Doubt (Caroline Auden Book 1)

by C. E. Tobisman

  Without breaking stride, Caroline pulled Annie toward the end of the hallway, where it opened onto the grand green-marbled lobby. Then she sprinted toward the down escalator carrying people from the second floor to the first.

  When she hit the lowest step, she lunged onto the escalator, crashing into the descending people.

  “Excuse me. Pardon me,” she said, pushing her way up, like a salmon swimming upstream. Lawyers and judges and litigants grumbled and griped and shouldered her in complaint, but Caroline pressed ahead, forcing her small frame to act like the prow of a ship crashing through waves.

  Behind her, Annie struggled to keep up, her even smaller body buffeted by the flow of people pressing down toward the lobby below.

  As she fought her way to the top, Caroline hoped her recollection of the courthouse’s layout was correct—that the SuperSoy courtroom would be located at the top of the down escalator. And she hoped that their arrival, coming up the down escalator, would surprise the thugs she knew had to be waiting for them on the second floor.

  When she reached the top of the escalator, Caroline pushed off the railing and spun around, ready to face any assailants. At the far end of the hallway, near the top of the up escalator, she saw a man standing, his eyes focused with intensity on those disembarking.

  He swung around to face her, and his mouth shaped into an O before he began running toward her.

  But Caroline knew that she and Annie had a head start.

  She sprinted toward the door of the courtroom and threw open the door.

  The courtroom’s door shut behind Caroline with a too-loud click and everyone turned to see the cause of the disruption. On the defense side, Kennedy’s forehead furrowed like a wrinkled sheet. His eyes flicked back and forth from Caroline to Annie. The corners of his mouth stretched downward in a grimace resembling pain.

  Checkmate, Caroline thought with glee. Kennedy had tried to stop her, but he’d failed. And now there was nothing he could do. As if to prove that to herself, she guided Annie up the aisle, away from the door, toward the greater safety of the front row of the gallery.

  Along the back walls, onlookers lined the edges of the courtroom. The families of SuperSoy victims, alerted to the hearing date by the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee’s Listserv and Facebook page. There to watch. To witness. To wait for justice.

  Behind her, she heard the door of the courtroom click open again. Her pursuers had arrived. But they, too, could do nothing. Like their boss, Kennedy, they had become mere spectators to what would happen next. They’d lost control over their quarry.

  On the plaintiffs’ side of the courtroom, the Steering Committee’s members were a tableau of barely restrained jubilation. Dale smiled with his too-big mouth. Anton Callisto’s usually stony face held sublime joy. Next to him, Louis’s white eyebrows arched in surprise, the senior partner stunned into an apparent uncharacteristic shock.

  Caroline nodded back at him. Yes, this is Annie, she wanted to shout. I did it—I brought her to court in time.

  Louis got the message. He smiled a small, knowing grin before turning back around to watch the proceedings.

  At the front of the courtroom, Dr. Ambrose sat in the witness box, his ill-fitting suit wrinkled and stained, his thin hair combed from one ear over to the other.

  Eddie Diaz stood before him in a navy-blue suit and orange silk tie.

  Caroline exhaled with relief. Just as she’d hoped, Eddie was filling in for her. He knew the witness examination notes as well as she did. Perhaps even better, since he’d finished polishing them while she’d been out chasing Dr. Wong.

  Caroline sat back to watch.

  “Thanks for traveling so far to be here with us, Dr. Ambrose,” Eddie said, smiling affably.

  “My pleasure,” Dr. Ambrose answered in a thin, wheezy voice. “I’ve enjoyed listening to my colleagues testify.”

  Glancing at the clock, Caroline noted the time. The first few witnesses hadn’t taken long, apparently. She was glad she’d hear Ambrose’s testimony, at least.

  “As I understand the finding of your research, you’ve concluded that SuperSoy can cause mitochondrial degradation in rats, correct?” Eddie asked.

  “Yes,” the scientist confirmed.

  “Is this degradation unique to rat mitochondria?” Eddie asked.

  “I’ve only studied rats, so I can’t speak to anything but rats,” Dr. Ambrose answered before launching into an exegesis about the unique architecture of rat mitochondria.

  As Dr. Ambrose droned on, Caroline waited for Eddie to steer the scientist back to the point. While rat anatomy was vaguely pertinent, it certainly wasn’t the point of the examination.

  But instead of interrupting, Eddie put his elbow on the wooden divider separating the witness box from the courtroom and listened attentively to Dr. Ambrose.

  Caroline’s brow wrinkled. What was Eddie doing?

  The examination notes required Eddie to be pushing Dr. Ambrose to draw the conclusions that logically flowed from his research on rats. Rat mitochondria weren’t so different from human mitochondria. Ambrose would concede that was so if asked about the relevant organelles. But Eddie wasn’t asking the right questions. Heck, he wasn’t asking any questions.

  At the back of the courtroom, the clock on the wall ticked loudly, competing with the wheezing voice of the ancient scientist.

  When Dr. Ambrose finally finished his lengthy answer, Eddie walked back to the podium. He shuffled through his notes. Then he cleared his throat.

  “I think that’s all I’ve got for Dr. Ambrose today,” he said.

  Caroline opened her mouth in dismay.

  But then her skin crawled with electricity as a terrifying possibility dawned on her. Eddie was throwing the argument. Someone had gotten to him, and he’d turned.

  Unwilling to accept the implications of what she was seeing, she considered other explanations. Maybe he just sucked at lawyering. Maybe that’s why Paul Tiller had been willing to send him out to Los Angeles. Maybe Eddie was a good guy who just needed to find some other profession.

  Caroline had almost convinced herself of an alternate explanation when she spotted the woman. She almost didn’t recognize her. Wearing glasses and a light-gray business suit with her bright hair pulled back in a bun, the woman bore almost no resemblance to the sexy blonde from Las Vegas. But it was her. Sitting on the defense side, right next to Ian Kennedy.

  And as soon as Caroline placed the woman, she had no doubt. And she knew exactly what she needed to do.

  Caroline rose to her feet.

  “Objection, Your Honor,” she said, her voice loud enough to carry even without a microphone.

  The entire courtroom rustled as every head in the room turned to face her.

  “Mr. Diaz isn’t pro hac vice in this court,” Caroline continued.

  The judge raised an eyebrow. “You’re objecting to your own side?”

  “Yes, Your Honor,” said Caroline, walking toward the front of the courtroom. “Mr. Diaz cannot be heard in this court without submitting a Certificate of Good Standing from the state bar of the state of Georgia and applying for and obtaining pro hac vice status. Neither thing has happened. As a result, he cannot argue here today.”

  “This is highly unusual,” said Judge Jacobsen. He leaned toward his clerk, who typed on her computer, peered at the screen, then whispered something in the judge’s ear. The judge nodded to his clerk, then straightened, his eyes focused on Caroline.

  “Ms. Auden appears to be correct,” the judge said to a ripple of surprised murmurs across the courtroom. “I’m sorry, Mr. Diaz, you cannot appear in this court.”

  “I’ll finish the scientist examinations,” Caroline said, walking toward the podium. “And I’d like to call Dr. Annie Wong to the stand.”

  Ian Kennedy stood. “Objection, Your Honor. Dr. Wong isn’t on the witness list.”

  “Yes, she is, Your Honor,” Caroline said, taking her place behind the podium and tipping the microphone down t
o her level. “At the last hearing, you asked to speak with, quote, ‘all of the scientists of the articles,’ close quote. Dr. Wong is coauthor of one of the articles we submitted. So even if she wasn’t listed by name on the witness list, the spirit of the witness designation is wide enough to encompass her.”

  The judge cocked his head, considering the argument.

  “In addition, we provided a list of all scientists to whom we submitted subpoenas,” Caroline continued. “Dr. Wong is on that list.”

  The judge looked at Caroline unblinkingly.

  “The only reason for the witness list requirement is to give the other side notice of what witnesses will be testifying,” Caroline said. “Between the article itself, the court’s last hearing focusing on that article, and the list of subpoenas, Med-Gen was on notice that we would be calling Dr. Wong. There’s no possible prejudice to defendant here.”

  “I agree,” the judge said with a nod. “You may proceed.”

  Caroline turned back to the gallery, where Annie Wong sat stock-still, an expression of terror etched on her face.

  “Please take the witness stand, Dr. Wong,” Caroline said.

  Annie rose and walked slowly toward the jury box like a soldier facing a firing squad.

  When she reached the chair, she sat down in the witness box. Her eyes widened at the dozens of lawyers assembled in the courtroom, staring back at her, waiting to hear what she would say.

  Caroline stepped around the podium.

  “Permission to approach the witness?” she asked Judge Jacobsen.

  “Granted,” said the judge.

  Caroline approached Annie until she was close enough to smile encouragingly at the terrified scientist.

  Annie attempted to smile back, but it came out like a grimace.

  “Shall we begin?” Caroline asked the scientist softly.

  “Okay,” Annie said, her voice quavering.

  Once Annie had been sworn in, Caroline met the scientist’s eyes. Her own held a question.

  After several heartbeats, Annie nodded her readiness.

  “Were you the author of this study that was previously authenticated by the editor of the Fielding Journal of Molecular Cell Biology?” Caroline asked.

  “I was the coauthor along with Dr. Franklin Heller,” Annie replied, the microphone in the witness box amplifying her tiny voice.

  “And Dr. Heller died prior to the publication of this article.”

  Annie paused, her mouth pursed.

  “He did,” she answered quietly.

  “This article was not submitted for publication prior to or after his death, correct?” Caroline asked.

  Annie nodded and looked down.

  “Please answer for the court reporter,” Caroline instructed. She needed to tread lightly. The hard part was still coming up.

  “No, it wasn’t submitted,” Annie answered, still looking down.

  “And why wasn’t it submitted for peer review and publication at any point?”

  When Annie looked up, she had tears in her eyes.

  “Because I didn’t submit it. I was supposed to, but I . . . didn’t.”

  “Why not? Did you have doubts about the veracity of the results or whether the experimental data or other science was sound?” Caroline asked.

  “No. It is solid. Totally solid.” Annie’s voice increased in strength as she evaluated the strength of her scientific data.

  “Then why didn’t you submit it?” Caroline asked again.

  “Because my life was threatened.”

  A murmur traveled through the courtroom like electricity.

  “Who threatened you?” Caroline asked.

  “I don’t know the identities of the people who made the threats. The threats were made on the phone. At night. In the line at the grocery store. Everywhere. Different people, but always the same threat. I’d be hurt. My son would be hurt. I assume these people were connected to Med-Gen, but I don’t really know. They made sure of that.”

  “Why didn’t you go to the police?”

  “These people, they said if I talked to the police, they’d know. They said they’d find out and they’d . . .”

  “Did they pay you to leave town?” Caroline asked.

  “They offered to, but I didn’t want their blood money.” Annie spat the words out like broken teeth.

  “But you ran anyway.”

  Annie looked down again, as if finding the tip of her shoe fascinating.

  “I did,” she said. “I was scared.”

  When she looked back up again, her eyes held determination.

  “But I’m here now,” Annie said.

  Caroline mentally exhaled. Annie had made it through the mea culpa part of her examination with her credibility intact.

  “Let’s talk a moment about your research,” Caroline said, pivoting to the substantive part of the examination. “The bottom line appears to be that in a certain subset of patients, SuperSoy causes kidney failure. Is that a fair description of your conclusion?”

  “Yes. Unequivocally yes. I don’t say that lightly. I’m a scientist. We’re taught to constantly question our results. But the size of the sample, the types of experiments, and the consistency of our results were all remarkable. SuperSoy can and does cause kidneys to shut down with disturbing frequency. Everyone deserved to know it. We should have shouted it from the rooftops when we found out. We tried to do that . . .” Annie drifted off, her eyes suddenly haunted.

  “How can you be so sure your results were sound?” Caroline asked, steering Annie away from her recent horrors.

  “We ran studies on hundreds of patients, including those who had suffered no prior incidence of kidney problems,” Annie said, her voice growing stronger as she testified about the science. “Children. Athletes. Everything we did confirmed our initial results. SuperSoy compromises kidney cells.”

  “How can one little genetic modification to a soy plant do so much damage?” Caroline asked. She knew she needed to ask every question in the judge’s mind. Running away from doubts would not win this motion. Only by addressing the judge’s doubts head-on would they carry the day.

  “Designer foods may be a good idea in concept, but we’ve never really seen what happens when the known risks play out. What we’re seeing with SuperSoy are the unintended consequences of inserting an alien gene into soy DNA,” Annie said.

  “What do you mean?” Caroline asked.

  “The jellyfish gene that Med-Gen introduced to give the soy plant higher protein content also interacts with the native genes in the plant in other ways. One result of that interaction is that the soy plant now creates a kidney toxin—a toxin that can be deadly to people with genetic predispositions to certain kidney diseases.”

  “But if that’s true, how did SuperSoy ever get approved by the FDA? Are you suggesting that you found out something the FDA missed? Something Med-Gen missed?” Caroline asked.

  “Med-Gen had to know about the problems. Any biotech company that ran the trials they were required to run to get FDA approval would have seen the disturbing results.”

  “So then, what happened?” Caroline asked.

  “I can only conclude that Med-Gen didn’t tell the FDA what it needed to know to evaluate the safety of this genetically engineered plant. As a result, the FDA approved it based on an incomplete data set.”

  A murmur traveled through the courtroom. Annie’s testimony was a bombshell. Caroline waited before continuing. She wanted to give the scientist’s words a chance to make their maximum impact.

  “Would you have any hesitation about submitting your article for peer review?” Caroline asked.

  “No hesitation at all.” Annie met the judge’s eyes squarely. “The science is unimpeachable. Dr. Heller and I were very thorough.” Annie paused. “Dr. Heller was the finest scientist I have ever known. He was my mentor. And my . . . my friend. I regret not submitting the article for publication after he died. I owed that to him.”

  Caroline turned to the jud
ge. “I’d like to represent to the court that the article will be submitted to the Fielding Journal of Molecular Cell Biology for peer review and publication. We will let the court know when there’s a publication date set.”

  Turning back to Annie, Caroline smiled, beginning to relax for the first time in weeks.

  “Dr. Wong, before we finish here, I have just one final question for you. Do you have any reservations, caveats, or qualifications about your conclusions?”

  “None,” Annie said. “Absolutely none.” She looked at Caroline with gratitude.

  Caroline smiled back at her. The scientist had done well. She had a long road ahead of her, filled with reckonings, but at least the beginning was done.

  “Any further questions?” the judge asked.

  “None, Your Honor,” Caroline said.

  The judge turned to the defense team.

  “Does Med-Gen have any questions for this witness?” he asked.

  Ian Kennedy leaned toward the other lawyers. After a whispered conference, he stood up.

  “We’ll submit, too,” he said. “No questions for this witness. Med-Gen rests.”

  Caroline met Annie’s eyes in surprise. The defense had concluded there was nothing they could ask that wouldn’t do further damage to Med-Gen’s case.

  “The case stands submitted,” the judge said.

  Then he paused and regarded the faces of the many lawyers filling the courtroom.

  The room quieted until the ticking clock sounded like a hammer.

  “I appreciate your forbearance,” the judge began. “Thank you to the attorneys and to the scientists who came here today. It was an interesting session. You’ll receive a full explanation of my reasons in my written ruling, but I’m satisfied that these studies demonstrate a link between ingestion of SuperSoy and kidney injury. The Heller article, coupled with Dr. Wong’s testimony today, confirms that such a mechanism of injury exists. You will still need to litigate the circumstances of your individual cases and individual plaintiffs, but I will allow the cases to go forward. It is so ordered.”