“Mrs. Zabriski,” said Marissa, wanting to avoid such a sensitive issue, especially since she believed the woman’s intuition was correct. Marissa sat down next to her. “I’m not one of your husband’s doctors. I’m here to help find out what kind of illness he has and how he got it. Has he done any traveling over the last-” Marissa was going to say three weeks, but remembering Dr. Richter’s trip to Africa, she said instead, “-the last two months?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Zabriski said wearily. “He went to a medical meeting in San Diego last month, and about a week ago he went to Boston.”
“San Diego” made Marissa sit up straighter. “Was that an eyelid surgery conference in San Diego?”
“I believe so,” said Mrs. Zabriski. “But Judith, Carl’s secretary, would know for sure.”
Marissa’s mind whirled. Zabriski had attended the same meeting as Dr. Richter! Another coincidence? The only problem was that the conference in question had been about six weeks previous, about the
same interval of time as from Dr. Richter’s African trip to the appearance of his symptoms. “Do you know what hotel your husband stayed in while he was in San Diego?” asked Marissa. “Could it have been the Coronado Hotel?”
“I believe it was,” said Mrs. Zabriski.
While Marissa’s mind was busy recalling the central role played by a certain hotel in Philadelphia during the Legionnaires Disease outbreak, she asked about Dr. Zabriski’s trip to Boston. But his wife did not know why he’d gone. Instead, she gave Marissa her husband’s secretary’s phone number, saying again that Judith would know that kind of thing.
Marissa took the number and asked whether Dr. Zabriski had been bitten by, or had been around, any monkeys recently.
“No, no,” said Mrs. Zabriski. At least none that she knew of.
Marissa thanked the woman and apologized for bothering her. Armed with the secretary’s home phone number, she went to call Judith.
Marissa had to explain twice who she was and why she was calling so late before the secretary would cooperate. Judith then confirmed what Mrs. Zabriski had told her: namely, that the doctor had stayed at the Coronado Hotel while in San Diego, that Dr. Zabriski had not been bitten recently by any animal, and, as far as she knew, that he’d not been around any monkeys. When Marissa asked if Dr. Zabriski knew Dr. Richter, the answer was that the name had never appeared on any correspondence or on his phone list. Judith said the reason that Dr. Zabriski had gone to Boston was to help plan the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary’s upcoming alumni meeting. She gave Marissa the name and phone number of Dr. Zabriski’s colleague there. As Marissa wrote it down, she wondered if Zabriski had unknowingly transferred the virus to the Boston area. She decided that she’d have to discuss that possibility with Dubchek.
As she hung up, Marissa suddenly remembered that she hadn’t called Ralph from the airport. He answered sleepily, and Marissa apologized both for waking him and for not getting in touch with him before she left Atlanta. After she explained what had happened, Ralph said that he would forgive her only if she promised to call him every couple of days to let him know what was going on. Marissa agreed.
Returning to the isolation ward, Marissa went back to the charts. The two later admissions were a Carol Montgomery and a Dr. Brian Cester. Both had come down with high fevers, splitting headaches and violent abdominal cramps. Although the symptoms sounded
nonspecific, their intensity gave sufficient cause for alarm. There was no reference to travel or animal contact in either chart.
After gathering the material necessary for taking viral samples, Marissa dressed in protective gear and visited Carol Montgomery. The patient was a woman one year older than Marissa. Marissa found it hard not to identify with her. She was a lawyer who worked for one of the city’s large corporate firms. Although she was lucid and able to talk, it was apparent that she was gravely ill.
Marissa asked if she had done any recent traveling. The answer was no. Marissa asked if she knew Dr. Zabriski. Carol said that she did. Dr. Zabriski was her ophthalmologist. Had she seen him recently? The answer was yes: she’d gone to him four days ago.