Turning to the other internal organs, Jack found almost all of them involved in the pathological process. The heart seemed acutely enlarged, as were the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys. Even the intestines were engorged, as if they had stopped functioning.

“Got something interesting?” a husky voice demanded.

Jack had been so absorbed, he hadn’t noticed that Calvin had nudged Vinnie aside.

“I believe I do,” Jack managed.

“Another infectious case?” another gruff voice asked.

Jack’s head swung around to his left. He’d recognized the voice immediately, but he had to confirm his suspicion. He was right. It was the chief!

“It came in as a presumed plague,” Jack said. He was surprised to see Bingham; the chief rarely came into the pit unless it was a highly unusual case or one that had immediate political ramifications.

“Your tone suggests you don’t think it is,” Bingham said. He leaned over the open body and glanced in at the swollen, glistening organs.

“You are very perceptive, sir,” Jack said. He made a specific effort to keep his patented sarcasm from his voice. This was one time he meant the compliment.

“What do you think you have?” Bingham asked. He poked the swollen spleen gingerly with his gloved hand. “This spleen looks huge.”

“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Jack said.

“Dr. Washington informed me this morning that you’d made an impressive diagnosis on a case of tularemia yesterday,” Bingham said.

“A lucky guess,” Jack said.

“Not according to Dr. Washington,” Bingham said. “I’d like to compliment you. Following on the heels of your astute and rapid diagnosis of the case of plague, I’m impressed. I’m also impressed you left it up to me to inform the proper authorities. Keep up the good work. You make me happy I didn’t fire you yesterday.”

“Now that’s a backhanded compliment,” Jack said. He chuckled, and so did Bingham.

“Where’s the Martin case?” Bingham asked Calvin.

Calvin pointed. “Table three, sir,” he said. “Dr. McGovern’s doing it. I’ll be over in a second.”

Jack watched Bingham long enough to see Chet’s double take when he recognized the chief. Jack turned back to Calvin. “My feelings are hurt,” he said jokingly. “For a moment I thought the chief came all the way down here and suited up just to pay me a compliment.”

“Dream on,” Calvin said. “You were an afterthought. He really came down about that gunshot wound Dr. McGovern is doing.”

“Is it a problem case?” Jack asked.

“Potentially,” Calvin said. “The police claim the victim was resisting arrest.”

“That’s not so uncommon,” Jack said.

“The problem is whether the bullets went in the front or the back,” Calvin said. “Also there were five of them. That’s a bit heavy-handed.”

Jack nodded. He understood all too well and was glad he wasn’t doing the case.

“The chief didn’t come down here to compliment you, but he did it just the same,” Calvin said. “He was impressed about the tularemia, and I have to admit I was too. That was a rapid and clever diagnosis. It’s worth ten bucks. But I’ll tell you something: I didn’t appreciate that little ruse you pulled in the chief’s office yesterday about our bet. You might have confused the chief for a moment, but you didn’t fool me.”

“I assumed as much,” Jack said. “That’s why I changed the subject so quickly.”

“I just wanted you to know,” Calvin said. Leaning over Lagenthorpe’s open corpse, he pushed on the spleen just as Bingham had done. “The chief was right,” he said. “This thing is swollen.”

“So’s the heart and just about everything else,” Jack said.

“What’s your guess?” Calvin asked.

“This time I don’t even have a guess,” Jack admitted. “It’s another infectious disease, but I’m only willing to bet it’s not plague or tularemia. I’m really starting to question what they are doing over there at the General.”

“Don’t get carried away,” Calvin said. “New York is a big city and the General is a big hospital. The way people move around today and with all the flights coming into Kennedy day in and day out, we can see any disease here, any time of the year.”

“You’ve got a point,” Jack conceded.

“Well, when you have an idea what it is, let me know,” Calvin said. “I want to win that twenty dollars back.”

After Calvin left, Vinnie moved back into place. Jack took samples from all the organs and Vinnie saw to it that they were placed in preservative and properly labeled. After all the samples had been taken, they both sutured Lagenthorpe’s incision.

Leaving Vinnie to take care of the body, Jack wandered over to Laurie’s table. He had her show him the cut surfaces of the lungs, liver, and spleen. The pathology mirrored that of Lopez and Hard. There were hundreds of incipient abscesses with granuloma formation.

“Looks like another case of tularemia,” Laurie said.

“I can’t argue with you,” Jack said. “But this issue of person-to-person spread being so rare bugs me. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“Unless they all were exposed to the same source,” Laurie said.

“Oh sure!” Jack exclaimed scornfully. “They all happened to go to the same spot in Connecticut and feed the same sick rabbit.”

“I’m just suggesting the possibility,” Laurie complained.

“I’m sorry,” Jack said. “You’re right. I shouldn’t jump on you. It’s just that these infectious disease cases are driving me bananas. I feel like I’m missing something important, and yet I have no idea what it could be.”

“What about Lagenthorpe?” Laurie asked. “Do you think he had tularemia as well?”

“No,” Jack said. “He seems to have had something completely different, and I have no idea what.”

“Maybe you are getting too emotionally involved,” Laurie suggested.

“Could be,” Jack said. He was feeling a bit guilty about wishing the worst for AmeriCare regarding the first case. “I’ll try to calm down. Maybe I should go do more reading on infectious diseases.”

“That’s the spirit,” Laurie said. “Instead of stressing yourself out, you should treat these cases as an opportunity to learn. After all, that’s part of the fun of this job.”

Jack tried vainly to peer through Laurie’s plastic face mask to get an idea of whether she was being serious or just mocking him. Unfortunately with all the reflections from the overhead lights, he couldn’t tell.

Leaving Laurie, Jack stopped briefly at Chet’s table. Chet was not in a good mood.

“Hell,” he said. “It’s going to take me all day to trace these bullet paths the way Bingham suggested. If he wants to be this particular, I wonder why he doesn’t do the case himself.”

“Yell if you need any help,” Jack said. “I’ll be happy to come down and lend a hand.”

“I might do that,” Chet said.

Jack disposed of his protective gear, changed into his street clothes, and made sure his ventilation charger was plugged in. Then he got the autopsy folders for Lopez and Lagenthorpe. From Hester’s folder he looked up her next of kin. A sister was listed whose address was the same as the deceased. Jack surmised they were roommates. He copied down the phone number.

Next Jack sought out Vinnie, whom he found coming out of the walk-in cooler where he’d just deposited Lagenthorpe’s corpse.

“Where are all the samples from our two cases?” Jack asked.

“I got ’em all under control,” Vinnie said.

“I want to take them upstairs myself,” Jack said.

“Are you sure?” Vinnie asked. Running up the samples to the various labs was always an excuse for a coffee break.

“I’m positive,” Jack said.

Once he was armed with all the samples plus the autopsy folders Jack set out for his office. But he made two detours. The first was to the microbiology lab, where he sought out Agnes Finn.

“I was impressed with your diagnosis of tularemia,” Agnes said.

“I’m getting a lot of compliments out of that one,” Jack said.