Indian reservation, Valcroix! It’s life-threatening
disease and invasive procedures and using the brain
that God gave us to make inferences and deductions
and decisions, for God’s sake! It’s not managing
a reverse isolation unit like a bus terminal,
where people come in and out and tell you they’re
someone they’re not and whisk your patient away
from under your lazy, sloppy, careless nose!”
The other doctor’s response was a cosmic qmile
as he zoned back out into neveronever land.
Raoul glared at him, ready to pounce. The gang!y
black boy watched the confrontation, eyes wide and
frightened, from behind his plastic screen. A mother
visiting her child in the third module stared, then
drew the curtains protectively.
I took Raoul by the elbow and escorted him to the
nurses’ office. The Filipino nurse was there, charting.
After one look at us, she grabbed her paperwork
and left.
He picked up a pencil from the desk and snapped
it between his fingers. Tossing the broken pieces to
the floor, he kicked them into a corner.
“That bastard! The arrogance, to debate me in
front of ‘ancillary staff–I’ll terminate his fellowship
and get rid of him once and for all.”
He ran a hand over his brow, chewed on his
mustache, and tugged at his jowls until the swarthy
flesh turned rosy.
BLOOD TEST 77
“They’took him,” he said. “Just like that.”
“What do you want to do about it?”
“What I want is to find those Touchers and strangle
them with my bare hands and ”
I picked up the phone. “You want me to call
Security ?”
“Ha! A bunch of senile alcoholics who need help
finding their own flashlights ”
“What about the police? It”s an abduction now.”
“No,” he said quickly. “They won’t do a damned
thing and it will be a freakshow for the media.”
He found Woody’s chart and leafed through it,
hissing.
“Radiology–why would I schedule x-rays for a
child whose treatment is up in the air! It makes no
sense. Nobody thinks anymore. Automatons, all of
them !”
“What do you want to do about it?” I repeated.
“Damned if I know,” he admitted and slapped
the chart on the desktop.
We sat in glum silence for a moment.
“They’re probably halfway to Tijuana,” he said,
“on a pilgrimage to some damned Laetrile clinica–
did you ever see those places? Murals of crabs on
filthy adobe walls. That’s their salvation! Fools!”
“It’s possible they haven’t gone anywhere. Why
don’t we check?”
“How?”
“Beverly has the number of the place they’re
staying. We can call and find out if they’ve checked
out.”
“Play detective-yes, why not? Call her in.”
“Be civil to her, Raoul.”
“Fine, fine.”
I beckoned the social worker away from a pow-
/ jonatmm Ke/hs.
wow with Valcroix and Ellen Beckwith, who gave
me the kind of look usually reserved for plague
carriers.
i told her what I wanted and she nodded wearily.
Once in the office she avoided looking at Raoul
and silently dialed the phone. There was a brief
exchange with the motel clerk, after which she
hung up and said:
“The guy was real uncooperative. He hasn’t seen
them today but they haven’t checked out. The car’s
still there.”
“If you’d like,” I offered, “I’11 go there, try to
make contact with them.”
Raoul consulted his appointment book.
“Meetings until three. I’ll cancel out. Let’s go.”
“I don’t think you should be there, Raoul.”
“That’s absurd, Alex! I’m the physician! This is a
medical issue–”
“Only nominally. Let me handle it.”
His thick brows curled and fury rose in the coffee
bean eyes. He started to say something btt I cut
him off.
“We have to at least consider the possibility,” 1
said softly, “that this whole thing may be due to a
conflict between the family and you.”
He stared at me, making sure he’d heard right,
purpled, choked on his anger, and threw, up his
hands in despair.
“How could you even—”
“I’m not saying it’s so. Just that we need to consider
it. What we want is that boy back in treatment.
Let’s maximize the probability of success by
covering all contingencies.”
He was mad as hell but I’d given him something