Arthur Hailey - Strong Medicine

She touched the French news clipping, then put it on her desk.”I'll keep this.”

"Okay, if it's what you want.”

Ingram glanced at his watch.”I'll telephone Gironde-Chimie. There's still time today, and I have the name of one of their guys I've spoken to before. But I still don't think-" "Do it," Celia said.”Do it nowl" Bill reported back cheerfully an hour later. "Not to worry!" he pronounced.”I've had a long talk with my friend at Gironde-Chimie. He knew all about the two cases mentioned by France-Soir he says they've been investigated thoroughly and there is no cause for alarm, or even doubts. The company sent a medical-scientific team to Nouzonville, and flew the same people to Spain to look into the incident there.”

Celia asked, "Did he give you more details?" "Yes.”

Bill consulted a page of notes he had been carrying.”Incidentally, both cases seem remarkably similar to that Australian one which turned out to be a phony. You remember?" "I know about the Australian report.”

"Well, both women-the mothers of the babies born with CNS disorders-were taking a hodgepodge of other drugs and large amounts of alcohol throughout their pregnancies. Also, in the case of the French birth there's a history of mongolism in the family, while in Spain the baby's father, and his father, are epileptics.”

"But both mothers were taking Montayne?" "That's true. And my French contact-his name is Jacques Saint-Jean, with a Ph.D. in chemistry-told me Gironde-Chimie was enormously concerned at first, just as you were. As he pointed out, their company has as much at stake as Felding-Roth, maybe more.”

Celia said tersely, "Get on with it!" "Well, the verdict is: Montayne had absolutely nothing to do with the birth deficiencies of either baby. The scientists and doctors, including consultants from outside the company, were unanimous about that. What they did find was that some of the other drugs being taken by both women are dangerous in combination and could have - . .”

"I want to read the reports," Celia said.”How soon can we get copies?" "Both reports are here.”

"Here?" Bill nodded affirmatively.”In this building. Jacques Saint-Jean told me that Vincent Lord has them. They were sent a couple of weeks ago, as part of Gironde-Chimie's policy of keeping everyone informed. Would you like me to ask Vince-" "No," she said.”I'll get them. That's all, Bill.”

"Listen.”

His voice was troubled.”If you don't mind my saying so, I don't think you should get too exercised about-" She snapped, unable to control her mounting tension, "I said that's all!"

"Why do you want to see them?" Vincent Lord asked Celia. She was in the research director's office where she had come to ask for the recent reports about Montayne that she and Bill Ingram had discussed. "Because I think it's important that I read that kind of information for myself, rather than just hear about it second-hand.”

"If, by 'second-hand,' you mean through me," Lord observed, "don't you think I have more qualifications to read those kind of reports, then make a judgment-as I already have?" "What was your judgment?" "That in neither incident was there any possible involvement of Montayne. All the evidence supports that, and it was evidence investigated thoroughly by qualified, competent people. My additional opinion-now shared by Gironde-Chimie, by the way-is that the families concerned were simply trying to extort money. It happens all the time.”

Celia asked, "Has Sam been told about the reports-the incidents in France and Spain?" Lord shook his head.”Not by me. I didn't consider them significant enough to bother him.”

"All right," Celia said.”At this point I'm not questioning your decision. But I'd still like to read the reports myself" Lord's increased friendliness of late had cooled noticeably during their conversation. Now he said acidly, "If you have some pretensions about possessing scientific knowledge and making judgments yourself, let me remind you that your scrubby B.S. chemistry degree is a long way behind you, and out of date.”

While surprised at the research director's reluctance to let her have what she had asked for, Celia had no intention of turning this into an argument. She said quietly, "I have no pretensions, Vince. But please may I have the reports?" What came next also surprised her. She had assumed the reports would be in a general office filing system and that Lord would send for them. Instead, with a sour expression, he used a key to open a locked drawer of his desk from which he extracted a folder. Withdrawing papers, he handed them to Celia. "Thank you," she acknowledged.”I'll let you have these back.”

That evening, though tired when she arrived home, Celia stayed up late to read the Gironde-Chimie reports and most of the trial transcript from Australia. The latter caused her most concern. There were several significant points in the full transcript which the abridged, summarized version she had read earlier did not contain. The woman in the Australian case had been stated-in the abridged version-to be of poor character, a heavy drug user (apart from Montayne), a near-alcoholic, and a chain smoker. All true. But also true, and not appearing in the abridged report, was that despite her background the mother of the deficient child was intelligent, a fact to which several witnesses testified. Furthermore, there was no known history of mental impairment or physical deformity in the woman's family. A second piece of information new to Celia was that the woman had had two previous pregnancies which produced normal, healthy children. The abridged Australian report had stated that the woman did not know who was the father of her latest child. But-the full trial transcript revealed-she did know that the father had to be one of four men, all of whom were questioned by an investigating doctor. In no case, among the men or their families, was any history of mental or physical problems found. The French and Spanish reports, obtained from Vincent Lord, were much as Bill Ingram had described them earlier in the day. The detail they contained also confirmed Lord's opinion that the Gironde-Chimie investigations had been done thoroughly by competent people. Just the same, the totality of all three documents heightened, rather than diminished, the unease in Celia's mind. For what was inescapable, despite all other considerations and opinions, was the fact that three women, in widely separated places, had produced deformed and mentally defective babies-and all, during pregnancy, had taken Montayne. By the end of her reading she had reached a decision: Despite Vincent Lord's reluctance, Sam Hawthorne must be informed, not only of all known facts, but of Celia's personal, growing anxiety about Montayne.

It was late afternoon next day. A memo, flagged "URGENT," from Celia to Sam Hawthorne had reached him by midmorning. Soon after that, Sam summoned a senior management conference for 4:30 p.m. Now, as Celia approached the president's suite, she could hear through a doorway open to the corridor the sound of boisterous male laughter. At this moment, she thought it seemed incongruous. As she entered the outer office, one of Sam's two secretaries looked up and smiled.”Hello, Mrs. Jordan.”

Sounds like a party, Maggie," Celia said. In a way, it is.”

The secretary smiled again and motioned to another open doorway.”Why don't you go in? There's some news I think Mr. Hawthorne would like to tell you himself" Celia entered a room in which the air was heavy with cigar smoke. Sam was there; so were Vincent Lord, Seth Feingold, Bill Ingram, and several vice presidents, including Glen Nicholson, a company veteran who ran manufacturing, a Dr. Starbut from safety evaluation, and Julian Hammond, a youngish MBA in charge of public affairs. All were puffing at cigars, Ingram with some uncertainty; Celia bad never seen him smoke before. "Hey, here's Celia!" someone called out.”Sam, give her a cigar!" 'No, no!" Sam said.”I've something different for the ladies.”