Quarantine Read online

  “This building was built right after the hospital was completed,” Megan said. “This was the first doctor’s office on the complex. Rumor says there was a tunnel underneath this building that leads to the hospital, so the doctors could get back and forth without having to walk outside.”

  “Interesting,” Caitlyn said. “I wonder if those tunnels are still there.”

  Megan shook her head. “It supposedly caved in when they built more offices, and they closed it off. If it’s there, it’s sealed off. Anyway, it wouldn’t lead out; it would lead to the hospital. That’s worse than being stuck here.”

  “I’m just looking for options,” Caitlyn mumbled. “I want to trust that they’ll let us out of here by the end of the day, but I don’t like being trapped. I want to be out now.”

  “Me too.” Megan leaned back in her chair.

  Caitlyn patted her large sweater pocket. “I accidentally left my phone in my desk when I left yesterday. Since the cops didn’t check my office, I didn’t volunteer it. If they don’t let us out of here on time, I’ll call Jared and your parents to let them know what’s going on.” She looked out the large window behind Megan, at the hospital. “I’ll try to E-mail Shelly at the hospital too, to find out what’s going on over there. I ran into her at the grocery store yesterday, and she said she was on duty today. She has a phone just like mine. I hope she held on to it.” Shelly was an old college friend and a nurse at the hospital.

  “Thanks for the offer. It’s good to know we have a way to contact the outside world.”

  Caitlyn slumped in her chair. “I guess I’m curious, and scared. I wonder if they’ll really keep us updated, or try to keep us locked up and quiet while they do whatever they’re doing.”

  “Me too,” Megan said, “but what can we do?”

  “Excuse me,” a voice said. They turned to see Elly in the doorway, with Mandy standing behind her. “The police have finished their interviews. We’re all healthy, so far. They said they’d let us go as soon as the investigation at the hospital is complete.”

  “Why can’t we go now?” Megan asked.

  “Our boss died, three of our employees are in intensive care, and the rest of our staff is sick. They need to find out how to stop this from spreading.”

  “The doctor’s offices in this complex are closed to patients on Fridays, but their administrative staff usually works a half day.” Caitlyn said. “Look out there. Their parking lots are empty. How did they know to stay away and we didn’t? It’s not fair to keep us here when they had the benefit of staying home today.”

  Elly looked down her nose at them. “The doctors got together to discuss calling the Health Department yesterday. Perhaps they told their staff to take today off, or maybe they’re at the hospital with the doctors. I don’t know; but fair or not that’s the way it is. I suggest you find a way to pass the time until the police and the officials with the Health Department finish their investigation. Find some work to do.”

  “What can we do when we’re cut off from the world?” Megan asked. “The database operates through the Intranet and they blocked it. We’re dead in the water.”

  “Surly you have some paperwork that you can prepare.”

  Caitlyn stood up. “Very well, I’m sure I have plenty on my desk awaiting my urgent attention right now, although I’m not sure how I’ll do it without database access. If you’ll pardon me, I’ll be on my way.”

  “Very good. I’ll be in my office if anybody needs me,” Elly said, as Mandy tapped her on the shoulder. “Mandy thinks it would be a good idea for us to eat lunch together in the conference room. We’ll meet at 11:00. I’ll get the police to call the deli next door and order sandwiches before they get too busy with their lunch crowd.”

  “Very well, your majesty,” Caitlyn said, feigning a bow and striding toward her own office.

  Elly shook her head and stormed toward her own office, with Mandy trotting behind obediently.

  “I work with freaks,” Megan mumbled, turning back to her computer and wishing she were home in front of the TV watching whatever they put on morning television these days.

  Chapter 5 ( 11:15 A.M.)

  Caitlyn sat in the conference room with Megan, Mandy and Elly, silently chewing her ham sandwich. Elly managed to sweet talk Officer Richards into letting her use her cell phone so they could order lunch from the deli. The four of them met in the conference room as planned to share any information they had about the current situation, while Officer Richards kept watchful vigilance in the front reception area. Unfortunately none of them had heard anything, so they ate in silence.

  “Doesn’t this situation strike you as odd?” Caitlyn finally asked.

  Elly looked up from her salad. “Quarantines aren’t put in place every day. This is certainly the first time I’ve been in this situation.”

  Megan shook her head. “No, she’s right. I’m getting the impression that something is out of place.”

  “What do you mean?” Mandy asked.

  Caitlyn pushed back in her chair. “We’re under quarantine because our boss died, and the rest of our staff is sick with pneumonia. Perhaps that’s cause for investigation, but quarantine? If they knew this was a problem yesterday, why not come over here and tell us to take today off before calling the Health Department?”

  “Do you think they’re overreacting?” Elly asked. “None of us are in a position to make that determination. I don’t know much about disease control, but it doesn’t take a lot of brainpower to see how devastating this could be to a small town.”

  “She makes a good point,” Megan said. “Nobody has come in this office with full-blown symptoms. They’ve called in sick with minor symptoms, and it progressed quickly while they were at home. I realize it’s alarming to have all but the four of us sick with pneumonia, but I agree with Caitlyn. Wouldn’t it make sense to close the office around the middle of the week, when people really started to get sick?” She tapped the table with her fingernails. “Take a look around. We were at half-staff by Wednesday. Why wait until today to lock us down?”

  Mandy wrinkled her brow. “They may have been contagious before they became symptomatic. Heck, we may be carrying it and not know it. It might also be the timing. Major respiratory illnesses like the flu and pneumonia usually don’t peak around here until January or February. It’s too early for any kind of an outbreak around here.”

  “True,” Megan said, “but germs don’t know what time of year it is. We have elderly patients die of pneumonia year round.” She put her hand up defensively. “I realize that’s not unusual for people whose immune systems are compromised, but we work for a hospital. We pass paperwork back and forth every day.”

  Caitlyn scratched her head. “Didn’t Mrs. Ross have asthma? Valerie does too. I remember she had an attack last spring, and I was digging through her purse for her inhaler. That compromises your immune system and makes it more difficult to recover from illness.”

  “Susan has diabetes,” Mandy said. “I think that makes you more susceptible to stuff too.”

  “She does, and Rachel had surgery after that car accident she was in a month ago,” Megan said. “They had to put a pin in her hip. They thought she had a Staph Infection, until they found the fluid in her lung X-Rays.”

  Elly shook her head. “While I find your observations interesting, I fail to see what good this information does us.”

  Caitlyn sighed. “That’s the problem. We don’t have coherent information; just a gut feeling that something isn’t right.” She tapped her fingers on the table. “Didn’t they give flu shots recently?”

  “Yes,” Mandy said. “They gave them a week ago. Elly and I missed it, because we were at a management seminar in Columbia the whole week. Mr. Harris arranged for us to have ours when the nursing staff at the hospital got theirs two weeks ago.”

  “I didn’t have one either,” Caitlyn said. “I had a sinus infection, and had to wait until I finished my antibiotic to have it. My doctor gave it to
me yesterday.”

  “I got mine from my regular doctor too,” Megan said. “I had to meet with my lawyer when they gave them here, so I got it during my annual physical on Tuesday.”

  Caitlyn sat thoughtfully, staring into space. “Were we the only ones to miss the flu shots here?”

  Everybody looked at one another. “Ok that’s odd,” Elly concurred. “Everybody here that day would have had the shots. We’re required to have one every year. Those nurses come by your office, don’t they?”

  “They usually give the shots in the conference room,” Mandy murmured, “but they will walk around the hall to make sure they didn’t miss anybody. They keep good records.”

  “They do keep good records, don’t they?” Caitlyn said, almost to herself. She stood up. “All of this speculation isn’t getting us anywhere, so somebody better get to work.”

  “What are you doing?” Elly asked, slightly alarmed.

  “Debating the relevance of our observations isn’t doing any good,” she said, climbing on the top of the bookcase against the corner. “This ceiling isn’t solid. The tiles move. I saw a maintenance man crawl up here a year ago when they were checking the ventilation ducts in my office. He was bigger than me, so it should hold my weight.”

  “You’re crawling through the ceiling?” Mandy asked. “To where?”

  “Mrs. Ross’s office. She might have a copy of those records, and I know she has a blueprint of the building. We updated our fire escape plan last month. I want to find them.” She raised her eyebrows. “After all, there is supposedly a tunnel underneath us leading to the hospital. Maybe they engineered an escape route to the outside as well.”

  “Don’t you think we should be patient and let the cops and environmental officials do their jobs?” Mandy asked.

  Caitlyn thought a moment. “No, I want out of here now. I won’t leave you. If I find a way out, I’ll come back and get you.”

  “What do we tell the cops if they notice you’re missing?” Elly asked.

  “Come on, we’re the brains of Woodland Memorial Hospital’s Administrative Staff! They pride themselves on only hiring the best of this community. Be creative.” She pulled the tile back into place and disappeared in the ceiling.

  Elly shook her head. “She’s crazy.”

  “I heard that,” a voice said from the ceiling.

  Megan smiled. “No she’s brilliant.”

  Chapter 6 (11:50 A.M.)

  Caitlyn was outside her comfort range. She had a creative mind, not a deceptive one, so she was stretching beyond the limits of her simple life. As Mrs. Ross’s administrative assistant she knew where everything was filed, so she could go right where she needed. Mrs. Ross’s office was in the front right corner of the building with windows for two of her walls, facing the hospital. Caitlyn managed to drop quietly on a large lateral filing cabinet and, hearing nothing, felt safe to proceed with her hasty investigation. The first thing she did was send a message to Shelly asking what was going on at the hospital.

  Caitlyn wasn’t worried about leaving fingerprints because she filed things for Mrs. Ross every day. She immediately began digging through Mrs. Ross’s files. The lock on the cabinet broke a year ago. She found the records from the flu shots and sure enough, Caitlyn, Megan, Elly and Mandy were the only ones to miss the shots the previous week.

  Caitlyn rummaged through every cabinet, but didn’t find the blueprints. As she was preparing to climb back in the ceiling, some papers on the corner of Mrs. Ross’s desk caught her eye. She picked them up and discovered they were financial records related to the research lab, with a bright sticky note on them that read Review before Auditors Arrive! Caitlyn paused. She knew auditors were due in the office next week to do a routine audit of their grant monies, and wondered what it was about this file that prompted Mrs. Ross’s attention. After looking a bit closer, she realized why these records struck her as being out of place. Caitlyn remembered processing all of these bills for payment herself, but notations from the database indicated that a stop payment had been put on several checks. It looked like new checks had been reissued for higher amounts to pay for backordered equipment and supplies.

  We aren’t responsible for paying for items until they’re delivered. Who did this? That would force the vendor to issue a credit or a refund check for the amount of the overpayment!

  The sick feeling in Caitlyn’s stomach told her she already knew the truth, even if she hadn’t fully processed it yet. She rolled up the paperwork, wrapped it tightly in a rubber band, and shoved it in her sweater pocket. It stuck out of the pocket slightly, but she figured it was secure enough not to fall out. She needed to have Megan look at this to find out if it meant anything, or if the sinking feeling in her stomach was from bad ham.

  Her phone vibrated, indicating an incoming message. She took it out and smiled. Shelly had come through for her. Now she had to see if they could put something together from what they had. Scanning the office to make sure she left it the way she found it, Caitlyn climbed on top of the file cabinet and made her way back in the ceiling, thankful that luck had been on her side so far.

  Chapter 7 ( 12:20 P.M.)

  Megan sat in her office with the door closed and her head in her hands. She had a stack of papers in front of her that needed to be sorted, but she couldn’t concentrate. As if she didn’t have enough on her with her jailbird husband trying to make the divorce difficult! Now she had this chaos at work as well. She didn’t know how much more she could take. Opening her desk drawer, she popped open a bottle of pills and swallowed one with what was left of her drink from lunch.

  Megan leaned back in her chair. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, she told herself, and after all, you’ve been through a lot. A lot of people take antidepressants.

  Still, she couldn’t push away the shame. She was a successful woman. She built up her career and soon she would be free to build a new life for herself. She had plenty of support from her parents, her brother, Caitlyn, and even her support group at church. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like a failure. She couldn’t save Mark from destroying himself, and she couldn’t save her marriage. Rebuilding a life is harder that it seems, and most of the people trying to comfort her had no idea what she was going through. She picked up the papers in front of her, determined to push the self-defeating thoughts out of her head, like the councilor taught her in the divorce support sessions.

  “Megan!” a voice hissed from the ceiling.

  She looked at the ceiling, wondering if she was losing her sanity. She shook her head and went back to idly sorting the papers.

  “Megan!” the voice hissed again. “Are you down there? I think I see you.”

  Megan looked at the ceiling again and saw that indeed, one of her ceiling tiles was slightly ajar. “Caitlyn?”

  The panel moved aside as Caitlyn dropped quietly to the top of a large bookshelf. “Thank God we still keep books and large file cabinets around here!” she said, brushing dust off her jeans and sweater. “I found some stuff I want you to review. Its paperwork Mrs. Ross was reviewing in preparation of our audit.”

  “Did you find the blueprints?”

  Caitlyn combed through her messy hair with her fingers. “No, I don’t know what Mrs. Ross did with them. I found this on her desk. Something isn’t right, and I want you to see it first. I also contacted Shelly. This is interesting,” she said, holding the phone toward Megan so could see it. “She E-mailed the information she has now. First, Mr. Harris isn’t at the hospital. He hasn’t been seen since he left shortly before 4:00 yesterday. He was out most of the day, and only stopped in briefly. He claimed to have been in meetings all day, and told his assistants that he had some important paperwork he needed to get done. He closed himself in his office for an hour before he left.”

  “Where is he?”

  Caitlyn shrugged. “Nobody knows. Several people tried to call his house and his cell phone since the Health Department officials issued the quarantine this morning.”

>   “I thought Mr. Harris had to issue the quarantine. If he didn’t do it, who issued it?”

  “Apparently that’s at the discretion of the Health Department. The head doctor on staff yesterday afternoon called them right after Mr. Harris left. He and the other doctors were concerned that so many people on our staff are sick with the same thing. They confiscated the medical files for our sick staff members that were seen at these offices and asked the officials to help review the cases. The Health Department ordered this quarantine and brought the cops with them. They just finished the autopsy on Mrs. Ross and are waiting for some samples to finish processing to see what they have. Shelly is assisting with it and promised to E-mail it to me as soon as the results are in.” Caitlyn shook her head. “Mr. Harris hasn’t been seen or heard from at all today. That stinks when the captain jumps ship in a crisis.”

  “You’re telling me. By the way, how did Shelly get to help the coroner with this?”

  “Her secondary study was in forensics, so she’s back-up for that kind of stuff. Two people are out in the Morgue, so they called her in to help. I can’t believe she wants to do it, but she says she likes it because they don’t complain.”

  “That’s sick.”

  “Here’s another interesting thing,” Caitlyn said. “They discovered that everybody that got a flu shot from Woodland Memorial Hospital last week is sick with pneumonia now. Mrs. Ross’s files confirm that. The four of us are the only ones that missed the shots last week.”

  Megan shuddered. “Do they think the vaccine was tainted?”

  “They’re checking that lot for contaminants. So far, it seems contained to the vials used on the staff here. But here’s what’s scary. A sample of live pneumonia bacteria was taken from the research lab the night before those shots were given. They never found it.”

  "Why would somebody do that? Bioterrorism?”