“Let me go and find him,” McGovern said with alacrity. “Not a problem. Don’t move!”
He jumped up before Pia could change her mind and dashed out of the room, heading down the hall to Jack Stapleton’s office. He knocked on the door and barged in without waiting for an answer. To his dismay, the office was empty.
“Damn!” He then ran down to the office of Jack’s wife, Laurie, whose door was ajar as usual. To his delight both Laurie and Jack were there.
Laurie and Jack liked to hang out in one of their offices after the rush of the day and go over their cases and maybe make plans for the evening. The rush-hour traffic, particularly bad on Fridays, would subside a little if they waited to leave until six, and with the live-in nanny at home tending to JJ’s needs, there was no rush. This was their quiet time, and they relished it because it was in short supply considering how busy they both were.
“Jack. Thank God. Oh, hi, Laurie, how are you? Jack, listen.” Chet was talking excitedly and loudly at first but got mock-conspiratorial. He looked behind him and pushed Laurie’s office door almost closed so no one else could hear.
“Jack, I have got the best-looking fourth-year medical student in my office that I’ve ever seen. I mean ever. I need you to keep her interested until I can get her info. I had nothing to do tonight, but then she showed up. It’s like a sign. You gotta help me, man.”
As usual, Jack was amused by Chet, his former office mate and longtime friend. Jack had heard innumerable episodes of McGovern’s social antics. Laurie, on the other hand, had wearied of Chet’s incessant womanizing. She couldn’t resist baiting him a little.
“Chet, how old are you?” she said.
“I know,” he said, pretending to be sheepish.
“No, seriously, how old
Jack thought he should step in at this point, between his wife and his friend.
“How can I help you, Chet?”
McGovern stuck his head around the door and looked down the corridor to make sure Pia hadn’t left.
“Listen! This Columbia med student just came in asking about those two typhoid cases you worked on yesterday. Actually, she came in supposedly interested in an elective, but I guess that was a cover story. For some reason she wants to check the corpses for evidence of alpha radiation because they’d been using some alpha emitter radioisotopes in the lab where your two patients worked. She even brought in her own Geiger counter. When I told her the bodies had already gone she was disappointed. Thanks for being so over-the-top efficient with the death certificates and signing out the cases, Jack!”
“You’re welcome, buddy.”
Jack and Laurie smiled knowingly at each other. This was typical McGovern behavior. Each week there was a new hot prospect. It used to be Laurie felt badly for the man because she thought he was lonely. But that had changed. She was now convinced Chet did not want to find a mate. It was the chase he wanted, and he never tired.
“When I told her the bodies were gone, she wanted to ask you whether your findings were typical for typhoid.”
“Tell her the findings were indeed typical for typhoid, but a very serious case of typhoid from a remarkably virulent strain.”
“How about coming and telling her yourself? She’ll be more impressed.”
Jack looked at Laurie, who shrugged as if to say, “It’s okay by me.” Jack heaved himself to his feet, told Laurie he’d be right back, and followed Chet back to his office.
Chet made the introductions, and Jack could understand Chet’s enthusiasm. Grazdani was fetching. He noticed the Geiger counter. He quizzed Pia about her interest in his cases. She gave him the same story she’d told Chet, and Jack purposely didn’t challenge her although he was tempted. Instead he said, “My understanding is that you’re interested to know if the autopsy findings were typical for typhoid fever. Yes, they were: a very virulent form of typhoid fever. The gut, the target organ of the disease, was in bad shape, which is why they died so quickly. There were multiple perforations into the peritoneal cavity.”
Pia sat up straighter in her chair. “Have you seen anything like that before?” she asked.
“Well, no, not to that extent. But you have to remember that typhoid fever, and especially such a bad case, is rarely seen these days. It’s no longer the scourge it used to be before we had antibiotics.”
Laurie suddenly appeared. She’d decided not to be left out. Chet introduced her to Pia. Pia shook her hand and then turned her attention back to Jack and said, “The strain they were working with and which caused their infections was particularly virulent because it was grown in space, under a NASA program.”
“Really?” Jack said. He made a mental note to ask why no one had mentioned that fact.
“Was the involvement just in the small intestine or was it the whole intestine?” Pia asked.
“It was the whole intestine,” Jack said. “From the duodenum all the way down and including the rectum. In that sense it was unique. Usually it’s just in the small bowel. It was unique enough that I saved some rather large specimens in formalin. I thought they could be used in the future for teaching purposes. We take our teaching responsibilities very seriously around here, right, Dr. McGovern?”
The dig got Chet McGovern to mumble something, and Jack laughed. Pia looked confused, but in actuality she was giddy. She hadn’t even heard Jack’s sarcastic comment. All she had heard was that he’d saved sections of the gut! The bodies were gone, but pieces of the involved intestine were still available.
“I mean, I can’t show you any slides because the specimens haven’t been processed yet because the autopsy was only yesterday. But if you want to view the gross specimens, I’d be happy to show them to you. As for slides, if you provide your contact information, I’ll either tell you when they’re ready and you can come back, or, if you’d prefer, I could send some slides up to you at Columbia Medical School.”
“Oh, absolutely, I want to see the gross specimens,” Pia said. “And I want to see the slides too, when they’re ready.”
Jack looked at McGovern with a smile. “Dr. McGovern, make sure you get Miss Grazdani’s contact information.”
“I’ll be happy to do so,” McGovern said, beaming.
“Well, let’s go up,” Jack said, and all four trooped out of Chet’s office and headed for the stairs. Pia carried both her umbrella and the shopping bag holding the Geiger counter.
On the fourth floor they all filed into the histology lab. The supervisor, Maureen O’Conner, was still on duty. Jack could swear that since redheads had become very cool recently, Maureen’s red curls had gotten redder.
“So what do we have here on a Friday night?” Maureen quipped. “Is this a party or is it work?” She looked from Jack to Laurie to Chet to Pia. Chet made the introductions and Maureen shook hands with Pia.
“I want to look at some samples, if it’s okay, Maureen,” Jack said. “I know it’s late.”
“Ah, it’s never too late for you, Jack,” Maureen said, and Laurie rolled her eyes. Maureen had taken an early liking to Jack and babied him with special attention. Jack’s slides were always available a little quicker than everyone else’s.
Under Jack’s instruction, Maureen took out a number of formalin-filled sample bottles from the sample storage area and put them on an available and reasonably empty bench.
After donning gloves, Jack took out the pale intestine samples and put them on the countertop. He showed Pia the perforations and the marked erosion of the internal, mucosal epithelium that lined the organ. When she saw that Jack was ready to put them back into the sample bottles, Pia asked a question as casually as she could.
“Would you mind if I checked the sample with my Geiger counter?”
Jack shrugged. “It’s okay with me.”
Pia pulled the Geiger counter out of the shopping bag. After opening up the mica port specifically designed for alpha particles, Pia turned on the machine and positioned the Geiger counter as close to the intestinal sample as possible without touching it. Immediately the counter started giving off the clicks that announced the presence of radiation. As Pia moved the instrument even closer the clicks intensified until they were a continuous noise. Then the needle on the counter’s gauge went off the scale.
“Whoa,” said Jack. “What’s that about?”
Pia said nothing and moved the counter away from the sample and then back. It was unmistakable, the sample was emitting radiation, a lot of radiation. She did it again just to be certain, then turned off the Geiger counter and slipped it back into the shopping bag.
