“I don’t know if she even lives here anymore. I don’t think I have seen her for a while. Older woman. Had a dog, very friendly. The dog, I mean. The woman was friendly enough too, but the dog always wanted attention. Everybody’s best friend.”
“Was the dog’s name Lola?” Kenzie asked, her voice breaking slightly.
Ducros considered. “Yeah, that might be right...”
“So you would see them outside the building or around the neighborhood somewhere, and you would pet the dog?”
“Sure.” He shrugged, not seeing how this could be a problem. “Friendly dog. Why not?”
“Because you’re working with viruses and not following a proper isolation protocol. It could be clinging to your clothes, your hands, your face. And the dog comes, and you pet her, and maybe transfer it to her fur. Or she licks you.” Kenzie felt a certain amount of revulsion at the thought. She had never been one of those people who was okay with dogs licking people. Especially on the face, even the mouth.
What better way to spread a virus?
“We always use gloves and a mask when handling the virus,” Ducros said uncomfortably. “So there is no chance that someone was contaminated when they left here.”
“You don’t know that. You hope so, but you don’t know that.”
He shook his head in disagreement but didn’t say anything.
“I think you need to call this Abernathy. Let him know you’re concerned about his mental health and just checking in. If you can’t get through to him, then you should at least notify the police. Do you have a next of kin?”
“I don’t think so. He lived by himself, didn’t have anyone in the area.”
“Maybe you could... give him a call now. I’d feel a lot better about it if I knew he was okay.”
Ducros rolled his eyes. He tapped away on his cellphone, looking for the number, then tapped it and waited. After waiting a few seconds, he shook his head at Kenzie. “It just goes to voicemail.”
“Right away? Or is it no answer and then to voicemail?”
“Right away. He’s probably still ticked off with us and doesn’t want to talk. So he’s rejecting it when he sees my number.”
Or something had happened to him. “Leave a message, tell him that you need him to call back or you will be in touch with the police to do a welfare check.”
“Seriously?” Ducros made a face. “You deal with your employees how you think is best and leave me to deal with mine.”
Kenzie shook her head, irritated. “So tell me... what were you doing with this HHV-4 virus? What were you hoping to achieve? And what kind of results have you had?”
“We are only in the beginning stages of development. It is solely in vitro at the moment. No live hosts, human or animal. We have been... editing it. Hoping that we will be able to use it to insert certain information into human cells, which will allow them to combat disease from the inside out.”
“Which cells?”
“Neurons. We are hoping to be able to reverse the course of brain cell degeneration in Parkinson’s Disease and a number of others. The same principles apply. If we can cure one, we open the door to curing the rest.”
“Huntington’s Disease?” Zachary suggested.
Ducros looked at him in surprise, as if he had forgotten that Zachary was even in the room. “Possibly.”
“So you have engineered these viruses to cross the blood-brain barrier,” Kenzie said.
“Well, they have to get into the brain to do their work.”
“What are they supposed to do once they get in there?”
“We are still working through the processes. It’s not like programming a computer, you know. We have a lot of theories right now. Putting them into practice will be a different story.” Ducros looked at Kenzie. “When we start testing out different scenarios, it will be on genetically altered mice, not humans. There is no way we are ready for human studies.”
“You may have unintentionally started human studies already. And the results are not looking good.”
63
When they eventually made their way out of Virutek, Zachary looked at Kenzie. “So, you found the source of your virus.”
“It looks that way. I can’t believe they are working with viruses without proper isolation protocols in place. If they have an employee with this virus and he’s out there spreading it around...” She put her hands out in a pleading gesture. “Even if Abernathy doesn’t have dementia from the virus, any of the employees could be carrying it. The whole place needs to be shut down until they can be tested and cleared.”
“Do you think... do they have the ability to shut this down now? It hasn’t spread too far ‘into the wild’?”
They got into the car. Kenzie immediately started rifling through her purse. Zachary started the car and watched her, clearly ready to drive wherever she wanted to go next, but waiting to make sure she wasn’t going to be disrupted by the movement of the car. Kenzie held up a finger to make him wait.
“Are you looking for your phone?” Zachary suggested.
Kenzie was already holding it in her other hand. Not that she hadn’t ever caught herself looking for her phone when she was already holding it.
“No, just for...” Kenzie found the small bottle and pounced on it. She squirted a generous amount of alcohol-based gel cleanser into her palm, then passed it to Zachary. “It may not be one hundred percent effective, but it’s better than nothing.”
Zachary took the bottle and followed Kenzie’s example, working the gel around his hands, between his fingers, into his fingertips around the nails. Kenzie put the bottle back into her purse. Hopefully, that would keep the heebie-jeebies at bay. Her skin had been crawling ever since she had realized how lax the protocols were at Virutek.
“And now... I’d better talk to Dr. Wiltshire. I’d go to the office to meet him, but he probably isn’t even there.”
“So do you want to go somewhere? Or just sit here for a few minutes?”
“I think we’d better go to the nursing home.” Kenzie thought about Lola wandering around to meet all the patients. Licking their hands or faces. They had asked the nurse at Champlain House to keep her isolated away from the patients until they had things sorted out, but they would have to be more aggressive than that. Lola should be in quarantine in a lab somewhere while they ran tests on her.
Zachary nodded and pulled out. Kenzie tapped Dr. Wiltshire’s cell number on her phone screen and put the phone to her ear.
Kenzie didn’t even waste time on greetings. As soon as she heard the click that told her Dr. Wiltshire had picked up, she started talking.
“Doctor, I think I found the source of the viral infection. Lola and her previous owner lived in a building that leases space to both residential and commercial businesses. There is a lab on the main floor called Virutek. They are working with viruses, including HHV-4, which they have modified to make it easier to penetrate the blood-brain barrier.”
“Virutek.” Dr. Wiltshire said the name slowly, so Kenzie knew he was writing it down. “And you’ve talked to them?”
“Yes. I was in the lab, and believe me, I wish I wasn’t. I’ve disinfected my hands, but...” She trailed off. “Anyway. They are handling the virus with mask and gloves and believe that the only way for it to be transferred is via bodily fluids. The guy we talked to said that the ventilation is sealed off from the rest of the building, but who knows if that is true? Or how well-sealed it is? He was familiar with Lola, remembers running into her outside or around the neighborhood. That she was very friendly, liked contact with people. I assume that includes licking people who pet her. If not, at least licking her own fur, which people then touch...”
“So you think the dog picked it up through contact with someone at Virutek or through the shared ventilation.”
“Yeah.”
“And it sounds like it could be the right form of the virus. But we’ll need to check with Dr. Savage. His team will need to compare the virus obtained fro
m Cartwright and the others to whatever virus strains Virutek started with and has developed. They’ll be able to tell if it has the same origin.”
“You’ll have to see if you can get Virutek to cooperate on providing samples of their work product. I have a feeling... it’s not going to be that easy.”
“It never is,” Wiltshire sighed. “But this is good work, Kenzie. Well done.”
“Thank you. That’s not everything, though.”
“What else?” he asked cautiously.
“You remember that I said Lola’s former owner used to live there?”
“Of course.”
“Well, the owner’s boyfriend stayed there when she moved out. And he is—or was—Jeremy Salk.”
“Jeremy Salk.” Dr. Wiltshire took a moment to place the name, but was faster than Kenzie had been. “The John Doe? Alcohol poisoning?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s... bizarrely coincidental.”
“If we didn’t have such a clear cause of death, I would wonder if he died from the virus.”
“We didn’t test him for it. We had no idea that there was any connection to the nursing home deaths. I suppose we can go back and test the samples now.” Dr. Wiltshire stopped speaking abruptly.
Kenzie tried to finish his thought process. “Were those among the samples stolen or destroyed?”
“Yes. They were.”
Kenzie swore. “I thought that they just didn’t know which samples were Cartwright’s. But what if all the samples they took were from victims who were positive for the virus? What if the cover-up is... much bigger than we thought?”
“How would anyone know that Jeremy Salk was positive for the virus? Or had at least been exposed to the virus?”
“There’s no way, is there? That is... we don’t have any evidence that he had contracted it. Maybe someone else did. If he was acting strangely, and someone recognized the symptoms as those that this virus causes...”
“No,” Dr. Wiltshire said firmly. “That would mean that they had seen enough other cases to recognize the symptoms as a pattern. And for that... there would have to be a lot more cases.”
“There were others at the nursing home. Maybe there were other outbreaks that we don’t know about. Another pocket somewhere in the city that they could trace back to Virutek. And we only went back three months at the nursing home. How long has this virus been spreading? It could be longer.”
“This is all wild speculation.” Dr. Wiltshire’s tone told Kenzie he wasn’t going to allow it to go any farther. And she knew he was right to pull her back. It was too easy to get wrapped up in conspiracy theories and to see proof of it wherever you looked. “Any outbreaks would have been identified by the authorities. We have nothing to suggest that there were any. Salk’s death was alcohol poisoning. We don’t have any evidence to the contrary. We don’t know if he contracted the virus or not.”
“It’s a pretty wild coincidence that he died at the same time that the rest of this stuff was going on.”
“This life is full of coincidences. It is our nature to see patterns and connections, even where there are not any. You’re aware of that through your studies of medicine. Similar theories and medicines being developed around the world from each other, with no apparent connection between them. Constellations of symptoms that are similar between diseases with different causes. Scientific advancements that started out as mistakes. There is not necessarily a connection.”
“Will you see whether Salk’s body is still available or whether he was cremated?”
By his hesitation, Kenzie knew what he was going to say. “I don’t have any reason to do that. The Medical Examiner cannot just make demands willy-nilly. He needs to have reasons and follow the evidence.”
“You need to be able to get the evidence.”
“We already pushed our luck on the Cartwright case. If I am seen as wasting taxpayer money and investigating conspiracy theories, I’ll lose my job.”
Kenzie sighed. “Okay. And... there’s more.”
“Something worth looking into? Or more theories?”
“Do you buy into the theory that the engineered virus was probably contracted by Lola from Virutek?”
“I am willing to consider it as a possibility. To check into it farther.”
“When I asked about any employees who might be showing symptoms of dementia, Dr. Ducros identified one employee who had been showing increased emotional lability, anxiety, and paranoia.”
“What did you advise him?”
“The man is currently missing.”
“He’s been reported missing?”
“No. He stopped showing up at work. I asked Dr. Ducros to call him, and he didn’t answer.”
“Did they report him missing?”
“No, they figured he just took some time off. I suggested they at least call for a welfare check, but he declined. I don’t think he’s going to. They said he lives alone and they don’t know of any family in the area, but he wasn’t convinced.”
“Maybe that’s one action we could take without raising any red flags. What’s his name? Do you have a phone number or address?”
“Just the name. Joe Abernathy.”
“Phone number is in my notebook,” Zachary said.
Kenzie looked at him. “What? How did you get his phone number?”
“I watched him dial it.”
Kenzie reached into Zachary’s pocket and withdrew his notebook. She hadn’t even seen him write it down.
“Who is there with you, Kenzie?” Dr. Wiltshire asked.
“Zachary. He came along to be my driver and to see if we could get into the building. I guess he watched Dr. Ducros dial the number and took it down.” Flipping through the notebook, Kenzie found the phone number and read it to Dr. Wiltshire.
“Okay. I’ll get the police to do a welfare check.”
“And what about calling in the CDC to look into Virutek and whether they have accidentally released this virus into the wild?”
But she knew what Dr. Wiltshire’s answer would be before he gave it. “Not enough evidence, Kenzie. We need actual proof before we can call the authorities in.”
“There’s a lot of evidence.”
“There’s not enough. They won’t listen and I’ll end up with egg on my face. I don’t want to be branded a conspiracy theorist by the CDC. I want them to listen when we have something.”
64
They were at Champlain House, but Kenzie wasn’t yet ready to go in. She needed to talk to Dr. Savage first and run her theory past him. He was the one who had all the data about the virus. He was the one who would be able to trace where it had come from, who was already working on tracing where it had come from.
“I’ll just be a minute,” she told Zachary.
He gave her a wry smile. “Take however long you want. It doesn’t make any difference to me.”
It was, after all, her case, not his.
Kenzie nodded, a bit embarrassed, and scrolled through her contacts to find Dr. Savage. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be too busy to talk with her. He could be sitting around because all his data had been corrupted and he was waiting for it to be restored. Or he could be deeply involved in the restoration of the data and not want to take the time to deal with someone who really didn’t know as much as she thought she did.
There were a few rings, and then the call was answered.
“Savage.”
“Doctor, it’s Kenzie Kirsch. I don’t know if you remember me—”
“Of course I do, Dr. Kirsch. How are things going over at your office today? And how are you feeling?”
“I’m out in the field today, since there were still police in the Medical Examiner’s Office and our server hadn’t been sorted out yet. And I’m feeling okay, thanks. Just a little tender. Nothing but a bump on the head, but you’d be amazed at how many times during the day you rest the back of your head against something...” In fact, Kenzie was leaning slightly forward in the car, keeping her
head off the headrest.
“I was certainly sorry to hear about your trouble. And I gather you heard about ours.”
Kenzie shook her head. “It sounds like it was much worse. You had guards injured? Someone in the hospital?”
“Critical condition,” Savage agreed. “Who would ever have thought that this type of... thuggery would happen in our offices?”
“Not me.”
“So, what can I do for you today?”
“You may not have your data restored yet, so I don’t know if this will be something that you can act on right away...?”
“We have restored almost full functionality at this point. One thing I have always been very cognizant of is the need to make multiple backups at different locations. And the ability to remotely access at least one of those backups without any specialized software, equipment, or tech support.”
“Wow. That shows great foresight.”
“You only have to lose critical data once to have the point driven home. I’m no smarter than anyone else.”
“So I may have found the source of the escaped virus. I thought I would run it by you, give you what we know, and maybe you would be able to go farther with it.”
“Really? That’s great detective work. I’m afraid that the tedious process I have been going to was likely to take at least another week to trace it, unless I was lucky.”
“We traced the dog that we think is the source of the virus being spread at the nursing home. Before the nurse who has her now owned her, she lived in an apartment above a virus laboratory.”
Savage blew out his breath with a triumphant “ha!”
“No kidding. What is the name of the lab?”
“It’s Virutek.” Kenzie started to spell it out for him.
“I’m familiar with them. They are on my list of labs to talk to. Have you talked to anyone over there?”
“A Dr. Ducros.”
“And I expect he told you that it is impossible that the virus escaped from his lab.”
Doctored Death Page 29