Melody shook her head. ‘The break in training definitely helped her. After a week at Jefferson College, she was feeling stronger. She’d lost a little weight, but otherwise she was eating well and getting back to normal. Last Monday he gave her another physical and we all thought she would resume training and go to New York Wednesday for the team medical. Instead, he said she needed further tests, and he was moving her into Caradock Lodge. There was a meeting with Sammy Lee and Pete Klugman. I don’t know what was said, but afterward Doc Serafin called me in and told me he was putting out this story that Goldengirl had disappeared. He said it was a way of buying time. When her health was restored, she would reappear and report for a special check by the team doctors.’
‘Crazy,’ said Dryden, shaking his head.
‘You think so? Actually, it’s smart. It gets Goldengirl’s name in the news, and that can’t be bad.’
‘Telling the cops isn’t smart. What happens if they find her? What sort of publicity is that, playing the cops for suckers?’
‘Aw, come on,’ said Melody. ‘Think about it. She’s just one missing nineteen-year-old. She’s been in the news, so they give out press releases, but what can they do in a case like this? They have to take Doc Serafin’s statement on trust, or why would he report her missing? They file her as a missing person and wait to hear something. If it’s a kidnaping, they can expect a ransom note to arrive. It won’t, of course.’
‘They must be making some kind of inquiry.’
‘Naturally, but that’s routine. When they’ve finished checking the leads Doc Serafin gave them, all they can do is sit and wait. One missing girl — even an Olympic hope — isn’t a case for the FBI.’
‘All right,’ said Dryden. ‘It buys a little time. Now tell me how Serafin proposes to explain her reappearance.’
‘He’s got it all worked out, lover boy. He’ll put it out that she was kidnaped and the ransom has been paid by a group of his business friends, who remain anonymous. The kidnapers contacted him direct and threatened to kill Goldengirl if the police got to hear about the deal before it was finalised. It’s neat, because this way she has a good reason for signing commercial contracts after the Games: she wants to repay the people who put up the ransom. Then, if anything should ever break about the consortium, there’s a heartwarming cover story. Like it?’
‘I think I need to get a few things straight with Serafin,’ said Dryden, unimpressed. ‘I’ve teed up $2,000,000 worth of endorsement contracts already. If Goldine isn’t training at all, I’m in deep trouble, whatever stories he cooks up. I need to know just what is going on in Cleveland.’ He upended his glass. ‘Right, Miss Fryer. You’ve joined the agency staff. Here’s your first assignment. Make two flight reservations for Cleveland, for tomorrow afternoon.’
‘Two?’ said Melody. ‘You want me to come?’
‘I want to look inside this sanitarium before I tackle Serafin. It could be helpful to have you with me.’
‘Okay, boss,’ said Melody. ‘But count me out of the face-to-face. I’ve made my exit once. That’s enough. You did say tomorrow afternoon?’
Dryden nodded. ‘I have a busy morning coming up, which is why I’m going back to my hotel now to get some rest.’ He noticed Melody’s eyebrows tilt in surprise. ‘You can leave a message with the desk clerk. Oh, and have a taxi pick us up from our hotels in good time, would you?’
Melody snapped her features into an intelligent response. ‘Certainly, Mr. Dryden.’ When he had said goodnight and turned away, she added wryly to herself, ‘That will definitely be all, Miss Fryer.’
In the New York Institute of Sports Medicine next morning, Dryden put this question to the Director, Dr. Fassendean: ‘What are the symptoms of overstrain in an athlete?’
Dr. Fassendean, a small man in his thirties with a startling crop of red hair, smiled indulgently. ‘You might as well ask me how you cook eggs. You’ll have to be more specific than that, my friend.’
‘I’m thinking of an athlete who might have trained too hard. A runner.’
‘Long distance?’
‘Sprints, actually.’
‘Not common at all,’ said Dr. Fassendean. ‘You don’t mean muscular injuries? The hamstring is the classic sprinting injury.’
‘This isn’t a muscular thing,’ said Dryden. ‘I’m wondering if it has to do with the cardiovascular system.’
‘Athlete’s heart?’ Dr. Fassendean chuckled. ‘Good old athlete’s heart. That’s been running longer than any athlete I know. It’s a rare condition, actually. I’ve seen electrocardiograms showing overstrain of the heart’s left ventricle, which I guess is what is generally known as athlete’s heart, but modern knowledge of training methods is rapidly eliminating the syndrome among serious athletes. The dabbler in track is more at risk.’
‘But what are the symptoms?’
‘Acute overstrain manifests itself quite dramatically,’ said Dr. Fassendean. ‘Asthenia develops rapidly, as well as a syncope at times, vertigo, vomiting, lowering of the arterial blood pressure, dilatation of the heart. Look, maybe it would save us both some time if you described the symptoms your athlete has. I guess they’re a little different, huh?’
Dryden nodded. ‘Well, it started with a sensation of heaviness in the limbs after a fairly intensive series of competitions.’
‘Nothing too alarming in that.’
‘Dry throat,’ Dryden went on. ‘Tiredness, excessive thirst, some loss of weight.’
‘This athlete eating normally?’
‘I understand so.’
‘But drinking plenty?’
‘Yes.’
‘Urinating frequently?’
‘Now you mention it, yes.’
‘That’s no heart condition. Get a physician to run a blood-sugar test. Sounds like diabetes to me.’
‘Diabetes?’ Dryden mouthed the word without giving it credence. ‘Could that be caused by overtraining?’
Dr. Fassendean shook his head. ‘Caused, no. Not directly. If an athlete has the disease, it’s more likely to reveal itself under stress conditions, like training. Physical malfunctions of any kind tend to become more readily detectable in the trained athlete. That doesn’t mean athletics causes them. Plenty of people have mild forms of diabetes without realizing it. Around two-and-a-half-million Americans are registered diabetics, and surveys suggest almost as many again are undiagnosed. If those people took part in sports, there’s a good chance their condition would be detected.’
Figures were spinning in Dryden’s brain. Two-and-a-half-million diabetics. $200,000,000. ‘Diabetes,’ he repeated mechanically. ‘That’s when the body can’t absorb sugar, isn’t it?’
‘Starches, sugar, yes,’ Dr. Fassendean confirmed. ‘The pancreas — the gland at the back of the abdomen below the lower part of the stomach — fails to produce enough of the hormone insulin, and as a consequence excessive amounts of sugar accumulate in the blood and urine. Left untreated, the poisons in the blood attack the brain, inducing a state of coma and ultimately death. With the help of diet and drugs, insulin especially, it can be effectively controlled.’
‘There’s no cure?’
‘None,’ said Dr. Fassendean. ‘Before insulin treatment was discovered in the twenties, it was a death sentence.’
‘Do we know what causes the pancreas to stop functioning?’
‘Not really. Just that certain stress conditions seem to make it more likely. If there’s a potential weakness there, obesity appears to aggravate it. Pregnancy is another stress factor, and so is growth.’
‘Growth?’ Dryden seised on the word.
‘Sure. Diabetes is often diagnosed during the adolescent growth spurt. There’s research evidence showing that young people who develop the disease are characteristically at least twelve months ahead of the average in the onset of growth. But look, it wouldn’t be wise to make presumptions in advance of a proper diagnosis. My interpretation of the symptoms you describe may be wrong. A blood-sugar test would settle the matter.’