Her Mistletoe Protector
He didn’t say anything, too distracted by her nearness as she fussed over him. He couldn’t help remembering the kiss they’d shared and wondered if she’d let him kiss her again. Soon.
“Almost finished,” she murmured, and he blinked, realizing she was putting antibiotic ointment over the flesh wound before wrapping it with gauze.
“Thanks,” he murmured huskily. When she turned away to take the water back over to the sink, he carefully put his arm back into the sleeve of his sweatshirt.
Once she’d finished cleaning everything up, she came back to the table. It took all his willpower to turn his attention to the investigation at hand. “Tell me about Dr. Karl Errol. How long has he worked for you?”
Rachel frowned. “He’s been working for me for about three years now,” she said slowly.
“How did you come to hire him? Did he apply for a job? Or did you purposefully recruit him away from his other company?”
“Neither. Josie Gardner is actually the one who recommended him for the job. She apparently met him at a research convention and talked about some of the work we were doing. He was very interested and Josie convinced me to make him an offer. To be honest, I was surprised when he actually accepted it.”
“Why do you think he did? Accept the job, I mean?”
Rachel shrugged. “During our interview, he mentioned that he liked the way I put so much time and effort into research and development for new medications. He claimed that his old company had gone stagnant and that he was looking for change.”
Nick hesitated, knowing that she wasn’t going to like his next question. “Could it be that he was searching for a place where no one was constantly looking over his shoulder? Because maybe he liked to cut corners? What if the problem with your new diabetes medication happened in the first place because he hid something important?”
“No way... Josie would have been all over that,” she said.
“Maybe that’s why she committed suicide.”
She stared at him for a long moment. “It’s possible, but why would Karl do something like that in the first place? Why bring forward a medication that has life-threatening side effects?” She blew out a breath. “Don’t you see? There’s no logical reason why anyone, especially a well-respected researcher, would risk ruining their reputation and their career by doing something so crazy.”
He hated to admit she had a point. What could the motivation be? He shifted several scenarios through his mind. “What if he’s doing it on purpose to sabotage your company?” he mused.
Rachel closed her eyes and rubbed them. “Again, Nick, for what purpose? What’s the link between this and Joey’s kidnapping? I keep telling you that none of this makes any sense. The only logical explanation is that someone within the Mafia needed cash and orchestrated Joey’s kidnapping to get it.” She sighed impatiently. “Sabotaging the company would only make it more difficult to come up with the money. Whatever is going on within the company probably isn’t connected.”
He understood why she chose to believe the Mafia was behind the kidnapping. For one thing, the threatening letters did seem to point to the crime syndicate. But what if someone inside her company had sent them, pretending to be with the Mafia? He thought she had blinders on when it came to thinking anything bad about the people who worked for her.
“Rachel, hear me out for a minute, okay?” he said, leaning in toward her. “You said the lawsuit was filed last year and that you have already offered a generous settlement, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Was your settlement accepted?”
She flushed and shook her head. “Not yet.”
Interesting. “What if that was essentially the start of this mess? What if all of this—the failed medication, the lawsuit and now the kidnapping were just ways to put you out of business?”
“Who would want to put me out of business?”
“You tell me,” he countered. “Which company is your biggest competition?”
“Global Pharmaceuticals,” she answered automatically.
Global Pharmaceuticals. The same company where Karl Errol used to work. “That’s it! The link we’ve been looking for. Don’t you think it’s possible that Karl Errol, who used to work for Global Pharmaceuticals, is actually doing corporate espionage for them? That he’s sabotaging your company on purpose?”
The dawning horror in her eyes made him feel bad for shattering her trust, but, at the same time, he firmly believed they were finally onto something.