Deadly Treatment (34 page)

Daniel rubbed his eyes and carried on reading.

‘Coley died in nineteen thirty-six, doesn’t say of what, but his toxins continued to be used after his death. Unfortunately, due to the complexity of the toxin’s recipe it needed to be adjusted slightly over time which led the AMA to once again prompt the FDA to call each variant a new drug, and therefore, they couldn’t be used in anything other than clinical trials.’

‘What about Hoxsey?’ Taylor asked.

‘Mr. Harry Hoxsey: seems that once again Fishbein from the AMA was involved. Fishbein got wind of Hoxsey’s potion and made a bid to buy it. Hoxsey said he would sell it provided it was offered to everyone on a low to no-cost basis. Fishbein disagreed, and so off to court it went.

Basically, a twenty-five year battle ensued, during which time Hoxsey struck it rich with oil. He used his cash to fund the trial and set up clinics.

The AMA branded Hoxsey the worst cancer quack of the century, had him arrested on numerous occasions, and had him discredited at every given chance.

As it turned out, Hoxsey beat Fishbein, and he was thrown out of the AMA.’

‘Yay,’ the three of them cheered.

‘Not so fast. It looks like the AMA won in the end; they petitioned the government and got states like California to
criminalize
all cancer treatments other than chemo, radiation, and surgery. The clinic was relocated to Tijuana in the sixties and — oh that’s perfect — it says he died of cancer. There’s a supporting note from his doctor, a doctor who was an associate member of the AMA.

They all went quiet.

‘So it’s never been about the photos,’ Scott said softly, disappointed at his own stupidity.

‘Looks like it’s all about the AMA,’ Malone added.

‘But why? Money, Greed, Power?’ Scott struggled for answers.

‘Why don’t you call the guy and let’s find out,’ Malone snarled.

E
lwood was speechless; he’d just finished talking to Scott who’d told him there was another copy of the flash drive — and this time they knew what was on it.

‘Do you know how much money changes hands each year for the treatment of cancer patients?’ Gerard Paxton was ranting at Elwood as he paced around the teaching facilities kitchen. It was a rhetorical question.

‘There’s an average bill of around three hundred thousand dollars per patient, and nearly one and half million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year. Over half a million will die, and don’t get me started on how much is spent on research and development!

‘Since Nixon declared war on cancer in seventy-one, it’s probably near fifty billion dollars!!! If this small-time arsonist thinks he’s going to fuck with me on this, he has no idea what getting burned means. How much does the fucker want?’ Paxton fumed.

‘That’s just it, he doesn’t want any money; he just wants the kid back,’ Elwood said calmly.

Paxton’s face had turned purple. ‘Oh, I’ll give him his kid back — in fucking pieces!’

Elwood pulled open one of the kitchen drawers and pulled out a few of his favorite tools. He’d used the facility several times in the past and had left a small stash of things he commonly used like tranquilizers, tape, gags, blindfolds, rope, and an array of knives. He picked up the rope and a couple of sleeping tablets, grabbed a cup of water from the faucet, and made Joshua take the pills. Then he re-tied the boy more securely and carried him into the disused walk-in chiller.

‘How does he know about me? What the hell is he doing in Chicago? And what does he mean by your son?’ Malone blurted out.

Scott had called Elwood with the intention of frightening him with the fact that he now knew exactly what was on the flash drive — and unless they got Joshua back, it would be all over the press. He demanded an exchange for Joshua that day.

The response from the unflappable Elwood had not been what he expected: ‘Go ahead and call our friends in the press, I’m sure they’ll be happy to bury the story along with the other crank calls they get. Anyway, I got tired chasing around LA for you, if you want to see your son, you’re gonna have to get your ass to Chicago — and you can bring your pal Malone too, if you like.’

Scott looked stunned as he retold this to the others, ‘I don’t know, I’m just telling you what he said.’

They all stood there speechless.

Taylor put on another pot of coffee and they moved into the home office room to try and piece the whole thing together.

‘So, you guys were/are contract arsonists indirectly working for this guy who we think is called Elwood? Wait a second, Chicago — Elwood — of course it’s him; it’s taken from the bloody Blues Brothers.’ Malone shook his head. ‘You abduct Joshua and then use him to do a job for you where he meets a dying guy called Anthony Cain. This Cain guy gives Joshua the flash drive and tells him that it’s all true, and then dies,’ Malone said factually.

Daniel was up at the white board jotting down notes.

‘Elwood must have removed Cain’s body, but how did he know Joshua met with Cain and picked up the flash drive?’ Scott asked the group.

‘Did Harrison tell him?’ Daniel offered.

‘Harrison didn’t know; we didn’t tell him,’ Scott replied.

‘He must have seen you. It’s the only explanation,’ Malone concluded.

Scott thought for a moment, ‘Shit, he must’ve been round front of the office while we were round back.’

‘He breaks into your house and confirms that you’ve got the device, and then he kills Harrison,’ Malone continued.

‘Why would he kill him?’ Taylor asked.

‘He’s tying up loose ends,’ Scott answered.

‘That’s right,’ Malone agreed. ‘Also, since he’s managed to get access to your bank account and trace your credit card, he certainly is well-connected — and we can assume he’s killed your partner Vince.’

Daniel continued to write names and draw connecting lines on the board. ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ he muttered rhetorically.

‘So there’s still a couple of loose ends: you and Joshua, and I guess me now. He can’t find you so he goes to Chicago and takes Joshua with him,’ Malone added

‘Why take him and why Chicago?’ Taylor asked

‘Joshua is bait,’ Malone replied.

‘And I can solve the Chicago puzzle; all roads lead to the AMA,’ Daniel said, having moved over to the office computer and gone back online.

‘The main office of the American Medical Association is in downtown Chicago.’

Malone took the marker from Daniel and wrote AMA above Elwood at the top of the board.

‘Elwood told Vince that his client is the one who’s after the flash drive — so who does he work for?’ Scott added.

‘Someone who wanted Cain and the flash drive back,’ Malone replied.

‘Sounds like someone high up in the AMA,’ Daniel piped in.

‘So who in the AMA has got the most to lose?’ Taylor asked.

‘I guess I’ll have to look through all the information on the stick; he’s bound to be on that,’ Daniel sighed.

‘Print it off so we can all read it,’ Taylor suggested.

‘Hang on, Cain wasn’t high enough up in the organization to be the only one to know all this stuff; his boss has got to know something about it — or even be the one behind it all. We should look there.’ Daniel was looking at Cain’s company profile.

‘Good idea, lets contact him — who is it?’ Malone asked.

‘I’m already on it.’ Daniel smiled as he began to hack into the personnel records of the AMA headquarters. ‘But you’re gonna have to give me some room and some quiet.’

The three of them moved back to the kitchen to leave Daniel to work his magic.

Malone had a brain storm: ‘I have an idea; what’s Elwood’s number? I’ll get the cops to trace who it really belongs to.’

Scott went pale when he thought about involving the cops.

‘I’ll keep it confidential for the moment,’ Malone said picking up on Scott’s reluctance.

Scott nodded and gave Malone the phone number.

Malone called Rodriguez who was already at the station.

‘You’re up early,’ Malone opened.

‘I could say the same for you. What’s up?’ The detective was all business.

‘I need a favor. I need you to find out who this number belongs to.’ Malone read out the number.

‘That’s an unusual number, where did you get it? What’s this all about?’

‘I can’t tell you that right now, I just need your help — it’s important.’

Rodriguez had already worked out that it was pointless to press Malone for answers, so he simply agreed and told him he’d call him back soon.

Taylor grabbed some bacon and eggs out of the fridge while Malone and Scott talked about Joshua. It became immediately obvious to Malone that Scott and the kid had bonded at some level. Scott was visibly emotionally connected with Joshua and seemed sincere in his efforts to get him back safely.

A short while later, the house phone rang; it was Rodriguez.

‘Seriously, Malone, what have you got into? Where did you get this number?’

‘I’m sorry, Detective; I can’t give you that information at the moment. Please just trust me. Who does it belong to?’

‘It doesn’t.’

‘What?’

‘I said it doesn’t. The number doesn’t exist. None of the networks claim to have it in their allocation. Are you sure you gave me the right number?’ The detective read the number back to Malone and followed it with, ‘I was going to call the number just in case…’

‘NO!’ Malone jumped in; then, embarrassed at how aggressive his tone had been, corrected himself. ‘Ahem, yes you have the correct number, but it’s important that you don’t dial it.’

‘Alright, alright, I get the picture. But this had better not come back and bite me on the ass.’

‘It won’t Detective, and thanks for your help.’

Daniel called out from the office

‘I’m in.’

Malone and Scott quickly went in to see what he’d found. ‘This is their corporate family tree,’ Daniel said as they looked at the photos on the screen.

Starting from the top is Sheila M. Stratford, she’s the President of the corporation and from her job spec, she lobbies the government and sits on the board of a handful of other corporations. Below her are two group directors, Andrew Tuck and Paul Lattimore. Both are heavy hitters and both control the main operations of the Association. Then come the working directors: McClusky, Nalder, Borginski, Paxton, and Warner. From what I can see, our dead friend, Anthony Cain, would have worked under any of those five.’

Taylor came into the room bearing a tray full of bacon and egg sandwiches.

‘What have I missed?’ she asked as she handed out the food.

‘Looks like we’ve narrowed the field down to five people. I agree with Daniel; if Cain knew what was going on, so would one of these five for sure.’ Malone said.

‘But how do we find out which one?’ Scott asked.

‘Why don’t you ask his family?’ Taylor suggested as she took a big bite of her sandwich.

‘
D
on’t think for one minute that I don’t know what you’re up to,’ Nalder had again barged into Paxton’s office to confront him.

‘Don’t you ever make an appointment?’ Paxton asked smarmily.

‘You’re not going to worm your way out of this Paxton. I found out from Warner and McClusky that you’ve been having a conversation with a couple of their staff members too; they have the same concerns I do — we want to know why you’re looking at people who are more or less their worst employees. It didn’t make sense until I worked out that all three of the guys you’re interviewing have similar backgrounds to Cain: no family to speak of and some discrepancies in their previous roles; they’re all far from perfect.’

‘You know how hard this job is — long hours, nights away from home, lunches, dinners, the entertaining — of course I want someone without any family commitments — hell, I’m surprised you’ve managed to juggle your career and your family. Oh, wait a minute, that’s right, I forgot — you’re not that good at your job!’

‘Nice try at changing the subject, but it won’t work. I’ve been doing some checking around — the revenue from your department is nowhere near what my area brings in, and yet your clients seem to get priority treatment. It’s all bullshit. I know you’re on the take; I just can’t prove it right now. But when I do, I don’t care if you’ve retired, hell, I don’t care if you’re dead, I’ll make sure that the truth comes out.’ Nalder looked dark.

‘If you spent more time on your work and less time scurrying around looking for shit that isn’t there, maybe you’d manage to climb that corporate ladder on your merits rather than getting there by laying on your back. Don’t think I don’t know about you and Tuck! Now get the fuck out of my office; unlike you, I’ve got real work to do.’

Nalder
went
bright
red.
‘That’s
a
damn lie,
and
yo
u
know it.’

‘I thought we were telling each other fairy tales, but unlike you, I can turn them into reality,’ Paxton shot back.

‘This isn’t over — not by a long shot!’ she yelled as she stormed out of the office.

Paxton watched her slam the door and took a moment to ponder the situation; deciding he had little choice in what to do next, he got on the phone to Elwood.

‘I’ve got another job for you to do,’ he said, and gave him Nalder’s details.

Still fuming, Nalder took the elevator to the top of the building and up to the office of the president, Sheila Stratford. As the doors opened, she was greeted by the warm smile of Ms. Stratford’s PA.

Taking a breath to calm herself a little, Nalder asked the PA if Ms. Stratford was available for a brief word.

Emotions ran rampant through Nalder’s mind as she waited for the president to see her. Paxton made her mad; she knew he was corrupt and was looking forward to his retirement, but she’d spent years building up a great team and so had her colleagues. There was no way she was going to see any of them follow in his crooked footsteps, It was time to clean house. During her term with the organization, she had met with Ms. Stratford on several occasions and found her advice to be both sound and centering; Nalder was sure her counsel would be good now.

The PA came out of the office.

‘Ms. Stratford will see you now.’

What could be found on the Internet never failed to surprise Malone. Within minutes, Daniel had discovered that Anthony Cain’s only living relative was his mother, and a few more clicks presented Malone with the address and phone number. He immediately picked up his phone to call her.

It rang almost ten times before it was answered.

‘Hello, is that Mrs. Cain?’

‘Yeees,’ came the dubious reply.

‘Hello, Mrs. Cain, my name is Michael Malone. You don’t know me, but I sort of knew your son.’

The phone went silent on the other end.

‘I’m really sorry for your loss.’

Still silence.

‘I know it sounds strange, but I need your help on a small matter…’

‘Malone, you say? I never heard him talk about you,’ Mrs. Cain interrupted, her words were slow and drawn out.

‘We um, we weren’t that close,’ Malone stammered.

‘Where are you from Mr. Malone?’

‘Los Angeles.’

‘Malone from Los Angeles — no, he never said anything about a Malone from Los Angeles.’

Malone didn’t quite know which way to proceed.

They think I don’t know; they think I’m an old
woman who doesn’t know anything; but I know — he called me.’

Malone had no idea what the woman was talking about, but he just lied and said ‘yes.’

‘They said he was too sick to see me; they said they were trying out some special experimental drugs, but I knew he was running away from them.’ She started to cry, ‘I was the one who put the idea in his head.’

It was Malone’s turn to remain silent as Mrs. Cain continued to talk.

‘I could see right away that the treatment he was getting wasn’t doing him any good — he knew it too. We talked for hours about him trying different medicines and alternative procedures, but he told me that due to his position it wasn’t an option.’

Malone could hear her voice getting stronger.

‘I wouldn’t let it go though; I kept pushing him to go with his gut. I knew what his beliefs were; he told me many times over the years that his company was hiding the truth about alternative medicine being the real cure…’ She went quiet for a beat. ‘I couldn’t bear to watch him die in a sterile hospital ward. No mother should have to bury her son. I told him to fight, I told him to run. I told him to do whatever he could to live. I said “what would Steve McQueen do”?’

‘Steve McQueen?’ Malone was confused

‘Steve McQueen, the movie star,’ she replied as if it was obvious.

‘I’m sorry – I don’t follow.’

‘He was a big hero to Anthony; he had all his classic old movies and a model Mustang in his room as a kid. He loved his bravery, always on the side of justice and helping out the underdog.’

Malone was still confused, but let the woman talk.

‘McQueen had mesothelioma; it’s cancer in the lungs and according to the doctors — incurable. But being the fighter he was, he went to Dr. Kelley, a man who claimed to have cured his own pancreatic cancer using his own method of alternative treatment. Of course, the AMA and Cancer Society called him a fraud, and suspended his license, but it didn’t stop him from spreading the word. The treatment was relocated to a facility in Rosarito Beach in Mexico and that’s where McQueen went. A few weeks after getting there, he announced through the media that he was cured, and thanked them for saving his life!’

Mrs. Cain went quiet and Malone let her speech sink in; somewhere in the back of his mind, he felt sure he’d heard Steve McQueen had died of cancer, but he also knew that now wasn’t the time to bring that up. Over the years, he’d listened to hundreds of people’s versions of belief and truth; in the end, it all boiled down to the simple fact that perception equaled reality.

‘I wasn’t there when my boy died, and it was all because of his manipulative and conniving boss.’

‘Who are you talking about Mrs. Cain?’

‘My boy wasn’t bad; they made him go that way. He used to come to my house and tell me how it wasn’t right what they were doing, how he was going to make it better, how he wanted to take his boss down…but something was stopping him.’

‘Who was his boss, Mrs. Cain?’

‘Gerard bloody Paxton,’ she swore and broke down.

It took Malone nearly ten minutes to calm her down, and before he rang off, he promised her he would bring Paxton to justice.

‘So Paxton is the boss,’ Malone announced to the group.

‘That figures, I’ve just read a couple of questionable internal e-mails from him,’ Taylor added, passing some sheets over to Malone.

‘Looks like he’s the bastard who’s behind all this then,’ Scott sneered.

‘He’s certainly a good place to start; let’s look for all the paperwork with his name on it,’ Malone said.

Later, armed with all the evidence they needed, Malone announced that it was time to go to Chicago. After a reasonable amount of discussion, they decided that all things considered, one o’clock in the afternoon would be the best and safest time to meet with Elwood; the choice as to where was much easier. Scott jumped on the phone to Elwood and arranged the meet.

‘Shouldn’t you call Erin and tell her what’s going on?’ Taylor asked.

Both Malone and Scott looked at each other.

‘I know it’s a bad thing to say, but she may take fright, call the cops, want to come — any or all of the above. I think it’s best she doesn’t know what we’re up to right now,’ Malone said, and closed the subject.

The earliest flight Scott and Malone could get on was just after six in the evening which got them into Chicago around midnight. They took a motel room near the airport, and knowing they had several things to do early the next day, they chatted briefly and then went to bed.

After breakfast the next morning, they picked up a rental car and headed to Target to get some provisions.