“And spreading it is,” Amar grumbled. “I just received word of a positive culture in Portland, Oregon.”

“Portland?” she said. “Damn it! This thing is chewing up the entire Pacific Northwest.”

“Same old story,” Amar said. “Portland’s first known case was an HIV-positive junkie who died of overwhelming sepsis.”

Lopez’s suspicions rose; yet another infected drug addict hundreds of miles removed from the other cases. “Nelson, we found Angie Fischer,” she said. “The Vancouver index case.”

“And have you connected her to the Seattle outbreak?”

“We’ve got her in quarantine at the Harborcenter Hospital,” Lopez said. “We’ve taken swabs and cultures from her wounds. The microbiologists should be able to tell us how closely her MRGAS strain is genetically related to the Seattle cases.”

“Let’s get back to basics,” Amar said. “Keeping in mind the two- to four-day incubation period, has that girl been in Seattle long enough for the timing to make sense?”

“Yes,” Lopez said. “But—”

“But what, Lina?”

“I think Angie might have met the same dealer who gave Tonya Jackson, the first Seattle case, her suspect drugs.”

“You think?” Amar snapped. “Did Angie tell you she met this dealer?”

“She was wired on drugs when we talked to her. She wasn’t very cooperative.”

“What exactly did she say?” Amar asked.

“She denied meeting him,” Lopez admitted, “but it was the way she denied it! You should have seen how she reacted. I know that—”

“No, Lina!” he said sharply. “Stop trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. We have a perfectly good explanation for the bug’s spread. This jumping distribution from one inner city to another is classic for infections spreading among IV-drug users. You know that.”

“I guess,” she said.

“Okay. We’re agreed, then. You make sure that Oraloxin gets rolled out ASAP,” he said, his tone businesslike. “I’m going to stay in the Bay Area until things get better sorted out.”

After hanging up, she glanced at her watch. She knew she had to hurry to be on time for her breakfast meeting with Kilburn. Jogging home, she considered what to wear. She felt embarrassed to realize she was weighing clothing options as if this were a date rather than a business meeting. Besides, despite Kilburn’s charm and intense blue-gray eyes, she sensed an air of unavailability about him.

Lopez and Rosa headed home. Once there, she refreshed the dog’s water and put out a breakfast bowl for her. Then Lopez clipped her hair back, changed into a black skirt and a pale green top, and headed down to her car. She wavered on whether to lower the vinyl top, concerned how it might affect her hair. “You’re acting like a schoolgirl,” she chided herself in the rearview mirror. Then she reached for the button and lowered the top all the way.