At three-thirty, he stuck his head out of his office and asked Helen if there’d been any calls from a Kristin Lindquist. She shook her head. Walking down to the X-ray rooms, Philips asked Kenneth Robbins if the young woman had shown up. The answer was no.
By four o’clock Philips had run another six films through the computer. Once again the machine suggested it was a better radiologist than was Philips by picking up a trace of calcification that suggested a meningioma tumor. Looking back at the film, Philips had to agree. He put the X ray aside to see if Helen could trace the patient down.
At four-fifteen Philips dialed Kristin Lindquist’s number. It was answered on the second ring by her roommate.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Philips, but I haven’t seen Kristin since before she left for the Metropolitan Museum this morning. She missed her eleven and one-fifteen classes, which is not like her.”
“Would you try to locate her for me and have her give me a call?” said Philips.
“I’d be glad to. Frankly, I’m a little concerned.”
At quarter-to-five Helen came into Philips’ office with the day’s correspondence for him to sign so she could post the letters on her way home. A little after five-thirty Denise stopped by.
“Looks like things are more under control,” she said, looking around appreciatively.
“Just appearances,’ said Philips as the laser scanner snatched an X ray out of his hand.
He closed his office door and gave her a solid embrace. He didn’t want to let go of her and when he finally did, she looked up and said, “Wow, what did I do to deserve this?”
“I’ve been thinking about you all day and reliving last night.” He wanted desperately to talk with her about the insecurities Goldblatt had evoked that morning, and tell her that he wanted her to stay with him for the rest of his life. The trouble was that he hadn’t given himself any time to think, and while he didn’t want to let go of her yet, he wanted to be alone, at least for a while. When she reminded him she had promised to make dinner, he hesitated. Seeing her hurt face he said, “What I was thinking is that if I can get a good enough head start running these old films, maybe we could drive out to the island Saturday night.”
“That would be marvelous,” said Denise, mollified. “Oh, by the way, I called GYN and made an appointment for tomorrow around noon.”
“Good. Who’d you talk with?”
“I don’t know. But they were very nice and seemed genuinely happy to accommodate me. Look, if you finish up early why don’t you come over?”
Denise had been gone about an hour when Michaels arrived, delighted to see that Philips had finally started working on the program in earnest.
“It’s exceeding all my expectations,” said Martin. “There hasn’t been a single false negative reading.”
“Fabulous,” said Michaels. “Maybe we’re farther along than we’d guessed.”
“It certainly looks like it. If this keeps up, we could have a functioning, commercially available system by early fall. We could use the annual radiology meeting to unveil it.” Philips’ mind raced ahead, imagining the impact. It made his professional insecurity that morning seem ridiculous.
After Michaels left, Philips went back to work. He’d developed a system of feeding the old X rays into the machine that speeded up the process. But as he worked he began to feel progressively more uncomfortable about Kristin Lindquist’s absence. A growing sense of responsibility overtook his initial irritation at her apparent unreliability. It would be too much of a coincidence if something happened to this woman that precluded him from getting more X rays.
Around nine Martin dialed Kristin’s number again. Her roommate answered it on the first ring.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Philips. I should have called you. But I cannot find Kristin anyplace. No one has seen her all day. I’ve even called the police.”
Philips hung up, trying to deny reality by telling himself it couldn’t happen. It was impossible … Marino, Lucas, McCarthy, Collins and now Lindquist! No. It couldn’t be. It was preposterous. Suddenly he remembered he hadn’t heard from Admitting. Lifting the phone, he was surprised when it was answered after four rings. But the woman who was looking into the case had left at five and wouldn’t be back until eight the next morning, and there was no one else who could help him. Philips slammed the receiver down.