Cook,Robin - Mortal Fear.txt

by Mortal Fear (lit)

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