Critical by Robin Cook Page B

office later and got the names of the cases you’ve mentioned?”
    â€œNot at all! I might still have a couple of the case files. You can also borrow the notes I made about CA-MRSA if you’d like. And you can talk with Kevin. Back when we were working on this, I think he also called over to one of the involved hospitals, but I don’t remember if he told me what he learned.”
    After Arnold had stepped back to his table, Laurie looked over at Marvin, who had patiently waited through the whole conversation. “That was incredible,” she said.
    â€œWhat, that he’s sweet on you?”
    â€œNo, silly! What he said. He’s not sweet on me!”
    â€œThat’s not the chatter around the morgue. It’s generally accepted both Southgate and Besserman would throw themselves in front of a subway train for you.”
    â€œNonsense,” Laurie said, although hearing she was even remotely the source of gossip made her uneasy. She never liked being the center of attention, which was why she had such trouble talking in front of a group.
    By the time Laurie had finished with Jeffries, she’d found far more pathology than she had expected. Every organ was grossly involved with obvious destructive infection or at least inflammatory swelling. Within the heart, she found beginning infectious vegetations on the valves. In the liver, there were incipient abscesses, as well as in the brain and kidneys, suggesting the victim had had a massive bacteremia. There were even ulcers in the gut, attesting to the ease with which the bacteria spread.
    â€œHow long to the next case?” Laurie asked, as she and Marvin finished suturing the giant autopsy incision encompassing both David Jeffries’s chest and abdomen.
    â€œAs little time or as much time as you’d like,” Marvin said. “If you want a coffee break, I’ll stretch it out.”
    â€œActually, if you don’t mind, I’ll call you when I want to do it. Among other things, I want to see if Cheryl Myers is here and catch her before she goes out on a case.”
    â€œThen I’ll take my time,” Marvin said. “Give me a call when you want to start.”
    â€œMake sure you leave a note for whoever releases Jeffries’s body to inform the funeral home that a serious infection is involved and precautions should be taken.”
    On her way out of the autopsy room, Laurie briefly stopped at Jack’s table.
    â€œAh! The doomsayer!” Jacked quipped at recognizing her. “Forsooth, Vinnie! Take heed! She’s surely here to terrify us with the grisly horrors of her nosocomial surgical-site infection case.”
    Despite Vinnie’s reflective face mask, she could see him roll his eyes. She felt similarly. On occasion his creative but oft irreverent black humor was not amusing. After being married to him for almost a year, she now saw such behavior as defensive and a way to avoid what he was really thinking.
    â€œI do have to talk with you about my case,” Laurie admitted. “There are some additional facts you should know.”
    â€œHow could I have guessed?” Jack questioned mockingly.
    â€œBut it can wait until you are more receptive.”
    â€œPraise be to the Lord.”
    â€œWhere’s Lou?”
    â€œHe literally fell into a deep sleep leaning against the autopsy table between cases. I thought it best he head home, lest one of the mortuary techs mistake him for a corpse.”
    â€œWhich case are you doing now?” Laurie asked, to change the subject.
    â€œSara Barlow, and it’s a hell of a lot more interesting than the John Doe floater.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œSee the obvious bruises on the face and the upper arms. Obviously, she’d been beat up a lot over time, but do you think any of them could have been fatal, as the police assumed?”
    â€œProbably not, but were there any on the anterior chest?” Laurie asked. She