“Mother! Hello.”
Kenzie stooped slightly to hug Lisa gently around the shoulders and blow air kisses past her cheeks. Was that really necessary when she was wearing a biohazard suit?
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” Lisa gushed. “It’s so good to see you. I’m so glad that you came.”
“I didn’t think I would be able to. It was all very last-minute. And there is someone here that I need to see... I don’t know how long I will be able to stay.”
“Nonsense, of course you must stay. There are people I need to introduce you to.”
“Another time. I really do need to find someone.”
“And this...” Lisa turned to Zachary. “Is this your young man? Is this Zachary?”
“Hi, Mrs. Kirsch,” Zachary said politely, his voice muffled behind the protective gear. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
Lisa peered at him. She lifted her eye mask so that he could see her face and peered into the depths of the protective suit. “You need to take that off so I can see your face!”
“Not now, Mom,” Kenzie insisted. “You know we’re not supposed to remove our masks until the end of the festivities.”
“Well, you won’t be able to eat with those on!”
“We have a plan,” Kenzie promised.
She spotted a cluster of people at the end of the ballroom, laughing, bending over, surrounding something of interest that was closer to the ground. Kenzie recognized the clustering behavior. It had to be Lola. One dog at an event where one didn’t usually see any pets, Lola would be sure to garner lots of attention. Everyone would want to pet her. Especially since she had been labeled a hero.
“Over here, I think,” she told Zachary, steering him in the right direction.
Zachary walked beside her at a quick clip, nodding his head as he saw the crowd around the dog too. “That has to be it. Your mom seems nice.”
“Oh, she is. Being nice was never an issue. She’s very gracious. I’m sure you’ll like her. But another day. When we’re not trying to save the world.”
“Is your dad here too, then? Did they come together or would they have been separate? Each coming from their own direction?”
“Separate. Unless Dad is staying over at the house.”
Kenzie pushed past a few people who didn’t move out of the way fast enough. “Excuse me. I’m sorry. Sorry.”
Zachary stayed close behind her, not letting the crowd close back in around him. The guy could use his elbows when he had to. Kenzie broke through into an open space where she caught a glimpse of Lola and her adoring crowd for a moment. She swore under her breath at how close people were to her, how they reached out to pet her or to let her smell and lick their hands. All of them just begging to contract the virus and head quickly into dementia and an early grave. Kenzie put on an extra burst of speed.
“Ellie. Nurse Ellie, we need to talk to you.”
A few people looked over at her curiously, but most didn’t hear her over the conversations going on. Kenzie stepped firmly forward, pushing waiting fans aside.
“Ellie! Hey!”
The nurse was dressed... like a nurse. She had on a nursing smock as well as an old-style nurse’s cap, just in case anyone wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be. She had on a white Zorro-style eye mask.
“Yeah?”
“Dr. Kirsch from the Medical Examiner’s Office. Do you remember me?”
“Well... yes, I guess so. You came and talked to everybody that one day. I didn’t expect to see you here?” Her tone was questioning.
“Move back, please,” Kenzie said in a raised voice, speaking above the hum of voices. “Everyone, please step back from the dog.”
“What’s going on?” Ellie asked.
Others around them were grumbling and complaining, not eager to move out of the way and lose their chance of saying hello to the hero dog.
“You were told that this dog was to be in isolation.”
“Lola got an invitation to attend the masquerade ball. From the governor himself. You don’t turn down an invitation like that.”
“You do if you are infected and don’t want to make everyone in the place sick!” Kenzie raised her voice still more, making sure that everyone around her understood. “This dog was quarantined for a reason. The governor does not have the right to override the Medical Examiner’s directions.”
There were a few whispers and laughs from the crowd, thinking that Kenzie was putting on a show. Acting in character.
“I don’t know what you’re even talking about.” Ellie shook her head. “What is all this? You don’t have any jurisdiction here.”
“I have been authorized to pick this dog up.” Kenzie didn’t know how that would play when she was in another city, but she wasn’t going to take the time to find out. “I’m to put her into isolation until they’ve had a chance to run all of the necessary tests on her and to ensure she is no longer a danger to everyone around her.”
People were starting to back off a little. Beginning to realize that maybe it wasn’t just a joke or an act. There really was something going on.
“You can’t just come barging in here and take Lola away from me. She’s my dog.”
“Do you know that her previous owner is dead in my morgue? And that her owner before that is dead? Do you think you won’t catch this virus too?”
Ellie shook her head. “What are you talking about? Dead? Francine isn’t dead.”
“No, but Jay is. Francine’s ex. And they lived in an apartment over the lab. The lab that engineered this virus and was stupid enough to let it into the wild. Do you understand me? This virus is killing people at Champlain House. People like Willie Cartwright and Stanley Sexton. And others over the past few months. Nurse Jackson is showing symptoms. You couldn’t see what was happening right in front of your own eyes. Lola doesn’t sense which people are going to die and give them comfort. She gave her favorite patients the virus that killed them!”
Ellie’s mouth hung open. She was no longer protesting, her face draining of color.
“How stupid is it to take a dog to a ball with hundreds of vulnerable people when you’ve been told by a medical authority to keep her isolated?” Kenzie demanded. All conversation around them had now ceased. The room was silent and hanging on her every word. People were scurrying away from Lola now. Backing up, spreading out in a wave around her as each consecutive ripple moved farther.
“Mackenzie!”
She should have known that her father would be there to interfere. As soon as he realized she was causing trouble, of course he would be there at her side to gently pull her away and see that she quieted down.
He was dressed as a cowboy. White hat, of course, declaring his status as one of the “good guy” lobbyists acting to protect the people.
“Dad. You need to stay out of this.”
“Mackenzie, what’s going on here? What are you shouting about?”
“I’m here to do a job, Dad. This is work. So butt out.”
“What are you talking about.” He looked baffled. “What about work?”
“This dog is infected with a deadly virus. She was supposed to be quarantined. Instead, she’s exposing all these people, including you, to a nasty virus that could cause your death within days.”
People continued to flee, leaving the ballroom altogether. Pretty soon, they would be alone—Kenzie, Zachary, Ellie, and Lola. And Walter, who was undeterred.
“You don’t want to make a scene here,” he said reasonably. “Couldn’t this wait until tomorrow? What’s the difference now, really?”
“I don’t want hundreds of people’s blood on my hands. That’s the difference.”
He seemed stymied for a moment. He looked around him, trying to find someone in the crowd that had dispersed, leaving the rest of them an island in the room.
Someone was striding toward them now, wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask, black cape, and white gloves. One of the event planners, no doubt, get
ting ready to throw them out.
“Walter. What’s going on here?”
“Some misunderstanding,” Walter assured him. “I’m just talking to my daughter. I’ll get it straightened out.”
“No, you will not,” Kenzie said firmly. “I’m taking this dog.” She reached for the leash and pulled it out of Ellie’s hand. Ellie was confused enough by this point, worried enough that what Kenzie said could really be true that she allowed it to be pulled out of her hand. Lola whined and looked back and forth at them, wondering what was going on. But she was a happy dog, a friendly dog, and she would go with Kenzie if that was who was holding her leash.
“You can’t do that,” the man snarled. He stepped forward abruptly and shoved Kenzie. It took Kenzie off guard and she nearly fell over, as she had during the break-in. But she managed to catch herself and Zachary reached out and steadied her. He stepped between them, trying to keep the Phantom from touching Kenzie again.
“Stay out of this,” Zachary warned. “She’s here on official business.”
“Official business? There is no official business,” the Phantom asserted. “She’s not a real doctor. She assists in the morgue. That’s not a real doctor. You don’t have live patients. You aren’t a doctor any more than this dog is.” He reached out for the leash.
Kenzie jerked it back. The three of them danced around, the man trying to grab the leash away from Kenzie. Zachary pushed the Phantom back once, and the other man swung, hitting Zachary somewhere in the side of the head. Kenzie wasn’t sure whether he connected with an ear or the face shield or another part of the apparatus. It wasn’t good for the isolation suit, though. They weren’t made for roughhousing.
“This dog is contagious,” she told the Phantom forcefully, hoping to get through to him. “If you contract this virus, it could kill you. Why do you think I’m in this protective gear?”
“You’re just making this up. I don’t know who sent you, but this is completely ridiculous. The dog is safe. She’s perfectly safe. If she had this virus, she would be dead months ago.”
He had admitted there was a virus and that he knew something about its incubation period. Something about his voice was familiar. Kenzie tried to see his face under the mask, to reconstruct the part that was covered so that she could recognize him. “Who are you? I don’t understand why you would interfere with a case like this. Do you want to get sick? Do you want everyone here to get sick?”
“That’s not the way viruses work. Even with the most virulent virus, it isn’t a hundred percent. It isn’t ever everybody. Someone will always survive even direct exposure. What is more important? A few people dying, or being able to cure terrible diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s that thousands die of every year?”
Kenzie glanced over at her father. Was this who had been whispering in his ear? Was Walter of the same opinion? That it was okay if a few people died from the virus, as long as the Virutek studies were allowed to go on?
They wanted to keep it all quiet, hush it all up so that they didn’t have a virus outbreak to distract everyone from the upcoming election. The governor was bringing in all the goodwill he could with the masquerade ball, schmoozing and making people feel like they were making a difference and that he was helping to advance medicine and the well-being of his population.
The announcement of an outbreak would ruin that illusion.
“Mackenzie,” Walter said quietly. “I think this has gone far enough. You’ve made a scene. There’s going to be talk. I don’t know if this event can be salvaged. Why don’t you just quietly take the dog and go? We’ll smooth things over here.”
“No!” the Phantom shouted. “She’s ruining everything. That dog is the best thing that happened to this ball! Do you know how many more people responded when we started to publicize that he would be here?”
“She,” Ellie corrected, looking angry. Like maybe she’d already had to correct people on the dog’s gender half a dozen times.
“They’re here,” Walter pointed out. “But after this scene, they’re not going to want their pictures with the dog. They’ll leave if it stays. So let Mackenzie just take it.”
“Her.”
They both looked at Ellie in irritation.
Kenzie tugged on Lola’s leash and took a step back. If both Walter and Ellie were no longer fighting it, Kenzie could get out of there. She could get Lola to the lab and properly quarantined and stop the spread from dog to humans. There was still the human-to-human spread to be concerned with, but Typhoid Mary had to be stopped.
The Phantom grabbed Kenzie’s arm and held on tightly. Zachary moved in. He was no ninja, but he didn’t quail before the bigger man. The first thing he did was grab the edge of the Phantom mask and pull it away, snapping the elastic.
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Kenzie swallowed. She stared at the face, trying to sort out all the conflicting images crowding into her brain. His iron grip on her arm and the smell of his body and his aftershave sent her hurtling back to the attack in the morgue. This was the man who had attacked her there. She hadn’t seen his face during the attack, but she recognized that smell, the shape of his body, and his hands on her.
But before her stood Aaron Fisk, the pleasant man from the lobby when she had visited Virutek. He had seemed so cultured. A great addition to any board of directors. Maybe a family guy, sort of like her dad.
Like Walter.
The two of them clearly knew each other. So who was Aaron Fisk? Why did he care about Lola? About the Virutek studies? Why had he been at Virutek earlier?
Kenzie tried to jerk her arm out of his grip. Zachary gave Fisk a shove back, but didn’t manage to dislodge him. Zachary drove a hand toward Fisk’s face, fingers bent into claws, going straight for the eyes, and that did cause a reaction. Fisk stepped back, flinching out of the way and releasing Kenzie.
Kenzie’s relief at being released lasted for just a split-second. Her shoulders dipped and she looked down at Lola for an instant, regrouping, ready to make a dash for the door.
Then Fisk was on Zachary—hitting him, Kenzie thought, until she saw the blossom of red on the protective coveralls. She registered the fact that Fisk was armed and had attacked Zachary with some kind of weapon. Then Walter went hurtling into the fray, his white hat flying off. There were shrieks from the other side of the ballroom where partygoers were crowded in the doorways watching from a safe distance away. Kenzie reached out a hand toward Zachary.
“Are you okay? Let me see.”
He covered his side and shook his head. “Just a graze. Your dad—he’s going to get hurt!”
Kenzie forced her attention away from Zachary and the blood on his suit to her father and Fisk, rolling around on the floor, both trying to get control of the knife in Fisk’s grip. “Dad! Be careful!”
She didn’t know what to do. If she joined in the struggle, she might be hurt or make things more dangerous for Walter. She looked around for some kind of weapon, but there was just open space intended for visiting and the dancing that would come after dinner and the fundraising pitches.
“Dad!”
And then, as quickly as it had begun, the struggle was over and they were both still. Kenzie looked at the two men on the floor in horror, unable to take it all in.
Walter rolled over, off of Fisk. Fisk didn’t move. His white shirt was also turning red. Kenzie looked once more at her father to make sure that he wasn’t hurt. She didn’t see any sign of injury. But Fisk’s condition was grave.
Kenzie put her gloved hand directly over the wound and pressed hard. At least she was protected by her gear from any blood-borne disease. She leaned close to Fisk’s face, watching for the rise and fall of his chest, listening for his breath.
“I had to protect you,” Walter said breathlessly.
“Put your hand here,” Kenzie ordered, gesturing to the wound. “Press down. Zachary, are you okay?” She looked over her shoulder to him.
“Fine,” he said. He was still on his feet, not lookin
g any worse.
“Call 9-1-1.”
He nodded and looked for his phone, zipped away into one of the pockets of the coveralls. Kenzie adjusted Fisk’s head and neck and started chest compressions.
“I don’t know what happened,” Walter said. “I’ve never seen him like that. So... unreasonable. I don’t understand. He’s tough and hard-nosed, but this was... animal-like...”
Kenzie continued the chest compressions, feeling breathless herself. “This virus... it changes people. It causes rapid dementia. Personality changes, confusion, emotional lability...”
“But... like this?”
If Fisk had somehow contracted the virus, then Kenzie’s chest compressions were probably less than useless. A stab wound in the belly. No pulse or respiration. That was bad enough. The chances of bringing someone back from that with just chest compressions were extremely remote. Add in the virus, and his brain was probably so clogged with proteins that he would have been dead within hours anyway.
But Kenzie continued the compressions. She had committed to the rescue; she had to continue until Fisk was declared dead.
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Kenzie realized suddenly that she had another patient, one who might benefit from her attention, unlike Fisk. She looked around for Zachary as she continued compressions.
“Zachary? Are you okay?”
He was slightly out of her line of sight due to the limited field of vision of the face shield. He moved closer, where she could see him. His hand was still pressed to his side.
“I’m fine,” he assured her.
Kenzie remembered another private investigator, years before, and the stab wound that he had sustained. She remembered the blood pumping out under her hands as she screamed for help. Was history repeating itself?
But what she could see of Zachary’s face through the shield was still a healthy color. As healthy as Zachary’s face ever was. Pale, but not blue or gray. He seemed to be steady on his feet, not weak or staggering.
“You’re sure you’re okay?”
Doctored Death Page 32
