Page 99 of Deep Blue Sea

‘I thought Rachel had discussed it with you. She needs to know about the new Denver diet pill, Rheladrex.’

They walked out of the hotel on to Madison Avenue and its wall of heat and noise.

‘Yes, she asked me about it. I didn’t know it was urgent, though. What’s so important that you’ve flown to New York to speak to Simon?’

‘I don’t know. Maybe that’s what we’ll find out when we meet him.’

They took a taxi to the Bloomberg building in midtown, where Le Cirque occupied a cavernous space on the ground floor. Adam knew the maître d’, and they were shown to one of the best tables in the house, where he ordered two aperitifs as they waited for Simon Michaels.

Although she had met him before, Diana didn’t recognise Michaels as he approached the table. It was only when he shook hands with Adam and sat down that she realised this was the CEO of Denver Chemicals.

‘Thanks for meeting us at such short notice,’ said Adam, turning on the charm.

‘We were devastated about Julian,’ said Simon, peering through his round wire-framed glasses. ‘I couldn’t be at the funeral, but Dave Donnelly, our VP, said it was very moving.’

They ordered food and made small talk. Simon had come from the Denver Chemicals headquarters, twenty miles away in New Jersey. Business was apparently good. Elizabeth Denver had called him a week earlier to say that a new CEO would be appointed soon and that uncertainty within the company would be kept to a minimum.

Diana had never liked Simon Michaels. He seemed oily and somehow disingenuous, even in the social situations in which she’d encountered him. Maybe it was his eyes, which always seemed to be jumping around, looking for more important people to speak to, or perhaps searching for an escape route.

‘Diana. How are you?’ he said finally. ‘I was worried about you when you called. You sounded terribly serious.’ He tilted his head, which was a trick Diana had seen many senior managers at Denver Group adopt. It implied concern, and yet a slight superiority. She wondered if it was something they taught you at business school.

‘Life isn’t a bed of roses at the moment,’ she said, which made him instantly squirm. She reminded herself that she had a role to play here: the grieving widow, scatty and a bit overwhelmed, which didn’t feel too far from the truth. She wasn’t going to get anything out of him by being combative. ‘I was in town for a charity thing and I thought I’d pop by.’ She smiled warmly. ‘You’ll be aware that Julian left us an interest in the company. I felt I should get up to speed with what it does and who works for us.’

Her message was clear. Julian had put the shares in trust for Charlie, but until he was of age, the voting rights and administration of those shares would fall to Diana. That made her powerful. Theoretically, she could have Simon Michaels fired – and he would know that.

Michaels looked on edge as he gave her a condensed version of what the company was up to.

‘I heard about a new drug that looks promising. Rheladrex,’ she said, sinking her fork into a fillet of monkfish.

Simon nodded. ‘It’s exciting.’

‘Is it safe? We’re not going to have another Fen-Phen on our hands?’

‘Of course not,’ said Simon, looking surprised that she had some knowledge of the business. ‘It’s taken twenty years of testing to get it to market. It’s as safe as any drug can be, and nothing short of a miracle. I believe that Rheladrex can transform the fortunes of the company. I know that Julian was perhaps losing faith in the pharmaceuticals division, but I think Rheladrex will prove otherwise.’

‘I always thought the pharma division was a licence to print money.’

‘We get a bad press,’ he said stiffly. ‘People criticise us for the so-called inflated prices of drugs under patent. But do they realise how much research and development costs? How many drugs don’t make it to market, so they have to be supported by the ones that do? What a small window we have, whilst the drug is still under patent, to make back those costs?’

He twirled the stem of his wine glass between his fingers.

‘I know Julian wanted to sell the division, but with luck, Rheladrex can renew the faith.’ He looked at Adam, trying to win him round to his way of thinking.

‘He wanted to sell the division?’ said Adam, as if he didn’t believe a word of it.

‘You don’t know?’ That small superior tilt of the head again. ‘The pharmaceutical industry, as you may or may not be aware, is going through a period of consolidation. Denver is not a major player. Julian felt that we were better merging with one of the giants.’

‘So you were for sale,’ said Diana.

‘Julian was looking for a strategic alliance.’ Michaels lowered his voice, knowing that there would be people in this restaurant who would relish that piece of information. ‘But I told him he was unwise to start off-loading the company now. If he sat tight, let Rheladrex shift the volume, the valuation, our bonuses, would go stellar.’

After saying goodbye to Simon, Diana and Adam walked on to the street.

‘So was that worth coming all the way to Manhattan for?’ Adam asked, looking around for a taxi.

‘We should have asked him about Madison Kopek,’ she said, feeling unsatisfied. ‘Rachel said that Madison had registered her brother’s death with the FDA. Perhaps she had complained to the drug company too.’

‘Simon is the CEO,’ said Adam patiently. ‘He’s not going to get involved with the detail of every complaint, and even if Madison did complain, what on earth does it prove?’