Page 63 of Crow's Haven
Smoke frowns. “It was likely scheduled for Friday to preempt any internal leaks.” His voice is low, controlled, but there is also tension just below the surface. “They knew about contamination, so ergo they realized the product was defective. They chose damage control over integrity.”
“This fucking shit pisses me off,” I growl.
Smoke’s lips press together. “This crosses beyond negligence into malfeasance,” he inclines his head slightly and I can see his eyes flash with anger. “We need to take these assholes down.”
That’s when I notice Sharon hovering near the door. She looks pale and shocked. “They intentionally made me the scapegoat,” she whispers as she walks into the room. Her voice trembles with hurt quiet fury. “I honestly thought I was just imagining that and maybe someone had entered my staff number in the system by mistake.”
When she gets close, I haul her into my lap, arms tight around her. “Don’t worry about it. They might think they’re real slick but they’re not going to get away with it. Trust me on that, sweetness.”
Her voice sounds defeated. “They lied about the bag. They realized the batch was compromised and decided to cover it up. They buried the truth about Joshua’s death under a pile of lies.”
Smoke stands and crosses his arms. “The good news is we have proof of intent,” he says. “Emails directly from their senior staff. This is more than speculation. It’s documentary evidence.”
Siege glances at me. “What do we do next?” he asks. His question hangs in the air, heavy with possibility and peril.
Rigs speaks up, “This isn’t proof. It’s just paper. What we really need is a sample from that batch that we can hand over to law enforcement for an independent analysis. That would be considered more tangible proof.”
“Won’t they have got rid of it already? You saw the emails from the CEO,” I say.
“My best guess is they’d want to keep it internal. Hush it up. They’ve clearly not told the cops about that, as the police report doesn’t say anything about contamination, just protocol deviation. They might even have the contaminated bags at the hospital—that’s if they haven’t destroyed the evidence already,” Siege adds.
Smoke jumps in, “We need to notify the feds, and they need to secure a search warrant for the contaminated IV bags. There needs to be a chain of evidence on the medication, originating from that hospital that can be directly linked to that child’s death. The emails should be sufficient to clear Sharon’s name. But I want to take these bastards down.”
Siege stands, and his confident voice rings out, “Then we need to do everything in our power to make that happen.”
Smoke interjects, “We need to find legal counsel specializing in whistleblower cases. I can act as co-counsel, with Sharon’s permission.”
“There’s more,” he says. Looking from one to the other of us, his gaze turns hard. “This is the part you’re not going to like.”
I jerk my chin at him and grab Sharon’s hand. “Spit it out, brother. Whatever the hell it is, we’ll deal with it head-on.”
“The clearest path forward is for Sharon to turn herself in to the feds with all the information we’ve gathered. That will give them everything they need to secure a search warrant, and she will eventually be cleared of all charges. Turning herself in with information in hand makes her a whistleblower instead of a fugitive from justice.”
And there it fucking is, the gut punch I saw coming.
“Yeah, I get it. Handing herself over to the feds paints her like a woman screwed over by the local system. But the thought of her behind bars don’t sit right with me.”
Sharon speaks up, “I’ll do it. It makes sense that I have to risk something if I want to clear my name.”
I give her hand a squeeze. “You’ve already been through hell, hiding out like a damn ghost just to stay free. Why now, babe? What changed?”
She gives me a shy look. “I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to be able to live my life without having to look over my shoulder all the time. Be with you and the kids without fear. Like Smoke said, I’d be turning myself in to the feds with evidence of my innocence. That’s worlds different than turning myself in to the local police detachment with nothing but my word that I didn’t do anything wrong and throwing myself on the mercy of the local magistrate.”
I let out a low breath, nodding. “Yeah... You ain’t wrong about that.”
Before I can comment, Smoke continues explaining his plan, “Once the feds have secured the evidence from the hospital, we contact the press with the information we found. And let every fucker in the world know what went down there.”His smile is determined. “If we keep it in the public eye, there is less chance of something bad happening to Crow’s old lady.”
Zen looks up from his laptop, “How about we do one better?”
When we all turn to look at him, he explains, “I just found an email between the hospital CEO and the CEO of the pharmaceutical company. Looks like someone is getting antsy. Salinas Pharmaceuticals is requesting the hospital gather up all the remaining IV bags from that batch and prepare them for pickup. They’re sending a truck in seventy-two hours to pick it up.”
Smoke nods, “That means we’ve got three days to gather up as much information as possible so Sharon can turn herself in.”
Siege makes an imperious slashing motion with one hand. “No, we’ve got two days, tops. The feds will need time to review the information and request a search warrant. If they can get their hands on that truck and it has product from several hospitals, it will prove someone at Salinas Pharmaceuticals knew and said nothing.”
The weight of his words hangs in the air. Sharon’s shaky voice says, “I’ll be ready whenever your club has all the information ready.”
Zen closes the lid to his laptop. “I’ll secure these emails, back them up, and encrypt the files.” He glances at Sharon. “We won’t risk losing this evidence. I’ll also trace the email headers, confirm the IP logs to show these messages originated from the hospital’s servers.”
