“I’m sure statistics of that ilk would not help our public relations,” Hortense said.
“That’s the concern,” Beaton said.
“Should I have said anything to Dr. Wilson?” Hortense asked.
“No, you did fine,” Beaton said. “Did he research anything else?”
“He was here for quite a while,” Hortense said. “But I have no idea what else he was looking up.”
“The reason I ask,” Beaton said, “is because Dr. Wilson has been suspended from CMV.”
“That I wasn’t aware of,” Hortense said.
“It just happened yesterday,” Beaton said. “Would you let me know if he comes back?”
“Most certainly,” Hortense said.
“Excuse me,” Calhoun said. “Is your name Carl Hobson?” He’d approached one of Bartlet’s uniformed patrolmen as he came out of the diner on Main Street.
“Sure is,” the policeman answered.
“Mine’s Phil Calhoun,” Calhoun said.
“I’ve seen you around the station,” Carl said. “You’re friends with the chief.”
“Yup,” Calhoun said. “Wayne and I go back a ways. I used to be a state policeman, but I got retired.”
“Good for you,” Carl said. “Now it’s nothing but fishing and hunting.”
“I suppose,” Calhoun said. “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“Hell, no,” Carl said with curiosity.
“Carleton over at the Iron Horse told me you had a tattoo,” Calhoun said. “I’ve been thinking about getting one myself so I’ve been looking around and asking questions. Many people in town have ’em?”
“There’s a few,” Carl said.
“When did you get yours?” Calhoun asked.
“Way the hell back in high school,” Carl said with an embarrassed laugh. “Five of us drove over to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, one Friday night when we were seniors. There’s a bunch of tattoo parlors over there. We were all blitzed.”
“Did it hurt?” Calhoun asked.
“Hell, I don’t remember,” Carl said. “Like I said, we were all drunk.”
“All five of you guys still in town?” Calhoun asked.
“Just four of us,” Carl said. “There’s me, Steve Shegwick, Clyde Devonshire, and Mort Abrams.”
“Did everybody get tattooed in the same spot?” Calhoun asked.
“Nope,” Carl said. “Most of us got ’em on our biceps, but some chose their forearms. Clyde Devonshire was the exception. He got tattooed on his chest above each nipple.”
“Who got tattooed on his forearm?” Calhoun asked.
“I’m not sure,” Carl admitted. “It’s been a while. Maybe Shegwick and Jay Kaufman. Kaufman’s the guy who moved away. He went to college someplace in New Jersey.”
“Where’s yours?” Calhoun asked.
“I’ll show you,” Carl said. He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled up the sleeve. On the outer aspect of his upper arm was a howling wolf with the word “lobo” below it.
By the time David returned home from his visit to medical records, Nikki had begun to feel worse. At first she only complained of stomach cramps, but by early evening she was suffering from nausea and increased salivation–the same symptoms David had experienced during the night. They were also the symptoms reported by the six night-shift nurses and, even scarier, by his six patients who had died.
By six-thirty Nikki was lethargic after several bouts of diarrhea, and David was sick with worry. He was terrified that they’d not gotten her out of the hospital quickly enough: whatever had killed his patients had already been given to her.
David did not share his fears with Angela. It was bad enough that she was concerned about Nikki’s ostensible symptoms without adding the burden of a potential link to all those patients who died. So David kept his worries to himself, but he agonized over the possibility of an infectious disease of some kind. He comforted himself with the thought that his illness and the nurses’ had been self-limiting, suggesting a low exposure to an airborne agent. David’s great hope was that if such an agent was to blame, Nikki had only gotten a low dose as well.
Calhoun arrived at exactly seven. He was clutching a sheet of paper and carrying a paper bag.
“I got nine more people with tattoos,” he said.
“I got twenty,” David said. He tried to sound upbeat, but he couldn’t get Nikki out of his mind.
“Let’s combine them,” Calhoun said.
When they combined the lists and threw out the duplicates, they had a final list of twenty-five people.