Bliss (8 page)

“He knew more than you think.”

Lindsey recognized the voices of Katherine Blair and Stephen Vetter. She wasn’t sure, but it sounded like they were talking about Dr. Collett.

“You’ve obviously had too much to drink, Katherine. Now this discussion is over, and don’t mention it to me anymore.”

“Or what, Stephen? You gonna beat me up again?”

Lindsey could hear Katherine slurring her words. She sounded drunk.

“I’m going back downstairs,” Vetter said. “Now you get yourself together, or you’ll be the next one looking for a job.”

“Ha! You can’t do it without me, Stephen. Remember, I know all the secrets of Bliss and your little project.”

“Shut up!”

Lindsey heard footsteps coming in her direction and she dashed to the stairs and down into the kitchen.

She hadn’t gotten ten steps when she saw him.

She looked at him and his face went agog in astonishment. Frank Deldeo nearly choked on his drink when he saw Lindsey.

She said nothing and walked directly to the pool. Jason was still talking to Kenny Rogers when she walked up.

“Jason, excuse me.”

“Lindsey, this is Dr.–“

”I’m sorry, Jason, but we need to go now. I have an emergency at home. Can we please go?”

“Sure honey.” Jason got up and said good-bye. Lindsey grabbed his arm and made a beeline for their car.

Lindsey pulled Jason toward her. “He’s here. I just saw him. I wanna wait for him to come out and follow him. See what he’s doing in Phoenix.”

Jason heaved a sigh as they climbed into the car. “Lindsey, if he’s here, it’s a matter for the police.”

“What do you mean, if? I can’t believe you. You still think I’m imagining this whole thing, don’t you?”

“No, but we agreed we would make sure before we did anything stupid.”

“Well you sure haven’t been much help. All you did all night was sat and talk to some Kenny Rogers look alike.”

“For your information, that guy is head of Neurosurgery at Paluma Medical Center here in Scottsdale. He offered me a job after I’m finished in Tucson. And besides, I didn’t ask to come here. You forced me.”

“Fine,” Lindsey said, getting out of the car. “I’ll go back and confront him.”

Jason got out and stood in front of Lindsey. “Fine. We’ll wait for him. And then what?”

“We follow him and see where he goes. Then we can call the police and see why he’s out of jail.”

Lindsey got back in the car and leaned back in her seat. Jason climbed in next to her.

“You should have heard the conversation... ah, make that, argument, that I overheard,” Lindsey said. “My supervisor, Katherine and Mr. Vetter. He threatened her. He’s up to something. And seeing that thug, Deldeo here, just makes it that much more apparent. Jason, I believe they lured me out to Phoenix. For another reason
besides
work.”

Back at her house at
2:00 A.M., Lindsey didn’t even attempt to get into bed. Sleep was out of the question. Right now she doubted if she’d ever be able to sleep again. She and Jason had waited for two hours outside Vetter’s estate and after some prodding from Jason and a throbbing headache, had decided to give up on Frank Deldeo for the night.

Now, with Jason stretched out on the couch asleep, her mind raced. She had an overwhelming desire to call someone.
Anyone. Some kind of help.
She thought of calling Dr. Collett, but with a multitude of his own problems weighing on him, she was reluctant to get him any more involved than he already was. And although Jason was there, she couldn’t expect him to stay, because
she
wanted to play detective. He had his career, and their future, to think of. He was already in hot water with the hospital for taking the preceding two days off.

So who was left? The few friends she’d had in New York she’d distanced herself from before she moved. She hadn’t even bothered telling them she was leaving. In fact, one of her reasons for moving to Phoenix was to get away from them, from their superficial personalities. She imagined if she called one of them now that they’d not even remember her.

That left two possibilities.

One was the police. Would they even believe her? And if they did, they were sure to contact Vetter and check her suspicion. If he were involved with Deldeo, which it appeared he was, he would never admit it. The only thing it would do is put her at more risk. The revulsion Lindsey felt spreading through her now was one of betrayl. She had believed in Vetter.
How can he be involved with that thug?
Lindsey knew she didn’t have much to go on. What was she supposed to tell the police? She suspected there was something going on at Imec? There was no proof of anything. And what if Jason was right about Deldeo, and the whole thing was a case of mistaken identity? Feeling sick to her stomach, Lindsey wondered what she should do.

If she couldn’t turn to the police, that left just one person.
Katherine Blair.

From the day they’d met, she’d sensed Katherine’s mixed feelings about the Bliss project. She’d confided in Lindsey that Stephen Vetter always got his way, regardless of who suffered to get there. She’d seen that side of Vetter with his handling of Dr. Collett. Vetter had blatantly ignored his warnings and fired him for challenging the safety of the company’s drugs. And after the conversation she’d overheard at Vetter’s party, it was obvious that Katherine knew things that no one else did. Besides that, whatever Katherine’s relationship was to Vetter, she was unhappy. Lindsey sensed that from the beginning. She seemed to be more of a prisoner, than an assistant CEO.

For the first time, it occurred to her that if she were going to get to the bottom of Vetter’s game, she would need Katherine Blair’s help. The threat of Frank Deldeo loomed over her, and it was only a matter of time before he figured out her identity and came after her. The look on his face tonight told her, he might already know. If so, she’d be lucky to get away with her life.

With rising urgency, she went to her phone and punched in Katherine’s number. She knew Katherine wouldn’t be there. She was probably passed out on Vetter’s bed by now. Suspecting Vetter might have Katherine’s phone bugged, Lindsey left a message for Katherine to call her for a lunch date. She hung up.

Next, she went to the counter and made a pot of coffee. Maybe coffee would fend off her growing fatigue, since sleep was out of the question. While she waited for the coffee to brew, she went to the bedroom and got her briefcase. She wanted to look over the Bliss production reports Vetter had given her. Maybe it contained a clue about why the whole project reeked of dishonesty? She’d been involved in marketing new pharmaceuticals for the past three years, and though she knew the industry had a cloak-and-dagger aspect to it, nothing came close to the secrecy of the Bliss project.

It seemed almost paranoid.

She turned to leave the room and heard that high-pitched humming that had started on the day she moved in. Lindsey froze and tried to listen, but couldn’t pinpoint the sound. Deciding to agree with Jason that it was the air-conditioning system, Lindsey returned to the kitchen and poured herself some coffee.

She opened a large manila envelope, and took out the first of the preliminary research reports on Bliss, studying them carefully. The first few pages were all chemical formularies that meant nothing to Lindsey. Next was a long dissertation by Vetter, himself, about Imec and its planned future contributions to the pharmaceutical industry. Then, an introduction to Bliss and the many potential benefits it would offer patients. Nothing jumped out as unusual. She continued through the paper, skimming over financial reports and non-medical issues.

Then it hit her.

What was missing?

Every research and marketing report she had ever dealt with had major sections dedicated strictly to the clinical trials of the drug, and the results of those trials. This report contained not a single mention of any. Yet according to Vetter, they were in phase three of FDA approval, which meant human trials were ongoing. And Katherine herself had evaded the issue each time Lindsey had brought it up.

Lindsey sat in stunned silence. That had to be it.

Vetter was going to market Bliss without any clinical trials!

But how? The FDA had to approve every new drug based on its trials. Even a moron knew that.

Absurd, it wasn’t possible.
Was it?

Frank Deldeo tore across the
desert highway toward his apartment in Phoenix. He still couldn’t believe it. But after a slow recollection, now he knew. Two years earlier, she had stared him down in a New York district courtroom, awaiting a judge’s ruling on his murder charge.

Her father, Mickey Walsh had been a customer of Deldeo’s boss, Lou Salvano. Walsh had a small grocery store on New York’s east side. When the local real estate boom hit, Walsh needed money to upgrade his store to compete with the larger grocery chains that had moved into the area. Having been from the old Irish class, he’d never bothered establishing any credit, so when he needed a loan, the banks turned him down cold. Enter Lou Salvano, loan shark.

Walsh borrowed ten thousand with a vig of half that amount. When he was late with his monthly payment, Salvano sent Deldeo to collect. Walsh refused to pay the loan off any further until Salvano agreed to lower the interest. When Salvano refused, Walsh threatened to go to the police. Before he did, Deldeo returned and took Walsh to one of Salvano’s construction projects. After beating the old man unconscious, Deldeo threw him from atop the 20-story building.

The daughter, Deldeo couldn’t remember her name, had led police to him after she’d found his name and number in her father’s belongings.

Deldeo still cursed himself for being so stupid.

After a lengthy trial, they’d found Deldeo guilty, based mostly on circumstantial evidence. He got twenty years. But after only nine months they released him on a technicality his lawyer had discovered after going over the trial transcripts.

Now, pulling into his parking space, Deldeo wondered if the girl knew. Judging from the look on her face at the party, he was the last person she ever expected to see. Now he had to figure out what to do about it. First he’d talk to that asshole Vetter. Find out more about her. Then he could get her address and deal with her directly. He still wanted to know what the hell she was doing at Vetter’s party. But first he had other things to attend to. The body in his trunk had started to reek. He’d have to make another trip to his favorite burial ground in the desert.

He couldn’t have ole Dr. Collett stinking up his trunk.

Two and a half days
passed; by Wednesday, Lindsey had called Katherine a dozen times and stopped at her office twice that much. She couldn’t help herself. Katherine might be the last and only thread connecting her to hope of learning more about the connection between Stephen Vetter and Frank Deldeo. She understood it was a long shot; Katherine had made it clear that Vetter forbid her to speak about certain aspects of the Bliss project. Lindsey also knew she acted suspicious herself, going by Katherine’s office so often. Each time she passed the door, Katherine’s secretary would give her a dirty look.

Finally, on her thirteenth trip there in two days, she stopped short of the secretary’s view and stared at the office door. She wished it could somehow give her all the answers she needed. Thankful for the opportunity of reaching the elevator unobserved, she slipped inside and decided to leave for the day. On the ride down to the lobby, it stopped on five. To Lindsey’s horror, when the doors opened, on stepped Stephen Vetter.

He gave Lindsey one of his toothy smiles. “Haven’t seen you all week.”

Lindsey gave him a fake smile of her own. “I’ve been busy writing reports.”

She felt relieved when the elevator stopped again immediately, on the fourth floor, where it picked up several other employees. She didn’t direct her gaze at Vetter the rest of the ride, but had the distinct feeling he was watching her.

Lindsey and Vetter got off last. He held his hand in front of the door to keep it from closing.

“Have a pleasant evening.” He smiled and stepped off.

“Thanks,” Lindsey said.

His arrogance tempted her to ask where Katherine was. But having come this far, she needed to act as normal as possible if she wanted to pull this off. She reminded herself around the Imec complex to adopt an air of business-as-usual, but keep her eyes and ears open. Until Katherine returned from wherever she’d gone. Then she would get to the bottom of it. Things had taken such an unexpected turn in the last week; Lindsey hadn’t even had time to plan her wedding. Although she intended it to be small, she still needed to send out invitations and decide where to have the ceremony. And she needed to call Jason. She hadn’t heard from him since he went back to Tucson.

Right now though, with Frank Deldeo running loose, she had to figure out how to stay alive long enough to get married. Maybe she’d become paranoid? She took a deep breath and stepped off the elevator with new resolve.

She had a plan.

After spending Thursday holed up
in her office, Lindsey decided to call in sick on Friday. She grabbed her favorite bottled water from the fridge and plopped down on the oversize sofa. She stared out the window, her mind racing. She had no idea if her suspicions made any sense or if they were just an over active imagination, but whatever the hell was going on, she knew she had to talk to Katherine Blair right away. After trying for over an hour to reach her without any luck, she finally relented and hung up the phone. She’d tried to call Katherine again later, but right now, she had another idea.

Frederick Meyer’s widow lived just outside Scottsdale in a small retirement community called Leisure World. Katherine had imparted that information when they were out to dinner a few weeks earlier. Lindsey didn’t know if the woman would be able to help her, but in her desperation for answers, she felt anything might shed some light on the information she sought.