“Give it to Liam when he walks you out. If you give me any more problems Burke, pictures of your naked red butt and your stiffy will find their way to your paper and maybe a few others as well. I think that would be poetic justice, don’t you? After all the worry and problems your snooping caused on the Dolphin, it’s only fair you get a taste of your own medicine, so don’t tempt me.”
Morgan and Harper watched as Harmon opened his e-mail account, attached the retraction, and sent it off. They both sighed in relief. At least this part of the problem had been solved, or he hoped so. He would have to apprise Jamie Devereau of what had transpired so he could be on the lookout for any further trouble from Burke or his paper.
When Liam returned with Burke’s copies and his driver’s license, Morgan said, “Liam, help our guest get dressed and see him out, please. He’s going to give you my briefcase, which is apparently in his trunk. Don’t let me see you again, Burke, or you will sincerely regret it.” Morgan and Harper watched him leave, defeat in his steps. Morgan turned to Harper. “I hope that is the last we see of him. What do you think?”
“I hope so. If he has any sense…but then he hasn’t evidenced a great deal of that so far.”
When Liam had returned with the briefcase, Morgan thanked him for his help and took Harper’s hand in his. “Let’s go home, babe. We can scene another time. I’ve had it for tonight.” She nodded in agreement.
When they got back to the apartment, they were both exhausted. They showered together in Morgan’s luxurious master bath and then settled on the teak bench while he adjusted the steam controls. “I’m ready to hit the sack. We can talk about this tomorrow.” After their steam, they were both as relaxed as noodles. Morgan tenderly dried Harper with one of the huge, fluffy white towels stacked in the antique armoire next to the space-age shower and led her into the bedroom. When they were tucked into his enormous bed, he pulled her up close to his chest and settled his big hand possessively over her pussy. Harper nestled back against him and immediately fell over the edge into slumber. Morgan followed her into a deep sleep with a contented smile on his face.
* * * *
Harper awoke with the bright morning sun streaming through Morgan’s huge, undraped twentieth-floor windows. She could see the stunning kaleidoscope view over Central Park from her vantage point in the high bed. She was comfortably snuggled up against Morgan’s sleek warm chest under the white goose down comforter. She smiled as she slipped her hand down his flank until she encountered the morning erection that had prodded her into wakefulness. She wiggled her bottom back against him until he groaned and then turned in his arms so she could wrap her hand around his bobbing shaft. He opened one black eye and quirked a brow.
“That’s a really great way to wake up. What else have you got, champ?”
“Only this,” she said as she dived under the comforter and closed her lips around him.
He groaned again. “Do your worst—or your best, from my point of view.”
Harper squeezed the root of his manhood gently in one hand and massaged his balls with the other as she worked her mouth up and down his shaft. “Oh, baby, that feels like heaven.”
She lightly blew across the head of his cock, and she could feel a shudder run through his body. She traced her tongue softly over the slit in his glans and licked the drop of pre-cum gleaming there. She licked the prominent veins bulging along his magnificent hard-on and tickled under the lip before she took him back fully into her mouth and began to suck. She felt his balls tighten in her hand, and he blasted off into her mouth with a groan. “You are really getting good at that, Harper. I think you should practice some more until you get it down pat.”
He stretched and yawned. She enjoyed the view of his rippling muscles for a moment before she flicked his sensitive member with a forefinger as she quickly rolled out of his reach and off the bed. “Don’t be a smart-ass or you’ll regret it,” she warned sternly, although she was grinning inside. He could always make her smile. She went into the bathroom, rinsed her mouth with mouthwash, and returned with a hot cloth to clean him. “What’s on the agenda for today? We need to check AP and the other sites to make sure that they ran Burke’s retraction. You may want to follow up with a statement.” She sat back down on the bed and opened her laptop.
“That’s a good idea. I think it is time for a statement.”
“Are you still planning to put the Maxprotem trials on hold? What about a statement regarding the sabotage?”
“I’m going to have our people contact the trial participants individually without letting Eastern Shore in on the plan. We will advise them that Phase II was flawed and that we will be beginning a new trial after the New Year. Hopefully, that should give McGregor’s people time to sniff out our saboteur and will make Joe Levine happy as well. The participants can all go back on their regular medications in the meantime. That should minimize any risks they might encounter because they weren’t receiving what we thought they were. That will give us at least a little time until Eastern Shore, or whoever is causing our problem, realizes all the participants have taken a powder, and they begin to wonder what’s going on.”
“That should help control the product liability aspect. What about the sabotage?
“I’m not ready to make any announcement about that. I think, if we let them know we’re on to them, they will just go further underground, and it will be that much harder to find out who is responsible and put an end to the problem permanently.”
“As your attorney, I’m not sure I’m in complete agreement with that course of action. My job is to keep you and the company from being sued. I still think you should make some disclosure to the regulatory authorities.”
“Harper, I see your point, but I have to make a business decision here. If we can’t shut down whoever is responsible, we will continue to have this type of problem or other ones just as devastating hanging over our heads. I respect your opinion, but this is a business decision.”
Harper turned away to hide her expression and got off the bed. She walked into the master closet and pulled on a pair of jeans and sweater she had left there several days ago. When she came out again, he had left the bedroom. She realized he had gone down to the kitchen to put on a pot of coffee. She gathered up her things and went into the kitchen. “I’ve got to stop at home and then make a detour to my office. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Aren’t you going to wait for coffee?” She could see he looked bewildered by her quick departure, but she was hurt. Is it hurt pride or hurt feelings that he doesn’t value my opinion more highly? Or is it just the same old trust issues rearing their ugly heads again? He may not like what I have to say, but I’m going to say it anyway. He had to respect that.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Morgan Court’s Office at Court Industries, New York City, Thursday, November 28, 2013, 10:30 a.m.
Morgan was a little unsettled. Harper had not shown up at his office yet this morning, and he was now used to having her there. He had an uneasy feeling, but he didn’t know why. She had seemed a little distant when she kissed his cheek and left his apartment that morning without coffee or breakfast. He was now getting accustomed to the rhythm of her moods, and he could feel when something was slightly off. Who can figure women anyway? One minute everything is fine and they’re giving you a morning BJ, and the next, you’re not sure if they’re talking to you. It was bewildering. He shook his head. He would have to unravel that mystery later.
He buzzed his assistant. “Katie, get John McGregor in here please. I want a progress report.” He sat back in his chair and opened the AP site on his computer. He was gratified to see that Burke’s retraction of his previous article was prominently featured on the site, as well as on the Pharma Magazine site. He was just about to check the other newspapers when John McGregor stepped into his office.
“Morning, boss.”
“What progress have you made, John?”
“We’re combing through secretary of state
records and SEC filings to track down all of the shareholders and members of the various companies mentioned in the corporate records online as well as managers and members of Eastern Shore Research Laboratory, LLC. Each limited-liability company has different limited-liability companies or corporations listed as their members and managers, followed by more of the same. It’s taking some time to go down through the layers on each one to try to find the person or persons who actually own the companies. It’s like digging for gold. Nothing is obvious on the surface. Eastern Shore has four member-managers, which are all other LLCs, which have member-managers, who are all still other LLCs, who are owned by other corporations.”
“So basically, we’re not any farther along.”
“That’s true on the paper trail. I thought that might end up being the case, so I decided to try and see if we can’t get someone of our own into Eastern Shore. They had a part-time opening on their nighttime staff in the shipping department, so I worked up the perfect résumé and background for one of the younger members of the security team. Since she was tailor-made for the position, she got in. She started on Tuesday night. She hasn’t learned anything yet.”
“A girl? I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.”
“She’s not as young as she looks. She’s twenty-eight, and she is ex-military. She should be able to take care of herself, but we have backup in the area just in case. She’s attempting to make ‘friends’ with some of the other employees, particularly a student who works mostly nights and weekends.”
“Yeah, I think I met him. He wasn’t anxious to let us into the facility—not that I could blame him for that at the time.”
“I’ll keep you advised.”
Morgan rested his chin on his fist as he continued to surf the newspaper sites looking for retractions. Then he called his public relations department to advise them to begin working on a statement. He was concerned that Harper was correct about not divulging the corporate sabotage to the authorities, but he was hoping to learn something fairly soon so that the delay wouldn’t become an issue. He had talked privately with the board of directors, including his sister, and they all agreed with him, for the time being anyway. It was a family company, and he and Melanie held the majority of the shares. He knew he could count on her support.
* * * *
Harper decided to work from her own office since the senior partners were still in Aruba. She knew basically what path John McGregor was taking and decided to go in a different direction.
She would research the early history of Court Industries instead in the hope that might lead to something. She began working back from the present day, making notes of significant people and events. She would have to go over all of this with Morgan in case something struck a note with him that she might not catch. This was his family history, after all.
She began by pulling up the corporate filings for the company for the past ten years, as well as the corporate annual reports. She combed through them for any information and the names of all people and companies that had an interest in the company or had done business with them. She researched the federal patent and trademark sites as well. She found nothing interesting and decided to go back to the very founding of the company. That information was harder to find, and she had to pull old issues of various business and pharmaceutical magazines and articles from old newspaper archives. Thank God for the Internet.
An old Money magazine gave her the first clue. It contained an interview with Morgan’s father about the history of the company. In it he mentioned a feud between his grandfather and another gentleman. Ignatius Court and a man named Stanley Brewster had cofounded the company. From there she pulled up more articles about Court and Brewster as well.
The two old patent medicine salesmen had had a falling out and had split the company’s assets, including the patents on several medications. Each had formed their own new companies and gone their separate ways back in the 1920s. The stock market crash and Great Depression had almost destroyed both new companies. Court Industries had emerged from the crash and depression in fairly strong condition, while Brewster Pharmacy Corporation, despite having the patents on several tonics and over-the-counter-type medications, had not done as well. The men had never spoken again, and the feud continued into the next generations. The Brewster contingent felt that the Court contingent had defrauded them of the more valuable patents. But that was ancient history, wasn’t it? She would ask Morgan about this when she spoke with him next. She was still a little miffed and thought she just might make herself a little scarce for a while. Was she being childish? It was hard to say. Feelings were feelings after all.
* * * *
Cassandra Wright enjoyed her position in the security division of Court Industries. When John McGregor told her she had the opportunity to participate in a clandestine operation at Eastern Shore Research Laboratory, she was delighted. Actually, she was thrilled to have the opportunity to go undercover. This would make a great story when it was all over. Corporate espionage. Wow!
At twenty-eight she looked a good deal younger than she actually was, and her four years of military service, including one tour in Iraq, had made her a lot tougher than she looked as well. She had pulled her dark-brown hair back into a ponytail, gotten a pair of readers, and ditched all of her makeup. Her cover story was that she was a college student who had to work an evening shift to make extra money for books. The job gave her the perfect reason to move around the facility at night when not many people were about. She had worn a pair of faded blue jeans and an older graphic T-shirt under a black hoodie and a pair of running shoes for her first evening shift. A young man with long hair, wearing ripped jeans and a lab coat, showed her the ropes. His name was Steve Costa. He was several years younger than her and a good deal less experienced, which she hoped to use to her advantage.
Her duties at Eastern Shore were to include helping him clean the animal cages, restock drug supplies, help with shipping, and possibly do some filing and other simple office tasks when time permitted. The cage cleaning was not going to be one of her favorite parts of the job, but she was looking forward to the opportunity to see what happened when the drug supplies were restocked. The chance to poke around the supply room, not to mention the opportunity to snoop around the office, could prove very interesting.
She had started on Tuesday night. The first night, Steve had shown her around the facility, and then Cassie found out more than she ever wanted to know about cleaning rat and monkey cages. The critters were actually cute, but she knew she had to be careful not to be bitten. By the time she was done, her lab coat was stained, and she had gone through a few pairs of rubber gloves. Ah, undercover work is so glamorous. She had to laugh at herself. She wasn’t going to include this part in her dramatic telling of the story of her dangerous undercover job.
On Thursday night, she was sitting in the employee lounge and sipping a cup of coffee while she waited for Steve to join her for his break. They were the only employees still in the building. She was a little nervous, and she desperately wanted to get some results. She needed to form a connection with Steve so she could start panning for information. She understood that a lot was on the line for Court Industries and that she might be the one to solve the mystery. That was exciting. When Steve joined her, she took the opportunity to flatter him into telling her how things worked around Eastern Shore.
“I’m usually the one who restocks the pharmaceuticals in the storage room, and I usually package them for shipping after the office staff prepares the mailing labels and shipping instructions. I also feed the animals in the lab and clean the cages. You’ll help me with that.”
“Okay. I’d like to learn how to do the shipping and stocking, too. That way I can help you out more, like if you have to be out or something. I could cover for you.” She smiled an innocent smile at him and flashed her dimples. “That would be so cool.”
“That might be good. I’m going on a skiing trip to Vermont in January. It would
be good if you were up to speed on everything by then.”
Cassie hoped to be up to speed a whole lot sooner than that. She wanted to find out what she could and get out of there. She didn’t plan to make a career of cleaning animal cages. She was hoping to move up at Court Industries, and doing a good job on this assignment would go a long way in that direction.
“I have to get some shipments ready to go out in the morning, so if you’re done with the cages, you can help me in the mail room.”
This might be it. This was what she was waiting for. “That would be great. I want to learn everything.”
Steve showed her how to assemble the mailing containers, what to do with the mailing labels, and how to fill in the drug log. The mailing she helped Steve with was for another company, and she was disappointed that she didn’t get an opportunity to snoop around the Maxprotem containers, but she did see where they were kept. Before the evening shift was over, she was very handy at assembling boxes, stuffing them with packing material, and inserting drugs and shipping documents. Steve appeared to be delighted. She could see his wheels turning. He thought he had gotten a willing slave who was going to make his life a lot easier. She would let him go on thinking that—until she got what she wanted, or until John McGregor pulled her off this assignment.
The night shift passed without incident, much to Cassie’s disappointment, but she could feel Steve watching her with interest. She smiled to herself. If he thought innocent little Cassie was cute, he should get a look at Cassandra will full makeup, wearing a short dress and four-inch heels. That wasn’t going to happen here. Hopefully, she would find out what she needed to know and make a clean getaway.
Chapter Thirty
Office of the Assistant Federal Prosecutor, Federal Office Building, New York City, Thursday, November 28, 2013, 12:30 p.m.
Harper's Submission [Golden Dolphin 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 16
