Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC's - who are everyone but Ross, Rogers, Logan, Eames and of course...Goren. I also would like to give the writers of Law & Order:CI a personal shout out. "I LOVE YOU!" If it weren't for the writers I'd have nothing to obsess over...and no really great show to watch on tv...
"Here's the list of all known areas in the state of New York that might have access to Hemlock or could harvest it." Eames put the sheet in front of her partner.
"It's a big list." He said, surprised.
"Yeah, Rogers said she came across some skin care products which try to use it to cleanse and numb the skin…like Botox does."
Goren shook his head. "People poisoning themselves…I'll never get that." He skimmed the page and stopped at one company's name. "What's this place?"
"Oh it's a clothing manufacturer…so is this one here." She pointed to another name on the list.
"Clothing? I heard of hemp…but Hemlock?" Goren got to his feet and grabbed his jacket. They left to start their search for the source of the toxin, which they hoped, led a trail straight to Nicole.
There were about 12 different places on the list, and so far, about 2 which seemed good possibilities for sites that the Hemlock was taken from. However, they needed to cover all of their bases so they kept looking. One of the places that captured Goren's attention was the lingerie factory.
The Hemlock was apparently an ingredient in which was used to make the material in the lingerie softer. At least, they were supposed to do that.
The factory was massive. Goren had no idea before how complicated the process to make a simple bra was; not to mention the more upscale undergarments. They were given a little tour of the building and shown just how the Hemlock was being processed. It was in a locked area, with a safety inspector and a chemist hard at work. A security guard was on call on that floor at all times.
Goren ran his fingers along the cup of a red bra and compared it to the standard white bra. According to Lilah, the assistant manager, the red one was softer. Nevertheless, after playing with some of the sample bras, he didn't notice any difference. He grabbed a couple of the other ones on display and ran his hand over the materials. "You pay extra…for this?"
"It's better quality than most out there." Lilah stated.
Goren tilted his head at it. "Doesn't seem like it. Eames, would you pay for this?"
"Would I pay good money to wrap myself in poison? I think I'm going to have to say no."
Lilah tapped her foot on the ground impatiently. They were testing her nerve. It was after all, one of her ideas to use the product in the first place. She got frustrated with Goren and snatched up all the bras.
Goren frowned. Eames simply smirked at him and moved on.
They came to a room where a woman was modelling the lingerie for a couple of the business men who were having a discussion about the material. Eames was a little irritated that the model had to keep prancing about in her stiletto heels, half naked, in the drafty building.
The detectives hung back with Lilah, waiting until they were able to speak to the Head of Operations, Simon Sanford.
Simon waved his hand. "Portia."
The model stopped, and tried to remain still. The men talked some more.
Eames sighed, uncomfortably, noticing even from their distance, that the model had some goose bumps on her skin.
Goren was also irritated. He went up to the model, took his jacket off, and draped it over her shoulders.
She looked at him surprised before smiling gratefully.
Goren blinked, realizing the model that was the eye candy to the businessmen couldn't have been more than 16. It lowered his opinion of the businessmen. "Mr. Sanford, are you almost finished?" They had been there an hour and he still hadn't made time to talk to them yet.
He glanced to his business associate, who nodded. They shook hands and the other man left the room.
Simon Sanford turned his full attention to Goren. "Yes detective, did you see what you needed of the factory?"
Goren nodded, kneading his hands. "It's quite…large. H-how did you come up with the idea of using Hemlock?"
"Oh that was Lilah here. She suggested it. I had a scientist look into it and they saw no reason we couldn't use that to create our latest design."
"And has there been any of the product missing or has anyone stolen any Hemlock from your supplies?"
"No. Everything's kept under lock and key. Just myself and Jonah…the chemist, have the security code to get into the supply room where the Hemlock is kept and we do inventory. None's missing."
"You mind if we take a look at the inventory?"
"No go ahead. Lilah?"
She went up to them. "I took the liberty of fetching it already." She gave the detectives the inventory lists for the past few months.
"Good job Lilah…way to think ahead." Simon smiled cheerfully, encouraging her.
Mr. Sanford's attitude seemed to change as soon as Lilah neared him. It was as if he was more considerate to those around him. It was obvious to both detectives he was probably sleeping with her.
The new line of lingerie seemed to be what was running the factory. The other styles and designs were put on the back burner to free up more workers to get the new line completed. Goren wondered what the big deal was about those particular bras were. Why would any woman pay $200 for 1 single bra? They'd have to be insane…not to mention suicidal. So far, this company sounded rather ludicrous. Who would shell out that much for a bra instead of buying a few good ones that didn't have a risk of absorbing poison into the skin?
He didn't care what he was told about safety levels of the material. If it looked, smelled, and seemed like a terrible idea, then it was.
They came to a cosmetic company that also had dermatologists on site. The detectives were shown to Dr. Bennett who was also a co-owner of the company. It was clear after a few minutes of talking with him that Dr. Bennett didn't pay much attention to what was going on in the company around him.
Goren bent over and squinted. "I still don't see the wrinkles." His face was a mere two inches from the 32 year old Asian beauty who currently wondered if the detective was nuts.
"Anyone can see the wrinkles…here and here." The dermatologist motioned to a few spots on her face. He refused to talk to the detectives in his busy schedule so Goren was demanding his attention by directly interfering. It worked.
"Those are laugh lines, and they're supposed to be there. They're not wrinkles."
The plastic surgeon glared at him. Eames struggled not to laugh. "You're mistaken detective…" He turned to the woman. "And this new cream will make those wrinkles disappear."
Goren took the jar of cream from her and read out the ingredients. "Propylene glycol…benzoyl peroxide…panthenol, allantoin, simethicone, Resorcinol-" The dermatologist swiped the jar from him.
Goren motioned to it. "Did I see on there the side effects are rashes…peeling, and scarring?"
The dermatologist bit the inside of his cheek and glared at Goren like he wanted to deck him.
"Well she deserves to know the truth before she slathers on a…a poison that will leave her looking like a…flaking old hag."
"Um…maybe I'll come back later." The woman got to her feet and hurried off.
"It's quite safe!" The dermatologist called after her before turning on Goren, irritated. "That was not necessary."
"Now that we have your full attention." He took out a picture of Nicole. "Have you seen this woman?"
"No." He said quickly, not really looking at it.
"Look again." Eames told him.
He sighed and studied the picture. "No but she could use some of this." He put the jar on the table.
Goren raised his eyebrows and shook his head, surprised. 'No wonder there's a lot of women worried about aging…with pricks like this guy around…' "We were told you make some of this cream on-site?"
"Yeah so far we sell this only to a select few customers who really need it."
"In other words, you sell it to your richest clients and take a cut from it." Eames pointed out.
"We…do make a profit…but it's a reasonable price for the results."
Goren rolled his eyes, hugging his binder against his chest. "And…do you keep track of the products?"
"The products?"
"Yeah…where they're shipped from…where they go?"
"Oh right…yeah…you'll have to speak to William Tang, our scientist, he and his associate keep track of all that." He went up to the phone and pressed the button on it for the intercom. "Lee Anne, could you come in here please?"
A short blond haired, middle aged woman came in. "Yes sir?"
"Please escort the detectives down to see Mr. Tang."
"Right this way." They followed Lee Anne out of the office.
They were led to the factory out back of the building and met Dr. Tang, who was a short, plump, jolly looking man. They questioned him about the product and the ingredients.
"But the Hemlock…that still doesn't sound too safe."
"Only 2 of the test subjects got any flaking or rashes and an eighth of them became scarred from this. It's all in how the hemlock is processed. It's perfectly safe."
"Where do you keep the hemlock?"
He motioned for them to follow him. "We have a licence…it's perfectly legal…" He stopped by the refrigerated storage. "It's kept in here."
"Is there any hemlock missing?"
"As a matter of fact, yes there is. How did you know?"
The detectives exchanged a glance. Eames then asked, "When did you realize you were short?"
"When I was 17, I looked in the mirror and realized I wasn't going to get any taller." He chuckled at his own joke.
Goren smirked while Eames pursed her lips in annoyance. "Dr. Tang, people were murdered using your hemlock."
His smile faded and he became serious. "A couple months ago. Only 6 people have the security code, its different for each employee so it was easy to narrow down. We discovered that it was Marjory Ryan. She was relieved of duties and we agreed not to press charges.
Goren opened his binder and scribbled it all down. "Do you have contact information for Miss Ryan?"
"Yeah. Hold on." Dr. Tang motioned for them to follow. He led them to one of the back rooms where his office was and pulled up some information on the computer. Goren noticed Dr. Tang had a large family photo of he, his wife, three kids, and two dogs. Then there were two other photos of his kids playing, and a separate one of just his wife. He could tell already that Dr. Tang was a family man. He printed the contact information off and gave it to the detectives.
"Thanks." Goren slipped it into his binder. Finally they caught a break on the case, but part of him anticipated that Miss Ryan wouldn't be sticking around for them to question.
Goren and Eames were led into the house. It was a 1 floor bungalow that carried a strong aroma of potpourri. Marjory Ryan was in tears already and she had been crying for some time. Asking her questions about the theft at her former place of employment caused her to sob loudly, acting as though someone she loved just died.
Goren didn't blame her. She was in her late fifties and losing the job she had at her age meant that she probably couldn't get any good job from now on. Ageism was on the rise, or so Goren read in the Ledger. But that wasn't the only reason for her tears. Marjory was also very upset about her good name being tainted. She clearly was not the type that Nicole Wallace would team up with. If she had any involvement with her, than Marjory would likely be dead. Nicole would have seen to it.
It was clear to both of the detectives that she was set up.
Note - Hi all! I' m still here...still alive and kickin'. Had this here and ready to go. I just had to edit it so I finally got around to that today. I hope I'm not losing some people here. I had no idea how to explain the chemistry aspect of the poison so I just left that out...sorry for any of you who were looking forward to that...but there is a reason I did horribly in Chemistry in high school.