They opened the door to the interrogation room. Katherine stayed outside, knowing Wolfsen personally so that no one could accuse her later of bias in the interrogation.
Wolfsen sat there with the lawyer, who introduced himself as Dr. Thomas Dunham and handed Nick and Elizabeth a business card as if they were both about to become his clients. Dunham was wearing a pinstriped three-piece suit and expensive shirt and tie, but with very clumsy black faux leather shoes with rubber soles - a combination that Elizabeth had already identified as a style offense in many lawyers.
"My client wishes me to conduct the conversation for him," he said.
"First of all, we're not having a conversation here, Dr. Dunham," Nick replied with a penetrating look. "Second, we're still asking the questions of Dr. Wolfsen. After all, this is about him, not you, and I'm sure he'll tell you if he wants you to answer. Dunham and Wolfsen scowled at Nick as if he had just stolen their ramekins in the sandbox.
Nick was playing bad cop for once today. Elizabeth would intervene placatingly as moderator and good cop.
"I assume, Dr. Wolfsen, you are aware of the magnitude of your offense?" began Nick, opening the file. As Wolfsen and Dunham looked demonstratively innocent-naive, Nick became more explicit. "A cadaver arm used on you for medical purposes belongs to the body of a man who died a violent death in South End, and that allows for certain speculation as to how your company gets body parts."
Wolfsen stared alternately at Dunham and Elizabeth but wrapped himself in silence.
"Get this straight," Nick said, looking at the doctor with a frown. "The cadaver parts you used today when you presented the new instruments were not cleared for research. Anyway, so far, we haven't seen any certificates with the relatives' consent signatures that the bodies may be used by Medic Research for medical research at their request. If things are done correctly, these certificates are available very quickly. But I assume you can provide us with these certificates very quickly?" He leaned forward a little. "Or did you accidentally leave these papers at the company?"
Dunham glanced briefly at Wolfsen. It wasn't lost on Elizabeth that the two men exchanged a worried look.
"Or maybe you just didn't have a graphic designer or a good color printer handy?" continued Nick.
That sunk in. "That's not what this is about at all," snapped Dunham. "You're trying to drag my client into a murder case he has nothing to do with."
Nick looked at the lawyer for a long moment. "Why would I?"
"Because you're hoping my client will give you information this way that you wouldn't normally get so quickly."
"That's very much what this is about," Nick replied with furrowed brows. "And you know what else it's about? If you and your client can't prove where the body parts came from, the ethics commission will give you hell real quick, if only for violating the burial law and disturbing the peace of the dead. The ethics commission will want to know where the bodies come from. And for the media, especially the tabloids, a story like this is a feast anyway." He leaned back in his chair. "Don't think you wouldn't have something to do with it then. That would be like you illegally employing maid smugglers brought into the United States and then claiming you had nothing to do with human trafficking."
"That comparison is even more slanted than your other reasoning," the lawyer wedged back.
"Not at all," Elizabeth now spoke up, frowning. "You're right about only one thing: it's not about living people, but about corpses of which no one knows how they died. If the suspicion is confirmed that your company not only puts up with unfair methods to get body parts but, on top of that, is not too interested in helping to clarify how these people died, the main thing is that your body parts end up on Medic Research's table, then --"
"Then what --"
"Then your company has a huge problem."
"You're confusing the firm as a whole here, and you mean my client as an individual," Dunham objected after exchanging another look with Wolfsen.
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows briefly. "On the contrary. It's only when it gets out in the open that Medic Research is using cadaver parts whose origin is unclear and which may be used for medical experiments against the will of the relatives or the formerly living that not only will the ethics committee come down on you also the media will come down on you, as my partner has already said. And not only that, but the pharmaceutical association will also distance itself, and the image of your company will go down the drain. An image that you barely managed to repair after the scandal about your compensatory antidepressant a few years ago. But it gets even worse when someone gets the idea that your company is making sure that people no one misses become corpses."
"That's outrageous!" groaned Dunham.
Elizabeth continued, not one to be ruffled, "The board of directors, who probably don't know about any of this or, if they do, will play clueless, might wonder who's to blame. And then everyone will be swift to point the finger at a certain person." She fixed Wolfsen. Fear flared in Wolfsen's eyes. But Elizabeth still needed to be finished. "The board will feel compelled, under pressure from shareholders, to take action against employees who might damage the group's reputation. It will be famous for deflecting shame from the company. To do that, a pawn will have to be found. And you are surely not so naive as to believe, Dr. Wolfsen, that you would play no role in this. In terms of labor law, the whole thing will result in immediate dismissal, if not even a claim for damages against you, because you have damaged the company's reputation, no matter how valuable you were to the company before. When you realize it's getting dangerous, former friends quickly become bitter enemies. It would be the first corporation where things go differently. You'll be dropped like a hot stone." She looked the doctor in the eye and added. "With your history, the lobotomy, and now the body parts scandal - do you think you'll find another job anywhere near as lucrative as your current employment. If you're lucky, you can become a night guard at a morgue or move right into organized crime."
Wolfsen looked at her motionlessly for a few seconds; then, he turned to Dunham. The two whispered to each other.
Finally, Dunham said, "My client and I would like to talk privately for a few minutes."
Elizabeth stood up with a sigh. Nick followed suit. "Let us know if it can be official again."
xxx
Nick and Elizabeth entered the monitor room as a technician turned off the intercom.
"Are we actually keen on this fellow?" asked Nick.
Elizabeth's eyebrows drew together, and she shook her head as she skimmed Wolfsen's file again. "I'm assuming he's been sourcing body parts from somewhere else on the short end of the line. That's not legitimate, but it's secondary at the moment. The biggest headache we have is because of this crazy killer who cuts out people's hearts and saws off their arms and legs to sell them to pharmaceutical companies."
"If it's the same perp," Nick replied, "Kate says the modus operandi in both cases doesn't match."
"Anyway, we're in the dark like a blind man without a dog. We need to start reporting some successes. If Wolfsen is cooperative and puts us on the killer's trail, we'll be happy to forget that he acted unethically, won't we? If he opens up, we'll accommodate him. Because if he shuts down and his lawyer plays for time, it will take all the longer for us to get the data. So we'll do it the fast way. Assuming Wolfsen plays ball. I'm sure Ma feels the same way."
Nick nodded slowly.
At that moment, the door opened, and an officer peered into the room. "Wolfsen and his lawyer are ready."
Elizabeth shrugged with a grin and headed back into the interrogation room with Nick.
"We have an offer," Dunham said flatly.
"I was beginning to think you and your client had run off together," Nick joked as he sat back down and looked demonstratively at his watch. "Besides, we're not waiting for an offer here; we're waiting for a statement."
Elizabeth feared for a moment that the lawyer was now switching to petulant, but fortunately, it didn't look that way, as he said, "Now cut the jokes. My client is aware of the juicy situation, especially because normally all body parts come from certified providers, where there is very well the consent of the relatives."
"So the fact that body parts belong to a dismembered corpse lying in the basement of a disused slaughterhouse somewhere in South End with its skull crushed and organs removed is an exception?" asked Nick with his eyebrows drawn together.
"Listen," Dunham plucked at his cornflower-blue pocket square, "my client buys cadaver parts exclusively from a company called Tissue Trade, which specializes in collecting and shipping such specimens."
"Tissue Trade," Elizabeth said. "I've heard that name before."
"Unfortunately," Dunham continued, "it is sometimes the case that my client's company has an extremely short-term need for preparations, which then have to be brought in on a --" the lawyer searched for the appropriate euphemism, "... faster way."
"In other words," Nick added, "this chain of command doesn't take too kindly to relatives' consent and legal requirements either?"
Dunham pressed on. "Something like that. As I said, the vast majority of delivery is legal; only in exceptional cases does my client use a special contact who can deliver quickly and without fuss. In this case, the goods and services are basically settled in cash. The company's board of directors --" Dunham looked around as if eavesdropping from some quarter. "The board is very pleased with Dr. Wolfsen, as there are never any shortages when special cadaver parts are needed in a hurry for the presentation of surgical instruments or other novelties. And they shows great generosity when it comes to gratuities."
"You supply me with cadavers, and I'll give you cash," Nick said.
"In other words," Elizabeth summarized, "the company loves Dr. Wolfsen for what he does. But does the company know exactly what he's doing? Does the board know there's this second delivery channel?"
Dunham shook his head. "In fact, the board doesn't know any of this. And my client wants it to stay that way. In exchange, he's willing to release details about his supplier, and he's willing to do it now. Even if that means he has to do without that supplier in the future."
"How gracious," Nick sneered. "Indeed, it might mean that because we'll probably have to bust this clean supplier - the sooner, the better."
"If Dr. Wolfsen reaffirms what we just discussed," Elizabeth said, "then you," she pointed to Nick with furrowed brows, "should sit down with him right away. We'll be on our way as soon as we know enough about this body dealer to get a preliminary warrant from a judge." She stood up and opened the door. "Dr. Wolfsen. I think we can work something out."