From Filth & Mud (24 page)

Sarah was now on the edge of her seat, leaning heavily on her elbows. “So you were never contacted by BioSyn?”

“No. Well not exactly. Manny, Dr. Monte-Alban, called me a few times, texted, and emailed asking if I had arrived okay. How was my flight? Personal stuff of that nature, but he never mentioned anything about my meeting Eckert, or Dr. LaPierre. I let a couple of weeks pass before I pushed him on it, but he never had an answer. I was finally contacted by BioSyn, or I should say, Eckert, directly about a month later. That was totally strange!”

“I take it that it’s pretty unusual for the CEO of a major biotech company to contact a lowly scientist?” Sarah responded.

“Well yes, at least not without some major institutional intermediary playing a part like a university board member introducing you to industry representatives.”

“So did you meet Eckert?”

“Yes actually, it was a pretty strange and intense meeting, and that’s the reason I sought your help.” Karen paused and glanced around nervously, cleared her throat reflexively, as if the memory had somehow begun to suffocate her. Her cappuccino rippled with the tremors of an unseen terror.

“Relax, Karen. Remember it’s just you and me here, two girls sipping cappuccinos and having a chat.”

Karen smiled meekly and continued, “Well I received a call from Manny saying that Eckert and Dr. LaPierre wanted to meet me to thank me for my work. Manny added that Eckert would probably be making me a lucrative offer to join the company. I accepted the meeting even though I never intended to leave my lab and my work, but in this field you’ve got to keep your options open. I arrived in New York City the following week, and was informed that Dr. LaPierre had to reschedule the meeting, but that I would be meeting with BioSyn’s general counsel who had some paperwork for me to sign. I waited for a few minutes, and was then escorted to the general counsel’s office by a large goon who was part of their security staff. He was a well-dressed, military type, sporting a close-cropped, crew cut, and was good looking but serious.”

“I know the type well,” Sarah smiled. “So he made an impression did he?”

Karen returned her smile and continued, “So I met with the general counsel who handed me a file of documents, non-disclosure agreements and things of that nature. I refused to sign because I didn’t know what the meeting was about, and I know enough to know that I need a lawyer when dealing with transactional and contractual issues. So I politely refused to sign them in the office. I could tell that the general counsel was upset though he attempted to hide it. He told me that we had no further business until I signed the agreements and that he was sorry that he wasted my time. So I gathered my things and was about ready to leave when the general counsel received a call from Eckert. He told me that Eckert might still see me if I waited for him to finish up with a meeting. I was then escorted to the penthouse floor of the building where I waited in the lobby of Eckert’s office for about a minute before Eckert himself greeted me.”

“What was he like?” Sarah wanted a detailed view of the meeting beginning with a personal inventory of Eckert.

“He’s frankly a really good looking, nice guy. He is young for his position, in his forties, obviously successful, and I found him to be really smart. Eckert, he likes to be called Eckert, began to tell me about my work. He said that he had studied it and was impressed by how I had the gift of simplifying the really complicated. I thanked him for his kind words, and he talked to me about having me join their team. He offered me a position, my own funding, and my choice of staff if I came to work for him. The only thing that he asked in return was my help in developing Manny’s and Dr. LaPierre’s project. I thanked him for the offer, but told him that I wasn’t prepared to make a decision at the moment and left. Everything seemed okay until a week later when I received a cease-and-desist letter from BioSyn.”

Sarah was puzzled, “Cease-and-desist? What precisely are they asking you to stop work on?”

“
Everything
. All of my research. The letter alleged that I was infringing on their intellectual property rights, specifically having to do with the chrysalis design, and other research work that I was conducting that had been brought to their attention. They sent the letter to the university, and now I have to appear at an inquiry before the research board regarding the issue. I was supposed to meet with the university’s general counsel’s office, but the last thing that they want to do is make enemies with the biotech industry. So I know I’m screwed.”

Sarah tried to be reassuring, but she was struggling, “I’m sure that this feels like a nightmare to you but it is the reality of how some legal battles are waged.”

“There is something else. I know that it sounds paranoid, but I think that it’s more serious than the legal issue. I didn’t want to mention it over the phone.” Karen’s cappuccino now rippled uncontrollably in her hand. “I tried to contact Manny, but he hasn’t returned my calls or texts. I was able to track down a general number for Dr. LaPierre to inquire about his whereabouts, but again I didn’t get a call back. I actually just got back from San Francisco yesterday morning. I decided to visit the Silicon Valley lab and see if maybe I could catch up with Manny there, but I was told by the technology park’s security personnel that the lab had been closed. Dr. LaPierre returned my call in the interim and told me that Manny had relocated to head their newly opened research facility in China. None of this makes sense.”

“Okay, so besides the fact that Manny is unaccounted for, what’s worrying you?”

“Miles Baker. He’s a computer scientist and researcher in my lab back in Cambridge, or
was
rather. He’s dead. He died from a massive stroke. The coroner’s report did not give any more detail than that. I know Miles. He didn’t have a family history, he was healthy, and wasn’t into any illicit drugs. He drank coffee that was about it. We had a physical relationship once. He was needy, but harmless.”

“Do you have reason to believe that anyone would want him dead? Why BioSyn, or anyone involved with Lilith, would want him dead? It seems like that’s what you’re implying.”

“Honestly, I don’t know. He wrote the program that I used to sketch the schematics for the chrysalis. I don’t know much beyond that, how he could have been involved. He died the morning after I developed the chrysalis.” Karen gasped for a much needed breath of air. “I have this horrible fear that his death is tied to this, and to Manny’s disappearance, and to the cease-and-desist letter, all of it. I also have an overwhelming feeling that I’m being watched.” Karen ducked her head lower over her now cold cappuccino.

“Have you seen anything out of the ordinary? The reason I ask is because sometimes these things can happen. Potential litigants sometimes hire private investigators to gather information on the other side that might be useful in a lawsuit, but I honestly don’t see what would be gained by following you. I think that you might be stressed right now about the possible legal action and the attack on your career. Now add to that the unfortunate passing of your close friend, and it’s no wonder that you’re feeling jumpy. You have a lot on your plate right now, but I’m glad that you reached out to me. I haven’t been contacted by BioSyn, and as far as I know, they are not a client of my firm. I will check with our conflicts department to make sure.”

“Does this mean that you’ll help me?” Karen pleaded, desperately struggling to grasp at this last shred of hope.

“I can’t make promises right now. I have some research to do first, but I will definitely try. Give me a day to get back to you. In the meantime, do you have somewhere that you can go, someone to stay with? I wouldn’t recommend going back to work right now or meeting with the university counsel.”

“I can stay at a hotel here in town.”

“Okay, good. Do you have cash on you?”

“No, but I have my credit cards.”

Sarah picked up her purse from the floor, and removed her wallet carefully so as not to disturb the loaded snub-nosed revolver inside. She’d carried it since her law school days when she had clerked for a criminal defense attorney. His clients tended to make threats when cases didn’t go their way. She handed Karen two-hundred dollars, the bills folded so as not to be visible. “Here, take this money and check yourself into the Grand Hotel for the night. It’s a nice place not too far from here. When you get there ask for Richie, the concierge. Tell him that I said to take care of you. He’s a nice guy. You can trust him. He’s put up several of my clients through the years.”

Karen sat frozen with apprehension. “Don’t worry it’s very public so you’ll be okay. I’ll call to check up on you.” Sarah reached into her purse once again and pulled out a small, prepaid cellphone. “Take this. My number is already in it. I’ll call you. Don’t call anybody but me on this phone. Okay?”

Karen looked a little more at ease when the two of them bid farewell, but Sarah was now concerned. Karen didn’t appear to be the nervous type which made her story all the more worrying. Lilith, the lab-mice, Miles Baker’s death, and this company, BioSyn, being somehow involved sounded fanciful, and yet she had learned in her experience that the truth was often spun of the tangled webs of stranger fictions.

She drove to her office with her mind on the image of mice brains punctuated with gray dots and the Level 4 spacesuits out of a Hollywood set. She fought the urge to look into her rearview mirror to see if she was being followed, but she did so multiple times anyway. As she neared her office building, she pulled along the side of a broad avenue and waited. After several minutes, she turned the car around and headed home to the comfort and safety of Jacob and the boys.

- - - - - - -

Sarah was disturbed all weekend, so much so that Jacob had noticed her aloofness. She invited Jacob to go fishing with the boys, but they insisted on her coming along. She brought her favorite book,
The Common Law
, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., but hardly turned a page. She couldn’t sleep so she used the time to do a little research on BioSyn, and found very little on it, or its CEO, Eckert. She had never heard of the company, and was sure that the firm did not represent it. It was 12:38 a.m. eastern time which made it 1:38 p.m. in Manilla, the home of the firm’s outsourced conflicts department. She ordered a rush conflicts search on BioSyn and Eckert expecting there to be none. She was wrong. The request returned twenty minutes later with one entry for Metro Treatment Facilities, LLC, and a parent, MTF Holding, LLC. It listed Eckert as a member of the LLCs. The attorney of record was Atty. Carson Brown who had left the firm a year earlier. Sarah searched Brown’s bar registration for his current employer. Brown was now gainfully employed in BioSyn’s corporate counsel’s office.

Monday morning came and she had not slept more than a couple of hours all weekend. She called the office and informed them that she wouldn’t be in until the afternoon. She hoped that the unexpected deviation from her schedule didn’t tip some unseen pursuer to the fact that she suspected something. She saw Jacob and the boys off, and left the house shortly after. She drove aimlessly for an hour, trying to spot someone in her rearview mirror. She laughed at her ridiculous behavior, but she repeated it multiple times. She stopped at a gas station in Takoma Park where she texted Karen. She waited a few minutes before Karen texted her back from the prepaid cell, and then called her immediately.

“How are you?” Karen was tense. “I thought something was up since you hadn’t called for a while.”

“Sorry about that. I’ve spent the weekend…Well I don’t want to talk about it over the phone. I’m coming to see you. Be there in forty-five minutes. I’ll call so you can open the door.”

“Oh no, I told you that there was something wrong.”

“Don’t get worked up now. We can figure this out just hang tight.”

Sarah pulled into the parking lot of the Grand Hotel forty-five minutes later. She found Richie working in the lobby and asked him if anyone had come asking for their special guest. No one had. Sarah could trust Richie. He was a retired detective with Metro P.D. who’d bought into the ownership group of the Grand Hotel back when it was nothing more than a fire consumed shell. Karen opened the door before she could knock, and pulled her into the dimly lit room. She didn’t waste a moment before barraging her with questions.

“Do you think you were followed?”

“No. I drove in circles for a bit and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t.”

Sarah told her what little she had discovered about BioSyn, and the connection to her own firm. The two women sat and stared at the floor in silence for a moment both searching their logically trained minds for answers.

“This is crazy, Sarah. They already got to your firm. If what you are saying is true this is a dangerous situation for me, and maybe you, too. Do you have a plan because I’m starting to think that my best option right now is to act like this conversation never happened? Eckert may be a murderous psycho, and that’s enough of a reason for me to just disappear.”

“This situation is strange, and I’m a bit unnerved honestly, but I don’t think that you are in mortal danger,” Sarah was interrupted by the sudden buzz of Karen’s prepaid phone, the one to which no one had the number. Both women stared at it with alarm, frightened to breathe lest they be heard.

“Have you called anyone else with that phone?” Sarah interrogated Karen.