[07] The Grilling Season by Diane Mott Davidson

Author:Diane Mott Davidson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307427854
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1997-08-24T20:00:00+00:00

The article was older than the first, dated in early January.

“Frances,” I asked, perplexed, “why are you showing us this? I don’t know John Richard’s schedule. He goes to these conventions if it means he can ski and whoop it up. The only times I know what he’s up to is when we have to change our visitation arrangements with Arch.”

Airily, Frances waved this off. “Do you know your ex-husband’s relationship with a drug company named Bailey Products?”

“Yes,” interjected Marla, her voice sour. “John Richard travels around, or he used to travel around, touting their product. Something called Biocess. How do you know about it?” When Frances glanced at Chris, Marla pressed, “Do you know what happened to the Biocess endorsement money?”

Frances nodded. “Yeah, I found out from Ralph Shelton, who also used the stuff in his practice. Ralph’s old buddy John Richard Korman pushed Biocess from Portland, Oregon, to Portland, Maine. At least until recently. Check this out.”

I took the article Frances now proffered, and again Marla read over my shoulder. This was from a newspaper in Omaha, and like the first clipping, was also dated May 14. The headline ran: MEDICAL CONFERENCE ATTENDEES WARNED OF ANTIBIOTIC’S POSSIBLY LETHAL SIDE EFFECTS. I skimmed this one, too, which basically said that an HMO executive was warning his colleagues in other HMOs that in the course of their standard audits, his organization had found that Biocess had been linked to one death from liver failure, and several cases of negative side effects, plus higher costs postpartum. I skipped to the end of the article, where a Bailey Products spokesperson said that an Adverse Event Form had been filed with the FDA and that Bailey had put the use of Biocess on hold until they could do more studies of the antibiotic.

“Hmm,” I said noncommittally, and handed the article back to Frances.

She took it and said, “So Biocess, Korman’s much-loved designer antibiotic, was discovered to cause liver damage. And the cornucopia of goodies from Bailey Products available to John Richard Korman was suddenly empty.”

“There’s your answer to what caused that blip in income,” I told Marla.

Frances went on. “Now you two, of all people, should know Korman’s financial situation had become really, really bad. In fact, everything was about to come crashing down on his head. And think how much worse it would become if Suz Craig denied him a big fat bonus. Which she did.”

I said to Chris, “Why did Suz deny the bonus? Why would she?”

“Legitimately?” he asked with a frown. “We send out questionnaires to a sampling of a doctor’s patients. If we get even one serious complaint, the bonus is automatically denied. Or if a doctor refers patients to specialists too much, or if he refers too little, the bonus is denied. If he hasn’t seen enough patients or cut costs over the past year, the bonus is denied.”

“Now that’s what I call both a carrot and a stick,” Marla murmured.

I said, “Look, Frances, we both knew he was having money problems.

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