Read Online VIABLE by R. A. Hakok - Free Book Online Page B

She looked about as tired as he felt.
    ‘So, Sue, what’ve you found?’
    ‘Well Doug, I’m not really sure. I had no luck trying to find supplies of this guy’s blood last night so I started to run tests on the samples we’d taken, to see whether anything else might show up that would help us. The first batch didn’t show up anything other than trace amounts of methohexital. I checked with OR and they’d administered a combination of ketamine and benzodiazepine in anticipation of surgery to repair his kidney, but there was no record of methohexital having been given. I planned to check with the Sheriff here whether he found anything in the back of that van that might tell us how it got in his system.’
    Lars dug his notebook out of the pocket of his shirt, flipping to the page where he had jotted down the contents of the custom cabinets in the back of the van. Sure enough, methohexital was on the list. He asked what it was used for.
    ‘It’s a fast acting sedative, Sheriff.’
    That might indicate the man hadn’t been in the back of the van voluntarily. He scribbled a note next to where he had written the name of the drug in his notebook, returning his attention to Sue Ellis.
    ‘Well, anyway Doug, the last set of tests I ran last night involved checking the levels of HSCs in the man’s blood.’
    Lars interrupted again.
    ‘HSCs?’
    ‘Hematopoietic stem cells, Sheriff. They replace damaged blood cells.’
    Lars flipped open his notebook again. After a moment’s hesitation he wrote down the name. He was sure he’d made a pig’s breakfast of the spelling. He’d get Connie to look it up on the internet later.
    ‘The test takes an hour or so and I wasn’t hopeful that it would show anything relevant so I planned to go home and check the results in the morning. As I was preparing to leave I realized I’d used the last of the blood samples. So I called the nurses’ station. Janice was on last night and I explained that I needed a fresh sample. I’d already finished up here so I told her I’d walk over to collect it.’
    ‘Well, I arrived at the station just as she was heading for the patient’s room, so I decided to tag along. It took a little longer than usual to collect the sample, but low blood pressure’s to be expected with an acute hemolytic response and I saw they already had him on a low-dose epinephrine drip to try and counteract it. Anyway, when the vial was full I dropped the sample back to the lab, and then I headed for the parking lot. But then when I get back in this morning and check the results I find this.’ She handed a sheet of paper to the hospital administrator.
    ‘Well that can’t be right.’
    ‘I know Doug, I thought the same thing.’
    Whitley passed the sheet to Lars, who looked at it for a moment before handing it back.
    ‘So these HSC cells shouldn’t be there?’
    ‘It’s not the presence of the cells themselves that’s unusual, Sheriff. With the gunshot wound and the damage that would have been caused to his blood as a result of the transfusion I would have been surprised if his body hadn’t started producing them. It’s the sheer concentration that I just can’t get over. The sample of blood I tested last night was taken only minutes after the man was admitted. Lionel estimated he’d been shot less than an hour before he got to the OR. His body simply shouldn’t have reacted that quickly to repair itself.’
    She turned her attention back to Whitley.
    ‘Well anyway, I was now convinced that somehow the blood samples had been mixed up. Sometimes these things happen.’ She shot a look to the hospital administrator that Lars interpreted as But not in my lab .
    ‘So I decided the best thing to do would be to re-run the same test on the sample that had been taken the night before. I was there when that was taken, and I’d brought it back to the lab myself. There was no way it could have been mislabeled or somehow become contaminated.’
    ‘It was when I got