Free Bliss by Bill Clem Page B

to the bottom of it. Things had taken such an unexpected turn in the last week; Lindsey hadn’t even had time to plan her wedding. Although she intended it to be small, she still needed to send out invitations and decide where to have the ceremony. And she needed to call Jason. She hadn’t heard from him since he went back to Tucson.
    Right now though, with Frank Deldeo running loose, she had to figure out how to stay alive long enough to get married. Maybe she’d become paranoid? She took a deep breath and stepped off the elevator with new resolve.
    She had a plan.

25
    After spending Thursday holed up in her office, Lindsey decided to call in sick on Friday. She grabbed her favorite bottled water from the fridge and plopped down on the oversize sofa. She stared out the window, her mind racing. She had no idea if her suspicions made any sense or if they were just an over active imagination, but whatever the hell was going on, she knew she had to talk to Katherine Blair right away. After trying for over an hour to reach her without any luck, she finally relented and hung up the phone. She’d tried to call Katherine again later, but right now, she had another idea.
    Frederick Meyer’s widow lived just outside Scottsdale in a small retirement community called Leisure World. Katherine had imparted that information when they were out to dinner a few weeks earlier. Lindsey didn’t know if the woman would be able to help her, but in her desperation for answers, she felt anything might shed some light on the information she sought.
    Leisure World, about a half hour from Scottsdale, is an exclusive residential retirement community, built at the base of a mountain. The houses were modest in size, mostly, one story ranchers with elegant windows and immaculate landscaping.
    The Meyer home was one of the largest in the community and sat just past the front entrance. Tucked in the back of the open garage, a BMW sat with a canvas cover over part of it. Was that the car they killed Meyer in? Lindsey parked in the drive and got out. At the house’s front door, she pressed the doorbell. Meyer’s wife had agreed to talk to her, and in fact, seemed anxious to talk to someone, anyone, about her husband.
    “Mrs. Meyer?” Lindsey asked, as a woman answered.
    “Yes. And you must be Lindsey Walsh? Come right in. I’m just making some coffee.”
    Lindsey felt immediately at ease around Hilda Meyer. She carried a slight German accent and had a matronly appearance. Lindsey felt a little like she was at her grandmother’s house. She sat in the living room and Hilda Meyer brought coffee and cookies.
    “So,” Hilda Meyer said, “what are they up to over at Imec?”
    “Well I was hoping you could help me answer that question.”
    Meyer hesitated and took a gulp of coffee. “Ms. Walsh. My husband was very secretive about all his work. He was a scientist first, husband second. But I can tell you. This thing he was working on... this Bliss thing. It disturbed him a great deal. Right up until the time of his death. When the new bosses took over, he changed. He went from being excited, to being paranoid.”
    “So you know about Bliss?”
    “Oh... a little. My Frederick used to say it was going to revolutionize the drug industry. Then, later, he said it was far too dangerous to market. But they pressured him to continue.”
    Lindsey shifted in her seat. “Continue?”
    “Continue with the trials.”
    “You mean they had actual clinical trials?”
    “Oh yes. But when things went haywire, they abandoned them. That’s what was disturbing my husband. He wouldn’t tell me what, but I knew it was something bad. Really bad.”
    “Did he ever give any hint of what?”
    “No, but some men, they came to visit and I heard them arguing. After they left, Frederick was very upset. He was talking about leaving Imec. That night, he spent hours on his computer. The next day he drove up to the Grand Canyon. Said he needed to get away for a couple of