Page 42 of Stranded with the Billionaire
“She has resources that we don’t. She knows people and can ask all sorts of questions we can’t,” Max responded. “Look, I know you both aren’t getting along right now but surely you can set any animosity aside if it helps Michael?”
Jake didn’t want to. He was still angry at Sterling. Angry that she had lied to him, that he had trusted her, that he had liked her and wanted a relationship with her. Even through that anger, he could see the wisdom of Max’s words. It was with great reluctance when he replied. “I’ll talk to her. She might not want to help us after all that I’ve done.”
“You mean the whole ruin her career thing?” Max asked innocently. “You might want to grovel for a while. Noah says that sometimes helps when a man messes up. I found it didn’t work so well.”
“I’m not interested in her,” Jake shot Max an angry look. “You can stop matchmaking.”
“You heard about my new hobby?” Max smiled, pleased at Jake’s reaction. The fact that he thought that Max wanted to matchmake, meant that Jake did indeed have feelings for Sterling.
Jake just rolled his eyes and chose not to respond to Max’s obvious delusions.
“Hello?” Sterling mumbled into her phone. It was in the dead of night and she had been dragged from her sleep by its incessant ringing.
“It’s Mindy,” a female said. “I need to meet with you.”
Sterling sighed as she wiped sleep from her eyes. “It’s the middle of the night.”
There was a pause before Mindy spoke again. “You asked me to check to see if there were any drugs that Ramesly Pharma was experimenting on that resulted in consistent cases of anaphylactic shock.”
Sterling sat up in bed, her attention caught. “You’ve found one.”
“It’s called IgEGM. It was buried eight years ago as a failure, however the paperwork and some samples were kept in case the government wanted to purchase them,” Mindy continued. “In eighty percent of lab trials, the subject showed signs of moderate to severe allergic reactions. Sixty percent of the time, resulting in death if no intervention was given.”
“Tell me you made copies,” Sterling breathed in suspense.
“I made a copy of the paperwork. It’s worse than that,” Mindy hesitated.
“What?” Sterling demanded. “How can it be worse?”
“One of the samples is missing,” Mindy’s voice was hushed. “I took pictures to prove it. No one signed it out. Only a few people have access to that lab. It’s gone.”
“Then David Ramesly could have murdered Ted Searson with no one the wiser,” Sterling flipped on her light. This was the story of the year. She was going to make headlines and be a step ahead of everyone, the police, the papers! Grange was going to flip his lid…
Reality intruded. She was unemployed and had nowhere to publish the story.
“I need you to take this information. I can’t carry it around and I’m afraid someone is going to realize I was snooping and I’ll get caught,” Mindy sounded very afraid. “The pharmacy assistant turned up dead in the river today.”
“What pharmacy assistant?” Sterling asked, confused at the turn in the conversation.
“The one who filled the prescriptions for Bethany Searson before she nearly died. The police wanted to question her and she disappeared,” Mindy filled Sterling in. “My boyfriend Rick said they found her floating in the river today.”
Sterling remembered that Mindy’s boyfriend was a fireman who was part of the search and rescue crew in the city. A pit formed in her stomach. The last thing Sterling wanted was for something to happen to Mindy or anyone else that she’d asked to look into David Ramesly’s actions.
“I’ll come. Can you meet me at the café we always use? It’s open this time of night,” Sterling grabbed clothes at random from her closet after Mindy agreed. Maybe she couldn’t put the information in the tabloids, but she could sell it to one or, if it was as incriminating as she thought, she would bring it to the police herself. David Ramesly needed to be stopped before someone else ended up dead.
Sterling quickly grabbed her wallet and headed for the café. On the way, she stopped at the bank, depositing her last paycheck from Dubious and taking out as much as the ATM would allow her to. She never did electronic transfers to her sources. It was too risky that someone might find out her banking information and trace who her sources were. Keeping an eye out for muggers, Sterling crossed the street as quickly as her crutches would let her, heading straight for the nearby café.
Mindy was already there, nervously fingering a mug as she waited. Sterling paid for a bottle of water. It was moderately cheaper than the café’s coffee menu. It was also easier to carry with her crutches. Joining Mindy, she propped her crutches against the table.
“Everything is in the envelope,” Mindy put her bag between them both, a brown envelope peeking up out of the large purse. “I can’t prove that Mr. Ramesly senior took the drug but the whole situation is very suspect in light of Ted Searson’s death.”
“That’s very true,” Sterling put her hand over the envelope, but Mindy grabbed her wrist.
“Am I doing the right thing?” Mindy took a deep breath. “I keep asking myself that. This is important information. It will affect the company I work for. Stocks will go down. People might even lose their jobs. Mr. Ramesly might go to jail. I’m not sure that I should be giving this information to you. I should probably take it to the police.”
“You could do that,” Sterling agreed easily. She knew that Mindy’s reluctance didn’t necessarily have to do with doing the right thing. It probably had more to do with wanting Sterling to offer her even more money for the information that she had. “In fact, I think that’s the best idea. The police definitely need to know about this.”
“It’s not like I’m a bad person,” Mindy explained. “I took a real risk to get this information. I just need to know that I’m doing the right thing.”
