The Arms of Death

by Maggie Foster

  “The Professor, naturally enough, said the fees were for the research and results could never be guaranteed. Professor Craig also suggested they step into his office to continue the discussion in private, but Mr. Adams would have none of that. He started shouting that he wanted everyone to know just how big a crook the Professor was and he was going to see him ruined, professionally and financially.”

  “And?” Ginny asked, but Elaine fell silent, a polite smile settling on her face.

  “Good evening, Mr. Williams.”

  Ginny turned to find Hal bearing down on them. He nodded in Elaine’s direction then took Ginny by the arm and pulled her toward the banquet table. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for over ten minutes.”

  “Oh, Hal! I’m so sorry. I was just powdering my nose and ran into Elaine on the way out. I do apologize.”

  “Never mind. Just come on. The natives are getting restless and if we don’t feed them soon we may have a riot on our hands.” He pulled her arm through his and escorted her with the gravest courtesy to her seat at one end of the table, then took his place at the other.

  * * *

  The dinner was a typical catered affair, remarkable more for its visual appeal than for its taste, though Ginny had to admit the vegetables were fresh and well prepared. The seat assignments had been made by Mrs. Campbell and Ginny knew there must have been some last minute shuffling to accommodate the loss of Professor Craig, so it was with a certain amount of relief she found herself flanked by an aging patron, whom she knew and liked, on her right hand, and Jim Mackenzie on her left.

  She turned to Jim first. “I believe you mentioned you had family in the area?”

  He nodded. “My grandfather. He lives over near Loch Lonach.”

  “It’s a nice neighborhood.”

  “He has the old house all to himself and I think he likes it that way.”

  “No other family?” Asking personal questions was tricky, but a certain amount of information had to be extracted before common ground could be identified, and he hadn’t yet told her whether the absence of a wedding band also meant the absence of a wife.

  “Just me. My parents are gone and I was an only child.”

  Ginny’s brow furrowed. “Wait a minute. Your grandfather, is that Angus Mackenzie?” She looked at Jim with more attention.

  “Yes, it is. Do you know him?”

  Ginny nodded. “I heard his family left the area.”

  “We moved to Virginia when I was still a boy. Now that my parents are dead, I’ve come back to take care of the old man. Not that he sees it that way, of course. We hardly know each other, but family is family.”

  Ginny looked at Jim with a growing respect. A grandson of Angus Mackenzie might be worth getting to know. “Will you be moving back into Loch Lonach?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know what I’ll be doing. My apartment is near the hospital, for convenience’ sake, but I expect I’ll be spending some time over at the old house. It needs a lot of work.”

  Ginny nodded. Her own parents’ home was in similar condition.

  “I’m sure he’ll be very happy to have you back.”

  “He’ll be glad about one thing, anyway.”

  “What’s that?”

  He grinned at Ginny. “He’s missed having someone to lecture. Now I’m back, I’ll have to spend some time sitting quietly and saying, ‘Yes, Grandfather,’ and ‘No, Grandfather,’ and listening to all the old stories again.”

  “He has some good ones.”

  “Yes, and he’ll consider it up to me to memorize them. He used to make a big point of the fact, how it would be my job to carry on once my father and he were gone.”

  Ginny grinned. “Ancestors are like that. They can be very demanding.”

  Jim leaned towards her, lowering his voice. “Yes, especially on the subject of descendants.”

  Ginny couldn’t help laughing. “Is he demanding great-grandchildren from you?”

  “Oh, yes, and very insistent on the point. He can’t understand why I’m so tardy about it.”

  Ginny kept her eyes on her plate as she asked, “And why are you?”

  “I haven’t met the right woman, yet, though I haven’t given up hope.”

  She looked up to find Jim smiling at her, his wine glass in his hand and a speculative look in his eye. Ginny wasn’t above doing some speculating of her own, but her duties as hostess came first. She smiled, gave him a noncommittal nod, and turned to the old gentleman on her right.

  * * *

  Chapter 7

  Friday Evening

  Ginny stretched her legs out carefully in front of the sofa, aware she was still ‘on parade’ and any breech in etiquette would be noticed and criticized.

  “Miss Forbes?”

  She looked up to see a quiet-looking young man in a regular business suit addressing her. “Yes?”

  “It is you, isn’t it? You took care of Uncle Don when he was in the hospital?”

  Ginny blinked then realized where she had seen this man before. “You’re Professor Craig’s nephew, aren’t you?”

  “Yes I am.”

  She rose and offered him her hand. “I’m so sorry for your loss. We’re going to miss your uncle.”

  “You’re very kind to say so. I hope you don’t mind, I saw you over here and I just wanted to tell you how much we, my wife and I, appreciated how nice you were to us, at the hospital. It was kind of hard, coming in from out of town and everything.”

  “I imagine so. What are your plans now? Is there anything I can do to help?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think so. We’ll be staying at Uncle Don’s house for a while. Until after the funeral, at least, then we’ll have to see. We have to go through his things and talk to the lawyer and there’s this business with the infection.”

  Ginny’s brow furrowed. “What business?”

  “The CDC man suggested we shouldn’t go home just yet. He seemed to think we might have been exposed to something. I’d hate for us to take it home to the kids. They’re staying with their grandmother this week.”

  Ginny nodded. She’d heard similar comments throughout the night. “Yes. We’ve all been interviewed, but we hope there’s nothing to it.” She called up a reassuring smile. “I wouldn’t worry about it just yet. Is your wife with you?”

  “No. She’s at home, his house, I mean. I only came because of the award.”

  Ginny blinked. “Award?”

  “Some woman called the house and said they planned to give Uncle Don some kind of award at this party tonight and asked if I would come and collect it in his name and I said I would. Now I’m here, I wish I hadn’t come. Everyone’s so dressed up and all I had was this.” He indicated the suit.

  Ginny frowned in sudden concern. She slipped her arm through Mr. Craig’s and gave it a squeeze. “Don’t you think a thing about it! Of course you didn’t bring party clothes. Why should you? No one is going to expect it. I’m very glad you’re here. Professor Craig deserves to have his award accepted properly and we shall see that it is. What you need is a drink. Come on.”

  “That’s really nice of you, Miss Forbes.”

  “Please call me Ginny.”

  “Mark.”

  Ginny smiled up into a pair of dark eyes, noticing the sharp bones and aquiline nose that indicated at least one exotic ancestor. “Come on. They’re about to start the speeches and I can’t face them without a little liquid fortitude.”

  She steered her guest over to the sideboard and made sure he had his choice of drinks, then mixed a very light one for herself. She was beginning to wilt and wanted the whole thing over with, but she couldn’t let this nice young man feel like a fifth wheel. Not here. For Professor Craig’s sake, she exerted herself to support and entertain his nephew. She found both of them seats along the edge of the room and spent the time whispering bits of local gossip into his ear as each of the speakers and awardees took the floor.

  There was no printed program, so Gin
ny had to guess how long the presentations would last. There were many thankyous directed at the staff and faculty of the conference, with particular emphasis on the out-of-towners and mutual admiration flowed freely, but the Dragon seemed to be winding down the evening when their host stepped forward and took center stage.

  Hal spoke movingly and with great dignity of the life just taken from them. Professor Craig had been a legitimate star in his own world. He would be missed both personally and professionally. It was therefore fitting he should have been slated to receive this little token of affection and esteem. Would Mr. Mark Craig please come forward and accept this award on behalf of his uncle and in loving memory of a great man?

  Ginny escorted her guest to the front of the crowd and was pleased to see he got through the ordeal well. His unassuming personality made his brief thanks seem eloquent. When Hal stepped forward again the room fell silent. The assembled guests rose and bowed their heads in a moment of mute tribute, then stirred and began to drift off. Ginny took Mark by the elbow and guided him through the gauntlet of well-wishers and out onto the front steps. He handed the valet his stub and the two of them waited for the car to appear.

  “Thank you for coming, Mark. It was really brave of you.”

  He smiled at her. “Thank you for your help.”

  “Please say hello to your wife for me and let me know if you think of anything I can do to help.”

  “I will. Goodnight.”

  Ginny watched until his car disappeared into the main road, then returned to the house to find the party breaking up and the guests preparing to leave. She was not sorry. It had been a long day.

  * * *

  With the guests gone and the caterers clearing away, Ginny collapsed onto the sofa, kicked off her shoes, and propped her feet up on the coffee table. “Thank Heaven that’s over,” she said. “I can hardly keep my eyes open.” Whereupon she closed them and let her head fall back onto the cushions.

  Hal came up behind her, leaned over, and planted an upside down kiss on her lips. “You were wonderful.”

  Ginny smiled. “So were you.”

  He moved around in front of her and held out his hands. “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “I know. I’d just feel better if I saw you to your door.”

  Ginny yawned. “I brought my own car.”

  “Pick it up tomorrow.”

  “I can’t. I’m going to need it in the morning.”

  “Then we’ll take your car. Come on, give me your hands.”

  “How will you get home?”

  “Will you stop fussing? Jim can follow us and bring me back.”

  “Is he still here?”

  “Just going,” Jim walked into the room. “I only waited to say goodnight.”

  Hal put his proposition to the other man.

  Jim nodded. “Sure. I’d be glad to help out.”

  Ginny shrugged. “All right, if that’s what you want, but we’d better go before I fall asleep right here.” She held out her hands.

  Hal laughed and pulled her up into his arms. “You’re welcome to stay in one of the bedrooms,” he breathed into her ear. “Any one of them.”

  She tipped her head back so she could see his face and smiled at him. “It’s a tempting offer, but I think I’d better not.”

  Their eyes met and Ginny felt her heart flutter.

  “Another time, then,” he said quietly.

  The three of them walked down the steps to where the last two cars were waiting, brought around by the parking valet before he left.

  Hal settled into the driver’s side of her car, releasing the catch on the seat and pushing it back to make room for his long legs. They talked about the conference and the party all the way home satisfied that, in spite of everything, the week had gone off very well.

  “Except, of course, for Professor Craig’s death and the investigation,” Ginny said.

  Hal looked over at her in surprise. “Investigation? What investigation?”

  “Hadn’t you heard? That CDC investigator has been asking people to stay in town and no one is very happy about it.”

  Hal pulled up in front of Ginny’s house, turned the ignition off and twisted around to face her.

  “What’s going on?”

  She told him all she knew, about the surprising nature of Professor Craig’s death, the hospital staff’s suspicions, and the CDC’s tight-lipped non-disclosure. At the end of the recital, Hal sat grimly quiet.

  “You took care of him?” he asked at last.

  “Yes. There were a lot of other people involved, of course, but I had him more than anyone else.”

  “Do you think the death was suspicious?”

  Ginny sighed. “I don’t know. The neurologist must have thought so. He called in the CDC.”

  “They think it’s a virus?”

  “Best guess, so far.”

  “And everyone at the conference has probably been exposed?”

  “Anyone who came into contact with him.”

  “Jesus!”

  Ginny nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

  Hal was silent for a moment, frowning heavily. “Could it be dangerous, to us, I mean?”

  “I don’t know. If it’s contagious, we may all be in serious trouble, but it may not be. Viruses are funny things. We’re just going to have to wait and see.”

  Hal nodded, then climbed out of the car and came around to let her out. He escorted her to her front door and opened it for her, then handed her the keys. “I’ll call you tomorrow.” He stood hovering over her, his face troubled. Ginny slipped her arms around him.

  “Don’t worry, Hal. Not yet.” She gave him a hug and he held her close for a moment before letting her go.

  “You let me know, the moment you hear anything.”

  “I will.”

  Ginny watched him walk down the path and climb into the BMW that had pulled up behind her car. She found herself wishing she hadn’t told him about the investigation. Not that she could have withheld the information, but it had changed things between them. That lovely moment back at his house was gone. He was no longer smiling — and he hadn’t kissed her goodnight.

  * * *

  Chapter 8

  Saturday

  Ginny glanced at the kitchen calendar. Saturday. The medical school library wouldn’t open until ten so there was plenty of time to get some other stuff done first. She pulled out the phone and called her brother.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, Sandy. Am I disturbing you?” The nickname had been bestowed by their grandparents and was still used within the family.

  “Not at all. How’s everything in Dallas?”

  “Fine.”

  “Mom okay?”

  “She’s fine. That’s not why I’m calling. I want to ask a favor.”

  “What kind of a favor?”

  Ginny grinned at the note of wariness that had appeared in his voice. They were, after all, siblings.

  “A colleague of yours was down here yesterday.”

  “You mean Chip? Yes, I heard he was in Dallas. What’s going on?”

  “We had an unexplained death in my ICU.”

  “Your ICU?”

  “Yes.”

  “I hadn’t realized you were involved. What was he looking for?”

  “He wouldn’t tell us. That’s why I’m calling you. I’d like to know what they think we’ve been exposed to.”

  Ginny could almost hear her brother frown over the telephone.

  “Tell me about your patient.” He sound worried.

  Ginny told him what she had told the investigator.

  “It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard of before. Certainly not one of the known problem viruses. Is anyone else sick?”

  “No, but we don’t know what kind of incubation period this thing may have.”

  “I don’t suppose you were in isolation or anything of that sort?”

  “Standard p
recautions, but I doubt if I was very good about it. We thought we knew what we were dealing with and the man was someone I knew personally. It didn’t seem likely this very stuffy old man would be carrying anything dangerous. You know.”

  “Yes.”

  Ginny had heard her brother talk about the way most people reacted to the threat of a deadly virus. Disbelief produced more deaths than any other factor. There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line. Ginny waited for him to continue.

  “All I know at the moment is Chip called and asked for some extra investigators. I almost came myself, except the boys have a game today and I promised I’d be there.”

  “Much as I would love to see you, I’m just as glad you didn’t come. I hate to think of you bringing a really nasty bug home to them one day.”

  “What about me? Don’t you care if I get the creeping shimmies?”

  Ginny grinned into the phone. “Nope. It’s your job and you knew the risks going in.”

  She heard Alex snort. “So much for sisterly affection. So what do you want me to do?”

  “I want you to cozy up to Chip Galloway and pick his brain. Find out what he suspects and call me back. Can you do that?”

  “If he’s conducting an investigation in Dallas, he won’t be back in Atlanta any time this week, but I’ll tackle him when he returns. In the meantime, how about if I go into the lab and see if I can find out what the analysts are doing?”

  “That would be great, and let me know as soon as you have anything, positive or negative.”

  “Sure. As soon as I can, and Ginny—” He hesitated.

  “Yes?”

  “Take care of yourself. If you start having symptoms, get into treatment and call us ASAP.”

  Ginny’s smile faded. “Don’t worry, I will. Hugs and kisses all around. Bye.”

  She hung up the phone, sobered by Alex’s warning. Until they were sure no one had picked a bug up from Professor Craig, they wouldn’t know what to expect, not even what symptoms to watch for. There was going to be a higher than average number of false alarms in the E.R. this week. Well, she couldn’t let that interfere with her routine. She changed clothes and headed out to the park.