Jack tossed aside the textbook on infectious disease that he’d gotten from the library and cursed loudly. He was trying to read more about anthrax. The case of Jason Papparis was still bothering him, but he found concentrating difficult. He swung around and eyed Chet’s empty chair, wondering where his officemate was. Jack was eager to relate his most recent experience confirming his suspicion that women were impossible.

During the night, Jack had awakened to agonize over letting Laurie down by not being more positive about her new boyfriend. Although Jack was well aware that jealousy played a role in his evaluation of the man, he still felt there was something about the individual that he legitimately didn’t care for. As he’d implied to Lou, it involved the overly gallant gesture of sweeping Laurie off to Paris for the weekend. To Jack such behavior smacked of a kind of bribery. In Jack’s experience such men invariably resorted to overt male chauvinism once a relationship was established and the woman was emotionally committed.

Around four o’clock in the morning, Jack decided he’d eat humble pie. Even though it irked him, he resolved to go the whole nine yards and apologize. Then he’d compliment Paul in some way that he’d figure out on the spur of the moment. The decision had taken a number of hours. What had tipped the balance was Jack’s realization of how important Laurie’s friendship was to him.

But things had hardly gone the way Jack envisioned. After doing what he’d resolved to do, Laurie barely accepted his apology before walking off. All morning she’d gone out of her way to avoid him, much less voice any kind of appreciation of his gesture. Jack felt damned either way. She’d been mad because he’d not been complimentary about Paul and now she was mad because he had been. Jack shook his head. He didn’t know what more he could do.

Twisting around in his chair again, Jack reached for his phone. If he couldn’t read about anthrax, at least he could work the phone. Over the previous hour he’d called a half dozen New York hospitals to talk with chief residents in infectious disease or, if the hospital didn’t have one, the chief resident in internal medicine.

When he’d gotten the appropriate individual on the phone, he outlined the case of inhalational anthrax that had come from the Bronx General Hospital and asked if there were any cases in their hospital that might be anthrax. The responses had been uniformly negative, but at least Jack felt he was planting the seed of suspicion with the right people. In that way, if a case did come in or if they had a case undiagnosed, they’d at least think about it. Anthrax was never high on any New York hospital house staff’s differential diagnosis list.