Malice by design, p.24
Malice by Design, page 24
“No, no,” Leah pleaded, reaching out and placing her hand on Lisbet’s arm. “Please, stay with me.” Still consumed with doubt, she inched her way closer to the bed, praying with each step that her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her. “Look at her lips.”
Charlee’s lips were barely moving, but they were doing so with an unmistakable purpose. “She’s…she’s reciting a poem she loves. A day doesn’t go by that she doesn’t recite it out loud.”
Leah noticed the distressed look on Charlee’s face had vanished. With a trembling finger, she reached down and touched her lips and mouth. Her jaw muscles were relaxed, and she wasn’t clenching her teeth. When she ran her finger over the corners of her mouth, there wasn’t a trace of saliva.
“Everything’s different,” she said between choked breaths. “Her breathing, her expression, her color…everything.” She paused for a few seconds before a nervous laugh escaped her lips. She raised her gaze to the ceiling and said, “Thank you.”
“I saw Dr. Armbrister on the floor. I’ll get her,” Lisbet said.
Leah quickly reached behind her. Pulling a plastic chair forward, she sat down, leaned forward, and moved her lips to within a few inches of Charlee’s right ear.
“Hi, Munchie. It’s Mommy. I’m right here. It sure looks like you’re feeling better.” There was no response. Fumbling to find her words, Leah gave no thought to giving up. “I’ve been so worried about you. Barry’s been taking such good care of First Lady. Wait until you see her. She’s getting a little fat because she doesn’t have her best buddy to ride her,” she said in just above a hush, her words starting to come more easily. “I saw Grandma yesterday. She’s making you a new—”
“Mommy, I’m sleepy.”
Leah’s back straightened abruptly. At the same moment, her hand shot up and covered her wide-open mouth. She pushed back in her chair as a cascade of tears rained down her cheeks.
“Can you open your eyes? I know you want to go back to sleep, but can you look at me first?”
Charlee lifted her chin and opened her eyes. “What, Mommy?”
“Can you see me?”
“Of course.”
She squeezed Charlee’s hand just a bit little tighter. “Get some rest. I promise, I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
The door flew open, and Lennon and Lisbet rushed into the room. Leah watched as the two of them hurried to the bedside where they hovered over Charlee. From their reaction and the looks on their faces, Leah knew they believed she was finally showing indisputable signs of recovering.
Closing her eyes, she found herself overcome with a rush of sheer relief and bliss she never would have dreamed possible. After a short time, Lennon turned her head with a larger-than-life smile and winked her way. Choking back a renewed flood of tears, Leah looked at them through eyes that danced with joy. A moment later, she dashed across the room and gave them both an enormous hug.
Chapter 69
POST-INFUSION DAY NUMBER 6
For the past two days, the hallways of the leukemic malnutrition unit had been filled with a steady gathering of overjoyed parents impatiently waiting for the news as to when their child would be discharged. Jack and Madison’s focus had shifted from medical matters to figuring out a way to possibly salvage any part of their vacation to the Caribbean. They had heard nothing further on the matter of Abel Haas from either Althea or Robert.
They were a day or so away from leaving Oster and returning to Columbus when they learned from Althea that Dr. Gabriela Addesso and Governor Sorenson had asked Althea to schedule a formal wrap-up session. At her request, they agreed to delay their departure to attend the meeting.
As it turned out, the meeting went as they expected. It lasted the better part of three hours and addressed every aspect of the illness from diagnosis through treatment. The governor and Gabriela made sure to express their heartfelt gratitude to the focus group for their vital role in curing leukemic malnutrition. As Jack and Madison had predicted, the name of Abel Haas was never mentioned. Whatever measures the authorities and the Oster leadership had undertaken to investigate his illegal research and its possible connection to leukemic malnutrition were kept as hush-hush as possible.
When the wrap-up session was over, Jack and Madison took some time to say their goodbyes to some of the doctors they had worked with. It was five o’clock when they finished speaking to the last physician and were ready to leave the hospital. They were approaching the elevators when Kendric called out to them.
With his Dutch uncle smile, he said, “I spoke with some of your senior colleagues in Columbus this morning. We talked about the best way to collaborate in publishing the initial articles on leukemic malnutrition. I was going to invite you both back here next week for a meeting, but if you have some time now, it might help us jump-start the project.”
“If you don’t mind, Kendric,” Madison began, “I have a few patients I’d like to see, so if you don’t mind, I think I’ll pass.”
Kendric walked over to Madison and took her hands. “I understand, but in that case, would you mind terribly if I borrowed Jack for a little while?”
She feigned a grin. “I’ll leave that up to Jack.”
“Of course,” he said, seeing no way out of the trap. “I think I have a little time before Madison and I grab dinner. Where would you like to talk?”
“It’s a beautiful sunset. Let’s walk over to my office.”
“Lead the way.”
For reasons Jack wasn’t quite sure of, he suspected Kendric’s request for a meeting had nothing to do with future research. He had no idea what his real agenda might be, but something told him to keep his wits about him and do a lot of listening at first, hoping Kendric would reveal what was really on his mind.
Chapter 70
Kendric’s office was much warmer than Jack preferred. To make matters worse, an overstated aroma of a honey-scented freshener thickened the air. Slipping on the argyle gray sweater vest he always kept on the back of his chair, Kendric invited Jack to have a seat in one of the wingback chairs that faced his desk.
“If you don’t mind, there is another matter I’d like to talk to you about before we discuss collaborating on a paper,” Kendrick said. Jack was hardly surprised by his request.
“Of course.”
Reaching forward, he removed one of his pipes from its rack and laid the tip in the corner of his mouth. “I may be way off base on this, but since our meeting with Althea and Robert I’ve gotten the feeling that you believe I haven’t been totally forthcoming about Abel Haas’s role in Oster’s research lab.”
“I won’t deny that. I simply assumed you had your reasons.”
“If you’ll allow me I’d like to share some information with you.”
Jack felt there was still too much at stake to decline his offer out of hand. He’d let Kendric begin to disclose whatever it was that was on his mind. If the conversation seemed to be going south, he could call a halt to things at any time.
“I’m happy to listen, Kendric, but I don’t feel you owe me an explanation for anything.”
“I appreciate your sentiment, but there are some things I’d like to share with you, and I’m sure, after I do, the first thing you’re going to ask me is why. I’ll save you the trouble by telling you I don’t have a good answer to that question. The other thing worth mentioning is that I suspect whatever I tell you will be a matter of common knowledge in the not too distant future.”
“As I said, I’m happy to listen.”
Kendric set his elbows on the desk, cleared his throat, and began his explanation. “I knew Abel Haas for almost twenty years. He was a good friend and, until recently, I thought he was a valued colleague. Beginning a few months ago, his behavior changed dramatically. He became increasingly more anxious and argumentative. I was just about to set up a meeting with him to see if there was anything I could do to help when he requested a sit down with me.” He leaned in, leveled his eyes on Jack, and went on. “In a near state of panic, he confessed that he’d been conducting unauthorized prion research right here in the Oster lab for the past thirteen years. Obviously, it was something I was completely unaware of.”
“Unaware of? With all due respect, how would such a thing be possible?”
“That’s the same question I’ve been asking myself every day since Abel first confessed.” With a forced grin, he added, “It’s not something I’m proud of, but nevertheless it’s true.”
“Did he give you a reason why he’d do something so unethical?”
“He told me he was working on finding a cure for leukemia and that he was very close.”
“And, his theory for this was based on…”
“He was convinced he’d isolated a strain of prion that was capable of stimulating the patient’s immune system to produce antibodies that were incredibly effective in killing leukemia cells.”
“That makes no sense. Even if he was right, the prion infection would kill the patient in the process.”
“Except for the fact that he was also positive the prion he’d discovered would be totally harmless to the patient.” In a voice steeped in despair, he added, “That’s when he informed me that a few weeks earlier he had administered the prion to a few of our leukemia patients to test his theory.”
“When you say a few, do you mean three?” He cast his eyes down and nodded.
Jack could almost feel his heart flutter from Kendric’s disclosure.
“Are you telling me for certain that Abel Haas was responsible for the prion infections that killed Max Kubicek and the other two teenagers?”
“Yes, but as I said Abel didn’t tell me about it until weeks afterward. He said their deaths had left him so consumed with guilt that he was unable to function. He kept repeating he thought Max and the others would be cured.” Shoving his chair back, Kendric pushed himself to his feet and walked over to his eight-foot high solid wood bookcase. With his back to Jack, he continued, “When I told him I had to report what he’d done, he begged me not to. He swore he’d ceased all his research activities and that his plan was to resign his position within the year and leave the country permanently.”
“But, if we assume he was also responsible for creating the leukemic malnutrition epidemic, he lied to you.”
“I realize that now. But at the time, he played on our friendship, begging me to look the other way. For a few months, I turned a blind eye to what he’d done. Eventually, I told him I couldn’t continue protecting him. That’s when his entire behavior changed. He threatened that if I breathed a word of his research to anybody he’d swear that right from the beginning I was completely complicit in every aspect of it including the illegal experimentation on the three children.”
“But it was untrue. The authorities never would have believed him.”
“I was terrified they would, and that I’d wind up spending the rest of my life in jail…or worse,” he said with complete conviction as he set his pipe into a large crystal ashtray. “The problem was that the appearance was that I could’ve easily been complicit. When it came to the oversight of Abel’s research, I was totally derelict in my responsibilities. I knew he was a bit of a rogue in the way he worked, but I trusted him. He was a prolific researcher who was held in the highest esteem by everybody. It never entered my mind he was capable of such contemptible behavior. I had no idea there was a connection between leukemic malnutrition and Haas’s research until you and Madison informed us that you believed a prion was the cause. By that time, Haas was long gone.”
“Did you ever ask him why he chose not to follow established ethical procedures in carrying out his research?”
“That was the first question I asked him. He insisted the circumstances surrounding his work were highly complicated and prohibited him from following normal procedures or discussing the matter with me. The only thing he made clear was that, in his mind, finding a cure for leukemia trumped every other consideration— the end justified the means.”
“I’m sorry, Kendric, but no ethical scientist would embrace such an absurd rationalization. I would have assumed you felt the same way.”
“With all due respect, Jack, that’s easy for you to say. You weren’t the one threatened by a cunning madman. Are you sure your high-minded principles would trump being arrested, publicly disgraced, and having your entire life’s work obliterated, not to mention the real possibility of your life coming to an end by lethal injection in some shadowy prison?” Before Jack could offer a response, Kendric’s voice strengthened. “Now that Abel is dead and all the children he infected are cured— what’s the point of sacrificing myself?”
“So, you’re just going to pretend none of this ever happened, put your head in the sand, and hope it all goes away?”
“It doesn’t matter what I do because everything that happened here is going to be front-page news whether I admit to it or not. As I mentioned earlier, that’s the only reason I’m baring my soul to you now.” He paused long enough to walk back to his desk and retake his seat. “There’s another important point to be made: because of your discovery of prion neutralization, you’ve opened the door to possibly curing other deadly prion diseases.”
“And you see that as some kind of twisted get-out-of-jail-jail card for what you’ve done?” Jack posed.
“I know what I did was cowardly and immoral. I’m not seeking exoneration, Jack. But the fact remains I didn’t know about Abel’s role in leukemic malnutrition, the phony Dr. Austin, or Hayden Kubicek’s death until it was too late.”
“Which begs the question: are you going to offer the same shabby excuse for the matter of Dr. Austin? I hope to god you weren’t involved in creating that cover-up.”
“I had nothing to do with that. Abel never breathed a word of it to me. But I think it’s obvious he was trying to cover his tracks by diverting everybody’s focus away from the real cause of Max’s death.” He leaned back in his chair and raised his hands to his face. “The irony is that whatever happens to me is irrelevant. My legacy will be one of shame and immorality.”
“Your legacy is an irrelevancy and I still can’t believe how blind you are to what you’ve done. If the real reason you decided to disclose all of this information to me was in the hopes I’d understand or forgive you, you’re sadly mistaken.”
“I thought you’d at least be openminded enough to consider it. It’s easy to be judgmental, Jack. I shouldn’t be surprised you’d take the moral high ground.”
Jack finally realized he was not about to change Abel’s distorted take on things. To argue the point with him any further would serve no useful purpose. Having endured all he could, he came to his feet. As he did, he watched Kendric sluggishly swivel his chair and stare through hollow eyes at the diplomas, certificates, and awards that hung on the wall in military order.
That there was nothing more to be said was obvious to Jack. He emptied his lungs of a heavy breath, and without so much as another word or a backward glance, he marched out of Kendric Nash’s office.
Chapter 71
During his walk back to the guesthouse, Jack couldn’t help but relive every word of his conversation with Kendric. He was forced to conclude that the man was a pitiful figure cursed by a flawed character and undeserving of forgiveness. Stepping into the foyer, he hung up his coat and went into the living room where he found Madison reading her monthly tennis magazine. As soon as her eyes caught his, she tossed it aside.
“I wasn’t sure you’d feel like going out to eat after talking to Kendric, so I ordered in,” she told him, as she slid down to the end of the love seat. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her voice was despondent.
“Is everything okay?”
“I got a call from Becky Walt. I don’t know if I ever mentioned her to you.”
“The name sounds familiar,” he responded, kicking his shoes off and sitting down next to her.
“I met her at the oncology center in Columbus. She was diagnosed at about the same time I was. We started treatment together and attended the same leukemia support group.” With a slow shake of her head, she added, “She hasn’t done as well as I have, and she’s still on therapy. Unfortunately, her last round of chemo wiped out her bone marrow. Her oncologist spoke to her today and told her she definitely needs a bone marrow transplant before she can receive any further treatment.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jack said, taking Madison’s hand in his. “How low are her blood counts?”
“They’ve pretty much bottomed out, especially her platelets. Her condition’s very serious. Unless they find a donor and she gets some healthy bone marrow pretty soon, she’ll be prone to infection, bleeding, and a host of other problems. To make matters worse, she developed a cough and fever yesterday, and her oncologist admitted her to the hospital.”
“I’m a little rusty on bone marrow transplants. Are they still as risky as I remember?”
“They’ve definitely become safer over the years, but there are still lots of possible complications, including death. Even so, most experts feel the benefits far outweigh the risks. They’ve saved thousands of lives and are an essential part of cancer treatment.”
“When’s Becky’s transplant scheduled?”
“In a few weeks. She’ll require quite a bit of preparation for the procedure.”
“Hopefully, everything will go smoothly.”
Madison crossed her fingers and held them up. “I hope so. The first thing I’m going to do when we get back to Columbus is visit her.”
Jack hesitated briefly but then asked, “How is all this affecting you?”
“A day doesn’t go by that I don’t get scared of relapsing. Obviously, hearing stories like this doesn’t help. It’s just something you try to live with.”
“Anything I can do?” he asked, full well with the knowledge that, since he’d never walked in a cancer patient’s shoes, there was only so much he could understand about her endless fears and anxiety.
