any ideas by me?”
“I’m… It’s coming. I think I’m gonna talk about the meaning of life.”
“Sounds ambitious.”
“Yeah…” She paused. “Listen, here’s the thing, though, I—”
The tardy bell rang.
“You should really get to class.” Assistant Principal Thacker scribbled his name on a hall pass for her. “We’ll talk soon about that speech, okay? I can’t wait to hear what the meaning of life is.”
“Right,” she mumbled. “I’m sure you’ll find my thoughts on the matter unforgettable.”
Vanessa stared across the table at her new client, Richard Devin Basque.
“The man I represent has an offer,” she told him.
Only the two of them were in the detention center’s interrogation room deep beneath the Hoover Building. As with all meetings between lawyers and their clients, no agents or other law enforcement officers were allowed to be present. The sessions were videotaped and monitored, of course, in case the prisoner attacked the lawyer, but they were taped in a way that the lips of the two people and any papers the lawyer might have were not visible.
She continued. “He would like to help you.”
“How?”
“By getting you out of here.”
“That’s not going to be easy.”
“Trust me. He’s a man who does not shy away from a challenge.”
Richard eyed her. “What does he want from me in return?”
“He wants you to finish something you started with a certain person who works here at the Bureau.”
“And who is that?”
“Special Agent Patrick Bowers.”
Silence. “Tell your employer I’m interested.”
“I’ll do that. In the meantime, I’m going to start reviewing your case files. Is there anything I can get for you?”
“A paper clip.”
“A paper clip?”
He held up his shackled hands. “Yes.”
She smiled faintly. “I think I can manage that. Are you sure you want to go about things that way?”
“I think it would save us both a lot of time. When do you think you can make it back in?”
“Well, there’s no reason to wait. How about this evening? I have some things to take care of this afternoon. Let’s say five thirty? I should be able to make it back by then.”
“Perfect. I’ll see you at five thirty.”
61
I stepped through the front door of the Lab and was shocked when Director Wellington met me in the lobby.
“Agent Bowers. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“What are you doing here?”
“This involves my brother. I want to know everything there is to know about how the investigation is going. I want answers, and I want them as soon as possible.”
Well, if nothing else, she was direct.
How she’d learned that I’d called on Dr. Neubauer was a mystery to me, but she seemed to have her finger on the pulse of things, and for the time being I didn’t ask her how she’d ended up here ahead of me.
There are three sets of elevators in the Lab — one for freight, one for people, and one that’s dedicated solely to transporting evidence. It’s just one of the precautions to make sure that evidence isn’t tainted at all before it’s examined here.
As we walked to the personnel elevator, I summarized my meeting with Agent Kantsos.
Margaret listened carefully. “Yes. I received your message about contacting PTPharmaceuticals concerning a recall. However, I agree with Agent Kantsos — there’s not nearly enough evidence yet to do that. The Bureau’s lawyers would never go for it. We need to at least wait for FDA’s analysis of the drug.”
Not a big surprise, but catching a break at this point would have been nice.
We left the elevator on the third floor and crossed the hallway toward Dr. Neubauer’s lab.