“Dr. Littlething. I assure you that I’m not here as an employee of the federal government. I’m on annual leave from my job with the FDA, and CureStuff’s drug development programs have nothing to do with my visit. I’m here as a private detective investigating an alleged attempt at poisoning Dr. Shipley, and along those same lines, I’m also curious as to what happened to one of your female senior vice presidents recently. Now, could you please tell me about your relationship with Dr. Shipley when she was an employee at CureStuff?”
Dr. Littlething calmed down at this assurance. “All right. I’ll take you at your word. Come along and we can go sit in my office to talk. Carol, please come along with us. I want you there as a witness when I speak with Dr. Longfellow, in case he tries to question me about any of our drugs or biologics.”
He led the way down the hall to his office, where he sat down behind a very large and expensive oak desk, with an inlaid, dark-blue marble work surface and a thick, ornate border around the top consisting of two rows of detailed roses carved into the richly polished, light-brown wood. Jason and Ms. Harden were forced to sit in front of the desk in guest chairs that were built so low to the ground that when everyone was seated Dr. Littlething actually appeared to be the tallest person in the room.
Now eye to eye with his tall nemesis, Dick Littlething said, “To answer your questions, with respect to Dr. Shipley, she worked here in the Research and Development Department on one of our products, a monoclonal antibody. The project wasn’t going anywhere, so the board of directors decided to stop funding. Dr. Shipley’s services were no longer required at CureStuff. I don’t know what she has told you about me, but you have to understand that I’m wealthy, good looking, and quite popular with the ladies. I’m also divorced, and free as a bird; quite a catch.”
Ms. Harden leaned toward Jason and said softly, “That would be a cuckoo.” She was seated so low that Littlething couldn’t see her, so she wasn’t concerned about detection.
Littlething continued. “Dr. Shipley was quite interested in me before she was dismissed from the company, and I even felt sorry for her and took her out for drinks one night, which eventually led us to my plush townhouse where we ended up in bed together. I fulfilled her every fantasy that night, and of course she wanted more, but I moved on to my next conquest and she has hated me ever since. Did I mention that I also drive a shiny new BMW and have a forty-foot cabin cruiser docked at the marina on Lake Norman? I’m quite a catch.”
Jason glanced at Ms. Harden, and she just shrugged at him, a grimace on her face as she mouthed the words, “So full of shit.” Jason was underwhelmed by Littlething’s conceit. “Isn’t Dr. Shipley married?”
“Not my problem,” Littlething said smugly. “If her husband kept her satisfied, she wouldn’t need to look for a stud like me to take care of her needs, now would she? I don’t know if her husband ever found out or not, but I didn’t hear anything from him. She got what she needed from me, and I moved on.”
“So, assuming that any of this is true, Dr. Shipley is not one of your greatest fans. What about the SVP that, according to the news, recently had an outbreak of a mysterious illness here at your company?”
“You must be talking about Dr. Wendy Thompkins. As to her mysterious illness, she had some sort of fit or series of seizures during one of our senior management meetings, and ended up in the ER. It’s my understanding that they never figured out what was wrong with her. Wendy was another one of the women in the company with the hots for me. A while back, she asked me out for drinks, and I agreed. She also ended up in my expensive boudoir, where I rocked her world, and after that night I again moved on. She started dating Dr. Harden shortly after, and that was that. I never heard from her again except as pertained to work.”
Jason glanced at Ms. Harden, who was looking in his direction, her finger stuck down her throat with a mock vomiting motion. Jason realized that he wasn’t going to get anything of value out of Dick Littlething. This man was so full of himself—and shit—that it was impossible to carry on a rational conversation with him. Jason said, “Dr. Littlething, thanks again for taking the time to speak with me. It sounds like you are not on the best of terms with either Dr. Shipley or Dr. Thompkins. I can’t think of any more questions for you at the moment. Would it be possible for me to meet some of your other senior managers?”
Littlething walked around his desk so that he could see Ms. Harden. “Carol, I guess it would be okay for Dr. Longfellow to talk to a couple of our SVPs or VPs. Why don’t you introduce him to Dr. Grayson and Dr. Chang?”
Jason rose. “Thank you, Dr. Littlething. I appreciate your time.”
“You’re welcome, Dr. Longfellow. And if you ever review one of our drug applications, be kind. We can use all the help we can get.”
Jason reached down to pull Ms. Harden up out of her chair, and she led him out of the office and down the hall. As they walked, she said, “Let’s try to find doctors Tanya Grayson and Lucy Chang. Tanya is our VP of Toxicology and Lucy is VP of Regulatory. They’re good friends, and if we’re lucky we might catch them together. It’s about break time, and they’re probably in the coffee room.”
• • •
As Jason followed Ms. Harden to find Chang and Grayson, he couldn’t help but compare the brightly lit, clean, shiny building, smelling of new carpet and oak furniture, with the dingy, old, dusty, musty government buildings that he had worked in for most of his career. They took several turns down multiple corridors that all looked alike, and he was immediately lost.
“I hope you help me find my way out of here. This place goes on forever.”
Carol laughed. “No worries. If I left you to roam free in the building, Littlething would have my head. Here’s the coffee room, and look at that. There are Tanya and Lucy, just as I’d hoped.”
The two women were sitting at a small table together, drinking coffee, eating yogurt, and chatting. One of the women was obviously of Asian descent, in her mid-forties. Her hair was black, her face round and pudgy with prominent wrinkle lines below dark eyes. A small mouth with a friendly smile hovered above a double chin, and she had a large mole on one cheek that should probably be checked out by a doctor. She wore an oversized, casual jacket over a loose white blouse and dark-blue cotton pants with elastic waistband, presumably to cover the fact that she enjoyed the standard American fast food diet. The pink Nike walking shoes fit in nicely with the laidback look of the overfed.
The other woman, about the same age, walked to the coffee machine for a refill just as they entered the room. As she passed in front of Jason, her long, wavy blonde hair flowing over her shapely shoulders, he caught a whiff of Chanel. His midlife-crisis radar zoomed in on her outrageously alluring body, and when she turned in his direction, he felt a stirring in his manhood brought on by the sight of her tight blue blouse, unbuttoned at the top to show a more-than-ample bosom, and the matching short, blue, cotton skirt that revealed long, shapely legs and a perfect round buttocks that spoke of many hours at the gym. He also noticed her sparkling blue eyes and spectacularly beautiful face, which appeared mysterious and enticing. At first glance she looked like an angel, but there was something about her inviting smile and the twinkle in her eyes—a warning that any angelic tendencies might be a disguise. She held her smile and nodded in his direction, and his knees wobbled a little. He thought they might be having a moment—at least, he was having a moment.
Jason mumbled, “I’m liking this PI thing more and more. I’m gonna question the hell out of the blonde.”
As they approached the women, Carol smirked and said to Jason, “Yeah, Tanya has that effect on most men.”
“Hey, Tanya. Hey, Lucy. How are things? This is Dr. Jason Longfellow, a private detective from Northern Virginia. He’s here to investigate issues concerning Dr. Joanne Shipley. He also wants to speak with you about what happened to Dr. Thompkins recently. He seems to believe there might be a connection?” She glanced at Jason for confirmation before continuing, “And
by the way, keep in mind that Dr. Longfellow also works as a drug reviewer for the FDA. Littlething wasn’t too happy about that, and I must confess, I’m not quite sure that I understand it either. Littlething said it’s okay for you to talk to him, but only about doctors Shipley and Thompkins.”
Jason approached the table where the two women, one tall and slender and the other not so much, were now standing, trying his best not to stare down at the blonde’s breasts. He said to her chest, “Hello. It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m looking into the attempt on Dr. Joanne Shipley’s life. It’s complicated. I recently got my PI’s license, and I do investigative work on weekends mostly. As Ms. Harden said, I also work for the FDA, although I’m on annual leave from the government today. When I’m working for the FDA, Joanne and I carpool to work together. It’s possible there was an attempt on her life, so she and her husband may have hired me to look into the situation; I can’t say for sure because a PI’s not supposed to reveal the identity of his client. So here I am. As I told Dr. Littlething, I’m not interested in your drug development program, only in this attempt on Joanne’s life, and also what happened to Dr. Thompkins here recently. I’m wondering if there is any connection between the two events.” He thought, This private eye thing was a great idea. I’m already meeting new and exciting people. Just hope Chelsea doesn’t find out how exciting.
Dr. Chang spoke first, waving her right hand in the air. “Hello, Mr. Private Detective. I’m over here, not that you seem to have noticed. I’m Lucy Chang, VP of Regulatory. What do you want to know?”
Jason blushed. “Sorry, Dr. Chang. I’m looking for a motive for someone to try to kill Dr. Joanne Shipley, and the same for Dr. Wendy Thompkins. Dr. Littlething told me that he had dated both Drs. Shipley and Thompkins, bedded them, and then dumped them the next day. I gotta be honest, after meeting Littlething, I’m not sure I believe his story.”
The blonde, Dr. Tanya Grayson, spoke up, a wry smile on her face, “I’m Tanya Grayson, VP, Toxicology, and I must say, you are very perceptive, although your eyes seem to have a mind of their own. Anyhow, Littlething is full of it. He has hit on every woman in the building, and to my knowledge no one will go near him. We’re all taller than him, and no woman wants to date a man when she has to gaze down at the top of his bald head all the time. And for some unknown reason he’s delusional and thinks he’s God’s gift to women, which makes him even more repulsive and ridiculous. No amount of money in the world would convince me to go out with that man.”
She paused, considering how much information she should share. “It’s my understanding that he did hit on Wendy Thompkins several times, but she kept rejecting him. Joanne Shipley and I were good friends before she left the company, and I know for a fact that Littlething tried to hit on her. She wasn’t as nice as Wendy since she’s married. She told him to fuck off. That may be another reason why she got canned. Joanne and I used to make jokes about Littlething all the time. You know, tiny hands, tiny feet, tiny . . . well, you get my drift. Wendy Thompkins is dating Dr. Lance Harden now, Joanne has moved on, and I guarantee that Littlething never got his little thing anywhere near either one of them.”
Dr. Chang spoke up. “Wow, Tanya. Don’t sugarcoat it, girl. Just tell it like it is.” She chuckled. “Well, Jason, as you can see this place is about as screwed up as it gets. I can confirm everything that Tanya says.” In a lighter tone—“Tanya, darlin’, weren’t you interested in Lance Harden at one point? Or did I just hallucinate that one? It’s so hard to keep up in this place. Between Littlething’s imaginary flings and the actual affairs that are going on at CureStuff, someone should write a book.”
Tanya Grayson said, “As for Wendy Thompkins, I don’t think anyone’s really sure what happened to her. She had some type of attack. I didn’t see the whole thing, but rumor was it looked like she was having sex with herself, getting off again and again during a senior management meeting of all things. Pretty screwy, huh? They took her to the ER, gave her a strong sedative, and she survived. She hasn’t been back to the office since, but I think that it’s more out of embarrassment than anything. I don’t think anyone ever figured out what actually happened to her, or who, if anyone, did anything to her. Is that about right, Lucy?”
Lucy Change responded, “That’s what I heard. Everyone made a big fuss at the time, but it’s all died down and most everyone’s forgotten about it. I guess that’s partly because Dr. Thompkins hasn’t been to the office since the incident. You know, out of sight, out of mind.”
Jason thought, Very interesting. Having sex with herself. Multiple climaxes. That sounds strangely familiar. “That’s useful information. Thanks. Is there anyone else that you can think of that might have a motive for harming Wendy or Joanne? I need to figure out who had a motive for harming these two women, so I can solve this case.” I need to show Chelsea that I can do this. It’s way more fun than working for the government.
Lucy answered, “Well, let’s see. There’s Ted Conway, our VP of Marketing. After Wendy’s episode at our quarterly senior management meeting, Dick Littlething called a follow-up meeting to figure out how to proceed with the clinical trial for our new antidepressant drug, Happiness, while she’s out of commission for a couple of months. At that meeting, Ted mentioned he had an argument with Wendy about the future of the drug if it gets FDA approval. He wants to use his salespeople to try to convince doctors to prescribe the drug off-label for everything from excessive gas to the common cold, and Wendy disagreed with this approach. At that meeting, Ted tried to convince Dick to replace Wendy with someone more open to his marketing ideas. He seemed very angry with her.”
Tanya spoke up. “Yeah, and Wendy told me that old Ted cornered her in her office one evening a couple months ago, when they were both working late, and tried to kiss her. Apparently he’d left the office, gone out for a few drinks, came back to finish some work, and found her here. She kneed him in the balls, and he backed off. She never told anyone else because she didn’t want to get him fired, and I guess she’d made her point with him. According to her, he never bothered her again, but I guess that might be a motive for him to try to poison her.”
Wow, the office gossip’s flying now. This is good information. I’m really good at this. “That’s great. So this Ted Conway sounds like he has a motive. How did he act during the meeting where Wendy had her attack? Did he appear guilty, look nervous?”
Lucy said, “Come to think of it, Ted wasn’t at the meeting where Wendy went to the ER. I believe he was on vacation that week. Isn’t that right, Tanya?”
Tanya thought for a moment. “I believe you’re right. Ted wasn’t here when Wendy got sick; he just got back for the follow-up meeting.”
Jason said, “Crap. It sounds like this Conway has an alibi for Wendy’s poisoning. Well, that’s not much help.” I’m getting the hang of this, using words like “motive” and “alibi,” and collecting all this useful information, and some not so useful. Chelsea’ll be impressed when I tell her, and she’ll have to agree that I should quit the government and be a full-time PI.
Tanya said, “There is someone else that might have a motive. Joe Bly, our SVP of Manufacturing. He’s always sucking up to Dick Littlething, cutting manufacturing costs to the bone and skimping on product testing to increase profits. At our follow-up meeting, Joe was complaining about Wendy because she kept raising hell with him for the quality of the drug that his group was providing for the clinical trial. He was also angry with Wendy and agreed with Ted that she should be replaced.”
“Was Joe at both meetings?”
Lucy responded first. “Yes, I distinctly remember Joe being at both meetings.”
Tanya said, “Yep, he was there for both.”
“Good. That means he had both motive and opportunity. Anyone else?”
Lucy spoke up. “Only other person I can think of would be Donna Smart, our VP of Human Resources. Donna and Wendy have been going at it since Donna interviewed her for head of Clinical Trials several
years ago. Donna’s kind of a petty person, and she’d just had her office redecorated the week before she interviewed Wendy. The story goes that during the interview Wendy made some comment about the color of the carpet, called it ‘blood red,’ or some such thing. It was a small thing, but Donna had picked the color, and like I said, she can be really petty. I’m guessing that it was more than that—some sort of conflicting personality thing. Anyhow, Donna was the only one that recommended against hiring Wendy, and she was pissed when Wendy was hired anyway. Later, Wendy found out, and there has never been any love lost between those two.”
“Wow. Trying to poison someone over the color of a carpet is kind of extreme, but it doesn’t sound like they got along. I haven’t been at this very long, so I can’t say I’ve ever seen anyone murdered for dissing the color of someone’s office carpet. . . . This is all good stuff. Thanks.”
Carol Harden said, “Well, Jason. What do you think? Any more questions? Your ears must be on fire, what with all that gossip.”
“Nope. I’m good. Just one more thing. Do you think that I could speak to your father, Dr. Harden?”
“I don’t know why not. I know that he’s here today. I’ll take you to his office.” Carol said to the two women, “Thanks for your time, ladies. I’m sure you gave Detective Longfellow plenty of food for thought. The way it goes around this place, everyone probably has a motive for trying to kill everyone else. I’ve heard that the main motives for murder are money and sex, and there’s plenty of both at CureStuff.”
Carol led Jason up another hall and down several more corridors before arriving at her father’s office door. She knocked and then entered. Jason followed her into a large interior office. No window view here, even though Dr. Lance Harden was allegedly the discoverer of the company’s latest potential blockbuster drug. As Jason entered, Carol said, “Hello, Dad. I’ve brought you a visitor.”
Pleasuria Page 7