The Constant Gardener

CHAPTER TWELVE

Justin the deceived husband is struck motionless by the moonlight as he stares rigidly at the sea's silvered horizon and takes long breaths of chill night air. He has the feeling he has inhaled something nauseous and needs to clean out his lungs. Sandy leads from weakness into strength, you once told me. Sandy deceives himself first and the rest of us afterward… Sandy is the coward who needs the protection of grand gestures and grand words because anything less leaves him unprotected…

So if you knew all this, what in God's name did you do to bring this down on yourself? he demanded, of the sea, the sky, the snapping night wind.

Nothing whatever, she replied serenely. Sandy mistook my flirtations for a promise, exactly as he mistook your good manners for weakness.

For a moment nonetheless, almost as a luxury, Justin lets his courage fail him, as in his inmost heart he has sometimes let it fail him over Arnold. But his memory is stirring. Something he has read yesterday, last night, the night before. But what? A printout, Tessa to Ham. A long e-mail, a little too intimate for Justin's blood at first reading, so he put it aside in a folder dedicated to enigmas to be resolved when I am strong enough to face them. Returning to the oil room, he exhumes the printout and examines the date.

E-mail printout Tessa to Ham, dated exactly eleven hours after Woodrow, contrary to Service rules regarding the use of official writing paper, declared his passion for a colleague's wife on Her Majesty's Stationery Office blue:

I'm not a girl anymore, Ham, and it's time I put away girlish things, but what girl does, even when she's in pig? And now I've landed myself with a five-star megacreep with the hots for me. Problem is, Arnold and I have struck gold at last, more accurately true excrement of the foulest sort, and we desperately need said creep to speak for us in the corridors of power, which is the only way I can bear to go if I'm Justin's wife and the loyal Brit I aspire to be despite all. Do I hear you say I'm still the same ruthless bitch who likes leading men around on a string even when they're super-creeps? Well, don't say it, Ham. Don't say it even if it's true. Shut up about it. Because I have promises to keep, and so have you, sweetheart. And I need you to stick by me like the dear, sweet pal you are, and tell me I'm a good girl really, because I am. And if you don't, I'll give you the wettest kiss since the day I pushed you into the Rubicon in your sailor suit. Love you, darling. Ciao. Tess.

P.S. Ghita says I'm a complete whore but she can't pronounce it properly so it comes out hooer, like a hoover that's lost its V. Love Tess (hooer).

Defendant innocent as charged, he told her. And I as usual can be duly ashamed of myself.

* * *

Mystically calmed, Justin resumed his puzzled journey.

Extract from Rob and Lesley's joint report to Superintendent Frank Gridley, Overseas Crime Division, Scotland Yard, on their third interview with Woodrow, Alexander Henry, Head of Chancery, British High Commission, Nairobi:

Subject forcefully echoes what he claims to be the opinion of Sir Bernard Pellegrin, FO Director of Affairs for Africa, that further inquiry along the lines urged by Tessa Quayle's memorandum would needlessly jeopardize HMG'S relations with the Kenyan Republic and harm U.k. trade interests… Subject refuses on security grounds to divulge the contents of the said memorandum… Subject disclaims all knowledge of an innovative drug being presently marketed by House of ThreeBees… Subject advises us that any request for a sight of Tessa Quayle's memorandum should be addressed directly to Sir Bernard, assuming that it still exists, which Subject is prepared to doubt. Subject portrays Tessa Quayle as a tiresome and hysterical woman who was mentally unstable in respect of matters related to her aid work. We interpret this as a convenient method of discounting the significance of her memorandum. A request is hereby made that a formal application be sent as soon as practical to the Foreign Office for copies of all papers submitted to Subject by the deceased Tessa Quayle.

Marginal note in red, signed by F. Gridley, Deputy Commissioner: SPOKE SIR B. PELLEGRIN. APPLICATION REFUSED ON GROUNDS OF NATIONAL SECURITY.

Extracts from learned medical journals of varying obscurity extolling, in appropriately oblique terms, the sensational benefits of the innovative drug Dypraxa, its "absence of mutagenicity" and its "long half-life in rats."

Extract from the Haiti Journal of Health Sciences, meekly expressing reservations about Dypraxa, signed by a Pakistani doctor who has conducted clinical trials of the drug at a Haitian research hospital. The words "potential for toxicity" underlined in red by Tessa, specters of liver failure, internal bleeding, dizziness, damage to the optic nerves.

Extract from the next issue of the same rag in which a string of medical eminences with impressive professorships and initials deliver a withering counterblast, citing three hundred test cases. The same article accuses the poor Pakistani of "bias" and "irresponsibility toward his patients" and calls down curses on his head.

(Handwritten note from Tessa: These unbiased opinion leaders are one and all contracted to KVH by highly paid "roving commissions" to spot promising biotech research projects worldwide.)

Extract from a book entitled Clinical Trials by Stuart Pocock, written out in Tessa's handwriting as her preferred means of committing it to memory. Some passages blazoned in red in contrast to the writer's sober style:

There is a tendency for students, and indeed many clinicians, to treat the medical literature with undue respect. Major journals such as the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine are presumed to present new medical facts which are not to be disputed. Such a naive faith in the "clinical gospels" is perhaps encouraged by the dogmatic style that many authors adopt, so that the uncertainties inherent in any research project often receive inadequate emphasis…

(Tessa's note: Articles are constantly planted by pharmas, even in the so-called quality rags.)

As regards talks at scientific meetings and advertising by pharmaceutical companies one needs to be even more skeptical… the opportunities for bias are enormous…

(Tessa's note: According to Arnold, big pharmas spend zillions buying up scientists and medics to plug their product. Birgit reports that KVH recently donated fifty million dollars to a major U.S. teaching hospital, plus salaries and expenses for three top clinicians and six research assistants. Corruption of university Common Room affiliations is even easier: professorial chairs, biotech labs, research foundations, etc. "Unbought scientific opinion is increasingly hard to find." — Arnold.)

More from Stuart Pocock:

… there is always the risk that authors are persuaded toward a greater emphasis on positive findings than is really justified.

(Tessa's note: Unlike the rest of the world's press, pharma journals don't like printing bad news.)

… Even if they do produce a trial report of their negative findings it is likely to be in an obscure specialist journal rather than in the major general journals… consequently this negative rebuttal of the earlier positive report could not be made available to such a wide audience.

… Many trials lack essential features of design to achieve an unbiased assessment of therapy.

(Tessa's note: Are geared to prove a point, not question it, i.e., worse than useless.)

Occasionally, authors may deliberately dredge the data to prove a positive…

(Tessa's note: Spin it.)

Extract from the London Sunday Times, headed "Drug Firm Put Patients at Risk in Hospital Trials." Heavily scored and underlined by Tessa and presumably reproduced or faxed to Arnold Bluhm since it bore the superscription: Arnie, have you SEEN this?!

One of the world's largest drug companies placed hundreds of patients at risk of potentially fatal infections by failing to disclose crucial safety information to six hospitals at the start of a nationwide drug trial.

Up to 650 people underwent surgery in Britain in the experiment organized by Bayer, the German pharmaceutical giant, despite the company having conducted studies which showed its drug reacted badly with others, seriously impairing its ability to kill bacteria.

This prior research, obtained by The Sunday Times, was not revealed at the start of the study to the hospitals involved.

The trial, whose flaw has never been revealed to the patients or their families, resulted in nearly half of those operated on at one test center in Southampton developing a variety of life-threatening infections.

Bayer declined to reveal overall numbers for postoperative infections and fatalities, on the grounds that the data remained confidential.

"The study was approved by the competent regulatory authority and all local ethics committees prior to initiation," said a spokesman.

Full-color, full-page advertisement torn from a popular African magazine, captioned: I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES! Center stage, one pretty young African mother in low white blouse and long skirt, smiling radiantly. Happy baby sits sideways across her lap, one hand to her breast. Happy brothers and sisters cluster round, handsome father towers over all. Everyone including mother is admiring conspicuously healthy child on her lap. Along the bottom of the page, the words THREEBEES BELIEVE IN MIRACLES TOO! Speech bubble issuing from pretty young mother's mouth reads: "When they told me my baby had TB, I prayed. When my GP told me about Dypraxa, I knew my prayer was heard in Heaven!"

Justin returns to the police file.

Extract from officers' report on their interview with PEARSON, Ghita Janet, locally employed member of Chancery, British High Commission, Nairobi:

We interviewed Subject on three occasions of nine minutes, fifty-four minutes, and ninety minutes respectively. At Subject's request our interviews were conducted on neutral ground (the house of a friend) in discreet circumstances. Subject is aged twenty-four, of Anglo-Indian birth, ed. U.k. convent schools (Rc), adopted daughter of professional parents (lawyer and doctor), both strong Catholics. Subject is an honors graduate of Exeter University (english, American and Commonwealth Arts), of obvious intelligence and highly nervous. Our impression of her was that, in addition to being grief-stricken, she was in considerable fear. For instance, Subject made several statements which she then withdrew, e.g.: "Tessa was murdered to keep her quiet." E.g.: "Anybody who takes on the pharmaceutical industry is liable to get her throat cut." E.g.: "Some pharmaceutical companies are arms dealers in shining raiment." Pressed about these statements, she refused to substantiate them and requested they be wiped from the record. She also dismissed the suggestion that BLUHM could have committed the Turkana murders. BLUHM and QUAYLE, she said, were not an "item" but they were "the two best people on earth" and those around them "just had dirty minds."

Under further questioning, Subject first claimed to be bound by the Official Secrets Act, then by oath of secrecy to the deceased. For our third and final meeting we adopted a more hostile attitude to Subject, pointing out to her that by withholding information she could be shielding Tessa's murderers and impeding the search for BLUHM. We attach edited transcripts at Appendix A and B. Subject has read this transcript but refuses to sign it.

APPENDIX A

Q. Did you at any time assist or accompany Tessa Quayle on field expeditions?

A. At weekends and in my spare time I accompanied Arnold and Tessa on several field trips to Kibera slum and up-country in order to assist at field clinics and witness the administration of medicines. This is the particular remit of Arnold's NGO. Several of the medicines that Arnold examined turned out to be long past their expiry date and had destabilized, though they might work to a certain level. Others were inappropriate to the condition they were supposed to treat. We were also able to confirm a common phenomenon experienced in other parts of Africa, namely that the indications and contra-indications on some packets had been rewritten for the Third World market in order to broaden the use of the medicine far beyond its licensed application in developed countries, e.g., a painkiller used in Europe or U.S. for the relief of extreme cancer cases was being offered as a cure for period pain and minor joint aches. Contra-indications were not given. We also established that even when the African doctors diagnosed correctly, they routinely prescribed the wrong treatment due to lack of adequate instructions.

Q. Was ThreeBees one of the distributors affected?

A. Everyone knows that Africa is the pharmaceutical dustbin of the world and ThreeBees is one of the main distributors of pharmaceutical products in Africa.

Q. So was ThreeBees affected in this instance?

A. In certain instances ThreeBees was the distributor.

Q. The guilty distributor?

A. All right.

Q. In how many instances? What proportion?

A. (after much prevarication) All.

Q. Repeat, please. Are you saying that in every case where you found fault with a product, ThreeBees was the distributor of that product?

A. I don't think we should be talking like this while Arnold may be alive.

APPENDIX B

Q. Was there one particular product that Arnold and Tessa felt particularly strongly about, do you remember?

A. This just can't be right. It can't be.

Q. Ghita. We're trying to understand why Tessa was killed and why you think that by discussing these things we put Arnold in greater danger than he's already in.

A. It was everywhere.

Q. What was? Why are you crying? Ghita.

A. It was killing people. In the villages. In the slums. Arnold was sure of it. It was a good drug, he said. With five more years' development they'd probably get there. You couldn't quarrel with the idea of the drug. It was short-course, cheap and patient-friendly. But they'd been too quick. The tests had been selectively designed. They hadn't covered all the side-effects. They had tested on pregnant rats and monkeys and rabbits and dogs, and had no problems. When they got to humans — all right, there were problems, but there always are. That's the gray area the drug companies exploit. It's at the mercy of statistics and statistics prove anything you want them to prove. In Arnold's opinion they had been too intent on getting the product onto the market ahead of a competitor. There are so many rules and regulations that you'd think that wasn't possible, but Arnold said it happened all the time. Things look one way when you're sitting in a plush U.N. office in Geneva. Quite another when you're on the ground.

Q. Who was the manufacturer?

A. I really don't want to go on with this.

Q. What was the drug called?

A. Why didn't they test it more? It's not the Kenyans' fault. You can't ask, if you're a Third World country. You have to take what you're given.

Q. Was it Dypraxa?

A. (unintelligible)

Q. Ghita, calm down please and just tell us. What's the drug called, what's it for and who makes it?

A. Africa's got eighty-five percent of the world's AIDS cases, did you know that? How many of those have access to medication? One percent! It's not a human problem anymore! It's an economic one! The men can't work. The women can't work! It's a heterosexual disease, which is why there are so many orphans! They can't feed their families! Nothing gets done! They just die!

Q. So is this an AIDS drug we're talking about?

A. Not while Arnold is alive!… It's associated. Where there's tuberculosis, you suspect AIDS… Not always but usually… That's what Arnold said.

Q. Was Wanza suffering from this drug?

A. (unintelligible)

Q. Did Wanza die of this drug?

A. Not while Arnold is alive! Yes. Dypraxa. Now get out.

Q. Why were they heading for Leakey's place?

A. I don't know! Get out!

Q. What was behind their trip to Lokichoggio? Apart from women's awareness groups?

A. Nothing! Stop it!

Q. Who's Lorbeer?

A. (unintelligible)

RECOMMENDATION

That a formal request is made of the High Commission that the witness be offered protection in exchange for a full statement. She should be given assurances that any information she provides regarding the activities of Bluhm and the deceased will not be used in a way that might place Bluhm in jeopardy, assuming he is alive.

RECOMMENDATION REJECTED ON SECURITY GROUNDS. F. Gridley (superintendent)

Chin in hand Justin gazed at the wall. Memories of Ghita, the second most beautiful woman in Nairobi. Tessa's self-appointed disciple who dreams only of bringing standards of common decency to a wicked world. Ghita is me without the bad bits, Tessa likes to say.

Ghita the last of the innocents, head to head over green tea with very pregnant Tessa, solving the world's problems in the garden in Nairobi while Justin the absurdly happy skeptic and father-to-be in a straw hat, clips, weeds and prunes his way through the flower beds, tying and watering and playing the middle-aged English bloody fool.

"Watch your feet, please, Justin," they would call to him anxiously. They were warning him against the safari ants that marched out of the ground in columns after rain, and could kill a dog or a small child by sheer force of their generalship and numbers. In late pregnancy, Tessa feared that safari ants might mistake his watering for an unseasonable shower.

Ghita permanently shocked by everything and everyone, from Roman Catholics who oppose Third World birth control and demonstratively burn condoms in Nyayo Stadium, to American tobacco companies who spike their cigarettes in order to create child addicts, to Somali warlords who drop cluster bombs on undefended villages and the arms companies that manufacture the cluster bombs.

"Who are these people, Tessa?" she would whisper earnestly. "What is their mentality, tell me, please? Is this original sin we are talking about? If you ask me, it is something much worse than that. To original sin belongs in my opinion some notion of innocence. But where is innocence today, Tessa?"

And if Arnold dropped by, which at weekends he frequently did, the conversation would take a more specific turn. Their three heads would draw together, their expressions tighten, and if Justin out of mischief watered too close for their comfort, they would make ostentatious small talk till he had removed himself to a more remote flower bed.

* * *

Police officers' report of meeting with representatives of House of ThreeBees, Nairobi:

We had sought an interview with Sir Kenneth Curtiss and had been given to understand he would receive us. On arrival at House of ThreeBees' headquarters, we were told that Sir Kenneth had been summoned to an audience with President Moi after which he was obliged to fly to Basel for policy discussions with Karel Vita Hudson (KVH). It was then suggested to us that we should address any questions we had to House of ThreeBees pharmaceutical marketing manager, a Ms. Y. Rampuri. In the event, Ms. Rampuri was attending to family matters and was not available. We were then advised to seek an interview with Sir Kenneth or Ms. Rampuri at a later date. When we explained the limitations of our time frame, we were eventually offered an interview with "senior staff members" and after an hour's delay were eventually received by a Ms. V. Eber and a Mr. D. J. Crick, both of Customer Relations. Also present, a Mr. P. R. Oakey who described himself as a "lawyer for the London end who happened to be visiting Nairobi on other business."

Ms. Vivian Eber is a tall attractive African woman in her late twenties and has a business affairs degree from an American university.

Mr. Crick, who comes from Belfast, is similarly aged, of impressive physique and speaks with a slight Northern Irish brogue.

Subsequent inquiries indicate that Mr. Oakey, the London lawyer, is identical with Percy Ranelagh Oakey, QC, of the London firm of Oakey, Oakey and Farmeloe. Mr. Oakey has recently successfully defended several large pharmaceutical companies in class actions for damages and compensation, among them KVH. We were not advised of this at the time.

See Appendix for note on D. J. Crick.

SUMMARY OF MEETING

1. Apologies on behalf of Sir Kenneth K. Curtiss and Ms. Y. Rampuri.

2. Expressions of regret by BBB (Crick) regarding death of Tessa Quayle and concern re fate of Dr. Arnold Bluhm.

BBB (Crick): This damn country gets hairier by the day. The Mrs. Quayle thing, that's just awful. She was a fine lady who'd earned herself a great reputation around town. How can we help you officers? Any way at all. The chief sends his personal greetings and instructs us to afford you every assistance. He has a great regard for the British police.

Officer: We gather Arnold Bluhm and Tessa Quayle made a variety of representations to ThreeBees regarding a new TB cure you're marketing, name of Dypraxa.

BBB (Crick): Did they though? We must look into that. You see, Ms. Eber here is more on the PR side, and I'm sort of on secondment from other duties pending a major restructuring of the company. The chief has a theory that anyone sitting still is wasting money.

Officer: The representations resulted in a meeting between Quayle, Bluhm and members of your staff here and we'd like to ask you for a sight of any records that were kept of this meeting, and any other documents relevant to it.

BBB (Crick): Right, Rob. No problem. We're here to help. Only when you say she made representations to ThreeBees — do you happen to know which branch you have in mind at all? Only there are a hell of a lot of bees in this outfit, believe me!

Officer: Mrs. Quayle addressed letters, e mails and phone calls to Sir Kenneth personally, to his private office, to Ms. Rampuri and to pretty well everyone on your Nairobi board. She faxed some of her letters and sent hard copies by mail. Others she hand delivered.

BBB (Crick): Well, great. That should give us something to go on. And you have copies of that correspondence, presumably?

Officer: Not at present.

BBB (Crick): But you know who attended the meeting on our side, presumably?

Officer: We assumed you'd know that.

BBB (Crick): Oh dear. So what do you have?

Officer: Written and verbal testimony by witnesses that such representations were made. Mrs. Quayle went so far as to visit Sir Kenneth at his farm last time he was in Nairobi.

BBB (Crick): Did she though? Well, that's news to me, I must say. Did she have an appointment?

Officer: No.

BBB (Crick): So who invited her?

Officer: No one. She just showed up.

BBB (Crick): Wow. Brave girl. How far did she get?

Officer: Not far enough, apparently, because she afterward attempted to confront Sir Kenneth here at his offices, but was unsuccessful.

BBB (Crick): Well, I'm damned. Still the chief's a busy bee. A lot of people want a lot of favors from him. Not many of them are lucky.

Officer: This wasn't favors.

BBB (Crick): What was it?

Officer: Answers. Our understanding is, Mrs. Quayle also presented Sir Kenneth with a bunch of case histories describing the side effects of the drug on identified patients.

BBB (Crick): Did she, by Christ? Well, well. I didn't know there were any side effects. Is she a scientist, a doctor? Was, I should say?

Officer: She was a concerned member of the public, a lawyer, and a rights campaigner. And she was deeply involved in aid work.

BBB (Crick): When you say presented, what are we talking here?

Officer: Delivered them by hand to this building, personal for Sir Kenneth.

BBB (Crick): She get a receipt?

Officer: (shows it)

BBB (Crick): Ah. Well. Received one package. Question of what's in the package, isn't it? Still, you've got copies, I'm sure. Bunch of case histories. You must have.

Officer: We expect to have them any day.

BBB (Crick): Is that so? Well, we'd be really interested to have a sight of them, right, Viv? I mean Dypraxa's our lead line right now, what the chief calls our flagship. Lot of happy mums and dads and kids out there, feeling a lot better for Dypraxa. So if Tessa had a grouse about it, that's something we'd really need to know and act on. If the chief was here he'd be the first to say that. Just that he's one of those guys who lives in a Gulfstream. I'm surprised he gave her the brush-off, all the same. That's not like him at all. Still, I suppose if you're as busy as he is —

BBB (Eber): We have a set procedure here for customer complaints regarding our pharmaceutical list, you see, Rob. We're only the distributor here. We import, we distribute. Provided the Kenyan government has green-lighted a drug and the medical centers are comfortable with using it, we are just acting as the intermediary, you see. That's pretty much where our responsibility ends. We take advice about storage, naturally, and make sure we are providing the right temperatures and humidity and so forth. But basically the buck stops with the manufacturer and the Kenyan government.

Officer: What about clinical trials? Aren't you supposed to be conducting trials?

BBB (Crick): No trials. I'm afraid you haven't done your homework on that one, Rob. Not if you're talking your structured, fully fledged type, double blind, put it that way.

Officer: So what are we talking?

BBB (Crick): Not once a drug is out there in a given country like Kenya, being distributed, that wouldn't be policy. A drug, once you're distributing it in a country and you've got the local health boys behind you a hundred percent, is what I call a done thing.

Officer: So what trials, tests, experiments are you conducting, if any?

BBB (Crick): Look. Don't do the words with me, all right? If you're talking about adding to a drug's track record, a real good drug like this one, if you're gearing up for distribution in another very major country — right outside the African market — the U.S. of A. for instance — yes, all right, I grant you, in an indirect way we can call what we are doing here trials. In that sense only. The preparatory sense, for the situation ahead of us, which is the day when ThreeBees and KVH jointly enter the new exciting market I'm alluding to. With me?

Officer: Not yet. I'm waiting for the word "guinea pig."

BBB (Crick): All I'm saying is, that in the very best way for all parties, every patient is in some degree a test case for the benefit of the greater good. Nobody's talking guinea pigs. Back off.

Officer: The greater good being the American market, you mean?

BBB (Crick): For fuck's sake. All I'm saying is, every result, every time we record a thing, a patient is recorded, those results are carefully stored and monitored at all times in Seattle and Vancouver and Basel for future reference. For the future validation of the product when we're looking to register it elsewhere. So that we're totally fail-safe at all times. Plus we've got the Kenyan health boys behind us at all times.

Officer: Doing what? Mopping up the bodies?

P. R. Oakey, QC: You didn't say that, Rob, I'm sure, and we didn't hear it. Doug has been extremely forthright and generous with his information. Perhaps too generous. Yes, Lesley?

Officer: So what do you do with complaints meanwhile? Bin them?

BBB (Crick): Mainly, Les, what we do, we shoot them straight back at the manufacturer, Messrs. Karel Vita Hudson. Then we either reply to the complaining party under KVH's guidance, or KVH may prefer to reply direct. Horses for courses. But that's the shape and size of it, Rob. Anything else we can do for you? Maybe we should pencil in another meeting for when you've got your documentation to hand?

Officer: Just a minute, d'you mind? According to our information Tessa Quayle and Dr. Arnold Bluhm came here in person last November at your invitation — ThreeBees' invitation- to discuss the effects, positive or negative, of your product Dypraxa. They also presented members of your staff with copies of the case notes they had sent to Sir Kenneth Curtiss personally. Are you saying you have no record of that meeting, not even who attended it from ThreeBees?

BBB (Crick): Got a date for it, Rob?

Officer: We have a diary entry confirming that a meeting was set at ThreeBees' suggestion for 11 A.m. on November 18. The appointment was made through the office of Ms. Rampuri, your marketing manager, who we now hear is not available.

BBB (Crick): News to me, I must say. How about you, Viv?

BBB (Eber): Me too, Doug.

BBB (Crick): Listen, why don't I look in Yvonne's diary for you?

Officer: Good idea. We'll help you.

BBB (Crick): Hang on, hang on. I'll have to get her OK on it first, obviously. Yvonne's a lot of girl. I wouldn't be going through her diary without her say-so, any more than I would yours, Lesley.

Officer: Ring her up. We'll pay.

BBB (Crick): No way, Rob.

Officer: Why not?

BBB (Crick): You see, Rob, Yvonne and her boyfriend have gone to this megawedding in Mombasa. When we said "attending to family affairs," that was the affair, right? A pretty bloody red-hot one, believe you me. So I would guess Monday would be the absolute earliest we could contact her. I don't know whether you've ever been to a wedding in Mombasa but believe you me —

Officer: Let's not worry about the diary. What about the notes they left with her?

BBB (Crick): You mean these so-called case histories you're talking about?

Officer: Among other things.

BBB (Crick): Well, if it's your actual case histories and that — obviously, Rob — technical discussion of symptoms, indications, dosage — side effects, Rob- then it's like we said, it's down to your manufacturer every time. We're talking Basel, we're talking Seattle and we're talking Vancouver. I mean, fuck. We would be behaving with criminal irresponsibility, wouldn't we, Viv, if we didn't immediately turn to the experts for evaluation. That's not just company policy. I'd say that was Holy Writ here at ThreeBees, wouldn't you?

BBB (Eber): Absolutely. No question, Doug. The chief insists. The moment there's a problem, it's get KVH on the help line.

Officer: What are you telling us? This is ridiculous. What happens to paper in this place, for Christ's sake?

BBB (Crick): I'm telling you that we're hearing you and we'll mount a search and see what we come up with. This isn't the civil service, Rob. Or Scotland Yard. This is Africa. We don't all march on our fucking files, right? We got better ways of spending our fucking time than —

P. R. Oakey, QC: I think there are two points here. Perhaps three. Can I take them separately? The first is, how certain are you officers that the meeting between Mrs. Quayle, Dr. Bluhm and representatives of ThreeBees that you're referring to actually took place?

Officer: As we already told you, we have documentary evidence in Bluhm's handwriting, from Bluhm's diary, that a meeting was arranged for November 18 through Ms. Rampuri's office.

P. R. Oakey, QC: Arranged is one thing, Lesley. Consummated is quite another. Let's hope Ms. Rampuri has a good memory. She conducts an awful lot of meetings, you may be sure. My second point is tone. Insofar as you are able to say, would the alleged representations have been adversarial in tone? Might there, for instance, have been a whiff of litigation in the air? De mortuis and so on, but from all one hears about Mrs. Quayle, she wasn't exactly one to pull her punches, was she? She was also a lawyer, as you say. And Dr. Bluhm is by way of being a professional watchdog in the pharmaceutical field, I understand. We're not dealing with nobodies.

Officer: What if they were adversarial? If somebody's died of a drug, people have got a right to be adversarial.

P. R. Oakey, QC: Well, obviously, Rob, if Ms. Rampuri smelled a claim in the air, or worse, or the chief did, assuming he did indeed receive the written materials, which is clearly open to question, then their very first instinct would be to send them on to the firm's legal department. Which would be another place to look, wouldn't it, Doug?

Officer: I thought you were their legal department.

P.R. Oakey, QC: (humour) I'm a last resort, Rob. Not a first resort. I'm far too expensive.

BBB (Crick): We'll get back to you, Rob. It's been our pleasure. Next time let's make it lunch. But don't expect the moon is my advice. It's like I say. We don't spend all day filing paper here. We have a lot of irons in the fire and as the chief likes to say, ThreeBees does business from the hip. That's how this company became what it is today. Officer: We'd like one more moment of your time, please, Mr. Crick. We're interested in speaking to a gentleman named Lorbeer, probably Dr. Lorbeer, of German, Swiss or perhaps Dutch origin. I'm afraid we don't have a first name for him but we understand he's been closely involved with the career of Dypraxa here in Africa.

BBB (Crick): On which side, Lesley?

Officer: Does that matter?

BBB (Crick): Well, it does, rather. If Lorbeer's a doctor, which you seem to think he is, he's more likely to be with the manufacturers than with us. ThreeBees don't run to medics, you see. We're laymen in the marketplace. Salesmen. So it's try KVH again, I'm afraid, Les.

Officer: Look, do you know Lorbeer or not? We're not in Vancouver or Basel or Seattle. We're in Africa. It's your drug, your territory. You import the stuff, you advertise it, distribute it and sell it. We're telling you a Lorbeer has been involved with your drug here in Africa. Have you heard of Lorbeer or not?

P. R. Oakey, QC: I think you've had your answer, haven't you, Rob? Try the manufacturers.

Officer: How about a woman called Kovacs, could be Hungarian?

BBB (Eber): A doctor too?

Officer: Do you know the name? Never mind her title. Has any of you heard the name Kovacs? Female? In the context of marketing this drug?

BBB (Crick): Try the phone book, I should, Rob.

Officer: There's also a Dr. Emrich we'd like to talk to —

P. R. Oakey, QC: Looks as though you've drawn a blank, officers. I'm awfully sorry we can't be more use to you. We've pulled out all the stops for you, but it just doesn't seem to be our day.

Note added one week after this meeting took place:

Despite assurances from ThreeBees that searches were under way, we are informed that no papers, letters, case histories, e-mails or faxes from Tessa Abbott or Quayle or Arnold Bluhm have so far come to light. KVH deny all knowledge of them, so does the ThreeBees' legal department in Nairobi. Our attempts to recontact Eber and Crick have also proved unsuccessful. Crick is "attending a retraining course in South Africa," Eber has been "moved to another department." Replacements have not yet been appointed. Ms. Rampuri remains unavailable, "pending the restructuring of the company."

RECOMMENDED: That Scotland Yard make direct representations to Sir Kenneth K. Curtiss with a request for a full statement of his company's dealings with the deceased and Dr. Bluhm, that he instruct his staff to mount a strenuous search for Ms. Rampuri's diary and the missing documents, and that Ms. Rampuri be produced immediately for interview.

[Initialed by Superintendent Gridley, but no action ordered or recorded.]

APPENDIX

Crick, Douglas (doug) James, b. Gibraltar 10 Oct. 1970 (ex Criminal Records Office, MOD and judge Advocate General's Dept.)

Subject is the illegitimate son of Crick, David Angus, Royal Navy (dishonorable discharge). Crick senior served eleven years in U.k. jails for multiple offenses including two of manslaughter. He now lives lavishly in Marbella, Spain.

Crick, Douglas James (subject) himself arrived in U.k. from Gibraltar at age nine in the care of his father (see above) who was arrested on landing. Subject was given into care. While in care Subject came to notice in a succession of juvenile courts for varied offenses including drug peddling, grievous bodily harm, procuring and affray. He was also suspected of complicity in the gang murder of two black youths in Nottingham (1984) but not charged.

In 1989 Subject claimed to be a reformed character and volunteered for police service. He was rejected, but appears to have been retained as a part-time informant.

In 1990 Subject successfully volunteered for service with the British Army, received special forces training and was attached to British Army Intelligence, Northern Ireland on plainclothes assignment with the rank and entitlements of sergeant. Subject served three years in Ireland before being reduced to the rank of private and dishonorably discharged. No other record of his service is available.

Although D. J. Crick (subject) was presented to us as a public relations officer for House of ThreeBees, he was until recently better known as a leading light in their protection and security branch. He reportedly enjoys the personal confidence of Sir Kenneth K. Curtiss, for whom he has on many occasions acted as personal bodyguard, e.g., on Curtiss's visits to the Gulf, Latin America, Nigeria and Angola, in the last twelve months alone.

* * *

Bearding him at his farm, poor fellow, Tim Donohue is saying across the Monopoly board in Gloria's garden. Phone calls at unsociable hours. Rude letters left at his club. Sweep it under the carpet, our advice.

They kill, Lesley is saying in the darkness of the van in Chelsea. But you've noticed that.

With these memories still echoing in his head, Justin must have fallen asleep at the counting table because he woke to hear a dawn air battle of land birds versus seagulls that turned out on closer inspection to be not dawn but dusk. And at some point not long after that, he was bereft. He had read everything there was to read and he knew, if he had ever doubted it, that without her laptop he was looking at only a corner of the canvas.