The Deadliest Strain

Chapter Eighteen

Kathy Mittman, the office manager of the law firm Crandel and Smith, reached for the phone when her line buzzed at 8:59 a.m. It was the receptionist who answered external phone calls.

"Cathy, do you know where Leo might be? I have his girlfriend on the line, and she doesn't want to be put through to the voice mail."

Hired right out of Harvard Law School and moving quickly along the fast track, Leo Bolender was a newly made partner, working in the real estate group.

"I don't know where he is. But why don't you put her through to me?"

Cathy had only met Kimberly Cage a couple of times, at office parties. She worked in sales… some kind of rep. Cathy couldn't exactly remember. She seemed like a nice enough person, and very pretty. The two of them looked really cute together.

"Good morning, Kimberly."

"Cathy! Thank you for taking my call," the young woman said, sounding agitated. "By any chance, have you seen Leo this morning?"

Cathy glanced toward the young man's office. "Well, I know he's here. I can see his briefcase and suit jacket. And this morning when I came in, his office light was on. I haven't seen him personally, though."

"Oh, thank God," the young woman blurted, clearly relieved. "I've been so worried about him "

"Worried?"

"I'm in Seattle this week. But last night I couldn't get him at home. And I tried his cell, too, but he didn't answer it. I left half a dozen messages on his office line, too. I know he's been busy with the Dubai resort negotiations…."

Cathy put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered thank you to one of the secretaries for bringing her a cup of coffee.

"And when I talked to him yesterday morning," Kim continued, "he said he wasn't feeling well at all. He was wondering if he should switch medicines."

Cathy logged on to her computer and checked Leo's appointment schedule. As the office manager, she had access to all the partners' appointment calendars, just as her phone could check their voice mail and pick up their lines.

"These young bucks just don't know how to take care of their health, do they?" she said brightly.

"I told him he should take the time and see a doctor. Do you know if he went yesterday? He's been fighting whatever it is he's got for two weeks now."

Leo's first meeting of the day wasn't until eleven. She noticed that there were eight messages left on his phone line. He had to be around.

"I don't think so, hon. But I told him the same thing. He was coughing and hacking all over us yesterday."

Cathy returned the wave of one of the summer interns as he passed by her desk. She watched the young man go down the hall toward the restroom. Dardo Saldano was going to be a senior at Georgetown this year. This was his second summer of working at their office, and Cathy really liked the young man.

"Well, I'm not waiting for him anymore. I don't want him to go through the entire weekend feeling miserable," Kimberly said. "Will you please tell him that I've made an appointment with—"

Someone was shouting.

"Hold on a sec, would you?" Cathy took the phone away from her ear and stood up. Everyone else in their section of the office was looking in the same direction.

The bathroom door banged open.

"Call 911!" the intern called out, staggering out of the bathroom.

He was as white as the tiled ceiling.

"Call 911," he croaked again before bending over and throwing up into one of the office plants.

Cathy dropped the phone and ran toward Dardo.

"Do it," she shouted to one of the other assistants who was staring in disbelief a couple of steps away from the sick young man.

She crouched next to Dardo. He was gasping for air, crying at the same time.

"Get me some towels," she ordered a young lawyer who'd just arrived. She was standing with her briefcase in hand, watching.

"Towels?"

"In the bathroom," Cathy said. "There's a supply closet in there."

"No!" Dardo shook his head. "Don't go in there."

It was too late. The young woman had opened the door. "Oh, my God! What's that smell?"

When the young lawyer started screaming, she was loud enough to let everyone from here to the Capitol Building know the problem wasn't with the sick intern at their feet. Something else was lying on the floor in that bathroom.