Free Weekend by Andrew Neiderman, Tania Grossinger Page A

away as he put his arm around her shoulder.
    “Honey,” she said, “that strange we don’t want.” She took Fern’s elbow quickly and moved closer to the reservation desk.
    “Independent bitch,” Manny mumbled. He knew the type. They’re all alike, he thought, play hard to get and then, when you spend some money on them, they spread their legs so fast you could fall right in. He looked about for a moment as if he had lost his way. Then he remembered he needed air and headed for the exit.
    “What’s going on?” Jonathan asked. Bruce got up quickly and followed him into the basement corridor. “Why this panic over a chambermaid?”
    “She hasn’t been located yet.”
    “So?”
    “Look,” Bruce said, lowering his voice some, “here’s what I’ve come up with so far. Tony’s only been on staff a week. If he did have cholera, he probably picked it up on the ship.”
    “Then he didn’t get it here at the hotel?”
    “It doesn’t look that way.”
    “Well then,” he said, obviously starting to relax, “that pretty much lets us off the hook, doesn’t it?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I gather that when Tony got really sick the second night, his two roommates moved out. But the first night, when he might have been contagious, it’s possible they contracted a mild case and are carrying it themselves. More important, when they returned, the place was so filthy they refused to clean it up themselves.”
    “And Margret Thomas was the one who cleaned it,” Jonathan said quietly.
    “That’s right, probably handling all sorts of contaminated material in the process. We’ve got to be sure we know exactly where all the linen went and where she’s been with those soiled hands. If she touched any food—”
    “Hey,” Halloran stuck his head out of his office. “I got Margret on the phone. We finally found her.”
    “Is she on her way down?”
    “Yeah, and she’s plenty pissed. Says we’re screwing up her whole day.”
    “What exactly have you told the dishwashers?” Jonathan asked, turning back to Bruce.
    “Nothing yet. Look, here’s what’s got to be done. They’ve got to get to a hospital for tests and observation. From what I’ve determined so far, they’re the only ones who might have picked it up. It’s a standard procedure to isolate possible carriers.”
    “What hospital?” Jonathan’s eyes narrowed.
    “Well, as Sid would be the first to admit, the hospital in town isn’t at all equipped to handle this. We need a place where cholera antisera are available. I would have brought some with me but we didn’t have any in the lab. I immediately put it on order.”
    “In other words, you want to send them to Mt. Sinai.”
    “I see no reason why not.”
    “There’s a damn good reason why not. We need a place where we can control, as much as possible, anyone talking about it.” He scribbled something on his memo pad. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll call Ellen Golden’s New York physician and have him put them in University Hospital. I’m sure if they don’t have antisera, they can get it. We’ve called on this doctor for favors before. I trust him and he knows when to keep his mouth shut.”
    “All right,” Bruce said reluctantly, “but if we had them in Mt. Sinai, I could ride closer herd on things.” Jonathan was not about to budge. “Okay, do it your way. You should also know, incidentally, that Sid sent one of Tony’s specimens to my lab for diagnosis last night.”
    “So quickly?”
    “There was no point in wasting time. We should get some results in a day or so and at least have his case diagnosed one way or the other. Now I’d like to be sure of the whereabouts of this Margret Thomas every minute since she left Tony’s room.”
    “I’m sure security will get her here soon enough,” Jonathan said. “Once she gets here, why don’t you keep all three of them down here and I’ll get hold of my driver. He’ll bring the hotel car up to the