“Maybe you are getting too emotionally involved,” Laurie suggested.
“Could be,” Jack said. He was feeling a bit guilty about wishing the worst for AmeriCare regarding the first case. “I’ll try to calm down. Maybe I should go do more reading on infectious diseases.”
“That’s the point, Laurie said. “Instead of stressing yourself out, you should treat these cases as an opportunity to learn. After all, that’s part of the fun of this job.”
Jack tried vainly to peer through Laurie’s plastic face mask to get an idea of whether she was being serious or just mocking him. Unfortunately with all the reflections from the overhead lights, he couldn’t tell.
Leaving Laurie, Jack stopped briefly at Chet’s table. Chet was not in a good mood.
“Hell,” he said. “It’s going to take me all day to trace these bullet paths the way Bingham suggested. If he wants to be this particular, I wonder why he doesn’t do the case himself.
“Yell if you need any help,” Jack said. “I’ll be happy to come down and lend a hand.”
“I might do that,” Chet said.
Jack disposed of his protective gear, changed into his street clothes, and made sure his ventilation charger was plugged in. Then he got the autopsy folders for Lopez and Lagenthorpe. From Hester’s folder he looked up her next of kin. A sister was listed whose address was the same as the deceased. Jack surmised they were roommates. He copied down the phone number.
Next Jack sought out Vinnie, whom he found coming out of the walk-in cooler where he’d just deposited Lagenthorpe’s corpse.
“Where are all the samples from our two cases?” Jack asked.
“I got’em all under control,” Vinnie said.
“I want to take them upstairs myself,” Jack said.
“Are you sure?” Vinnie asked. Running up the samples to the various labs was always an excuse for a coffee break. “I’m positive,” Jack said.
Once he was armed with all the samples plus the autopsy folders Jack set out for his office. But he made two detours. The first was to the microbiology lab, where he sought out Agnes Finn.
“I was impressed with your diagnosis of tularemia,” Agnes said.
“I’m getting a lot of compliments out of that one,” Jack said.
“Got something for me today?” Agnes asked, eyeing Jack’s armful of samples.
“I do, indeed,” Jack said. He found the appropriate sample from Lopez and put it on the corner of Agnes’s desk. “This is another probable tularemia. Another sample will come up from a case Laurie Montgomery is doing as we speak. I want them both tested for tularemia.”
“The reference lab is very eager to follow up on the Hard case, so that won’t be difficult. I should have results back today. What else?”
“Well, this one is a mystery,” Jack said. He put several samples from Lagenthorpe on Agnes’s desk. “I don’t have any idea what this patient had. All I know is that it’s not plague, and it’s not tularemia.”
Jack went on to describe the Lagenthorpe case, giving Agnes all the positive findings. She was especially interested that no bacteria had been reported on the gram stain of the sputum.
“Have you thought of virus?” Agnes asked.
“As much as my limited infectious disease knowledge would allow,” Jack admitted. “Hantavirus crossed my mind, but there was not a lot of hemorrhage.”
“I’ll start some viral screening with tissue cultures,” Agnes said.
“I plan to do some reading and maybe I’ll have another idea,” Jack said.
“I’ll be here,” Agnes assured him.
Leaving microbiology, Jack went up to the fifth-floor histology lab.
“Wake up, girls, we have a visitor,” one of the histology techs shouted.
Laughter echoed around the room.
Jack smiled. He always enjoyed visiting histology. The entire group of women who worked there always seemed to be in the best of moods. Jack was particularly fond of Maureen O’Conner, a busty redhead with a devilish twinkle in her eye. He was pleased when he saw her round the corner of the lab bench, wiping her hands on a towel. The front of her lab coat was stained a rainbow of colors.
“Well now, Dr. Stapleton,” she said in her pleasant brogue. “What can we do for the likes of you?”