Робин Кук - Mortal Fear

As the minutes slipped by, Jason realized the gravity of the situation. He remembered Shirley’s request that he not stir the pot. God knows the effect his arrest would have on the clinic if it became public.

Finally the door to the room opened and Detective Michael Curran came in, followed by the smaller policeman. Jason was glad to see Curran, but he was immediately aware the detective did not reciprocate the emotion. The lines on his face seemed deeper than ever.

“Uncuff him,” Curran said without smiling. Jason stood up while the uniformed policeman released his hands. He watched Curran’s face, trying to fathom his thoughts, but he remained impenetrable.

“I want to talk with him alone,” he said to the policeman, who nodded and left.

“Here’s your goddamn wallet,” Curran said, slapping it into Jason’s palm. “You don’t take advice too well, do you? What do I have to do to convince you this drug business is serious stuff?”

“I was only trying to talk with Carol Donner...”

“Wonderful. So you butt in and screw things up for us.”

“Like what?” Jason asked, beginning to feel his temper rise.

“Vice has been staking out Hayes’s apartment since we learned it had been searched. We hoped to pull in someone a bit more interesting than you.”

“I’m sorry.”

Curran shook his head in frustration. “Well, it could have been worse. You could have gotten yourself hurt. Please, doctor — would you get back to your doctoring?”

“Am I free to go?” Jason asked with disbelief.

“Yeah,” Curran said, turning to the door. “I’m not going to book you. No sense wasting our time.”

Jason left the police station and took a cab back to Springfield Street, where he retrieved his car. He glanced up at Hayes’s building and shivered. It had been an unnerving experience.

With enough adrenaline in his system now to run a four-minute mile, Jason was glad he had plans for the evening. His friends the Alics had invited a lively group of people, and the food and wine were really good. The girl they wanted him to meet, Penny Lambert, struck him as a bit of a yuppie, conservatively dressed in a blue suit with a voluminous silk bow tie. Luckily, she was cheerful and talkative and willingly filled the gap left by Jason’s inability to stop thinking about Hayes’s apartment and his need to speak to Carol Donner.

When coffee and brandy were cleared away, Jason had an idea. Maybe if he offered to take Penny home, he could persuade her to stop at Carol’s club. Obviously, Carol was no longer living at Hayes’s apartment, and Jason figured he might have a better chance talking to her if he were accompanied by another woman. Penny happily accepted his offer of a lift, and when they were in the car, he asked her if she were feeling adventurous.

“What do you mean?” she asked cautiously.

“I thought you might like to see another side of Boston.”

“Like a disco?”

“Something like that,” Jason said. In a mildly perverse way, Jason thought the experience might be good for Penny. She was nice enough, but a bit too predictable.

She relaxed, smiling and chatting until they pulled up in front of the Club Cabaret. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked.

“Come on,” Jason urged. He’d given her a little background en route, explaining that he wanted to see the girl Dr. Hayes had been involved with. Penny had remembered the story from the newspapers and it had not buoyed her confidence, but with a bit more cajoling he persuaded her to let him park and go in.

Friday was obviously a big night. Gripping Penny’s hand, Jason worked his way down the room, hoping to avoid the man with the dark glasses and his two he-man bodyguards. With the help of a five-dollar bill he got one of the waitresses to give them a booth against the side wall, several steps up from the floor. They could see the runway while remaining partially concealed from the dancers by the dark silhouettes of men standing two deep at the bar.

They’d entered between numbers. They had just ordered drinks when the speakers roared to life. Jason’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and he could just make out Penny’s face. What he could see best were the whites of her eyes. She wasn’t doing much blinking.

A stripper appeared in a swirl of diaphanous crepe. There were a few catcalls. Penny remained silent. As he paid the waitress for their drinks, Jason asked if Carol Donner was dancing that night. The waitress said her first set was at eleven. Jason was relieved — at least she hadn’t been trashed along with Hayes’s apartment.

When the waitress left he saw the dancer was down to her G-string and that Penny’s lips were tightly pursed.

“This is disgusting,” she spat.

“It’s not the Boston Symphony,” Jason agreed.

“She even has cellulite.”

Jason looked more carefully when the dancer went back up the stairs. Sure enough, the backs of her thighs were heavily dimpled. Jason smiled. It was curious what a woman noticed.

“Are these men really enjoying themselves?” Penny asked with distaste.

“Good question. I don’t know. Most of them look bored.”

But not one was bored when Carol came out. Like the night before, the crowd came alive when she began her routine.

“What do you think?” Jason asked. “She’s a good dancer, but I can’t believe your friend was involved with her.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” Jason said. But now he wasn’t so sure. Carol Donner projected a very different personality than he had expected.

After Carol finished, and again did not appear among the patrons, Jason had had enough. Penny was eager to leave, and Jason noticed she had little to say on the way home. He guessed the Club Cabaret hadn’t made a great impression. When he left her at her door, he didn’t even bother to say he’d call. He knew the Alics would be disappointed, but he figured they should have known better than to fix him up with a bow tie.

Back in his own apartment, Jason undressed and picked up the DNA book from the den. He got into bed and started reading. Remembering his exhaustion that afternoon, he thought he’d drop off to sleep quickly. But that wasn’t the case. He read about bacteriophages, the viral particles that infected bacteria, and how they were used in genetic engineering. Then he read a chapter on plasmids, which he’d never even heard of before he’d started reading about DNA. He marveled that plasmids were small circular DNA molecules that existed in bacteria and reproduced faithfully when the bacteria reproduced. They, too, served an enormously important function as vehicles for introducing segments of DNA into bacteria.

Still wide awake, Jason looked at the time. It was after two A.M., and sleep was out of the question. Getting up, he went into his living room and stared out at Louisburg Square. A car pulled up. It was the tenant who occupied the garden apartment in Jason’s building. He, too, was a doctor and although they were friendly, Jason knew little about the man other than he dated a lot of beautiful women. Jason wondered where he found them all. True to form, the man emerged from his car with an attractive blonde and amid soft laughter disappeared out of sight below. Jason heard the front door to the building close. Silence returned. He could not get Carol Donner out of his mind, wishing he could speak with her. Looking at the clock on the mantel, Jason had an idea. Quickly, he returned to the bedroom, redressed, and went out to his car.

With _some misgivings about the possible consequences, Jason drove back to the Combat Zone. In contrast to the rest of the city, it was still very much awake. He drove past the Club Cabaret once, then circled and backed into a side street and parked. He switched off the motor. There were some unsavory types lingering in doorways and on the side street who made Jason feel uncomfortable. He made sure all his doors were locked.