Whiplash

46

The great man paid Kesselring no more attention and immediately strode forward, his hand extended. "Ladies, gentlemen, I am Adler Dieffendorf, managing director of Schiffer Hartwin Pharmaceutical. This is my director of sales and marketing, Werner Gerlach."

Bowie made introductions, then waved Dieffendorf and Gerlach to their chairs. Kesselring remained standing, his arms crossed over his chest, and he leaned against the conference room wall.

Dieffendorf sat forward, his long face concerned, his elegant hands clasped on the table in front of him. "I will tell you, Agents, it came as a tremendous shock to us yesterday when Mr. Royal, our longtime company CEO, literally ran away from us on our drive here to Stone Bridge.

"Then, this morning, we were told Mr. Royal was murdered last night! The murderer was himself murdered? It seems too incredible to be true. Who could have killed him? Was he associating with violent criminals?

"I would have more readily understood if Mr. Royal had taken his own life, out of remorse, perhaps, or to make amends for a wrongdoing, but Agent Kesselring assures us he was murdered. We are over our heads, Agents. We do not know what is happening here. It seems his murder and that of my good friend, Helmut Blauvelt, must somehow be connected, but we do not know how or why. We have asked Agent Kesselring to assist us, but he seems to be unable to be of much use. We very much need your help in these matters."

Nicely presented, Bowie thought, looking from Dieffendorf's sincere, concerned face, to Gerlach's, who also looked back at him openly. But Gerlach looked pale, and his lips were seamed tight.

Bowie had imagined Dieffendorf would have charisma; to hold his position as managing director of Schiffer Hartwin for so many years, he'd have to have something going for him. He'd never had any major missteps, until now.

He'd also shown he could be self-deprecating, always an engaging stance, and he seemed charming and fluent. Bowie suspected he'd rehearsed his eloquent monologue, but perhaps not. The man was intelligent and smooth. He was a respected figure in Germany and in the world of drug companies. He was, Bowie noted, well dressed, but not flamboyantly so, like Kesselring and Herr Gerlach. He appeared quietly dignified, a man to be trusted.

"It is our intention to solve these cases," Bowie assured him. "Would you like to add anything, Mr. Gerlach?"

Gerlach blinked, then slowly shook his head. "Not at the moment. I believe my colleague has expressed our sentiments very well."

Werner Gerlach was a small man, exquisitely dressed, his suit even more expensive than Kesselring's. He looked very tightly wound, held together by sheer willpower. The man had his own powerful position in Schiffer Hartwin, overseeing the sales and marketing of all their drugs, and he'd been there for as many years as Dieffendorf. Gerlach, Bowie saw, never looked away from Adler Dieffendorf for long.

Sherlock smiled and said to Gerlach, "I hope you and Herr Dieffendorf slept well last night? No jet lag?"

Gerlach said with only a slight accent, "One always tries, naturally, but with all the uncertainty surrounding our trip here, no, I did not sleep well. I usually don't in a foreign country."

Dieffendorf looked at Savich. "I have heard of you."

Savich arched a dark eyebrow.

Dieffendorf continued, "I have heard of both you and Agent Sherlock. I have met Quincy and Laurel Abbott. I knew their father. I was shocked to hear what they were accused of doing."

Sherlock said, "I myself am hoping they will go to jail for such a long time they'll build a wing with their names on it."

"That is clever, Agent Sherlock. If they are guilty, I trust they will."

Bowie said, "Both you and Herr Gerlach speak excellent English."

Dieffendorf said politely, "Thank you. We still have a bit of an accent, one does, you know, when one doesn't learn another language until one is older. Both Werner and I attended Columbia Business School here in the early 1970s."

Bowie leaned forward. "Mr. Dieffendorf, Mr. Gerlach, you do realize that you, Mr. Bender, and Mr. Toms were the last people to see Mr. Royal alive? Since you freely admit he ran away from you, it would seem obvious he must have been afraid. Of you?"

"Naturally not!" Mr. Dieffendorf immediately calmed himself. He pulled back, drew a deep breath. "That is absurd, Agent Richards. Mr. Royal had nothing to fear from us."

"Then why did he run? Tell me, what exactly did you discuss with him?"

"We made it clear we wanted the truth from him about the papers, that we would hold him accountable for his actions at the production plant in Missouri. He swore to us there were no so-called Culovort papers, that it was absurd that he, the CEO, would purposefully shut down this drug's production. He assured us there had simply been miscalculations during a planned expansion at the Missouri plant that had adversely affected production. He claimed he knew nothing about our production problems in Madrid, that he could not possibly have predicted that.

"He also said he knew nothing about Herr Blauvelt's murder, that his shock was as great as anyone else's. But then this grown man, our own American CEO at that, suddenly runs off from our meeting-at a rest stop for heaven's sake! It was the most astounding behavior from a man of substance I have ever seen in my professional career. As if he were a schoolboy, trying to escape a scolding. It was dishonorable and undignified."

"Then why did he run, Mr. Dieffendorf ? Was he afraid of what you would do to him?"

"How could he be? I made no physical threat. Why would I? You see, I knew he was lying, but when I taxed him with it, he still would not admit to any wrongdoing. I suppose he knew, in your American slang, the jig was up. He must have feared we would expose him to the police and that is why he ran. He did not want to go to jail. He doubtless planned to leave the country."

"That would have resulted in a scandal," Bowie said. "Schiffer Hartwin would have been exposed as the company that pulled production on a necessary cancer drug. You surely wouldn't want that, would you?"

"We could have contained any scandal. I would not have allowed Mr. Royal to harm the company's reputation."

Savich said, "I understand the company's reputation is very important to you. Where were you and Mr. Gerlach early this morning, about two a.m.?"

Dieffendorf's white eyebrow shot up. He looked appalled and baffled, and turned quickly to look at Kesselring, but Kesselring merely nodded. "It is an appropriate question, Herr Dieffendorf, albeit insultingly delivered."

Dieffendorf turned back to Savich. "You are considering that Mr. Gerlach and I murdered our own CEO?" He gave a sharp laugh. "You are desperate, Agent Savich. I must say I find this amusing," and he flicked a dismissing glance at Savich. "Just think, Werner, Agent Savich is referring to us as suspects. That is a diversion I did not expect."

"Why?" Bowie asked. "Agent Savich is speaking openly. It is his job, part of establishing a workable dialogue. Isn't this what you wanted, Mr. Dieffendorf ? To resolve all these questions?"

Dieffendorf shrugged. "What does it matter? We were both trying to sleep. We never left the suite. Now I will ask you a question. What motive could we possibly have?"

Savich said easily, "Other than preventing a scandal for Schiffer Hartwin? Perhaps because you yourself ordered Mr. Royal to shut down Culovort production, Mr. Dieffendorf, but with the theft of the Culovort papers, you were afraid Mr. Royal would, as we say in American slang, rat you out."

"That is absolute nonsense!" Dieffendorf was on his feet now, outrage bringing violent color to his face.

Kesselring stirred against the conference room wall, but he didn't say anything.

Bowie said, "Surely you realize you and Mr. Gerlach had motive and opportunity to kill Mr. Royal."

Dieffendorf's fast heavy breathing was the only sound for several moments in the conference room. He finally nodded slowly. "Yes, of course, you had to inquire."

Bowie nodded. "Did you ask Mr. Royal if he knew anything at all about Helmut Blauvelt's murder?"

"He said he knew nothing about it." He paused, tapped his fingertips together. "Do you know, he lied about everything else, why not about Helmut as well? His running from us, his co-workers"-Dieffendorf shrugged-"as much as it pains me, it makes the conclusion almost inescapable. But even if that is true, even if he did murder Helmut, the question is why, exactly?"

Bowie said, "Tell us why Helmut Blauvelt was here."

"I don't know, Agent Richards. Of course I have wondered. Perhaps it was personal business. I did not send him. I do not know whether his murder is connected to Mr. Royal's or to the break-in. I frankly would not be surprised if it were, at this point, but I have no direct knowledge of that. Have you made any progress yourself in solving Herr Blauvelt's murder?"

Bowie nodded. "We expect everything will come together shortly. Tell us about the sabotage of the Spanish facility."

Dieffendorf said, "Whoever carried it out contaminated our chemical production vats and tubing. The entire facility has had to be shut down for a thorough decontamination. It has cost us many millions of dollars already, certainly nothing anyone in our company would have an interest in doing. Thus far we ourselves and the Spanish police have no good idea who perpetrated that act. I can assure you if anyone in our company was involved, I will do everything in my power to help you find him."

Savich said, "It seems fairly obvious to me, Mr. Dieffendorf. The Culovort production was not only cut off in the U.S., it was also cut off in Spain. You have no other facilities, so now there is a worldwide shortage of Culovort. We understand a French company is garnering windfall profits."

"If you are speaking of Laboratoires Ancondor and their drug Eloxium, yes, they have profited handsomely from our troubles, of course everyone has noticed that. We have gained nothing from it. I have no proof of any complicity on their part, but if any of this was a conspiracy of some sort, they were certainly the ones who gained from it."

Savich said easily, "You know, Mr. Dieffendorf, sooner or later money transfers can always be discovered, contacts traced, if they exist. Would it surprise you to know that Mr. Royal had nearly a half million dollars stashed in an offshore account?"

Dieffendorf looked unimpressed. "Not a large sum for a CEO. But if it was ill-gotten, it would be a calamity. I do not look forward to what the Schiffer family would say, having their CEO of American operations not only murdered under suspicious circumstances, but now he was involved in a crime? That is even worse." He shook his head, trying to gather himself. He said finally, "It is certainly looking like Mr. Royal was involved in wrongdoing. Perhaps he was helping someone who would profit from the worldwide shortage of Culovort, perhaps he had a hand in planning it all. Clearly, there are vicious criminal elements involved, if they have murdered more than once. Now, gentlemen, ladies, is there any other way we can be of assistance?"

Bowie said, "Mr. Dieffendorf, would you be willing to send me all the threats Schiffer Hartwin has received since the severe cutback on Culovort production?"

"We will, of course, cooperate to the fullest, without jeopardizing our company's position." Dieffendorf added with a nice understated shrug, "There are always unhappy people, Agent, all over the world, who must blame a drug for their misfortunes."

Bowie said, "This list, sir, we would like it to include only those people who were unhappy about the unavailability of Culovort, no other drug."

Erin spoke for the first time. "Can you tell me when Culovort will be back up to full production, sir?"

"It is now a priority," Dieffendorf said, his head cocked to one side as he looked at Erin. He looked down at his watch. "I fear it is time we returned to Schiffer Hartwin. We have much more information to assemble before we can return to Germany." He rose, followed quickly by Gerlach. "Thank you, Agents. I am sorry we could not be of much assistance to you. If you will fill in Agent Kesselring, so perhaps he may contribute something positive to your investigation?

"Oh, yes, Agent Savich, if you have the Culovort papers, may we please have them back? They are the property of the company."

Savich smiled. "Those papers are evidence now, Mr. Dieffendorf. It is my understanding we don't have the only copy. I fear you must prepare yourself for their release to the media and the Department of Justice."

The two directors left, leaving Kesselring standing against the wall, looking like he'd get great pleasure from shooting them. "If I do not aid significantly in solving these murders, I will have failed for the first time in my career. It is possible that my career will be ended." He turned to Bowie. "You have my cell phone number."

He turned and left the conference room.