How nice, he wants me. The revelation jolted Constance and she sat for a few seconds, immobilized. Even if she didn't like him, even if her family would never accept him, she still lusted for him. And he seemed to be in the same predicament.
She forced their conversation back to the case. "So you're saying you were framed? Someone put those pictures in your home?"
"Definitely."
"Who would do that?"
"The drug company. Their reps came to see me last week and demanded that I resume giving their vaccine at my school. I had stopped it a few weeks before."
Why would a respectable drug company stoop to such activity? Constance wasn't sure she believed this story. But then again, she knew from her very own family that so-called respectable corporations often did reprehensible things. She decided to hear him out. "I see. And why did you pull their vaccine?"
"My brother's a pediatrician. He told me it's no good. He and his partners have seen lots of kids get suddenly sick after receiving that vaccine. Some of them get seriously ill. The parents at my school depend on me, and I refuse to allow some untested new vaccine to hurt their kids." He slapped the table to emphasize his refusal. "Anyway, these guys gave me a deadline for resuming the inoculations. And I found it a little suspicious that I got busted only days after their deadline passed."
His passion for the children at his school seemed very sincere, and his story was becoming more and more believable. Perhaps this drug company was the culprit. She needed more information. "Do you have any proof of this deadline?"
"No. They visited my home in person, and we talked. Nobody saw them with me, no phone calls, no e-mails. Nothing. One of them gave me a business card, but that's it. It would be my word against theirs." He folded his arms.
"An informal visit at your home to deliver a deadline? That's unusual for a large corporation."
"I don't think they're a large corporation. They have only one product, and it's just been approved. It makes more sense to me that they're a small company, struggling for their existence. One of the things they told me is that my refusal to allow the vaccinations was causing other schools to rethink their position about it as well. I may have been a serious threat to them."
This does make sense. Nick was looking less and less like the pervy principal. "Well then. It seems that I need to call these people."
"Good luck with that. I doubt they'll admit to anything." Nick scowled and shook his head, then slumped back in his chair. "So how long am I stuck in jail?"