by Lori Ryan
Joe and Warrick exchanged a glance. “Not exactly,” said Warrick. “Serious Adverse Events are extremely rare. They make up a very small percentage of outcomes for a trial.”
“Serious Adverse Events?” Jarrod asked.
“Yes,” Joe answered. “That’s when someone either dies, is hospitalized, or has a condition significantly prolonged by the trial.”
Jonathan cut in. “In our case, they were suspected Serious Adverse Events. They were never able to tie those deaths to the drug itself.”
“So, what happens?” Cal asked. “You guys just close shop and walk away and no one says boo?”
Warrick shook his head. “Sometimes that’s the case. People have signed a waiver. Their legal recourse is limited. We took a more proactive approach.”
“Which means?” Jarrod felt like they were suddenly walking through mud in boots that were five sizes too big. It was messy and they were getting nowhere. “What did your proactive approach entail?”
It was Joe who answered. “I contacted the family members of the deceased and we paid them a settlement. It included a confidentiality agreement above and beyond the one the decedents had already signed, binding their estates.”
“So that’s a fancy way of saying you made damned sure no one could talk?” Cal asked, voicing what Jarrod had been thinking.
“Yes.” Joe answered. Warrick kept his gaze on the detectives and didn’t blink, while Jonathan looked away again. The scientist didn’t seem to have the stomach for the business side of things. Staunton and the lawyer were another story.
“Any idea how your drug got into several homeless men in the last few months?”
Warrick shook his head. “It’s not possible. The trial was halted and we closed the program. We stopped production and the stores of the drug were destroyed.”
Jonathan nodded.
“Who was responsible for destroying the drug? Is it possible it wasn’t all destroyed?”
Now Jonathan shook his head. “No. I oversaw it and signed off on all of it myself.” The man looked pained as he spoke, as though it had hurt him to see his work destroyed.
“How long did you work on this project, Mr. Simms?” Jarrod asked. The question was more for his own curiosity than anything else.
“Fourteen years.” The response was accompanied by a bittersweet smile, and Jarrod realized for nearly his entire career as an officer, this man had been working on one drug. It boggled the mind.
“And you simply let it go?”
Jonathan glanced at Warrick and the tension became clear. He hadn’t agreed with the decision. The question was, did he do something about that?
It was Joe who spoke up instead of either of the other men. “We had no choice. The trial couldn’t continue with that many adverse events and fourteen years was already longer than we’d give any other drug. It was time.”
Cal spoke next. “Can you think of anyone who might have somehow slipped some of the drug out of your facility? Or enough of the records to recreate it?”
All three looked shocked at the possibility. “It isn’t possible,” Jonathan protested. “Like I said, I oversaw the destruction of the drugs myself and we have protocols in place. I always had another witness with me to sign off on the forms. Everything was witnessed. Those drugs don’t exist anymore.”
“Could someone be reproducing the drug somehow?” Jarrod asked.
“It’s possible.” Jonathan looked at Joe and Warrick, then back at the detectives. “It’s certainly possible, but the team that worked on that drug is extremely small.”
“We’d like to speak to those employees.”
“And we’ll need to see the records verifying the destruction of the medicine,” Jarrod added.
Joe nodded. “I’ll arrange for you to see the employees. There’s one who isn’t with the company anymore. As far as records go, I’ll need to review them to be sure there’s nothing proprietary in them first. If there is, I’m afraid you’ll have to get a warrant. I’ll get started on that this afternoon, though.”
“We’ll cooperate in any way we can, gentlemen,” Warrick said and Jarrod thought he meant it. He had to admit, the open doors policy these men were handing them had him a little thrown, but it did seem to verify what they’d thought. Someone was working hard to set these people up.
“You mentioned one employee who isn’t with the company any longer but worked on the drug?” Jarrod asked Joe.
Jonathan answered. “Alan Sykes.”
“He was let go for cause. I can’t say more than that without a subpoena,” Joe said.
That fit more in line with what Jarrod expected to hear from them.
“So is it safe to assume he left on bad terms?” Jarrod asked as Cal took notes.
The lawyer didn’t answer.
“Do you know anything about where he’s working now?” Cal asked. Jonathan and Warrick watched Joe until he gave a slight nod before saying they didn’t know.
“Would he have had the knowledge to reproduce the drug?” Jarrod asked.
This time it was Warrick and Joe who looked to Jonathan. He slowly nodded. “I think he would.”
“He signed a non-compete, of course,” Joe hurried to say, but Jarrod knew that just meant he could be sued if they could prove it was him. He didn’t mention that they’d just found him up at Warrick Staunton’s cabin. He knew Staunton would hear that from the state police by the end of the day, but Jarrod wanted to get a few things on the record before Staunton found out about Sykes.
“Mr. Simms,” Jarrod asked, hoping to take the man off-guard and get a sense of the true connection between some of the players in their ever-expanding field of suspects. “When did you and Meredith Ball stop seeing each other?”
Surprise crossed the man’s face, followed by confusion. “What does that have to do with this?”
Jarrod shrugged. “Satisfy my curiosity.”
There was something there. Jarrod could see it. He got the distinct feeling whatever relationship the two had years ago, it hadn’t been insignificant.
“We stopped dating thirty or more years ago.” He frowned.
“Do you mind if I ask why?” Jarrod pressed.
“What on earth could this have to do with your case, detective?” the lawyer asked but he seemed uncertain, as if he didn’t know if he should try to stop Jarrod’s questioning or not.
“I’m just trying to get a sense of all the players in this case, how all of the donors involved in the shelter connect together. I ran across an old photo of the two of you together,” he said to Simms. “That’s all.” He added another shrug.
“She met her husband,” Jonathan answered stiffly.
“Hmm. I hadn’t realized they’d been married that long.” Jarrod knew Meredith Ball’s husband was older than her by at least twenty years. For some reason, he’d assumed she married him when she was older. If she married him thirty years ago, she’d only been in her late twenties at the time.
“Yes. They’ve been married a long time.”
“Has Meredith ever asked you about this drug? Or any of the medications you’re working on?”
A frown creased his face when Jonathan answered. “No. She hasn’t.” He stood, and it was clear the interview was over. Jarrod supposed he couldn’t blame the man. From the way he’d said it, Meredith Ball had been dating Jonathan when she met and married her husband. That had to sting.
“One more thing, Mr. Staunton,” Jarrod said. “When was the last time you went to your cabin in Perth?”
This time Warrick Staunton answered before his lawyer could stop him. “The cabin? I don’t know.” He frowned and shook his head but his surprise was evident. “Not for a long time. Maybe even a year, or close to it, at least.”
Joe put out a hand to stop Staunton. “What is this, detectives? What’s going on that you aren’t telling us about?”
Jarrod ignored the question. “What about you Mr. Simms? Have you been there recently?”
The lawyer did
n’t let Simms answer. He stood. “I think we’re finished here, gentlemen.”
Jarrod was convinced Captain Calhoun, their chief of detectives, had super powers. Not that he believed in those, but if he did, the captain had them.
They weren’t in the station two minutes before the captain called them into his office.
Jarrod led the way, Cal behind him. He knew Cal would try to throw himself in front of the train for Jarrod, and he wasn’t about to let that happen.
“Update me.” The captain didn’t look up from his paperwork as he spoke.
“Yeah, we’re starting to get some evidence in now. The state is sending a crime scene investigator to the Sykes’ scene and we spoke with the state detectives who will be taking the case before we left there. Told them how we think it ties into our case. We’re hoping to hear back from them later today with something.”
“You’re positive it’s Alan Sykes?”
“We think so. Photo ID certainly looks like the man we found. He’s got a sister in Wisconsin. The state officers are going to try to get ahold of her and see if she can do an official ID by video feed.” Jarrod looked over at Cal.
“I’m fairly confident in saying it’s Sykes,” Cal agreed.
The captain nodded. “Good. Having state resources certainly won’t hurt any. They’ve got more resources than we do. S’that it for now?”
Jarrod took a breath. Nothing like having your ass handed to you, especially when you deserved it. He still thought they’d made the right move trying to talk to Staunton and Simms first, but Calhoun was gonna tear them a new one. “We went to talk to Warrick Staunton and Jonathan Simms today.”
The captain’s head came up slowly, as though he were taking a moment to be sure he heard Jarrod right. Unfortunately, he had. “Are you kidding me?”
“Capt —”
“I don’t want to hear it. What the hell could you possibly say to me that makes this right?”
The next five minutes sucked while the captain yelled loud enough for everybody in the third-floor detective squad to hear. And there was no mistaking why.
“Sir, we got some good information.” Yeah, it was a weak opening to his defense, but Jarrod had to start somewhere. The captain was quiet long enough that Jarrod was willing to plow forward. “Warrick Staunton seemed completely surprised by what we found. Not to mention, willing to help. He pulled his lawyer into the room and instructed them to get everything we needed that they could give us without a warrant. I didn’t get the sense he was just saying that as a show for us. The lawyer seemed on board, too.”
“They wanted this resolved just as much as we do,” put in Cal.
“The only thing is?” Jarrod glanced at Cal. “I got the distinct sense that Jonathan Simms knew more than he was saying.”
“We both got that idea,” Cal said. “There was something he didn’t want to tell us, and maybe something he didn’t want to tell the other people in the room.”
“You need to get the hell over to the judge to get a proper warrant and go search things before these guys start destroying evidence. If they haven’t already. If this case goes south, it’s on nobody shoulders but your own, gentlemen.”
Chapter 15
Less than two hours later, they walked back into Simms Pharmaceutical with warrants. Warrick Staunton seemed to be hiding a storm behind his eyes as he looked at the warrant and Jarrod couldn’t blame him.
They were about to take down his company. If Staunton and Simms Pharmaceutical were being set up, well that just sucked. If there weren’t media out front by the time they left here, Jarrod would eat his holster for breakfast. Some journalist would either pick up the details of the warrant down at the courthouse or one of Simms’ own receptionists would call it in just to grab her fifteen minutes of fame.
They took what the judge allowed them to, including several computers, records and data related to the FDA trial. This included a lot of Jonathan Simms’ material and the laptops Simms and Staunton used for work.
They arranged for Staunton and Simms to come in for questioning. As a courtesy, they were letting them wait until the following morning so they could bring criminal attorneys with them. As in-house counsel, Joe hadn’t felt he should represent them in that capacity.
Jarrod dragged his ass back to his place, not at all convinced he'd be able to sleep.
He had been in his place ten minutes when Carrie started pounding on the door. Well, pounding alternated with ringing the bell repeatedly. He knew it was her before he even looked outside.
Furious eyes greeted him when he opened the door.
“You lied.”
“Actually, I didn’t.” He swung the door shut and turned to face her, hands on hips. He wasn’t in the mood to have someone else screaming at him.
“Bullshit. That’s a technicality. We had an agreement and you know it.”
“Carrie, it was out of my hands. Believe it or not, I’m not in charge down at NHPD. We tried talking to them before the warrants, but Jonathan Simms is holding something back. He’s got some kind of information that he’s not sharing.” She tried to cut him off, but he kept on going, shaking his head. “No, Carrie. I have a job to do here and you need to let me do it. I can’t have whatever this is going on between us get in the way of my job.”
Her eyes seemed to flash even more, if that was possible. For some stupid reason he’d had fantasies when he was younger about that Xena Warrior Princess woman and how hot it would be to be with her. Xena had nothing on the woman in front of him.
“I take it this means the media has the story?” He shoved aside the lust coursing through him and focused on what she was saying. Talk about the wrong time for his body to be running rampant on him.
“It’s all over.” She held up her phone where a local headline screamed about illegal drug testing down at the local shelter.
Jarrod swore under his breath, taking the phone from her and scanning for details. “I kept everything as general as I could, but I had to make the warrant specific enough to get us in.”
She just looked at him, the hurt showing now through the anger. He wanted to reach out to her and pull her to him. To hold her.
“What is it? What is it about this, Carrie? I know these men are your friends. I know you believe in their innocence, but why are you fighting so hard?”
He saw a small tremor in her chin and her face seemed to crumble a bit. “Because if they did this, it’s my fault.”
She wouldn’t cry. He could see that in her face.
He took her hands and led her into his living room to the sofa. “Tell me what you mean.”
She sank back into the cushions and looked at him, the defeat a little heavy around her. He hated that, hated the way she looked like she’d given up. “Because I brought them into the shelter. When I first started this job, nobody believed I could do it. I wanted to prove myself. I wanted to prove everybody wrong, so I went to all my friends and my parents’ friends. I took advantage of the fact that I’d grown up wealthy. They all had money, and I convinced them to contribute.”
“That doesn’t make you responsible. Carrie, somebody is doing this at the shelter, whether it’s one of your donors or not. But you have no responsibility for that. If anyone, Dr. Coleman bears the responsibility. He obviously knew what was going on. He had to be the one administering this drug. He let them take advantage of these people, not you.”
He could see he wasn’t going to convince her. “Damn, Carrie.” He reached out and pulled her toward her him.
This was stupid. Monumentally stupid. Those were the last thoughts that flashed through his mind as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, officially ending the battle that had been raging inside himself for weeks.
Carrie tugged at his shirt, wanting it off, wanting to touch his skin. Needing to feel his skin against hers. He reached for her shirt at the same time, pulling it up and over her head. A curse escaped his lips and she smiled. She knew what he was seeing. The black lace br
a she put on earlier. She hadn’t put it on thinking this would happen, but she had thought of him when she’d pulled it out of her drawer that morning. She couldn’t deny that.
He slid the thin lace cups down, freeing her breasts, and worshipping them. She never in a million years would’ve thought she’d think that about a man while they were taking each other’s clothes off, but there was no question that was what he did. His mouth and hands teased and tickled. She wanted this to last. Wanted that in a way she hadn’t ever wanted with another man.
But something told her this man didn’t do lasting. This was not a relationship man. So she would draw this moment out. This moment in time. This moment with him. He was all man and she had a feeling he’d come by these muscles through a lot of hard hours.
Jarrod wasted no time, no movement. Everything he did seemed designed to drive her arousal higher still. With swift movements he had her beneath him on the couch, stretched out as he worked his way down her chest, across her stomach to her waist.
He stopped at the button to her pants, but just as quickly had her out of those. He seemed to be everywhere at once, and he found the slick wet folds between her legs, slipping deft fingers in between them, causing her to cry out.
Carrie struggled with the button of his jeans, her fingers clumsy, wanting in. No, she wanted him in. She wanted him inside of her and she didn’t want to wait.
He seemed to have other ideas as he moved his body away from her and slid down on the couch. He pulled one of her legs around his shoulder as his mouth went to work on other spots. She sucked in a breath and bit down on her lip trying not to cry out loudly, although she didn’t know why she was trying to be quiet.
Something about it felt secret, somehow. And she supposed it was. He would probably be fired if they found out he was sleeping with her.
He closed his mouth over her clitoris and she lost the ability to think about anything other than the feelings and sensations he was bringing on. He moved her closer and closer to orgasm. Then just as easily as he seemed to do everything, he moved away from her, producing a condom and slipping it on.
