Michael Palmer - Natural Causes

"I don't understand."

"Your friend Annalee took that diet powder, yes?"

"Yes."

"And she's due to go into labor in just a few weeks, yes?"

"I didn't even think of that."

"With all you've had to process this past hour, that's understandable. Besides, there's time. Not a whole lot of time, but some. I'll see you tomorrow evening at your lawyer's office."

Sarah hugged Rosa long and lovingly, and promised not to share what they had learned with anyone. Then she hurried down the stairs and back to MCB. The roller coaster was cranking upward again. And she was feeling more excited and energized than at any time in weeks.

Alone in her room, seated cross-legged on her bed, Rosa Suarez tried to incorporate the new information with what she already knew. Sarah was right. Blaming the DIC cases on the short-term ingestion of an herbal powder years before made no real sense… yet. It also did not connect in any obvious way with the missing hospital chart pages. Scratching lines and drawing arrows on her pad, Rosa strained to put all of the facts in order until she felt her concentration begin to evaporate. Exhausted, she sank down onto the pillow. Nothing was solid. Nothing. It was like trying to link up puzzle pieces made of Jell-O. She wanted desperately just to close it all off and go to sleep. Instead, she called Ken Mulholland in the CDC lab.

"Hey, Rosa, how's your back?" he asked.

Just hearing his voice brought a smile. Of all those at work, only Ken knew where she was and how she had gotten the time off.

"Worse every day, thank goodness," she said. "Have you got anything for me?"

"Yes and no. I don't know what it is with you and your boss, but a memo has come down that your investigation is officially closed. No one in our department is to be devoting time to it. My section chief followed up the notice with a visit to me. He knows I've been helping you. I… um… I've been firmly instructed."

"You mean warned. My chief really wants to be sure I fail this one. I'm sorry, Ken. Listen, don't take any chances. But I really need your help."

"And you've got it. You aren't the only person around here with sick time coming, you know. If I have to, I'll just get the flu and work with you up there. You did say you had access to equipment."

"Not like yours, but yes. A whole lab, complete with technician. Now, what have you got?"

"We've got enough to say your girl had some sort of DNA virus in her blood at the time it was drawn last July. But we don't have enough growth to classify or type it. And we're not going to, either. Our last specimen burned out yesterday. If you want us to go further, we're going to need more serum."

"Then we'll just have to find a way to get you some."

"And I'll need the name and number of your technician up there. I may have to have him do the cultures."

"Anything you want that's within my power, you get."

"That important, huh?"

"I'm sitting on Vesuvius here, Ken. I swear I am. And soon, very soon, I think it's going to blow."

October 10

This is Johnny Norman speaking to you from Television City, asking you, our live studio audience, and you, our millions of home viewers: Are you ready to change your lives for the better?" "Yes!"

"Are you ready to catch the brass ring and finally hold on to it?"

"Yes!"

"Are you ready to walk the High Road to Slimness and Health?"

"Yes!"

"A little louder, please. I didn't quite hear you."

"YES!"

"Well, all right, then. You've come to the right place, so let's get started. It's time once again to say hello to your guide on the High Road-the man who coached his club to two Super Bowls but couldn't quite coach himself away from the ice cream bowl. Let's have a big, Herbal Weight Loss greeting for Coach Tom 'Bear' Griswold!"

Tall, granite jawed, and slender as a sapling, Coach Tom Griswold bounded onto the stage, clapping his hands the way he might have following one of his fabled half-time harangues. Packed into the waiting room of Matt's office, the viewers watched the taped infomercial in almost morbid fascination as Griswold recited his life story, accompanied by startling pictures of his expanding career, reputation, and waistline.

"I had more money in the bank than I'd ever want to spend, a family that loved me, a great career in broadcasting, and at almost three hundred pounds, a life expectancy that my doctors were measuring in months! At first they calmly advised me to lose weight. Then they got more threatening. They told me that unless I did lose that weight, I might as well stop buying green bananas…" Burst of laughter. "Well, look at me now!"

He spun around in a graceless pirouette, to the accompaniment of screaming cheers from the adoring studio audience.

"Amazing," Glenn Paris murmured in awe.

"No, America," Eli Blankenship said. "The country where you can't be too rich or too thin."

"And now, Johnny," the coach went on, "before we meet the man responsible for bringing this remarkable discovery to America, give us the grand total to date."

A huge, garishly lit tote board filled the screen, its blank spaces awaiting Johnny Norman's grand announcement.

"Okay, Coach. Here we go. To date, the number of people around the country and around the world who have joined us on the High Road to Slimness and Health is: FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-ONE THOUSAND, SIX HUNDRED AND NINETEEN!" Exuberant applause.

"At forty-nine ninety-five apiece," attorney Arnold Hayden added. "Most incredible. And how long have they been marketing this stuff?"

"About six months," Matt said.

"But don't forget, Arnold," Colin Smith reminded. "From all indications, this stuff really works. Truthfully, now. Wouldn't you pay fifty bucks to get rid of that Michelin of yours-especially if you didn't have to knock yourself out dieting?"

"Thank you, Johnny Norman," Coach Griswold was saying. "Now I want to introduce you all to the man who has put years back into my life, to say nothing of what he has done for my tennis game and-my beautiful wife Sherry will be quick to tell you-for my love life as well." A few titillated oohs followed. "But first, let's hear a song from one of the true daughters of the Ayurvedic Herbal Weight Loss System. Betty Wilson was a Broadway star at two hundred and thirty pounds. But she'll be the first to tell you how much she hated looking in the mirror. Today she's still a star. But just look at what she sees in that mirror now." Whistles and cheers for the singer, whose blue-sequined gown seemed painted on her perfectly proportioned, size-six body. "Ladies and gentlemen, singing the title song from her new Broadway show, Miss Betty Wilson."

Matt fast-forwarded through the song while the others in the waiting room muttered phrases of disbelief or of grudging admiration. Then the coach, after a syrupy ninety-second introduction, brought Peter Ettinger onstage to a standing ovation from the studio audience. At the sight of him, Sarah felt the muscles of her jaws harden. But even she had to admit that the man, who looked and seemed larger than life in most circumstances, was even more imposing on TV.

Striding from one side of the sound stage to the other with the graceful elegance of a giraffe, Peter recited the meticulously documented tale of his discovery of Dr. Pramod Singh of New Delhi, India, and the man's remarkable Herbal Weight Loss System. Next came a series of testimonials from various carefully selected clients, all of whom were failures on other programs. Their moving tributes were interwoven with a step-by-step introduction to Ayurvedic medicine, tracing its development over thousands of years, from the earliest recorded history, through various periods of abandonment and acceptance, to an incredible resurgence in the 1980s and '90s.