I called Brigg – ‘Get onto Gibb and tell him I’m as sure as I can be that the source is Newton-on-Exe in Devon. If it isn’t, it’ll be somewhere nearby.’
‘Will do,’ he said, and rang off.
One of the spouses, a man, was shouting at Anne’s assistant nurse, so I went over.
‘I’m Dr Smith,’ I said firmly. ‘If you’ll calm down a minute, I’ll explain exactly what the situation is…’ It seemed to do the trick and I gave him the same story about a virus infection as before. ‘We’ll be keeping you here just as a precaution,’ I finished.
‘What virus infection exactly?’ he demanded.
‘We’re not sure yet, we think one of the tropical fever viruses,’ I told him, not quite a lie.
‘They’re pretty serious, aren’t they?’
‘They can be. Fortunately, we’ve every reason to hope we’ve got these in time. Tell me, does your wife use the County Stores in Newton?’
He nodded. ‘All the time.’
I turned to the other man, who said, ‘Quite a lot.’
And the woman – ‘Sometimes.’
‘Thanks, that’s a great help. Now if you’d like to go with the nurse, I can go back to them.’
They reluctantly followed her to another side room. Roland called me over…
‘The girl’s in a very bad way,’ he said in a low voice. ‘Fulminant, I think.’
‘She works in the County Stores, I think that’s where it started.’
‘She may not last the night,’ he said.
‘Do what you can. Has Tim done the samples on the others?’
‘He’s already gone off with them –’
My phone went again – Brigg…
‘He’s on his way, by helicopter,’ he said. ‘He says he needs to talk to you, can you come here?’
‘Not at the moment, it’s going mad here. What does he want?’
‘To ask what you know about Newton-on-Exe – where to land, and whether it’s feasible to cordon it off.’
I thought quickly. ‘There’s a village green in the middle that’ll take a helicopter.’
‘A Chinook?’
‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Yes, I’m sure. As for cordoning off the village, it’s bounded on two sides by the river…’
‘Yes, I’m looking at it now on the map… not too many roads going out either… D’you think it’s worth cordoning?’
‘Oh definitely, if it’s the source,’ I said, then told him about the County Stores and the girl who’d worked there.
‘That’s got to be it, hasn’t it?’ he said. ‘So why the hell didn’t my blokes spot it? I’ll get on to them later. So what shall I tell Gibb?’
I made my decision. ‘Tell him I’m going there myself now and I’ll meet him at the green. We can talk then.’
‘OK … he’ll be there in a little over an hour – can you do it by then?’
‘I think so…’
‘All right, I’ll pass it on. You’d better get going –’
‘Wait,’ I said, ‘Could you put me through to the desk sergeant, please?’
‘OK.’ There was a series of clicks, then –
‘Desk Sergeant, how can I help you?’
I told him who I was – ‘Could you page PC Gannon as a matter of urgency, please? Is he in the station at the moment?’
‘I’ll check, hold on…’
Should have called him earlier, I thought… Marty Gannon was the copper enlisted to help us with persuading reluctant contacts…
‘PC Gannon, how can I help you, Doc?’
I quickly explained.
‘Where d’you want me?’
‘Can you get over to Newton-on-Exe, now…’ I told him about the chopper and asked him to make sure the green was clear… ‘I’ll join you there as soon as I can.’
I rang off and went to look for Anne. She’d just come out of the second side room and was trying to calm the man, who’d followed her out…
‘What’s the problem now?’ I said to him.
‘I still don’t understand what’s going on,’ he blustered, ‘I want to know what’s wrong with my wife…’
‘As I told you, she’s got a virus infection. She’s in the best place she possibly can be for help, and you can best help her, and us, by cooperating. Please…’ I finished.
He gave a short nod.
‘We’ll tell you more as soon as we can,’ I told him. I patted him on the shoulder and he went back into the side room. I said to Anne, ‘We need to get over to Newton – have you got a list of all the contacts?’
She nodded and glanced at it. ‘Twelve… thirteen … I can’t swear it’s complete.’
‘It’ll do for now. Have they got enough staff here to cope? I’d like to take three with us…’
She hesitated, then - ‘Two, max,’ she said.
I nodded. ‘All right, it’ll have to do.’
‘Give me five minutes,’ she said.
‘No more, please. We’ve got to meet a helicopter.’
She hurried off. I leaned against the side bench and thought… What did we need to take? Red and Green bags… Vaccine, may as well take a boxful… Gowns, gloves…
I went to find Roland.
‘In the store,’ he said, pointing. ‘It’s all there.’
I quickly told him what I was doing, warned him about the awkward husband and said I’d be in touch as soon as I could.
As though on impulse, he held out a hand. ‘You’re doing all right,’ he said.
I grinned and took it. ‘You too. See you later.’
Anne came over with two of her staff. ‘Tom and Emily,’ she said.
I nodded to them, said, ‘In here,’ and took them to the stores. They grabbed the bags while I filled another with vaccine and instruments, then we hurried off.
It wasn’t until we’d loaded the car that I had a thought –
‘Anne, could you drive? I need to make a call.’
‘I don’t think my insurance covers it…’
‘Mine does,’ Tom said. ‘If that’s all right with you.’
I nodded and handed him the keys. Winced as he mashed the gears and stalled.
‘Sorry,’ he said as he restarted.
Thereafter, he seemed to get the hang of it. I found my phone, called Fenella and brought her up to date.
‘D’you think you could get two of the nurses coming here to divert to Newton-on-Exe?’ I asked her.
‘They’ll be well on their way by now,’ she said doubtfully. ‘Will they know how to get there?’
‘Come off the M5 at Tiverton and take the Exe Valley road from there. It’s well signposted. Oh,’ I added, ‘Make it the infection control nurses if possible, please.’
She said she’d do what she could and rang off. I explained to the others why we needed at least one more nurse to set up a vaccination chain, although of course Anne already knew that.
‘There are three of us already,’ said Tom, ‘isn’t that enough?’
‘I’ll need Anne to come with me to check the contacts,’ I said. ‘And we ought to have at least one spare.’
The way it’s usually done is for one nurse to clean the arms and put on vaccine, while the next needles it in and a third applies a dressing.
‘Have either of you needled vaccine before?’ I asked.
They both shook their heads.
‘Well let’s hope one of the others gets there.’
We had the answer to that when Fenella rang five minutes later. By now we were on the Exe Valley road ourselves...
‘Clare Searle thinks she can be there in half an hour,’ she told me. ‘She’s on her way from Barnstable.’
‘Anyone else?’
‘Brendon’s coming from Plymouth and says he’ll be there in under an hour.’
‘That should do it. Thanks Fenella.’
She asked if I wanted people from other areas and I said it would be a good idea to put them on alert. We talked for a few more minutes, then Tom said we wer
e nearly there and asked exactly where I wanted him to go.
‘Just keep following this road through the village till we get to the green,’ I said.
Newton-on-Exe is centred round its green. From there, one road goes down to the river and over a bridge, while another follows the Exe east, and then north. Whoever first planned the village chose the site well. The river borders it on two sides and it’s on a sort of table about fifty feet above the river, so it doesn’t flood – which is why it could be fairly easily cordoned.
When we reached the green, Marty Gannon was already there.
‘I’ve cleared the kids off and put some yellow tape around,’ he said. ‘When’s this chopper supposed to arrive?’
I looked at my watch – ‘Any minute now. Any problems?’
‘The kids didn’t think much of it, as you can see.’ He indicated a row of small, disgruntled faces staring at us from over the tape.
‘That’ll change when they see the chopper,’ I said. ‘Let’s hope they don’t get in the way.’
I’d just finished introducing him to the others when we heard the unmistakable whopwhop of a helicopter in the distance.
We waited. Marty went and shooed away some boys who’d crossed the tape for a better look. Then Tom said,
‘Wow, a Chinook, no less,’ as the black shape like pair of spiders mating came over the trees. It hovered over the green for a moment before settling like thistledown on the grass. As the rotors slowed, a door opened in the side and the familiar form of Gibb emerged and ran half crouching towards us.
‘Well done,’ he said, enthusiastically pumping my hand.
Chapter 32
I introduced him and he shook hands with everyone, his eyes twinkling in his genial round face. He turned back to me –
‘Have you found somewhere to set up yet?’
‘I’m hoping the village hall.’
‘Big enough for both of us, d’you think?’
‘I should think so,’ I said, grinning back, ‘I was about to go and check.’
The rotors had come to a stop now, a large door opened at the back and a Land Rover cautiously nosed its way out, followed by twenty five or so troops. A small crowd of villagers had gathered and one of them, a large, rather self-important man in a dark suit came over to us.
‘What’s going on?’ he demanded – not altogether unreasonably, I supposed.
Gibb introduced himself. ‘As soon as we’ve deployed, I’ll explain everything to you.’
‘Deployed? Where – ?’
‘Until then, I’d be so grateful if you’d let me see to my men. Thank you.’
With that, he strode off to the waiting soldiers. Dark suit turned to me –
‘Can you tell me what’s going on?’
I didn’t want to do that, at least not until Gibb had his men deployed, but I had to say something…
‘We think a public health problem may have arisen here, so to be on the safe side, we’ve asked the army to help us.’
‘And you are?’
I’ve always found that particular question, put in that particular tone, particularly irritating…
‘Dr Smith, Public Health Service. And you?’
‘Neil Struthers, Chairman of the Parish Council here. What public health problem may have arisen?’
It came to me through my irritation that he could probably make trouble if he wanted, so affixing a more respectful mien to my face, I said,
‘I do appreciate your concern, sir – in fact, I think we may need the help of someone in your position with this…’
That was more like it – his face relaxed into its (probably) habitual superciliousness.
‘In what way?’
‘Your local knowledge, for a start. If you could get the Village Hall unlocked, and cleared if necessary, I’d be very grateful. Major Gibb and I will join you as soon as possible and explain exactly what the situation is.’
He took a breath as though considering it… ‘Very well. I’ll do that now, Dr Smith, and see you in what – ten minutes?’
I nodded.
As he went off, I hurried over to Gibb and explained… ‘So if you could come up to the hall as soon as you can, we’ll find some way of neutralising him. He may even come in useful.’
Gibb chuckled. ‘Now that would be an inspired piece of management.’
‘How’re you doing?’ I asked.
‘Oh, getting there.’ He nodded at the Land Rover as it departed with a full load of soldiers. ‘They’re setting up road blocks here, here and here –’ he showed me on the map – ‘While the rest’ll see to the tracks and footpaths and so on.’
‘Join me as soon as you can,’ I said. He grinned again and clapped me on the shoulder.
I went back to the car and we drove round to the hall. Struthers was already there, shepherding a group of women out. They all looked pretty fed up. I asked the others to unload the equipment and then joined him.
‘The Pilates group,’ he said, adding, ‘Fortunately.’ He went on, ‘It would’ve been a different matter if it had been the mother and baby group – them, you don’t mess with.’
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
He assured the group leader she’d get her money back, then we went inside. There was a main hall that would do for vaccinating and several smaller rooms that should be OK for Gibb, and also for any people we thought should be isolated. Struthers showed me where benches and chairs were stored.
‘Anyone else due to use it?’ I asked.
‘A couple more groups this evening,’ he said. ‘I’ll phone and put them off, maybe stick a notice on the door as well. Now, you were going to tell me what this is all about…’
I explained how several people from the area had been admitted to hospital with a mysterious virus infection, and how we thought the source of it must be Newton-on-Exe.
‘What virus infection exactly?’ he asked.
‘We’re not absolutely certain yet,’ I hedged – then through the window, I saw Gibb making his way to the entrance.
I beckoned him and we waited till he joined us.
‘All done?’ I asked him.
He nodded and I turned back to Struthers. ‘It resembles smallpox,’ I said, ‘although until we - ‘
‘Smallpox! I thought that was eradicated years ago…’
‘So did we,’ I said drily, ‘but apparently not. That’s why, as a temporary measure, Major Gibb has set up road blocks around the village.’
It took a moment to sink in, then – ‘But you can’t… what about people coming home from work…?’
Gibb said, ‘We’re more interested in preventing people from leaving than coming in.’
‘Until we’ve got things under control, we have to do this,’ I said. ‘It would only take one infected person to go to another town and it could start all over again there.’
He said in a milder tone, ‘You realise that could have happened already?’
‘Indeed. That’s why we’re here, not just to vaccinate everyone, but to trace all the contacts – wherever they are.’
I left him with Gibb to explain how the roadblocks would work and went to look for Anne. She was with Clare Searle, who’d just arrived.
‘Good to see you, Clare’ I said.
‘I can’t believe it’s actually happening…’
‘I’m still having trouble,’ I said.
I introduced her to Emily and Tom and asked her to set up a vaccination chain with them.
‘We’d better get over to the County Stores,’ I said to Anne.
She nodded. ‘Shall we take Marty Gannon?’
I asked where he was and she said she’d last seen him keeping the kids away from the helicopter.
I had a thought. ‘Let’s take him,’ I said, nodding at Struthers. ‘He might be more useful, since they know him.’
‘Shouldn’t we vaccinate him first?’
‘Good idea – can you do it now?’
While she led him away, I told
Gibb what we were doing. ‘Do your men know to let the ambulances in? I’m phoning for a couple now.’ Should have done it earlier… ‘And there’ll be more people coming to help…’
‘As I said to our friend, we’re more concerned with stopping people leaving than coming in.’
We talked for a few minutes about who’d be allowed in or out, then Anne reappeared with an ashen looking Struthers.
‘Never could abide needles,’ he mumbled.
Becoming more human by the minute...
‘Are you OK to come with us?’ I asked.
He nodded and we went out to the car.
The County Stores was a newish building on the outskirts of the village, and being up-market, was architecturally less offensive than most.
Struthers, recovered by now, took us to the manager. I asked her if she’d had any staff go off sick lately.
‘Well yes, three of us have just gone down with ‘flu, it’s put us under a lot of pressure.’
I asked for their names, addresses and work shift patterns, and a list of all the store’s staff. After she’d done that, I told her we were going to have to close the store and seal it up.
‘But why…?’
I gave her the story of the mysterious viral infection… ‘Some of you may have to go to hospital to be checked,’ I said, ‘but before that, you all need to go to the Village Hall, now, to be vaccinated. Please.’
Looking utterly bewildered, she came with us to tell the rest of the staff, while Struthers persuaded the handful of customers to do likewise.
After they’d gone, I went with the manager as she locked all the entrances, then gave me the keys.
‘What am I going to tell Head Office?’ she asked me, still very disorientated.
‘Give me their number and I’ll make sure they’re told.’
She found it for me, then took herself off to the Village Hall. I phoned Fenella and asked her to deal with it, then Anne and I sealed the building with yellow warning tape. It read: Danger of Infection – Keep Out!
I said, ‘My worry is that some idiot’s going to ignore this and try and do a bit of looting.’
‘Get Marty onto it,’ she said.
We found Struthers waiting by the car and drove to the nearest of the addresses. A worried looking man let us in.
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