Pia continued her search. George couldn’t see the screen from his vantage point, but he could see the light flickering on Pia’s face as page after page flashed by. Suddenly there was a steady light, and Pia leaned forward in her chair. “Yeah, here we are. Hair loss and stress. Yup, I was right.” Pia read out loud: “‘Unless the stressed patient is pulling his own hair out, severe stress merely changes the hair follicle from an active state to a resting state. The hair doesn’t fall out immediately but rather over a period of months.’ ”

Pia looked over at George. “Clearly Springer’s suggestion wasn’t much better than De Silva’s.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“Since I’ve never heard of salmonella causing hair loss, we have to think of something else to explain it, bringing us back to the second-agent idea, like another bacteria or a virus. But if there was another microbe involved, it would have to be one whose clinical symptoms mimic typhoid fever because all the other symptoms were consistent with typhoid fever. Are you following me?”

“I think so.”

“I’m saying that we have to come up with an agent that mimics typhoid fever symptomatically but which also causes hair loss and can kill in hours in the presence of chloramphenicol and possibly ceftriaxone. Of course, without access to the charts, I can’t be sure they ever got the ceftriaxone, but for the sake of argument, let’s assume they did.”

“You know what I wish?” Pia said after a few minutes of silence. “I wish that we examined Yamamoto as well as Rothman. Just to be sure he was suffering from the same signs and symptoms.”

“Maybe we can ask Dr. De Silva’s opinion.”

“I don’t think she’s going to want to hear from me. Let’s keep going.”

Pia looked up at the corkboard on the wall behind George’s desk. A business card for a taxi service was tacked next to a picture of George’s mother and grandmother. There was a postcard from Hungary alongside it. Suddenly Pia snapped around again.

“What are the usual causes of hair loss besides what I’ve mentioned?”

“This sounds like internal medicine rounds, which I’d like to forget. That was one venue where I did not shine in the slightest.”

“Come on,” Pia said. “What causes hair loss?”

“Er, hormonal changes, alopecia areata, stress like you said.” Pia motioned for George to come up with more. He thought harder.

“Dermatological diseases of the scalp, particularly cicatricial diseases. Wow, that’s a good one. That’s the kind of response that would have gotten me kudos on rounds. Trouble is I always choked up.”

“What else?” Pia commanded. She waved her hand, indicating she wanted more.

“Okay, certain drugs.”