Chapter Eighty-Two

Trapper slowly sank into his chair, biting the inside of his cheek and giving Leah a perplexed look.

“Um…how do I say this?” He raised his eyebrows in anticipation. “We have another possible epidemic.”

“Of what?” he asked rather sharply.

She cringed. “Gonorrhea.”

“What! In my hospital!” he said, coming out of his chair.

She took a step back away from the desk and attempted a smile, but failed miserably. “Gonzo might be infected,” she said quietly.

“Oh no. I’m not telling him. You brought her here. You tell him.”

“It’s not just Gonzo. She said she was with at least twelve men here. And she doesn’t know all their names.”

Trapper nostrils flared. “Where is she?”

“She’s gone. She resigned. And I let her.”

He studied her as she stood biting her lip, unable to look him in the eye, her fingers fidgeting. This certainly wasn’t the formidable woman he knew her to be. “Leah, why are you cowering?” he said quietly.

“I’m not cowering…really. You’re yelling.”

“I’m not…” he yelled, stopping before he said the word, realizing that he had, indeed, raised his voice. He cocked his head and smiled sarcastically. “If you’re not cowering what would you call it?”

“I think I’ll leave this one in your office with you, never mind the rest of the hospital,” she said turning toward the door.

Shaking his head, he took his glasses off and set them on the desk. “I’m sorry, Leah,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t your fault. It’s Frieda’s. It’s just come at a bad time…two infections at once.”

“I think it would be better if you notified the male staff, and that means all the male staff. She didn’t limit herself to doctors. I think there were some lab technicians, and maybe an orderly or two involved. I’ll tell Gonzo.”

Walking around the desk, he hugged her. “I’ll take care of it. But you’re right. We have to report this to the CDC because of the potential of spreading.”

“I feel awful, Trapper. I did bring her here. But she swears she was clean. She claims she got it from someone here.”

“Has she been treated?” Leah nodded. “Look, I have to go back to my office. I have a conference call with Angela in a few minutes. Are you going to be able to come up?”

“I’ll go up with you now. I have to tell Arnold about the second infection anyway. I’ll have a staff meeting with the department heads after the call, and they can inform their staff.” On the way up in the elevator, Trapper asked, “Are you coming home with me tonight?”

“Well, no. I need to go home and pack. And so do you.”

“It’ll be easier if you come over after you pack. Then we can get a cab together tomorrow morning from my house to the airport.”

Stepping into his side, she gently pinched him. “Why don’t you come over to my place after you pack?”

He moved his arm over her shoulders and smiled down at her. “Because my house is closer to the airport.”

“Oh,” she said smiling as the elevator began to slow. She stepped forward and punched the stop button, then turned back into him, looking up to his face. “I’m sorry. I know this makes things difficult for you.”

Bending, he kissed her lips, lingering and kissing her again as he reached beyond her and disengaged the stop button. “Stop apologizing. I’m leaving with you tomorrow. Someone else is going to be handling this.”

***

Arnold groaned as he held his head in his hands. “Two infections at the same time? In my hospital!”

“Relax, Arnold. I’ll put Stanley in charge of taking names and testing everyone who needs to be tested. That way, anyone outside the hospital who might be infected can go straight to the emergency room. It’ll probably all be done before someone from the CDC even gets to it. They’ll be more interested in the botulism.”

Arnold looked up from his hands. “And what did you find out about that?”

“The two patients in emergency have the right symptoms, and they both ate at the same restaurant. But we don’t have any of the tests back to confirm botulism yet,” answered Trapper as he sat in the chair in front of Arnold’s desk and casually crossed his legs.

“How do you know it was from this…kimchi?”

“I’ve had my share of kimchi…authentic kimchi…while I was in Korea. The kimchi our second patient was eating smelled of rot.”

Arnold snorted. “Of course it did. It’s fermented.”

“No, there’s a distinct difference in the smell…the older the kimchi the more sour it smells, but this smelled like decomp…as if it was never fermented. I honestly don’t know how he was eating it. There was something else in that dish, too; not just the kimchi.”

Trapper’s pager went off. Pointing to the phone, he asked, “May I?” Arnold waved his hand. “This is Dr. McIntyre. Alright. Thank you.” Pressing the switch button, he dialed a number. “Ernie, what’s the verdict?”

“The tests came back positive from all of our patients. It also came back positive from the food you took down to the lab.”

“I’ll need a printout of exactly what was in that container.”

“I’ll tell them.”

“Thanks, Ernie. Arnold, we need to contact the health department, and let them know we’ve already contacted the CDC to be on standby.”

“What are we going to tell the health department? We don’t know where to send them.”

“Yes, we do. Namkoong’s Kitchen. I’ll be in Leah’s office if you need me.”

When Trapper tapped on the door of Leah’s office and stuck his head in, she was already on the phone with Angela. She waved him in and pointed to her watch. “Angela, you’re on speakerphone. Trapper has joined us.”

“Sorry I’m late, ladies. Something came up. And just to let you know, I may have to leave again.”

“Trapper, Angela and I were just talking about the expected pay-off time for the different pieces of our application. We are required to show one, five, ten and twenty if it goes that far. “

“Actually, you really don’t have to go to twenty,” said Angela. “If it doesn’t start making a profit beyond what was covered by the grant in ten years, you won’t get the grant.”

The three began to hash through numbers and the remaining questions for the application. They had just concluded when there was a knock at Leah’s door.

“Dr. McIntyre, Mr. Slocum would like to see you. He needs you to answer some questions for the health department.”

Standing, Trapper said, “Ladies, if you’ll excuse me.” He walked around the desk and bent to kiss Leah.

“Dr. McIntyre, I think it would be good idea if you brought all your paperwork to Washington with you, just in case we need to make a few adjustments,” said Angela.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“No, I think I have everything I need at the moment.” With that, Trapper nodded and left. “I think I like your doctor-friend, Leah. Besides being very knowledgeable, he has a very…nice…voice.”

Leah smiled, looking at the door where Trapper had just passed. “Yes, he does.”

***

As Stanley walked down the hall toward Trapper’s office, Gonzo caught up to him. “You wouldn’t happen to be going to see Trapper, would you?” asked Gonzo.

“As a matter of fact, Dr. Gates, he asked me to come up. Said it was important.”

Gonzo grunted. “Yeah, I got the same message.”

Trapper’s door was open, and both men stepped in. “Good. You’re both here. You can back each other up.”

“For what?” asked Gonzo, dropping onto the sofa. Stanley took the chair in front of Trapper’s desk.

“We have two infections that are going to involve the health department and the CDC.”

“Two?” said Dr. Riverside, surprised. “At the same time?”

“Gonzo, I want you to handle the first since it started with your patient.”

Leaning up and propping his arms on his thighs, Gonzo said, “So it is botulism.”

Trapper nodded. “Mm hm. And we have two more patients who came through emergency. These two said they both ate a restaurant called Namkoong’s Kitchen, so we’re directing the health department there. But depending on what they find, you’ll have to watch incoming patients until they find the source and contain it. The CDC will be here, but I’m sure Arnold will be handling them. You’ll have to be prepared to answer any questions about our patients.”

“And what about me?” asked Stanley.

“You’ll be handling the second infection. It isn’t as catastrophic as botulism can be, but if it’s spread beyond this hospital, the CDC will get involved. I’m hoping it’s not. You’ll need to contact all the men in the hospital, regardless of their jobs and schedule testing…for gonorrhea.” Stanley cringed. “That includes you, Gonzo.”

“What? Why me?” asked Gonzo, standing.

Raising his hands, Trapper tried to calm him. “I don’t think you’ve been exposed. You removed yourself from the situation early. But still, you should be tested just in case. It was Frieda Christopher who reported it to Leah. She claims she got it from someone here.”

“Can’t we just contact whoever she’s been with?” asked Stanley.

“I have a list of names,” Trapper said, passing a piece of paper to Stanley. “But it’s not everyone. Frieda didn’t know some of their names.”

“Didn’t know… Of all the irresponsible… The woman should be fired,” said Stanley emphatically.

Trapper rolled his eyes. “She’s already gone, Stanley. Leah accepted her resignation earlier today. Gonzo, this is the number where I’ll be staying in Washington. Keep me informed. Stanley, yours is fairly routine, but if anything unusual happens, call me. I’ll still have my pager for emergencies. Oh, and Gonzo, I’ve ordered a report of the contents of that container we found in the waiting room. The health department and the CDC will want a copy.”

Standing, Stanley reached out for Trapper’s hand. “Don’t worry about a thing while you’re gone. We’ll take care of it. And good luck, John. That grant will go along way around here.”

Gonzo was still standing with his hands on his hips in dismay when Stanley left the office. “I can’t believe it. I could be infected with….”

“Leah did warn you about her,” interrupted Trapper, moving paperwork from his desk into his satchel.

“Well, she didn’t say to watch out for diseases.”

Looking at Gonzo over his glasses, Trapper said sternly. “This is not Leah’s fault.”

“I didn’t say it was,” Gonzo said after taking a deep breath. “It’s…she knew Frieda was…”

“Frieda was the most qualified for the job. It’s as simple as that. You can’t make hiring decisions on the basis of sexual promiscuity.” Gonzo shook his head, hesitant to leave. “Look, just get tested and get it over with. This sounded like a recent thing, so you’re probably clear.”

As Trapper was shrugging on his jacket, Gonzo asked rather aloofly, “When does your flight leave?”

“Early tomorrow morning. I’m going upstairs to pull Leah away for dinner, and then we still have to pack.”

Ambling to the door, Gonzo half-heartedly said, “Good luck,” as he disappeared.

Before Trapper grabbed his satchel, he took a small black box from a desk drawer, studied it for a moment and smiled, then slipped it into his jacket pocket.