The Art of Forgetting (42 page)

              “Where are you going?” Fisk asked.

              “The Emergency Room. Where else?”

              He pulled open the door. A broad-shouldered man in a polyester blend suit stood in the doorway. He said, “Dr. Martin Bender?”

              “Who the hell are you?” Bender said.

              “Detective Mike Levy, Chicago PD.” He glanced at Nick De Luca, nodded and shot him a crisp salute. “Gotta say, this went down like clockwork.”

              “Get out of my way! I have a medical emergency,” Bender said.

              “Relax, Uncle Marty.” Lloyd picked up the nearly empty water bottle and drank from it. “You’re not about to die. It’s just water.”

              Bender looked around the room. He seemed much older all of a sudden. But Lloyd would not allow himself to feel compassion for the man. His thoughts turned to Kaz.

              “Where do you even get dimethyl mercury these days?” Dr. Townshend asked.

              “You don’t,” Lloyd said. “It’s too toxic for any industrial application. You either have to synthesize it, which isn’t too hard. Or just maybe, you have a few airtight flasks of the chloride crystal stashed away from your father’s research days.”

              “I didn’t want to hurt anybody,” Bender said. “No one was supposed to drink that water, and it was dilute enough to be safe in those glass dispensers. I just don’t understand –”

              “It was the vegetables,” Lloyd said. “Kaz washed the vegetables from his garden with that water. Would even take a few bites himself.”

              “Oh dear God!” Bender said.

              “Why Marty?” Lloyd asked.

              Bender breathed heavily. “This is precisely why I couldn’t allow you to become tenured. You’re clever, Lloyd – too clever for your own good. I saw it nearly as soon as I met you. But you also had an emotional fragility, that deep seated vulnerability – it all stems from the trauma of your father’s suicide. Yes that must be it. I knew that your unmitigated drive coupled with your warped emotional development would make you formidably dangerous, that there’d be no soul to rein in your scientific inquisition. What you’ve discovered is a Pandora’s box that is best left un-open.”

              “Who are you to decide?” Lloyd said.

              Bender looked around the room. “The unbridled pursuit of scientific discovery is the gravest threat to humanity. Heed my warning. My father liked to say that when fascism comes to America it will not arrive with the heavy goose-step of marching soldiers – it will make its entrance wearing a white lab coat.”

              “And he would’ve known,” Lloyd said.

              Bender turned to face the police detective.

              “Ready to take a ride downtown?” the detective asked.

              Bender followed the cop out of the conference room. The door shut behind them.

              Lloyd looked at Erin. She attempted to smile but it only accentuated the sadness in her eyes.

              Fisk quietly conferred with Feynman and Townshend. After a moment, in a somber tone, Dr. Fisk said, “In view of the evidence presented to us I believe it’s safe to say that we’ve heard enough to make a recommendation to the Dean of the Medical school on the matter at hand.”

              Lasko startled. He shuffled his papers. “Just a minute! There are still serious charges we haven’t addressed yet.”

              “Dr. Lasko,” Fisk said, “you’ve been calling out an awful lot of numbers but I ain’t heard anyone yell Bingo. Just how many cow pies do we have to step into before we call it a pasture?”

              “There’s the violation of the professional code of conduct,” Lasko said.

              “We’re quite satisfied in that regard,” Feynman said.

              Lasko rose to his feet. “We have yet to talk about the theft. The willful misappropriation of university assets.”

              Fisk sighed. “This is getting to be a bit like the road to Amarillo. Seems we’ve been driving down this dusty highway for hours and hours and we’re
still
in Texas. Make it brief, Dr. Lasko.”

              “There are five vials of conjugated prion protein suspension that disappeared from Dr. Copeland’s lab,” Lasko said. “This is a biological therapeutic agent developed at our own university which remains its sole rightful proprietor. I suspect Dr. Copeland is in possession of these missing vials.”

              “Actually,” De Luca said, “I got those.”

              Lasko pivoted to face De Luca.

              “You have the missing vials of prion?” Feynman asked.

              “Yeah, you see, Dr. Copeland told me he was worried that Dr. Lasko would destroy them so he entrusted me, being the chief security officer for the hospital, with their safe-keeping.”

              “You have all five vials?” Feynman asked.

              De Luca paused. “I got four.”

              “And where’s the fifth vial?” Feynman asked.

              Lloyd tossed an empty vial down the table. It bounced, swiveled and rolled in a small arc before coming to a stop in front of Dr. Fisk.

              “The way that bounced,” Fisk said, “I’m guessing it’s empty. You have any inkling where its contents might have gone?”

              Lloyd looked at Erin. She nodded.

              “Inside of me,” Lloyd said. “I injected myself with the prions to prove their safety.”

              “Why, this is an unprecedented act of recklessness,” Lasko said.

              “Now hold onto your britches,” Fisk said. “Wasn’t there an Australian fella not too long ago who drank a beaker-full of
Helicobacter Pylori
to prove it was the cause of ulcers?”

              “Dr. Barry Marshall,” Feynman said.

              “And what happened to him?” Fisk asked.

              “He got sick,” Feynman said. “And then he got better and they gave him a Nobel Prize.”

              “What about that crazy German that performed the first heart catheterization… on himself!” Fisk said.

              “Werner Forssmann,” Feynman said with a snap of his fingers. “He had an OR nurse prepare all the supplies, then he ties her up on an operating table so she can’t stop him. He shoots up a little anesthetic in his arm, snakes a catheter all the way up into his heart. Finally unties the assistant before walking down one flight of stairs to get an x-ray. With the tip of the catheter in his right atrium!”

              “And what did they do to him?” Fisk asked.

              “Nobel Prize,” Feynman said his smile broadening.

              “Seems like we don’t have a stampede of Nobel Prize winners at this institution, now do we?” Fisk said.

              “No,” Feynman chuckled. “Stampede wouldn’t be the right word.”

              Dr. Townshend tilted her head slightly and in a silky voice asked, “And how are you feeling, Dr. Copeland?”

              “Never felt better.”

              “You may choose to make light of the situation,” Lasko said, “but the fact remains that there are still serious questions as to the character and the mind set of this physician. As Chief of Staff I have ultimate authority on matters of credentialing, and at this moment Dr. Copeland’s status remains that of temporary suspension of all hospital privileges.”

              “Where are you taking this, Dr. Lasko?” Feynman asked.

              “I still have a witness to question,” Lasko said. “I call upon Dr. Erin Kennedy.”

              Chapter 45

             
D
r. Fisk looked at his watch. The meeting had already lasted longer than anyone had envisioned.

              “Would anyone be partial to adjourning this meeting and convening at a later date?”

              “I want to get this over with right now,” Lloyd said.

              Lasko glared at him with a threatening smile. “So do I, Dr. Copeland. So do I.”

              “But Dr. Kennedy has nothing to do with this matter,” Lloyd said. “There’s nothing she can testify about.”

              “But I disagree,” Lasko said. “Dr. Kennedy is a highly qualified medical ethicist. She was an integral part of the Institutional Review Board that reviewed Dr. Copeland’s research so she is well aware of all the facts in question. And to top it off, I believe she may have special insights into Dr. Copeland’s motivations and his state of mind.”

              “Dr. Copeland,” Feynman said, “Once again I want to express the sentiment that the judicial panel has heard quite enough to make a recommendation to the Dean of the Medical School, and from the way the meeting has carried on you may have formulated a fairly accurate idea of which way we’re swaying. There is still the unresolved matter of your hospital privileges, which may not be re-instated unless Dr. Lasko has reached a certain level of satisfaction in his inquiries. Maybe we can take a short break so you can consider your options as to how to proceed.”

              “I’ll tell you what, Dr. Lasko,” Lloyd said. “We continue this meeting right now, on one condition. You obtain the testimony of Dr. Kennedy but then I call you as a witness.”

              Lasko smiled. “You want to question
me
as a witness?” He jutted out his chin. “Why that would be a thrill I couldn’t deny myself.”

              “So you accept?” Lloyd said.

              “Of course I accept!” Lasko chuckled. He sat back in his chair and folded his legs.

              “Very well,” Fisk said. “Let’s try to get this over with before sundown.”

              “I call on Dr. Erin Kennedy,” Lasko said with a booming voice.

              “We gathered as much,” said Dr. Townshend.

              “Miss Kennedy, I’d like to remind you that even though you haven’t taken a formal oath, you’re expected to answer the questions with complete truthfulness,” Lasko said.

              Lloyd looked at Erin. If she was nervous she gave no hint of it. For a moment, all he could think of was how much he loved her.

              “Yes I understand,” Erin said.

              “Dr. Kennedy, what is your official capacity at the university?” Lasko asked.

              “I’m a medical ethicist.”

              “And what does that entail?”

              “I am consulted to analyze patient care decisions that present ethical dilemmas, I teach medical students, I participate in a variety of hospital committees…”

              “And one of those committees was the Institutional Review Board entrusted in reviewing Dr. Copeland’s application for human research trials. Isn’t that so?”

              “That’s correct,” Erin said.

              Lasko paused and tapped a finger on his lips. “And how long have you known Dr. Copeland?”

              Erin turned to the three doctors at the head of the table. “It’s kind of hard to give a straight answer. We knew each other when we were little kids, we lived in the same neighborhood for a while. But we only just met again a short while ago.”

              “And would you say that you have any insight into his personality… into his state of mind?” Lasko asked.

              “I think I know him just about better than anyone else does,” Erin said.

              Lasko raised his eyebrows with pleasant surprise. Her answer was better than he expected. “Really? And why is that? What exactly is the nature of your relationship?”

              “Well, he’s my husband.” Erin said in a matter-of-fact tone with a little shrug of her shoulder.

              Lasko’s jaw dropped. “I’m sorry, what did you say?”

              “He’s my husband. We just got married, yesterday.” She turned to Lloyd and flashed a bashful smile.

              “Members of the judicial panel,” Lloyd said with a grin. “According to the procedural rules of this tribunal, which conform to general courtroom procedure as outlined in the university handbook of rules for due process, this woman cannot stand here in testimony against me seeing as she is my wife. Did you see that episode of Matlock, Dr. Fisk?”

              “Why, I don’t quite recall, but it sure sounds familiar. You got any kind of certificate of matrimony?”

              Lloyd pulled a folder out of his backpack and slipped it to the end of the table.

              Fisk opened it, took a look and slid it back. “Well this is one hell of a honeymoon you’re having.”

              “Isn’t it?” Erin said shooting Lloyd a playful glare.

              “It gets better,” Lloyd said. “I promise.”

              Fisk sat back in his chair and said, “Thank you Dr. Kennedy. That’ll be all the testimony we need from you.”

              “It was a wonderful service,” De Luca said to Mr. Murdock. “They picked a great venue.”