'Yes, but more than that, vastly more. PDM3 fosters the production of new cells. We can foresee its being used to sustain the brain at peak efficiency into advanced old age.'
'For anyone?'
'Exactly.'
'So it's a surefire money-spinner,' Eastland said in a swift descent to market economics. 'On Tuesday, you're launching this drug?'
Flexner raised his hands like a man looking into a gun barrel. 'No, no. That's still at least a year off. We're staging a conference to report on the work so far and announce that we're going into the third stage of testing, which is extensive preclinical trials.'
'But the mere fact that you are starting the trials will lead to massive investment in Manflex.'
'That is likely.'
'You mentioned a professor just now.'
'Churchward. He's at Corydon University, in Indianapolis. I flew out there to see him last week. He's leading the teams at work on PDM3.'
'Did you form a good estimate?'
'What do you mean?'
'Did you like the guy?'
'I didn't have to.'
'Trust him, then?'
'My judgment is that he's a good scientist, or I wouldn't be putting our resources into the drug.'
'So you see a bright future, Mr. Flexner.'
'For mankind, with an advance like this? Certainly.'
'For Manflex Pharmaceuticals.'
He looked faintly embarrassed. 'I expect so.'
'You can do without a murder inquiry on your doorstep right now.'
'Too damned true.'
'And you say you mentioned Detective Diamond to nobody?' 'Not a living soul.' Impulsively, Flexner said, 'Could we keep it out of the papers until after Tuesday?'
Eastland behaved as if the question hadn't been put. 'When you called him on the phone, did you dial the number yourself?'
'Yes.'
'You didn't ask the switchboard to get the number for you?'
'No.'
'Can they listen in to outside calls?'
'I'm pretty sure they can't'
'Let's take another view of this,' suggested Eastland. 'Who else beside yourself knows what you intend to announce on Tuesday?'
'About PDM3?' He cast his eyes upwards, as if the names were written on the ceiling. 'My deputy, Michael Leapman, and Professor Churchward, of course. They'll both be at the conference.'
'The professor is in New York?'
'He flew in tonight. He's staying at the Waldorf Astoria.'
'No one else knows about PDM3?'
'I can't think of anyone. There are people working on various phases of the project, but only Michael and Professor Churchward know the whole picture.'
'Your wife?'
'I'm unmarried.'
'Girlfriend?'
Flexner shook his head.
'So who is the opposition?' Eastland asked. 'Who has an interest in screwing up your big announcement?'
'Competitors, you mean?'
'If you like.
'I've no idea. I'd rule out our competitors. They wouldn't get involved in anything criminal. Can't you find out from the mother if anyone has approached her?'
'I told you the mother is missing.'
Flexner let out a long breath. 'I can't explain any of this.'
'It's pretty obvious that someone in Manflex reacted quickly when Diamond got in touch with you. My guess is mat your office is bugged. Have you thought about that?'
His eyes widened.
Eastland added, 'I can think of no other way they could have set this thing up, hired the team to take care of him and also set off the smoke alarm in your building. It was an inside job, Mr. Flexner. No question.'
The young man shook his head, more as a way of coming to terms with the unthinkable than as a denial.
Eastland said. 'Where do I find Michael Leapman?'
'Michael? He has no reason to-'
'Was he in the building this afternoon?'
'Yes, but-'
'His address, please.'
'I don't know. He lives in New Jersey.'
'You have a phone number?'
'Somewhere.' He felt into the back pocket of his jeans.
'But Michael is the last man on earth to want to screw up our plans. PDM3 is his baby.'
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
It couldn't have happened in England. Deep in New York's Chinatown at close to midnight a patrolman had acquired from a clothing emporium for oversize men called Chunky Chang a pair of white cotton trousers with a fifty-inch waist, an XL T-shirt, a loose-knit pink sweater, socks and white sneakers. Diamond was clothed again, if not remotely to his taste. And now he was being driven with Lieutenant Eastland and Sergeant Stein via the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey.
'So what have we got on this guy?' Eastland asked.
Stein had been assigned the problematic task of obtaining a profile of Michael Leapman by radio contact while they were driving to interview him. 'No record of arrests,' he said. 'Vice Chairman of Manflex for the past five years. Unmarried. Thirty-seven, originally out of Detroit. He worked mere for a pharmaceuticals firm called Fredriksson and Lill. Worked his way up to executive director and then the firm got taken over by Manflex. You want to know the letters he can put after his name?'
'We get the picture,' said Eastland. 'Old man Flexner must have rated him to make him Vice Chairman.'
'David Flexner has a good opinion of Leapman, too,' Diamond chipped in, waiting to justify his presence in the party. 'And if we believe young Flexner-as I'm inclined to, having watched him under questioning-Leapman has a personal stake in the success of PDM3. He promoted it strongly inside the company. He arranged for Flexner to meet the professor in Indianapolis.'
The car moved on a couple of blocks before anyone followed up the remark, and then it was Stein who spoke. 'So why would a good company man like Leapman risk everything on the eve of their big announcement by putting out a contract on a British detective?'
'You mean what made me a threat?' said Diamond.
'No, I mean what made the little girl a threat? You're just a pawn in the game.'
Such offensive remarks were best treated with indifference, in Diamond's experience. 'I think it has to be connected with this drug, doesn't it?' he said without betraying the slightest resentment. 'PDM3 could be the jackpot of all time, as David Flexner made clear. Leapman is pushing like mad to get it licensed. We don't know yet
