Under the Microscope by Jessica Andersen

one. He’d tried to take care of her, tried to protect her from a world that had given her too few breaks. But he hadn’t been able to manage his own life, never mind theirs.
    If their split hadn’t been amicable, it had been necessary once she’d grown up enough to realize that security without ambition wasn’t security at all.
    Max was watching her intently. “Your ex might have resented the fact that you would have been a huge financial success if Thriller sales took off.”
    “I still could be a success,” she countered. “I will be. Thriller is safe. You’ll see.” When Max raised an eyebrow and Ike smirked slightly, Raine grimaced. “Rory would be more likely to complain to his buddies over beers rather than actually do anything about it. Besides—” she shrugged “—when the money starts rolling in, I fully expect Rory to sue me for alimony. That’s his style.”
    And she’d probably give it to him, partly for oldtimes’ sake, partly out of guilt that she’d never intended to tell him about the pregnancy.
    “Then who could be after you?” Max leaned forward, eyes intent on her. “Your old boss? You left Falco in the lurch when you took off. Think he’d want to get back at you?”
    Raine shook her head. “Unlike some people, Erik forgave me without hesitation. He understood that sometimes it takes distance to put things in perspective. And no, before you ask, I can’t think of any coworkers or former employees who might have it in for me, either. I told you, I don’t have any enemies.”
    “What about Jeff?” Max asked.
    Ike’s eyes sharpened. “Who?”
    “No,” Raine said immediately. “It’s not him.” More accurately, she didn’t want it to be him.
    “Your receptionist seemed to think otherwise,” Max countered. “Tori said he’d been hanging out with the FDA investigators and computer techs way more than he normally did.”
    And there had been two bodies recovered from her office, not three. Raine grimaced.
    “Let Max and me decide who is and isn’t a suspect,” Ike ordered. “That’s why you’re paying us. What is his full name? Stats?”
    Raine sighed, but didn’t bother protesting anymore. “Jeffrey Wells. He graduated with degrees from both MIT and Harvard last year, with everyhonor imaginable. I wouldn’t have been able to hire him, except he wanted a flexible schedule and had his heart set on a position at a start-up pharmaceutical company.”
    Ike paused in her note-taking. “Why was the schedule important?”
    “He’s got a younger brother with some medical problems. Jeff is—was?—putting Joey through school while they waited for a transplant.” Raine recalled the picture Jeff kept on his office desk and found herself wondering who had talked to his family. What had they said? Was Jeff dead or alive? She swallowed hard. “I still can’t believe—”
    “I’ll check him out,” Ike interrupted. “Anyone else?” When Raine shook her head, Ike said, “Okay then, let’s look at our final option—corporate sabotage. Who would benefit from keeping Thriller off the market?”
    “At least three other companies have comparable drugs in development,” Raine answered. “Pentium, TopCat and Pyramid. But the rumors say their versions aren’t nearly as effective as Thriller, and the nearest is at least a year away from being brought to the open market. I’m not sure what they’d gain from trying to—” She broke off and swallowed, struck anew by the sheer scope of what they were talking about. “God, can you even imagine it? Whoever it is, they’ve gone to a ton of trouble.Product tampering to kill those women, breaking into my place to change the computer records, then setting it on fire. Blowing up the office…” She trailed off as nausea swam in her gut at the awfulness of the list. “Who would do something like this? Why?”
    “That’s what we need to figure out.” Ike slid her chair back toward the computer. “I’ll start looking at