There was, she noticed, an open book facedown on the examination table. The spine read, “Basic Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment.”
I’ll bet, Dawn thought, that that’s open to “Malaria. ”
“If memory serves, Miss Morris, you told me you had accepted the receptionist position as a temporary sort of thing, until you can get your motion picture career on the tracks, so to speak?”
“Yes, Doctor. That’s true.”
“Something a bit out of the ordinary has come up. I don’t suppose you… monitored… my conversation with Mr. Dillon? Major Dillon?”
“Oh, of course not, Doctor.”
“I’d rather hoped you would have. No matter. You do know who Major Dillon is?”
“I think so, Doctor.”
“He is a quite powerful man in the motion picture community. He rushed to the colors, so to speak, the Marine Corps, of all things, when the trumpet sounded. But that has not diminished at all his importance in the film industry. Do you take my meaning?”
“Yes, Doctor, I think so.”
“To put a point on it, my girl, he could be very useful to someone in your position.”
“I don’t quite understand…”
“Mr…. Major Dillon-who is a dear friend, of long standing-has come to me asking a special favor. One of his friends-I don’t know who-is apparently suffering from malaria, and for some reason doesn’t want to enter a hospital. I can think of a number of reasons for that. He, or she, for example, may be under consideration for a part, for example, and does not want it known that he, or she, is not in perfect health. You understand?”
“Yes, I do.”
“As a special favor to Mr. Dillon, I have agreed to treat this patient at Mr. Dillon’s beach house in Malibu. Malaria is not contagious. The regimen is a drug called Atabrine and bed rest. Mr…. Major Dillon has at his house a Mexican couple who would be perfectly capable of dispensing the Atabrine, but he would feel more comfortable if a nurse were present.”
“I understand.”
“Dear girl, do you think you could portray a nurse convincingly?” Dr. Barthelmy asked. “It would make things so much easier for me. God knows, I haven’t a clue where I could get a special-duty nurse on such short order.”
“I’m sure I could.”
“I would be most grateful; and so, I am sure, would Major Dillon,” Dr. Barthelmy said. “I’ll have the agency send someone over to fill in for you straightaway.”
He turned from her, took a prescription pad from a cabinet drawer, and began to write. He handed her four prescriptions.
“These should do it,” he said. “As soon as your replacement shows up, have them filled and charged to my account at the chemist’s, and then let me know and we’ll run over to Malibu.”
“Yes, Doctor.”
“Good girl!”
When Dawn Morris slid open the glass door and walked out to them, Jake Dillon and Ken McCoy were sitting on chaise lounges on the balcony of the beach house. Beside them lay the remnants of a hamburger and french fries meal. Beer bottles were in their hands.
“The patient,” Dawn announced, “has had his medicine and is resting comfortably. I thought it best to leave him alone. Where would you suggest I wait?”
” ‘Resting comfortably’?” Dillon replied. “I doubt that.”
“I beg your pardon, Major Dillon?”
“He may be a sick kid, but he’s not that sick. If you leaned over him to give him the Atabrine, the one thing he’s not doing is resting comfortably.”
McCoy laughed. “Jesus, Jake!”
“I beg your pardon?” Dawn asked, trying for a mixture of indignation and confusion.
“Honey, if you’re a nurse, I’m an obstetrician,” Dillon said. “Where did Harry get you, Central Casting?”
Dawn hesitated only a moment.
“I’m Doctor Barthelmy’s receptionist.”
Dillon nodded.
“Would you like me to go?” Dawn asked.
“Hell, no. I just wanted to be sure that we understood each other. What did Harry tell you, that I could get you a screen test?”
“He was more subtle than that,” Dawn said.
“I have to go to Washington in the morning,” Dillon said, glanced at McCoy, and corrected himself: “We have to go to Washington. When I come back, if I see that you’ve taken good care of the Easterbunny… if you’ve seen to it that he’s taken the Atabrine when he should, that he’s been given everything he wants to eat, and that you have made him happy in every way you can think of-and yes, I mean what you think I mean- I’ll make a couple of calls for you, tell a couple of producers who owe me favors that I owe you one. Your tests may turn out to be bombs. Most screen tests do. But on the other hand, they may not. What’s your name?”