“Sorry to keep you waiting,” she said when she finished her call. Despite her problems she was as affable as the last time Jack had talked with her. “But I’m in desperate need of more help.”
Jack reintroduced himself, but Gladys said she’d recognized him despite the mask. So much for the disguise, Jack thought glumly.
“I’m sorry about what’s happened,” Jack said. “It must be difficult for you for all sorts of reasons.”
“It’s been terrible,” she admitted. “Just terrible. Who would have guessed? Four wonderful people!”
“It’s shocking,” Jack said. “Especially since it’s so unusual. As you said last time I was here, no one in this department had ever caught anything serious before.”
Gladys raised her uplifted hands. “What can you do?” she said. “It’s in God’s hands.”
“It might be in God’s hands,” Jack said. “But usually there is some way to explain this kind of contagion. Have you given it any thought at all?”
Gladys nodded vigorously. “I’ve thought about it until I was blue in the face,” she said. “I don’t have a clue. Even if I didn’t want to think about it, I’ve had to because everybody has been asking me the same question.”
“Really,” Jack said with a twinge of disappointment. He’d had the idea he was exploring virginal territory.
“Dr. Zimmerman was in here right after you on Thursday,” Gladys said. “She came with this cute little man who kept sticking his chin out as if his collar button were too tight.”
“That sounds like Dr. Clint Abelard,” Jack said, realizing he truly was strolling a beaten path.
“That was his name,” Gladys said. “He sure could ask a lot of questions. And they’ve been back each time someone else has gotten sick.
That’s why we’re all wearing our masks. They even had Mr. Eversharp down here from engineering, thinking there might have been something messed up with our air-conditioning system, but apparently that’s fine.”
“So they haven’t come up with any explanation?” Jack said.
“Nope,” Gladys said. “Unless they haven’t told me. But I doubt that. It’s been like Grand Central in here. Used to be no one came. Some of these doctors, though, they’re a little strange.”
“How so?” Jack asked.
“Just weird,” Gladys said. “Like the doctor from the lab. He’s come down here plenty of times lately.”
“Is that Dr. Cheveau?” Jack asked.
“I think so,” Gladys said.
“In what way was he strange?” Jack asked.
“Just unfriendly,” Gladys said. She lowered her voice as if telling a secret. “I asked him if I could help him a couple of times, and he bites my head off. He says he just wants to be left alone. But, you know, this is my department. I’m responsible for all this inventory. I don’t like people wandering around, even doctors. I had to tell him.”
“Who else has been around?” Jack asked.
“A bunch of the bigwigs,” Gladys said. “Even Mr. Kelley. Usually I’d only see him at the Christmas party. Last couple of days he’s been down here three or four times, always with a bunch of people. Once with that little doctor.”
“Dr. Abelard?” Jack asked.
“That’s the one,” Gladys said. “I can never remember his name.”
“I hate to ask you the same questions as the others,” Jack said. “But did the women who died perform similar tasks? I mean, did they share some specific job?”
“Like I told you last time,” Gladys said, “we all pitch in.”
“None of them went up to the patients’ rooms who died of the same illnesses?” Jack asked.
“No, nothing like that,” Gladys said. “That was the first thing that Dr. Zimmerman checked.”
“Last time I was here you printed out a big list of all the stuff that you’d sent up to the seventh floor,” Jack said. “Could you make the same list for an individual patient?”
“That would be more difficult,” Gladys said. “The order usually comes from the floor, and then it is the floor that enters it into the patient’s data.”
“Is there any way you could come up with such a list?” Jack asked.
“I suppose,” Gladys said. “When we do inventory there is a way of double-checking through billing. I could tell billing I’m doing that kind of check even though we’re not officially doing inventory.”