He read the rest of the article, feeling sorry for Shirley. The police reported that a significant amount of heroin and cocaine was found at the South End apartment that Hayes had shared with Carol Donner.
Jason went to the hospital to find his inpatients generally in poor shape. Matthew Cowen, who had had a cardiac catheterization the day before, displayed odd symptoms alarmingly like the late Cedric Harring: arthritis, constipation, and dry skin. None of these would normally cause Jason much concern. But in view of recent events, they made him feel uneasy. They again brought up the specter of some new unknown infectious disease that he could not control. He had the feeling Matthew’s course was about to change for the worse.
After ordering a dermatology consult for Cowen, Jason gloomily went down to his office. where Claudia greeted him with the information that she had pulled the executive physicals through the letter P. She had called the patients and discovered that only two complained of health problems.
Jason reached for the charts and opened them.
The first one was Holly Jennings, the other Paul Klingler. Both had had their physicals within a month. “Call them back,” Jason said, “and ask both to come in as soon as they can without alarming them.”
“It’s going to be hard not to upset them. What should I say?”
“Tell them we want to repeat some test. Use your imagination.”
Later in the day he decided to see if he could charm some more information on Hayes out of his lab technician, but the moment he saw Helene she made it clear she was not about to be charmed.
“Did the police find anything?” he asked, already knowing the answer was no. Shirley had called him and told him after the police had departed, saying, “Thank God for small favors.”
Helene shook her head.
“I know you’re busy,” Jason said, “but do you think you could spare a minute? I’d like to ask a few more questions.”
She finally stopped working and turned toward him.
“Thank you,” he said, and smiled. Her expression didn’t change. It wasn’t unpleasant, just neutral.
“I hate to belabor the subject,” Jason said, “but I keep thinking of what Dr. Hayes said about a significant breakthrough. Are you sure you have no idea what it could be? It would be tragic if a real medical discovery were lost.”
“I told you what I know,” Helene said. “I could show you the latest map he did of chromosome 17. Would that help?”
“Let’s give it a try.”
Helene led the way into Hayes’s office. She ignored the photos that covered the walls, but Jason couldn’t. He wondered what kind of man could work in such an environment. Helene produced a large sheet of paper covered with minute printing, giving the sequence of base pairs of the DNA molecule comprising a portion of chromosome 17. There was a staggering number of base pairs: hundreds and hundreds of thousands.
“Dr. Hayes’s area is here.” She pointed to a large section where the pairs were done in red. “These are the genes associated with growth hormone. It’s very complex.”
“You’re right there,” Jason said. He knew he’d have to do a lot more reading to make any sense of it all.
“Is there any chance this mapping could have led to a major scientific breakthrough?”
Helene thought for a moment, then shook her head. “The technique has been known for some time.”
“What about cancer?” Jason asked, giving the idea a shot. “Could Dr. Hayes have discovered something about cancer?”
“We didn’t work with cancer at all,” Helene said.
“But if he was interested in cell division and maturation, it’s possible he could have discovered something about cancer. Especially with his interest in the switching on and off of genes.”
“I suppose it’s possible,” Helene said without enthusiasm.
Jason was sure that Helene was not being as helpful as she could be. As Hayes’s assistant, she should have had a better idea of what Hayes was doing. But there was no way he could force the issue.
“What about his lab books?”
Helene returned to her spot at the lab bench, Opening the second drawer at the table, she pulled out a ledger. “This is all I have,” she said, and handed it to Jason.
The book was three-quarters filled. Jason could see it was only a data book without experimental protocols, and without those, the data was meaningless.
“Aren’t there other lab books?”
“There were some,” Helene admitted, “but Dr Hayes kept them with him, especially over the last three months. Mostly he kept everything in his head He had a fabulous memory, especially for figures….” For a brief moment Jason saw a light in Helene’s eyes and thought she might open up, but it didn’t last.
She trailed off into silence. She took the data bool from Jason and replaced it in its drawer.
“Let me ask one other question,” Jason said, struggling over the wording. “As far as you could tell, did Dr. Hayes act normally over the last few weeks? He seemed anxious and overtired when I saw him.” Jason deliberately understated Hayes’s condition.
“He seemed normal to me,” said Helene flatly.
Oh, brother, Jason thought. Now he was sure Helene wasn’t being open with him. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do about it. Thanking her and excusing himself, he retreated from Hayes’s lab. He descended in the elevator, avoided being seen by Sally, crossed to the main building, and rode up to pathology.
He found Jackson Madsen in the chemistry lab, where there was a problem with one of the automated machines. Two company reps were there, and Jackson was happy to return to his office with Jason to show him the slides of Harring’s heart.
“Wait until you see this,” he said as he positioned a slide under his microscope. He peered through the eyepiece, moving the slide deftly with his thumb and index finger. Then he stepped back and let Jason take a look.
“See that vessel?” he asked. Jason nodded. “Notice the lumen is all but obliterated. It’s some of the worst atherosclerosis I’ve seen. That pink stuff looks like amyloid. It’s amazing, especially if you say his EKG was okay. And let me show you something else.” Jackson substituted another slide. “Take a look now.”
Jason peered into the microscope. “What am I supposed to see?”
“Notice how swollen the nuclei are,” Jackson said. “And the pink stuff. That’s amyloid for certain.”
“What does that mean?”
“It’s as if the guy’s heart was under siege. Notice the inflammatory cells.”
Unaccustomed to looking at microscopic sections, Jason hadn’t noticed them at first, but now they jumped out at him. “What do you make of it?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. How old did you say this guy was?”
“Fifty-six.” Jason straightened up. “Is there any chance, in your estimation, that we are seeing some new infectious disease?”
Jackson thought for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t think there’s enough inflammation for that. It looks more metabolic, but that’s all I can say. Oh, one more thing,” he added, putting in another slide. While he focused he said: “This is part of the red nucleus in the brain. Tell me what you see.” He leaned back for Jason. Jason peered into the scope. He saw a neuron. Within the neuron was a prominent nucleus as well as a darkly stained granular area. He described it to Jackson.
“That’s lipofuscin,” said Jackson. He removed the slide.
Jason straightened up. “What does it all mean?”
“Wish I knew,” said Jackson. “All nonspecific, but certainly a suggestion that your Mr. Harring was a sick cookie. These slides could have belonged to my grandfather.”
“That’s the second time I’ve heard something like that,” said Jason slowly. “Can’t you give me anything more specific?”