Jack did not bother to replace the receiver. Instead he pressed the appropriate button on his speed-dialer and waited. A moment later, Everett’s stentorian voice reverberated through the line.
“Marsha Baldwin and the doctor are back at the plant,” Jack said.
“Good grief!” Everett sputtered. “That’s not what I wanted to hear. How the devil did you find out?”
“I left word with security to call if they showed up,” Jack said. “Just in case.
“Good thinking,” Everett said. “I wonder what on earth they’re doing there.”
“My guess is they’re going to try to trace some meat,” Jack said. “That’s what he asked me to do this morning.”
“Let’s not guess,” Everett said. “You get the hell over there and see what they’re up to. Then get back to me. I don’t want this to ruin my evening.”
Jack hung up the phone. He didn’t want it to ruin his evening either. He’d been looking forward to the dinner at Bobby Bo’s for a month and had certainly not anticipated having to go back to the plant. He was in a foul mood when he got his coat and went out to the garage for his car.
Kim stamped his feet and flapped his arms. He didn’t quite understand it, but the thirty-five-degree temperature of the patty room felt more like twenty-five or even fifteen. He’d pulled on a Mercer Meats white coat over his own hospital coat, but they were just cotton, and underneath he had on only his scrubs. The three layers were not nearly enough insulation against the chill, especially since he was essentially standing around. The shower-like white cap didn’t help at all.
Marsha was leafing through the patty-room logbooks, and had been doing so for more than a quarter of an hour. Locating the specific dates, lots, and batches was taking longer than expected. Initially Kim had looked over her shoulder, but the colder he’d become, the less interested he was.
There were two other people in the room besides Marsha and Kim. They were busy pulling hoses around as they cleaned the patty-formulating machine with high-pressure steam. They had been there when Marsha and Kim arrived but hadn’t made any attempts at conversation.
“Ah, here we go,” Marsha said triumphantly. “Here’s December twenty-ninth.” She ran her finger down the column until she came to Lot 2. Then moving horizontally, she came to the appropriate batches: one through five. “Uh-oh,” she said.
“What’s the matter?” Kim asked. He came over to look.
“It’s just what I was afraid of,” she said. “Batches one through five were a mixture of fresh boneless beef from Higgins and Hancock and imported frozen ground beef. The imported stuff is impossible to trace other than maybe the country. Of course, that would be useless for what you want.”
“What’s Higgins and Hancock?” Kim asked.
“It’s a local slaughterhouse,” Marsha said. “One of the bigger ones.
“What about the other lot?” Kim asked.
“Let’s check that,” Marsha said. She turned the page. “Here’s the date. What were the lot and batch numbers again?”
“Lot six, batches nine through fourteen,” Kim said, consulting his paper.
“Okay, here it is,” Marsha said. “Hey, we’re in luck if the January twelfth production is the culprit. Those batches were all from Higgins and Hancock. Take a peek.”
Kim looked at where she was pointing. It indicated that the entire lot was made from fresh beef produced on January ninth at Higgins and Hancock.”
“Wasn’t there some way to narrow it down to one or the other?” Marsha asked.
“Not according to the short-order cook at the Onion Ring,” Kim said. “But I dropped off samples from both production dates at the lab. They should have the result by Monday.”
“Until then we’ll assume it’s the January date,” Marsha said. “Because that’s the only one that’s going to be traceable. Hopefully, we’ll be able to go beyond Higgins and Hancock.”
“Really?” Kim questioned. “You mean we’ll be able to trace the meat back further than the slaughterhouse?”
“That’s the way the system is supposed to work,” Marsha said. “At least in theory. The trouble is a lot of cows can go into one of those two-thousand-pound combos of boneless beef. But the idea is to be able to trace the animals through purchase invoices back to the ranch or farm they came from. Anyway, the next step is to go to Higgins and Hancock.”