'I've lost everything anyway, so I don't care,' Helen said. 'But it's you I'm worried about. I was going to leave you out of it. Tell them that we couldn't afford to go to appeal. But… But, it's our only hope. And… well, I thought you wouldn't want me to make up your mind for you.'
'You're right,' I said. 'I'm glad you called.' I sighed. 'But I haven't got anything left, Helen. I've borrowed all I can.'
'I know,' said Helen simply.
Silence.
'How much?' I asked eventually.
'Fifty thousand pounds. Maybe less. But we should expect fifty thousand.'
We sat in silence, thousands of miles apart. We had to try. Somehow, we had to try.
'We don't have to decide right now, do we?' I said.
'No. We've got time.'
'Leave it with me,' I said. 'I'll think of something.'
'Thank you,' she said, a glimmer of hope in her voice.
I put down the phone.
'She wants to appeal?' said Lisa.
I nodded.
And it's going to cost money?'
'Fifty thousand quid.'
Lisa winced. 'Where are we going to get that from?'
I shrugged. I had no idea where we were going to get the money. I slumped back in the sofa. I had done all I could for Helen, and it still hadn't been quite enough. A wave of despair swept over me.
'I can't believe how stupid your system is,' Lisa said. 'If this had happened here, we wouldn't be paying lawyers anything, and they'd have settled by now.'
She was right. The case had proved much harder to pursue than any of us had expected. There had been complications at Matthew's birth that had led to him being deprived of oxygen for a few minutes. The doctor had made some mistakes. When it became clear that Matthew had cerebral palsy, it seemed obvious that the doctor was responsible. Helen had decided to sue, with my support.
It had been an easy decision at the time. Abandoned by her lover, Helen was alone and angry. Mother was never going to be any help, and Matthew, now two, needed constant care. Helen had given up a promising career in television production and was faced with a life where every spare minute was taken up with either looking after Matthew, or scraping enough money together to pay for looking after him. She was finding it very hard to cope – if it hadn't been for Matthew's total dependence on her, I was sure she would have cracked by now. She hadn't deserved this.
The case had quickly become more complicated and the fees had risen. Although Lisa and I agonized over the money, it became harder and harder to pull out. In the end, I always came to the same decision: I wasn't going to abandon my sister.
'I'm sorry about all this,' I said to Lisa, taking her hand.
She squeezed it. 'Don't worry. I'd do the same for my brother, and I know he'd do it for me.'
We were lying naked in bed together, reading. Lisa was engrossed in
'We had some good results today,' Lisa said.
I put down my papers. 'Really?'
'Yes, the animal work on BP 56 is looking good. We'll be able to try it on humans soon.'
'That's great! So it really works?'
'We won't know until it has gone through the whole clinical trials process, but so far it's looking very good.'
'Well done, my love.' I leaned over and kissed her. It was Lisa who had first suggested that BP 56, some kind of small molecule called a neuropeptide that she had isolated, would have a beneficial effect on Parkinson's disease. And it now looked as if she was right. I felt a flood of pride at what she had achieved. 'Perhaps Boston Peptides will have a market cap of a billion dollars in a few years.' I smiled at her.
'All you venture capitalists ever think about is money! The best thing would be if we actually could treat Parkinson's. That really would be cool.'
'OK, you've got me,' I said, properly chastened. 'But I can still hope.'
She smiled. 'Poor Henry is so excited he can hardly control himself.' Henry Chan was her boss and the founder of Boston Peptides. 'But we're going to need cash from somewhere to fund the clinical trials. Venture First doesn't want to put up any more. I kind of sympathize with Craig.'
I winced. At least Venture First has an excuse. I think they've just about run out of money themselves.' They were a small venture-capital firm that had provided the initial funding to Boston Peptides. The rumours in the market were that their performance had been poor and they were having trouble raising more funds from their investors.
'So what kind of people do you get to take these drugs?' I asked.
'People with Parkinson's disease, of course.'
'No, I mean during the clinical trials. Who would want to be the first human ever to take a drug?'
'Oh, I see what you mean. Volunteers. Medical students, mostly. They get paid for it.'
'They must be mad.'
'It's perfectly safe.'
'How can you know until it's been tried on people?'
'We do very thorough tests on animals. If there's a major problem it will show up.'
'So why do the tests on people at all, then?'
'There are often some side-effects,' Lisa said. 'Headaches, nausea, diarrhoea.'
'You'd never catch me doing it,' I said.
'Someone's got to. And these volunteers really are doing something for science.'
'Mad,' I said. 'Brave, but mad.'
Lisa glanced at the papers I was reading.
'What are all these?'
'Oh, it's a deal called Tetracom that Diane is working on. It looks quite promising.'
'Diane, huh?'
'Yes.' I tried to come out with the next bit casually. 'We're going to Cincinnati next week to visit them. I'll be out Thursday night.'
She pulled back. 'OK,' she said, picking up her book again.
I watched as she studied the page in front of her intently.
'Do you have a problem with that?' I said at last.
'No.' She didn't look up from her book.
'I mean, I have to go. It's my job to work with Diane.'
Then she looked up, a spark of anger in her face. 'To tell you the truth, I do mind, Simon.'
'You shouldn't,' I said. 'There's nothing to worry about. You should know that.'
'You say there's nothing to worry about,' Lisa snapped. 'I think perhaps there is. A business trip to Cincinnati. The two of you alone in some hotel. If she has got her eye on you, that's when she'll make her move, Simon.'
'Lisa! She's a partner in my firm. A colleague. A boss.'
'She's done it before!'
'Who told you that?'
'Dad,' she said quietly.
'Huh,' I snorted. 'He put all this into your mind, didn't he?'
'No. I just don't trust that woman.'
'You don't even know her.'
'OK,' said Lisa. 'You go then.' She reached over and turned out the light.
