The Associate (10 page)

Daniel couldn’t help smiling. Then he remembered Kate.

“Can I use your phone? They won’t let me into my office.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks, Joe. For everything.”

“Aw shucks, you’re making me blush.”

Daniel shook his head. “You’re still a jerk.”

Joe laughed and they started walking toward Molinari’s office. When they reached his door, Daniel turned toward his friend.

“This is a private call, okay?”

“Say no more.”

Daniel closed the door and dialed Kate’s extension. Joe stood guard outside.

“It’s Daniel,” he said as soon as she picked up. “Are you alone?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Briggs fired me.”

“Oh, Daniel. I’m so sorry.”

“I can’t say I didn’t expect it.”

“You should fight this.”

“I’m not sure I’d want my job back even if I could get it. Really, being fired might have been the best thing.”

“How can you say that?”

“I told Briggs that Geller might be covering up the fact that Insufort causes birth defects in little children. He threatened to have me arrested, to sue me. He wasn’t the least bit concerned that Geller is ruining the lives of all those kids and their parents. So I guess the question is, would I have accepted Reed, Briggs’s job offer if I knew I’d be using my legal education to protect a company that destroys lives for profit?

“But that’s not why I called. I wasn’t thinking straight after Briggs told me I was fired and I told him that I had Kaidanov’s hard drive. He wants it by five today or he’s going after me.”

“You didn’t . . . ?”

“No. I didn’t mention you. He has no idea that you have it and I want to make certain that he doesn’t find out. Can you get it to me? Briggs says he’ll have me arrested if I don’t give it to him and I’m in enough trouble already. And we have a copy, anyway.”

“What are you going to do with the information?”

“I don’t know, Kate, and I’m too mixed up now to make decisions.”

“I’ll get you the hard drive before one.”

“Thanks.”

There was dead air for a moment. Then Kate said, “You’re a good person, Dan, and good people land on their feet. You’ll come out of this okay.”

Daniel appreciated the sentiment, but he wasn’t sure that was the way things happened in the real world.

As soon as she left the medical examiner’s office, Billie Brewster drove west along the Sunset Highway. Twenty minutes later the detective took one of the Hillsboro exits and found herself in open country where rolling green hills and a sweeping blue sky formed a backdrop for the three interconnected, black-glass-and-polished-granite buildings in the Geller Pharmaceuticals complex.

The main attraction in Building A was an atrium with a three-story waterfall that started just under a tinted-glass roof and occupied one corner of the spacious lobby. Billie learned the location of Kurt Schroeder’s office at reception and walked up a staircase near the atrium that led to the second floor. A glass-encased sky bridge connected the main building to Building B, which housed research and development.

Moments after Billie flashed her badge at Schroeder’s secretary she found herself seated across from Geller’s chief medical adviser.

“Dr. Schroeder, I’m Detective Brewster with Portland homicide.”

“Homicide?” Schroeder said nervously.

“Yesterday evening I was at a building that was destroyed in an arson fire. There were approximately twenty dead rhesus monkeys inside. They were set on fire in their cages.”

“That’s terrible, but what does this have to do with me or Geller Pharmaceuticals?”

“The records show that Geller owns the property where the building is located. We think it’s a primate lab.”

Schroeder’s brow furrowed. “All of our research is conducted in this building. We do own property apart from this campus for expansion, but it’s undeveloped. If you found a lab, it wasn’t Geller’s.”

“A body was discovered in the lab, Dr. Schroeder. The corpse was badly burned, but we can tell it’s a forty-five- to fifty-five-year old white male, and we think it might be Dr. Sergey Kaidanov.”

“Kaidanov! My God! He disappeared more than a week ago. We’ve been looking for him. This is terrible.”

“Was Dr. Kaidanov involved in primate research?”

“That’s where the problem comes in. The plaintiffs in a lawsuit we’re defending produced what purports to be a letter from Kaidanov in which he claims to be conducting a primate study for our company, but we have no record of his being assigned to conduct such a study.”

“A lawyer from the Reed, Briggs firm told me about that. That’s where we got the idea that the victim might be Kaidanov.”

Schroeder shivered. “God, I hope not.”

“You can help with the identification by sending me Dr. Kaidanov’s personnel file. His dental records would be very useful.”

“I’ll do what I can,” he answered, apparently shaken by what he had learned.

Brewster handed Schroeder a paper with the location of the destroyed building.

“Can you check to see if your company has a lab on the property?”

“Certainly. I should have an answer for you in a day or so.”

Brewster stood. “Thank you for your cooperation, Dr. Schroeder.”

“Of course.” He paused. “I hope you’re wrong about Kaidanov.”

“I hope so, too.”

There were several phone messages waiting for Billie when she got back to the Justice Center. Halfway down the pile was a message from missing persons. Even though she was pretty certain of the identity of the body at the lab, Brewster had phoned them from the medical examiner’s office and asked for a list of men who matched the description that Forester had given her. She dialed the extension for missing persons.

“Hey, Billie,” Detective Aaron Davies said, “I got a live one for you. A guy named Gene Arnold. He’s a lawyer from Arizona. His partner, Benjamin Kellogg, reported him missing right around the time you’re interested in. He disappeared while staying at the Benson Hotel. I’ll give you Kellogg’s number.”

Billie dialed the Arizona number. The receptionist at the firm connected her with Benjamin Kellogg and she identified herself.

“Have you found Gene?” Kellogg asked anxiously.

“No, but I wanted to get some information from you so I can follow up on your report. Can you tell me why you think Mr. Arnold is missing?”

“I know he’s missing and I’m certain that something is wrong. We’re all very worried about him.”

“Why is that?”

“He went to New York on business, Sunday, February twenty-seventh. He was supposed to come straight back. I had his flight number and everything, but he wasn’t on the plane. Then he called from Portland on Wednesday, March first. He asked for me, but I was in court, so he spoke with Maria Suarez, our secretary.”

“You weren’t expecting him to go to Oregon?”

“No. I’ve worked with Gene for six years, Maria even longer. We can’t remember him ever mentioning any contacts, business or social, in Oregon.”

“Okay, what did he tell Ms. Suarez?”

“He wanted me to know that he would be away for a few days on personal business. Maria said he asked about his mail and messages, and then he gave her his room number at the Benson Hotel and said he’d keep in touch. The hotel called on Tuesday, March seventh and said that Gene had reserved the room through Monday but had not checked out. They wanted to know if he still wanted it. I had no idea. The security chief said that he was putting Gene’s belongings in storage. That’s when I got scared that something was wrong and I contacted your missing persons bureau.”

“And no one’s heard from him since?”

“Not a word.”

“Is Mr. Arnold married?”

“He’s a widower. His wife died about a year before I started working here.”

“Do you have a photograph of Mr. Arnold that you could send me?”

“I can find one.”

“Good. I also need the name and phone number of Mr. Arnold’s dentist.”

Billie heard an intake of breath.

“You think he’s dead?”

“I have no reason to believe that.”

“You’re homicide, right?”

Billie did not want to alarm Arnold’s partner, but it was obvious that he was already upset.

“Yes.”

“I’m not naive, Detective. I’ve handled some criminal cases. I know why a homicide detective needs dental records. You’ve got an unidentified body that might be Gene.”

“I do have a body, but I’m pretty certain I know who it is.”

“Then why call me?”

“I’ve been known to make mistakes. But I don’t think I have in this case.”

There was dead air for a moment. Finally Kellogg spoke.

“Gene’s dentist is Ralph Hughes. If you give me your address I’ll have him send you Gene’s dental records.”

After Daniel traded the hard drive from Kaidanov’s computer for a cardboard box with his personal belongings, he left his former employer’s domain with hunched shoulders and a crimson face. Even though he had no reason to be ashamed, he was grateful that no one he knew had been in the waiting room or the elevator.

That evening, Daniel’s phone rang several times. A few happy-hour companions had made condolence calls and promised to keep in touch. Joe Molinari invited him out to a bar. When Daniel said he was not in the mood to party Joe urged him to keep the faith. Daniel would not have minded talking to Kate Ross, but she did not call.

Daniel slept late on Saturday then treated himself to an extravagant lunch at Wildwood. He knew it was foolish to spend so much money when he was heavily in debt with no prospects for employment and almost no savings, but the gesture felt important: he’d been fired, but not defeated. After lunch, Daniel wandered around the neighborhood, but it was hard being in a crowd of happy people. He envied them too much. The army had given him his first taste of self-confidence and the inkling of an idea that he could have a future. His college diploma was more than a piece of paper. It was proof that he could be somebody. The job with Reed, Briggs was beyond his wildest dreams. Now the job was gone, and with it his reputation. Daniel believed that he would always be known as the associate whose incompetence destroyed Geller pharmaceuticals.

Sunday was hard to take. Since Reed, Briggs had hired him Daniel had spent most of his time, even weekends, in the office or thinking about things that he had to do at the office. Now there was nothing to dwell on except his failure. He killed the day by going for a long run and watching football. Shortly after six, he was preparing dinner when the telephone rang. The news was on but Daniel was not paying much attention to it.

“Dan, it’s Kate.”

“Oh, hi,” Daniel answered, involuntarily breaking into a smile.

“Sorry I didn’t call yesterday. I was in Astoria investigating an oil spill the coast guard claims is from a ship one of our clients insures. Did everything go okay after I saw you?”

“I gave the hard drive back and the cops didn’t break in my door, so I guess so.”

“Well, cheer up. I may have something for you. Natalie Tasman, one of the paralegals at Jaffe, Katz, Lehane and Brindisi, is a friend. She told me that they’re going to be looking for an associate soon, so I talked to Amanda Jaffe about you. You should give them a call tomorrow.”

“Isn’t Amanda Jaffe the lawyer who represented that doctor who was charged with those serial murders?”

“The same. The firm is small—there are only seven or eight lawyers—but everyone is top-notch. They practice criminal defense and plaintiff’s litigation. I think you’ll fit in over there a hell of a lot better than you fit in at Reed, Briggs.”

“Thanks, Kate. You’re a good friend.”

“You’re a good lawyer.”

Daniel was about to reply when something on the television caught his eye.

“Hold on, Kate. There’s something on TV about the fire.”

On the screen, a reporter from one of the local television stations was standing in front of the burned-out shell of the primate lab.

“There is a bizarre twist in the multimillion-dollar litigation against Geller Pharmaceuticals, manufacturer of the pregnancy drug Insufort,” the reporter said.

“Kate, turn on Channel Four, quick.”

“Late yesterday,” the reporter continued, “this station received copies of a study alleged to have been made on rhesus monkeys that were burned to death in the building behind me. According to the study, a significant percentage of the monkeys that were given Insufort during pregnancy gave birth to babies with birth defects.

“Eyewitness News has learned that Dr. Sergey Kaidanov, the scientist alleged to have authored the study and an employee of Geller Pharmaceuticals, has disappeared. We have also learned that the remains of an unidentified male were found in this building, which was destroyed by arson. According to the police, the man was murdered.”

The picture changed and Aaron Flynn’s face appeared on the screen.

“Earlier today, reporter Angela Graham talked with Aaron Flynn, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the Insufort litigation.”

“Mr. Flynn, what is your reaction to this new information about Insufort?”

“Angela, I haven’t had time to digest it all. I did learn recently that Dr. Kaidanov conducted this study, but I have not seen the study, so I can’t comment. But the news that Dr. Kaidanov may have been murdered is shocking and raises the possibility of a cover-up.

“I must say that I am stunned by the possibility that evidence of the horrible effects of Insufort may have been intentionally destroyed.”

The reporters moved to another story.

“Did you see that?” Daniel asked Kate.

“Yeah, and I just switched channels. The story was on the national news on Channel Six, too. Dan, I’ve got to ask: Did you leak the story?”

“Of course not. Briggs said he’d have me arrested if I told anyone what was on the hard drive.” Daniel paused as what he’d just said sank in. “Oh, man. If Briggs thinks I leaked the study I’m screwed.”