The Constant Gardener (27 page)

RECOMMENDATION REJECTED ON SECURITY GROUNDS. F. Gridley (superintendent)

Chin in hand Justin gazed at the wall. Memories of Ghita, the second most beautiful woman in Nairobi. Tessa's self-appointed disciple who dreams only of bringing standards of common decency to a wicked world. Ghita is me without the bad bits, Tessa likes to say.

Ghita the last of the innocents, head to head over green tea with very pregnant Tessa, solving the world's problems in the garden in Nairobi while Justin the absurdly happy skeptic and father-to-be in a straw hat, clips, weeds and prunes his way through the flower beds, tying and watering and playing the middle-aged English bloody fool.

“Watch your feet, please, Justin,” they would call to him anxiously. They were warning him against the safari ants that marched out of the ground in columns after rain, and could kill a dog or a small child by sheer force of their generalship and numbers. In late pregnancy, Tessa feared that safari ants might mistake his watering for an unseasonable shower.

Ghita permanently shocked by everything and everyone, from Roman Catholics who oppose Third World birth control and demonstratively burn condoms in Nyayo Stadium, to American tobacco companies who spike their cigarettes in order to create child addicts, to Somali warlords who drop cluster bombs on undefended villages and the arms companies that manufacture the cluster bombs.

“Who are these people, Tessa?” she would whisper earnestly. “What is their mentality, tell me, please? Is this original sin we are talking about? If you ask me, it is something much worse than that. To original sin belongs in my opinion some notion of innocence. But where is innocence today, Tessa?”

And if Arnold dropped by, which at weekends he frequently did, the conversation would take a more specific turn. Their three heads would draw together, their expressions tighten, and if Justin out of mischief watered too close for their comfort, they would make ostentatious small talk till he had removed himself to a more remote flower bed.

•      •      •

Police officers' report of meeting with representatives of House of ThreeBees, Nairobi:

We had sought an interview with Sir Kenneth Curtiss and had been given to understand he would receive us. On arrival at House of ThreeBees' headquarters, we were told that Sir Kenneth had been summoned to an audience with President Moi after which he was obliged to fly to Basel for policy discussions with Karel Vita Hudson (Kvh). It was then suggested to us that we should address any questions we had to House of ThreeBees pharmaceutical marketing manager, a Ms. Y. Rampuri. In the event, Ms. Rampuri was attending to family matters and was not available. We were then advised to seek an interview with Sir Kenneth or Ms. Rampuri at a later date. When we explained the limitations of our time frame, we were eventually offered an interview with “senior staff members” and after an hour's delay were eventually received by a Ms. V. Eber and a Mr. D. J. Crick, both of Customer Relations. Also present, a Mr. P. R. Oakey who described himself as a “lawyer for the London end who happened to be visiting Nairobi on other business.”

Ms. Vivian Eber is a tall attractive African woman in her late twenties and has a business affairs degree from an American university.

Mr. Crick, who comes from Belfast, is similarly aged, of impressive physique and speaks with a slight Northern Irish brogue.

Subsequent inquiries indicate that Mr. Oakey, the London lawyer, is identical with Percy Ranelagh Oakey, QC, of the London firm of Oakey, Oakey and Farmeloe. Mr. Oakey has recently successfully defended several large pharmaceutical companies in class actions for damages and compensation, among them KVH. We were not advised of this at the time.

See Appendix for note on D. J. Crick.

SUMMARY OF MEETING 1. Apologies on behalf of Sir Kenneth

K. Curtiss and Ms. Y. Rampuri. 2. Expressions of regret by BBB

(crick) regarding death of Tessa Quayle

and concern re fate of Dr. Arnold Bluhm. BBB (crick): This damn country gets

hairier by the day. The Mrs. Quayle thing,

that's just awful. She was a fine lady who'd

earned herself a great reputation around town. How

can we help you officers? Any way at all.

The chief sends his personal greetings and

instructs us to afford you every assistance. He has

a great regard for the British police. Officer: We gather Arnold Bluhm and

Tessa Quayle made a variety

of representations to ThreeBees regarding a

new TB cure you're marketing, name of

Dypraxa. BBB (crick): Did they though? We must

look into that. You see, Ms. Eber here is more

on the PR side, and I'm sort of on

secondment from other duties pending a major

restructuring of the company. The chief has a

theory that anyone sitting still is wasting money. Officer: The representations resulted in a

meeting between Quayle, Bluhm and members of

your staff here and we'd like to ask you for a sight of

any records that were kept of this meeting, and

any other documents relevant to it. BBB (crick): Right, Rob. No problem.

We're here to help. Only when you say she

made representations to ThreeBees—do you

happen to know which branch you have in mind at all?

Only there are a hell of a lot of bees in this

outfit, believe me! Officer: Mrs. Quayle addressed letters, e mails and phone calls to Sir Kenneth

personally, to his private office, to Ms.

Rampuri and to pretty well everyone on your

Nairobi board. She faxed some of her letters

and sent hard copies by mail. Others she hand delivered. BBB (crick): Well, great. That should give

us something to go on. And you have copies of that

correspondence, presumably? Officer: Not at present. BBB (crick): But you know who attended the

meeting on our side, presumably? Officer: We assumed you'd know that. BBB (crick): Oh dear. So what do you have? Officer: Written and verbal testimony

by witnesses that such representations were made.

Mrs. Quayle went so far as to visit Sir

Kenneth at his farm last time he was in

Nairobi. BBB (crick): Did she though? Well,

that's news to me, I must say. Did she have

an appointment? Officer: No. BBB (crick): So who invited her? Officer: No one. She just showed up. BBB (crick): Wow. Brave girl. How

far did she get? Officer: Not far enough, apparently, because she afterward

attempted to confront Sir Kenneth

here at his offices, but was unsuccessful. BBB (crick): Well, I'm damned. Still

the chief's a busy bee. A lot of people want

a lot of favors from him. Not many of them are

lucky. Officer: This wasn't favors. BBB (crick): What was it? Officer: Answers. Our understanding is, Mrs.

Quayle also presented Sir Kenneth with a

bunch of case histories describing the side

effects of the drug on identified patients. BBB (crick): Did she, by Christ?

Well, well. I didn't know there were any

side effects. Is she a scientist, a

doctor? Was, I should say? Officer: She was a concerned member of the public,

a lawyer, and a rights campaigner. And she was

deeply involved in aid work. BBB (crick): When you say presented,

what are we talking here? Officer: Delivered them by hand to this building,

personal for Sir Kenneth. BBB (crick): She get a receipt? Officer: (shows it) BBB (crick): Ah. Well. Received one

package. Question of what's in the package,

isn't it? Still, you've got copies, I'm

sure. Bunch of case histories. You must

h. Officer: We expect to have them any day. BBB (crick): Is that so? Well, we'd be

really interested to have a sight of them, right,

Viv? I mean Dypraxa's our lead line

right now, what the chief calls our flagship.

Lot of happy mums and dads and kids out

there, feeling a lot better for Dypraxa. So

if Tessa had a grouse about it, that's something

we'd really need to know and act on. If the

chief was here he'd be the first to say that. Just that

he's one of those guys who lives in a

Gulfstream. I'm surprised he gave her

the brush-off, all the same. That's not like him

at all. Still, I suppose if you're as

busy as he is-BBB (eber): We have a set procedure here

for customer complaints regarding our

pharmaceutical list, you see, Rob.

We're only the distributor here. We

import, we distribute. Provided the

Kenyan government has green-lighted

a drug and the medical centers are comfortable with

using it, we are just acting as the intermediary, you

see. That's pretty much where our

responsibility ends. We take advice

about storage, naturally, and make sure we

are providing the right temperatures and

humidity and so forth. But basically the buck

stops with the manufacturer and the Kenyan

government. Officer: What about clinical trials? Aren't

you supposed to be conducting trials? BBB (crick): No trials. I'm

afraid you haven't done your homework on that

one, Rob. Not if you're talking your

structured, fully fledged type, double blind,

put it that way. Officer: So what are we talking? BBB (crick): Not once a drug is out there

in a given country like Kenya, being distributed,

that wouldn't be policy. A drug, once you're

distributing it in a country and you've got the

local health boys behind you a hundred percent,

is what I call a done thing. Officer: So what trials, tests, experiments

are you conducting, if any? BBB (crick): Look. Don't do the words

with me, all right? If you're talking about adding

to a drug's track record, a real good

drug like this one, if you're gearing up for

distribution in another very major country—right

outside the African market—the U.s. of

A. for instance—yes, all right, I grant you,

in an indirect way we can call what we are

doing here trials. In that sense only. The

preparatory sense, for the situation ahead of us,

which is the day when ThreeBees and KVH

jointly enter the new exciting market I'm

alluding to. With me? Officer: Not yet. I'm waiting for the word

“guinea pig.” BBB (crick): All I'm saying is, that in

the very best way for all parties, every patient is

in some degree a test case for the benefit of the

greater good. Nobody's talking guinea pigs.

Back off. Officer: The greater good being the American

market, you mean? BBB (crick): For fuck's sake. All

I'm saying is, every result, every time we

record a thing, a patient is

recorded, those results are carefully stored

and monitored at all times in Seattle and

Vancouver and Basel for future reference.

For the future validation of the product when

we're looking to register it elsewhere. So that

we're totally fail-safe at all times.

Plus we've got the Kenyan health boys

behind us at all times. Officer: Doing what? Mopping up the bodies? P. R. Oakey, QC: You didn't say that,

Rob, I'm sure, and we didn't hear it.

Doug has been extremely forthright and generous

with his information. Perhaps too generous. Yes,

Lesley? Officer: So what do you do with complaints

meanwhile? Bin them? BBB (crick): Mainly, Les, what we

do, we shoot them straight back at the

manufacturer, Messrs. Karel Vita

Hudson. Then we either reply to the complaining

party under KVH'S guidance, or KVH may

prefer to reply direct. Horses for

courses. But that's the shape and size of it,

Rob. Anything else we can do for you? Maybe

we should pencil in another meeting for when you've

got your documentation to hand? Officer: Just a minute, d'you mind? According to our

information Tessa Quayle and Dr. Arnold

Bluhm came here in person last November

at your invitation—ThreeBees' invitation- to discuss the effects, positive or

negative, of your product Dypraxa. They

also presented members of your staff with copies

of the case notes they had sent to Sir Kenneth

Curtiss personally. Are you saying you have no

record of that meeting, not even who attended it

from ThreeBees? BBB (crick): Got a date for it, Rob? Officer: We have a diary entry confirming that a

meeting was set at ThreeBees' suggestion for

11 A.m. on November 18. The

appointment was made through the office of Ms.

Rampuri, your marketing manager, who we now

hear is not available. BBB (crick): News to me, I must say.

How about you, Viv? BBB (eber): Me too, Doug. BBB (crick): Listen, why don't I

look in Yvonne's diary for you? Officer: Good idea. We'll help

you. BBB (crick): Hang on, hang on.

I'll have to get her OK on it first,

obviously. Yvonne's a lot of girl. I

wouldn't be going through her diary without her say-so,

any more than I would yours, Lesley. Officer: Ring her up. We'll pay. BBB (crick): No way, Rob. Officer: Why not? BBB (crick): You see, Rob, Yvonne

and her boyfriend have gone to this megawedding in

Mombasa. When we said "attending to family

affairs," that was the affair, right? A pretty

bloody red-hot one, believe you me. So I

would guess Monday would be the absolute

earliest we could contact her. I don't know

whether you've ever been to a wedding in Mombasa

but believe you me-Officer: Let's not worry about the diary. What

about the notes they left with her? BBB (crick): You mean these so-called case

histories you're talking about? Officer: Among other things. BBB (crick): Well, if it's your