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.There’s a fair bit of it, so there’s no panic to get into print.’‘Really.’ She slowed her walk almost to a stop so he had to too.‘I wouldn’t mind reading some of those.’‘They’re not very good,’ he said lightly.‘I was just desperate to get myself into a journal of record.But you can see them if you like.I’ll dig some out for you.’What she did then she was never fully to understand, even long afterwards, when the whole business had been sorted out and explained.It was to mystify her for the rest of her professional life.She opened her mouth and heard words coming out of it and was appalled at herself as she said them.‘Zack, have you had anything to do with the things that have been happening to Sheila?’He stopped as though he’d hit a glass wall.‘What did you say?’‘I think you heard,’ she said, unable to repeat the words.What have you done, she was shrieking at herself inside her head.You stupid, crazy — What have you done?He stared at her, the bewilderment on his face plain; he was completely thrown by her question.There was no hint of defensiveness, not a scintilla of calculation there that she could see.He was completely and utterly amazed.‘I — What?’ He swallowed.‘That is one hell of a question, lady! How do you mean, have I had anything to do with it? Do you mean did I do them? Did I put nicotine in chocolates, is that what you’re asking? Or what? I just —’She tried to keep her voice steady.‘I had to ask.It’s all so — There are things you do that worry me.You hang around me and make a fuss of me and come on to me like — well, you know you do.And, no, don’t say anything.Hear me out.You always seem to be where the trouble is.You were in the car park when Sheila’s car went up; you were in the ward when the chocolate thing happened; you’ve been over to my lab and not many non-path, people do that and — and now, you’re leaning on me so much to help with this research.I added it all up together and came to —’‘Some crazy total! Now listen here — oh, shit’ The door of the examination room, now just fifteen feet away, had opened, and Josey had put his head out curiously.‘We’ll be there in a moment, Josey.I have to explain things to the doctor here.Just you wait there and behave yourself.’Josey looked a little hurt at the suggestion he’d ever misbehave, but withdrew his head and closed the door.Zack turned so that he was standing right in front of her and took her by the shoulders.‘OK.You’ve been straight with me.Amazingly straight, for God’s sake! I feel like I’ve been head-butted.Yes, I have been coming on to you.You’re an attractive woman.’ He let go of her shoulders then and took a step back.‘But that’s not the only reason I’ve been hanging around you.Not the only reason I’ve tried so hard to get you involved with my research.And I suppose not the only reason you’re here now.’‘Well, that’s something to know at any rate,’ she said a little unsteadily, pushing her hands deep into her white coat pockets to hide the tremor that had suddenly afflicted them.As though I have Parkinson’s, she thought with a sudden wild-ness.Stupid, crazy woman you are, coming out with that stuff — what possessed you?‘I’ll be as direct with you and hope it doesn’t turn you right off me.Right.You’re a pathologist.You have control of a large laboratory in which a great deal of investigative work is done.I’m scrabbling for every last cent I can get to do research that is the most important thing in my whole life, and I have to get what I can where I can get it.One thing that eats up a great chunk of my budget is pathology.If I can get you interested and involved enough, maybe I can persuade you to do some of my path, work for me and lose the bills.OK? I don’t want a joint project, so I’m not prepared to offer you equal billing on this if I pull it off.I tell you frankly that if I succeed, I stand to make a lot of money.I’ll patent anything I develop so that I can get my share and the goddamn pharmaceutical company doesn’t get the lot.It’s my research and no one, but no one, is going to get a glimmer of credit or cash but me.I don’t want a shared Nobel.I want a whole one all to myself.I have been coming on to you, yeah, in an effort to get what I want on my terms.It’s nice you’re an attractive woman, but that’s just bunce, frankly.Simple profit.What this is really down to is money.You’ve got something I want, and I have inadequate resources, so I’ve been trying to con them out of you.But that is as far as my vice goes.I am not into booby-trapping cars or poisoning candy or hurting people in any way whatsoever.So now you have it.’There was a long pause and then she said, ‘I see.’ She was amazed at how steady her voice was.He shook his head at her, with an almost comic air of exasperation.‘Apart from anything else, lady, you are known all over the hospital as a.close friend of the police.Am I likely to mess with something illegal involving you? Do me a favour.All I want to do is get you to do some research work for me for nothing.It’s no crime.’‘In the new NHS it is.’ She managed a smile.‘Every single item used has to be budgeted for and listed and audited and Christ knows what else.So getting path, work done for you and not billing your department for it the way I should’d be like stealing from the NHS.A crime in anyone’s book.’‘Jesus!’ He sounded disgusted.‘What is going on here? People who work in hospitals have always had their perks from it! God knows they don’t get as much as they should in hard cash! That’s why I never heard of any nurses buying things like — like cotton wool or cough drops.There are things you take from the hospital that everyone takes and if you get away with it, good luck to you.That’s as true in Canada as it is here — our hospitals are State-owned too, remember — and I cannot believe you’re serious if you say you’re going to shop me for —’‘Who said anything about that?’ she said mildly ‘I was just saying that trying to get expensive path, work done for nothing is stealing.And yeah.I agree with you.It’s been done in hospitals since they were invented.And I’m not about to change the world on that score.I just wish you’d asked me straight out, is all, instead of going in for all this flirty stuff.’‘If I had, would you have agreed?’She hesitated.‘Possibly not.’‘I’m not crazy then.I knew you wouldn’t, so I tried it the old-fashioned way, with a bit of soft soap aimed at flattering a female complexion.’ He laughed, his voice sounding more like dark treacle toffee than it ever had.‘And the fact that you’re such a shit-hot feminist made it more fun.’‘Hey, I am not shit hot! I mean, I don’t go around shouting my head off about feminism.I just take it for granted that —’‘That you’re as good as the next guy.So you are.But you’re also a female and it was fun to see if I could get what I wanted and — well …’‘Get me too,’ she finished for him.‘Yup.And let me remind you, if I was up to some sort of villainy would I tangle with a woman who hangs around the goddamn police as much as you do? I ask you!’She gazed at him standing there, he too with his hands deep in his pockets, and wanted to laugh.She’d been crazy to ask him, she knew, but now she was glad she had.It was like watching a thick fog roll back to leave the air and the view crystal clear.He seemed to see the relief in her face because he smiled back at her even more widely [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]