company’s market value as low as possible. But that wasn’t Karl’s strategy. He’s been trying to push the stock price up to convince the shareholders that he would do a good job running the company without Gunnar. Besides, reducing or increasing their profits by this much wouldn’t move their stock price at all. Three or four million per year isn’t a lot of money to a company like Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals.”
“But it certainly could be a lot of money to a person like Karl Bjornsen, don’t you think?”
“Maybe,” conceded Noelle, “though he and Gwen seem pretty well-off already. Are you thinking of—well, what are you thinking of doing?”
“Sounds like Karl has had his hand in the company till. That should go in Gunnar’s cross-claim.”
“Don’t you think you should have Sergei look into it first?”
“Not a bad idea.”
“How long do you think that will take?”
Ben grinned. “How long would you like it to take?”
“I’ve got a meeting of the special-exhibits support committee next Monday, and Gwen will be there. It would be great if you didn’t accuse her husband of embezzlement before then.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Kim was enjoying her summer job. She arrived at Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals every morning at eight and put on a lab coat with “Kim L. Young, Medical Intern” embroidered on the left breast pocket. For some reason, the lab coat did more to make her feel like a real researcher than the actual work she was doing. She went to the bathroom at every opportunity during her first few days so she would have an excuse to look in the mirror and see a scientist looking back at her. She had dyed her hair back to its original glossy black and pulled it into a serious-looking ponytail. That, combined with the crisp new lab coat, made her look nothing like the fun-loving sorority girl she had been just a few weeks ago. She could see the future Dr. Young in her reflection, and she liked it.
She spent most of her days in a big room lined from ceiling to floor with animal cages. On one wall were large cages that held two or three monkeys each. The cages on the other side of the room were smaller and held only one monkey each. A lab table with various instruments and documents ran down the middle of the room.
Half of the monkeys were receiving a new drug the company was developing, and the other half were the control group. The control-group monkeys were in the multi-animal cages, while the monkeys receiving the drug were in the single cages. Ideally, all of the monkeys would have had their own cages, but doubling up the control-group animals saved money. Besides, the monkeys seemed to like it.
Each morning, Kim and one of the researchers visited the primate room to feed the animals, clean their cages, collect urine and feces samples, give them their morning dose of the drug, check whether any of them was showing adverse effects, and so on. From the hallway, Kim could hear the monkeys chattering to each other, but when she opened the door they would invariably turn up the volume, breaking into a chorus of hoots and screeches and rattling their cages. This had unnerved her at first, but soon she discovered that they were trying to get the attention of her companion, a friendly, talkative young woman appropriately named Dr. Kathy Chatterton. Dr. Chatterton was a pretty blonde in her early thirties. Like Kim, she had grown up in Southern California and had gone to a big SoCal university—graduating from USC, the crosstown rival of Kim’s UCLA. The two women immediately liked each other, and Kim thought happily that she had found her mentor for the summer.
In her pockets Dr. Chatterton carried mini marshmallows, which she distributed as rewards to animals that behaved themselves while she checked their cages. She’d confided to Kim that Dr. Gene Kleinbaum—head of animal studies at Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals—would probably blow a gasket if he knew the monkeys were getting
“But it certainly could be a lot of money to a person like Karl Bjornsen, don’t you think?”
“Maybe,” conceded Noelle, “though he and Gwen seem pretty well-off already. Are you thinking of—well, what are you thinking of doing?”
“Sounds like Karl has had his hand in the company till. That should go in Gunnar’s cross-claim.”
“Don’t you think you should have Sergei look into it first?”
“Not a bad idea.”
“How long do you think that will take?”
Ben grinned. “How long would you like it to take?”
“I’ve got a meeting of the special-exhibits support committee next Monday, and Gwen will be there. It would be great if you didn’t accuse her husband of embezzlement before then.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Kim was enjoying her summer job. She arrived at Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals every morning at eight and put on a lab coat with “Kim L. Young, Medical Intern” embroidered on the left breast pocket. For some reason, the lab coat did more to make her feel like a real researcher than the actual work she was doing. She went to the bathroom at every opportunity during her first few days so she would have an excuse to look in the mirror and see a scientist looking back at her. She had dyed her hair back to its original glossy black and pulled it into a serious-looking ponytail. That, combined with the crisp new lab coat, made her look nothing like the fun-loving sorority girl she had been just a few weeks ago. She could see the future Dr. Young in her reflection, and she liked it.
She spent most of her days in a big room lined from ceiling to floor with animal cages. On one wall were large cages that held two or three monkeys each. The cages on the other side of the room were smaller and held only one monkey each. A lab table with various instruments and documents ran down the middle of the room.
Half of the monkeys were receiving a new drug the company was developing, and the other half were the control group. The control-group monkeys were in the multi-animal cages, while the monkeys receiving the drug were in the single cages. Ideally, all of the monkeys would have had their own cages, but doubling up the control-group animals saved money. Besides, the monkeys seemed to like it.
Each morning, Kim and one of the researchers visited the primate room to feed the animals, clean their cages, collect urine and feces samples, give them their morning dose of the drug, check whether any of them was showing adverse effects, and so on. From the hallway, Kim could hear the monkeys chattering to each other, but when she opened the door they would invariably turn up the volume, breaking into a chorus of hoots and screeches and rattling their cages. This had unnerved her at first, but soon she discovered that they were trying to get the attention of her companion, a friendly, talkative young woman appropriately named Dr. Kathy Chatterton. Dr. Chatterton was a pretty blonde in her early thirties. Like Kim, she had grown up in Southern California and had gone to a big SoCal university—graduating from USC, the crosstown rival of Kim’s UCLA. The two women immediately liked each other, and Kim thought happily that she had found her mentor for the summer.
In her pockets Dr. Chatterton carried mini marshmallows, which she distributed as rewards to animals that behaved themselves while she checked their cages. She’d confided to Kim that Dr. Gene Kleinbaum—head of animal studies at Bjornsen Pharmaceuticals—would probably blow a gasket if he knew the monkeys were getting
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