"Purely because I thought you might want to warn someone over at the Manhattan General what our thinking was, to raise the index of suspicion."
"Correction!" Calvin boomed. He took a fleeting glance at his watch, which wasn't lost on Laurie. "I would be warning them what your thinking was, not mine. Laurie, I'm surprised at you. You're using grossly inadequate data here to make a premature and ridiculous leap." He slapped the matrix with the back of his free hand. "You're suggesting that I communicate pure speculation, which could be extraordinarily detrimental to the Manhattan General Hospital if it got out into the wrong hands, something that happens all too frequently. It could even cause a panic. We deal in facts here at the OCME, not fanciful supposition. Hell, we could lose all credibility!"
"I have a strong intuition about this," Laurie countered.
Calvin slammed his sizable palm down onto the surface of his desk. A few papers went wafting off. "I have zero patience with female intuition, if that's what this is boiling down to. What do you think this is, a sewing club? We're a scientific organization; we deal in facts, not hunches and guesswork."
"But we're talking about four essentially unexplained cases within a two-week period," Laurie said while inwardly groaning. It seemed that she had awakened Calvin's dormant chauvinism.
"Yeah, but they do thousands of cases over at the Manhattan General. Thousands! I happen to know they have a low death rate, well below the bellwether three percent. How do I know? I serve on the board. Come back with some facts from toxicology or infallible evidence of low-voltage electrocution and I'll listen to you, not some cockamamie story of serial killer on the loose with no facts to back it up."
"They were not electrocuted," Laurie said. At one point, she had briefly considered the idea, since standard 110 voltage was capable of causing ventricular fibrillation. But she'd dismissed the idea because patients weren't routinely subjected to power sources. Maybe one could have been exposed to an aberrant piece of equipment, but surely not four, particularly since none had been monitored.
"I'm just trying to make a point," Calvin yelled. He stood up abruptly, causing his desk chair to roll back on its casters and strike the wall. He handed Laurie her paper. "Go back and get some facts if you are so motivated! I don't have time for this foolery. I've got to go to a meeting where we deal with real problems."
Embarrassed at being chastised like a schoolgirl, Laurie fled the administration area. Calvin's office door had been open during the exchange, and the people waiting to see Bingham watched her departure with expressionless faces. She couldn't imagine what they thought about what they had heard. She was relieved to catch an empty elevator to pull herself together. As she had said to Riva, she knew she was thin-skinned at the moment, and under normal circumstances, she probably could have brushed off Calvin's crusty response to her concerns. Yet combining Calvin's reaction with Jack and Riva's, she felt like a modern-day Cassandra. She couldn't believe that people whom she respected could not see what was so clear to her.
Back in her office, she threw herself into her chair and for a moment buried her head in her hands. She was stymied. She needed further information but was paralyzed by having to wait for the charts to come over from the Manhattan General through the usual channels. There was no way she could speed up the system. Other than that, she had to wait for Peter to work his magic with the gas chromatography and mass spectrograph. Short of getting yet another similar case the following day, which she was not wishing for, there was nothing to be done.
"I have to assume your meeting with Calvin was not as auspicious as you hoped," Riva said.
Laurie didn't respond. She was feeling even more temperamental than earlier. From when she was a little girl, she'd always sought approval from authority figures, and when she didn't get it, she felt terrible. Calvin's reaction was a case in point, making her feel that all the disparate segments of her life were unraveling. First was the situation with Jack, next her mother and the BRCAl problem, and now it seemed that even her job was in disarray. On top of it all, she felt physically exhausted from insufficient sleep two nights in a row.
Laurie sighed. She had to pull herself together. Thinking about the BRCAl problem reminded her that she had agreed with Jack to have herself tested for the marker by calling her old college roommate, Sue Passero. At the time, Laurie had not been completely forthright, since she actually hadn't entirely decided to do it, so her acquiescence was more to assuage his unexpected insistence than a real decision. Yet suddenly, she saw the idea in a new light, since getting away from the OCME, even for just a couple of hours, sounded like a good idea. The thought also occurred to her that she could kill two birds with one stone. Knowing Sue as well as she did, Laurie was confident that while getting tested, she could pass along her concerns about the possibility of a serial killer that would give the hospital a reason to be vigilant without the need to cite herself or the OCME as the source.
Laurie got out her address book for Sue's office number and made the call. They had been close in college and in medical school, and having ended up practicing in the same city, they got together every month or so for a dinner. They always vowed to see each other more often, but somehow it never happened.
Laurie got one of the clinic secretaries where Sue worked and asked for Sue. Laurie's intention was just to leave a message for Sue to call back at a convenient time, but when the secretary asked who was calling and Laurie said "Dr. Montgomery," the secretary went off the line before Laurie could explain. The next thing she knew, she was talking with her friend.
"This is a nice surprise," Sue said cheerfully. "What's up?"
"Do you have a minute to talk?"
"A minute, what's on your mind?"
Laurie said she needed to be tested for BRCA1 for reasons that she would explain later. She also mentioned that she had been switched to AmeriCare but had not yet made arrangements for a primary-care doctor.
"No problem. Come over anytime. I can set you up with a script and send you down to the lab."
"How about today?"
"Today is fine. Come on over! Have you had lunch?"
"I haven't." Laurie smiled. It was going to be three birds with one stone!
"Well, get your rear end over here, girl! The cafeteria food is not something to write home about, but the company will be good."
Laurie hung up and got her coat from behind the door.
"I think you are doing the right thing about being tested," Riva said.
"Thank you," Laurie responded. She looked at her desk to be sure she wasn't forgetting something.
"I hope you're not cross with me," Riva said.
"Of course not," Laurie responded. She gave Riva's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "As I said earlier, I know I'm oversensitive these days, and everything is bothering me more than it should. Be that as it may, and I know you're not my secretary, but I'd appreciate it if you would once again take messages, especially from Maureen or Peter. I'll make it up to you."
"Don't be silly. I'll be happy to answer your phone. Are you going to be back this afternoon?"
"Absolutely. It's going to be a quick lunch and a simple blood test, although I might stop and say hello to my mother as well. Anyway, I'll have my cell if you need to call."
Riva waved and went back to her work.
Laurie walked out the OCME entrance on First Avenue. There was a bite to the air. The temperature had dropped as the day progressed, so it was colder than when she'd walked to work that morning. As she descended the front steps toward the curb, she got her zipper started and pulled it up to her chin. Standing on the curb, she was shivering slightly as she raised her hand to hail a cab.