Michael Palmer - Natural Causes

"Yes, I understand that."

"Well, after many dead ends, I have unearthed another, most significant factor that our three DIC cases had in common."

"Namely?" Sarah asked excitedly.

"Namely, their weight."

It took no more than fifteen minutes for Rosa to describe the efforts that culminated with her discovery of Constanza Hidalgo's diary and the revelation of the girl's incredible weight loss, achieved with some sort of powder from a "foreign" MCB doctor, referred to in the diary only as "Dr. S."

"Armed with that information," she explained, "I retraced my steps through Alethea Worthington's past and finally through Lisa Summer's. It has taken a lot more time than I would have liked, because Alethea's family is just about nonexistent. And Lisa and her father have been out of the country for much of the past month. But what I've learned is more than intriguing. Alethea once had a horrific weight problem. Two hundred and forty pounds, one of her neighbors told me. Here are a couple of photocopies I made from her high school yearbook. This is Alethea, here. As you can see, she was quite large."

"Do we know if she took the same diet powder as Connie Hidalgo?" Sarah asked.

"Not exactly. But I have been able to ascertain that her weight loss occurred about four and one-half years ago-the same approximate time as Connie's. And the pages covering that time have been torn from her MCB chart as well."

"And you haven't told anyone about this?"

Rosa shook her head.

"After what happened in San Francisco, it's not even easy for me to share this information with you," she said. "But I know how much you've suffered. And although I hardly consider myself an expert on the subject of who to trust, I do trust you."

"Thank you," Sarah said. "Oh, God, thank you so much."

Blankenship was right. A break was imminent.

"There's more," Rosa said as if reading her thoughts. "Much more."

"Lisa?"

"Exactly. I haven't spoken to her directly, but I did make several visits to her Boston home. Her housemates were most suspicious of me, especially in view of the lawsuit against you. But finally they came around. Here are some pictures they gave me of her. The top few are from when she first moved into the group house. The last couple are more recent."

"She must be fifty pounds lighter in these later photos!"

"Seventy, actually," Rosa said. "Only one of the people in the house was there four and a half years ago when she lost the weight, but he's sure she did it with a powder of some sort. The same time, probably the same powder. Sarah, we are not dealing with coincidence here. I promise you we're not."

"Did you check Lisa's hospital record for missing pages?"

"There's no physical evidence that pages were removed, but that means nothing. There are no pages from that whole year."

"Rosa, this is a breakthrough. Do you have any idea who this Dr. S. might be?"

"Some. The clues provided in Constanza Hidalgo's diary suggested a male, possibly foreign. I added to that equation the time frame over which this fascinating powder was dispensed, and the initial 'S.' Then I checked through the records at personnel." She searched through her portfolio and withdrew a spiral bound notebook. "Assuming the parameters I chose are all correct, there are three good candidates. I wasn't quite certain what to do with her impression that the man was foreign. She did not seem that sure. The first name of the three is still on the staff at MCB. The other two haven't been for several years."

She passed the notebook over to Sarah.

"Gilberto Santiago, M.D… Sun Soon, M.D., Ph.D… Pramod Singh, D.Med. (Ayurv.)," Sarah read. "No bells for any of them. Not even Santiago."

"What does that mean?" Rosa asked. "That last man's degree?"

"Probably Doctor of Ayurvedic Medicine. It's an ancient Indian healing system-" Her voice fell away.

"What is it, Sarah? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Slowly Sarah's eyes came up to meet hers. "What I may have just seen, Rosa, is the truth. I need to make a call."

"Use that phone right there. If the call is long distance, just use this credit card. I'll be long retired before anyone realizes that a woman on sick leave in Atlanta made this call from Boston."

The best Sarah could do to reach Annalee Ettinger was to leave an urgent message with the operator at Xanadu. She gave Rosa's name rather than her own and stressed several times the importance of the situation.

"Now," Rosa said after Sarah had hung up, "it seems that it is your turn for explanations."

Sarah shared what little she knew of Pramod Singh and the Ayurvedic Herbal Weight Loss System. She had sketched Peter Ettinger as fairly as she could, but Rosa quickly picked up on the tension the man brought to her voice.

"He sounds to me like a textbook megalomaniac," Rosa observed.

"I always knew he was prideful. But I considered him very much a visionary."

"My experience is that both are often stepping-stones on the road to megalomania."

When the phone rang Sarah reached instantly for the receiver.

"Dr. Rosa Suarez, please?"

Sarah recognized Annalee's rich alto. "Annalee, it's Sarah. How are you doing?"

"Hey, what a nice surprise. We are doing beautifully, thank you. The baby's getting cranked up for the big plunge."

"How much longer?"

"Six, seven weeks. For my money, tomorrow would be fine. Peter's got two midwives from Mali hovering around me all the time. Since I've had no problems whatsoever, they spend all their time cooking and cleaning and bumping into one another."

"Annalee, I'm so excited for you."

"Yeah. Peter's really come through this time. So, what's this urgent stuff? And who's Rosa Suarez?"

"There really is a Dr. Suarez. In fact, she's right here. She's-she's been studying weight loss programs for the government. I told her about Peter's program and about Dr. Singh."

"Those two are really raking it in," Annalee said. "Peter's added a whole new shipping area to this place. Twenty or so employees just packing it up an' shipping it out. It seems half of America is overweight and watching late-night TV. And every one of them is looking to walk the high road to slimness, as Peter puts it."

"Annalee, do you have any idea how we can get in touch with Dr. Singh?"

"None. He comes by every few weeks with a new supply of the vitamin caps that go with each order. But I almost never see him. I can try asking Peter without telling him it's for you. He's furious that your lawyer has subpoenaed him to testify."

"Tough," Sarah murmured. "Listen, Annalee. Don't get yourself in any trouble over this. But it would be a huge help to us to speak with Dr. Singh."

"I'll see what I can do. Is that it?"

"Could you send me out some of that powder?"

"You mean you don't want to pay forty-nine ninety-five by check or major credit card, and allow three to six weeks for delivery, sorry no CODs? Well, I think I can handle that."

Sarah gave Annalee Rosa's address, thanked her, and again begged her not to get into any conflict with her father. Then she sat staring out at the rich autumn afternoon.

"Rosa, you really believe this weight loss powder might be connected with the DIC cases?" she asked.

"Assuming the facts as we have them are true," Rosa replied, "it is certainly as likely a cause as your prenatal supplement."

"It makes no sense."

"That's because the facts as we have them are clearly not all the facts. I'd like to see one of those infomercials you told me about."

"I'll get to work on that. My lawyer has some connections in TV. I'll see if he can get hold of a tape of one for tomorrow night's progress meeting. By the way, are you coming?"

"I wasn't planning on it. But now that I'm officially off the case, I think I will. Especially if one of the feature attractions is that tape. Besides, with what you told me, and what I heard over the phone just now, I think the stakes might have just been raised."