“By all rights, I should,” Teal said. “But you’ve put me in an untenable position. If I write anything in her chart, including the order to discontinue the medication, then I expose myself legally.”

“God forbid,” Kilburn said sarcastically, regretting the remark as soon as he uttered it.

Teal grunted indignantly.

“Morgan, I’m sorry,” Kilburn said. “I didn’t do this to inconvenience you or disrupt your study. I did what I thought I had to do for my patient. For my own conscience.”

Teal was silent for several moments. “It still doesn’t excuse your actions, Graham.”

“I guess not.”

Drained, Kilburn hung up the phone. He stood motionless in his dining room, considering the implications of Teal’s call. Only Matt’s voice brought him back to the moment. “Uncle Graham, we’re going to be late for school!”

Kilburn snapped into motion. He gathered Matt and Shayna and shepherded them out to his Jeep. Barely able to focus on the kids’ conversation, which mainly centered on Robby Markum and Shayna’s dissatisfaction with her hairdo, he dropped the children off in front of the school. With a quick peck on Shayna’s cheek and a high-five for Matt, he climbed back into his car and headed for the hospital.

Halfway there, his cell phone rang. He felt a sudden rush of foreboding, concerned it might be the hospital with bad news about Parminder Singh. He located the phone in his jacket pocket and brought it to his car. “Hello,” he said.

“Dr. Graham Kilburn?” the woman asked.

“Yup.”

“It’s Dr. Lina Lopez calling from Seattle. I’m with the CDC—”

“Of course, Lina,” Kilburn interrupted. “You’re an EIS officer. I’m sorry. I was planning to get back to you this morning.”

“No worries.” Lopez said warmly. “I spoke to Louise. She told me how thin you’re stretched these days.”

“God knows what else she must have told you,” Kilburn sighed.

“Plenty.” Lopez laughed. “She’s an interesting woman.”

“One way of looking at it. But I would be lost without her.” He cleared his throat. “What’s going on in Seattle?”

Lopez told him what she knew of the confirmed and suspected cases in her region. “Our index case for the first outbreak, anyway, was an HIV-positive drug abuser.”

“Was?”

“She died of MRGAS pneumonia,” Lopez said. “I understand your known index case fits the same profile.”

“Very much so,” Kilburn said. “In fact, Dr. Lopez, I think I might know the connection between our outbreaks.”

“You mean the pusher?” Lopez said excitedly.

“What pusher?”

Lopez gave him the quick lowdown on the enigmatic drug dealer Tonya Jackson had described to Marilyn Carlyle.

When she finished, Kilburn said, “I don’t know anything about that drug dealer.”

“Then what connection are you talking about?” She sounded disappointed.

“If I have my chronology straight, our first case predates yours by three or four days.”

“And?” she said skeptically.