Free Bliss by Bill Clem

mistaken identity? Feeling sick to her stomach, Lindsey wondered what she should do.
    If she couldn’t turn to the police, that left just one person. Katherine Blair.
    From the day they’d met, she’d sensed Katherine’s mixed feelings about the Bliss project. She’d confided in Lindsey that Stephen Vetter always got his way, regardless of who suffered to get there. She’d seen that side of Vetter with his handling of Dr. Collett. Vetter had blatantly ignored his warnings and fired him for challenging the safety of the company’s drugs. And after the conversation she’d overheard at Vetter’s party, it was obvious that Katherine knew things that no one else did. Besides that, whatever Katherine’s relationship was to Vetter, she was unhappy. Lindsey sensed that from the beginning. She seemed to be more of a prisoner, than an assistant CEO.
    For the first time, it occurred to her that if she were going to get to the bottom of Vetter’s game, she would need Katherine Blair’s help. The threat of Frank Deldeo loomed over her, and it was only a matter of time before he figured out her identity and came after her. The look on his face tonight told her, he might already know. If so, she’d be lucky to get away with her life.
    With rising urgency, she went to her phone and punched in Katherine’s number. She knew Katherine wouldn’t be there. She was probably passed out on Vetter’s bed by now. Suspecting Vetter might have Katherine’s phone bugged, Lindsey left a message for Katherine to call her for a lunch date. She hung up.
    Next, she went to the counter and made a pot of coffee. Maybe coffee would fend off her growing fatigue, since sleep was out of the question. While she waited for the coffee to brew, she went to the bedroom and got her briefcase. She wanted to look over the Bliss production reports Vetter had given her. Maybe it contained a clue about why the whole project reeked of dishonesty? She’d been involved in marketing new pharmaceuticals for the past three years, and though she knew the industry had a cloak-and-dagger aspect to it, nothing came close to the secrecy of the Bliss project.
    It seemed almost paranoid.
    She turned to leave the room and heard that high-pitched humming that had started on the day she moved in. Lindsey froze and tried to listen, but couldn’t pinpoint the sound. Deciding to agree with Jason that it was the air-conditioning system, Lindsey returned to the kitchen and poured herself some coffee.
    She opened a large manila envelope, and took out the first of the preliminary research reports on Bliss, studying them carefully. The first few pages were all chemical formularies that meant nothing to Lindsey. Next was a long dissertation by Vetter, himself, about Imec and its planned future contributions to the pharmaceutical industry. Then, an introduction to Bliss and the many potential benefits it would offer patients. Nothing jumped out as unusual. She continued through the paper, skimming over financial reports and non-medical issues.
    Then it hit her.
    What was missing?
    Every research and marketing report she had ever dealt with had major sections dedicated strictly to the clinical trials of the drug, and the results of those trials. This report contained not a single mention of any. Yet according to Vetter, they were in phase three of FDA approval, which meant human trials were ongoing. And Katherine herself had evaded the issue each time Lindsey had brought it up.
    Lindsey sat in stunned silence. That had to be it.
    Vetter was going to market Bliss without any clinical trials!
    But how? The FDA had to approve every new drug based on its trials. Even a moron knew that.
    Absurd, it wasn’t possible. Was it?

23
    Frank Deldeo tore across the desert highway toward his apartment in Phoenix. He still couldn’t believe it. But after a slow recollection, now he knew. Two years earlier, she had stared him down in a New York district courtroom, awaiting a judge’s ruling on his