Chapter 24 #3
“Okay, that’s good to know,” Jack said. “Moving on, I did notice that there are no restrictions around the tanks. Could anyone off the street walk in here and access the water supply? Don’t get me wrong! I’m not making any accusations. I’m merely brainstorming.”
“I suppose that’s true,” Lachlan said. “I’ve never given it much thought since we don’t get many visitors. The last time was about a year ago when Janet Huber brought in her third-grade class.”
“How about at night?” Jack asked after smiling at yet another reference to Janet Huber.
“We’re locked up tight at night,” Lachlan said. “There’s no doubt about that.”
A few minutes later after thanking the man for his time and accepting his business card, Jack took his leave.
It was almost five o’clock, and he realized as absorbed as he been all day with both the dementia series and Ethan Jameson’s missing corpse, he’d totally forgotten whether there’d be a basketball game that afternoon.
Jack was at the Bennet Clinic in less than a minute. After dutifully dragging his bike inside and leaving it in the empty suite, he headed into Bob’s waiting room. He was immediately relieved to see a number of patients, which suggested he wasn’t missing basketball after all.
“Where’s Bob?” Jack asked Melanie. “Is he in with a patient?”
“He’s not,” Melanie said. “He’s in his office at the moment. He’d just taken a call from the neurologist at Clinton Hospital who’d seen Christine Stephens today, but it looks like he’s off at the moment if you want to catch him before he sees his next patient.”
“I do!” Jack said. “Thanks!” He rounded Melanie’s desk and entered the clinical area.
Passing the procedure room, where there was a young boy and presumably his mother waiting, he walked directly into Bob’s office as his door was ajar.
Bob was at his monitor typing, but the moment he saw Jack, he paused, and they exchanged a warm greeting.
“I don’t mean to bother you,” Jack said. “I was suddenly worried I might be missing basketball. Five o’clock snuck up on me.”
“No worries! We never play on Friday evenings, particularly during the summer months. It’s considered family time.”
“That works out,” Jack said. “I didn’t bring my gear with me and Laurie has the car, so it would have been mildly problematic. Speaking of Laurie and Carol, any idea when they might be back?”
“They didn’t get off on their hike until rather late, and since they were going to do the entire Cascade trail, I don’t expect to see them until seven at the earliest. What about Warren and Jada on their Lake Placid trip? Any news from them?”
“Not a peep,” Jack said with a shrug.
“Not surprising! There’s a lot to see in that area, so they might not be back until late tonight. My suggestion, if you and Laurie are up for it, is for the four of us to have a relatively late dinner at Ted’s, say around eight. He does a good old-fashioned pot roast on Friday nights.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“How did you do out at the American Pest Control Company?” Bob asked as he went back to typing.
“I didn’t learn anything earthshattering,” Jack said. “But I didn’t expect to. How about you? Did you hear anything encouraging from Bill about Ethan’s missing corpse? Any progress?”
“Nada, unfortunately,” Bob said. “I’m starting to worry we aren’t going to find it.”
“Although I didn’t learn much at the American Pest Control Company, I did have an interesting idea.
Since I had determined this morning thanks to Melanie’s help that all the dementia cases have been here in downtown Essex Falls and none in the suburbs, and since there doesn’t seem to be a viable food source, the idea occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, the outbreak could be waterborne. ”
“Hmmm. That’s an interesting thought,” Bob said, wrinkling his brow and nodding as he thought it over. “That hadn’t occurred to me.”
“Me neither,” Jack admitted. “But the idea encouraged me to stop in at the Bennet Municipal Water Department and chat with the director.”
“Good idea,” Bob said. “Was he helpful? I’ve always thought of Lachlan Harper as a good man.”
“Quite helpful,” Jack said with a nod. “I hadn’t really thought out any specific questions to ask as the visit was more of a fishing trip than anything else.
To be honest, I knew so little about the process of municipal water treatment that I didn’t know where to begin.
Although I didn’t come to any conclusions about the possibility of this current dementia series being waterborne, what I did gather is that the concept of infectious prions isn’t yet a concern in the water treatment field.
That’s a mistake. My sense is that they are going to need to catch up because chlorination will have zero effect on any prion contamination.
The other thing I came away with was that anybody and everybody can walk in there and have access to a huge tank of potable water. ”
“That’s probably not a good idea in this day and age,” Bob said.
“My thoughts exactly,” Jack said.
“Oh shit!” Bob said as he glanced at his watch. “What am I doing jawboning with you? I’ve got at least another hour of patients to see.” He stood up and slipped his white doctor’s coat back on that had been draped over the back of his desk chair.
“My apologies for distracting you,” Jack said. He stood up as well and followed Bob as he hurried out of the office.
“See you later at Ted’s,” Bob said over his shoulder before ducking into the procedure room.
Jack could hear him greet the waiting mother and young boy and apologize for keeping them waiting.
To Jack, Bob seemed to be the epitome of the small town, totally committed family physician, which was unfortunately becoming a lost art.
Jack passed through Bob’s waiting room, waving to Melanie, and retrieved his bike.
Outside he straddled the Trek but then hesitated, unsure of what he wanted to do.
There was to be no basketball, Laurie was engaged on her hike probably for a number of more hours, and Warren and Jada were off on their excursion.
For the moment, Jack felt mildly cast adrift as he couldn’t think of any more sleuthing to do.
Although he knew he could always follow another one of the many bike loops Bob had suggested, he’d had enough biking.
Instead, Jack found himself fantasizing about the gorgeous crystal-clear lake the Hiram House overlooked and the canoe, both of which beckoned thanks to the perfect weather.
He guesstimated the temperature was in the low eighties, and with a nearly cloudless sky, he was confident it would remain so for the next hour or two, making the idea of late afternoon water sports enticing.
After all, he could bike ride any old day in the city.
Besides, what if Alexei just happened to appear and begin using the Bennet diving board while Jack just happened to be paddling in the not-too-distant neighborhood.
If that was the case he knew he wouldn’t think twice about paddling over and asking to join in.
With that entertaining thought in mind, Jack pushed off, quickly rode the length of Main Street, and then upped his speed to what he liked to fantasize was close to that of the Tour de France peloton.
With the wind whipping by his face and even rustling his hair inside his helmet, he pushed himself to greater effort, progressively eager to get back to Hiram House, don his bathing suit, put the canoe in the water, and get out on the lake.
As a strong swimmer and former lifeguard during his college years, he didn’t think for a second about any potential danger he might be courting.
On the contrary, he wondered why he hadn’t thought of the idea earlier.