Her makeup was a lot different from public relations–staff member Andrea’s, her hair shorter, blacker, less attractive than Andrea’s longer, highlighted brown locks. Her body was more toned than Andrea’s, even though she hadn’t had an opportunity or a place to work out since arriving here the way she’d had in her Seattle home.
She supposed if someone looked only at her facial structure beneath the makeup and recognized her high cheekbones... Well, she could just keep her head bent as always here.
And if she found herself alone in an office with the computer on? Well, she knew one password now, thanks to Daniel’s having “borrowed” Georgine Droman’s and, at her urging, passing it along to her. Not that she’d ever had an opportunity to sit down at a computer here before.
Daniel. What would he have thought about her if she’d still looked like herself? Like Andrea?
It didn’t matter. But she hoped she could impress him—and Judge Treena—by actually accomplishing something here.
Maybe she could even find more passwords. In their own offices, executives might post reminder notes on their monitors or in their desk drawers.
She would see.
In a few minutes, she would definitely see.
* * *
Daniel had been in the lab at his assigned cubicle for half an hour, wearing his white jacket and geek glasses as always. There were more people there than usual on a weekend—not surprising, given the flurry around the inspection.
He had an urge to drop something on the floor so he’d have an excuse to call the cleaning staff and have them send someone to take care of it. He couldn’t specifically request Beth, but considering the likelihood of a reduced staff that day, he could hope he would get her.
But with the other lab techs there, all hanging over their assigned microscopes and computers, adding to the chaos there wouldn’t be such a good idea.
He had to find another way to check up on Beth.
Just wandering the building wouldn’t work, though. Nor would going to the cleaning storage area and asking whoever was in charge today what Beth’s assignment was.
He decided to risk something else. After all, Beth wouldn’t have to respond to a text if it put her in an awkward position. He headed into the hallway.
The FDA inspectors appeared to be just arriving. Weren’t they supposed to be checking out the manufacturing building that morning?
They were alone, at least. This appeared like a good time to say hi...and more.
“Hello,” he said, pasting on a nice geeky smile in case anyone was watching. He didn’t remind the men that he’d had a brief interface with them yesterday. They’d remember it. “I so admire people like you who really care about the people who use our medicines. Of course, Corcoris works so hard on quality control, and we conduct tests all the time. I’m sure you’ve been told where to find the results and the reports, right?” The ones the execs wanted to be found, sure. But the rest?
The three officious-looking people, all in suits rather than lab garb—for now, at least—maintained their cool expressions. Good. They helped to maintain his cover.
He edged closer and said softly, “Weren’t you supposed to start out in the other building today?”
The only woman among them, Neva, said loudly, “It’s so nice to meet a member of the staff who really gives a damn.” More quietly, the young woman, without looking at him, said, “Change of plans. We’ve got a meeting later this morning with some of the executives. We’ll check out manufacturing and packaging this afternoon.”
“Got it,” Daniel assured her in a whisper. He didn’t dare talk to them any more, since Manny, the lab tech with whom he’d clashed now and then, emerged from the elevator. Daniel continued on his way to the restroom, figuring that Manny must think he had a bladder problem since he spent so much time there.
But so what? He headed for a stall and locked the door. He then pulled his cell phone from his pocket and texted Beth: Where are u 2day?
Her response was quick, which suggested there was no one near her—a good thing.
But when he read it, he stared, and his heart began hammering.
He had to figure out the best way to get to her. To keep an eye on her.
To protect her.
For her response was: Exec floor. All fine.
* * *
Because Ivan Rissinger had been the one to ask for someone to clean on this floor, Beth headed for his office first.
Not directly, though. Just because Andrea Martinez had known her way around this area didn’t mean that lowly Beth Jones, who had never before cleaned around here, could easily figure it out.
Would it look best if she called Mary and asked directions? No, the less she remained in contact with the crew chief the better.
Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone else visible to ask, either. The hallway was empty, and all office doors were shut.
They were labeled, though. And supposedly figuring out where Rissinger’s lair was would allow her to walk the hall, try to see which offices were occupied...and even pop in one or two to learn anything she could up here.
Like whose computer might be on but in sleep mode.
Better yet, who had posted their password somewhere accessible, as she had already hoped she would find.
She—Andrea—knew that Rissinger’s office was the next to last on the right. The farthest one, the corner office, belonged to Preston Corcoris.
She would be working next door to the hangout of the man she wanted least to see...and most to find something damning on.
Was he there right now?
Possibly. If there were to be meetings with the FDA folks as Mary had said, he would at least be coming in today.
Beth slowly wheeled her heavy cleaning cart along the carpeted hall of this floor.
Something was going to happen today. She could feel it.
She only hoped it would lead to the results she craved—and that she would come out of it okay.
And even more important, that Daniel would, too.
Her mind again focused on Daniel—as if he ever completely left her thoughts. He was in the same building. He had already checked up on her. Should she have lied to him about where she was? He would worry about her being here—because she could mess things up for him if she screwed up. Or make him look bad if she was somehow harmed.
Not that it would hurt him the way the loss of his confidential informant had, of course. She knew that had to be the main reason he wanted to protect her. And the only reason he sometimes acted as if he cared about her was their charade around here. No matter how attracted she’d been to him, it was one-sided and nearly over.
Beth made herself push the cart forward. Time to get to work.
* * *
Daniel was furious. He knew he should just let Beth do as she pleased, allow her to get caught by Corcoris or someone else.
Maybe they’d assume she was the person she appeared to be.
Maybe they had known all along who she really was.
And he wasn’t fooling himself. He would protect her no matter what nonsense she tried. He would go look for her shortly.
“What time is it?” he heard a voice say from outside the bathroom stall.
“Nearly time for us to go upstairs to meet the execs.”
Daniel smiled to himself as he flushed the toilet and pushed open the door. Sure enough, the two FDA men stood there.
“Hey, guys,” he said in his dorky lab rat voice. “Don’t you think you could use a techie employee’s presence at the meeting to let you know all the wonderful things Corcoris Pharmaceuticals is doing to ensure quality control?”
They got it. The one named Alan raised his eyebrows, and the one he knew as Doug just smiled. They understood that for whatever reason he wanted to acc
ompany them upstairs.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Doug said.
“Me, too,” said Alan.
* * *
Beth still saw no one as she pushed the heavy cart down the hall lined not only with doors but also with oil paintings that were probably worth a fortune— unlike downstairs, where the only things resembling artwork were pictures of the Corcoris drugs on the hallway walls and posters encouraging people to work harder.
Were the silence and emptiness a good thing? Sure. She could go wherever she wanted and act totally oblivious if someone showed up and kicked her out.
She found herself heading to the executive office she had once been most familiar with—Milt Ranich’s. Could her former boss and mentor have left something useful behind to point to evidence of the company’s fraudulent quality control—and what had happened to him?
When she arrived there, she saw that the office was no longer designated for the head of PR but for Bert Jackson, the new VP of products, whom she’d heard dubbed the “manufacturing mogul” of Corcoris. He was in charge of all that went on inside the other building on the campus, where the products were mixed and packaged.
If anyone knew about quality control—or lack thereof—it would be Jackson.
Maybe she still could find something useful there.
She knocked on the door first, loudly enough to be heard inside but not so loud that anyone besides someone inside that office was likely to hear it.
No answer. She carefully opened the door, which was, fortunately, unlocked. The good thing was that she could get in, but the accessibility also suggested that the guy whose office this currently was had nothing to hide.
This visit was likely to be useless.
Just in case he was there but hadn’t heard her, she said, “Housekeeping.” Still no response, so she pushed the door open.
This compact and completely neat office area was where his secretary would sit during working hours, so despite its being empty, Beth again remained careful since Jackson could still be in his own inner lair without knowing she had come in.
Luckily it, too, had no one inside. Beth shoved her cart in front of her, then pulled out the rags and other equipment she would use here if she were, in fact, cleaning. Instead, she looked around.
Previously, the places on this floor where she had hung out hadn’t included those occupied by people in charge of manufacturing the products but by those who shouted their existence and superiority to the world. Or at least to the world of physicians and consumers.
Those people worth lying to.
Beth relaxed just a little. She thought of Daniel. Should she text him again and gloat that all was well?
No. No need to tempt fate—or to take up precious time she needed here to do some searching.
Too bad Daniel wasn’t here, though. She could use an extra pair of eyes and hands to get through here as quickly as possible.
And his presence would help keep her calm and directed, as far from the shy, inept woman she had to pretend to be around other people here as Beth was from Andrea.
The office gave the impression that Jackson was proud of what he did. Awards from organizations she hadn’t even heard of hung on the wall; giant and colorful plastic representations of pills sat on shelves in a cabinet that also contained photos and books on the pharmaceuticals industry.
And, of course, there was a desk with a computer on it.
Beth would head there in a minute, but first she continued to scout to see what else might be of interest.
She smiled when she noticed, just under the desk, a covered wastebasket that was labeled For Shredding. Perfect—assuming the guy hadn’t sent everything potentially iffy to be destroyed before in anticipation of the FDA visit. Wearing the rubber gloves that were supposed to prevent contamination but also succeeded in preventing her from leaving fingerprints, she knelt and pulled the container toward her.
It was heavy enough to suggest it wasn’t empty.
Sure enough, when she managed to pull off the top, she found a bunch of printouts of the scanned-in manufacturing log pages as well as reports. Some also appeared to be forms addressed to the FDA.
Just because they were hard copies and were intended to be shredded didn’t mean they contained anything harmful to Corcoris—like the truth about the quality and contents of some of its products. But they just might. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to check them out here. Besides, experts like the FDA guys would be better able to figure that out.
But if these described things the way she hoped they did, they might provide exactly the evidence she was looking for.
Wouldn’t it be fun to be able to show Daniel that she’d accomplished what she had set out to do?
* * *
Daniel waited impatiently on the second floor with the FDA guys. They were to be met by Ivan Rissinger and accompanied upstairs to the conference room.
He wished he could keep up his guise but meet them up there later. Unfortunately, for now, he had to stick with them so no one’s suspicions about this nerdy lab guy would be aroused.
But he’d break away as soon as he could. He needed to know what was going on with Beth.
Could she actually be latching on to something helpful? The FDA inspectors still hadn’t so far. That was what the two men had quietly related to him as they had left the men’s room together to meet up with their counterpart, Neva.
Of course, they hadn’t had much time here today to look. They now intended to spend most of the afternoon in the other building getting a tour and checking out the manufacturing facilities, then return to the lab area for a while.
If necessary, they’d stay around tomorrow, too.
“Hey, all of you. Welcome.” Rissinger was striding down the hall toward where the four of them stood. Where had he been? He hadn’t just gotten out of the elevator. “Are you ready for our meeting upstairs?”
Alan seemed to be the inspector in charge. “We sure are. How many people will be there?”
“You know,” said the executive, whose lined face suggested that working here had aged him significantly, “I’m not sure. But if anyone isn’t there that you want to talk to, we’ll make sure they come in here today, even if they’re too late for the meeting.” He seemed just to notice Daniel then and frowned. “Er...how are things working out in the lab today...Daniel?” He’d seemed to make an effort before coming up with Daniel’s name. Daniel was surprised he had been correct.
Or was that just an act? Was he suspicious—or even aware—of what Daniel was actually doing here?
Daniel had to remain wary of everyone, of course. Imagine the worst of all of them. “They’re fine,” he answered, pasting his best geek smile on his face. “I hope it’s okay, but these nice FDA folks asked me to join you in the meeting in case there’s any translation of chemical jargon that needs to be made.”
“Of course,” Rissinger said, but his smile looked forced. “Shall we go?”
He led them to the elevator, and for the first time for at least the last half hour, Daniel felt a shred of relief.
He would at least be closer to the floor Beth was on. He could seek her out. Make sure she was all right.
And find out if the damned stubborn woman had actually done as she had intended here and finally found the evidence she needed.
* * *
Nothing. Beth found nothing else in Jackson’s office that might be in the least useful.
No computer passwords stuck on Post-it Notes anywhere or even inside drawers. No samples of products gone bad with labels that said they’d been sold anyway.
And there certainly weren’t any indications that Milt Ranich had been its prior occupant.
Her head shaking in disappointment, she began pushing her cleaning cart toward the door.
At least she was still on the executives’ floor. And the bottom of her large trash receptacle was now lined with those reports that had been earmarked for shredding. That should give her a sense of triumph, she told herself. Surely something there contained evidence that could be used against Corcoris.
But before she reached the door, it opened.
Beth froze. Her mind groped for the best way to handle this. It had to be Bert Jackson coming into his office.
Instead, it was worse. Much worse.
Preston Corcoris stomped in and glared at her.
“So here you are. I’ve been looking for you. You’re supposed to come to my office to clean.”
But the evil grin on his face told Beth that the man knew exactly who she was.
Chapter 21
Even so, Beth decided to play dumb. “Oh, sorry, sir, but I was told to start cleaning in here. I’ll hurry and check with Ms. Cantrera, though, to see if it’s okay for me to go to your office.”
Better yet, she would check in with Daniel. She realized she was in over her head now.
She hated to admit it, but she needed Daniel’s protection—and his presence to reassure her that all would work out.
She needed to leave here right away. But how could she get around Corcoris? He stood in the doorway, tall and unyielding. The pudginess of his face was exaggerated by the width of his ugly, snide smile.
“I’m the boss around here. I’m even Ms. Cantrera’s boss. You’ll come with me.” He strode into the room toward her.
Beth quickly ducked behind her cart, then made a dash for the open door. But he was faster. He returned to the door first and slammed it in front of her.
“You’re coming with me,” he repeated. “Bring your cart.”
What should she do now? Going into the hallway with him seemed like the smartest move. Someone might be around, or there might be other distractions to help her get away from this evil man.
Head down, trying again to assume her cleaning-staff character, she got behind the cart and began pushing it, stopping long enough to open the door again.
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