“As I said, it's your decision. But I'd recommend that you leave yourself some time. Right now, you're my lead witness and St. Gall is going to go after you on cross-examination like you're the only thing that stands between them and a profitable fourth quarter. If you're not prepared, you're going to wind up looking look like a real horse's ass.” He stopped to make sure the scientist was paying attention. “The press loves it anytime a prominent witness gets torn apart on cross-examination.”
“The press?”
“The local papers will be there. I'm sure the Times and Wall Street Journal will send stringers. This is a big case. Time should have someone. Maybe Newsweek.”
Steinhardt's expression darkened. He shot the cuffs of his white lab coat. The coat looked like it had been custom-tailored to his small, trim frame. “What would I need to do?”
“You can start by telling me what AV/AS is about.”
“If you need me to explain that to you, I'd say you're not the man to conduct my case.”
“This isn't for me,” Seeley said. “It's for the jury. You're the one who's going to have to explain the science to the jury.”
Steinhardt considered that, and for a moment stood even more erect. He gestured to Seeley to take one of the antique upholstered chairs and took one himself. Then he checked his watch and appeared to change his mind. “I could give you the five-minute version, but I expect you will have questions. This will have to wait until I return from Paris. I promise you, it will be a brief trip.”
“If I were you, I'd cancel the trip.”
“You obviously fail to understand. I have an important paper to deliver. Not to go would be out of the question.”
Seeley had worked with scientists before, and it was a puzzle to him why anyone would spend good money to put these people on airplanes and lodge them at luxury hotels just so they can read papers to each other that they could more conveniently and at less expense read at home. Steinhardt could at least answer one question for him. “What does AV/AS stand for?”
“AV is standard nomenclature. AIDSVAX. One of the first vaccines tested-this was years ago-was AIDSVAX B/B.” Steinhardt's smug expression told Seeley he didn't have to ask what AS stood for.
“And this was entirely your work? No one else contributed to it?”
The scientist didn't flinch. “Of course it was. I have people working for me, assistants, but their work is entirely routine, on the order of cleaning test tubes. None of them does any science.”
“And Lily Warren?”
Steinhardt frowned, and Seeley expected to hear yet again that Warren was a crackpot.
“She was my graduate student at the university.”
“Which university is that?”
“UCSF. The University of California at San Francisco. I had my laboratory there before I brought it here. Surely, you've read my resume.”
“And Warren worked with you at UCSF.”
“ For me. We only did the most basic science there. Nothing patentable. In any event, she was little more than a glorified lab technician.”
Seeley had seen Warren's resume in the black witness binder, as he had Steinhardt's. She did her undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins, took her doctorate at Rockefeller University, and then got a postdoctoral fellowship in Steinhardt's lab at UCSF. She wasn't just his graduate student, as he said; she was a postdoc. And she was not someone who cleaned test tubes.
“You're aware, she's made a claim that she discovered AV/AS.”
“I'm also aware that no one, not even St. Gall, has displayed the poor judgment to take her claim seriously.”
Was it possible, Seeley wondered, for this man to utter one word without condescension? In theory, Pearsall's decision to make Steinhardt Vaxtek's leadoff witness was correct. Corporations may pay for the research and development that it takes to produce a new drug, but jurors want to see the invention's human face, the scientist whose genius and tireless effort produced a miracle out of nothing more than an idea and a few cell cultures. Seeley revised his estimate of Steinhardt's prospects as a witness. In the hands of a capable trial lawyer, which he knew Thorpe was, arrogance like this was going to destroy Steinhardt in the courtroom. If Seeley kept him as the leadoff witness, the damage to Vaxtek's case could be irreparable.
Seeley said, “If new facts come out, St. Gall can still change its mind and call Warren to testify. I need to know if we're going to find her fingerprints anywhere near AV/AS.”
“I can assure you, Lily Warren has no claim to my discovery.”
Steinhardt saw that this didn't satisfy Seeley, and with a curt gesture motioned him closer. “You are my lawyer, is that right? Anything I tell you is confidential?”
“I'm Vaxtek's lawyer, not yours.”
“A technicality.” Steinhardt drew closer. The eyebrow arched; the shoulders shrugged. “You are a man of the world, Mr. Seeley, so you will understand. This young woman was infatuated with me. Such things happen. She is attractive, and she can even be charming, but of course it would have been unprofessional of me to take an interest. This ridiculous claim of hers is revenge, nothing more.”
“Did you tell Leonard about this? Ed Barnum?”
“What is there to tell? As I said, I don't want to injure her professional opportunities.”
Even if Seeley believed Steinhardt, Warren must have had a substantial enough claim to the invention that St. Gall had not initially thought her a crackpot. Why, then, had they so precipitously dropped her and stipulated that Steinhardt was the sole inventor?
“Is there anyone else who might make a claim to AV/AS?” Seeley knew the question would infuriate Steinhardt.
Steinhardt shook his head.
“You are the sole inventor of AV/AS?”
“Of course I am!” He came out of the chair, directly at Seeley, his face twisted in anger and dark from the rush of blood. “What have I been telling you?”
“You're going to have to learn to control your temper. I'm being gentle with you. Emil Thorpe, who will be cross-examining you, will not. The jury will turn against you if you can't do better than this. But, if it's a consolation, the press will love it.”
“Have you looked at my laboratory notebooks?”
Seeley remembered asking Palmieri to review Steinhardt's notebooks.
Behind Steinhardt, a slender woman came into the office. Her suit and the way she wore the scarf knotted at her neck told Seeley that she was either European or had mastered the look. She had a small stack of euros in her hand and a slender envelope.
Steinhardt took the bills and envelope and placed them on the desk. The exchange was wordless, and she left.
“You need have no concerns, Mr. Seeley. I will return from Paris on Sunday, in ample time to testify. It is imperative that I be the one to explain my discovery to the court.” He started to unbutton the starched white jacket. “You do have me on your list as the lead witness?”
Pearsall had already told him he was. The man's insecurity was as staggering as his ego.
“He left you instructions to put me first, didn't he-the poor fellow who jumped in front of the train?”
“Rest assured,” Seeley said, “you will be the most important witness in the trial.”
THREE
The last week before the start of a major trial rises and falls on ocean swells of crisis-exhibits to be readied, last-minute motions to be filed, witnesses to be prepared-but the crises had become predictable over the years, their resolution as inevitable as their occurrence, and Seeley had left to Palmieri all but the most daunting of them: where to place Alan Steinhardt in the lineup of witnesses and how to rebut any last-minute claims by Lily Warren.