Slowly, a picture emerged.
In the late 1990s, Harlow had funded a long-term health study involving employees and their families.
The town had experienced unusually high rates of respiratory illness, and people feared the factories were responsible.
The study was meant to determine whether workplace exposure was affecting employees—and whether contaminants carried home on clothing might affect their children.
That explained families.
That explained my name.
It also explained the secrecy.
At the time, lawsuits against Harlow had been growing.
The study’s results mattered enormously.
“If Claire found altered records,” I said, “then maybe someone was manipulating the research.”
“Maybe,” Stephen replied.
Always careful.
It had once frustrated me.
Now I appreciated it.
We met Dr. Thomas Mercer on a rainy Thursday.
He was eighty-six and living in a small retirement community near the coast.
When I called and mentioned Claire Bell, he became silent.
Then he said, “Come tomorrow.”
