A Breck Death (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 3)

by Peche, Alec

  "He may have been shot by a poisoned dart, similar to my client, Joseph," observed Jill. "He would have asphyxiated face down in the snow. I wonder if he's an accomplice or an innocent victim that happened upon the shooters."

  "Let me see if he has any identification on him."

  After a brief pause during which they essentially heard nothing but wind noise, Michael came back on the phone.

  "No identification. No wallet. No cell phone.”

  "Is he wearing a ski pass?" asked Jill.

  "Good question; let me look." After another brief pause, he said, "he's wearing a multi-day pass. We may be able to get his name from it."

  "Michael, take a picture of the ski pass and send it to me," directed Nick. "I'll send it to Tom who is a local contact for the resort to see if they can identify the skier."

  “Jake and Michael, you now have a different problem on your hands. You can call the local cops and see what they direct you to do, or you can go in with full FBI identification, admit to being involved in something going on at the resort and take the lead from the local cops,” Jill proposed.

  “That’s a good point Jill,” contemplated Jake. “The locals didn’t do a credible job investigating Joseph’s murder. On the other hand we don’t want anyone alerted about our operation. So far your team knows about us and our suspects, but no one else does and I would like to keep quiet. Nick, can you identify this guy by his picture before you ask the resort about his pass? Knowing his identity will change how we approach the notification of this death.”

  “I’ll need a frontal of his face, Michael, to run it through the software, so I think you’ll have to turn him over and disturb the crime scene.”

  “Ok I’ll do that, I think that is our best route to finding out who he is which will determine our next steps.”

  Angela looked at the clock and said to Jill, “We had better leave; otherwise we’ll be late for the appointments according to my traffic app.”

  “Let’s go then, and perhaps someone in the room can keep us updated?”

  They got nods that someone would keep them posted and they left, a protective detail actually would do the driving, so Jill and Angela could organize their thoughts and questions on the way. Soon afterward, Nick received the photo of the dead guy to run through Henrik’s facial recognition software.

  Minutes later, he identified the dead man as Robert Fisher.

  “Hey! Jake, we’re going to make your career with the FBI. This guy is also on your Most Wanted list. He is wanted for murdering his family then blowing up the house to hide the murder. He is a sharpshooter and thought to be armed. Wow, I wonder if the other guy killed him for missing Marie.”

  “Michael, please hang out there a moment longer. With the lifts closed, I don’t expect that there are other skiers that will come across your path. Let me check with the home office as far as next steps, this is getting really complicated. Rats, I hate to bring Washington into this situation, but we have guys on the Most Wanted list dropping out of the sky.”

  Jake borrowed one of the bedrooms, and put the call into headquarters. In the end, they thought it best if Michael collected all the crime scene information that he could before calling in the local cops to handle the case. He would remain undercover, representing himself as a part of the ski patrol and not FBI. He took many pictures and Jill had suggested before they left the hotel that he look for a tiny hole in the victim’s jacket suggesting the dart. He thought he found one, and took pictures and used a collection kit that he had carried in his backpack to swab the jacket. He also took fingerprints to verify the victim’s identity. Finally he ended by doing a thorough walk around the crime scene to make sure that there were no discarded cell phones or other personal items. There were none. He then repositioned the body as he had found it.

  Local law enforcement requested that the ski patrol bring the victim down off the mountain. Michael had requested another ski patrol person assist him by bringing a basket and lifting the body into it, attaching it to his snowmobile and bringing it to the base. The medical examiner was on their way to pick up the body and the officer left word that he wanted to speak to Michael the next day about his discovery. That low key exit of the body from the mountain suited the FBI perfectly.

  Michael had never seen such disinterest on the part of law enforcement as he had here. Maybe that was one of the things they could fix as a side benefit to this case. Later when Jill heard Michael’s assessment she was glad she had stayed out of the discussion for the most part; she wanted them to find out for themselves just how bad the local law enforcement was and they did not fail to disappoint. It wasn’t that they had disliked David; they were ill-suited to do investigative work.

  When Jill had packed her bags for Colorado, she had included the ingredients she needed to test for curare in case she came across any additional victims. After she returned to the hotel she would run tests on the swab that Michael had collected from Mr. Fisher’s jacket.

  Jo returned to the suite after lunch with her sister. After learning the shooter was yet another person on the FBI's most wanted list, she was even more relieved her sister wasn't staying any longer. It was just too dangerous for anyone on Jill’s team at the moment herself included. She and Morgan would have to take a quick detour to look at Mr. Fisher’s finances. They were making real progress on delving into what was appearing to be the shady dealings of RMCT.

  The report out of Jake’s cabin was interesting as well. Joseph’s access to his email on the company server had been terminated about an hour after his death, two hours before his body was discovered. Now they were trying to track down who had cut the access. David really was brilliant with the computer and had found a way to restore and review all of Joseph’s emails stored on his phone or computer. They thought they would be working into the night on this and he was going to continue to dine with the nerds and then return to his cabin when he was too exhausted to continue with the emails.

  Marie was back at work collecting what she could find on Mr. Fisher. She was sorry to have her ski day cut short, but in those few hours on the slope she had got more skiing in than her average day on a dinky hill with slow chairlifts in the Midwest.

  Nathan, having ended his cooking duties decided to work on some designs in the hotel bar. The suite was filled with too many conversations about the details of the case and what everyone was working on. In his mind, there was nothing like swirling a glass of wine to motivate your creativity for label design. He had blocked Jake from sending an agent with him to the bar. Instead he had his back to the wall in a corner so he could watch anyone entering the bar. He had memorized their pictures and felt prepared. His hapkido skills were too slow to save him from a poisonous dart, but he would take his chances there.

  Jill and Angela were on the outskirts of Denver heading for their first appointment. Marie had been updating them with texts. David’s findings on the deletion of access to Joseph’s company computer account, was information in their possession that they might reveal to Broomfield’s interim CEO. They would have to judge how the conversation went. They also had some background information of each company’s financial health that they might choose to ask about. Angela would drive almost the entire conversation with Jill taking notes and watching for nuances. She would only ask questions at the end, if anything had been missed during the conversation. This way they reduced interruptions and maintained a rhythm of questioning.

  Shortly, they were seated in the interim CEO Peter Garrett’s office at Joseph’s old company. After introductions and offered condolences, they got down to the interview.

  “Can I ask why David hired you? Isn’t a murder investigation the purview of law enforcement rather than a private citizen?”

  “I wouldn’t want to completely speak for David,” replied Angela, “but I know he was concerned with his interaction by local law enforcement.”

  “Okay, I must say I find it odd that the police have not shown up on our doorstep. I would
have thought they would make a visit to a murdered person’s place of employment."

  “I really can’t comment on the activities of the police. I am not in the loop on their investigation, although it seems odd behavior to us, too. Thanks so much for taking time to meet with us today as we try to learn more about Joseph. What can you tell me about Joseph Morton?"

  “I worked with Joe for at least fifteen years. We were both scientists when we started working together. I think he had been in the lab for a few years when I arrived. Then both he and I moved through the management ranks, with him always a few steps in front of me. I was his number two person when he was murdered,” Peter paused getting a pained look in his eyes. “Gosh, that feels harsh to say that. I hope I never have to use that word again in relation to someone.”

  “Can you tell me what kind of leader he was? Did staff like him? Was he well respected? Was he liked by the board of this company?”

  “Joe went back to school to get his MBA about a decade ago and he continued always evolving in his leadership skills. We have good staff satisfaction, and low turnover. The company has been growing its revenues every year, and our R & D has found a blockbuster product to launch about every four years. So yes I would say that the company was well run. Our margins are solid and we are sufficiently capitalized to fund our R & D, and pay our shareholders a dividend.”

  “"Sounds like a successful business. Now, tell me about the company you collaborated with for the clinical trials of the drug that doesn't have FDA approval." Angela requested.

  “We collaborate with lots of companies. Which company and what would you specifically like to know?”

  “Oh! Sorry! How long have you collaborated with Rocky Mountain Clinical Trials? What exactly did they do for Broomfield Pharmaceuticals? Did you have any issues with them?”

  “Ah yes, RMCT - we have worked together for perhaps five to seven years. Often we outsourced clinical trials to them. Do you know anything about clinical trials?”

  “Not really. I know they are necessary to be able to gain FDA approval.”

  “Yeah, that is the end goal. Each trial has different phases that have to be tightly controlled and based on the earlier studies; you may be required to study one nuance of the first study. Trials are very expensive and you hate to have any failure due to poor study design.”

  “Did they do trials on animals as well as humans for you?”

  “Just human trials, we do the animal trials ourselves. As to whether we had any problems with them? No we didn’t.”

  “Did any of the trials fail due to poor design or execution?”

  “I can’t recall any trials that failed, but I’ll check my records and get back to you,” said Peter writing a note to follow up.

  “Is that unusual to have no failures in the clinical trial stage?”

  “Now that you ask, it seems unusual but I’ll take a look at our failure rates among the various companies we use to perform our clinical trials.”

  “How do you determine which trial is performed by which company?”

  “We may use a different company for different geographical locations or for specialized group trials like children or pregnant women or cancer, for example. Why all the questions about our clinical trials? Do you think that Joseph’s death is related to his job?”

  Angela and Jill had met each other eyes and decided they could both trust this man and be mostly assured that he had not wanted Joseph Morton dead.

  “Yes, we do think his death is related to this company,” said Jill. “We would like you to keep that in confidence, even from your board at this point. Do we have your agreement to keep what we are about to tell you in confidence?”

  “Why do I need to keep it a secret? Shouldn’t the police know that and investigate it?”

  “Look your very meeting with us today may put your life at risk and you could end up just like Joseph. But for our safety, the capture of the murderer, and likely your own safety, we need to be assured that you will not share this information with anyone.”

  “Now you’re scaring me. Where is law enforcement in this case?” asked Peter stubbornly wanting some verification that the two women in front of him were not wackos.

  Jill sighed as she realized that they had hit a stand-still.

  “How about if I call the two FBI agents that provided us with a safe escort to this meeting with you, would that convince you of our legitimacy?”

  “The FBI? I thought you said law enforcement wasn’t involved?”

  “We either need to end this conversation or move on. I repeat do you want to meet the FBI agents which will lead to you agreeing to keep the details of this case a secret?”

  “This is about as strange a conversation and situation that I have ever experienced. Yes I will agree to your confidentiality requirement if I can view the credentials of your FBI agents.”

  In less than five minutes, they were able to move on with Jill giving Peter an overview of the possible problems with RMCT. He looked stricken at the end of the conversation, deeply worried that his company might be providing patients with unsafe or ineffective treatment regimens.

  “At this moment in time, there are people across the country swallowing a pill that we completed clinical trials on. I wonder if I should issue a recall on all of our drugs that underwent trials conducted by RMCT. What would that mean to patients that are in treatment for some cancers? I know that not all of our drugs might be questionable. I really need to consult with someone else at the company to decide what to do.”

  “Peter, I am a physician, perhaps I can be your sounding board to reason this through. Let’s eliminate your panic over any drugs that had clinical trials performed by anyone other than RMCT. What percent of your drugs would that eliminate from a recall?”

  “Perhaps seventy percent.”

  “Okay, let’s talk about the remaining thirty percent. If you have had medications out on the market for say two years that were bad, don’t you think you would have gotten reports of harm by now? They may not be helpful drugs, but at least they are not causing harm. Would you agree?”

  “Yes”, reasoned Peter some of his panic lowering.

  “Let’s focus on the treatment regimens trialed by RMCT in say the last nine months - would you have gotten FDA approval and would they be fully marketed?"

  “I’ll have to check on our records, I can’t remember this information off the top of my head. Give me thirty minutes to figure it out. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.”

  Angela looked at her watch and said, “We need to head over to RMCT to interview their CEO.”

  “What! I thought you said this was top secret and now you’re going tell them what is going on?”

  “No! That is not the plan at all. When we requested the interview, our request was to understand the relationship between the two companies. Nothing more. Mostly we are trying to figure out if the CEO knows or condones the presence of a FBI most wanted criminal on its board. We won’t be speaking of any of the information we have shared with you. Please email us as soon as you have an answer on that clinical trials data. I’m always available to advise you on the statistics of the situation and if at some point you determine a recall is necessary, I can help craft the message to the board on where your concerns are without calling out RMCT which might be detrimental to your own health.”

  “Ok. Thanks,” murmured Peter. “I am starting to get nervous about this entire situation. Do you know if anyone followed you here? Did you tell RMCT about the appointment with me when you set it up?”

  “We made no mention of it and our escorts were looking for a tail and didn’t see one. We made a bunch of unnecessary turns on the way here, so I think you’re safe. If you’re really nervous, I'll make a call from the car to the agent who is leading this investigation. If you have a security guard on the premises, you could move him closer right now. If you’re really unnerved, you could come with us and you’ll be included in our FBI detail,” said Jill generous
ly sharing the FBI’s resources. “Just giving you some options.”

  “I have never been known for my backbone. I’ll call my security guard now and if you wouldn’t mind, I’ll travel with you up to Breck. I’ve stayed at Joseph’s cabin before and I’m sure I could call David and hide out there for the time being.”

  “We have to leave to get to our next appointment on time. We’ll be back to see you soon.”

  Jill and Angela hurried to the car and left for RMCT. They called ahead and warned the CEO’s assistant that they might be a few minutes late.

  “Jill, do you really think he could be in danger?”

  “I think that soon after he looks at the data to compare the clinical trial outcome data and sees zero failures of the drugs only on the part of RMCT, that the computer hackers involved in this case, will notice his interest. Once that notification goes through to whomever, then I think that Peter will be in danger.”

  “Yikes this is fast getting out of control,” remarked Angela.

  “Yes it is and I can’t tell how much money is at stake,” remarked Jill. “I do think that might be the root of the problem with this case - severe falsification of clinical trials data. I think it will be bad enough so that they are permanently suspended by the government from ever performing this service again. This trial company has total revenues of over a billion dollars. I think there is sufficient financial incentive for some criminal types to kill for. RMCT is not the biggest player in this space but it has been on a huge trajectory of growth for several years. I briefly looked at their website and they mention having unique partnership arrangements with drug companies. They charge far lower fees for clinical trials in return for a small percentage of ongoing revenues once the drug is approved by the FDA. They also assist companies with getting that FDA approval.”

  “Based on what we heard from Peter, I can’t think of any additional questions to ask the CEO of RMCT. I’m afraid if we ask anything about the accuracy of their trials, we’ll be overwhelmed by their defensiveness or poison curare darts.”