‘It was a risk worth half-taking.’
Ren laughed. ‘I saw your interview on CNN. I’m so happy that you had the chance to clear your name.’
‘I can’t tell you my relief.’
‘I can imagine.’ She paused. ‘Can I ask what happened in Boston?’
‘One of Nolan Carr’s lobbyists in Washington had tipped him off that I was liaising with the action group that were trying to introduce tighter regulation of the pharmaceutical industry. As you know, that’s not exactly my party’s traditional stance. When I was in Boston, I got a phone call from a man, he didn’t identify himself — he said that he wanted to arrange a meeting, so I agreed to see him that evening.’
‘Why did you agree to meet with a man who didn’t identify himself?’ said Ren.
‘Well, because he identified me: he had information about me, and about my family, that only I knew. This man told me to “quietly resign”. Obviously, I refused.’
‘He was threatening to reveal this information?’ said Ren.
‘No — he used it to prove the extent to which they could invade my life, and find things out, and that he’d do the same thing to my wife, my kids … he told me I could choose what way I bowed out. I had to pick my poison: child porn discovered on my computer, or I slept with a hooker. I told him he was insane and I left. He fired a warning shot that night: when I connected to the internet, a pornographic image of a child appeared on my computer screen …’ He paused. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’
‘Could you not have gone to the police with it?’ said Ren.
‘I was afraid to,’ said Collier. ‘It was as simple as that. I was afraid what would happen to me, to my family.’
‘What exactly happened at The Crawford that night?’ said Ren.
‘The night Tina Bowers showed up at my door, I was sitting on my bed in the hotel room, polishing my shoes. My wife called and I put her on speaker. She heard the knock on the door, I told her to stay on the line, that I wasn’t expecting anyone.’
‘And what happened?’ said Ren.
‘I opened the door, and Tina Bowers started to walk in. I asked her who she was, she told me that I knew “damn well” who she was. She tried to push me back into the room. She was very forceful. She was saying that she knew that this was what I wanted, and that …’ He paused. ‘She was speaking … in graphic terms,’ he said. ‘I told her that she was mistaken, that she had to leave, but that appeared to encourage her more. I had to physically remove her from the doorway, which is why my hands were on her arms in the photo. I had to almost push her into the hallway … which was terrible, I know, but she was very determined.’
‘Did she say anything after that?’ said Ren.
‘She just looked confused,’ said Collier. ‘I closed the door when I got the chance, but when I looked out of the spyhole, she was looking at the number on the opposite door like she was checking whether she had gotten the right room … and then I could see her sort of moving quickly back down the hallway.’ He let out a breath. ‘The whole thing was very unnerving.’
‘What was your reaction?’ said Ren.
‘I … I assumed she did get the wrong room, and that she thought my reluctance was part of a game, role- playing … I went back to my call with Marie. She didn’t hear exactly what happened, but she was aware that there were raised voices. I told her that someone had come to the wrong room. I didn’t tell her that it was a call-girl — that wouldn’t look good, no matter what.
‘So Marie knew when she saw the date-stamped photos that she had been on the phone with me before and after they were taken, for a total of forty-five minutes, so I couldn’t have had sex with Tina Bowers at that time. If you look closely at the photograph, you can see a dark patch on my shirt — polish, which is why I put Marie on speaker — I wanted to polish and talk at the same time. Because of the black mark, I had started to take off the shirt when Tina Bowers called. I assumed it was a room service guy. That’s why I looked a little rumpled, I opened the door just as I was, without thinking.’
‘What reason did you give your wife for confessing to something that didn’t happen?’ said Ren.
‘I did tell her that I was the victim of a smear campaign, but I told her it was to do with financial irregularities related to a hedge fund I was involved in. I told her that I could go to jail. She had seen what happened to the Madoffs …’
‘And she would do anything to stop that,’ said Ren.
Collier nodded. ‘I admitted to a hooker because the other option was child porn.’ He paused. ‘MeesterBrandt knew it was in trouble. If Mark Whaley’s evidence got out, Nolan Carr was about to saddle the company with a massive lawsuit over Cerxus and off-label marketing at the very least. There was a serious possibility that Cerxus could have been withdrawn from the market — it was clear that the benefits were negligible and the side effects were catastrophic. It got approved in the first place by all kinds of string-pulling. And Ellerol, it now seems, is not the wonder drug it claims to be …’
‘It seems to me that Jonathan Meester hired Nolan Carr because he had managed to avoid any lawsuits with Cerxus, and had helped make billions of dollars for Lang,’ said Collier. ‘By getting hold of Cerxus, MeesterBrandt made billions more. Meester also got Nolan Carr in time for him to work his magic on Ellerol, especially as Meester knew there were issues with the drug’s claims.’
‘Jesus,’ said Ren.
‘This action group I was listening to is pushing for new legislation: that all clinical trial data, positive and negative, is available to the FDA and to the public, that more research is carried out on polypharmacy, that placebos are used in blind drug trials, etc., etc. And, with Mark Whaley’s evidence, MeesterBrandt would have been the poster child for all that was wrong in the industry. And there was no doubt it would have gone under.
‘I liked Mark Whaley a lot,’ said Collier. ‘He was a very modest man. He described himself to me as a “forty percenter” — it was an expression he and his family used: there are people out there who earn their degree or their post-grad by coming top of their class. But, you can still get a degree by scraping forty percent. So, if you’re in the hospital, for example, you want to hope that the doctor treating you isn’t a “forty percenter”.’
‘That’s a great expression,’ said Ren.
‘Mark Whaley told me he was a forty percenter. He told me that CFO was a great title, but ultimately, he wouldn’t describe himself as top of the class. It made him miss a few tricks over the years, but it also meant that Nolan Carr and Jonathan Meester underestimated him. He took a course in forensic accounting, on line. He used his wife’s home computer. He tracked down people who had worked for Lang in the past. This was a methodical project. He told me he treated it like a dissertation, and put more effort into it than anything he ever had done before. The wheels fell off when he got suspicious that they were on to him … you know the rest.’
‘Your party is not exactly known to shun big pharma dollars,’ said Ren. ‘Why the change of heart?’
‘Life,’ said Collier, ‘old age, a doctor trying to medicate my beautiful five-year-old grandson who lashed out because he was bullied for not being white …’ He paused. ‘My businesses are successful. But I don’t suffer from greed. That’s a disease I don’t have. From what I know, it appears to be an incurable one. I don’t need anyone’s money at this stage of my life. I need peace of mind.’
67
Ren walked back into the office. Colin, Robbie, and Cliff were huddled in a group in the middle of the floor. Cliff had a hand on Colin’s shoulder, and was leaning into him. They were laughing.
‘I’m telling Colin the rules of the game,’ said Cliff.
‘What game?’ said Ren.
Gary walked into the room. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘What’s going on here?’
‘Laughter,’ said Ren.
‘Colin’s got some news,’ said Robbie.
Colin locked eyes with Ren as Cliff delivered the news: ‘Colin and Naomi are getting married.’
