“Fine by me,” Sean said. “Let’s do it before one of these black-suited SWAT team members doing calisthenics pulls a groin muscle and I get sued for loss of consortium.”
“You’d better have one hell of an explanation for all of this,” Brian warned.
“It’ll blow your socks off,” Sean said. “Guaranteed.”
“Let me do the talking,” Brian said. They started toward the card table.
“I wouldn’t think of interfering,” Sean said. “It’s the one thing you do well.”
As they approached the card table Sean eyed Sterling Rombauer and Robert Harris, who were arguing off to the side. Sean tried to turn away from them and walk sideways lest they recognize him and cause some kind of panic. But he needn’t have been concerned. They were too engrossed in their conversation to notice him.
Coming up behind Hector Salazar’s bulk, Brian cleared his throat to get the policeman’s attention, but to no avail. Hector had taken over where Brian had left off with George Loring. George was eager to get the nod for action. Hector was advocating patience.
“Lieutenant!” Brian called.
“Goddamn it,” Hector bellowed. “Anderson, did you call complaints about that TV chopper? Here it comes again.”
All conversation had to halt as the Channel 4 helicopter flew low overhead and banked around the parking area. Hector flipped the cameraman a finger which he’d later regret when he had to watch it replay again and again on TV.
Once the helicopter disappeared, Brian got Hector’s attention.
“Lieutenant,” Brian said buoyantly. “I’d like you to meet my brother Sean Murphy.”
“Another brother!” Hector said, not making the proper connection. “What is this, a family reunion?” Then to Sean he said: “Do you think you might have some influence on that nutty brother of yours up in the lab? We have to get him to start talking to our negotiating team.”
“This is Sean!” Brian said. “He’s the one who was up there. But he’s out now, and he wants to apologize for all this trouble.”
Hector looked back and forth between the two brothers as his mind tried to make sense of this sudden, mind-boggling turn of events.
Sean stuck his hand out. Hector took it automatically, still too stunned to speak. The two men shook hands as if they’d just been introduced at a cocktail party.
“Hi!” Sean said, giving Hector one of his best smiles. “I want to personally thank you for all your effort. It really saved the day.”
14
Sean preceded Brian through the swinging doors of the Dade County Courthouse and let the sun and cool fresh air wash over him while he waited for Brian to emerge. Sean had been in the lockup overnight after having been arrested and booked the previous evening.
“That was worse than medical school,” Sean said, referring to the night in jail, as he and Brian descended the broad, sun-drenched steps.
“You’re eyeball to eyeball with a long prison sentence if this case doesn’t go perfectly smoothly,” Brian said.
Sean stopped. “You’re not serious, are you?” he asked with alarm. “Not after what I’ve told you these Forbes people have been up to.”
“It’s now in the hands of the judicial system,” Brian said with a shrug. “Once it goes to a jury, it’s a crap shoot. And you heard that judge in there at your arraignment. He was none too happy with you despite your giving yourself up and despite the nitroglycerin’s not being nitroglycerin. As long as your captives thought it was nitroglycerin, it makes no difference what it was. You’d better thank me that I took the time and trouble to get your juvenile record sealed. If I hadn’t you probably wouldn’t have gotten out on bail.”
“You could have made sure Kevin Porter told the judge there were extenuating circumstances,” Sean complained.
“An arraignment is not a trial,” Brian explained. “I told you that already. It’s only a time for you to hear the formal charges against you and for you to enter your plea. Besides, Kevin alluded to extenuating circumstances during the bail portion.”
“That’s another thing,” Sean said. “Five hundred thousand dollars bail! My God! Couldn’t he have done better than that? Now we’ve tied up part of our seed capital of Oncogen.”
“You’re lucky to be out on bail, period,” Brian said. “Let’s go over your charges again: conspiracy, grand larceny, burglary, burglary with a deadly weapon, assault, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, kidnapping, mayhem, and mutilation of a dead body. My God, Sean, why’d you leave out rape and murder?”
“What about the Dade County District Attorney?” Sean asked.
“They call him State’s Attorney down here,” Brian said. “I met with him and with the U.S. District Attorney last night. While you were comfortably sleeping in jail, I was working my butt off.”
“What did they say?”
“They were both interested, obviously,” Brian said. “But without any evidence to present to them other than some circumstantial travel records and copies of hospital charts, they wisely withheld comment.”
“What about Helen Cabot’s brain?” Sean asked. “That’s the evidence.”
“It’s not evidence yet,” Brian said. “The tests you say you ran haven’t been reproduced.”
“Where is the brain itself?” Sean asked.
“It’s been impounded by the police,” Brian said. “But it is in the physical custody of the Dade County Medical Examiner. Remember, it’s stolen property. So that’s an added problem about its status as evidence.”
“I hate lawyers,” Sean said.
“And I have a feeling you’ll be liking them even less by the time this is over,” Brian said. “I heard this morning that in light of your irresponsible and slanderous statements that Forbes has retained one of the country’s most successful and flamboyant lawyers as well as the backup of Miami’s largest firm. A number of powerful people from all over the country are incensed by your allegations and are flooding Forbes with money for legal representation. In addition to the criminal charges, you’ll be facing a blizzard of civil suits.”
“I’m not surprised that important business people are standing behind Forbes,” Sean said. “But these same people will have a change of heart when they learn that the fantastic cure Forbes provided them was for a brain cancer that Forbes caused.”
“You’d better be right about that,” Brian said.
“I’m right,” Sean said. “The tumor I checked had four viral oncogenes. Even finding one in a natural tumor would have been astounding.”
“But that’s only one tumor out of thirty-eight cases,” Brian said.
“Don’t worry,” Sean said. “I’m right about this.”
“But the other evidence has already been thrown into question,” Brian said. “Through its lawyers, Forbes is saying that the fact that Dr. Deborah Levy happened to be in relevant cities the same day subsequent Forbes patients underwent elective surgery was purely coincidental.”
“Oh, sure,” Sean said sarcastically.
“They do have a point,” Brian said. “First of all, her travel did not match all the cases.”
“So they sent someone else,” Sean said. “Like Margaret Richmond. You’ll have to subpoena all their travel records.”
“There’s more to it,” Brian said. “Forbes contends that Dr. Levy is an on-site inspector for the College of American Pathology. I already checked it out. It’s true. She often travels around the country making clinical lab inspections necessary for hospitals to maintain accreditation. I’ve also already checked some of the hospitals. It seems Dr. Levy did make inspections on those specific days.”
“What about the program running at night with the social security numbers?” Sean asked. “That’s pretty incriminating.”
