Harper's Submission [Golden Dolphin 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (17 page)

They finally settled on the Italian café in the village. The girls devoured plates of spaghetti and meatballs, and the adults enjoyed lasagna, eggplant parmesan, and veal parmesan with huge plates of salad, garlic bread, and a carafe of red wine. Everyone was relaxing in the warm ambiance of the café when Melanie gave Harper a speculative look and said, “So, how long have you been dating my brother?”

Harper looked like she had been cornered by a mama bear. She laughed and said, “I don’t know that we’re dating exactly.”

Morgan interrupted quickly. “We certainly are. To answer your question, Mel, a few weeks, but I’ve been trying to get her attention for over a year.” He smiled warmly at Harper, and Melanie could see the affection in his eyes. She could read her baby brother like a book. This was serious, and she was glad for him.

Melanie thought Harper looked astonished and not a little nervous, and she took pity on her. “Don’t look so worried, Harper. I really don’t bite, despite what my dear baby brother might tell you—maybe just snap a little.” She grinned. “I think it’s about time he settled into a good relationship. I would love to see him happy and content.”

“Come on, Mel. Give the girl a break. I don’t think she’s ready for the inquisition.”

Morgan sent the girls off with a pocket full of quarters to play the video games at the back of the room. The adult conversation turned to politics and the judicial system, and that lead to a discussion of the antitrust litigation. Morgan explained what he and Harper were beginning to suspect about the Maxprotem trials, and he told Melanie about the samples Harper had liberated from the lab. Melanie looked at Harper with a new level of respect in her eyes. “I’m impressed. You’ve got some nerves of steel, girl. Congratulations! Let me know what comes of it.”

It was late afternoon before Morgan and Harper had dropped Melanie and the girls off at the barn and headed back to the beach house. He was looking forward to a quiet Saturday evening at home with Harper. He parked the Escalade in the driveway and said, “How about a walk on the beach, and then we can call for Chinese and watch a movie in bed. What do you say?”

“Oh, that sounds great. I haven’t had Chinese food in weeks.”

* * * *

Harmon Burke had almost lost them that morning when he had made an early trip into town to take a bathroom break and get some coffee and bagels to eat in the car. He returned just in time to see the Escalade pull out of the driveway. He had sweated it out all day, hoping they would not spot his tail as he followed them first to the Eastern Shore Research Laboratory, then to the stables, and finally to the little Italian restaurant where they had apparently had lunch with a woman and two little girls who looked an awful lot like Morgan Court. He would have to research Court’s family and find out who they were. God, he was getting tired of energy bars and would love to dive into a plate of meatballs and spaghetti. Although he was glad Court and Cameron weren’t already on their way back to the city, he knew that meant he had to continue to move his car from one sheltered parking spot to another in sight of Court’s beach house while he waited out another uncomfortable night in his car. It was damn cold on the beach after dark, and he couldn’t run the motor all night. He was relieved when the Escalade pulled into the driveway and Morgan and Harper got out of the car and went into the house.

A few minutes later, he was watching the house through binoculars. He saw them go out the back door onto the deck and down the beach stairs to the sand and begin walking down the beach.
This is my chance. Maybe they left the back door unlocked
. Harmon was excited, and his heart was pumping a mile a minute as he slipped out of his car parked in the beach grass and dunes a hundred yards down the road from the house. He jogged up the driveway, walked around the house, and climbed the steps onto the deck. He looked around carefully before he tried the door.
Is this breaking and entering? Well it’s entering, but since the door is unlocked, I don’t think it’s breaking
. He slipped through the door into the spacious kitchen off the deck. He took a quick look around before he headed into the house to look for Court’s bedroom. That was most likely where he would find something.

He was just attempting to open the briefcase he had found on the desk in what was most likely the master bedroom when he heard voices and laughter outside. Court and Cameron were on the walk leading up from the beach and almost to the back door.
Fuck!
He grabbed the briefcase and headed toward the front door. He hoped he would make it outside before they came in through the back. He felt like he was about to have a heart attack. All he needed was for Court to catch him here, stolen briefcase in hand.
Can you spell Attica?
He slipped out the front door as the back door opened into the kitchen.

* * * *

The sun had gone down, and it was almost dark as Harper stamped the sand off her shoes before she came into the kitchen. “Morgan, I’m going to put on a pot of coffee. Or would you prefer a glass of wine?”

Morgan came up behind her and pulled her into his chest before he gave her a loud, exuberant kiss and a tight hug. “Coffee would be great. Put some whiskey in it, or I think I have some Irish Crème in the cabinet.”

“Yum! My favorite. Two Irish whiskies coming up.”

“What do you want me to order from Lotus Blossom?”

“Anything is fine for me, except moo goo gai pan.” She watched as Morgan reached in his pocket for his cell phone.

“I left my phone in the bedroom this morning. I’ll just go get it.”

“Here, use mine.”

“No, that’s okay. I need to check my messages anyway. Besides, I have the number for Lotus Blossom on speed dial. I call them a lot during the summer.”

Harper was smiling at that. Morgan did not strike her as being particularly domesticated. He would have a number of good restaurants on speed dial. He had headed to the bedroom, and soon she heard banging doors and things being moved around. She was just going toward the bedroom when she heard him exclaim, “Damn! Where’s my briefcase? I thought I left it on the desk in here. Do you see it on the kitchen counter?”

Harper raced back to the kitchen and looked around. “Morgan, it’s not in here.”

He came back into the kitchen and just looked at her. “I’m sure I left it in the bedroom.”

“What did you have in it?” She was starting to get worried. He was not the type of man to forget where he left things.

“Just the Maxprotem protocol and reports. Shit! This is not good.”

Harper rushed past him to the bedroom to take a look for herself. She looked in the closet, under the bed, and any other likely place before she said, “I think you’re right. It’s definitely not here.”

* * * *

Morgan looked at Harper with a confused look on his face. “This doesn’t make any sense. The alarm was activated when we left the house this morning.” He stalked out of the bedroom and went to check the doors for signs of forced entry, finding none. He came back into the kitchen mumbling. He dialed the alarm company to see if they had had any indication of an unauthorized entry into the house, but he was advised that they had not had any beeps from his location. They offered to contact the local police and have an officer sent out to the house to take a report.

When the village cruiser pulled into the driveway, Morgan went down the front steps to greet the officer and show him into the house. Harper offered him a cup of coffee, which he gratefully accepted while they told him what they knew. He looked around the house inside and out, and came back with a puzzled look on his face. “Did you go out and leave the doors open or the alarm off?”

“Well, we were out all day, and the alarm was on. We left the house really early and got back about five o’clock. Then we took a walk on the beach…” Morgan looked at Harper. “Did we lock the back door?”

“Morgan, I don’t remember locking it. We weren’t gone long. We just walked down the beach about a half mile and back.”

The officer said, “That’s more than enough time for someone to come in, do a quick scan, boost anything that looks promising, and get out before you got back. Since there’s no sign of forced entry, I’d hazard a guess that’s how they got in…if you’re sure the briefcase is gone. Was it valuable, and did it have anything of importance inside?”

“Yeah, it was an expensive crocodile briefcase I’ve had for about ten years, and there were some confidential scientific reports inside. The monetary loss is small, but the security breach is huge. I’m going to have to contact my security team in the morning.”

* * * *

Harmon Burke almost swallowed his tongue when he saw the village police cruiser pull up in Court’s driveway about fifteen minutes later and an officer exit the vehicle. He shoved the briefcase under the seat and gingerly pulled out of his hidden parking spot.
I have to get out of here.
What if they decided to canvas the area and he was caught with the briefcase? He hadn’t had time to figure out how to open it yet, but he just knew something good was inside—maybe some pictures of that sex stuff like on the boat.
Wouldn’t that be great?
He was torn between keeping up his surveillance after the cop left and beating a path back to the city and his apartment, where he could examine the briefcase in privacy. Finally, curiosity won out, and he headed back to Brooklyn where he had a small walk-up apartment.

* * * *

Harper was worried, and she could see that Morgan was worried as well. She didn’t know if a random burglar would understand the significance of the briefcase’s contents, but she had to wonder why now, of all times, someone would break in and steal just a briefcase if they’d had time to go through the entire house. She had left some gold bracelets and a necklace on the counter in the master bath, and certainly there were other electronics and small items lying about that could be sold.

Harper poured Morgan a cup of coffee, and they both sat down at the granite counter in the kitchen. Harper loved the view of the dunes and the ocean beyond as well as the layout of the kitchen. It had ample glass-fronted cabinets, lots of counter space, and the most updated appliances, including a grill in the center island. Her own town house needed a kitchen redo, and she looked around for ideas. “This is a great kitchen for a guy who nukes and grills.”

“Melanie designed it. She and Nick and the girls use the house a lot in the summer, and she wanted a good kitchen. I thought the one that was here was fine.”

“Well, most women want a nice kitchen. I’m planning to update mine, but I never seem to have the time to devote to such a major project. Morgan, what do you think about this break-in idea? It seems unlikely to me that this was a random event.”

“I have to agree. Industrial espionage is a big problem. A rival company would certainly like to have the Maxprotem protocol and clinical trial data, but I don’t think they would risk getting caught breaking and entering my house just for that.”

“Was there any information in the briefcase about the formula or ingredients or anything like that?”

“No. Proprietary information of that sort never leaves our labs under any circumstances and is under lock and key at all times. This is a multicenter trial, and information on the methodology, organization, and statistical considerations used in putting the trial together might be of some interest to another company, but really, that’s not worth stealing. It’s a double-blind study, and we have a contract research organization, or CRO, administering the trials for phases two, three, and four. They monitor the research sites for compliance with the clinical protocol and provide the data to us. The researchers conducting the study don’t know which subjects are getting placebos and which are getting the drug. Since none of the subjects had any reaction, good or bad, to the treatment they were receiving, I think your idea that none of them are getting the drug is a good one.”

“That means the tampering would have to be at the facility distributing the drugs, right? Do they all come out of one place? I can’t imagine this would be a huge conspiracy involving many people. More than likely, one or two people were paid off to skew your results.”

“Yeah. Eastern Shore Research Laboratory is our CRO and distributes the drugs and placebos to the participants as well as the facilities administering the trials. I think my security guys need to look into the ownership of the lab immediately. There’s nothing I can do about that on Saturday night, so let’s just order dinner and try to relax. We’ll leave tomorrow afternoon so we can be in the office early on Monday morning and see what we can find out.” He picked up his phone and ordered the Chinese food.

* * * *

Morgan’s mind was buzzing, but he tried to put it aside for the moment. He and Harper had one more night at the beach house, and he wanted to make it special. He was planning to drive back to the city on Sunday afternoon. He quickly showered in a spare bathroom, lit the fireplace in his bedroom, and waited for the food to be delivered. After opening the door to the delivery man and tipping him handsomely, he asked, “Hey, Chan, you’re out here driving around all the time. Have you seen anything odd? We think the house was broken into today.”