“We have strict confidentiality rules. I’m sorry.” The next thing they heard was a click.
“He hung up!” Wendy said indignantly.
“The nerve!”
“The old confidentiality obstacle,” Marissa said, shaking her head in frustration.
“What a pity! Twenty-three cases is probably enough to draw some reasonable inferences.”
“What about talking in greater detail with the two women we found at the Resolve meeting?” Wendy asked.
“I suppose,” Marissa said, losing some of her enthusiasm. It seemed impossible to get information.
“What I’d like to do more is get at those eighteen cases the computer suggested there were at the Women’s Clinic.”
“Obviously that’s out of the question,” Wendy said.
“But I wonder how these people at the Female Care Australia would treat us if we showed up on their doorstep?”
“Oh, sure!” Marissa said.
“Why don’t we wander over there in the morning and ask?”
“It doesn’t sound so preposterous to me,” Wendy said, her eyes alight.
“I’m curious as to what they would do if we visited the clinic. I think they’d be flattered that we’d come halfway around the world to see their facility.”
“Are you serious?” Marissa asked in disbelief.
“Why not?” Wendy said.
“The more I think about the idea, the better it sounds. God knows we both could use a vacation. We’d have a better shot at tracking down this Tristan Williams. Someone in the clinic’s pathology department is bound to know where he went. You have to admit, it would be a lot easier than trying to do it by telephone.”
“Wendy,” Marissa said with a tired voice, “I’m not up to traveling eighteen zillion miles to look for a pathologist.”
“But it will be fun for us.” Her eyes seemed to brighten.
“If nothing else, we could fit in a visit to the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Oh, now I’m beginning to understand your motive. Visiting the FCA clinic is the excuse for a diving expedition.”
“No law against having a little fun when the work is done,” Wendy said with a smile.
“You look as bad as I do.”
“Thanks, good friend,” Marissa said wryly.
“I’m serious,” Wendy said.
“The two of us have had PMS for six months. We’ve been crying like babies. We’ve both put on weight. When was the last time you did any joggine. I remember you used to jog every day.”
“You’re really hitting below the belt.”
“The point is we both could use a vacation,” Wendy said.
“And we’re both fascinated by this string of TB salpingitis cases but we’re stymied here. The way I see it, we’re killing two birds with one stone.”
“We might hear about some cases from the Memorial and the General,” Marissa said.
“We haven’t exhausted our possibilities here.”
“Are you going to tell me you couldn’t use a vacation?” Wendy insisted.
“A little time away does have some appeal,” Marissa admitted.
“Thank you for your admission,” Wendy said.
“You can be pretty stubborn.”
“But I don’t know how Robert will take it. We’ve been having enough trouble lately. I can just imagine his response if I suggest I want to go to Australia alone.”
“I’m sure Gustave will go for the idea,” Wendy said.
“I know he could use the break.”
“You mean our husbands would go too?” Marissa asked, puzzled.
“Hell, no,” Wendy said.
“Gustave needs a break from me! t Let’s see if I’m right.”
Wendy shocked Marissa by shouting for Gustave. Her voice echoed through the high-ceilinged house.
“I usually can’t get away with this kind of behavior,” she admitted to Marissa. She took another drink from her wineglass.
Gustave came at a run.
“Something the matter?” he asked nervously.
“Everything is fine, dear,” Wendy said.
“Marissa. and I were thinking it might be good for the two of us to take a little holiday.
What do you think of that?”
“I think it’s a great idea,” Gustave said. He clearly seemed relieved at the change in Wendy’s mood.
“Marissa’s afraid Robert might not be so agreeable,” Wendy said.
“What’s your opinion?”
“Obviously I don’t know him well,” Gustave said.
“But I do know he is fed up with the in-vitro protocol. I think he’d like a break. Where were you girls thinking of going” “Australia,” Wendy said.
Gustave visibly swallowed.
“Why not the Caribbean?” he asked.
Later, when Marissa drove home, her mind was in disarray. It had been a strange day with roller-coaster emotions and unexpected happenings. Within minutes of leaving an excited Wendy, she began to question the reasonableness of going to Australia at the present time. Although the concept of getting away had a lot of appeal, the idea of considering such a journey was a fitting end to a mad day. Besides, she wasn’t sure she could manage Robert as handily as Wendy managed Gustave.
Marissa. pulled into the garage, not sure how to proceed. For a few moments she sat behind the steering wheel and tried to think. Without a specific plan, she finally got out of the car and entered the house. She took off her coat and hung it in the hall closet.
The house was still. Robert was up in his study; she could just barely hear the click of his computer keys as he typed. She paused again in the darkness of the dining room.
“This is ridiculous!” Marissa said finally. She’d never had so much trouble making up her mind. With a new but fragile sense of resolve, she mounted the stairs and walked into Robert’s study.
“Robert, I’d like to talk to you about something.”
Robert turned to face her.
“Wendy and I have been thinking,” she continued.
“Oh?”
“It may sound a little crazy..
“These days, I’d expect as much.”
“We thought that perhaps it would do us good to get away for a short time,” Marissa said.
“Like a vacation.”
“I can’t take time off now,” Robert said.
“No, not you and I,” Marissa said, “Wendy and I. Just us girls.”
Robert thought for a moment. The idea had some merit. It would give him and Marissa time to cool down.
“That doesn’t sound so crazy. Where were you thinking of going?”
“Australia,” Marissa said. She winced as the word came out of her mouth.
“Australia!” Robert exclaimed. He snatched off his reading glasses and tossed them on top of his correspondence.
“Australia!” he repeated as if he’d not heard correctly.
“There is an explanation,” Marissa said.
“We didn’t just pull Australia out of a hat. I found out today that the only concentration of cases of TB of the fallopian tubes like Wendy and I have is in Brisbane, Australia. So we could do a little research as well as have some fun. It was Wendy’s idea. She’s a diving enthusiast and the Great Barlier Reef-” “You were right!” Robert said, interrupting her.
“This sounds very crazy. This is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Your practice is in a shambles and you want to fly halfway around the world to continue a crusade that came close to landing you in jail.
I thought you meant a little vacation, like a weekend in Bermuda.
Something reasonable.”
“You don’t have to overreact,” Marissa said.
“I thought we could talk about this.”
“How can I not overreact?” Robert demanded.
“It’s not that unreasonable,” Marissa said.
“I also learned today that this odd form of TB has been showing up on an international scale. Not only in Australia, but in Europe as well.
Someone should be looking into it.”
“And you are that someone?” Robert asked.
“In your state, you think you are appropriate?”
“I think I am very qualified.”
“Well, I think you’re wrong,” Robert said.
“There’s no way you could be objective. You’re one of the cases yourself. And if you care about my opinion, I think your going to Australia is preposterous. That’s all I have to say.”
Robert reached for his reading glasses and slipped them on.
Looking away from Marissa, he turned his attention back to his computer screen.
Seeing that he really didn’t intend to discuss it any further, Marissa turned and walked out the door.
The problem with going to Australia was that for the most part Marissa thought Robert was right. It seemed an extravagant idea, in time as well as expense, not that finances were her top consideration. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling: it seemed unreasonable to suddenly fly halfway around the world.
Reaching for the phone, she called Wendy. Wendy answered on the first ring, as if she were waiting by the phone.
“Well?” Wendy asked.
“It doesn’t look good,” Marissa said.
“Robert is very much against the idea, at least of going to Australia. He likes the vacation part.”
“Damn!” Wendy said.
“I’m disappointed. I was practically packing my bag. I could just feel that hot Australian sumner sun.”
“Another time,” Marissa said.
“Sorry to be such a drag.”
“Sleep on it,” Wendy said.
“Maybe tomorrow you and Robert will feel differently. I’m sure we’d have a ball.”
Marissa hung up the phone. Suddenly sleep sounded good to her. She climbed the stairs, wishing that Robert would surprise her and join her for a change.
Marissa opened her eyes and immediately knew she’d overslept.
The light in the bedroom was brighter than it should have been. Rolling to the side, she glanced at the clock. She was right, it was almost eight-thirty, an hour later than usual. She wasn’t surprised. Having awakened at four A.M. and unable to fall back asleep, she’d taken a piece of one of Robert’s Valiums.
Pulling on her robe, she went down to the guest room and peered inside. The bed was empty and unmade. Going to the top of the stairs, she called down for Robert. If he was there, he didn’t reply.
Descending the stairs, Marissa made a quick tour of the kitchen, eventually checking the garage. Robert’s car was gone.
Going back inside, she looked on the planning desk for a message.
There was none. Robert had just left for work without so much as a note. Every time she’d thought their relationship had reached its nadir, it sank a little lower.
“Thanks for nothing,” Marissa said aloud as she fought back tears. Then she shook herself.
“God, I’ve only been awake for ten minutes and already I’m crying.” She made a cup of instant coffee and carried it upstairs to drink while she got dressed.
“A note wouldn’t have been asking too much,” she said as she stepped into the bathroom to shower.
While she was dressing and applying her makeup, Marissa decided she had to try to get her life back to some semblance of normality. For one thing, she conceded that Robert was right: her practice was in a shambles. Maybe she should start going to work on a more regular basis. Maybe then her relationship with Robert would improve. With that idea in mind, Marissa decided to head straight for her clinic.
Checking herself in the full-length hall mirror before going to her car, Marissa muttered, “I’ll even start exercising again. It would be great to get back to my old weight.”
With a new sense of resolve, Marissa strode down the main corridor on her floor and turned into her office. In contrast to the other waiting rooms, hers was empty. She found Mindy Valdanus at the reception desk, opening the mail.
“Dr. Blumenthal!” Mindy exclaimed.
“Don’t act so surprised,” Marissa said.
“Bring the scheduling book in. We have some planning to do.”
“You just had a call from the intensive care unit at the Memorial,”
Wendy said. She handed Marissa a phone message slip.
“Dr. Ben Goldman asked you to return his call.”
There was a stab in Marissa’s heart. Her first thought was that Evelyn Welles had died.
“Hold up on the scheduling book,” Marissa said. She opened the door to her office and went inside.
