Old Mr. Lomax! Colby’s eyes were filled with shock at Lucian’s words. He even managed to hire Old. Mr. Lomax. Even more surprisingly, Old Mr. Lomax couldn’t handle Roxanne’s condition. Otherwise, Lucian would not have come to see me today.
“What else did the old gentleman say?” He was desperate to hear Peregrine’s diagnosis. Lucian shook his head, his expression dark. “Old Mr. Lomax is still perusing the medical literature for a way to cure Roxanne.”
Colby turned grim; his eyes thoughtful. “Let me mull it over. I will think of something.” I am in prison while Roxanne lies on a hospital bed with her life at stake. Even Old Mr. Lomax couldn’t save her. I need to do something for her no matter what it takes.
Lucian’s words played over and over again in his mind. Colby’s brows were furrowed as he tried to decipher any information he could from those words.
However, despite wracking his brain, he could not think of any medicinal herbs that could match the drug’s efficacy. Colby grew frustrated.
“Dr. Jarvis spent most of her time in the laboratory. She is susceptible to the smells of medicinal herbs, including rare specimens that have passed through her hands. She would have noticed something if she smelled something poisonous, and Jack knows this.” Swiftly, he arrived at a possibility. “To disguise the smell of the medicinal herbs, he must have used a good amount of fragrance.”
“Don’t push yourself if you can’t come up with anything.” Lucian felt touched at the sight of Colby’s panic. “As you said, despite Old Mr. Lomax’s skill, there isn’t anything he could do now.”
Colby regained his composure, though there were traces of defeat in his gaze. “If Old Mr. Lomax could come up with something, Dr. Jarvis would be delighted upon waking to find out that it was he who had saved her.”
Lucian looked at him in puzzlement. “Why do you say that?” He knew the old man was a legend in the medical industry and that it would not be unusual for Roxanne to idolize him, but Colby’s words seemed to indicate something else.
Remembering something, Colby said, “I have worked with Dr. Jarvis to develop several medications that would undoubtedly be of great interest to the industry, some of which were based on Old Mr. Lomax’s research. He should have had a share in the profits.”
Peregrine had disappeared without warning years ago and left behind much half-done research. He had even released it to the world, hoping that somebody would take over and produce something with his research.
Many within the medical industry became interested and began conducting follow-up research. However, Roxanne was the only one who had led them to perfect the drugs. They had tried to contact Peregrine, but to no avail.
Roxanne had been uneasy about being unable to share the profits with him, so she had set the price of the drugs low enough just to break even and recoup the costs to pay tribute to the man they otherwise owed.
It was this incident that had given Colby his first good impression of Roxanne. In their subsequent encounters, the fondness increased until it became an obsession. At the recollection of the past and of the foolish things he had done, Colby could not help resenting himself.
