yet relieved, that Danielle's memory was receding.
Jason's phone rang, but he ignored it. He looked over his desk, which
was a mass of stacked hospital charts of deceased patients, including
Hayes's.
Involuntarily, Jason's mind went back to the Hayes affair. It was
frustrating that the package Emm. Carol, which had- held such hope, had
added so little information. It did give a bit more credence to the idea
Hayes had made a discovery that at least he thought was stupendous.
Jason cursed Hayes's secrecy.
Leaning back, Jason put his hands behind his head and stared up at the
ceiling. He was running out of ideas about Hayes. But then he remembered
the Oriental engineer's comment that Hayes had brought something back
from the Coast, presumably Seattle. It must have been a sample of
something because Hayes had subjected it to a complicated extraction
process. From Hong's comments, it seemed to Jason that Hayes had
probably been isolating some kind of growth factor which would stimulate
growth, or differentiation, or maturation, or all three.
Jason came forward with a thump. Remembering that Carol had said Hayes
had visited a colleague at the University of Washington, Jason suddenly
entertained the idea that Hayes had obtained some kind of sample from
the man.
All at once, Jason decided he'd go to Seattle, provided, of course,
Carol would go along. She might.
After all, she'd be the key to finding this friend. Besides, a few days
away sounded extremely therapeutic to Jason. With a little time left
before the staff meeting, Jason decided to stop by and see Shirley.
Shirley's secretary at first insisted that her boss was too busy to see
Jason, but he convinced her to at least announce his presence. A moment
later he was ushered inside. Shirley was on the phone. Jason took a
seat, gradually catching the drift of the conversation. She was dealing
with a union leader, handling the person with impressive ease. Absently
she ran her fingers through her thick hair. It was a wonderfully
feminine gesture, reminding Jason that underneath the professional
surface was a very attractive woman, complicated but lovely.
Shirley hung tip and smiled. "This is a treat," she said. "You are
filled with surprises these days, aren't you, Jason? I suppose you're
here to apologize for not having spent more time with me last night."
Jason laughed. Her directness was disarming. "Maybe so. But there's
something else. I'm thinking of taking a few days off. I lost another
patient this morning and I think I need some time away."
Shirley clicked her tongue in sympathy. "Was it expected?"
"I guess so. At least over the last few days. But when I'd admitted her
I had no idea she was terminal."
Shirley sighed. "I don't know how you deal with this sort of thing."
"It's never easy," Jason agreed. "But what's made it particularly hard
lately is the frequency."
Shirley's phone rang, but she buzzed her secretary to take a message.
"Anyway," Jason said, "I've decided to take a few days off."
"I think it's a good idea," Shirley said. "I wouldn't mind doing the
same if these damned union negotiations conclude. Where are you planning
to go?"
" I , m not sure," Jason lied. The trip to Seattle was such a long shot
that he was ashamed to mention it.
"I have some friends who own a resort in the British Virgin Islands.
1could give them a call," Shirley offered.
"No, thanks. I'm not a sun person. What's happened about the
Brennquivist tragedy? Much Eallout?"
"Don't remind me," Shirley said. "To tell you the truth, I couldn't face
it. Bob Walthrow is handling that."
"I had nightmares all night," admitted Jason.
"Not surprising," Shirley said.
"Well, I've got a meeting," Jason said, getting to his feet.
"Would you have time for dinner tonight?" Shirley asked. "Maybe we can
cheer each other up."
"Sure. What time?"
"Let's say around eight."
"Eight it is," Jason said, heading for the door. As he left, Shirley
called after him.
"I'm really sorry about your patient."
The staff meeting was better attended than Jason had expected, given
such short notice. Fourteen of the sixteen internists were there, and
several had brought along their nurses. It seemed obvious they all
recognized they were facing a serious problem.
Jason started with the statistics that he'd extracted from the computer
printout listing all patients who'd died within a month of a complete
physical. He pointed out that the number of deaths had increased in the
last three months, and said he was trying to check up on all GHP clients
who'd had -executive physicals in the last sixty days.
"Were the physicals evenly distributed among us?" Roger Wanamaker asked.
Jason nodded.
A number of the doctors spoke out, making it clear they feared the start
of a nationwide epidemic. No one could understand the connection with
the physicals, and why the deaths were not being anticipated. The acting
chief of cardiology, Dr. Judith Rolander, tried to take much of the
blame on herself, admitting that in most of the cases she'd reviewed,
the EKG done during the physical did not predict the imminent problems,
even when she was armed with hindsight.
The conversation then switched to stress testing as the main key to
predicting catastrophic cardiac events. There were many opinions on this
issue; all were duly discussed. Upon recommendation fi-om the floor, an
ad hoc committee was formed to look into specific ways to alter their
stress testing in hopes of increasing its prognostic value.
Jerome Washington then took the floor. Getting heavily on his feet, he
said, "I think we're overlooking the significance of unhealthy
lifestyles.
That's one factor that all these patients seem to share."
There were a few joking references to Jerome's weight and his affection
for cigars. "All right, you guys," he said. "You know patients should do
what we say and not what we do." Everyone laughed. "Seriously," he
continued.
"We all know the dangers of poor diet, heavy smoking, excess alcohol and
lack of exercise. Such social factors have far more predictive value
than a mild EKG abnormality."
"Jerome is right," Jason said. "The poor riskfactor profile was the only
negative commonality I could find."
By a vote, it was decided to form a second committee to investigate
risk-factor contribution to the current problem and come up with
specific recommendations.
Harry Sarnoff, the current month's consulting cardiologist, raised his
hand, and Jason recognized him. When he got to his feet, he began to
talk about noticing an increase in morbidity and mortality for his
inpatients.
Jason interrupted him.
"Excuse me, Harry," Jason said. "I can appreciate your concern, and
frankly I've had experience apparently similar to yours. However, this
current meeting involves the problem with the outpatient executive
physicals. We
can schedule a second meeting if the staff desires to
discuss any potential inpatient problem. They very well may be related."
Harty threw up his hands, and reluctantly sat back down.
Jason then encouraged the staff to be sure to autopsy any patients who
met unexpected deaths if the medical examiner didn't take them. Jason
then told the audience that the results from the medical examiner's
office on his patients suggested that the people were suffering
multisystern disease including extensive cardiovascular problems. Of
course, that fact only undermined the concern that their conditions had
not been picked up on either resting or exercise EKGs. Jason added that
Pathology thought there was an autoimmune component.
After the meeting broke up, the doctors gravitated to smaller groups to
discuss the problem. Jason collected his printout and searched for Roger
Wanamaker. He was in an animated conversation with Jerome.
"May 1-interrupt?" Jason asked. The two men separated to allow Jason to
join them. "I'm about to leave town for a few days."
Roger and Jerome , exchanged glances. Roger spoke: "Seems like a poor
time to be leaving."
"I need it," Jason said without elaborating. "But I have five patients
in house. Would either of you gendemen be willing to cover? I'll admit
right up front that they're all pretty sick."
"Wouldn't much matter," Roger said. "I've been in here night and day
trying to keep my own half dozen alive. I'll be happy to cover."
With that problem solved, Jason went into his office and called Carol
Donner, thinking late afternoon would be a good time to catch her. The
phone rang a long time and he was about to give up when she answered,
out of breath. She told him she'd been in the bath.
"I want to see you tonight," Jason said.
"Oh," Carol said noncommittally. She hesitated. "That might be
difficult."
Then she added angrily, "Why didn't you tell me about Helene
Brennquivist last night? I read in the paper that you were the one who
found the bodies."
"I'm sorry," Jason said defensively. "To be perfectly honest, you woke
me last night and all I could think about was the package."
"Did you get it?" Carol asked, her voice softening.
"I did," Jason said. "Thank you."
"And ... ?"
"The material wasn't as enlightening as I'd hoped."
" I , m surprised," said Carol. "The ledgers must have been important or
Alvin wouldn't have asked me to keep them. But that's beside the point.
What an awful thing about Helene. My boss is so distressed he won't let
me go anywhere without one of the club bouncers. He's outside the
building at this very moment."
"It's important that I see you alone," Jason said.
"I don't know if I can. This behemoth takes orders &orn my boss, not me.
And I don't want any trouble."
"Well, call me the minute you get home," Jason said. "Promise! We'll
think of something."
"It'll be late again," Carol warned.
"That doesn't matter. It's important."
"All right," Carol agreed before hanging up.
Jason made one more call, to United Airlines, and checked on service
from Boston to Seattle. He learned there was a daily flight at four P.
m.
Gathering his stethoscope, Jason left his office and headed for the
hospital to make rounds. He knew he needed to thorouoly update his
charts if Roger was going to cover. None of his patients was doing very
well, and Jason was disturbed to find that another patient had developed
advanced cataracts. Troubled, he arranged an ophthalmology consult. This
time he was certain he hadn't noticed the problem on admission. How
could the cataracts have progressed so far so fast?
At home, he changed into jogging clothes and ran a good hour, trying to
sort out his thoughts. By the time he showerefl, changed, and drove over
to Shirley's, he was in a better mood.
Shirley outdid herself with the dinner, and Jason began to think she'd
fit into the Superwoman category. She'd worked all day running a
multimillion dollar company and conducting crucial union negotiations,
yet somehow she'd gotten home, put to- MORTAL FEAR
gether a fabulous feast of roast duck with fresh pasta and artichoke.
And on top of that she'd dressed herself in a black silk chemise that
would have been appropriate for the opera. Jason felt embarrassed that
he'd put on jeans and a rugby shirt over a turtleneck after his shower.
"You wore what you wanted and so did L" Shirley said with a laugh. She
gave him a Kir Royale and told him to wash the radicchio and the arugula
for their salad. She checked the duck and said it was about done. To
Jason, it smelled heavenly.
They ate in the dining room, sitting at opposite ends of a long table
with six empty chairs on either side. Every time Jason poured more wine,
he had to get up and walk several steps. Shirley thought it was amusing.
As they ate, Jason described the staff meeting and added that all the
doctors were going to intensify the quality of their stress testing.
Shirley was pleased, reminding Jason that the executive physical was an
important part of GHP's sales pitch to corporate clients. She told Jason
that there would be a new emphasis on preventive medicine for executive
customers.
Later, over coffee, she said, "Michael Curran came by this afternoon."
"Reafly," said Jason. "I'm sure that was unpleasant. What did he want?"
"Background material on the Brennquivist woman. We gave him everything
we had. He even interviewed the woman in personnel who'd hired her."
"Did he mention if they had any suspects?"
"He didn't say," Shirley said. "I just hope it's all over.
"I wish I'd gotten to talk with Helene again. I still think she was
covering for Hayes."
"Do you still think he discovered something?"
"Absolutely." Jason went on to describe the lab ledgers and his visit to
Gene, Inc., and to Samuel Schwartz. He told Shirley that Schwartz had
set up a corporation for Hayes that was to market the new discovery,
whatever it was.
"Didn't the lawyer know what the product was?"
"Nope. Apparently Hayes trusted no one."
"But he would have needed seed capital. He would have had to trust
someone if he was planning to manufacture and distribute."
"Maybe so," Jason admitted. "But I can't find anyone he told-at least
not yet. Unfortunately, Helene was the best bet."
"Are you still looking?"
"I guess so," he admitted. "Does that sound stupid?"
"Not stupid," Shirley said, "just disturbing. it would be a tragedy if
an important discovery were lost, but I definitely think it's time to
put the Hayes afeair to rest. I hope you're taking time off to relax,
not to continue this wild-goose chase."
"Now why would you suggest that?" Jason asked, surprised at his own
transparency.
"Because you don't give up easily." She moved over and put her hand on
his shoulder.-"Why don't you go to the Caribbean? Maybe I could get away
over the weekend and join you ... Jason experienced an e
xcitement he'd
not felt since Danielle's death. The idea of the hot sun and cool, clear
water sounded wonderful, especially if Shirley were there too. But then
he hesitated. He didn't know if he was ready for the emotional
commitment that would entail. And, more important, he'd promised himself
he'd visit Seattle.
" I want to go out to the West Coast," he said finally. "There's an old
friend out there I'd like to "That sounds innocent enough. But the
Caribbean sounds better to me."
"Maybe soon." He gave Shirley's arm a squeeze. "How about a cognac?"
As Shirley got up to get the Courvoisier, Jason studied her figure with
increasing interest.
When Carol called at two-thirty in the morning, Jason was wide awake.
He'd been so worried that she might forget, he hadn't been able to
sleep.
"I'm exhausted, Jason," Carol announced, instead of saying hello.
"I'm sorry, but I must see you," he said. "I can be over in ten
minutes."
"I don't think that would be a good idea. As I told you this. afternoon,
I'm not alone. There's someone outside watching my building. Why do you
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