by Alex Barclay
59
Ren found the nursing home website and called Diana Moore.
‘Hello, Diana, my name is SA Ren Bryce, I’m with the FBI in Denver, Colorado. A clinic you ran came up in connection with a case I’m working on. And I was wondering if you could give me some more information on the consultant psychiatrist, Patrick Kilgallon.’
‘How do I know you are who you say you are?’ said Diana.
Ren gave her her number and waited for her to call back.
‘I’m sorry to have to do that,’ said Diana, ‘you just can’t take any risks these days.’
‘I understand,’ said Ren.
‘What is this in connection with?’ said Diana.
‘I’m working on a homicide investigation and I’d like to ask you about the pediatric clinic, Dr Kilgallon and Cerxus.’
‘OK,’ said Diana. ‘You’re talking about when he was questioned about the Cerxus class action suit?’
‘Yes,’ said Ren.
‘Dr Kilgallon had prescribed Cerxus to kids at the clinic and to a lot of other kids in the hospitals he worked in. He had close ties to the pharmaceutical company that made it, he carried out paid speaking engagements for them, etc., but when it came to prescribing Cerxus, there was no proof that he had been acting with anything other than integrity and the best interests of the children he was treating.’
‘So nothing happened,’ said Ren.
‘No,’ said Diana, ‘and we believed in him. That’s why I was happy to hire him when I took over the nursing home after my mom passed; it was our family business.’
‘And how did that work out?’ said Ren.
‘Well, he didn’t prescribe any more Cerxus, but for a year, up until earlier this year, he was prescribing an atypical antipsychotic to dementia patients …’
‘To subdue them …’ said Ren.
‘Well, yes, but that was the least of it,’ said Diana. ‘Atypicals haven’t been approved for treating dementia, but worse – it’s not just that they haven’t been proven effective, they’re actually dangerous for dementia patients. That’s been proven with other atypicals. It’s even been proven with the older antipsychotics. They all have black-box warnings. This one was newer, so it wasn’t linked to any deaths or lawsuits.’
Ellerol.
‘Six patients being given the drug died during that year,’ said Diana. ‘Strokes and heart attacks mainly. We can’t prove that it was because of the drug. Except, one day, I got a call from Congressman Collier – I can’t call him anything else – and he asked me what Dr Kilgallon had been prescribing. I told him and he was furious – not at me, at the situation. He told me to fire Dr Kilgallon, which I did.’
‘Did he tell you why?’ said Ren.
‘He said “our patients did not come to this stage of their lives to be strung-out victims of someone else’s greed”. I have never heard him so angry.’
‘When did this happen?’ said Ren.
‘Back in August,’ said Diana.
‘Did Mr Collier say anything else?’ said Ren.
‘No,’ said Diana. ‘He said he hadn’t got time to get into the details, but that he’d explain everything another time.’
‘And did he do that?’
‘No,’ said Diana. ‘We spoke, but not about that. And the next time I saw him was at his press conference.’
‘Yes,’ said Ren. ‘I saw that.’
‘The whole thing stank,’ said Diana. ‘It was like watching a stranger. He didn’t even sound like himself.’
He didn’t sound right when he was talking to me either.
‘I will defend that man to the last,’ said Diana. ‘Congressman Collier’s housekeeper spent the last eight years of her life in our nursing home. She suffered a stroke when she was in her late sixties and the Collier family, the Congressman’s parents, paid for her to stay here. That family has kept our little nursing home going, ever since – and that was thirty years ago. The Colliers were devastated when she passed, she was like one of their own. The day her family came to take her personal effects, Congressman Collier and his siblings were there, and they made the announcement to all of us that they would fund this nursing home in her honor. And they’ve done that ever since.’
‘That’s such a wonderful thing to do,’ said Ren.
‘It is,’ said Diana. ‘I just hope I haven’t ruined everything by going public.’
‘I doubt that very much,’ said Ren. You’ve probably done him a huge favor.
‘That’s kind of you to say,’ said Diana.
‘Best of luck with everything you do,’ said Ren.
‘Thank you,’ said Diana. ‘I don’t care what anyone says, the world needs more Shep Colliers.’
Ren went to her laptop and opened up Shep Collier’s press conference again. She put on her headphones and pressed Play. She watched the speech. She played it again. She realized there were stresses on certain words. She played it again, typing the entire speech. She listened to the audio only, and she highlighted where Collier laid emphasis.
‘Thank you all for coming. I stand here today as a proud American, a proud Republican, and a man in whom, at this moment, I can have no pride.
‘On the evening of October 24th last, while on a business trip to Boston, I availed of the services of a prostitute.
‘No other language can be used to make what I did sound any less deplorable. I am a carbon copy of those who have gone before me, men branded liars and cheats. Although certain of the promises they made to their supporters, they discovered at the nexus of political and private life, a false, misleading god, and an abuse of power, the results of which you see here today.
‘My beloved wife, Marie, patiently bore the trials of being married to a politician for over a decade, and despite the devastating impact of my actions, remains by my side today, and is bravely dealing with the effects, both psychological and physical on all our family, particularly on our children.’
Ren read what she had highlighted: the words where the stresses fell:
No lan car(r) brand(t) liars and cheats Cerxus misleading results of patient trials for over a decade devastating side effects both psychological and physical on children.
Holy. Shit. Shep Collier – I knew there was a reason I liked you. You daring bitch.
Ren played the press conference for everyone in the office, and talked them through her notes.
‘We need proof if we’re to touch Nolan Carr,’ said Gary. ‘Shep Collier’s press conference could be a man with a grudge giving a “screw you” on his way out the door.’
‘But Collier clearly knows about Nolan Carr—’
‘“Knows”, Ren?’ said Gary. ‘Unless you’ve got proof, Shep Collier “suspects”.’
‘Or allegedly alleges …’ said Ren. ‘If Collier is talking about Cerxus trials,’ said Ren, ‘that pre-dates Nolan Carr’s move to MeesterBrandt. Either way, he’s mentioning Cerxus, so that’s Lang Pharmaceuticals too. Nolan Carr is the common denominator. Who knows what was going on … allegedly … in my opinion …’
She filled everyone in on Diana Moore and Shep Collier asking her to fire Patrick Kilgallon. ‘The firing happened in August,’ said Ren. ‘Maybe it kicked something off with Shep Collier, and, whoever first set it up, Mark Whaley was able to tell Collier more. It sounds to me that whatever dirty practices were going on while Nolan Carr was at Lang, he brought them with him to MeesterBrandt.’
Ren called up another screen. ‘And for my pièce de résistance,’ she said. ‘Check this out – I’ve got a picture here of Nolan Carr in 1999 with his ex-wife at a Lang Pharmaceutical charity event. Get this, people – Valerie Carr is now Valerie Trent, a lawyer specializing in class action lawsuits against – guess who? – the pharmaceutical industry.’
Ren raised her eyebrows.
‘Now, that’s what I’d call a big “screw you” on the way out the door.’
60
Valerie Trent’s office was in a historic building in downtown Denver. She was
an unlikely match for her ex-husband. She was classically good-looking, naturally stylish. She had shoulder-length sandy blonde hair, and wore a beige Armani skirt-suit with a cream pussy-bow blouse. Like her ex-husband, she was perfectly groomed, but she had the striking looks to make it incidental.
Judges must love you, Valerie Trent.
‘What’s this all about?’ said Valerie.
‘I’m working on an investigation,’ said Ren, ‘and I’d like to ask you about your ex-husband, Nolan Carr.’
‘Who did you say you were with?’ said Valerie.
‘The Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force.’
‘Aren’t you a violent crime squad?’ said Valerie. ‘Has something happened to Nolan?’
‘No,’ said Ren. ‘But it is a homicide investigation.’ Ren watched as the lawyer processed the information.
‘Is this about the MeesterBrandt CFO? The murder-suicide?’ said Valerie.
‘Yes.’
‘You think he didn’t do it?’ said Valerie.
‘The investigation is ongoing,’ said Ren.
Valerie smiled. ‘Ah, yes, the investigation is ongoing …’
Ren smiled back. ‘Can I ask you some questions?’
‘Sure,’ said Valerie. ‘Go ahead.’
‘I watched your ex-husband’s interview with CNN in 2000,’ said Ren. ‘The show about the dangers of antidepressants.’
‘Yes,’ said Valerie.
‘He used you as an example to illustrate the safety of Cerxus,’ said Ren. ‘You divorced by the end of that year. Was that a coincidence?’
Valerie nodded. ‘No.’
‘Can you talk to me about what happened?’ said Ren. ‘I’d like to hear your side of things. I’d like to know your experience of your ex-husband’s time with Lang Pharmaceuticals.’
‘Well, I had thought that time was great,’ said Valerie. ‘We were young, recently married, happy. He had a good job, I was studying law. We were lucky. Lang had a blockbuster drug in Cerxus and it was making hundreds of millions of dollars for them. It was the newest one on the market, while some of the others’ patents were running out. Some antidepressants were getting bad press because of side effects, but in the show you saw, they were talking about sexual dysfunction, and about the drug’s withdrawal symptoms. A lot of people had come forward to say that the withdrawal symptoms were so bad, they had to go back on the drugs. It was a big scandal at the time and Nolan was on damage-control. He was a clean-cut, attractive, young man who was presenting a good case. And Lang had spent thousands on media training for him. Nevertheless, he was dealing with an aggressive interviewer.
‘So I’m watching it at home,’ said Valerie, ‘and I hear him say, “I wouldn’t allow my wife to take it if it wasn’t safe.” And as you saw, he didn’t stop there. He said that our baby had been stillborn and that I had taken Cerxus to deal with the aftermath. What he said about our baby was true. But absolutely not something I wanted to share with America. So, in a few sentences, he managed to plant several ideas in the viewers’ heads: that Cerxus was safe, that it could be used to treat grief or post-partum depression … and what man is going to approve of his wife taking a drug that could cause sexual dysfunction? It was clever.’
And so screwed up. ‘So you weren’t taking Cerxus,’ said Ren.
‘No,’ said Valerie. ‘There’s no shame in taking meds if you need them. But Cerxus had huge issues. People were being misled. And I knew that what Nolan had said about me would reassure the public, and it made me sick to my stomach. It made me sick to think that people could die because of what he said. Can you imagine watching that, and it’s your husband on the screen, and he’s telling the whole of America about you? I was speechless. I just sat there. I couldn’t move. Nolan rushed home afterward, “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. It just came out. You saw the guy, he was on my case, it just came out. He was asking me was this drug safe, you saw him, he was pummeling me, and it just came out.”
‘He apologized over and over, and I believed him,’ said Valerie. ‘A few weeks later, I was looking for something in his study and I found some papers. There were memos back and forth from the head of Lang’s research lab to the sales and marketing department, drawing attention to the side effects of Cerxus, patients suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms, suicidal thoughts, terrible anxiety. Then there was a page with bullet points and on the top was written Cerxus/CNN. It was basically how to tackle the task of reassuring the public, how to minimize the fallout. Halfway down the page, I see, hand-written in the margin “personalize/empathy/Val”. The print-out was dated one week before the interview. And the note was in Nolan’s handwriting. So this wasn’t even an order from the top – mentioning me was something Nolan came up with himself.’
‘What did you do?’ said Ren.
‘I went crazy. I confronted him when he got home, and then I walked out.’
‘What did he say when you confronted him?’ said Ren.
‘Well, he couldn’t deny it,’ said Valerie. ‘He pleaded with me, he told me again that he had been under huge pressure from his bosses to deliver. But I know Nolan. His ambition is quite something. It’s like a force all of its own. When he’s in a room with people who are senior to him or more powerful than he is, his ambition is palpable. I used to find it attractive at the start. And I was foolish enough to think that I was separate from that, that our marriage was ultimately the most important thing to him, and that his career success was something I could watch unfold, something I could be proud of. And then this happened. I couldn’t forgive him for his lack of concern for all the patients taking these drugs, I couldn’t forgive him for using me, no matter what pressure he was under. It was too late. I’m a very private person, and that was so public. I knew I would never trust him again.’
‘So,’ said Ren, ‘do you believe your ex-husband would go to great lengths to protect his career?’
‘Absolutely,’ said Valerie.
‘Knowing what you know, would you ever do anything about Nolan or Lang/MeesterBrandt?’ said Ren.
‘No,’ said Valerie. ‘I wouldn’t do that.’
Ren nodded. ‘I understand.’
‘Oh, not because Nolan is my ex-husband,’ said Valerie. ‘But because he has covered his tracks so well.’
‘So, you didn’t keep any of the documents you saw?’ said Ren.
‘I wish I had, but, no. I threw them in his face.’ After a moment, she went on, ‘Do you want to know what’s even more screwed up? When Cerxus’ patent was set to expire, Lang applied for pediatric exclusivity with the FDA. That meant, if they could prove that it was an effective treatment for depression in children, then they could get an extension of six months or so on their patent, which was still worth a lot of money to them – over half a billion, at least. It was trialed on kids and the results were positive, so the patent was extended. Doctors began prescribing it to kids … but gradually, it became clear that the side effects were devastating – kids were committing suicide, harming themselves, lashing out. The drug was banned in Europe.
‘There’s a law firm in Denver currently working on putting together a class action suit, but I know for a fact that they are having a hard time gathering enough evidence that Lang Pharmaceuticals knew of the dangers of Cerxus. There are question marks right the way back to the original trial results. They skewed the negative side effects by slotting them under different categories or using “milder” words to describe them. Also, how the trials were carried out in the first place was likely flawed. For antidepressants and antipsychotics, doctors use a scoring system, and you need to reach a certain score to be eligible to take part in the trial. And if I’m a doctor, getting paid five to ten thousand dollars for every patient I enroll, I might just say you’re a little more depressed than you really are. And then when your symptoms improve, I can attribute that to the medication. Lang are not the only company to do this—’
‘But that’s ultimately unprovable, right?’ said Ren.
‘Unless you find an email or a memo from a pharmaceutical company or CRO to a doctor spelling that out, yes – it’s unprovable. And that kind of document just does not exist. No-one would be that dumb. It’s understood. There are also concerns that Lang illegally marketed Cerxus for treating childhood depression well before they even went for patent extension.’
‘So what happens if lawyers do find evidence on Lang?’ said Ren.
‘Well, MeesterBrandt Pharmaceuticals, because they bought Lang, will have to shell out a lot of money in fines and settlements. Other companies have paid billions of dollars to make these things go away. Lang was one of the few firms to have so far escaped a lawsuit. Worse than that for MeesterBrandt, though, Cerxus could actually be withdrawn—’
‘Even after all these years?’ said Ren.
‘Absolutely,’ said Valerie.
‘If the evidence is there …’
Valerie nodded. ‘Basically, what these lawyers need is someone who knows where the bodies are buried.’
Maybe they already found that someone.
Misty Bryce looked up at Ren with an expression that Ren was trying hard not to read as “dejected”. Ren leaned down and gave her a rub.
‘I’m sorry if you’ve been feeling lonesome,’ she said.
Misty pressed her body against Ren as they walked up the path to Melissa Grace’s house. Ren rang the doorbell and crouched down for hugs from Misty as they waited.
‘Hi,’ said Melissa.
‘Hi,’ said Ren, standing up.
Melissa glanced down at Misty with the look of a non-dog-lover.
‘I can tie her to the …’ Ren glanced around.
TJ came down the stairs. ‘Hey,’ he said. His face lit up when he saw Misty.