an even better thought.
She pictured Zach Thomas’s dark and intense features, a shiver tracing its way across her shoulders at the image. What if the detective was behind both the intrusion into her apartment and the warning from the stranger? What if he’d orchestrated the moves to intimidate her into cooperating?
Her gut told Jess he hadn’t, but there was only one way to find out.
She pulled Detective Thomas’s card from her pocket, read the digits of his phone number, then punched them into her cell.
Thomas’s gruff response suggested he did not appreciate the interruption.
Too bad.
“Detective Thomas?”
“Who is this?”
“Jessica Parker. We need to talk.”
Chapter Three
Zach sat uncomfortably on the edge of Jessica Parker’s sofa, still angered by the woman’s accusations but thankful for the excuse to speak to her again so soon.
She drew in a slow breath, and for a split second worry clearly shone through her controlled features. She squinted, as if his presence made her terribly uncomfortable.
Zach pinned her with a glare. “It’s not every day I get accused of sending some thug to threaten a woman and break into her apartment.”
“I thought you might have done it to get me to cooperate with you. To get me to pull the data.”
Heat fired in Zach’s face, and he knew he was treading a thin line when it came to control. He might be desperate to get to the truth, but even he wouldn’t go so far as intimidation. Would he?
“Lady, I’m a police officer. The last thing I need to do is scare you into believing me. I’ve got the facts on my side.”
She shook her head. “I’m not so sure you do.” Her eyes locked with his, their intensity shaking him to the core. “Your brother’s name is nowhere to be found in any of the records.” She spoke flatly, her gaze never leaving Zach’s. “Could he have lied about his involvement?”
Zach battled to keep his sudden anger and frustration under control. He shook his head. “My brother was not a liar.”
She gave a quick lift and drop of her shoulders.
“What about the earlier study?” he asked.
Hope simmered inside him as she nodded her head.
“Dr. Van Cleef said an earlier trial did take place, but Whitman pulled the drug out of the approval process.”
He arched one brow. So she’d asked. “My information was right, then.”
Jessica shook her head. “There’s no data. No proof of any adverse reactions.”
Zach shoved a hand through his hair. “Why else would they pull the drug?”
“Competition, insufficient market potential—”
“Someone has to know something, remember something,” Zach interrupted, lifting his gaze to hers, momentarily transfixed by her pale blue eyes. He gave himself a mental shake and refocused. “Have any ideas?”
Jessica sucked in a deep breath, then sighed, turning toward her phone. “I do, actually. Scott McLaughlin. I replaced him as lead researcher on HC0815. He left rather abruptly.”
“Any reason why?”
She shook her head as she flipped through a small spiral book. “We were only told he was gone. He had a terrific reputation, though. Let me try him again.”
“You’ve already tried?”
Zach had to silently admit his surprise. So he’d piqued the woman’s curiosity enough that she’d put out feelers to the former lead researcher.
Jessica nodded. “Before I left work.”
“Anyone else you talked to other than McLaughlin and Van Cleef?”
“No one. And I left a vague message for Scott. No specifics.”
Zach listened as she left another message for McLaughlin. The woman appeared calm and collected, but the slight tremor in her hands gave her away.
The man who’d approached her outside had scared her more deeply than she was willing to admit.
Zach had reached her upscale condominium less than thirty minutes after her call. The odd sense of protectiveness that had surged through his every muscle lingered still, unnerving him, something very few things in life did.
He’d examined the lock on her front door and noted no sign of forced entry, yet he believed her story, believed she’d locked up before she’d gone to work that morning.
If nothing else, hers was not the sort of personality that forgot to lock doors. Far from it.
He studied the condo as she continued to speak into the phone, noting the precise order and lean decorations.
No. Jessica Parker was not a woman who would ever leave a door unlocked. If anything, Zach had been surprised she didn’t have better security.
Whoever had gained entrance was a pro. Of that Zach had no doubt.
“That was his cell phone,” Jessica said as she replaced the receiver, then tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “Maybe he’ll pick up that message.”
“And your earlier call?”
“To his home.” Jessica hesitated momentarily. “At least I think so.
He nodded, standing to face her head-on. “Could anyone have overheard you?”
Could they? Jess wondered. It was a definite possibility.
“I suppose.” She gave a quick shrug. “But I didn’t uncover a thing.”
Zach Thomas’s dark gaze grew steely and intense. “Don’t you think that’s enough? The fact you looked—the fact you asked questions—might be enough to put someone on the defensive.”
“Perhaps.” Jessica took her time, choosing her next words carefully.
She’d pulled the online news archives after she’d called the detective. She’d read the stories about Jim Thomas’s mysterious suicide. According to witnesses, he had been depressed, but based on the data back at the lab, HC0815 would have had nothing to do with it.
“You need to prepare yourself for the very real possibility your brother was not a participant,” she continued.
Thomas’s dark brows snapped together just as the phone rang.
Jess snatched it from the receiver, breathing a sigh of relief when Scott McLaughlin’s voice sounded over the line.
“I have a fairly good idea why you called,” he said.
“Really?” Jess answered, a bit taken aback by the matter-of-fact tone of McLaughlin’s statement.
“Did you find the bogus HC0815 data I coded?”
His words stole her breath away. “Bogus?”
The man’s chuckle filtered through the phone. “Maybe altered is a better term.”
Silence beat between them.
“Look, I thought I’d be able to sleep at night after I quit. I was wrong. I need to come clean, Jess. Any interest in hearing what I have to say?”
Her heart slapped against her ribs, and she nodded, as if Scott could see the move.
“You alone in this?” Scott asked, not waiting for her answer to his previous question.
Jess stared at Detective Thomas, wondering what Scott’s reaction would be to his involvement. “There’s a detective.