Diamond Solitaire

A sigh from Flexner betrayed some impatience.

'Alcoholic comas, you said?' Eastland continued. 'You mean these drugs pull the patients out? Restore them to their senses?'

'Inspector, all my information comes from a file entry on a computer. I am neither a biochemist nor a doctor.'

'Okay, okay. And what else does your computer tell you?'

'The usual stuff. Her age, address, qualifications. She isn't one of our employees, you understand, just a postgraduate research student'

'Does the file show that she is married?'

'Yes. Masuda is her married name.'

'And is her child mentioned?'

'It wouldn't be. That's irrelevant to us.'

'She's based in Japan?'

'Yokohama.'

'And she's been doing research continuously since when?'

'1979.'

'Long time.'

'Research sometimes does take a long time.'

'Do you get updates on her work?'

'Not personally. The company keeps tabs on all our research programs.'

'Did you know mat she's been missing from her home for a couple of months?'

'No, I didn't know mat. It wouldn't necessarily come to our attention for some time unless someone reported it'

There was a pause in the questioning, as if Eastland was reluctant to move on, but couldn't think what else to ask. finally he said, 'Is there anything else on this woman's record that you planned to tell Detective Diamond?'

'No,' answered Flexner. 'Naturally, I wanted to be as helpful as I could, but that's all I could have told him. You've heard it all.'

'Forgive me, but it doesn't sound like the secret of the Sphinx,' Eastland commented. 'Why did you need to meet with Diamond like a couple of CIA agents? Why not simply call him on the phone and tell him what you had?'

Flexner shrugged again. 'I guess I wanted to be sure who I was dealing with. We don't give out information about people as a rule.'

'You didn't trust him?'

'I thought it right to meet him and make sure. I couldn't invite him to the office. He'd have had to run the gauntlet of the press. They're camped outside my building.'

'I've seen them. You're getting plenty of attention,' said Eastland. 'This is the wonder drug you're about to launch?'

Flexner shifted position in his chair. 'Look, this has no bearing on the matter of the Japanese woman.'

'How do you know?'

'It's unrelated.'

'We'll judge that for ourselves, Mr. Flexner.'

'I'd rather not discuss the drug. If any of what I said leaked out prematurely, it could get us suspended on the stock market.'

'Everything you tell me stays within these walls,' Eastland assured him while the unseen watchers in the room across the corridor continued impassively to follow the interview.

David Flexner passed his hand agitatedly across his mouth. 'You're putting me in a difficult position.'

'The hot seat.'

'Excuse me?'

'I'm putting you in the hot seat.'

'Oh.' An unhappy smile flickered across the young man's lips. 'You appreciate that I only took over as Chairman quite recently, when my father died,' he explained. 'Frankly, the business hasn't gone too brilliantly for some while. We slipped badly in the pharmaceuticals league table. Our competitors like Merck and Lilly have developed new drugs and gotten away from us. And quite recently our stock market rating took a dive because of a fire at one of our major plants in Italy. The place was gutted.'

'And that hit confidence here?'

'Manflex Italia is our main European subsidiary. The investigation is still going on. We could be dealing with a case of arson.'

'But you hope to restore confidence with this new drug, is that it?' said Eastland.

David Flexner gave a nod. 'One mass-selling product can make a hell of a difference. Without saying more man I have to, I can tell you that Prodermolate-'

'Prodermolate?'

'PDM3. It's one of thousands of compounds that we patented over the years. The great majority never come to anything. Well, it happens that this drug-which was developed getting on twenty years ago-is more effective than anyone suspected.'

'For what?'

'Forgive me, but I can't tell you that, Lieutenant We're due to make an announcement in a couple of days and the future of Manflex rests on it. And thousands of jobs. We're under tremendous pressure to leak the information before Tuesday. I can't tell anyone, not even you, not even in this place.'

'You can't withhold information,' said Eastland in a voice more offended than threatening. 'I need to know.'

'I'm sorry, but-'

'You think I'm going to rush out tomorrow and buy shares in Manflex?'

'Well, no.'

'I have better things to do than gamble on the stock exchange, Mr. Flexner. If I wanted to be a rich man, I wouldn't be in this job.'

'But I'm under an obligation.'

Eastland lifted his voice a fraction. 'You're under an obligation? What about me? I have to find a child, a handicapped child, as a matter of fact, who is in real danger of losing her life. This isn't hide- and-seek, it's child murder unless I find her.'

'Murder?'

After a sufficient pause, Eastland added, 'We've had one killing already.'

The quickness of Flexner's reaction, a spasm of shock that produced a rictuslike baring of the mouth, showed that he was primed for the bad news. Clearly he took the statement to mean that Diamond was the victim. This was the fear most on his mind. In a tone that showed he was about to capitulate, he said, 'I wish you'd told me right out.'

'You haven't been entirely open with me. Tell me about this drag,' said Eastland with the timing of a skilled interrogator. Flexner had whitened noticeably. 'You give me your word it goes no further?'

'Secrets are my business.'

'Okay. I, um, I'm not the best-informed person to talk about the potential of the drug, but I gather it was patented back in 1975 at Cornell. The original research was carried out on a grant from Beaver River Chemicals, who became a subsidiary of ours when my father took them over about 1976. Nobody found much use for the stuff. That's the way things are. You discover thousands of compounds and register them without knowing if they're any use. Not many are chosen for development, which is extremely costly. It can run into millions. Professor Churchward has discovered that PDM3 is effective in regenerating the nerve cells of the brain.'

'Is that special?'

He looked pained that such a question had to be asked. 'I said regenerating. It's unknown to science. It's a tremendous breakthrough. It means that we can arrest the process of mental aging.'

'Alzheimer's?' said Eastland.