She had a hard time believing health nut Madison had a drug habit. She didn’t even touch alcohol. “Do you know if they did an autopsy?”
“I would assume so.” Pete stopped and his gaze became wary. “Why? I didn’t think you two were friends. She was always such a bitch to you.”
Noelle glanced around to make sure no one was listening. It looked like most of her team was cleaning up and finishing their daily reports in advance of quitting time. She leaned over and dropped her voice. “Don’t you think it’s weird?”
“That a young, intelligent woman blew herself up in a lab?” Pete asked. “Yeah, I do, but she was working with some pretty unstable chemicals, from what I heard. She had ammonium perchlorate in her lab. If she was playing with that while she was high, we’re lucky she didn’t blow the whole floor up.”
That was another mystery. “She was working on a biochem experiment. Why would she have a chemical used as a rocket propellant in her lab? Have we seen her inventories?”
Each lab kept a careful inventory that was tied to the budget system since each lab had a different budget. Madison’s would have been large. Noelle’s wasn’t. Madison had run a lab with ten techs and a medical doctor on staff. Noelle had three techs and Pete. She had to do her own paperwork, for the most part, and there was a ton of paperwork.
They had reports for everything. Shouldn’t there be one for the accident?
“The word is Jessica locked everything down pretty fast,” Pete explained. “Legal was definitely all over the place last week. I know all of Madison’s team spent time with them. Besides a couple of the engineers, the building was empty of regular employees with the exception of legal and Madison’s team.”
“Who cleaned up the lab?”
“She brought in another firm. I was only allowed in to test the remaining equipment and to walk through with a structural engineer to make sure the building is okay and the fire didn’t damage the safety equipment.” A shudder went through him. “I’ll be honest. It was creepy. There was something off about those cleaners. You know most teams that work biohazard are usually jokey. I mean it’s all dark stuff, but they usually talk a lot. These guys said nothing. I mean nothing. They were perfectly silent as they worked. At least they were any time someone from our company entered the room.”
She wanted to know the name of that company. Maybe Hutch was right and she did need to be able to bring him in the building. She hated to admit he was right, but she’d had an awful feeling all day every time she passed Madison’s lab. The area was still locked down. “I know she wasn’t a nice person, but I still have questions.”
Pete sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. “Honey, I’m going to give you some advice. Don’t ask those questions. Forget them and do your work. The woman upstairs doesn’t like to be challenged, and this incident is something she wants us all to forget. I am almost positive it’s because she knows Madison’s parents are going to sue. That’s probably why legal worked so fast to get everyone on the same page. She also wants to keep the press off the story. Right now it was reported as a tragic accident and they’ve moved on. If a reporter looks more closely and suddenly we’ve got stories of drug culture at Genedyne, the investors are going to have questions. She’ll pay off Madison’s parents and move on.”
Or she would drag Madison and her family through lawsuit hell. That was the more likely outcome. She was getting all her ducks in a row and then she would shoot them all in neat order, declare victory, and life would move on at Genedyne.
“And if you get in the way of her plans,” Pete continued, “I worry for you. You’re doing a fantastic job with this project. I’ve worked a lot of these. I think in two years you will have everything you need to prove your thesis and your procedures. You’ll write up your research and you’ll be a rock star in this world. You’ll be able to write your own check wherever you want. Sit tight. Focus on your work and you’ll be out of here in the blink of an eye. Hopefully you’ll take your friend Pete with you.”
It was probably good advice, and she would have to think about it. “Thanks. I’ll get this stuff done and go work out before Hutch picks me up.”
There was a nice gym on the seventh floor, and at this time of day it was quiet. Almost everyone worked out in the mornings. By five o’clock she was left with one or two people sharing the space.