Chapter 81
Poeturned in the passenger seat and faced Henning Stahl.
‘Tell me again,’ he said. ‘Start from the beginning, leave out nothing.’
They were in a black Range Rover, racing through the Hemel Hempstead suburbs. Stahl was sitting beside Mathers in the back. Mathers’s driver, a detective called Cat Baker, had her blues on but didn’t need the twos yet. That would change when they hit north London. Mathers had her phone glued to her ear as she took in constant updates from her team on the ground. Flynn and the rest of the team had stayed with Douglas Salt. Poe didn’t want to leave Salt exposed.
‘His name is Doctor Frederick Beck,’ Stahl said, ‘and he was a pharmaceutical scientist with Straikland Industries.’
‘Doing what?’
‘Identifying new compounds that could be used to treat diseases. Developed drugs from lab to shelf. That type of thing.’
‘And he was good?’
‘Brilliant, apparently. He’s named as a significant contributor on the licence of at least three drugs being used today.’
‘You said “wasa pharmaceutical scientist”. What happened?’
‘I suppose this is where I come in,’ Stahl said. ‘I was drafted in to help with background research on Straikland Industries. The deep swimmer the paper had planted—’
‘Deep swimmer?’
‘An investigative journalist who goes all in. Stays in role for months, even years.’
‘We use the same term for our undercovers, Poe,’ Mathers said. Her phone was still pressed against her ear. ‘I’m on hold, would youbelieve? The most important manhunt since the Yorkshire Ripper, and some moron at the UK Border Agency has me listening to “Copacabana”.’
‘The border agency?’
‘A computer check showed Beck hasn’t used his passport recently, but I wanted someone senior to confirm this. Tracing his movements will be easier if we know he hasn’t been abroad. Means … Hello, yes, no problem.’ She mouthed sorry and went back to her call.
‘Carry on,’ Poe said to Stahl.
‘Our journalist was called Fiona Musgrave and she’d penetrated Straikland at the highest level. Uncovered systemic unethical practices.’
‘Such as?’
‘Scientists cutting corners in human trials. Falsifying data. A couple of other things. It’s a cut-throat business and it does happen occasionally, but this was different.’
‘How?’
‘Because it wasn’t limited to ambitious scientists. Fiona discovered that when Straikland’s senior management team were informed of illegal practices, instead of conducting root and branch reviews of policies and safeguards, they would quietly dismiss the offending employee after getting them to sign non-disclosure agreements. Fiona found it had happened at least six times.’
‘Including Frederick Beck?’
‘Yes. For conducting unauthorised human trials. He’d replaced the placebo drug on a randomised clinical trial for a new anti-obesity drug, with one he’d been developing outside of work.’
‘And it was brought to Straikland’s attention?’
‘One of Beck’s research assistants turned whistleblower.’
‘What did Straikland do when they found out?’
‘What they always did,’ Stahl said. ‘Paid him off, had him sign an NDA and pretended it hadn’t happened. Gave him a seven-figure payout.’
‘Why so much?’
‘Because the drug he was privately developing, the one he’d beensubstituting for the placebo, actually worked. He got a seven-figure lump sum and Straikland kept his research.’