Camino Winds (Camino Island #2) - John Grisham Page 0,91

in which he talked about his work and his research into shady conspiracies and such. I reached out, we met, hit it off in a fine way, and began a relationship.”

“Go, Nelson,” Bruce said.

“Come on, Bruce,” Noelle scolded.

“It’s okay,” Dane said. “We were very fond of each other. And, I feel responsible for his death. If he hadn’t met me he would still be alive.”

“We’re leaving out entire chapters here,” Bruce said. There was a knock on the door and Bruce opened it. A porter set the coffee service on the table, and Bruce signed the check. Noelle poured as Bruce locked the door.

They fiddled with their sugar and cream for a while. Dane said, “A question. Can the novel be stopped?”

“No way,” Bruce said. “That’s where they screwed up. They didn’t know that Nelson was finished with it when they took him out. I’ve sold the book and it’s coming next year. In a big way. If we can prove he was murdered because of it, they won’t be able to print ’em fast enough. A question for you. How did they know about Nelson and his research?”

“He went to China and found the lab. I told him not to go, just as I told him not to dig too deep. Just take the story, fictionalize like crazy, and write a novel. That wasn’t good enough for Nelson. He wanted to know all the dirt. Somehow, somewhere in the underworld, word got out that Nelson Kerr, a bestselling author, was writing about a nursing home company and its mysterious drug.”

“Was the Chinese lab involved in his death?”

“I doubt it. It’s a huge pharmaceutical over there that makes all manner of illegal and semi-legal drugs. They don’t care and they’re immune from prosecution and liability. They make fentanyl, even meth. How much do you know about the drug?”

With a bit of showmanship, Bruce pulled a small plastic bag out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. Inside were three clear capsules filled with a brown substance. “There is the mysterious vitamin E3. Guaranteed to keep you ticking even though you can’t see a damned thing and you’re puking up your guts.”

Dane’s jaw dropped as she gawked at the pills in disbelief. They watched her as she tried gamely to be stoic while her mind went crazy. She breathed deeply and said, “I’ve never seen the drug. How on earth did you get it?”

“It’s a long story that we don’t need to discuss. But, Grattin has three hundred facilities in fifteen states, so there’s a lot of this stuff in the pipeline and in play. It wasn’t that difficult to lift a few capsules.”

“How’d you know about the side effects?”

“We ran it through some high-end labs where it was finally identified as Flaxacill. We’ve done some work, Dane.”

“Indeed you have. Was this by chance found in Flora, Kentucky?”

“It was. By Brittany, who is no longer with us. You feel responsible for Nelson’s death. We feel responsible for Brittany’s.”

“Don’t. Brittany was killed by the same people who took care of Nelson.”

“The boys at Grattin?”

“Yes. I wasn’t in the room, but I’d bet that when Ken Reed and his circle found out that a ten-dollar-an-hour orderly in Flora, Kentucky, had lifted a bottle of E3, they went into a panic.”

“These guys kill all the time?” Noelle asked.

Dane tried to relax with a sip of coffee. She gently set down her cup and took two deep breaths. “These guys, and there are four of them, began as decent men. The money ruined them. They started making millions and figured out ways to make millions more. They provide substandard care at expensive rates, courtesy of the taxpayers. If there’s a way to screw Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Ag, Defense, pick another one, then these guys know how to do it. Have they killed before? Probably, but nothing has ever been proved. Roughly ten years ago a federal meat inspector

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