Believe it or not, from time to time I've gotten even bigger baddies than you off.'
With a surprising mix of calm, bombast, candor, and legal acumen, Felix Connolly cut a swath for Eric through the brier patch of a district court criminal arraignment. Along the way he succeeded in persuading the assistant district attorney to drop the charge of possession with intent to distribute, and the judge to lower, by 50 percent, the $10,000 ball recommended by the prosecution. Finally, after the date was set for a hearing to determine probable cause, and the case was remanded to the Suffolk County Superior Court, Connolly rushed Eric out of the building, past the screeching gaggle of reporters, and into his VW.
'Nice going,' Eric said as Connolly inched through the crowd and into the flow of traffic. 'You're very good at what you do.'
Connolly acknowledged the compliment with a nod.
'In case you don't know it,' he said, 'Bernard Nelson is too.
Your friend is lucky she found him.'
'I still can't believe what she's been through.'
'You haven't done too badly in that department yourself.'
'I guess. Well, I think we're past the last of the damn reporters.'
'Don't bank on it,' the lawyer said, reaching behind Eric's seat for a newspaper and handing it to him. 'I suspect some of them are following us right now. You're big stuff This is the early edition of the Herald.
Take a look at it, and then I'll show you the extra they came out with a few hours ago.'
The early edition contained a four-inch, double column, bylined story on page 3, dealing essentially with the crusade of one brave doctor to locate the body and tissue specimens of a woman rumored to have been autopsied ahvelexcept for a brief bit of biographical material about Eric, the story consisted entirely of No comments and Absolutely untrues from hospital officials and the medical examiner's office. A quote from Joe Silver denied the rumors about the living autopsy, and added: 'Dr.
Najarian has been'at this hospital for five years, and knows better than to speak to the press about any hospital business, especially when he has none of the facts.'
As damaging as the early edition was to Eric's hope of a continued career at white Memorial, when compared to the extra it was a ringing endorsement.
ZOMBI DOC CHASES THE UNDEAD
The front-page article, complete with a picture of a dazed Eric being led from the pathology office by two policemen, would have been at least a nine on any ten-point scale of sensationalist journalism.
Wherever the truth had eluded the reporter, or in certain spots where the facts had not jibed with the rest of the article, fabricated pieces had simply been thrown in.
Interviews with Ivor Blunt, the Wayland police, and several staff members of the hospital painted the picture of a high-strung, overworked young man who had recently been turned down for a promotion to associate E.R. director and had turned to cocaine to keep himself going. His obsession with the poison tetrodotoxin, it was suggested by Blunt and others, was clearly the result of a cocaine-induced paranoia.
'Charles Manson, move over,' Eric muttered, as he scanned the article.
A sidebar replacing the original article on page 3 resurrected the arrest and subsequent disappearance of Craig Worrell, whom the Herald had dubbed 'Sex Doc.' The reporter, who, Eric mused, was probably a department chief after this piece of work, had not missed the fact that the position 'Zombi Doc' had once been the leading candidate for was the one 'Sex Doc' had vacated. Eric wondered if even hoary White Memorial would be able to survive this latest assault on its reputation.
'It'll pass,' Connolly said.
'At this point I almost don't care. I just really want to see Laura, that's all. Are we headed there?'
'We most definitely are not. Like I said, there are probably a few reporters and who knows what other manner of vermin following us.
Bernard Nelson is worried about your friend's safety. And take it from someone who's known him for a long time, Bernard Nelson doesn't worry without cause.'
'So what do we do?'
'Well, and please don't take this too personally, the first thing we ought to do is find someplace for you to shower.'
Eric smiled ruefully and buried his face in his hands.
'No offense taken,' he said. 'I don't know what shape my place is in, but I picked up my spare key before they arrested me, so at least I can get in there.'
'I'D go up with you,' Connolly said. 'My I.O.U to Bernard isn't paid off until I deliver you to your friend with no one following us.'
'How're you going to be sure of that?'
Connolly smiled enigmatically.
'For right now, let's leave that one between me and the bug,' he said.
Mindless of the chaos in his apartment, Eric hurried to the bedroom and called Bernard Nelson's office. Laura had learned of his arrest from one of the all-news radio stations.
'You made the TV news as well,' she said. 'I couldn't believe what I was hearing.'
'That makes us even. I couldn't believe how close you came to getting killed.'
'Eric, did Connolly tell you about Donald Devine?'
'He did, yes. I think you were crazy to take such a chance.'
'You don't really.' he said. 'No, I don't really. I just wish I had been in the crazy place you were instead of the crazy place I was.'
'I want to hear all about it. Has the lawyer told You to be careful coming here?' me what it is.'
'Great, because, Eric, something very weird is going on, and Donald Devine is-I mean was-right in the middle of it.'
'What do you mean?'
'Well, I'd rather tell you all the details when I see you, but one of the ledgers we took from his safe has a long list of clients, listed only by initials and dates.
After each set of initials there are several other abbreviations and names.'
'Yes?'
'We've been able to piece together that shortly after each date, Devin or someone else driving his hearse from Boston to somewhere in southern Utah. Dozens of trips.'
'I really want to see that book.'
'You will. And, Eric, there's more. The last entry in the book was never completed. It's just a date and the initials L.L.'
'L.L.?'
'Eric, it's the date when Reed Marshall pronounced that woman dead.'
'Loretta Leone! Devine already had her initials in his book?'
'It appears so.'
'Laura, did you check the date in February when-'
'There's an entry for that date too,' she cut in.
'The initials are PT.'
'We'll figure out what that means,' Eric said excitedly. 'Hold tight.
I'll be there soon.'
'I'm glad you're okay.'
Eric said goodbye and gently replaced the receiver.
'Sounds like some things are beginning to happen,' the lawyer observed.
'They are that,' Eric said. 'Hopefully, Mr. Connoley, by the time we're done, there are going to be some people at White Memorial who will be in need of your services at least as much as I was. I don't know what's going on yet, but what they did to Laura yesterday and to me last night suggests that we're jabbing at an exposed nerve. Between what I've learned and what Laura and your friend Bernard have got, I think we may already have a lot of the pieces.
And somewhere out there is the glue that will help us put those pieces together.'
Felix Connolly pulled a small silver flask from his suit-coat pocket and unscrewed the top.
