Patrick laughed without humor. He looked at Bridget one more time. “Don’t worry, I’ll be talking to Lisbeth.”
“As will I,” I said.
He turned to leave, walking with a swagger that made my blood boil. Bridget and I watched in silence as he slammed his way out of the lab.
I turned back to her. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the lab door, but she didn’t seem as upset as the last time Patrick had yelled at her. “Are you alright?”
She gave me a rueful smile. “Why? Because he called me a cunt? I’ve heard worse.” The bravado in her voice seemedforced. “How long do you think until we get escorted from the building?”
“He won’t fire us. Lisbeth won’t let him, not without proof you did anything wrong.” I had no idea if that was true.
“Hm. I guess,” she said. “I’m going to gather evidence while I can.”
Patrick didn’t fire us. Lisbeth said she had “talked him down” for the time being.
“But if I find out you had something to do with Andrew St. James dropping out of this study, I will make sure you never get another job in research. Ever,” she said to Bridget. We were in the prep lab while Anvi fed the cells in the cleanroom. To Bridget’s credit, she kept her face a mask of innocent compliance.
“And Dr. Davis’ harassment?” I asked.
Lisbeth sighed. “I don’t like him much either, but he’s the one we have to please. Keep out of his way; keep your head down. That’s the best I can do.”
I met Bridget’s eyes, and she shook her head infinitesimally. I agreed. We couldn’t trust Lisbeth with the allegations of him taking payments if she wouldn’t protect Bridget from out-and-out harassment.
“I’ll stay off his radar,” Bridget said.
Lisbeth gave her a patronizing smile. “Thank you, Bridget. Now can we please get back to work?”
When she left, Bridget turned to me and hissed, “We need to get proof. Like, now.”
“How?” I asked, exasperated.
Bridget thought for a moment. “What if we reach out to the other subjects and ask them if they’re paying, too? Anonymously, of course.”
“That might work,” I said. I had seen the informed consent paperwork in Lisbeth’s office, which had the contact information for each participant. “Do you think… Andrew would be willing to speak to the IRB, too?”
Bridget’s cheeks flushed. “Yes. I think so.”
“Once we do this, there’s no going back.”
“I know. But you know it’s the right thing to do.”
As we made a whispered plan to get the participants’ email addresses, I added Bridget’s moral sensibility to the list of reasons I would never, ever get over her.
Chapter 15 - Bridget
As soon as I got home from work, I used the same fake email to contact the other subjects that I’d used to fill out the Axion Biostorage website form. It seemed efficient.
After I sent the email, I sat in front of my laptop, my heart in my throat, expecting the incriminating responses to come rolling in at any moment.
My phone chimed.Anything yet?Nathan texted me. I ignored the little flutter in my chest that we were now on texting terms. I reminded myself we were coworkers and, now, co-investigators. Nothing more.
Not yet, I replied.
But a moment later my computer pinged. A subject, Julie Schmidt, had emailed back.
“I haven’t paid for my treatment. How much do I owe?”
I swallowed my annoyance. One negative response meant nothing.
