Marissa stood up from her desk chair and introduced Wendy to Robert, explaining that they’d met at the Resolve meeting. She told him that Wendy was involved with in-vitro fertilization with Dr. Wingate too. Robert shook Wendy’s hand.
“I was on my way to the kitchen to make some tea,” Robert said.
“Can I interest anyone else?”
“I’d love some,” Wendy said.
Robert turned and disappeared toward the kitchen.
“Wow,” Wendy said.
“And I thought Gustave was handsome.”
Marissa nodded.
“I do love him,” she admitted.
“We’re just going through a particularly rough time.” She shrugged.
“At least that’s what I tell myself.”
By the time they got to the kitchen, Robert already had the kettle on the stove and boxes of different teas on the table along with three mugs.
“So how was the meeting?” Robert asked as he got VUL LAIG sugar and honey.
Marissa described the meeting, emphasizing how pleasant it was and how many husbands were in attendance.
“Was your husband there?” Robert asked Wendy.
“He was in surgery and couldn’t make it,” Wendy answered evasively. She neglected to say that he probably wouldn’t have attended even if he’d been free. But Robert was a good cross examiner
“Has he been to any of the others?” he asked. Just then, the kettle began to whistle. Robert went to get it.
Marissa answered for Wendy.
“He hasn’t been able to make any of the meetings.”
“I see,” Robert said as he poured boiling water into each of the mugs. He had one of those half-smiles that galled Marissa.
“I’m certain you’d feel differently about the meetings if you had an open enough mind to attend one,” Marissa said.
“Maybe I should talk with Wendy’s husband,” Robert said.
“He sounds like a kindred soul.” He took the kettle back to the stove.
“Great idea,” Wendy agreed.
“All I can say is that the meeting was extremely rewarding for me,” Marissa. said.
“Not only did I meet Wendy, we happened to learn that four of us have the same odd diagnosis.”
“Are you talking about the TB stuV” Robert asked.
“Exactly,” Wendy said.
“I’m one of the four.”
“No kid dine
Marissa launched into breathless explanation of exactly how unusual the number of cases was.
“It’s so unexpected, we have to look into it. Tomorrow we’ll go to the Women’s Clinic to launch our official investigation.”
“What do you mean your ‘official investigation’T’ Robert asked.
“We want to know how many cases like ours have been seen.
We want to find out if Rebecca Ziegler had the same problem.
We already know she had blocked tubes.”
“The Women’s Clinic is not going to, give you that kind of information.”
“Why not? It could be important,” Marissa said.
“For all we know it might have serious public health consequences. We could really be on to something… something along the lines of toxic shock syndrome.”
Robert looked at Marissa, then at Wendy. He found their ardor unsettling, especially in view of Marissa’s recent outburst at the Chinese restaurant. No doubt Wendy was strung out on the same hormones.
“I think you guys ought to calm down,” Robert told them.
“Even if you get to the bottom of this, it’s not like it’s going to reverse your condition. And I seriously doubt you’ll get very far with the clinic. It would be highly unethical, even illegal, for them to disclose information about their patients without the patients’ consent.”
But Marissa would hear none of it.
“This TB issue has bothered me from the start. I mean to get to the bottom of it. I don’t care what it takes. I just talked to Cyrill Dubchek and he can put the authority of the CDC behind it.”
Robert just shook his head. He clearly disapproved.
“Well then,” he said curtly, “I’ll leave you two sleuths to your plotting.”
With that, he picked up his mug and walked away.
Wendy broke the uncomfortable silence once his steps were out of earshot.
“He is right,” she said.
“We may have a problem getting access to those medical records.”
“We have to give it a try Maybe we can muster some authority as doctors. You know, take the professional approach. If that doesn’t work, we’ll just think of something else. You are with me, aren’t you?”