Megan's Cure (28 page)

Chapter 54

THE DOCTORS, NURSES and technicians finally seemed to have run out of new things to do to Megan Kim.
 

The previous day, they had started with the ultrasound of her heart.
 
They let her watch the beating and the ghostly fluid moving around from chamber to chamber while they rubbed the metal head covered with goop around her chest.
 
Then she ran on the treadmill with a dozen wires attached to her to see how her heart behaved.
 
She rode the bicycle with a mask on with the tube attached to see how she used oxygen.
 
She’d blown into various devices.
 
Long, deep and slow.
 
Then fast and explosive.

In the afternoon, she was in the operating room again and one of the doctors put something into her IV line that quickly put her to sleep. They had told her they would insert a tube down her throat and into her lungs.
 
Then they would squirt liquid deep inside her lungs that was then sucked out.
 
The cells that were washed out would be carefully studied.
 
They also planned to take some tissue from her liver and some fluid from around her spine.

When she woke up, her throat was very sore and she had more small band aids on her side.

Now, they said she needed to stay for at least one more day – maybe two – to make sure her liver wasn’t bleeding.

Thankfully, Dr. Choy’s niece, Karen, had continued visiting every afternoon.
 
She brought her magazines.
 
Science articles for kids. Glossy gossip magazines about pop singers and young celebrities.
 
Some Megan knew and other she didn’t.
 
Megan taught her how to play poker.
 
They watched shows together on the Disney Channel.
 
Karen brought an extra pair of headphones so they both could listen to the music she was constantly adding to her iPod.
 

Megan was enjoying Dr. Choy’s daily visits as well.
 
She was the best at explaining everything that was happening to her.
 
She told her that what Megan was doing might help a lot of people in the future.
 
Maybe even millions over a long, long time.
 
And she told Megan that she believed the girl would not have to worry about leukemia any more.
 
Megan smiled for about two hours after she heard that.

When Walter Novak shuffled into her room, it was a surprise.
 
She hadn’t seen him for two days. And even after that short time, he seemed thinner and grayer than the last time she’d seen him.
 
And the words struggled to leave his mouth.
 

“Come…come on now,” he said.
 
“It…it…it’s not safe here anymore.
 
Nuh…not safe.

“I brought…I brought your clothes,” he brandished a small backpack.
 

“Where are we going?” asked Megan.
 
“They said I was supposed to stay here for a while so they could watch for bleeding or something.”

“Th…th…they want you to believe that,” said Novak.
 
“They want to hurt you.
 
But I won’t let them.
 
Nuh…no.
 
No way.
 
I won’t let them.
 
C’mon now.”

So, they walked out of the room and down the hall.

“Ra…radiology,” said Novak to the pair of cops who sat just outside of Megan’s room in the hallway.
 
“De…Detective Connors said you should stay here.
 
Sh..she’ll meet us there.”

On the bottom floor, Novak sent her inside the women’s restroom with the pack full of her clothes.
 
She came out into the lobby happy to be out of the hospital gown.

They crossed the parking lot outside of the hospital and got into the car Novak had driven there.

“So, where are we going?” asked Megan.
 

“Did…did I tell you I own a sailboat?” said Novak.

“No.
 
Really?”

“Yes,” he said.
 
“I…I’ll show you.”

Chapter 55

Cop Killer Suspect Linked to
Medical Tests, Vegas Casino
By News Staff Writers
San Francisco News

Law enforcement officials believe that the killing of a San Francisco police officer at the University of San Francisco Medical Center last week is linked to the poisoning of multiple patients involved in the medical trial of the controversial new cancer drug Roxaten.

Michael Leonard of Waltham, Massachusetts was arrested and charged with the first degree murder of Patrolman Louis Mendoza who was killed while on an off-duty assignment.
 
Mendoza was guarding Megan Kim, the 10-year-old girl who is undergoing tests at the hospital as part of a scientific investigation into Roxaten’s potential as a ground-breaking cancer treatment.

Law enforcement officials who spoke to the News on the condition that they not be identified also said that they are investigating a possible link between Leonard and personnel at the Palladian Casino in Las Vegas.
 

Kim is the only known cancer patient to have received a full course of Roxaten treatment which she was administered while she was critically ill with leukemia more than a year ago. At the time, Roxaten had not been approved for human trials.
 
Rights to the drug were acquired by drug giant Merrick & Merrick but initial medical trials were suspended after one patient died and several showed signs of liver and heart damage, according to the company. Kim has apparently fully recovered from advanced stage leukemia.

The drug company yesterday declined to comment on the report that participants in the Roxaten trials may have been deliberately poisoned during the drug trial.

Merrick & Merrick has terminated Walter Novak, the scientist who developed Roxaten and administered the drug to Kim without authorization.
 
The drug giant acquired Novak’s small drug development company and the rights to Roxaten early last year for $80 million.
 
The drug giant has sued Novak for fraud in connection with the sale of his company and alleges that he has stolen assets of the company and misused its private, proprietary information.
 
Novak denies the allegations.

* * *

ENZO LEE HAD collaborated with the reporter at the News covering the Roxaten story to get the article into the newspaper.
 
It was the solution he had worked out with the editors.
 
They desperately wanted the story – a timely inside scoop that advanced the reporting on both the cop killing and the ongoing saga over Walter Novak and Roxaten.
 
But Lee was clearly a participant in both stories so the newspaper had another experienced journalist vet the reporting with an objective eye.

It was still quiet in the newsroom the afternoon after the story ran.
 
But Lee knew the piece could be a time bomb.
 
In places he could only guess about – perhaps within the inner circles running the Las Vegas casinos, at levels high within the drug industry or even inside the federal NIH bureaucracy – the implications and natural next questions stemming from the article would be crystallizing.
 

Back in his investigative reporting days, he compared the best stories to opening the shades in a dark room full of rats.
 
As the sunlight hit, the rodents would scramble desperately to find the shadows again, crawling over anyone and everyone to save themselves and regain the safety of darkness.

It worked the same way in the human sphere, just slower and with more calculation.
 
How far would the exposure reach?
 
Who needed to be sacrificed to save those higher up the chain?
 
How would this all end and what was the best way to limit the damage?
 
He guessed that Bobbie Connor’s hunch was right.
 
Other shoes would start to drop – soon.

When his telephone rang, it was Roxanne Rosewell on the other end.

“Do you know where Walter is?” she asked, worry clearly in her voice.

“I have no idea,” said Lee.
 
“What happened?”

“I had to leave,” she said.
 
“I had an appointment at work I couldn’t cancel.
 
Oh, God.
 
Oh, God.
 
I shouldn’t have left.”

“Look,” said Lee.
 
“Let’s not panic.
 
Maybe he just went for a walk or a drive.
 
Maybe he just wanted to get out.”

“I hope so,” said Rosewell.
 
“He was in such bad shape.
 
The arrest.
 
The booking.
 
The whole thing.
 
You could see him crumble under the pressure.
 
He was saying things that didn’t make sense.
 
He was a mess, Enzo.
 
I’m worried.”

“Okay,” said Lee.
 
“How long has he been gone?”

“Let’s see,” said Rosewell.
 
“I guess I left about four hours ago.”

“Okay.
 
Why don’t we give him until dinner time?” said Lee. “Take a few minutes and think about where he might have gone.
 
Make sure he didn’t leave a note somewhere.
 
The last thing we want to do is start a police or public search for him if we don’t need it.
 
That just feeds into what Merrick & Merrick is trying to do to him – make him out as crazy, a criminal or both.”

“Okay,” said Rosewell.
 
“Let me go over things here and think of where he might have gone.
 
I’ll check back with you.”

Ten minutes after Rosewell hung up, Lee’s phone rang again.
 
This time it was Ming Wah Choy.

“Megan’s gone,” said Choy.
 

“What happened?” said Lee.
 
“Wait.
 
Let me guess. Walter?”

“Yes,” said Choy.
 
“He lied to the officers about where he was taking her.
 
She wasn’t released.
 
They were keeping her here for at least another day.”

“All right,” said Lee.
 
“Look.
 
The thing he cares about the most is keeping Megan safe. I can’t imagine him doing anything deliberately to endanger her. Roxanne is trying to piece together where he may have gone.
 
Let’s let her do that.”

After he hung up the phone, Lee leaned back and stared out the bank of windows at the end of the newsroom.
 
This was just what they didn’t need – to have the next chapter in this saga be a manhunt for Walter Novak. They needed to avoid that if at all possible.
 
He could imagine the headline: “Mad Scientist on the Loose.”
 
It would be an utter disaster.

When the telephone rang again, Lee answered quickly.
 
It was Rosewell.

“There are some things missing,” she said. “His big raincoat.
 
He had it on his bed this morning.
 
I didn’t think anything about it.
 
Some special shoes.
 
And the other set of keys. They’re for his boat.
 
It’s all for his boat.”

“His what?” said Lee.

“The sailboat,” said Rosewell.
 
“It was his one indulgence.
 
After the sale he bought a used sailboat and got someone to teach him how to sail it.
 
It’s at the San Francisco Yacht Club. It’s called the
Oblique
.”