Faye Kellerman - Prayers for the Dead

“I wasn’t hiding anything.” Shockley sat up. “Yes, I was aware that Curedon was going through some rough spots. But with Azor on our team, I felt confident that we could overcome our problems. Now, with him gone, the board has recommended reevaluating the project. We had Kenny run some new correlates. We didn’t like the results.”

“Let’s back it up,” Marge said. “Why would Leonard go to Decameron’s house? Why not just call him?”

“I don’t have any notion why.”

“Maybe he was trying to warn Decameron.”

“About what?” Shockley asked.

“About not getting in Fisher/Tyne’s way, because it could lead to tragedy.”

“You’re speaking hogwash-”

“It didn’t lead to tragedy?” Oliver asked.

“We had nothing to do with anyone’s death,” Shockley protested.

Marge said, “When can we talk to Leonard’s co-workers?”

“I’ll try to get clearance for you by tomorrow. After I’ve broken the news to them.”

“And they’re too scared to talk.”

Shockley said, “You don’t have warrants, you may not trample over our rights-”

“Gettin’ kinda feisty, sir,” Oliver said.

“Get out of here!”

“You’re not being very civic-minded-”

“Get out of here before I have you thrown out by security!” Shockley reached for the phone.

Oliver grinned. “I don’t think he’s bluffing, Detective Dunn.”

“Doesn’t look like it.” Marge saluted him. “Thanks for your time.”

“I don’t get it.” Oliver opened the door to the unmarked. “Fisher/Tyne is a multibillion dollar company. You’re telling me that they don’t honestly know whether or not a drug is going to work before they invest millions of bucks in it?”

“I don’t know, Scott.”

“Margie, it ain’t all a crapshoot.”

“No, of course not.” Marge leaned against the car. “Maybe Curedon looked good in Azor’s lab, but not in Fisher/Tyne’s lab.”

Oliver frowned. “C’mon, Marge. Curedon must have passed some test for them to buy up its rights and pay Sparks an enormous chunk of change.”

Marge shrugged. “Maybe it was effective with animal data, but not with human beings.”

“Not according to Decameron, Fulton or Berger. It was a miracle drug with their patients.”

“Except that it had problems lately. Besides none of the doctors is an objective party, Scott. If any of them were promised a percentage of profits…” Marge stopped midsentence, staring at a brunette in a black suit speed-walking toward them. She saw Marge staring at her, and waved. Marge waved back.

“Who?” Oliver asked.

“Don’t know.”

The brunette reached the car, breathless, her large chest heaving with each intake of oxygen. She seemed scared. She looked around, talking to them with head turned, blue eyes scanning over her shoulder. “Are you the police?”

Oliver nodded.

“May I see some identification?”

They took out their shields. The brunette rubbed her hands as she examined their badges. “Does your visit have anything to do with Kenneth Leonard? Has he talked to you at all?”

No one spoke.

Marge said, “Are you friends with Dr. Leonard?”

Again, the woman kneaded her hands. “Maybe I should take a ride with you.”

Oliver opened the door for her. She slid in the back of the unmarked, and so did Marge. Oliver started up the car and drove off the parking lot. He parked a few blocks down from Fisher/Tyne.

Nobody spoke, then the brunette asked, “Is Kenny all right?”

Marge and Oliver exchanged looks.

The brunette’s eyes moistened. “He’s dead, isn’t he?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Marge said. “Do you have a name?”

The woman’s lower lip quivered. “Belinda Sands.”

“You were his girlfriend?” Oliver asked.

The woman didn’t answer. It was then that Marge noticed a wedding band on her finger. She said, “You were having an affair with him.”

Belinda jerked her head toward Marge, eyeing her in wonderment.

“Your ring,” Marge said. “Leonard wasn’t married.”

“Oh.” Belinda studied her nails. “It’s been over for a while. But we remained friends.”

“Do you also work in Research Design?” Oliver asked.

“Accounting.” Belinda hid her face in her hands, pulled them away, and wiped tears from her cheeks. “Something was going on with him.”

Marge said, “Tell me.”

“I hadn’t spoken to Kenny in a while,” Belinda said. “As I said, the affair was over…long over. It didn’t even last very long. Maybe a couple of months. I swear that’s all.”

Marge nodded. “What about Kenny, Belinda?”

“About a week ago, he came to me. He asked if we could have a drink after work. I didn’t want to go, but…frankly, he was acting strange. I thought that maybe he was going to try to blackmail me.”

The car grew quiet.

Oliver said, “Was Leonard the blackmailing type?”

“Oh no, not at all. It’s just that…” Belinda blinked tears. “I love my husband. I love my children. I made a terrible mistake when I stepped out. Luckily, Kenny let me off the hook-graciously, no scene. But I admit I was very paranoid that maybe he had ulterior motives. When he asked me out, I thought he was coming back to haunt me. But that wasn’t the case.”

Oliver said, “What did he want?”

“To talk about work…his data. He was very upset. He found a cuckoo’s egg in Curedon’s data.”

“Pardon?” Marge asked.

“A security break. Another terminal had hooked into his and was running programs from it, interfering with Kenny’s data. Computer people call it a cuckoo’s egg. Because cuckoo birds lay their eggs in other birds’ nests. Kenny told me that someone had a specific interest in altering Curedon’s data and was fudging the numbers.”

“How’d they break in?”

“I have no idea. Neither did Kenny. But he suspected it was done by someone in-house who knew the passwords. Kenny changed them right after, and the terminal shut down. But the damage had already been done. Because Kenny had made recommendations based on the fraudulent numbers. He felt that someone was setting him up to fail.”

“Who?”

Belinda swallowed. “That’s what Kenny was trying to find out. Especially after Dr. Sparks was murdered.”

“He never mentioned anyone specific?” Oliver asked.

Belinda looked up. “He felt Fisher/Tyne was behind it-the data fudging. That Fisher/Tyne was trying to stop the Curedon research.”

“Why?”

“This part is speculation, but…” Belinda cleared her throat. “Kenny felt Shockley was in secret cahoots with Dr. Sparks’s assistant.”

Long silence.

Oliver said, “Which one? Decameron?”

“Dr. Berger,” Belinda said. “He was originally assigned to the Curedon project. Then, he abruptly quit. No one knew why. But then Decameron came on, seemed to be doing a good job, and that was that. Until now.”

Marge said, “Why did Leonard think Berger and Shockley were in cahoots?”

“Because he recently saw Berger and Shockley talking to each other. Here. At Fisher/Tyne. In Shockley’s private office. Dr. Berger no longer had business here. What was he doing here?”

“That’s hardly indictable evidence, Belinda,” Oliver said.

“That’s what I told Kenny,” she answered. “I told him that for all he knew Sparks could have sent Berger to talk to Shockley.”

“Exactly.”

“There was more, sir. Kenny traced the break-in to a terminal in Sparks’s lab. By some process of elimination, Kenny had it figured out that it had to be Berger. He became frantic, very scared.”

“Obviously with good reason,” Marge said. “Why didn’t he report this to the police?”