Todd shrugs, then says weakly, “I guess.”
Kennedy turns to Zigler. “Once you test the compounds, how soon till they’re shipped out?”
“Well, that’s up to Doctor Hyslop. Sometimes he tests things further; other times the compound goes right out to the treating physician.”
“And on the Malekoviec case?”
Zigler contorts his face. “I’ll have to confirm, but I’m pretty sure it went straight out.”
“All your techs here today?”
“All except Kerline St. James—she took a personal day. Been under a lot of stress.”
“What kind of stress? Too much pressure from Hyslop?” Kennedy asks.
“No, well... uh, sort of half personal, half work related. Her daughter’s dating a guy we’re treating.” He waves his hand. “It’s all messed up.”
“Is that even allowed, dating a patient that’s being studied?” Kennedy asks pointedly.
“Huh, what? No, it’s not like that. Shanny, she was dating Jamal way before that.” Now stammering, he says, “Wasn’t till after Jamal got someone else pregnant that Kerline got him in the study.”
Kennedy and Simmons look at each other, puzzled.
Todd’s face flushes. “S-sorry, I’m rambling.”
“No problem. Take your time, Todd. Now why would Kerline get her daughter’s cheating boyfriend in one of your studies? I would think she’d want to kill the guy, not help him.”
“Well, she did.” Trying to inject some humor, he makes his hand into a gun. “POW, POW!”
Kennedy and Simmons are not amused.
“Aw, geez, hold on a minute.” Zigler exhales forcefully. “Look, this is none of my business. I don’t know why I even brought it up, except it’s why she’s not here today.”
“So, she’s not here today because she’s out killing Jamal?” Kennedy asks.
Todd wrings his hands. “No! No, that’s not it. She’s got something else completely different going on today.”
Kennedy leans forward.
“Kerline’s real bright, probably understands what’s going on in the lab as well as anyone, and I was lucky to steal her away from that toxic office she was working at.”
Kennedy scratches his head as he tries to follow. “Which office was that?”
“A Doctor Gorelick. Brilliant guy, but what a handful! Owes some Russian bookie a mint. Pompous. Nasty to staff. Well, Kerline’s got a sexual harassment claim against him. I think there’s a deposition or something today that she had to be at.”
“Same Gorelick who used your medication to treat Malekoviec?” Kennedy asks as he scribbles in his notepad.
“Yeah, why? Is that important?”
“Not sure. We’re just trying to get the facts straight. Okay, so we’ll have to double back for her another time. But you’ve been very helpful, Todd. Can you start sending the other techs in one-by-one? We’ll finish up with Doctor Hyslop.”
Simmons looks up from his notes, realizes time is running short. “How bad is Ms. Aloni’s arthritis? Has she—”
Kennedy waves Simmons off. “We’ll be back in touch if we have more questions.” Kennedy flips his notepad closed and gives Simmons another ocular beat-down while he offers a card to Todd. “If you think of anything else.”
Zigler looks at the detectives warily. “Uh, you’re kinda in my office.”
Kennedy, polite and deferential as he rises. “Right. Any place else we can use?”
“Sure, there’s a conference room down the hall, third door on your right.” He nods quickly. “I’ll tell Doctor Hyslop to meet you there when he’s done.”
“That’d be great.” Kennedy hesitates. “Just one other thing. What’re you doing with a gun out here?”
Zigler turns beat red. “Oh, my .38? You’re probably gonna think I’m weird or something....”
Kennedy shakes his head no.
“We work real long hours out here, all by ourselves. Sometimes I just set up some old cans to shoot at to give myself a break from everything.”
“That how the glass by the rotunda got nicked up?” Kennedy asks.
Zigler is mortified. “Guilty as charged. That one ricocheted on me.”
Kennedy nods. “Thanks for your time,” he says, then pushes Simmons ahead and marches down the hall, lacing into him just as the conference room door closes. “What the hell was that back there, the fuckin’ ADHD version of Interrogation For Dumbasses?” Kennedy flares his teeth, trying to contain himself as a dumbfounded Simmons looks on. The Chief waves his hand dismissively. “I’ll take it from here.” He takes a slow, calming breath, staring at the detective, wondering how he’s lasted this long on the force. “Why don’t you go up front and keep to yourself, Simmons, okay? No need to ruffle anyone else’s feathers.”
§
“So, Doc, Malekoviec was quite the mess when we found her. Any idea what went wrong with your medicine?”
Hyslop bows his head and shakes it slowly. “I wish I knew what killed her, Detective. I’ve pored over the data; there was nothing wrong with the medication.”
Kennedy, seated across the conference room table, nods in acknowledgment. “You sure, Doc? From what I’ve heard, your meds are quite the mystery themselves.”
Hyslop’s neck snaps back. “I’m not sure what you mean. Who told you that?”
Kennedy folds his massive arms over his chest. “How can you be sure your medication didn’t kill her?”
“Manipulating the human immune system may seem like magic, my medicines like the indecipherable potions of a wizard,” Hyslop waves his pointer finger, “but I can assure you, everything we do in this lab is grounded in scientific fact and has passed muster with the FDA.” Hyslop leans back, his hands forming a triangle. “Ms. Malekoviec’s death has shaken many of us quite deeply, Detective. If my medication was in any way responsible for her death, I would be the first to admit it.”
“Malekoviec had rheumatoid arthritis, right?” Kennedy asks.
Hyslop nods. “Correct.”
“Pretty tough disease, huh? How hard is it to treat compared to other problems?”
Hyslop chuckles. “Curing patients with endocrine and auto-immune disorders is straightforward for me, and helps unlock the secrets that will lead to my greatest accomplishment, eradicating the need for transplant patients to be matched with recipients.” Hyslop arches his eyebrows and waves a hand as if panning over a landscape. “In just a few years, my discoveries will transform medicine. Waiting lists for transplants, and matching donors and recipients will seem like barbaric medical practices from The Middle Ages, like bloodletting with leeches.”
Kennedy looks at him oddly. Talk about delusions of grandeur. “Sounds real impressive, Doc. So, you were the last one to handle the medication before Ms. Malekoviec’s treating physician?”
“Yes, I was. I reviewed all the testing on it, found it within specs, and had Todd give it to Ms. Aloni to personally deliver it to the treating physician.” Hyslop closes his eyes, taps his fingertips against each other. “Yesterday, when I heard what happened to Ms. Malekoviec, I even reached out to her rheumatologist, Doctor Jerome Gorelick, to see if there was any of the medication left for me to analyze.”
“And?”
“Unfortunately, the entire dose was used for treatment.”
“I see. And what time did Aloni leave the island with the medication?”
“Hmm, it was probably around 9:30 or so.”
“And she returned when?”
“I’m not really sure, Detective. You’d have to ask her. I was holed up in the lab, working on a formulation and didn’t see her again that day.”
Kennedy nods. “How do you recruit patients for your studies?”
“That can be a challenge, Detective. Everyone wants a cure for what ails them, but few patients are willing to risk themselves with untested medications,” Hyslop says with caution.
“So who oversees your recruitment efforts?”
“Well, Ms. Aloni se
nds letters out to all the appropriate practices in the area, informing them about the studies we are conducting. But it’s really Todd who handles patient intake. He interviews candidates, tracks who referred them, reviews their medical records.” Hyslop scratches his head. “I give him inclusion and exclusion criteria for each of our studies, then leave it up to him to select the correct patients.”
“I see. Todd wears a lot of hats around here, huh, Doc? You’re not concerned it’s too much for one guy to handle?” Kennedy offers.
Hyslop, annoyed, says, “Todd’s been a Godsend. With financing scarce in our field, I appreciate Todd’s ability to work independently in so many areas. It frees me up to focus entirely on my formulations.” Hyslop takes a deep breath, staring at Kennedy intently. “And I can assure you, Todd handles all of his duties exceptionally well.”
Kennedy looks through his notepad, then taps it on the table. There are more questions to ask, but he has no intention of tipping his hand to Hyslop so early in the investigation. “That’ll be all for now, Doctor. I’ll leave my card with Ms. Aloni in case you or your staff recall anything else you’d like to add.”
Hyslop extends a hand across the table, his reply perfunctory. “Thank you, Detective, and good luck.”
Chapter 9
“Simmons, run a background on everyone at Hyslops’ lab and start trailing Aloni as well. McCarthy?”
“Here, Chief.”
“Hyslop’s main competition is a guy named Grayson Limerock, CEO of Immunogenetics Offerings. They’re right here in Manhattan. He’d have a lot to gain from Hyslop’s lab being investigated.”
“Want me to question him?”
“Not yet. Don’t want to give him a heads up we’re looking at him. Just tail him real carefully.”
“Aye, Chief.”
McCarthy takes off. Simmons stays behind. “This just came over the FAX for you, Chief.”
“What is it?”
“Not sure; didn’t have a chance to look at it.”
Kennedy grabs the papers and settles in at his desk, clearing a swath in the center of it to write up his notes and organize a plan of attack. His cell rings
“Hey buddy, what’s going on?”
“Just finished testing me, so Jacobs cut me loose.”
“What about your next treatment? When’s that?”
“Tomorrow, maybe the next day. What’s up on your end? Anything in the investigation seem connected to Durand?”
Kennedy lowers his voice, using his body to shield against being overheard, as he organizes the list of patients. “Nah. Hard to say at this point if it’s even a homicide. Could just be an accident or bad reaction to a med. Were three other deaths about a year and a half ago. Haven’t had time to look into those yet.” His eyes scan the precinct warily. “Lemme call you back in a minute.”
“Uh, sure, no problem.”
§
Kennedy scours the police garage as he slips into his car and calls Chris back. “Sorry about that. No headway on whether we’ve still got a mole at the precinct, so I’m calling from my car.”
Chris nods on his end. “Okay, what’ve you got?”
“We’re still collecting background, but a few things stick out. For one, the head of the lab, a Doctor Hyslop, and his assistant, don’t see eye to eye on some things.”
“Did you say Hyslop, Harold Hyslop?”
“Yeah, why?”
“That’s the doc Jacobs is getting the meds from to treat me,” Chris says, his voice filled with surprise and concern.
“Can’t be.” Kennedy ruffles through the papers. “I got a list right here, and... shit!”
“What?”
“Yeah, you’re on it. Second name from the bottom.” Kennedy squirms in his seat. “Man, wasn’t expecting that.”
Silence.
“Chris, you still there?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m here. If it is a homicide, you like the doc for it?” he says as a chill runs through him.
“Couple of things stuck out when we interviewed him and his staff, but hard to say.”
“Like what?”
“Hyslop’s confident there was nothing wrong with his treatment, says the medication passed all their safety checks before he had his receptionist hand deliver it to the treating doc.”
“Who has their girl running errands? Hasn’t the guy heard of Fed Ex?”
“They don’t pick up from North Brother Island.”
“What, why’s he got a lab out there? That place is an overgrown jungle.”
“Tell me about it.” Kennedy laughs nervously. “Simmons thought it looked like a scene from Planet of the Apes, and I gotta say, he’s not far off.”
“Least not on that. Guy seems a bit out there.”
“You got that right. Two minutes into talking with the receptionist and he’s got her pegged as a suspect.”
“What? How’s that?”
“She’s got rheumatoid arthritis, just like the vic, says that might’ve made her desperate for a cure, tampering with the medicine to speed things along.”
“Well, she was the last one with it, right? But even so, how’s a receptionist gonna know the first thing about that kind of stuff?” Chris shakes his head. “Sounds like a pretty wacked out theory.”
“That’s Simmons in a nutshell. Wanted to strangle the guy when we were interviewing the lead lab tech. Just kept cutting in with one off the wall comment after another.”
“So, what’s this about the tech and Hyslop not seeing eye to eye on some stuff?”
“Like I said, Hyslop’s certain his med was clean. Zigler, that’s the tech, not so much.” Kennedy pauses. “He said Hyslop’s formulations are so far beyond anything they’ve ever handled, they can’t even really test the stuff right.”
“Hmm, could just be a difference of opinion.... Hyslop, Zigler, or the girl have ties to Malekoviec?”
“Not sure. Simmons and I are checking on it. But another tech, she used to work in the practice that treated Malekoviec, can’t stand her old boss. Got a sexual harassment suit against him.”
“Think she’d have it out for him enough to kill a patient of his just to make him look bad?”
“No idea. Sounds like she’s got some anger issues, so who knows? Wasn’t in yesterday, so I gotta catch up with her, see for myself. What about on your end? Any thoughts on the whole Michelle thing?” Kennedy says warily.
“Nothing concrete, just a firestorm of conflicting emotions.” Chris sighs. “I’d love to believe she’s still alive, but what do I do, have them exhume the body on the recommendation of a sociopath?” He shakes his head. “Nah, I gotta come up with something solid before going down that road.”
“Yeah, I hear ya. Look, what’re you gonna do about your treatment with this guy’s meds?”
Chris shakes his head in disgust as he paces the hallway. “I don’t know, I need to think about it.” He stops and rubs his face. “In the meantime, can you keep this under wraps at the precinct? I don’t want anyone there knowing about my condition.”
“Sure, no problem. You gonna tell your dad?”
“No way, he’s giving me enough shit about the treatments already.”
Kennedy sees two detectives walking his way and tries to hide his massive frame in the old Honda. “Uh, look, I gotta go before anyone lays eyes on me. I’ll call you tomorrow after the autopsy results.”
Chapter 10
“Honey, you hardly ate your dinner. Is everything okay?”
Ben and Freida Zigler exchange worried looks as they sit on the sofa in their tiny, two-bedroom home in the Flushing section of Queens. A dank chill fills the air.
“I’m fine, mother, just a little tired,” Todd says, a cascade of emotions filling him as he stares at the weathered, brown upright in the corner. Growing up destitute in this shoebox of a house, he clung to the hope the piano would bring him the notoriety and wealth he yearned for and deserved. He sighs. Not everyone’s dreams come true.
“Do you want to p
lay something for us, Son?” his Dad offers. “We haven’t heard you in ages.”
Todd wiggles his long, painted fingernails for them. “It’s a little tough now with these.”
His dad looks away. Six months since he came out, still can’t make peace with it. “Anything new at the lab?”
“The police are investigating us,” he says blandly.
His mother, a tall, stout woman, clutches her chest. “Oh my, whatever for?”
His father looks on in shock. “I thought everything was above board, going great. What happened?”
“You know how Doctor Hyslop’s been anxious to drum up patients for his studies really quickly?”
They nod in agreement. Ben speaks first. “Is that Grayson guy still your stiffest competition?”
Todd nods. “Yeah, Limerock and his Immunogenetics Offerings are really turning up the heat of late. Even chased me down at the donut shop the other day, trying to steal me away.” Now frowning, he continues, “What was I saying? Oh yeah, a few of us in the lab wanted to help Harold, so we recruited some people we know as patients.”
Freida smiles at her son. “Yes, I remember. You were sweet enough to get your old piano teacher in a study after she had nowhere else to turn.”
Ben grumbles, “Not that she would have done the same for you.”
Freida says, “Now Ben, that’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it? Nine years of lessons, of her telling Todd he’d have a promising career, and she just changes her mind.” He snaps his fingers. “Pulls the plug on him like that. I wanted to kill the woman.”
“No need for that now,” Todd says with caution. “The police found her dead in her apartment. They think our lab had something to do with it.”
Frieda gasps. “That’s terrible.”
Ben says, in a snide tone, “Serves the cold-hearted bitch right, she—”
“Ben!” Frieda rises to comfort Todd, burying his head in her ample chest as she wraps her arms around him. “Oh honey, you must be devastated.” She sniffles, fighting back tears. “I know things with Irina didn’t work out like we hoped.” She casts Ben a disparaging look. “But she was a special lady.”
Forbidden Cure Part Two Page 3
