Martin held the door open for a second figure Jack recognized as Richard. He, too, was carrying a tray of throat swabs. It was Richard who saw Jack first.
Martin was a quick second. He recognized Jack immediately, despite the mask.
“Hi, folks,” Jack said.
“You…!” Martin cried.
“It is I,” Jack said cheerfully. He grabbed the end of his face mask with his thumb and forefinger and pulled it away from his face to give Martin an unobstructed look.
“You’ve been warned about sneaking around in here,” Martin snapped. “You’re trespassing.”
“Not so,” Jack said. He produced his medical examiner’s badge and pointed it toward Martin’s face. “Just making an official site visit. There’ve been a few more regrettable infectious deaths over here at the General. At least this time you were able to make the diagnosis on your own.”
“We’ll see whether this is a legitimate site visit,” Martin said. He heaved the tray of throat swabs onto the countertop and snatched up the nearest phone. He told the operator to put him through to Charles Kelley.
“Couldn’t we just discuss this like grown-ups?” Jack asked.
Martin ignored the question as he waited for Kelley.
“Out of curiosity, maybe you could just tell me why you were so accommodating on my first visit and so nasty on my next,” Jack said.
“In the interim Mr. Kelley informed me what your attitude had been on that first day,” Martin said. “And he told me he had learned that you were here without authorization.”
Jack was about to respond when it became clear that Kelley had come on the line. Martin informed the administrator that he’d again found Dr. Stapleton lurking in the lab.
While Martin listened to an apparent monologue from Kelley, Jack moved over and leaned casually against the nearest countertop. Richard, on the other hand, stood rooted in place, still supporting his tray of throat swabs.
Martin punctuated Kelley’s apparent tirade with a few strategically placed yeses and a final “Yes sir!” at the end of the conversation. As he hung up the phone he treated Jack to a supercilious smile.
“Mr. Kelley told me to inform you,” Martin said haughtily, “that he will be personally calling the mayor’s office, the Commissioner of Health, and your chief. He’ll be lodging a formal complaint concerning your harassment of this hospital while we’ve been making every effort to deal with a state of emergency. He also told me to inform you that our security will be up here in a few moments to escort you off the premises.”
“That’s terribly considerate of him,” Jack said. “But I really don’t need to be shown the way out. In fact, I was on my way when we happened to bump into each other. Good day, gentlemen.”
25
“So there you have it,” Terese said as she looked out on the expanded team of creatives for the National Health account. In the present emergency she and Colleen had pulled key people away from other projects. Right now they needed all the man- and womanpower they could muster to concentrate on the new campaign.
“Any questions?” Terese asked. The entire group was squeezed into Colleen’s office. With no room to sit they were wedged in like sardines, cheek by jowl. Terese had outlined the “no wait” idea in an expanded form that she and Colleen had devised based on Jack’s initial suggestion.
“We only have two days for this?” Alice questioned.
“I’m afraid so,” Terese said. “I might be able to squeeze out another day, but we can’t count on it. We’ve got to go for broke.”
There was a murmur of incredulity.
“I know I’m asking a lot,” Terese said. “But the fact of the matter is, as I’ve told you, we were sabotaged by the accounts department. We’ve even got confirmation that they are expecting to present a ‘talking heads’ spot with one of the ER stars. They are counting on us to self-destruct with the old idea.”
“Actually I think the ‘no wait’ concept is better than the ‘cleanliness’ concept,” Alice said. “The ‘cleanliness’ idea was getting too technical with that asepsis malarkey. People are going to understand ‘no waiting’ much better.”
“There’s also a lot more opportunity for humor,” another voice commented.
“I like it too,” someone else said. “I hate waiting for the gynecologist. By the time I get in there I’m as tense as a banjo wire.”
A wave of tension-relieving laughter rippled through the group.
“That’s the spirit,” Terese said. “Let’s get to work. Let’s show them what we can do when our backs are against the wall.”
People started to leave, eager to get to their drawing boards.
“Hold up!” Terese shouted over the buzz of voices that had erupted. “One other thing. This has to stay quiet. Don’t even tell other creatives unless absolutely necessary. I don’t want accounts to have any inkling of what’s going on. Okay?”
A murmur of agreement arose.
“All right!” Terese yelled. “Get to it!”
The room emptied as if there had been a fire. Terese flopped back into Colleen’s chair, exhausted from the emotional effort of the day. Typical of her life in advertising, she’d started out that morning on a high, then sank to a new low, and was now somewhere in between.
“They’re enthusiastic,” Colleen said. “You made a great presentation. I kind of wish someone from National Health were here.”
“At least it’s a good idea for a campaign,” Terese said. “The question is whether they can put it together enough for a real presentation.”
“They’ll certainly give it their best shot,” Colleen said. “You really motivated them.”
“God, I hope so,” Terese said. “I can’t let Barker have a free field with his stupid ‘talking heads’ junk. That’s like taking advertising back to pre-Bernbach days. It would be an embarrassment for the agency if the client liked it, and we had to actually do it.”
“God forbid,” Colleen said.
“We’ll be out of a job if that happens,” Terese said.
“Let’s not get too pessimistic,” Colleen warned.
“Ah, what a day,” Terese complained. “On top of everything else I’ve got to worry about Jack.”
“How so?” Colleen asked.
“When I met with him and he gave me the ‘no wait’ idea he told me he was going back to the General.”
“Uh-oh,” Colleen said. “Isn’t that where those gang members warned him against going?”
“Exactly,” Terese said. “Talk about a Taurus, he’s the epitome. He’s so damn bullheaded and reckless. He doesn’t have to go over there. They have people at the medical examiner’s office whose job it is to go out to hospitals. It must be some male thing, like he has to be a hero. I don’t understand it.”
“Are you starting to get attached to him?” Colleen asked gingerly, aware it was a touchy subject with Terese. Colleen knew enough about her boss to know that she eschewed romantic entanglements, though she had no idea why.
Terese only sighed. “I’m attracted to him and put off by him at the same time,” she said. “He got me to open up a little, and apparently I coaxed him out a little too. I think both of us felt good talking to someone who seemed to care.”
“That sounds encouraging,” Colleen said.
Terese shrugged, then smiled. “We’re both carrying around a lot of emotional baggage,” she said. “But enough about me. How about you and Chet?”
“It’s going great,” Colleen said. “I could really fall for that guy.”
Jack felt as if he were sitting through the same movie for the third time. Once again he was literally on Bingham’s carpet enduring a protracted tirade about how his chief had been called by every major civil servant in the city to complain bitterly about Jack Stapleton.
“So what do you have to say for yourself?” Bingham demanded, finally running out of steam with his ranting. He was literally out of breath.