Vermeer and I give it a quick once-through, but it’s not what we expected. It’s an agreement between Bastiaan Polman and a company called Global Solutions BV, not DH Biotech, and is a blanket ban on discussing anything, just as Polman had said.

‘Who is Global Solutions BV? A subsidiary?’

‘That’s the thing.’ The lawyer leans forward in his chair and drops his voice. ‘I’ve checked it out and it doesn’t exist.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Exactly what I said. There isn’t, and never has been, any company called Global Solutions BV.’

‘So this agreement here is junk then.’ Vermeer taps the paper.

‘The one with Global Solutions BV is, yes. The original one with DH Biotech is still legitimate. But regardless, my client feels that the threat made against him was serious.’

As we finish up, thanking Polman for his time and assuring him that we’ll keep him updated, my brain races through naked bodies, blood and someone desperate to keep a lid on it all.

A lid which I am going to blow sky-high.

I think of the part of me still up on the roof. It’s like it’s trying to tell me something.

Just Like the Others

Strategy meet. Beving, Jansen, Vermeer, myself.

I present my case. I’m persuasive. Vermeer’s now coming round to my way of thinking. Which is DH Biotech is at the heart of this. Beving’s more cautious. Wants more details. I give him naked bodies and blood, victims and volunteers. I give him a company desperate to keep its name clean. I give him mysterious men who threaten all those involved. I think he’s starting to get it.

‘The problem I think we’re going to run into in prosecuting this is that presumably DH Biotech’s original contract with the volunteers would most likely have mentioned death as a possible adverse outcome? We’ll have to check with legal on this, but I can’t believe they’d be allowed to run these trials without a clause like that. And if that’s the case then what do we get them on?’

Which is what I’ve been worried about too. We’ve got a killer, but we’ve also got a large company that seems culpable.

‘Probably get bumped down to some kind of financial impropriety,’ Vermeer says pensively. ‘They hide the result from potential investors. Pretty toothless. They’ll probably get a fine and a slapped wrist.’

‘And to even prove that you’re going to have to link the fictitious company with DH Biotech. Given Polman was handed cash that’s going to be pretty difficult. They can just deny.’

‘Unless we can find the man who gave it to him,’ I say.