Robin Cook - Crisis

"I was hoping it was you," Alexis said when she heard Jack's voice.

"Can you hear me okay?" Jack asked. "We're on my speaker phone."

"I can hear you fine. Where are you?"

"I'm always asking myself that same question," Jack joked. His mood had flip-flopped from its nadir brought on by finding nothing relevant in Patience's autopsy to a near high. He had been energized by Latasha's enthusiasm and the prospect of getting the assistance of a toxicologist, and his mind had been picking up speed like an old-fashioned steam locomotive. Now ideas were flapping around inside his head like a flock of excited sparrows.

"You are in a rare mood. What's going on?"

"I'm in my rent-a-car on the way to the Newton Memorial."

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. I'm just going to duck in and ask a couple of questions to the ER people who handled Patience Stanhope."

"Did you do the exhumation and the autopsy?"

"I did."

"What did you find?"

"Other than a nonrelevant, from our perspective, cancer of the colon, I found nothing."

"Nothing?" Alexis questioned. The disappointment in her voice was apparent.

"I know what you are thinking, because I thought the same. I was depressed. But now I think it was an unexpected gift."

"How so?"

"If I'd found generic, garden-variety coronary disease, which is what I actually expected to find rather than something dramatic, which is what I'd hope to find, I would have left it at that. She had heart disease and had a heart attack. End of story. But the fact that she had no heart disease begs for an explanation. I mean, there is a slight chance that she had some fatal cardiac event that we're not going to be able to diagnose eight months after the fact, but now I believe the possibility is in our favor that there was something else involved, especially considering the resistance Fasano expressed about my doing the autopsy, and Franco trying to run me off the goddamn road, and, more significantly, the threat expressed to your children. How are they, by the way?"

"They're fine. They act very secure, and they're having a ball here at Grandma's. She's spoiling them as she always does. But back to your point: What are you really trying to say?"

"I don't know exactly. But here's some of my thoughts, whatever they are worth. Patience Stanhope's death and the resistance to my doing an autopsy could be two completely separate circumstances. Fasano and crew could be behind the threats, and purely for venal reasons. But somehow that doesn't make sense to me. Why would he go to the extent of breaking into your house and then blithely let me do the exhumation? It seems to me that the three events are separate and not connected. Fasano threatened me for the reasons he gave. Franco has this ego problem after I whacked him in the nuts, so my problems with Franco have nothing to do with Patience Stanhope. That leaves the break-in at your house unexplained."

"This is too complicated," Alexis complained. "If Tony Fasano wasn't behind terrorizing my children, then who was?"

"I have no idea. But I asked myself what the motivation might have been if it didn't involve Fasano and money. It's pretty clear that it would be an attempt to keep me from learning something, and what could be learned from an autopsy? One thing would be an overdose of medication or the wrong medication Patience Stanhope might have gotten at the hospital. Hospitals are big organizations with lots of stockholders, involving lots of money."

"That's crazy," Alexis said without hesitation. "The hospital wasn't behind my kids being victimized."

"Alexis, you wanted me to come up here to Boston and think out of the box, and that's what I'm doing."

"But the hospital?" she questioned with a whine. "Is that why you are on your way there now?"

"It is," Jack confessed. "I think of myself as a reasonable judge of character. I was impressed by the two ER people I spoke with Tuesday. They're forthright and devoid of artifice. I want to talk to them again."

"What are you going to do," Alexis asked scornfully, "ask them if they made some huge mistake that the hospital has to send people out to brutalize my children to try to cover up? That's ridiculous."

"When you put it that way, it does sound far-fetched. But I'm going to do it anyway. The autopsy is not over. I mean, the gross dissection is over, but we're now going to see what toxicology can come up with and also look at the microscopic. I also want to corroborate exactly what medication Patience Stanhope was given so I can tell the toxicologist."

"Well, that sounds more reasonable than accusing the hospital of some ridiculous cover-up."

"The thought of an overdose or wrong medication is not my only idea. Do you want to hear it?"

"I'm listening, but I hope this next idea is more sane than your first."

Jack thought of some witty, sarcastic comebacks, but he controlled himself. "The hospital idea was predicated on Patience Stanhope's heart attack and the opposition to the autopsy being two separate although related circumstances. What if both involved the same person?"

There was a deliberate pause while Jack let this comment sink in.

"I'm not sure I'm following you," Alexis said finally. "Are you talking about someone causing Patience Stanhope's heart attack and then trying to prevent an autopsy to keep from being discovered?"

"That's exactly what I'm suggesting."

"I don't know, Jack. That sounds almost as crazy. I suppose you are talking about Jordan."

" Jordan is the first person that comes to mind. Craig said Jordan and Patience were hardly a loving couple, and Jordan is the big winner with her death. He certainly didn't waste any time in mourning. For all we know, he and his girlfriend were carrying on while Patience was still in the picture."

"How can someone cause a heart attack in someone on purpose?"

"Digitalis could do it."

"I don't know," Alexis said dubiously. "This seems equally farfetched. If Jordan was at all guilty, he certainly wouldn't initiate a malpractice suit, and he absolutely wouldn't have signed the exhumation authorization."

"I've thought of that," Jack said as he pulled into the parking area for the Newton Memorial Hospital. "I agree it doesn't seem rational, but maybe we're not dealing with a rational person. Maybe Jordan is getting a charge out of all this, thinking it is showing how much smarter he is than the rest of us. But this kind of supposition is jumping the gun. First, some kind of drug has to be found by toxicology. If we find something, then we'll have to work backwards."

"That's the second time you've said 'we.' Are you just using that as a figure of speech or what?"

"One of the medical examiners from the Boston medical examiner's office is generously helping."

"I trust you've spoken to Laurie," Alexis said. "Is she okay with you still being here?"

"She's not the happiest camper, but she's doing okay."

"I can't believe you are getting married tomorrow."

"Nor can I," Jack said. He nosed into a parking space overlooking the pond. His headlights illuminated a flock of bobbing waterfowl. "What happened at the trial this afternoon?"

" Randolph called two expert witnesses, one from Yale and one from Columbia. Both were credible but hardly exciting. Best of all, they were not at all phased by Tony, who tried to rattle them. I think Tony was hoping Randolph would call Craig back on the stand, but Randolph wisely didn't. Instead, Randolph rested. That was it. Tomorrow morning will be the summations, with Randolph leading off."

"Has your intuition changed any about what you think the final outcome will be?"

"Not really. The defense witnesses were good, but they were from out of town. Since Boston is such a medical mecca, I don't think the fact that they came from distant universities resonated well with the jurors. Tony's experts had more of an impact."