Megan's Cure (19 page)

Chapter 38

LORRAINE CARR WAS waiting just outside the jet way from his New Orleans flight, having arrived at Dulles an hour earlier.
 
She was standing next to her rolling bag, arms crossed, toe tapping in feigned impatience with a smile breaking through a cool half pout.
 
She was a shade under 5-foot-three with the carriage of a former ballet dancer and medium length black hair that framed her pretty heart-shaped face.
 

Their kiss and embrace was sweet and long, so long that when they came up for air, Lee had a question in his eye.
 
Something had changed.
 
But she gave up nothing.
 
And they both knew they were pressed for time to get to the taxi line and make it to the Maryland suburbs outside Washington in time for their late afternoon appointment.
 

The National Institutes of Health office was in a hospital complex in Bethesda in an eight-story building with a cavernous lobby.
 
They waited along with another half dozen visitors scattered among the orange and chrome sofas and armchairs.

Dr. Bernard Winthrop was in his late 40s, lanky and had a droopy mustache beneath his wire-rim glasses.
 
Winthrop was the special assistant to the NIH deputy for cancer research.
 
He sat in an end chair while Lee and Carr occupied the sofa in his office.

“Walter Novak,” said Winthrop pensively.
 
“Of course I had heard of him.
 
But it seems as if his name is everywhere the past two weeks or so.
 
I must have had a half dozen people I know mention him…and not favorably.”

“What exactly are they saying?” asked Carr.

“He’s lost it.
 
Gone off the deep end,” said Winthrop.
 
“Unstable.
 
A breakdown.”

“I know he’s had some problems,” said Lee.
 
“And he’s spent time at a psychiatric facility.
 
But I’ve spent the past four days with him. He’s seemed pretty normal to me the whole time.
 
And he prepared the file I sent you.”

“Right,” said Winthrop.
 
“And
that
was interesting.
 
Quite interesting.
 
It’s just that…ah…well…this whole situation is bizarre.
 
Even the one case he’s pointing to…totally outside normal protocols.
 
I mean anyone in this building who did what he did – an unauthorized human trial – they’d be run out on a rail.”
 

“But if there was something of value there…something to advance cancer research, you’d want to know what it is, right?” said Lee.

“Of course,” said Winthrop.
 
“But you have to understand there are scores of people out there clamoring for our attention.
 
They have the support of their companies…legitimate studies…no controversy.”

The three of them sat silently for a moment.
 
Carr had set up the meeting.
 
One of her sources had given her Winthrop’s name.
 
Her clout as a Journal reporter had gotten them the appointment on short notice.
 
Lee gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

“I think we understand that NIH may need to have some…um…distance from Novak at this stage,” said Carr.
 
“But is there someone out there, perhaps a private party, who could take an initial look?
 
Someone whose work you trust? And what would the first steps be for them?”

“Well, the obvious first step would be the one case…the girl,” said Winthrop.
 
“Someone would need to confirm the background, the pretreatment data from Tulane or wherever.
 
And then they’d want to do a complete diagnostic battery.
 
PET scan.
 
Blood work.
 
Lymph node biopsy.
 
Marrow sample.
 
Everything.
 
If she’s acquired the resistance Novak claims, the story should be there as well.
 
Certain proteins would be off the charts.
 
We’d do assays.
 
Eventually, you’d try to isolate the antibodies and test them against a battery of tumor samples.”

“And who can do this?” asked Carr.

“I can think of a half dozen people at the top of the list with the lab facilities and lots of expertise,” said Winthrop, staring off into space.
 
“Folks I trust to do it right.
 
Here.
 
Boston.
 
Durham.
 
San Francisco.”

He refocused on Lee and Carr sitting on the sofa.

“Listen,” he said.
 
“I can only go so far as to tell them…informally…that this is something that may be worthwhile.
 
That will pique their interest.
 
Whether they have the time…and funding…to do this, I can’t say.”

“I think there may be a way we can help cover that cost,” said Lee, thinking of the millions that Novak had casually mentioned receiving when he sold his company to Merrick & Merrick.
 

“And perhaps San Francisco is the way to go, if there is someone there who is willing to do this,” said Carr.
 
“I’ll check back with you for names after you’ve had a chance to contact them?”

Winthrop nodded and made a note on a legal pad in front of him.

When the elevator doors closed on their way back to the lobby, Lee encircled Carr with his arm and pulled her hard against him.
 
Her return hug was almost fierce as she pressed herself against him.

“Hmmm,” he said.
 
“You were great.”

“Just one of the services I provide,” she said, pushing herself back and slyly, batting her eyelashes at him before laughing.
 
“And, actually, this could turn out to be a hell of a story.”

“Yeah,” said Lee.
 
“And now I have to figure out how to start leaking it.”

“After what we just told Winthrop?” said Carr.

“Right,” said Lee, ruefully.
 
“I’m sorry about that.
 
But I’ve got a kid to save.”

* * *

“So, what’s up?” said Lee.

He was standing behind Carr in their hotel room at the Intercontinental.
 
They had finished a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant 20 minutes earlier.
 
Her coat was off and she looked cool and crisp in her white blouse as if it was early in the morning instead of at the end of the busy day.
 
He put his hands on her hips and pulled her back against him, resting his chin on the top of her head.
 
They watched each other in the mirror.

Carr grabbed his hands and pulled them across her front so they rested along her ribcage with her hands on top of his.
 
She leaned her head back harder against his chest and sighed loudly.

“It’s another guy, right?” he said.

She nodded once.

“Yes, dammit,” she said.
 
“He’s asked me out…I don’t know how many times.
 
I lost count.
 
But I’m going to say, ‘Yes.’”

‘Well, I guess it was a matter of time,” said Lee.
 
“I’m sure all the single men at the Journal perked up when you walked in.
 
One was bound to break through eventually.
 
Like the egg and the sperm, huh?”

She turned in his arms and pushed him back a bit.

“You,” she said it without anger but in admonishment, as if she still was his supervising editor at the San Francisco News.
 
She held his forearms and shook them as she spoke.

“You know I would have stayed in San Francisco if you had asked me,” Carr said.
 
“Or even acted as if you wanted me there instead of ushering me out the door.”

Lee nodded his head.
 

He could have said that he desperately wanted that as well but thought about the opportunity she would have to give up.
 
And there were all the future opportunities open to her as well by being on the East Coast and having a great job at a top national publication.
 
In the current state of the profession, it meant the difference between having choices and perhaps not working at all.

And he could have added that the responsibility scared him. What could he and should he provide in return?
 
What if things didn’t work out for them?
 
What would happen after the first blowout argument when one of them stalked out in anger?
 
Sometimes he felt that he was just hanging onto his job and current life by his fingernails.
 
Could he still hang on if anyone else’s life was tied to his?

“I’m a big girl,” said Carr, as if reading his mind.
 
“I can take care of myself.
 
I can make decisions for myself.
 
I can carry my own weight and balance career against personal choices.
 
And I think a lot of life is about taking chances at the right times and for the right reasons. And not being afraid to do that.”

Lee looked at his feet and nodded.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled.
 
“I guess I am who I am.”

Carr sighed in exasperation.
 
She leaned into him until the top of her head rested on his chest.
 
She beat her head against him several times as if she were ramming her head against a wall.
 
She started gently but hit harder each time.
 
He had to restrain her finally before she hurt one of them.

“Men,” she whispered after she stopped.

“Look,” said Lee.
 
“I can get another room if you want.”

She stared at him for a moment.

“Don’t be stupid,” she said.
 
She turned and walked toward the bathroom.
 
“I’ll be out in a minute.”

She came out ten minutes later wearing only her panties and Lee watched her from the bed walk over to the dresser, take off her earrings and lay them down. He admired her from the back - the strong compact body of a former dancer turned bicycling enthusiast, athletic but with the curves that triggered a testosterone surge just by thinking about her.

“What?” she said when she turned around and saw his stare.
 
She gestured down at herself.
 
“You’ve seen all this before.”

“God, you’re beautiful,” he said.
 
“It’s been so long I’d almost forgotten.”

Carr smiled at him as she flung back the sheet and bedspread.
 
He was wearing his boxers.
 
She climbed into bed and kissed him as she pressed her body hard against his. She rubbed her breasts against his chest and slid her hand down his stomach and inside the boxers.

“Mmmm,” she said.
 
“God, I’ve missed this.”