Michael Palmer - Side Effects

He hurled the glass with all his strength, shattering it and the mirror.

Then he dropped to his knees amidst the shards and, clutching the ornate toilet, retched until he felt his insides were tearing in two. "Don't you see, Bill? Someone at Redding Pharmaceuticals, maybe this… this Paquette, bought off Ian Toole. Damn, I knew I was right not to trust them. I knew it. I knew it." Kate, still breathless from her run across the snowy street and up three flights of stairs, screamed at herself to calm down. William Zimmermann, as relaxed as Kate was intense, rose from behind his desk and crossed to the automatic coffee maker on a low table by his office door. His knee-length clinic coat was perfectly creased and spotless, his demeanor as immaculate as his dress. "How about a few deep breaths and a cup of coffee?"

"Coffee's about the last thing I need in my state, thanks, but I will try the deep breaths. Vacation. Can you believe it? One day the man is at his little spectrophotometer running tests, and the next he's off on vacation and nobody knows when he'll be back. Now if that isn't a payoff, I don't know what is. Next thing you know, Ian Toole's name will be on a lab door somewhere in Redding Pharmaceuticals."

"The deep breaths? " Zimmermann asked, returning to his desk. "Oh, yes.

I'm sorry, Bill. But you don't blame me, do you?"

"No, I don't blame you." He paused, obviously searching for words.

"Kate, " he said finally, "I want to be as tactful as possible in what I have to ask, and if I'm not, please excuse me, but…"

"Go on."

"Well, since you brought the subject up at our dinner the other night, I feel I must ask. Just how badly do you have it in for the pharmaceutical industry?"

The question startled her. Then she understood. "What you're saying is that without Ian Toole, it becomes a matter of my word against theirs.

Is that it?"

"If I'm out of line, Kate, I'm sorry. But remember, there is a lot at stake here-for me and my clinic, and as far as I know, this whole matter was between you and your Mr. Toole. I mean I called in the report because it was our facility, but the hard data are strictly…"

"Wait, " Kate interrupted excitedly. "There is someone else. I just remembered."

"Who?"

"Her name's Millicent. She's Toole's assistant, and I remember him telling me she was put out about having to work late on the stuff I sent him."

"Do you have a last name?"

"No, but how many Millicents can there be at the State Toxicology Lab?"

She was already reaching for the phone and her address book.

"You don't know me, Dr. Paquette, " she murmured as she dialed. "Oh, no, you don't know me at all."

The call lasted less than a minute. "Millicent Hall is no longer in the employ of the state lab, " Kate said as she hung up, her expression and tone an equal mix of embarrassment, dejection, and anger. "They wouldn't give out any further information."

This time it was Zimmermann who took a deep breath. "First the baseball player and now this, " he said. "You certainly aren't having a very easy time of it."

Kate's eyes narrowed. An emptiness began to build inside her. "You're having trouble believing me, aren't you?"

Zimmermann met her gaze and held it. "Kate, what I can say in all honesty is that at this moment I believe that you believe." He saw her about to protest, and held up his hands. "And at this moment," he added reassuringly, "that is enough. There is too much at stake for me to make any hasty moves. I shall await Redding's formal response to my report, meanwhile keeping our pharmacy on backup. No Redding generics until then. However, if there have been no further cases or further developments in, say, a week, I plan to reinstate our automated system."

"With Redding products?"

"We have a contract."

"But they…"

"Facts, Kate. We need substantiated facts."

Kate sighed and sank back in her seat, deflated. It was nearly ten and she had done nothing to prepare for the day's surgicals. "Have you started working on that list of patients who might be willing to allow me to have their medications analyzed?"

Zimmermann smiled patiently. "You can see how that might be a bit tricky to explain to a patient, can't you? " He handed her a brief list and five Omnicenter medication cards. "These belong to long-term patients of mine, who agreed to exchange them as part of what I said was a routine quality-control check."

"It is, " Kate said. "Thanks, Bill. I know this isn't easy for you and I'm grateful."

"I'll try and get you some more today."

"Thanks. You're being more than fair. I know I'm right, and sooner or later I'm going to prove it." She stood to go. "You know, " Zimmermann said, "even if you find there was a manufacturing error at Redding, you have no way of tying it in with the cases you are following."

The faces of three women-two dead and one her friend-flashed in her thoughts. "I know, " she said grimly. "But it's all I… it's all we have. Say, before I forget. Have you got the purchase invoices for the Redding generics that I asked you about?"

Zimmermann opened his file cabinet. "Carl Horner does the ordering. He gave me these and asked that I convey his desire to cooperate with you as fully as possible. He also asked that you return these as soon as you're done."

"Of course, " Kate said, glancing at the pile of yellow invoice carbons.

Redding Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Darlington, Kentucky. The words sputtered and sparked in her mind. Then they exploded. "Kate, are you all right? " Zimmermann asked. "Huh? Oh, yes, I'm fine. Bill, something very strange is going on here. I mean very strange." Zimmermann looked at her quizzically. "I don't know how long ago they moved, but at one time, the Ashburton Foundation was located in Darlington, Kentucky."

"How do you know?"

"I found their old address in my father-in-law's Rolodex."

"So?"

Kate held up an invoice for him to see. "Darlington. That's where Redding Pharmaceuticals is headquartered."

For the first time, William Zimmermann seemed perturbed. "I still don't see what point you're trying to make."

Kate heard the irritation in the man's voice and, recalling his oblique reference to the Bobby Geary letter, cautioned herself to tread gently.

Her supporters, even skeptical ones, were few and far between. "I… I guess I overreacted a little, " she said with a sheepishness she was not really feeling. "Ellen's being in the middle of all this has me grasping at straws, I guess." She glanced at her watch. "Look, I've got to get over to the OR. Thanks for these. If I come up with any facts," she corrected herself with a raised finger, "make that substantiated facts, I'll give you a call."

"Fine, " Zimmermann said. "Let me know if there's any further way I can help."

Kate hurried outside and across the street, mindless of the wind and snow. Ashburton and Redding-once both in Darlington, and now both at the Omnicenter. A coincidence? Not likely, she thought. No, not likely at all. The lobby clock read two minutes to ten as she sped toward the surgical suite and the small frozen-section lab. The room was dark.

Taped to the door was a carefully printed note.

OR CRYOSTAT INOPERATIVE. BRING BIOPSY SPECS TO PATH DEPARTMENT CRYOSTAT FOR PROCESSING

"Ten seconds to ignition. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Ignition." Tom Engleson struck the wooden match against the edge of an iron trivet and touched the brandy-soaked mound of French vanilla ice cream. "Voila! " he cried. "Bravo! " Kate cheered. Tom filled two shallow dishes and set Kate's in front of her with a flourish. The evening had been a low-key delight, drinks at the Hole in the Wall Pub, dinner at the Moon Villa, in Chinatown, and finally dessert in Tom's apartment, twenty stories above Boston Harbor. She had forgotten to break their date, and for once her poor memory had proven an asset.