Under the Microscope Read Online Free PDF Page A

publicity you want. TV appearances, ads, you name it.” She held out the paper bag. “Will you at least hear me out?”
    He looked from the bag to her, and she knew he wasn’t weighing the food bribe. He was trying to decide whether the good of his company outweighed their history.
    As the boss of her own start-up, Raine knewwhat the answer had to be. Practicality would win over emotion every time.
    Otherwise, she wouldn’t be here, would she?
    Finally, he stepped back and muttered, “Come in.”
    The thrill of victory was dampened by the sly shift of heat when she walked past him, the shimmer of awkwardness at being inside his space.
    The discomfort increased when she looked around. The apartment was large and airy, with carved moldings and neutrally painted walls. The hardwood floors were worn but well varnished, stretching from the tiles of an open kitchen nook, through the main living space, and narrowing into a hallway and glimpses of other rooms. She could see the small details of the hand carved woodwork on the trim and doors, mainly because that was almost the only thing to see. The apartment was bare, as though he’d just arrived and the moving vans hadn’t caught up yet.
    Yet downstairs, the label on his mailbox was yellow with age.
    “Nice place,” she said faintly, wanting to ask but knowing she didn’t have the right.
    The living-room furnishings consisted of a smallish plasma-screen TV bolted to one wall and a single faux-leather chair with a trash basket beside it. The TV sat in a square of darker paint, as though it had taken the place of a larger set.
    Max cleared his throat and avoided her eyes. “My roommate moved out and took a bunch of stuff a few months back. I haven’t had a chance to replace the things yet.”
    “I just figured your decorator was a minimalist,” Raine said, trying for a joke when there was no laughter to be had. She held out his dinner. “Are you sharing?”
    He snagged the bag. “Not on your life. Start talking.”
    When he went into the kitchen, she took another look around, wondering what had happened. Was the roommate thing true, or had his furniture been repossessed?
    It struck her then that while Max didn’t know anything about her, the same was equally true in reverse.
    So why did it feel as if they’d known each other so very well?
    He reappeared with a white carton in one hand and a fork in the other. He propped a hip on the corner of a granite countertop and dug in. “Clock’s ticking.”
    She held out the file folder she’d assembled back at the office in New Bridge. “It’s all in here—everything we’ve managed to pull together on the clinical trials and the four dead women. It’s not much, which is why we need a professional. My people are scientists and marketers, not pharmaceutical investigators.”
    Then again, Max had been a scientist when she’d known him. What had changed?
    “Is there anything besides optimism that makes you think your drug wasn’t responsible for the deaths?” he asked, his tone making the question seem like a dig. “I mean, clinical trials usually contain what, a few thousand people? If there’s a rare risk factor, it’s entirely possible that your sample populations might not have contained an example. You might just have missed it.”
    Raine dug her fingernails into her palms, knowing the scenario he painted was one-hundred-percent possible. But that wasn’t the explanation for the deaths. She knew it. She felt it.
    Optimism? Perhaps. But right now it was her only hope.
    “Our clinical trials were exhaustive,” she said, knowing that didn’t really answer his question. “We used computers to test out another million or so models. All negative. Besides, the dead women don’t share any risk factors.”
    “None that you’ve found yet.” He nodded at the file in her hands.
    “Which is why I need your help,” she said quietly, mustering as much dignity as she could. When his expression didn’t change,