He knew the very second their eyes locked that she desired him. And that she was his type, the adventurous one. No, they had never met before, never knew of each other’s existence until now. He crossed the whole length of the sprawling lobby, looking at her, smiling his mischievous smile. She took it all in shamelessly imagining what lies beneath his well-tailored shirt.
‘Shall we?’, he said.
‘Sure’, she replied swinging her laptop into its bag and got up to led the way.
Her room, then. By leading, she had decided. Words were redundant when intention spoke louder.
She slid the card to light the room, dropped the bag on the floor but refused to let go of his lips that had stayed on hers from the time they alighted from the lift. His hands were where she wanted them to be feeling her up. She held him against the wall with her body while her hands searched for his zipper.
She knelt.
His moans egged her on.
He pulled her up, cleverly, not wanting to end too soon. His wet tongue played with her earlobes while his fingers efficiently unclasped her brassiere. She gasped in anticipation as his hands searched for more. Each clothing was discarded hurriedly.
They collapsed on the bed, she on top, when he let out a cry.
She unrolled away to find him clutching his chest, face contorted in pain. She ran to the bathroom and returned with a glass of water.
There he was! A stranger, in her bed, naked, dead.
Oh God, did he have a reaction to the patch?
When Nyra had climbed atop him, she had stuck the patch on his chest. It was one of the trudenafil drug samples which she had stolen from her ex-husband’s employee. The patch guaranteed heightened pleasure for both partners, by causing a multiple orgasmic state. She had originally intended to sell both the samples; but she got curious.
Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!!
Her weakness for men was the bane of her existence…
She had thought, this drug was her ticket to Moolah…but this was a disaster.
She panicked solidly for the first ten minutes.
Gradually, she returned to her cool, logical, scheming self.
It struck her; the room was not booked in her name….
Maybe she could put this casualty to a good use…She got thinking…
The hotel reception was a busy area. The harried staff had handed her card over with a cursory glance. The hotel had a reputation for being discrete and did not have cameras in the lobby. So, it was safe to assume no one remembered her.
She removed the patch from the body’s chest. Pocketed it carefully. Next, she went through his belongings. His iPhone and his cards. She kept them for later use. She wiped off her fingerprints from the bed, the glass, the door knob. She wiped him clean using a moist towel.
Next, she called John Digden. “Meet me at La’ Corsa in thirty minutes.”
She dressed and quietly left the room using the fire exit stairs.
Sitting in the taxi, she mentally went through the events of last two days.
*********
The previous night,
John was snorting away in the bathroom, as usual. This was the second time he was not able to satisfy her in bed….it had pissed her off…Well, maybe she could have fun at his expense…she approached his safe…She found his official laptop and Arrom’s Credit card. She booked online, a room in Hotel Suez. The hotel was known for “Happy Ending Massages…”
She smiled as she entered Arrom’s Credit Card number.
Arrom Jocob, her ex-husband was a pharma giant. He had no time for running his errands. He had a credit card for his minor expenses which he kept with his army of PAs. Post-divorce, she had seduced one of them. John Digden was her toyboy.
As she was putting the card back in the safe, she chanced upon two drug patches and some notes…. As she read the notes, she knew, she had hit a jackpot….
Her thoughts were interrupted as the taxi reached its destination….
********
He was waiting for her…
“Here, this is a dead guys iPhone and Visiting Cards. You are to plan it in Arrom’s study!!”
“Wait…what? Are you high? What dead guy?…”
“Long story….”
He turned to leave shaking his head in disbelief.
“Who will fund your cocaine addiction if you don’t work for me?”
That stopped him…His current salary could not support his coke addiction. Nyra brought his stash every week.
“That’s like it… Now listen up…last night when you were snorting in the bathroom, I used Arrom’s credit card in your possession and your official laptop and booked a room for myself.”
“Do you realise what you have done? Arrom will kill me.”
“Yeah, about the killing…. The guy I was with, dropped dead when I used the Trudenafil patch!!”
“Wh-what?” He stammered…” The formulation is top secret. Where did you even find it?”
“In your house… with the notes darling!! Never use your birth date as your password!! What were you thinking keeping those in your safe? Planning to sell it off to a rival company for a hefty profit, weren’t you?”
“Tho-those samples were defective. I was supposed to incinerate those two samples.”
“But you did not!! You kept them. One anonymous mail to Arrom and he will kill you.”
He held his head in his hands.
“His prenuptial ensured I was not spared a penny in divorce. I want to ruin him. Destroy his public image. Meanwhile we approach the rival company and sell his drug while Arrom is distracted. Imagine the amount of coke you can buy with your share…”
I don’t have keys to his private study…”
“I do, had them duplicated long back when Arrom and I still shared a home. Plant the evidence tonight”
****************
Dr Arrom Jacob was having a lousy morning. The FDA officials wanted more safety data before Trudenafil was cleared for Clinical trials. Idiots did not realise his billions were stuck in the drug. If another company launched a similar molecule, his entire research would go to dogs. In addition, his current formulation was deemed defective. They wanted him to modify his drug manufacturing methods. He did not have that kind of time.
His phone trilled. It was his butler.
“Two police officers are waiting in the hall.”
This was going from bad to worse.
“Mr Arrom Jacob, a dead body of Mr. Stanley Porter was found in Room 901 of Hotel Suez, yesterday night. The room was booked in your name. Where were you yesterday night after 8 pm?”
“I…I was in my office.
“Any alibi?”
“I refrain from commenting without my lawyer.”
“We have a search warrant for your office and residence. You may have to accompany us for questioning.”
“Cynthia, we have a problem.” He called his mistress, Cynthia Stone, the city’s topmost criminal lawyer.
*******
Police Station
Arrom was distraught.
“It’s like a wrath of gods. They found a dead body in a room booked in my name. His mobile and visiting cards were recovered in my study. I have never seen the guy before. In addition, my millions are stuck in the drug FDA is not happy with!!
“Arrom, where were you yesterday night? Your phone was unreachable.” Cynthia calmly asked.
“I was with John Digden, my PA and research team in the lab. We were…. tweaking the drug literature to suit the FDA safety standards.”
“I need a list of people with access to your credit card and official laptop.”
“You will find their details at my office.”
“When did you last use your study? Who has the keys?
“Only I have the access to the study keys. How could anyone plant the cards and the phone?”
“I need to make a few enquiries.” Cynthia left.
********
“I had your staff phone and mobile call list subpoenaed, Arrom. There are calls made to and fro to Nyra Adams, your ex-wife by Mr John Digden. I also made some discrete enquiries in the neighborhood. Nyra visited John often. They had a thing going on. My guess is that Nyra may gotten the duplicates made when you guys were married. She may have passed those on to him. John has not reported to work for the last two days. We need to find him first!!”
“Well, we are in luck there.” Arrom smiled for the first time in days… All my employee visiting cards have a trackable chip. The tracker device is in my study. My butler can guide you.”
In two hours, John was tracked in a rundown hotel, snorting coke. He confessed Nyra’s plan and about the Trudenafil sample in her possession.
Arrom listened to the new development with growing dread.
“Cynthia, the formulation is defective, but if it lands with a rival company, they can still decipher its chemical constitution and manufacture a similar molecule. I will be doomed. John incinerated the samples in my presence. How did he manage to take them from the lab?”
“He had disconnected the incinerator fuse on when you were on phone with the FDA official. The machine did not destroy the drug when you placed the formulation inside. He retrieved it, later while you were distracted with FDA’s warning. He has given a full confession. It seems Nyra stole it from him. Unfortunately, we have no whereabouts of Nyra currently.”
“I have a plan to lure Nyra in a trap…Anything else I should know Cynthia?”
“The post mortem results for Stanley Porter state the cause of death as arrhythmia… It seems he had congenitally weak heart. Some unidentified chemical was found in his blood which may have triggered his heart to malfunction. I need a sample of Trudenafil to run it against the unknown chemical.”
“Alright…”
*****
Nyra waited in the hotel lobby of Hotel Mercure. The plan had worked. Arrom was in for questioning. John was absconding…It worried her a little but she would deal with that later…
She had a few contacts in a Hungarian Pharma. She was meeting the research head today. She was going to ask for ten billion dollars for the patch.
“Mrs Nyra Jacob?” A tall, dark Hungarian greeted her. “Bens Alek, Head of Research, Sentinel Pharma.”
She carefully checked his ID. Satisfied, she handed over a copy of notes for Trudenafil.
He browsed through and gave her a piercing look.
He opened a suitcase full of cash. The amount was mentioned on top.
Nyra’s eyes widened. This was more than what she expected.
Greed overrode caution.
“I can get the sample by tomorrow.” She purred.
“Sorry. Need it now. Or deal cancelled.”
“I can make your wait worthwhile…” Nyra moved the tip of her tongue along her lips.”
He smirked and snapped the bag shut. He turned to leave.
“Wait… Here is the sample. These are the original research notes. The formulation guarantees Sexual Nirvana in bed. It will set the beds and your company sales on fire.”
“But this is just one sample. News around is that two samples from Arrom labs have gone missing. We don’t want the other sample to land up in another company’s coffers.”
“You need not bother. I have used the other sample personally. Here, this is the used patch with label and drug codes. I have preserved it in the case of such a query.”
The police surrounded her.
“Hold your hands where we see them. This is NYPD!!”
Cynthia had accompanied them.
“Inspector, Ms Nyra Adams just produced the Trudenafil patch she used on a person. I am sure it has skin cells sticking to it which can be matched with Mr Stanley’s DNA. Mr Stanley’s blood already shows Trudenafil residue. I am sure if you confiscate her phone, the locations tracked by google on her iPhone and Mr. Stanley’s will be identical right up to the hotel room at the given time.”
“Mrs Nyra Adams, you are summoned for questioning regarding evidence tampering, misleading the police investigations, credit card theft and corporate espionage.”
**********
Nyra was found dead in her custodial cell the next day. Her death is under investigation.
John Digden was admitted in rehabilitation. A week later, he was found dead of cocaine overdose.
Trudenafil is currently in Phase I Clinical Trial patented by Arrom Pharma.
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