“What kind of outbreak are you investigating?” Lachlan asked with no preamble, obviously concerned. He grabbed a couple ofchairs from the side of the room and positioned them near the center in front of his desk. He motioned for Jack to sit and once Jack did, he took the other.
“I don’t mean to alarm you,” Jack said right off. “What I believe Essex Falls might be experiencing is not the usual E. coli or salmonella problem or something similar but rather something much different.” At that point Jack formally introduced himself and Lachlan did the same. Jack learned the man had been trained as a hydraulic engineer, a type of civil engineer that specialized in dealing with water, and had worked at the Bennet Municipal Water Department for the last fifteen years.
Jack then described the fourteen and possibly fifteen cases of neurological disease that Dr. Nielson had so far seen, which certainly captured Lachlan’s interest, especially when Jack described the problem as some kind of “transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.” Jack then asked if Lachlan had ever heard anything about infectious prions, but he hadn’t, although on further questioning he remembered having heard something about mad cow disease, which Jack explained was bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Nor had Lachlan heard of any plans or even trade gossip about future testing of municipal water for infectious prions or whether there was such a test available.
“Let me be clear,” Jack said. “I’m certainly not suggesting that these patients of Dr. Nielson got their dementia from municipal water. It’s just an idea that occurred to me as a possibility after I spent a lot of effort ruling out solid food sources like infected beef or deer meat. To be honest, what made me even consider the idea of a waterborne source was that all the patients live in downtown Essex Falls. Tell me this: Does the Bennet Municipal Water Department only provide water here in town?”
“That’s correct,” Lachlan said. “In the outlying areas people draw their water from wells or directly from one of the many lakes, which is a bit of a risk, especially if they’re also not being responsible about their septic systems.”
“Maybe you could give me a short version of what you people do here in the water department,” Jack suggested. “I did notice those five ginormous, open water tanks down the hall.”
“Certainly,” Lachlan said. “Those five open vats represent the stages our water goes through to make sure of its potability. We pump it in from the reservoir continuously, then subject it first to Coagulation, then Flocculation, followed by Sedimentation, Filtration, and finally Chlorination. At that point it’s pumped up to a holding cistern built into the mountain to our immediate north. It’s the cistern’s elevation that provides the water pressure here in town. That’s it in a nutshell.”
“Do you have much of a problem with vermin in this building?” Jack questioned. “That might sound like a weird question coming out of the blue. What I’m trying to do is get an idea of the possible potential sources of infectious prions if it turns out that Dr. Nielson’s outbreak is waterborne.”
“Vermin is not one of our main problems,” Lachlan said with a shake of his head. “We have some pests, mostly the six-legged variety, but I’d call it minimal.”
“Okay, that’s good to know,” Jack said. “Moving on, I did notice that there are no restrictions around the tanks. Could anyone off the street walk in here and access the water supply? Don’t get me wrong! I’m not making any accusations. I’m merely brainstorming.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Lachlan said. “I’ve never given it much thought since we don’t get many visitors. The last time was about a year ago when Janet Huber brought in her third-grade class.”
“How about at night?” Jack asked after smiling at yet another reference to Janet Huber.
“We’re locked up tight at night,” Lachlan said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
A few minutes later after thanking the man for his time and accepting his business card, Jack took his leave. It was almost five o’clock, and he realized as absorbed as he been all day with both the dementia series and Ethan Jameson’s missing corpse, he’d totally forgotten whether there’d be a basketball game that afternoon.
Jack was at the Bennet Clinic in less than a minute. After dutifully dragging his bike inside and leaving it in the empty suite, he headed into Bob’s waiting room. He was immediately relieved to see a number of patients, which suggested he wasn’t missing basketball after all.
“Where’s Bob?” Jack asked Melanie. “Is he in with a patient?”
“He’s not,” Melanie said. “He’s in his office at the moment. He’d just taken a call from the neurologist at Clinton Hospital who’d seen Christine Stephens today, but it looks like he’s off at the moment if you want to catch him before he sees his next patient.”
“I do!” Jack said. “Thanks!” He rounded Melanie’s desk and entered the clinical area. Passing the procedure room, where there was a young boy and presumably his mother waiting, he walked directly into Bob’s office as his door was ajar. Bob was at his monitor typing, but the moment he saw Jack, he paused, and they exchanged a warm greeting.
“I don’t mean to bother you,” Jack said. “I was suddenly worried I might be missing basketball. Five o’clock snuck up on me.”
“No worries! We never play on Friday evenings, particularly during the summer months. It’s considered family time.”
“That works out,” Jack said. “I didn’t bring my gear with me andLaurie has the car, so it would have been mildly problematic. Speaking of Laurie and Carol, any idea when they might be back?”
“They didn’t get off on their hike until rather late, and since they were going to do the entire Cascade trail, I don’t expect to see them until seven at the earliest. What about Warren and Jada on their Lake Placid trip? Any news from them?”
“Not a peep,” Jack said with a shrug.
“Not surprising! There’s a lot to see in that area, so they might not be back until late tonight. My suggestion, if you and Laurie are up for it, is for the four of us to have a relatively late dinner at Ted’s, say around eight. He does a good old-fashioned pot roast on Friday nights.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“How did you do out at the American Pest Control Company?” Bob asked as he went back to typing.
“I didn’t learn anything earthshattering,” Jack said. “But I didn’t expect to. How about you? Did you hear anything encouraging from Bill about Ethan’s missing corpse? Any progress?”
“Nada, unfortunately,” Bob said. “I’m starting to worry we aren’t going to find it.”
“Although I didn’t learn much at the American Pest Control Company, I did have an interesting idea. Since I had determined this morning thanks to Melanie’s help that all the dementia cases have been here in downtown Essex Falls and none in the suburbs, and since there doesn’t seem to be a viable food source, the idea occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, the outbreak could be waterborne.”
“Hmmm. That’s an interesting thought,” Bob said, wrinkling his brow and nodding as he thought it over. “That hadn’t occurred to me.”
