Arsenic for the Soul (9 page)

“
I thought tuberculosis was
usually transmitted through coughing and sneezing. You’re saying
this directly attacks the skin?”

Gavin gnawed on his lip.

“
Yes and no. It could be a
combination of mycobacterium in the lungs and skin. Judging from
the progression of her lesions and the reddish-brown appearance, it
fits the case of lupus vulgaris. I can’t confirm it without a blood
test, but I’m damned sure. Your director needs to know about
this.”

“
But I can’t tell him how I
discovered this… I can’t say I took a photo from the morgue and
showed my professor-turned-bartender. Not to sound harsh, but she’s
dead. She can’t cough or sneeze on anyone. It can’t be transmitted
by any other means, can it?”

Gavin’s eyes wandered from the
photograph to the performers tearing up the stage.

“
Yes, I’m most likely
getting riled up for no reason. Cutaneous tuberculosis isn’t
contagious. How could I get ahead of myself like that? The germs
aren’t on her skin or clothes.”

He reached for a glass and generously
splashed absinthe, black raspberry liqueur, and peach vodka against
the sides. After adding grenadine and a pinch of peppermint, he
pushed it Vivian’s way.

“
Forgive an old man’s
ramblings.”

Vivian sighed and laughed. Somehow
Gavin always knew when she needed a drink.

“
And what do you call this
mad little concoction?”

Gavin’s eyes glazed over and he raised
a glass brimming with crimson liquid to his lips.

“
Red Widow. Even now as you
sit before me, you remind me so much of the determined woman who
walked into the Toxic Mistress a year ago. There’s a fire in you
that will never be put out. I know you’ll do great things with your
life. You can’t even imagine, but your journey is just beginning.
Here’s to the most inquisitive student I know.”

Vivian’s mind shifted from business to
pleasure in those fragile few seconds.

SIX

Two months passed since Vivian
consulted Gavin in the Toxic Mistress. She was adapting to her
routine of classes and clinicals. Exams were creeping over the
horizon and waiting for an auspicious Monday to pounce. She would
be ready for them this time—assuming she wasn’t distracted by
fantasies of Milo again.

As for Camilla, she had an entirely
different man on her mind. The thought of her stalker continued to
eat away at her, despite his notable absence of letters or threats.
She believed it was only a matter of time before he resurfaced.
Gavin was still working tirelessly to track down her lineage but he
ran into a few snags. That was to be expected when investigating a
family of deceased recluses.

Meanwhile, Vivian was assigned to
watch over a female patient recovering from emergency surgery. She
was placed in the psychiatric department because she remained a
danger to herself.

Suicide watch was an unfamiliar
experience for Vivian. She couldn’t let the woman out of sight,
going so far as to accompany her to the bathroom. In addition, the
patient’s belt, jewelry, and shoelaces had been
confiscated.

She finally nodded off to sleep after
Vivian read her a story. She was feeling drowsy herself after
spending two hours hunched over a book. Apparently it wasn’t the
first time this patient needed monitoring. A few months ago, a team
of surgeons saved her from another perilous attempt to end her
life.

Vivian tossed the book aside and
sauntered over to the window. The window in the ward wasn’t
designed for opening—it was just a portal to the world beyond. At
least she could kill a few minutes of boredom by watching the
people outside.

When even that task became mundane,
she turned around to check on the patient. For the first time, she
noticed something jarring about the woman’s face. She leaned in for
a closer look.

Lesions. They boiled on the surface
like fleshy barnacles feasting on her ear.

“
The same symptoms as the
homeless woman…” She remembered her conversation with Gavin about
the nature of the red markings.
Lupus
vulgaris is tuberculosis of the skin. If untreated, the lesions
will evolve into skin cancer.

She barged into the hall.

“
They have to believe me
now. They can’t dismiss this anymore.” Her green eyes frantically
scanned the hall, looking for someone to share her findings
with.

She couldn’t hunt down the hospital
director and force him to hear her out. Barring the fact that she
didn’t know who the director was, Vivian would likely be jumping
over an ambiguous chain of command. She had no choice but to seek
out Bryan Hajek, her mentor for the nursing program.

He often wandered from one department
to the next to survey the students and pull them out of the fire.
She could spot him a mile away from his portly stature and the
glasses slipping over his nose and mustache. He also insisted on
wearing tweed jackets in a hospital brimming with lab coats and
scrubs.

Vivian’s heart leaped when she spotted
Bryan, but it sunk just as quickly when she saw who was occupying
his time. He was conversing with her least favorite surgeon,
Crenshaw. How could she forget the man who humiliated her on her
first day of clinicals?

Vivian crossed paths with Crenshaw a
few times since their introduction, and each encounter left a more
dour impression than the last.

If she didn’t know any better, she’d
say he suffered from an acute inferiority complex. He simply wasn’t
content unless he was cutting through someone’s soul with his
scalpel of words. It was a skill he excelled at with exceptional
cruelty that must have taken decades to perfect. He was a
combination of arrogance and scorn with nothing to show for
it.

As far as Crenshaw was concerned,
nurses didn’t exist. The only people worthy of his attention were
like-minded male surgeons. Rumor had it that the enormous workload
or exams didn’t make students drop out of the program in
droves.

It was Crenshaw.

“
Bryan, I need to talk to
you about something,” Vivian piped up. She took mild pleasure in
Crenshaw’s irritation.

“
Yes, Vivian, what is
it?”

“
I’ve noticed a pattern of
lesions on patients during my time here, starting with a woman who
died in our care a few months ago. Normally I would have written it
off, but I can’t ignore the possibility. I think we’re looking an
outbreak of cutaneous tuberculosis.”

Crenshaw’s nasally voice cut
in.

“
And how many cases of
tuberculosis have you diagnosed, young lady?”

“
Oh, a dozen or so,” she
scoffed. “In all seriousness, I think there’s a connection between
the two cases I saw. I first noticed these lesions on a woman in
the ER. What if it spread somehow?”

“
Was the first patient
diagnosed with tuberculosis?”

“
No, I think her death was
passed off as a drug overdose because she was homeless.”

“
You’re still hung up over
that incident?” Crenshaw said. “When you tried to humiliate me in
front of my team and question my judgment? Just because you’re
wearing scrubs doesn’t mean you suddenly have a knack for
diagnosing a disease on sight.”

Vivian could see she was fighting an
uphill battle to convince Bryan while Crenshaw shot down her
theories. She was already off to a rocky start trying to outline
the possibility of tuberculosis.

To her relief, Bryan said, “Let’s
assume you’re right about this outbreak. How do you suppose it
spread from the initial patient? Contamination?”

“
I don’t know. It’s a
possibility.” That thought seemed to provoke Crenshaw as violently
as a punch in his ribs.

“
How do you know you didn’t
spread a contaminant? Did you clean the ER after that woman was
removed?”

A lump stuck in Vivian’s
throat.

“
I’m not suggesting that I
spread it—”

“
But you clearly think
someone is to blame here. Tuberculosis doesn’t sporadically appear
overnight. It must spread because of someone’s laziness and
negligence.”

“
No, I—”

“
Did you clean the room?
Were you
not
given
the simple task of discarding the linens and scrubbing down the
equipment?”

“
No one told me
to—”

“
I
did
tell you but you were obviously
too arrogant to listen to your superiors. You need to be told
matters of common sense? Do I need to stress how stupidity on the
part of students can contribute to spreading an
infection?”

Vivian matched his glare with every
bit of intensity, and the sight made Crenshaw take an involuntary
step back. He muttered under his breath just loud enough for her to
hear.

“
If this patient has
tuberculosis, it’s likely an isolated case. Tuberculosis has
steadily been on the decline. We hardly see new cases
anymore.”

“
But—”

Crenshaw aggressively launched forward
as if to back her into a corner.

“
Are you
trying
to create a public
relations nightmare?”

“
And are you trying to
ignore the possibility?” she snapped. She could tell from the fires
in his eyes that he despised her, probably down to her gender and
race. How dare a lowly nursing student show insubordination to a
surgeon. She should be groveling at his feet and kneeling before
his every divine judgment.

Bryan raised his hands in a placating
gesture before the blood could fly.

“
Vivian, there’s no need to
jump to conclusions. We’ll look into this matter. But Crenshaw is
right, we can’t let rumors spring up before we know
precisely
what’s going on.
When and where was the last patient you saw with these
lesions?”

“
I was watching her
during…”
Suicide watch.
Her throat parched in terror. “I shouldn’t have left her
alone.”

Vivian raced past bewildered nurses
toward the patient ward.

“
Vivian!
”

Bryan and Crenshaw pursued her but she
vanished around the corner like a bolt of lightning. She couldn’t
remember which room belonged to the patient; the awful knowledge
that she could be asphyxiating herself or worse taunted her. Vivian
pushed through the door and saw the patient resting in
bed.

Bryan and Crenshaw piled in behind
her.

“
What was she doing by
herself?!” Bryan howled. “You are
never
to leave a patient on suicide
watch by herself, am I perfectly clear? You can’t leave her bedside
until you’re relieved by another aide, not even for a second. We’re
lucky she didn’t hurt herself! Do you realize the damage you could
have caused?”

“
I’m sorry.”

“
Sorry doesn’t cut it. I
need to report this incident to the head of psychiatry.” Vivian’s
tongue folded in her mouth. She felt stupid for letting her out of
sight, but what was she to do?

Bryan stomped away but Crenshaw
lingered. He looked Vivian up and down as if he was assessing a
failed specimen.

The wicked curve of his lips said it
all.

“
I’ve seen my share of
sloppy students but you take the prize. I’m giving you two months
at best before you slip up so horrendously that there’s no undoing
your mistakes. You’ll never make it through this program. You’ll be
out of this hospital on your ass faster than you can—”

“
Vivian, just who I needed
to see!”

They both looked up as Milo
approached. He was never without a smile, but he seemed ready to
sprout wings at the sight of Vivian.

“
Hello, Crenshaw. I need to
borrow Vivian for a moment. You don’t mind, do you?”

Crenshaw didn’t bother to reply. He
glared at Vivian and called for a nurse to take over the suicide
watch.

“
Thanks for saving me back
there,” Vivian said as they put as much possible distance between
them and the surly surgeon.

“
You didn’t need any
saving. You could handle him.”

“
No, you don’t understand.
You saved me from stamping my fist on his forehead. That might
postpone my graduation, don’t you think?”

Milo winked.

“
Too right you
are.”

Vivian was still ruminating
over Crenshaw’s warning.
You’ll never make
it through this program.

She knew better than to entertain
threats from a bitter old man. Still, a vulnerable part of her let
those warnings inside, and once they nested in her heart, they
grew. Too often she left doubts dismantle her dreams. This time
would be different.

Crenshaw or not, she would show the
world what she was capable of.

Milo held the door open for her,
revealing a lush paradise outside. The charming parks and castles
seemed an altogether different dimension from the
hospital.