“What the hell is going on over at Distal?” Martin hollered.
We stepped out onto my front porch. This was the first time Martin had been to my
home, at least the first that I was aware of, and he clearly was rattled.
“Look, calm down. This trial is way too important to Distal, they're not going to shut it
down.”
I was mainly worried about the stock price reaction on Monday to the news about Jim
Newel's highly precarious medical state. The board needed to act quickly to stabilize the ship,
and if it did that, then the stock would recover from any initial weakness in early Monday trading.
Every stock analyst on the street was awaiting the results from the Zyptorin trial, so the health of the CEO had no direct bearing on the trial results. The irony here was that Jim Newel could
possibly have benefited from Zyptorin and its artery plaque reduction ability.
“Well, what do I tell Julio?” Martin asked.
“Tell him nothing changes, because that is the truth. Keep the heat on.”
“Oh, that they're doing! They have this doctor scared out of his gord!” Martin exclaimed.
The wind was starting to pick up and I wanted to get back inside. “Alright, let's not talk
for a while unless it's urgent, okay?”
Martin nodded and walked back to his black sedan. He knew better than to rattle Julio. It
was in nobody's interest to have the Violas make a rash, emotional decision. I needed to keep this
man happy with his new drug trial plan, happy with my firm.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
201
Monday, November 11th
12:25am
Ashley Wells ran in her flip flops and naked under her robe back to the heated hot tub,
taking care not to slip on the tile that was wet from the five minute midnight rain shower that just passed through.
Twice a week, Ashley eagerly flaunted her palatial estate in South Hampton, New York,
having hosted nearly 100 music industry people earlier that evening. Ashley's assistant, Judy,
confirmed twenty minutes earlier that everyone was out of the home and exiting the property.
The hot tub was one of seven on the estate and rested on the third floor balcony off the
master bedroom.
“Okay, stud, thanks for the potty break,” Ashley giggled. “Hope the chlorine level is
fine.”
Ashley grabbed her vodka drink from the ledge, lifted her left leg, and nudged Brad in the
back of the head.
“Hey sweety, cat got your tongue?”
Brad fell forward face first into the water, leading Ashley to send into the night a screech
that would spin her music producer's head around. Ashley reached over the edge of the tub to
save Brad before noticing the blender in the tub, pouring strawberry daiquiri into the water. The
blender was sparking and Ashley knew better than to reach into the electrified water.
“Help!” she yelled from the balcony.
Ashley took her towel and grabbed Brad's head to pull him back up into a sitting
position. Lifting her fiancé up by the arm pits, she pulled him out of the tub. Ashley was in the
middle of mouth to mouth when Linda hurried into the room.
“What happened?” Linda asked Ashley, ready to dial 9-1-1.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
202
Ashley looked up from Brad and shouted tear streamed instructions to call for an
ambulance.
“He electrocuted himself with the blender!” Ashley yelled.
*****
Eduardo could hear Ms. Wells shouting for help while descending down the home on his
removable cable. He was almost to the first floor balcony when Ashley discovered Mr. Dellan
dead in the tub. He made sure not to make any noise.
It was supposed to look like an accident and things could not have worked out any better
for Eduardo, who camped out in the house for 36 hours prior to the killing so as to study the
couple. When Julio first called Eduardo on Friday night, he wanted him to kill Mr. Dellan in the
most horrible way possible, but, hours later, Julio had changed his mind. Now, it had to look like
an accident, and that made the task so much more difficult.
Pushing a target down the stairs can break their neck though it's not full proof by any
stretch; same with heavy furniture like an armoire falling on the victim. Electrocution is the most
common way because it is the most reliable, yet the target obviously needs to be in water.
Eduardo knew they used the hot tub nearly every night, but he didn't want to kill Ms. Wells so he
needed to have Mr. Dellan alone in the water.
Ms. Wells was in the tub for part of Saturday night, yet never left her fiancé alone.
Eduardo hid just below the third balcony ledge, in the darkest part that faced some woods. His
back was stiff the next morning, however, it was the best spot to hide by far. On Sunday night, an
opportunity opened up when Ms. Wells went to the bathroom for a few minutes. Eduardo put his
plan into work. Scaling the side of the balcony, he scared the crap out of Mr. Dellan, who tried to
stand up, but the turned-on blender was quickly in the water and Mr. Dellan didn't stand a
chance.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
203
Eduardo hooked up his removable cable and waited to make sure the target was dead.
When that became clear, the hit man started his descent.
Timothy Gilbert
Damage Control
204
Monday, November 11th
9:05pm