Hypocrite's Isle (28 page)

Gavin, Mary and Tom all nodded.

‘Good, not a word to anyone.’

 

The sabotage to Gavin’s final experiment caused a week’s delay while Trish and her colleagues in the tissue culture suite prepared new cell cultures for him.

‘I thought you said you were finished,’ said Trish when Gavin put in the request.

‘So did I,’ said Gavin. ‘But when you’ve got a perfectionist for a boss …’

‘Tell me about it,’ murmured one of Trish’s staff.

‘I wonder who rattled her cage,’ said Trish, but all three girls were smiling. ‘I’ll give you a call when they’re ready.’

 

On the Monday of the following week the cell cultures arrived and Gavin prepared to set up the final repeat experiment. Frank
Simmons
had already written the main draft body of the paper and given it to Gavin to read over the weekend for comment.

‘I see you’re about to fill in the blanks,’ said Simmons when he arrived in the lab and saw Gavin setting up his work bench. He was referring to the spaces he’d left for the results of last experiment. ‘What did you think?’

‘Reads well,’ said Gavin. ‘Thanks for putting my name first.’

‘Whatever did you expect, Gavin?’ said Simmons, exchanging a smile with Tom, who was waiting to have a word. ‘I’m off to the library if anyone’s looking for me.’

Gavin placed the instruments he would need in an alcohol-filled beaker ready for flame sterilisation when required and brought out the first of the cell cultures he would need. His mobile rang: it was Caroline and she was upset.

‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘Downstairs, can you come?’

Gavin changed out of his lab coat and hurried along the
corridor
to the lifts. As he got there, the door to one of them opened and Mary stepped out, freeing the scarf from her neck one-handedly and almost bumping into Gavin, who was attempting to sidle past. ‘Where are you off to in such a hurry?’ she exclaimed.

Gavin was about to say that he’d explain later when he suddenly remembered that he’d left his cell cultures lying out on the bench. With one hand holding the lift door open and the other clamped to his forehead, he told Mary what he’d done.

‘No problem, I’ll deal with it.’

Gavin blew her a kiss as the lift doors started to close. ‘Carrie needs me. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

Gavin found Caroline waiting just outside the front doors. She looked pale and drawn. ‘What’s up?’

‘It’s Mum; she’s really bad. I’m going to have to go down there. Dad phoned this morning.’

‘End of the remission?’

‘In a big way. Dad says she’s in a lot of pain. Look, can we walk? I have to be at the station in half an hour.’

They crossed the road and started heading up George IV Bridge. ‘I’m so sorry,’ said Gavin, putting his arm around her shoulders.

‘Dad wasn’t planning on telling me just yet, but they put her on a new chemo schedule and she’s been reacting really badly. They’ve had to up her radiation dose too.’

Gavin made a face.

‘I know, I know …’

‘Carrie, why are you going?’

Caroline withdrew a little and looked at him questioningly. ‘What do you mean, why am I going?’

‘What good can you do?’

‘Gavin, she’s my mother.’

‘Yes, but you have to ask yourself, what good can you do?’

‘Be there for her, damn it. Can you really not see that? What kind of person are you, for God’s sake?’

They had stopped to face up to each other at the head of the Mound. Gavin held up his hands in a subconscious gesture of
defence
. ‘Look, all I’m saying is that you can’t do anything to help her, Carrie. She knows it; you know it. You’ll be putting yourself through hell for no good reason other than the fact that you’re
doing
what you think you should … your duty, if you like.’

‘Damn right it’s my duty.’

‘Carrie, I really didn’t mean to upset you,’ pleaded Gavin. ‘Honest, I’m just trying to stop you making yourself ill if you rush down there every time there’s a bit of a crisis.’

‘A bit of a crisis? You call my mother dying a bit of a crisis?’

‘You know I didn’t mean it that way. Don’t do this to me, Carrie. We both know it’s a one-way journey for her and it’s downhill all the way.’

‘Piss off, Gavin.’

‘Let me see you to the station at least?’

‘I said, piss off!’

Caroline turned on her heel and hurried off, leaving Gavin standing there feeling small and useless. ‘Oh fuck,’ he murmured, his feet turning to lead as he started slowly back towards the
medical
school. At that moment, the black clouds that had been lurking over the city for the past few hours decided to turn threat into
action
, and large spots of rain started to pock-mark the pavement for a few moments before the heavens finally opened and sent people scurrying into shop doorways and under bus shelters in the
mistaken
belief that rain that heavy couldn’t last long. Gavin had too much on his mind to care. He was soaked through by the time he got back to the med school.

Hair plastered to his head and clothes dripping, Gavin stepped out of the lift and started out along the corridor, studiously avoiding eye contact with anyone, although his dishevelled state was drawing unwanted attention to him. He didn’t want to be there at all, but the final experiment had to be set up, otherwise the cultures would overgrow and cause yet further delay. He would do what he had to do and then leave.

He’d done it again, him and his big mouth. He hadn’t meant to upset Carrie. He’d just said what he felt and … it had happened. God, how many times had he had to invoke that excuse in the past? Maybe there really was something wrong with him. Maybe he didn’t see things like other people. All he’d wanted to do was point out the truth of the situation to Carrie because he thought she was too close to things to see for herself. He’d thought he was being
objective
, even helpful, but she had obviously seen things differently. She’d seen him as someone totally without feelings and possibly even someone she never wanted to see again … ‘Shit, shit, shit.’

As he turned the final corner on the approach to the lab, he reached up to wipe some rain water from his forehead, just as a blinding flash filled the frosted glass panels on the door in front of him and a blast of burning hot air rushed past his cheeks, followed by the sound of screaming. It was the sort of screaming that made his blood run cold, and it was Mary Hollis.

Gavin recovered from his initial shock and blinked his eyes several times to make sure they had not been affected, before pushing open the lab doors to find half the lab on fire. Mary was writhing on the floor, holding her hands to her face. No one else appeared to be there. His first instinct was to fall to his knees to see what he could do to help – but common sense took over and he grabbed at the phone on the wall to call the university emergency number, requesting an
ambulance
and the fire brigade. He gave details of location and slammed down the phone before hitting the fire alarm and filling the air with electronic whooping.

A chemical bottle exploded as the flames licked up towards the gantries above the work benches, sending glass and its contents
flying
across the room and making Gavin duck before squatting down to slip his hands under Mary’s arms, dragging her across the floor to the door. She had stopped screaming, but he found the animal-like whimper she was now making even more disturbing. Her lower limbs were jerking as if controlled by some deranged puppet master as successive waves of pain seemed to engulf her.

Gavin hadn’t had time to assess the extent of Mary’s injuries: he had been so intent on getting her out of the lab and shielding them both from fire and possible explosion. Now, safe for the moment behind the fire doors out in the corridor, he felt ill when he saw the state of her face and hands. ‘Easy, Mary,’ he murmured, cradling her as best he could, but the unevenness of his voice made it sound less than convincing. ‘Everything is going to be okay. You’re safe now. An ambulance is on its way. You’ll be fine, Mary … you’ll be fine …’

The horrified looks on the faces of the people hurrying towards the fire exits couldn’t have disagreed more.

The senior technician from the Maclean lab and the first-aider for the floor appeared beside Gavin to see if she could help – an offer that froze on her lips when she saw Mary’s face. She was
carrying
a small plastic box with a green cross on it, which Gavin saw as being ridiculously inadequate in the circumstances: an operating theatre and a team of plastic surgeons were what was needed.

Jack Martin was next to appear: he took in the situation quickly. ‘We’ll have to get her out of here fast. What’s the story with the fire?’

Gavin said, ‘I think it’s containable if we get to it soon. It seems to be confined to one bench, although the chemicals are causing a problem. On the other hand, there hasn’t been an explosion for the past few minutes. I’d like to have a go with the fire extinguishers. Maybe you and Ann can evacuate Mary while I try?’

‘Regulations say we should all get out,’ insisted Martin.

‘I’ve got too much to lose,’ said Gavin.

‘One of them could be your life,’ snapped Martin.

‘Look, if it seems like it’s getting any worse, I’ll get my arse out of there. I just need to try.’

Martin acquiesced. ‘All right, I’ll join you when the other fire marshal appears. He’s just making sure the floor’s clear. He can give Ann a hand to get Mary downstairs.’

Gavin went back into the lab and grabbed a CO
₂
extinguisher from the wall just inside the door. He wrenched out the retaining pin and squeezed the trigger to attack the flames in successive
three-to
four-second bursts. Luckily the fire still appeared to be largely confined to the one bench in the lab – his own. Jack Martin joined him a few moments later, and between them they brought the fire under control just as the sound of sirens bringing professional help reached them.

‘Cavalry no longer required,’ murmured Martin, wiping grime and sweat from his brow. ‘Whose bench is this anyway?’ He was looking at the charred, smouldering surface that had been the seat of the fire.

‘Mine.’

‘What happened?’

Gavin shook his head. ‘I wasn’t here. Mary seems to have been the only person in the lab at the time.’ He told Martin about seeing the flash from out in the corridor as he returned.

‘She was working at your bench?’

‘Looks like it,’ said Gavin.

‘Any idea why?’

Gavin made a face. ‘I can guess. I met her coming out the lift when I was leaving – I’d just had a phone call from my girlfriend: she was upset. I told Mary that I’d left some cell cultures lying on the bench and asked her if she’d put them back in the incubator for me. I wasn’t sure when I was going to be back. It’s my guess she decided to set up the experiment for me. It’s the sort of thing she’d do.’

‘What kind of experiment?

Gavin told Martin, adding, ‘I’d left everything ready.’

‘How could doing something like that start a fire …?’
murmured
Martin as he continued to examine the blackened surface of Gavin’s bench. ‘You say you saw a flash. Was there an explosion?’

Gavin shook his head. ‘Maybe a popping sound, but no big bang, just the flash I saw through the glass and then a sudden rush of hot air.’

They were interrupted when three firemen came into the lab in full fire-fighting gear. The senior man raised his visor and asked what had happened. Gavin had just started telling him what little he could when Frank Simmons joined them. ‘I’ve just seen Mary off in the ambulance,’ he said. ‘I was down in the library. What in God’s name happened?’

‘As far as we can make out, Mary was alone in the lab when whatever it was happened,’ said Jack Martin.

‘But there must be some clue …’

‘We’ve had a look around: there’s nothing obvious,’ said Martin. ‘We may have to wait until she can tell us herself.’

Simmons shot him a glance. ‘That could be some time. Did you see the state of her?’