Salvation - 41. Chapter 40

I let Peter lead me to the car. As we drove home, I knew I couldn’t let the kids see me like this.

Arriving home, there were no kids to greet me, and I was glad. I went directly to my office and closed the door.

I sat there for a few minutes. My mind was running wild. All these incriminations, why did or why was, why, why, why.

No answers, and then I thought about my speech at the UN. I knew how I was going to open my talk. I hoped that the portrait would be finished. Going into the kitchen, “Peter, I’d like for you to go back where you found me today and take a picture. Be sure to get it all. I’m going to need it for a speech I’m writing for the UN.”

I wanted a slide presentation, which means I’ll need slides of three items, the death picture, the portrait, and the place where my son rests. I knew what I was going to say, if they don’t react and bring this terrible crime on kids to a halt, then they’ll feel the guilt I live with every day of my life.

There was a knock on my door. Maria came in with a coffee for me. She closed the door and sat down. “Peter told me, Carleton, you take too much on your shoulders. What you’re doing taking these kids in more than makes up for the guilt you carry.”

“Maria, every time I look at one of my boys, it comes back to me. I keep asking myself, why didn’t I followed that guy into the men’s room. I never have an answer to my whys. God hasn’t given me any peace. He’s on my mind all the time. He sits in my head, he guides me, but I can’t get the relief I need. He comes to me in my dreams. He has a smile on his face, never says a word, looks at me, and smiles. I am constantly reminded of my failure. Today was the hardest. I have commissioned a painting of him. I truly believe that the only way I’ll have peace is for me to know his name and why he was on the street. I’ll find out that information if it’s the last thing I do.”

Maria pulled me into a hug, “You have a group of boys who want to know why you aren’t in the kitchen for lunch. Go and wash your face and come to the kitchen.”

That made good sense. I can’t desert the boys. They need me. I washed my face; using cold water, I attempted to take the redness from my eyes. It helped a little.

I’m amazed at my boys. When I sat down and looked at them, they smiled. I leaned over and kissed them on their heads. Maria set a cup of coffee in front of me. “Dinner will be served in the dining room. You may not have noticed, but you have a new table.”

She was right. I didn’t notice.

After lunch, which raised his spirits, he called Judy, asking her to find him a detective agency. He had a job and wanted the best.

While he waited, he opened his safe and removed a newspaper article. Hopefully, that would be the start.

The boys came and wanted to show him the dog’s collars, six dogs and 15 boys, not a bad ratio. Then they had to show him the conservatory and the orchard. They casually walked over to where there was a string line laid out on the ground. This was where they had intended to end their tour.

“Dad, what are the lines for?”

“Demitry, take a guess?”

He looked around at the other boys, “Dad, we heard a man say there was going to be a swimming pool here.”

“And you want to know if it’s true?”

He nodded his head, yes. I whispered in his ear, yes.

I might have yelled it. He yelled, ‘YES.’

Now the kids were excited, “Dad, I can’t swim.”

“I’ll have someone teach you.”

“We need swimsuits.”

To listen to them, they had the pool finished.

I laughed as we all walked back into the house. It was a mob scene.

It took 5 seconds for all the boys to know. They had smiles on their faces. “Carleton, what is the excitement about?”

“Boys, tell Uncle Alex what all the excitement is about.”

I covered my ears as they yelled, “We are getting a swimming pool.”

Alex looked at me, “Why not?”

He just laughed, looking at me as if I was crazy.

Guess what we had for dinner that night, baked salmon with a fantastic dill sauce.“What do you think, Daniel, like it?”

“Yes, Dad, this is really good,” I noted the use of Dad.

“And best of all, it’s very good for you.”

Alex and Sal met with me in my study. “Carleton, Sal has some ideas of beefing up security. He is suggesting fencing in the property with a security gate at the end of the driveway.”

I laughed, “You know I’m putting in a swimming pool. Under local ordinances, the pool has to be fenced in or the property. So I thought with the dogs running loose, a property fence makes more sense.”

“Carleton, I’m glad we’re on the same page.”

We talked about overall security for the boys. Sal had some case histories that we discussed. Some of what he said was scary. I was amazed at the extremes these perverted men would use. Young boys beaten. as an example, if they wouldn’t do what they were told. Some of the men used the boys as their own personal slave. “You’ll need to have protection when you go to Europe. You’re being known.”

“Well, I’m not going to stop going to Europe. I’m an International Lawyer, and I have legitimate business there. So Sal, do you want a job being my private bodyguard? Because I’ll hire bodyguards before I stop going anywhere. If I find a child on the street, I’ll not spare any effort to get that child here where they are safe.”

“I told you he’d react this way. It looks like you have a job offer you need to consider.”

“Let’s go and get a cup of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake.”

The next morning, after breakfast and hugs from the boys, Peter drove me to my office. I spent the morning working on my UN speech. Judy read it, made some suggestions, and approved. Judy had been with me for several years. She knows me as well as anybody. I value her opinion.

“Carleton, I found an investigative firm that has experience locating lost children. I didn’t know there were that many firms that specialized in that field. I made a luncheon appointment for you.”

“I should get that picture back from the artist.”

“You don’t need to do that. I called the coroner’s office and got another copy. He must have been a handsome boy.”

I had tears in my eyes as she spoke. “You have an appointment with a drug company. They wouldn’t tell me the name of the company. A Mr. Samir will be here at 2:30. My guess is patent infringement. We seem to be getting a lot of cases involving patent infringement by companies in third world countries.”

“Part of the problem lies in the countries that do not enforce patents. If a country doesn’t have strict patent control nor a licensing capability, they contribute to the problem. But that is only one part of the problem. The other part is that drug companies charge a high cost for their products, which opens the door to a cheaper manufacturer ergo the introduction of generic drugs.”

“I thought that patent attorneys would handle these cases. Why are we getting involved?”

“Many of the patent attorneys are involved with domestic patent infringements or filings of US patents. Our niche is international patent infringements. There are a few who deal with international affairs as we do.”

“We received a check from the Mexican firm that involved smuggling. I deposited it in the company account.”

“I expected to see something in the paper about that, but there wasn’t anything. I imagine the investigation is still going on. Except for our meeting with Mr. Samir, what else do we have on the docket?”

“We have a child custody case. A man took his child out of the country and refused to bring him back. His wife, the mother of the child, wants to force her husband to bring the child back.”

“Are they separated or divorced?”

“Divorced”

“How old is the child?”

“14”

“Has anyone talked to the child to determine what he wants?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

“That is the first thing we need to do. Where is the ex with the child?”

“Israel”

“Okay, let’s make contact with the husband in Israel, two weeks after my UN appearance. Let’s see if we can get the wife in for an interview next week. Ask her to bring pictures, the latest. I need to be able to recognize the boy.”

I dictated the outline of the status of two cases, which will be sent to our clients. One of them, involving a dispute concerning a contract between two companies located in two different countries, is about to be closed. I’ll meet with the parties here in the US, neutral ground.

Our meeting with Mr. Samir was very interesting. The problem was generic substitution by a firm outside of the US.

“Our problem is two-fold. First, the FDA has not approved the generic drug, which means there are no manufacturing controls, and second there are no efficacy studies.”

“If the FDA hasn’t approved the drug, how’s it being sold?”

“Through the mail, advertisements are present on social media praising low prices and effective treatment.”

“There are laws that prohibit sourcing restricted drugs through the mail from companies not approved by the FDA. Why hasn’t that been used?”

“The FDA has gone after some, but they more or less leave it up to the companies affected to correct the situation. It’s unlawful to solicit drugs from non-FDA approved companies in the US.”

“Mr. Samir, which pharmaceutical company do you represent.”

“I do not work for a pharmaceutical company. My mother order drugs through the mail from this company. The drugs were cheaper than what she had been paying, so she thought, why not. The problem is they were of different strengths and not as effective. I wrote to the company indicating that they stop selling the drug to my mother through the mail-order system. Their response was to lower the cost to my mother. My mother is in the hospital, critically ill. Doctors don’t think she’ll make it. I had a sample of the tablets analyzed, and they contain other dangerous substances. I want to sue them and put them out of business.”

“Mr. Samir, could you get me a sample of the drug and a copy of your analysis. I also need to know the name and address of the company’s headquarters. I believe we can help you.”

I was surprised when Mr. Samir opened his briefcase. He had samples of the generic product and the FDA approved product, chemical analysis of both products, and an assessment of the components by a university professor well known in pharmacology.