Necessary Decisions, A Gino Cataldi Mystery by Giacomo Giammatteo

not screw it up,” Scott said.
    “When dealing with drug development, ‘rush it’ and ‘screw it up’ are synonymous.”
    Scott paced. “How certain are we? When will you know?”
    Sanjay spoke up. “It will take a few weeks to verify.”
    Scott sipped his coffee, wrinkled his brow, and stared at Chris. “I thought this was a blind trial. How do we know what the data will show?”
    Chris lowered her head, then spoke in a low tone. “Sanjay…knows someone at the CRO. They called him privately.”
    “So no one knows but us?”
    “That’s right, but we…”
    Scott held up his hand, interrupting her. “All right, listen. This doesn’t go outside this room. And I mean you tell nobody. Not wives or husbands. No one else in the company. Sanjay, keep this to yourself until we verify the data. And make sure everyone understands the importance of keeping it quiet.”
    “Scott, we are required to report this. If the—”
    “Fred, I know you’re CFO, but if you breathe one word of this to anyone , you will no longer be with us. And while we are on that subject, let me remind everyone that if this gets out, our IPO is sunk. Those new houses you dreamed of, the new cars, the vacations all over the world, early retirement…kiss them all goodbye.”
    Chris stood. “I don’t intend to ruin my career—”
    “Whoa!” Scott said. “Listen up, everyone. I am not suggesting we cover this up. If the data confirms what Sanjay suspects, we will report it. I don’t intend to cover up anything. But we can’t afford to let something like this slip out and ruin our position until we know we are wrong. Does everyone understand?”
    Silence greeted him.
    Scott put on one of his big smiles. “Right now we don’t know anything. This was a blind trial. We have no access to the data. How could we know?”
    “But we do know,” Chris said.
    Scott thought for a moment and cast a sideways glance to Sanjay. “Maybe the person who told Sanjay is wrong. Maybe the data is corrupt. A lot of things could be wrong. All I know is we have an IPO coming up, and we need to be prepared for it. Let’s get busy.”
    He waited for objections, but none came. “All right, good.” He raised his voice and put a lot of enthusiasm in it. “Come on, people, we have an IPO to prepare for.”
    An hour later the meeting officially broke up. Scott waited for the others to leave but asked Sanjay to stay. After the room cleared, he turned to Sanjay. “How did this leak?”
    Sanjay didn’t stutter, but his voice was hesitant. “Sir, I warned you about this. You knew.”
    “And I told you to keep it quiet. I said no one could know.” Scott slammed his fist on the table. “If you want your family to ever get over here, you better make sure this stays delayed for a while.”
    Sanjay lost all his former boldness, lowering his voice to a level below meek. “Yes, sir. I will.”

Chapter 11

    Dreams of the Rich
    L onny got dressed, shaved, and made his way to the kitchen. The kids were at the table and Lucia was busy cooking. “Breakfast is going to taste a lot worse this morning,” Lonny said.
    Lucia scraped the eggs onto a big plate then turned to hug him. “Why would breakfast taste worse?”
    “I woke up half a dozen times dreaming about that lottery we didn’t hit.”
    “I could have gotten whatever prom dress I wanted,” Jada said.
    “I was gonna buy a jiu-jitsu school,” Mars said.
    “In the thirty seconds you thought you were rich, you decided on that?” Lonny said.
    “Shame on all of you,” Lucia said as she meted portions of eggs and peppers onto their plates. “Jada, you’ll get the same dress you thought about when we couldn’t afford it.” Spatula in hand, she looked threatening. “Even if we won the lottery, the Lord wouldn’t want us squandering our money.”
    Mars shoveled eggs into his mouth, but he found time to talk between bites. “Don’t worry, Dad. I’ll get my black belt, win some competitions, and make us all