Marissa wrote down their names and phone numbers: Marcia Lyons and Catherine Zolk. Both promised to inquire with their family doctors to find out for certain if the drug had been isoniazid.
Utterly astonished, Marissa took Wendy aside.
“This is unbelievable.
I think we have four cases. But if these two women had TB, then our medical school rotation at Bellevue is off the hook.”
“Four cases doesn’t make a series,” Wendy cautioned.
“But it is mighty suspicious,” Marissa. said.
“Four cases of a rare disease in one geographical area. Besides, it sounds as if none of us has any signs of infection elsewhere. I think we are on to something. I’m going to follow up on it,” Marissa vowed.
“Let’s do it together,” Wendy suggested.
“Wonderful,” Marissa agreed.
“The first step will be to take advantage of my contacts at the CDC. We can start that tonight.
Where is your car?”
“It’s over at the Mass. Eye and Ear Infirmary,” Wendy said.
“Mine’s closer,” Marissa said.
“I’ll drive you to yours and you can follow me home. You game?”
“I’m game,” Wendy said.
Saying their goodbyes and thanking their hostess, Marissa suddenly had an idea. She asked Susan if she knew the cause of Rebecca Ziegler’s infertility.
“I think it was blocked tubes,” Susan said after thinking for a moment.
“I can’t be sure, but I believe that’s what it was.”
“Do you happen to have her phone number?” Marissa asked.
“I believe I do,” Susan said.
“Would you mind giving it to me?” Marissa asked.
Susan got the number from her study and gave it to Marissa.
“You aren’t going to call Rebecca’s husband, are you?”
Wendy asked when they got to the street.
“The poor man is probably in shock.”
“I will if I have the courage,” Marissa said.
“Besides, I was told they’d separated.”
“As if that would make much difference,” Wendy said.
“If anything, I would think that would make him feel worse, even responsible.”
Marissa nodded.
On the drive home, Marissa’s excitement rose. Four cases of isolated TB salpingitis took her case out of the realm of anomaly and suggested a possible trend of public health importance.
Marissa pulled directly into the garage, then exited through the garage door to meet Wendy, who’d parked in the driveway. They entered the house through the front door.
“Nice house,” Wendy said as she followed Marissa down a corridor into her study.
“Think so?” Marissa said without enthusiasm.
“It had been Robert’s house before we were married. To tell you the truth, I’ve never liked it.”
Marissa went straight to her Rolodex for Cyrill Dubchek’s home telephone number.
“I’m calling one of the CDC department heads,” Marissa explained.
“We were involved for a little while during my last year at the CDC. He’s quite an attractive man.”
Marissa found the number and propped the file open with a letter opener.
“Didn’t work out?” Wendy asked.
Marissa shook her head.
“It was a stormy relationship from the start. The ironic part is that our major disagreement was over children. He’d had several before his wife died. He wasn’t interested in any more. Obviously that was before I knew about my fallopian tubes.”
Marissa punched the number on her telephone, then waited for the connection to go through.
“It’s quite a story,” she said.
“We were at loggerheads during my first couple of months at the center. Then there was romance. At the end we’d evolved into being good friends. Life is unpredictable.”
Wendy started to say something, but Marissa hushed her with a raised hand, indicating Cyrill had answered.
The first part of the call was friendly chitchat. Finally Marissa got around to the reason for her call.
“Cyrill,” she said, “I have a doctor friend sitting with me and I’m going to put you on the speakerphone.” Marissa pushed the appropriate button.
“Can you hear me?”
Cyrill’s voice filled the room as he responded in the affirmative.
Marissa got to the point.
“Have you heard any talk around the center of TB salpingitis, like a relatively recent upswing in cases?”
“Not that I can recall offhand,” Cyrill said.
“My do you ask?”
“I have reason to believe that there are four such cases up here in Boston. All in relatively young women, and all without any apparent nidus of infection elsewhere, particularly nothing in the lungs.”