Robin Cook - Contagion

Jack exited on the first floor and went directly to Bart Arnold’s office. Bart was the chief of the PAs, or physician’s assistants. Jack was pleased to catch him at his desk.

“We’ve got a presumptive diagnosis of plague. I’ve got to talk with Janice Jaeger right away,” Jack said.

“She’ll be sleeping,” Bart said. “Can’t it wait?”

“No,” Jack said.

“Bingham or Calvin know about this?” Bart asked.

“Both are out, and I don’t know when they’ll be back,” Jack said.

Bart hesitated a moment, then opened up the side drawer of his desk. After looking up Janice’s number, he made the call. When she was on the line, he apologized for having awakened her and explained that Dr. Stapleton needed to speak with her. He handed the phone to Jack.

Jack apologized as well and then told her about the results on Nodelman. Any sign of sleepiness in Janice’s voice disappeared instantly.

“What can I do to help?” she asked.

“Did you find any reference to travel in any of the hospital records?” Jack asked.

“Not that I recall,” Janice said.

“Any reference to contact with pets or wild animals?” Jack asked.

“Negative,” Janice said. “But I can go back there tonight. Those questions were never specifically asked.”

Jack thanked her and told her that he’d be looking into it himself. He handed the phone back to Bart and hurried back to his own office.

Chet looked up as Jack dashed in. “Learn anything?” he asked.

“Not a thing,” Jack said happily. He pulled out Nodelman’s folder and rapidly shuffled through the pages until he found the completed identification sheet. On it were phone numbers for the next of kin. With his index finger marking Nodelman’s wife’s number, Jack made the call. It was an exchange in the Bronx.

Mrs. Nodelman answered on the second ring.

“I’m Dr. Stapleton,” Jack said. “I’m a medical examiner for the City of New York.”

At that point Jack had to explain the role of a medical examiner, because even the archaic term “coroner” didn’t register with Mrs. Nodelman.

“I’d like to ask you a few questions,” Jack said once Mrs. Nodelman understood who he was.

“It was so sudden,” Mrs. Nodelman said. She had started to cry. “He had diabetes, that’s true. But he wasn’t supposed to die.”

“I’m very sorry for your loss,” Jack said. “But did your late husband do any recent traveling?”

“He went to New Jersey a week or so ago,” Mrs. Nodelman said. Jack could hear her blow her nose.

“I was thinking of travel to more distant destinations,” Jack said. “Like to the Southwest or maybe India.”

“Just to Manhattan every day,” Mrs. Nodelman said.

“How about a visitor from some exotic locale?” Jack asked.

“Donald’s aunt visited in December,” Mrs. Nodelman said.

“And where is she from?”

“Queens,” Mrs. Nodelman said.

“Queens,” Jack repeated. “That’s not quite what I had in mind. How about contact with any wild animals? Like rabbits.”

“No,” Mrs. Nodelman said. “Donald hated rabbits.”

“How about pets?” Jack asked.

“We have a cat,” Mrs. Nodelman said.

“Is the cat sick?” Jack asked. “Or has the cat brought home any rodents?”

“The cat is fine,” Mrs. Nodelman said. “She’s a house cat and never goes outside.”

“How about rats?” Jack asked. “Do you see many rats around your house? Have you seen any dead ones lately?”

“We don’t have any rats,” Mrs. Nodelman said indignantly. “We live in a nice, clean apartment.”

Jack tried to think of something else to ask, but for the moment nothing came to mind. “Mrs. Nodelman,” he said, “you’ve been most kind. The reason I’m asking you these questions is because we have reason to believe that your husband died of a serious infectious disease. We think he died of plague.”

There was a brief silence.

“You mean bubonic plague like they had in Europe long ago?” Mrs. Nodelman asked.

“Sort of,” Jack said. “Plague comes in two clinical forms, bubonic and pneumonic. Your husband seems to have had the pneumonic form, which happens to be the more contagious. I would advise you to go to your doctor and inform him of your potential exposure. I’m sure he’ll want you to take some precautionary antibiotics. I would also advise you to take your pet to your vet and tell him the same thing.”

“Is this serious?” Mrs. Nodelman asked.

“It’s very serious,” Jack said. He then gave her his phone number in case she had any questions later. He also asked her to call him if the vet found anything suspicious with the cat.

Jack hung up the phone and turned to Chet. “The mystery is deepening,” he said. Then he added cheerfully: “AmeriCare is going to have some severe indigestion over this.”

“There’s that facial expression again that scares me,” Chet said.

Jack laughed, got up, and started out of the room.

“Where are you going now?” Chet asked nervously.

“To tell Laurie Montgomery what’s going on,” Jack said. “She’s supposed to be our supervisor for today. She has to be apprised.”

A few minutes later Jack returned.

“What’d she say?” Chet asked.

“She was as stunned as we were,” Jack said. He grabbed the phone directory before taking his seat. He flipped open the pages to the city listings.

“Did she want you to do anything in particular?” Chet asked.

“No,” Jack said. “She told me to tread water until Bingham is informed. In fact she tried to call our illustrious chief, but he’s still incommunicado with the mayor.”

Jack picked up the phone and dialed.

“Who are you calling now?” Chet asked.

“The Commissioner of Health, Patricia Markham,” Jack said. “I ain’t waiting.”

“Good grief!” Chet exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “Hadn’t you better let Bingham do that? You’ll be calling his boss behind his back.”

Jack didn’t respond. He was busy giving his name to the commissioner’s secretary. When she told him to hold on, he covered the mouthpiece with his hand and whispered to Chet: “Surprise, surprise, she’s in!”

“I guarantee Bingham is not going to like this,” Chet whispered back.

Jack held up his hand to silence Chet. “Hello, Commissioner,” Jack said into the phone. “Howya doing. This is Jack Stapleton here, from over at the ME’s office.”

Chet winced at Jack’s breezy informality.

“Sorry to spoil your day,” Jack continued, “but I felt I had to call. Dr. Bingham and Dr. Washington are momentarily unavailable and a situation has developed that I believe you should know about. We’ve just made a presumptive diagnosis of plague in a patient from the Manhattan General Hospital.”

“Good Lord!” Dr. Markham exclaimed loud enough for Chet to hear. “That’s frightening, but only one case, I trust.”

“So far,” Jack said.

“All right, I’ll alert the City Board of Health,” Dr. Markham said. “They’ll take over and contact the CDC. Thanks for the warning. What was your name again?”

“Stapleton,” Jack said. “Jack Stapleton.”

Jack hung up with a self-satisfied smile on his lips. “Maybe you should sell short your AmeriCare stock,” he told Chet. “The commissioner sounds concerned.”

“Maybe you’d better brush off your résumé,” Chet said. “Bingham is going to be pissed.”

Jack whistled while he leafed through Nodelman’s file until he came up with the investigative report. Once he had located the name of the attending physician, Dr. Carl Wainwright, he wrote it down. Then he got up and put on his leather bomber jacket.