Acceptable Risk (23 page)

Passing through the Medical School security with the help of her MGH identity card, Kim mounted the stairs. She’d briefly visited the lab with Edward after one of their dinners, so she knew the way. The departmental office was dark, so Kim knocked on a frosted-glass door that she knew led directly into the lab.

When no one responded, Kim knocked again a bit louder. She also tried the door, but it was locked. After a third knock, Kim could see someone approaching through the glass.

The door opened, and Kim confronted an attractive, slim, blond woman whose curvaceous figure was apparent despite an oversized white lab coat.

“Yes?” Eleanor questioned perfunctorily. She looked Kim up and down.

“I’m looking for Dr. Edward Armstrong,” Kim said.

“He’s not seeing visitors,” Eleanor said. “The department office will be open tomorrow morning.” She started to close the door.

“I think he might be willing to see me,” Kim said hesitantly. In truth she wasn’t entirely sure and for a moment wondered if she should have called.

“Really, now?” Eleanor questioned haughtily. “What’s your name? Are you a student?”

“No, I’m not a student,” Kim said. The question seemed absurd since she was still in her nurse’s uniform. “My name is Kimberly Stewart.”

Eleanor didn’t say anything before closing the door in Kim’s face. Kim waited. She shifted her weight and wished she hadn’t come. Then the door reopened.

“Kim!” Edward exclaimed. “What on earth are you doing here?”

Kim explained that she thought it better to visit than to merely call. She apologized if she’d caught him at a bad time.

“Not at all,” Edward said. “I’m busy but that doesn’t matter. In fact I’m more than busy. But come in.” He stepped back out of the doorway.

Kim entered, then followed Edward as he headed toward his desk area.

“Who was it who opened the door?” Kim asked.

“Eleanor,” Edward said over his shoulder.

“She wasn’t terribly friendly,” Kim said, unsure if she should mention it.

“Eleanor?” Edward questioned. “You must be mistaken. She gets along with everyone. Around here I’m the only bear. But both of us are worn a little thin. We’re on a roll. We’ve been working nonstop since late Saturday morning. In fact Eleanor has been working that way since Friday night. Both of us have hardly slept.”

They arrived at Edward’s desk. He lifted a stack of periodicals off a straight-backed chair, tossed them in the corner, and motioned for Kim to sit. Edward sat in his desk chair.

Kim studied Edward’s face. He seemed to be in overdrive, as if he’d drunk a dozen cups of coffee. His lower jaw was dancing nervously up and down while he chewed gum. There were circles under his cool blue eyes. A two-day stubble dotted his cheeks and chin.

“Why all this frantic activity?” Kim asked.

“It’s the new alkaloid,” Edward said. “We’re already beginning to learn something about it and it looks awfully good.”

“I’m pleased for you,” Kim said. “But why all the rush? Are you under some sort of deadline?”

“It’s purely an anticipatory excitement,” Edward said. “The alkaloid could prove to be a great drug. If you’ve never done research it’s hard to comprehend the thrill you get when you discover something like this. It’s a real high, and we’ve been reexperiencing that high on an hourly basis. Everything we learn seems positive. It’s incredible.”

“Can you say what you’ve been learning?” Kim asked. “Or is it some kind of secret?”

Edward moved forward in his chair and lowered his voice. Kim glanced around the lab but saw no one. She wasn’t even sure where Eleanor was.

“We’ve stumbled onto an orally effective, psychoactive compound that penetrates the blood-brain barrier like the proverbial knife through butter. It’s so potent it is effective in the microgram range.”

“Do you think this is the compound that affected the people in the Salem witchcraft affair?” Kim asked. Elizabeth was still in the forefront of her mind.

“Without doubt,” Edward said. “It’s the Salem devil incarnate.”

“But the people who ate the infected grain were poisoned,” Kim said. “They became the ‘afflicted’ with horrid fits. How can you be so excited about that kind of drug?”

“It is hallucinogenic,” Edward said. “There’s no doubt about that. But we think it’s a lot more. We have reason to believe it calms, invigorates, and may even enhance memory.”

“How have you learned so much so quickly?” Kim asked.

Edward laughed self-consciously. “We don’t know anything for certain yet,” he admitted. “A lot of researchers would find our work so far less than scientific. What we’ve been doing is attempting to get a general idea of what the alkaloid can do. Mind you, these are not controlled experiments by any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, the results are terribly exciting, even mind-boggling. For instance we found that the drug, seems to calm stressed rats better than imipramine, which is the benchmark for antidepressant efficacy.”

“So you think it might be an hallucinogenic antidepressant?” Kim said.

“Among other things,” Edward said.

“Any side effects?” Kim asked. She still didn’t understand why Edward was as excited as he was.

Edward laughed again. “We haven’t been worrying about hallucinations with the rats,” he said. “But seriously, apart from the hallucinations we’ve not seen any problems. We’ve loaded several mice with comparatively huge doses and they’re as happy as pigs in the poke. We’ve plopped even larger doses into neuronal cell cultures with no effect on the cells. There doesn’t seem to be any toxicity whatsoever. It’s unbelievable.”

As Kim continued to listen to Edward, she became progressively disappointed that he did not ask her about her visit to Salem and about what happened to Elizabeth’s head. Finally Kim had to bring it up herself when there was a pause in Edward’s exuberant narrative.

“Good,” Edward said simply when she told him the head had been replaced. “I’m glad that’s over.”

Kim was about to describe how the episode had made her feel when Eleanor breezed into view and immediately monopolized Edward’s attention with a computer printout. Eleanor did not even acknowledge Kim’s presence nor did Edward introduce them. Kim watched as they had an animated discussion over the information. It was obvious Edward was pleased with the results. Finally Edward gave Eleanor some suggestions along with a pat on the back, and Eleanor vanished as quickly as she’d appeared.

“Now where were we?” Edward said, turning to Kim.

“More good news?” Kim asked, referring to Eleanor’s printout.

“Most definitely,” Edward said. “We’ve started on determining the compound’s structure, and Eleanor has just confirmed our preliminary impression that it is a tetracyclic molecule with multiple side chains.”

“How on earth can you figure that out?” Kim asked. In spite of herself she was impressed.

“You really want to know?” Edward asked.

“Provided you don’t go too far over my head,” Kim said.

“The first step was to get an idea of molecular weight with standard chromatography,” Edward said. “That was easy. Then we broke the molecule apart with reagents that rupture specific types of bonds. Following that we try to identify at least some of the fragments with chromatography, electrophoresis, and mass spectrometry.”

“You’re already beyond me,” Kim admitted. “I’ve heard those terms, but I don’t really know what the processes are.”

“They’re not that complicated,” Edward said. He stood up. “The basic concepts are not difficult to comprehend. It’s the results that can be difficult to analyze. Come on, I’ll show you the machines.” He took Kim’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

Edward enthusiastically dragged a reluctant Kim around his lab, showing her the mass spectrometer, the high-performance liquid chromatography unit, and the capillary electrophoresis equipment. The whole time he lectured about how they were used for fragment separation and identification. The only thing Kim understood completely was Edward’s obvious bent for teaching.

Opening up a side door, Edward gestured inside. Kim glanced within. In the center of the room was a large cylinder about four feet high and two feet wide. Cables and wires emerged from it like snakes from Medusa’s head.

“That’s our nuclear magnetic resonance machine,” Edward said proudly. “It’s a crucial tool with a project like this. It’s not enough to know how many carbon atoms, hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, and nitrogen atoms there are in a compound. We have to know the three-dimensional orientation. That’s what this machine can do.”

“I’m impressed,” Kim said, not knowing what else to say.

“Let me show you one other machine,” Edward said, oblivious to Kim’s state of mind. He led her to yet another door. Opening it, he again gestured inside.

Kim looked in. It was a hopeless tangle of electronic equipment, wires, and cathode ray tubes. “Interesting,” she said.

“You know what it is?” Edward asked.

“I don’t think so,” Kim said. She was reluctant to let Edward know how little she knew about what he did.

“It’s an X-ray diffraction unit,” Edward said with the same degree of pride he’d evinced with the NMR unit. “It complements what we do with the NMR. We’ll be using it with the new alkaloid because the alkaloid readily crystallizes as a salt.”

“Well, you do have your work cut out for you,” Kim said.

“It’s work but it’s also extraordinarily stimulating,” Edward said. “Right now we’re using everything in our investigative arsenal, and the data is pouring in. We’ll have the structure in record time, especially with the new software that is available with all these instruments.”

“Good luck,” Kim said. She’d derived only a sketchy idea of what Edward had explained, but she had certainly gotten a taste of his enthusiasm.

“So what else happened up in Salem?” Edward asked suddenly. “How’s the renovation going?”

Kim was momentarily nonplussed by Edward’s question. With his preoccupation involving his own work, she didn’t think he was currently interested in her puny project. She’d been just about to excuse herself.

“The renovation is going well,” she said. “The house is going to be darling.”

“You were gone quite a while,” Edward said. “Did you delve back into the Stewart family papers?”

“I spent a couple of hours,” Kim admitted.

“Find anything more about Elizabeth?” he asked. “I’m getting more and more interested in her myself. I feel as if I owe her an enormous debt. If it hadn’t been for her, I never would have come across this alkaloid.”

“I did learn some things,” Kim said. She told Edward about going to the statehouse prior to driving to Salem and that there was no follow-up petition concerning the mysterious evidence. She then told him about the Northfields deed with Elizabeth’s signature, and how it had angered Thomas Putnam.

“That might be the most significant piece of information you’ve learned so far,” Edward said. “From the little reading I’ve done, I don’t think Thomas Putnam was the right person to irritate.”

“I had the same thought,” Kim said. “His daughter, Ann, was one of the first of the girls to be afflicted, and she accused many people of witchcraft. The problem is, I can’t relate a feud with Thomas Putnam with the conclusive evidence.”

“Maybe these Putnam people were malicious enough to plant something,” Edward suggested.

“That’s a thought,” Kim said. “But it doesn’t answer what it could have been. Also, if something were planted, does it make sense that it was conclusive? I still think it had to be something Elizabeth made herself.”

“Maybe so,” Edward said. “But the only hint you have is Ronald’s petition stating it was seized from his property. I don’t think it could have been anything indubitably associated with witchcraft.”

“Speaking of Ronald,” Kim said. “I learned something about him that’s reawakened my suspicions. He remarried only ten weeks after Elizabeth’s death. That’s an awfully short grieving period, to say the least. It makes me think he and Rebecca might have been having an affair.”

“Perhaps,” Edward said without enthusiasm. “I still think that we have no idea how difficult life was back then. Ronald had four children to raise and a burgeoning business to run. He probably didn’t have a lot of choice. I’d bet a long grieving period was a luxury he could not afford.”

Kim nodded, but she wasn’t sure she agreed. At the same time she wondered how much her suspicious attitude toward Ronald was influenced by her father’s behavior.

Eleanor appeared just as abruptly as she had earlier and again enlisted Edward in a private yet animated discussion. When she left, Kim excused herself.

“I’d better be on my way,” she said.

“I’ll walk you out to your car,” Edward offered.

While descending the stairs and walking across the quadrangle, Kim detected a gradual change in Edward’s demeanor. As he’d done in the past, he became noticeably more nervous. From previous experience Kim guessed he was about to say something. She didn’t try to encourage him. She’d learned it didn’t help.

Finally when they reached her car he spoke: “I’ve been thinking a lot about your offer to come to live with you in the cottage,” he said while toying with a pebble with his toe. He paused. Kim waited impatiently, unsure what he would say. Then he blurted: “If you’re still thinking positively about it, I’d like to come.”

“Of course I’m thinking positively,” Kim said with relief. She reached up and gave him a hug. He returned the gesture.

“We can go up on the weekend and talk about furniture,” Edward said. “I don’t know if there is anything from my apartment you’d want to use.”

“It’ll be fun,” Kim said.

With some awkwardness they separated, and Kim climbed into her car. She opened the passenger-side window and Edward leaned in.

“I’m sorry I’m so preoccupied about this alkaloid,” he said.

“I understand,” Kim said. “I can see how excited you are. I’m impressed with your dedication.”

After they said their goodbyes, Kim drove toward Beacon Hill feeling a lot happier than she had just a half hour earlier.

Edward’s excitement escalated as the week progressed. The database on the new alkaloid grew at an exponential rate. Neither he nor Eleanor slept more than four or five hours each night. Both were living in the lab for all practical purposes and working harder than they had in their lives.