Fatal Reaction

arrived at Danny’s apartment, Elliott met me at the door. It seemed as though the biohazard crew had taken over the entire floor. Elliott reported that between the noise and the scary biohazard apparatus the neighbors had for the most part cleared out.
    Inside the apartment the bloodstained furniture had been wrapped in heavy black plastic and was being carried out one piece at a time. The carpet was being ripped out in sections and put into an enormous orange dumpster with a large biohazard warning symbol on all four sides. Warnings in Spanish and English declared the contents to be extremely hazardous. No wonder the neighbors had fled. Other workers were busy scrubbing the walls with some kind of high-pressure solvent. They were dressed in bulky biohazard suits like astronauts.
    Elliott and I, in search of a quiet place to talk, found a seat on the deep sill of the window at the far end of the corridor adjacent to the elevators.
    “So what did you find out about Childress?” I asked. “Very interesting man, our friend Dr. Childress.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “He’s a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde.”
    “Meaning?”
    “While his professional life is stellar, his personal life is a mess.”
    “What kind of a mess?”
    “Well, for one thing, he has a criminal record.”
    “You’re kidding! Dr. Michael Childress?”
    “The very one. We did some checking and he has a sheet in Boston.”
    “That’s where he lived while he worked for Baxter. What did he get busted for?”
    “Two counts of assault and battery, both of which looked like they were a result of bar fights. One DWI and, get this, an arrest for having sex with a minor. Charges for that last one were later dropped.”
    “Why?”
    “Hard to tell. Lots of times those cases are. The kid gets cold feet about testifying in court, some kind of out-of-court settlement is reached, the D.A. decides he doesn’t have enough evidence to make a case. Lots of reasons. Unfortunately there’s no way to find out because when a case involves a minor the court records are sealed.”
    “Was it a boy or a girl?” I asked, in a flash of inspired thinking.
    “The arrest docket doesn’t say. But take a look at his mug shots.” Elliott handed me copies of Childress’s arrest record. Clipped to the first page were several photographs, all mug shots. In the pictures he looked younger—and drunk—but there was no denying it was Childress. In one of the pictures he had a black eye and a split lip. I flipped to the next one.
    “What’s he wearing in this?” I demanded.
    “I was sort of wondering about that myself,” replied Elliott. “It looks like it could be the top of a dress, doesn’t it?”
    I stared at it for a few minutes. “I don’t know,” I said finally. “This copy is kind of dark, so it’s hard to say. It could just be a T-shirt that somehow got ripped in the scuffle. Do you think he could be some kind of cross-dresser?”
    “We haven’t turned up anything like that yet, but believe me we’re still digging.”
    “Does he know you’re checking him out?”
    “No. I’ve got one operative working in the guise of a freelance journalist preparing a story on him. He actually had lunch with her Thursday and he gave her an interview.”
    “What did she say he was like?”
    “The word she used most often was asshole.”
    “I’m not surprised. You hear that said a lot about Childress.”
    “As far as the former colleagues she’s talked to, it’s pretty clear he was not what you’d call well-liked.”
    “Why?” I asked, wondering whether their reasons might differ from the ones currently in vogue at Azor.
    “Well, it seems like he’s a pretty hateful guy,” replied Elliott, consulting what looked like a typed report. “The consensus seems to be that he likes to take credit for the work of others. There’s been a lot of bitterness about that almost everywhere he’s been since graduate school. He’s also got a reputation for being a busybody—you know, always complaining about his coworkers’ conduct. I guess when he left Baxter for Azor there were a lot of people who were happy to say good riddance.”
    “Can anybody link him with Danny outside of the office?”
    “Not so far, but like I said, we’re still checking. But while we’re on the subject, I remember you mentioning before that Childress used to work for Baxter. Do they do AIDS research there?”
    “I don’t know, but Baxter is an enormous pharmaceutical house, and not