“What about wild deer?” Laurie asked. “I’ve heard they can be carriers. When is deer hunting season here?”
“That’s not until the fall,” Bob said.
“I suppose it could be deer meat coming out of someone’s freezer,” Laurie suggested. And then she shook her head in discouragement. “Narrowing it down to an ‘acquired’ infection is still much too broad to be helpful. There’re just too many possibilities.”
“But we still have to try,” Jack said. “Let’s move on to location. Has there been any thought given to where the individual cases occurred?”
“What do you mean?” Bob questioned, wrinkling his forehead. “They’ve all been here, in Essex Falls.”
“That I understand,” Jack said. “But what I’m asking is where in Essex Falls. The most famous epidemiological case in the history of medicine was John Snow’s triumph in London. He was the doctor who figured out that a mid-nineteenth-century cholera epidemic that was raging in the city wasn’t coming from ‘bad air’ as most people thought but rather from one specific water well, and by shutting it down, he stopped the outbreak.”
“Okay, fair enough,” Bob said. “We’ll get a map of the town and locate all twelve cases and even add the two I’m seeing today if need be. Unfortunately, I can’t imagine it’s going to helpful. I already know that all the original dozen live here in town and the town is obviously not that big.”
“Okay,” Jack said, raising his hands as if surrendering. “I’ve said my piece. You are all excused now.” Everyone laughed, including Jack. “If everyone is finished with lunch, I want to get back to the Hiram House because my basketball buddy from the city, Warren, should be here any minute.”
“Can we take a few minutes to look at the brain slides from Barker and Hughes,” Laurie suggested. “Would you be okay with that, Jack?”
“I suppose,” Jack said. “If we make it fast.”
“Would that be a problem, Bob?” Laurie asked.
“No, not at all,” Bob said. “Only that I’ll be embarrassed. I’m afraid they aren’t very good. Melanie and I are just learning to make slides and use the staining properly.”
“What stains did you use?” Laurie asked.
“The recommended silver and Congo red,” Bob said. “But it’s not just the staining that’s the problem. It’s that the sections are too thick.”
“I’d still like to see them,” Laurie said as everyone got to their feet and then filed out of the diner into the warm late July afternoon.
Chapter 17
Thursday, July 24, 2:15p.m.
Hiram House
Hamilton County, New York
Jack turned off the main road that led to Indian River and onto the long, remarkably serpentine driveway leading to the Hiram House. He was driving faster than Laurie would have liked because he felt they were late getting back, and he was concerned that Warren might have already arrived. Jack wanted to be there to welcome him, mainly to see his initial response.
Their departure from the Bennet Clinic building had been delayed by Laurie’s wish to take a peek at the slides Bob and Melanie had made of Barker’s and Hughes’s brains. She’d been insistent on it. Unfortunately, Bob had misplaced both sets, and it took Melanie’s help and a bit of time to find them.
Although the sections were thicker than was ideal, Laurie was still able to discern a hint of the characteristic Alzheimer’s-like neurodegenerative changes in the temporal lobes of both patients. She found this shocking, knowing that the patients had onlyexperienced neurological symptoms for a matter of weeks, not the usual months or year and that they had tested negative.
Then, while Laurie was busy with the slides, Melanie managed to locate a friend who was willing to drive Stanley Kramer’s specimens down to the OCME in Manhattan. The woman had been planning for some time to visit a cousin who lived in Greenwich, Connecticut, and been thrilled with the prospect of getting all travel expenses paid. She’d even been willing to leave as soon as the specimens were ready. Laurie immediately put in a call to George Fontworth to have him prepare for the specimens’ arrival late that afternoon, ensuring they were handled properly overnight. She also wanted George to give John DeVries in toxicology a heads-up that they were on their way.
“Hey, slow down!” Laurie called out as she grasped the handle on the car’s dashboard to steady herself to keep from being thrown side to side.
“Oops,” Jack said. As soon as Laurie spoke up, he recognized he was definitely driving too fast and slowed down. “Sorry! I didn’t realize how fast I was going. I’m a tad over eager to arrive, concerned that Warren already has.”
“What difference will it make if he has?” Laurie questioned. In this era of ubiquitous cell phones, she couldn’t imagine it would matter, especially for someone as resourceful as Warren Williams.
“Good point,” Jack conceded. “I shouldn’t be stressing out. It’s just that I want to hear his reaction when he first sees the setting and the house. He’s going to be bowled over from having spent the vast portion of his life within a twenty-block radius of the center of Harlem.”
“That might be part of it,” Laurie said, looking over at Jack and nodding. “But knowing you as well as I do, I think it’s more becauseyou’re just generally pumped up by this dementia mystery, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”
Jack glanced over at Laurie briefly and knitted his brows. “That’s a curious comment. What exactly do you mean?”
“I mean just what I said,” Laurie explained. “Your modus operandi is to constantly look for intellectual challenges to keep that mind of yours busy, and this current conundrum of Bob’s is just up your alley. I can tell you’re getting pulled in hook, line, and sinker. There’s no doubt there is a significant neurological mystery here in Essex Falls. On top of that, there’s the added attraction of the mysterious disappearance of a corpse. This all has to be irresistible for you.”
