Robin Cook - Death Benefit

“Yes,” said Pia. “Perfectly.”

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER NEW YORK CITY MARCH 24, 2011, 4:45 P.M.

For Pia, being in trouble was as natural as breathing in and out. She’d spent most of her life under some kind of probationary supervision undertaken by people who didn’t know her, care to know her, or understand her situation. Long ago, Pia had wondered how it was that she was the one who ended up in front of some panel or other. She never instigated the trouble, she was always reacting to someone older and more powerful trying to take advantage. Somehow that fact got lost in the paperwork. More often than not, it was only she who suffered the inquisition and the punishment that followed. For her, injustice belonged with pain on the same one-way street.

By the time she reached age twelve, Pia had simply stopped questioning the way of the world as it concerned her. This was just how it was and how it was going to be. Over the years she’d come to know how the individuals of influence in her life operated. Dr. Springer was a familiar type. He was fiercely protective of his own reputation and would adopt any position that protected him, even at the expense of reason and fact. Quick to take offense, Springer had no backbone. When Pia pushed back and kept pushing, Springer literally ran away. He went and found someone who did have some fortitude-Dr. Bourse-and he hid behind her. Bourse was a different proposition. She wasn’t afraid, Pia could see that, and she wasn’t willing to take the easy way out and simply dispense with the problem-Pia-which she could have done.

Pia had spent the afternoon anxiously mulling over Springer’s behavior. She’d learned nothing. There was also the fact that no one seemed concerned about the medical issues she was raising, which couldn’t help but fan Pia’s semi-paranoid belief that the medical center, and the Infectious Diseases Department in particular, hadn’t looked after Rothman and Yamamoto properly. And how could anyone prove that some medical center personnel had nothing to do with their getting sick in the first place? Pia was starting to consider the idea that some kind of cover-up might be under way, orchestrated by Dr. Springer.

And Rothman was still emotionally in her head. If she hadn’t let him take such an influential role in her life, she wouldn’t have found herself in her current predicament. If you let people into your life, she thought, you were bound to hurt sooner or later.

A knock on her door jolted Pia out of her agitated state. It was George. Who else?

“What happened with Springer? I was so worried I couldn’t concentrate all day.”

“It was a disaster.”

“I’m sorry. I’m also sorry I didn’t offer to go with you, really I am. You shouldn’t have to do this all by yourself.”

“George, stop saying you’re sorry, please! Besides, I never expected you to come with me. In fact, I never gave it a thought. And after what happened, I’m glad you didn’t come. Springer was a lot angrier at me than he was the first time. He went and fetched the dean to tell me to stop interfering. And he threatened to go to Groekest if I didn’t.”

“So, are you going to?”

“Going to what?”

“Stop interfering.”

“How can I? They’re the ones interfering, covering things up, not me. They’re sitting on something, I’m sure of it.”

“If you don’t mind me saying so, that sounds rather paranoid.”

“So be it. And remember, even paranoid people have real enemies.”

“So you got confronted by the dean again?”

“Afraid so.”

“What did she do?”

“Bawled me out big-time. Gave me a lecture about being a troublemaker. Threatened to have me kicked out of school.”

“Shit!” George commented.

Pia checked her watch. “Actually I was just about to go back to Rothman’s lab. I’m just waiting until it’s late enough. I don’t want to run into anyone, especially not the dean.”

“Pia, the last time I looked, the dean isn’t working security. They have a whole staff for that, and they caught us in about five minutes the last time we went to the lab. Bourse made it pretty clear you’re not supposed to go back to the lab. Now she’s spoken to you a second time. Maybe they’re right. You are crazy.”

“I think I have an aptitude for science, George. There are facts here, evidence that doesn’t add up. No scientist is going to just walk away from that.”

“Then tell me this: What are you going to do when you get kicked out of this place? That would make you an ex-scientist. Or not even. More like an ex-almost-qualified scientist. I don’t think there’s a great deal of demand for them in the job market today. You’re going to graduate in a couple of months, if you’re lucky. Yes, Rothman’s death is a bad experience, a terrible one, but you might be compounding it and throwing away a career before it’s even started.”

“Career? Right now I don’t see that I have a career. And I couldn’t live with myself if I gave up now. Do you know if Rothman’s lab is still officially closed?”

“How would I know? Well, I do know it’s closed to you.”

“The epidemiologists must be done by now,” Pia said, ignoring George’s point. “If they’re not still checking the place out, there’s no reason I can’t go. I do have stuff I left in there. The dean was upset that we went in when it was still officially closed. If it’s still officially closed, I won’t go in, I promise, but if it’s not off-limits, I will. At the very least I need to check the contents of that storage freezer in the level-three biosafety unit, which we didn’t get a chance to do last night, remember? I’m one of the few people who knows the code that Spaulding uses in the logbook for the storage freezer. I want to be sure that all the samples that should be in the freezer are in the right place.”

“Who’s Spaulding?”

“The head lab technician. Rothman and Spaulding used to argue about the state of the storage freezer. Rothman thought the freezer was a mess, Spaulding disagreed. Rothman was thinking of sacking him. But that wasn’t unusual-everyone thought they were about to get fired. Spaulding was the only one who pushed back.”

“This is all very interesting and maybe you might find something is amiss in the storage facility. But even if you did, then what? Remember, it’s not Rothman’s lab anymore. All that is history. Unfortunately. And you’re going to be history if you keep doing what you’re doing. And are you really suggesting that the senior lab tech might have had something to do with Rothman’s death? That’s crazy.”

“Actually, I don’t know what I’m thinking. I do have some wild ideas, like these two scientists plotted together to carry off a dual suicide.”

George looked at Pia with consternation.

“I’m kidding. I’m kidding. But there are so many things bouncing around inside my head right now, so many theories, and I can’t rule anything out. Maybe it’s something someone didn’t do rather than what they did do-what do they call that? A sin of omission, not commission. The only thing I know is that something about this whole situation is not right.”

“Of course the whole situation isn’t right, Pia-two people died. That can never be right. But it doesn’t mean there can’t be a simple and logical explanation for why it happened.”

Pia thought for a moment. She considered opening up to George and talking about herself and her state of mind, but that was something she had always been loath to do. That was what she had done with Rothman and look where it had gotten her. She glanced at George’s face. He’d been looking at her the whole time; she had been mostly looking at the floor. He looked less eager than usual and more serious. Pia took a deep breath. She decided she’d at least try.