‘My point exactly,’ said Dewar. ‘So maybe Kelly broke into the institute at some point and contaminated himself in the process?’
‘But I thought you told me they didn’t have live virus there?’, protested Grant. ‘Apart from that, what would Kelly have been after? Why cross to the other side of town to break into a place that probably contained nothing he could sell? The only things that go missing from that sort of place are bicycles! They’re pinched from outside. And last but not least, we’ve had no report of any break-in at the institute anyway.’
Dewar had to admit that Grant had made a pretty good job of shooting him down in flames. ‘Just a thought,’ he said.
Dewar met Malloy in the Auld Hundred pub in Rose Street at 12 noon. It was still quiet at that time before the offices started to break for lunch.
‘I hope you’re going to tell me you’ve thought of the connection,’ said Dewar as he shook Malloy’s hand.
‘Unfortunately no,’ replied Malloy. ‘There’s no record of Kelly being employed at any time on the portering, cleaning or maintenance staffs. That still leaves window cleaning as a possibility; we contract that out but I really think this idea of contaminating himself accidentally in the institute labs is a non starter.’
‘Why?’
‘Firstly because it implies that there was something there to contaminate himself with and secondly that it was accessible to a casual intruder. If the people from Porton Down failed to find it and they were highly skilled people actively looking for it what chance has a casual intruder? I’m convinced the guy got it somewhere else.’
‘For me, coincidences don’t stretch that far,’ said Dewar. ‘There’s an institute connection somewhere along the line but I take your point. Unfortunately I don’t think we’re going to get the chance to question Kelly; he’s too far gone. We’ll have to talk to his friends and associates. See if something strikes a chord.’
‘Sounds fun,’ said Malloy dryly.
‘The Public Health people should be able to tell us something about that at the meeting this afternoon.’
The chair of the Crisis Management Team was a consultant in Infectious Diseases from the Western General Hospital named George Finlay. He was a man in his late forties, grey haired and thinning on top, wearing a suit that seemed too large for him, particularly at the shoulders. This gave him a slightly lop sided appearance when he leaned on the table with one hand which he was prone to do while speaking. He introduced the head of Public Health Services for the city, Dr Mary Martin, a woman about ten years younger than Finlay, slim, well-dressed and with the ‘big’ hair of a much younger woman. She in turn, introduced two junior colleagues before handing back to Finlay to introduce Malcolm Rankin, the senior Scottish Office official, assigned to the team to smooth the administrative way.
Rankin’s suit fitted perfectly, as did his shirt and tie and everything else about him. He was a man who clearly believed that image was important, thought Dewar as he listened to him assure everyone present that he would be available to help in whatever way he could at any time. He introduced two, equally charming colleagues who would be dealing with communications and public relations issues. A silver haired man wearing the uniform of a police superintendent introduced himself as Cameron Tulloch. Finally Finlay welcomed Dewar and Malloy to the team, telling the others that their particular interest would be in identifying the cause of the outbreak.
‘I’ll just bring everyone up to date and then we can say what we have to say,’ said Finlay. ‘Kelly’s condition has deteriorated markedly over the past twenty four hours. His whole body is pustulated and I think we can expect him to die within the next few days. Denise Banyon, his partner is as yet, showing no signs of the disease.’
‘It’s early days,’ said Mary Martin.
‘In the normal run of things,’ agreed Finlay. ‘But when Kelly was brought in to hospital his rash was already becoming pustular. This suggested that he’d had the disease for well over a week but Banyon who had been with him throughout, insists that he developed the disease quite suddenly and that he’d only been ill for a short time when he was admitted.’
‘That’s possible,’ said a voice behind Dewar’s shoulder. It was Hector Wright. He was still wearing his overcoat and carrying a travel bag. ‘Sorry I’m late.’
Dewar did the introduction and Wright took his seat.
‘I’m familiar with your work through your papers, Dr Wright,’ said Finlay. ‘We’re fortunate to have your expertise at our disposal.’
Dewar thought the welcome for Wright formal and polite. It lacked genuine warmth but wasn’t outside the normal coolness expected between academics and medical practitioners.’
You have the better of me,’ said Finlay. ‘You say there’s a way this man could have developed the disease this quickly? Much faster than any of the textbooks suggest?’
‘If by any chance he received a massive dose of the virus at the outset, he could have skipped the flu-like stage and pustulated within twenty-four hours,’ said Wright.
‘And just how would he have done that?’ asked Finlay.
‘Direct contact with a pure culture of the virus.’
‘A pure culture of smallpox virus,’ repeated Finlay with a question mark in every syllable.
Dewar looked at Malloy, mutely suggesting that the ball had just landed in his court. Malloy moved his shoulders uneasily but didn’t say anything.
Finlay noticed the look that had passed between the two of them and asked of Dewar, ‘Would that be an avenue you and your colleagues might be considering, Doctor?’
‘One of several,’ replied Dewar, unwilling to volunteer more.
Finlay looked as if he might pursue the matter but then decided against it. He said, ‘Perhaps before we go any further this would be a good time to define our roles and objectives as team members?’ he said.
‘Good idea,’ said Tulloch.
‘Dr Martin and her Public Health team are in charge of finding and isolating contacts of Kelly and Banyon. Superintendent Tulloch’s men are currently being deployed to see that she can carry out this task without hindrance. A secondary team comprising health workers from surrounding areas and again supervised by Dr Martin and aided by police where necessary, will carry out a comprehensive vaccination programme in an attempt to contain the disease. The isolation and medical treatment of victims of the disease will be my responsibility and that of my people at the Western’s high-risk containment unit. Dr Dewar and his colleagues will try to find out just how this situation arose, that is to say, they’ll be tracing the source of the outbreak and eliminating it. Mr Rankin and his colleagues will oil the wheels and act as a buffer between ourselves and outside interests.
I think it’s important that we don’t step on each others’ toes; we should communicate with each other as much as possible. I say this because I suspect there are certain factors connected with this outbreak that I know nothing about and no one has seen fit to tell me as yet. I can only guess that the reappearance of a virus I and my colleagues believed to be extinct may have something to do with some scientific accident or other although I was given to believe that no live smallpox existed outside certain secure establishments, none of which were in this country.’
There was a short silence in the room before Dewar, understanding Finlay’s resentment, said, ‘The escape of an unlicensed source of virus is a possibility, Doctor, but we don’t know yet if that’s the case. I assure you, I’m holding nothing back. That’s as much as we know at the moment.’
‘Very well,’ said Finlay. ‘We’ll leave it at that for now. Are there any questions so far?’
Dewar said, ‘As it sounds like interviewing Kelly is not going to be possible, I’d like to talk to Denise Banyon on the grounds that I’ve got to start looking for the source somewhere.’
‘We’ve already talked to her at length,’ said Mary Martin. ‘Frankly, she was uncooperative. No help at all.’