Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 93984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“In addition, I always double-check who I’m working for to make sure bad people aren’t hiring me to hurt good people.” Justin gently placed his hand under her chin and lifted her head so she was meeting his eyes. “We need more information. Kevin and Kristen didn’t deserve to die, and I’d like to see them and their families get justice.”
“I submitted all the information I have.”
Justin shook his head. “You have to have more. It’s going to take time to hack into Iaso and even when I’m in, I don’t have a degree in pharmacology or medicine. I won’t necessarily know what I’m looking for. And we now have someone who is trying to kill us to keep us from uncovering the truth. That definitely shortens our timetable.”
“Oh dear,” she breathed softly.
“Why would Kevin and Kristen have been killed?”
“They came to me months ago and raised concerns about the drug. There had been a couple of deaths in the lab’s animals that they felt were being brushed aside too quickly. They wanted to do more thorough autopsies, but they said management wasn’t taking their concerns seriously. I raised the concern at the board meeting and Dane, who had been the president at the time, said I was being overly cautious and slowing down progress. It wasn’t the first time I’d been accused of that. The last time had slowed down one of our new drugs, allowing our competitor to get to market first. It cost us nearly a billion dollars in lost sales. Dane used my worries to get me removed as chairperson.”
“Shit,” Justin muttered. “Do you believe Kevin and Kristen were right?”
“Yes. They were brilliant researchers. I trusted their insight.”
“But the company obviously went ahead with the drug trials and moved on to human patients.”
Gretchen nodded, fisting her hands in her lap. “I might not be running the company my family started any longer, but I am still a shareholder. I get the company reports, which include updates on drug testing progress. Siltryptrose was passing everything with flying colors. I started to think that maybe Kristen and Kevin had been too cautious. Then I received a frantic phone call from Kristen. She was desperate to talk to me. I missed the call. I’d been out with friends at the theater. By the time I tried to call her back, the news was already running the story of her death in a hit and run.”
“Did Kevin Weiss try to contact you?” Gabriel inquired.
Gretchen shook her head. “Not that I know of. When I heard of the break-in and his death, I knew something went wrong with the drug and it was being covered up.”
“Do you know who is covering this up?”
Again, she shook her head. “I would love to pin this on Dane, the weaselly little asshole, but he could have just wanted my job, and sadly, that’s not a crime.” She paused and gave Justin a sad smile. “All submissions for the FDA have to be signed off by the head of the company as well as the heads of the project. That would have been Kristen, Kevin, and Dr. Saul Elba.”
“Is Dr. Elba still alive?” Gabriel asked.
“Yes, as far as I know.”
Justin frowned. “Do you have any idea what Kristen or Kevin might have seen to make them want to stop the drug trials?”
“No, but I got the impression that it would show up in the autopsy. It wasn’t showing up in the usual tests they run to monitor the patient. And there were four deaths during the human trials, but they were all marked as causes not related to the drug.”
“Is that common?”
“Unfortunately, yes. This is a cancer drug, and these people are in various advanced stages. Their bodies have suffered a great toll already. It is often possible that they will pass due to unrelated causes or complications. That’s why everyone is so excited about Siltryptrose. It can potentially be used at nearly any stage of advancement, and the damage and wear was supposed to be far less than other treatments. Kristen’s sister died of cervical cancer, and Kevin lost his father to lung cancer. They would have done anything to see this drug through all the phases to approval, but they wouldn’t allow something through that was just as dangerous as the cancer.”
“What can you tell us about Dr. Elba? Has he been with Iaso long?” Gabriel inquired.
Gretchen rubbed her forehead with her fingers as if trying to coax the memories of Saul Elba to the forefront of her mind. “Saul has been with Iaso for close to a decade. He has a great mind, but sometimes he tends to be more focused on the numbers and data than a drug’s impact on a human being. His entire career has been dedicated to treating cancer.”