Beach Thriller(82)
Gail was terminally perky, so seeing a shadow cross her face was unusual.
“Oh, Elizabeth. Yeah, Conrad’s ex … there was some shit there.” She returned to her reading.
Holly’s worry for Jade deepened.
Gail kept talking with her nose in the book. “She worked for Ward Pharmaceuticals way back when—she was a lawyer, pretty high up in Daddy’s company. Not saying it was nepotism.” Gail turned to Holly and mouthed, It was nepotism, which made Holly smile.
“According to what you told me, it was also incestuous,” Holly said, cringing.
The gossip lit Gail’s eyes. “Mother-in-law becomes the stepmother. Oh yeah, that was the town talk for ages, but then came the even bigger scandal—I mentioned that when we were talking about the Carmichaels with Ethan, but we never got to finish the conversation.”
“What was the big scandal?”
“Lypotrel,” said Gail, as if Holly should know.
Holly’s skin tingled. A quiet alarm went off inside her. “Lypotrel? That was the name on the missing prescription bottle in the evidence box.”
“Interesting, but not entirely surprising. A lot of Maeve’s money came from the Ward family and that drug specifically. I was actually working for Baxter Ward when the shit hit the fan.”
“Wait, you worked for Ward Pharmaceuticals?”
Gail brushed it off. “I did some real estate deals for the company back in the day—found them a commercial plot, twenty thousand square feet of glorious commission.” She grinned like a fisherman nostalgic for a big catch. “That’s what initially brought me to Beauport. After scoping out properties for Baxter, I fell in love with the area and stayed. But they stopped looking for real estate when the company found itself plastered all over the news, and not for a good reason, so I started my own business. Funny how fate works.”
But none of this was funny to Holly. She had no clue about the Lypotrel scandal. She hadn’t realized there was more to know other than it was a weight-loss drug.
“So how did Lypotrel get them into trouble?”
Gail went stock-still. “It was a great drug—you dropped tons of weight on it, and it was really popular for a while. The problem was that some people thought more pills would mean more weight loss. Instead, it got you sent to the morgue. A high dose of that stuff was genuinely lethal. Ward Pharmaceuticals insisted the drug had passed all the FDA requirements, but an independent investigation brought on by a lawsuit revealed those documents had been tampered with.”
“Tampered with?” Holly was appalled. “Someone knowingly put people’s lives at risk?”
“Not just someone—Elizabeth Ward. She was working in the legal department at the time, so she had access to all the materials. She doctored the research and made the drug seem far safer than it was to get FDA approval, all while keeping Daddy in the dark.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that story now. It was years ago,” Holly said. “But I didn’t pay much attention—and I certainly didn’t realize it was connected to the Carmichael family. What happened to Elizabeth and the company?”
“Ward Pharma did all right. Baxter paid some hefty fines, but he could afford it—especially since they found Elizabeth was largely to blame, and she was fired. There was a plea bargain. Somehow she avoided jail time. It pays to be rich. But she faced her own punishment. According to the Beauport gossip mill, she had a mental breakdown from all the stress. She ended up hospitalized. I’m not sure what happened to her after that. I think she took off on Conrad and her father. Pretty sad story overall.”
Holly felt her phone vibrate. Was it Jade finally texting back?
She looked—it wasn’t Jade. It was Ethan.
Hope you’re feeling better. And I have some explaining to do. Can we talk?
Usually, Holly’s heart would skip a beat at a message from Ethan. But right now, all she felt was a deep, pervasive sense of dread.
Chapter 45
The Watcher
You’ve really escalated things, Holly. But I knew that would happen. You lit the fire under the pot, and it’s boiling over. Someone was bound to get hurt, but did you think they’d end up dead? What was that like for you, seeing Allen Spellman splattered all over his desk? I can only imagine the shock you experienced. Death is ugly business, at least until the mortician gets involved and pretties everything up. But nobody was there to close Allen’s eyes or repair the hole in his head. You had to see the entire bloody aftermath unfiltered, in its most raw and visceral form.
Trust me when I say you’ll never dream the same way again. Instead of your refuge, sleep will become your battlefield. I’ve personally seen things, done things that I can never forget, let alone forgive.
Sadly, I’m more afraid of living than I am of dying. But that’s the crazy thing about life—it can beat you up, tear you apart; it can take and take until you’re nothing but an empty shell, until all you have left to carry you from one moment to the next is the air in your lungs. Yet it’s so hard to let go.
Even with all my pain, my suffering, the hurt I’ve caused, all the terrible things I’ve done, I still sprout from the soil like a lone blade of grass in a desecrated field, hoping for redemption. But there’s also the monster within. I often wonder if I’ll ever be free of myself. Perhaps death won’t even provide that release. So for now I’m here, and I fight, and I will continue to do all I can to protect myself, whether I deserve it or not.