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could possibly be the cause any problem.
    “Apparently this man Rémy has suddenly disappeared. If the leak was through Liam that is the only way it could have happened.”
    She was still looking severe.
    “Isn’t it possible that LyonPharma just accidentally discovered the effect of ultra-violet by accident, the same as you did?”
    She shook her head vigorously. ”Impossible.”
    “In that case,” I went on “Liam is absolutely certain that Rémy was the conduit of the information back to them. He himself has had absolutely no contact with them whatsoever.”
    Helen Mackie lent forward in her chair.
    “Mr. Bruce,” she said “I don’t really care what happened now. There is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
    “A patent is only granted for a product that is new and unique and it’s ‘first come, first served’. LyonPharma has made their application. There is no point in us doing the same now. It wouldn’t be granted and, anyway, I can’t afford the expense of the eighteen months wait as nobody would continue to finance me now.
    “As you can imagine I’m totally sick about the whole business. Fortunately we have two other projects of considerable potential and we are now concentrating our efforts on them. If what you and Liam say is true, then I’m sorry. He is a bright boy and perhaps this will teach him a lesson. In any case there is no way I’m taking him back if that’s what you were hoping.”
    “No. That’s not why I came. In any case Liam feels so bad about it that that he feels he couldn’t come back anyway.”
    “Well that’s all there is to it then, isn’t it?”
    “Not quite,” I replied. “Would you bear with me for just a few more minutes and then I’ll leave you to your work?”
    She looked across at me, glanced at her watch. “Two or three minutes,” she said reluctantly.
    “Mrs. Mackie, I was a financial consultant. I’m not a scientist. So could you just confirm what Liam told me? He said that Bioscope was working on a new improved delivery system for two molecules which, if successful, would be a major breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer’s. The idea was to find a way of fusing together two existing molecule, whose properties are well known, hoping that the new compound would do the job you wanted it to do.”
    “That’s more or less correct. It’s not a very scientific description of years of research but, yes, that’s right.”
    “The properties of the individual molecules are in the public domain and the only problem was finding out how to fuse them together.”
    She nodded her head.
    “LyonPharma was working on the same project.”
    “Correct.”
    “And you both knew how far each of you had got?”
    “We didn’t know precisely how far they had got but we had a pretty good idea. Research chemists meet each other at conferences and they get chatting. Everybody has a pretty good idea what the others are working on. The last I heard was that they were working in more or less the same direction as we had been before we made our accidental discovery.”
    “That was the totally unexpected effect that ultra-violet light had on these molecules?”
    “Yes. LyonPharma could never have worked their way to that. It was so ‘off-piste’ that it’s impossible. As far as I know they were the only other company working on such a project. There must have been a leak through Liam whether we like it or not.”
    I got up ready to go. “Thank you. Once again, I’m very sorry for what has happened but I’m absolutely convinced that Liam was a victim rather than the perpetrator and I’m determined to get to the bottom of it.”
    “Well perhaps he was, but so what?” she said, shaking me by the hand. “There’s no way you’ll be able to prove it. There’s nothing that can be done. They’ve lodged their application for a patent. The authorities are not interested in how the company got their information. Nor would the police be. I know that Dugain – he’s