'You do what you have to do,' she said, rolling over.
'I will,' I muttered.
12
As Art had promised, BioOne made a public announcement the following morning about its intentions for Boston Peptides. Back at my desk, I called up the news service on my computer and looked at the press release there. The text was pretty bland, apart from one killer sentence.
'Daniel!' I called across to him.
'Yeah?'
'Have you seen the BioOne announcement?'
'Yes.'
'What's this about 'substantial cost savings at Boston Peptides'?'
'BioOne thinks it can cut out some duplicated costs. It can move Boston Peptides into its building in Kendall Square. And other things.'
'Like firing people?'
Daniel shrugged. 'That's what happens in take-overs. You heard Enever.'
'But there was no need to announce it to the whole world, was there?'
'Why not?' Daniel smiled. 'Hey! The stock's up four to forty-nine.'
'Well, that's wonderful, then.' I put my head in my hands. Lisa was going to love this.
Sure enough, the announcement had caused uproar at Boston Peptides, with rumours flying. But at least Lisa was willing to talk that evening.
'People are really upset,' she said. 'They're talking about resigning.'
'Is Enever really that bad?' I asked.
'Oh, yes. You know what they call him at BioOne?'
'What?'
'Enema.'
'Sounds attractive.' It was a good name. I remembered his pained, irritated demeanour.
'It turns out he didn't even discover neuroxil-5.'
'He must have the patent, surely?'
'Yes, he does. Or at least BioOne does. Most of the work was done at the institute he worked at in Australia. He was just one of a team. He took the idea with him to America and patented it here.'
'How did he get away with that?'
Apparently, the Australians didn't know, or if they did, they didn't care. One of the other members of the team came to the US and tried to kick up a fuss. I don't think he got anywhere. Once a patent has been granted, it's very hard to prove prior art. Enema employs pretty fearsome patent lawyers. They argued that neuroxil-5 was slightly different from the drug the Australians had developed.'
'Sounds like a great guy'
''Yeah. Also, there are rumours that some of BioOne's early research results were manipulated.'
'Jesus. Why the hell did we back him?'
Lisa sighed. 'He sounds convincing. The stock market loves him. I'm worried he'll muscle his way into running things at Boston Peptides, and hog all the credit for anything we produce.'
From what I had seen, that prospect looked quite likely. I hadn't yet told Lisa about Enever's little presentation. Somehow, it never seemed like quite the right time. 'I hope he leaves you alone,' I said.
Lisa gave me a withering look. 'I think that's highly unlikely.' She switched on the TV. 'Weren't you going out with Kieran tonight?'
'No, that's OK. He won't miss me. I'll stay here with you.'
'Don't worry about me,' said Lisa neutrally. 'You go, Simon.'
'I can stay-'
'Go.'
So I went.
The Red Hat was a frequent haunt of ours when Kieran and I were at business school. It was a dark basement bar only a few minutes' walk from our apartment.
Kieran was already there, with half a dozen others from our business school days who had found jobs around Boston. Daniel wasn't present. He had tended to avoid the group occasions at business school, and certainly avoided them now. Pitchers of beer were bought and drunk. There was some tedious talk at first of 'B-school', 'I- banks', 'VCs' and pay cheques, but then the conversation regressed a couple of years to women, drink and sport. I forgot Frank's death, Sergeant Mahoney and Lisa's problems, and my brain went pleasantly fuzzy.
I left early and arrived home at about half past ten, ready to tumble into bed. I didn't make it.
Lisa was sitting on the sofa. She was wearing her running clothes. She was crying.
'Lisa!' I moved over to sit by her on the sofa.
'Get away from me!' she cried.
I stopped in mid stride. 'OK,' I said. 'What's wrong?'
She opened her mouth to say something, then her bottom lip shook, and she bit it. Tears rolled down her face. I moved towards her again.
'I said, get away from me!'
I held up my hands in a calming gesture. 'OK, OK,' I said, and backed off to sit in the armchair.
I waited.
Lisa sobbed, and sniffed, and took a deep breath. 'I found it, Simon.'
'Found what?'
'What do you think?'
'I don't know. Tell me.'
'The gun. The gun that shot Dad.'
'What! Where?'
Lisa glared at me. 'Where do you think? Right there!' She pointed at the large closet embedded in one wall of the living room. 'I was looking for an old photo album I had as a kid, with pictures of Dad. I found it OK. But underneath was a revolver. A Smith and Wesson model six forty, three fifty-seven Magnum. I looked it up on the Smith and Wesson web site.' She pointed to our computer in the corner of the room. The screen was filled with an image of a short, stubby revolver. 'The police said that was the type of gun that killed Dad. And two bullets were missing. It's the gun all right.'
'You found it here?' I said. 'In the closet?'
'That's right. And I want to know how it got there.'
I thought quickly. I had no idea how it could have got there. 'Someone must have planted it.'
'Yeah, right. Like who?'
'I don't know. Hold on. Didn't the police search the closet last week? They didn't find anything then.'
'No. But it was definitely there this evening.'
'Let me see it,' I said.
'I threw it away. I didn't want it in the apartment. The cops might come back at any moment.'
'Where? Where did you throw it?'
'I went for a run and threw it in the river.'
'Oh, Jesus. Did anyone see you?'
'I don't know. It was in a plastic bag.' She looked up at me. 'Don't worry. I'm not going to tell the police.'
I put my head in my hands. Disconnected thoughts tumbled around my brain.
You shouldn't have done that, Lisa.'
'Done what?'
'Thrown the gun away'
