The Third Twin - Ken Follett [68]
Berrington sat through the speeches, containing his impatience. There was just not enough time. Given a few days he could find someone better than Hank, but he did not have a few days, he had a few hours. And an apparently fortuitous meeting like this was so much less suspicious than making an appointment and taking the journalist to lunch.
When the speeches were over there was still no one better than Hank in view.
As the journalists dispersed Berrington buttonholed him. “Hank, I’m glad I ran into you. I may have a story for you.”
“Good!”
“It’s about misuse of medical information on databases.” He made a face. “Not really my kind of thing, Berry, but go on.”
Berrington groaned inwardly: Hank did not seem to be in a receptive mood. He plowed on, working his charm. “I believe it is your kind of thing, because you’ll see potential in it that an ordinary reporter might overlook.”
“Well, try me.”
“First of all, we’re not having this conversation.”
“That’s a little more promising.”
“Second, you may wonder why I’m giving you the story, but you’re never going to ask.”
“Better and better,” Hank said, but he did not make a promise.
Berrington decided not to push him on it. “At Jones Falls University, in the psychology department, there’s a young researcher called Dr. Jean Ferrami. In her search for suitable subjects to study, she scans large medical databases without the permission of the people whose records are on the files.”
Hank pulled at his red nose. “Is this a story about computers, or about scientific ethics?”
“I don’t know, you’re the journalist.”
He looked unenthusiastic. “It isn’t much of a scoop.”
Don’t start playing hard to get, you bastard. Berrington touched Hank’s arm in a friendly gesture. “Do me a favor, make some inquiries,” he said persuasively. “Call the university president, his name is Maurice Obeli. Call Dr. Ferrami. Tell them it’s a big story, and see what they say. I believe you’ll get some interesting reactions.”
“I don’t know.”
“I promise you, Hank, it will be worth your time.” Say yes, you son of a bitch, say yes!
Hank hesitated, then said: “Okay, I’ll give it a whirl.”
Berrington tried to conceal his satisfaction behind an expression of gravity, but he could not help a little smile of triumph.
Hank saw it, and a suspicious frown crossed his face. “You’re not trying to use me, are you, Berry? Like to frighten someone, maybe?”
Berrington smiled and put an arm around the reporter’s shoulders. “Hank,” he said, “trust me.”
20
JEANNIE BOUGHT A THREE-PACK OF WHITE COTTON PANTIES at a Walgreen in a strip mall just outside Richmond. She slipped a pair on in the ladies’ rest room of the neighboring Burger King. Then she felt better.
Strange how defenseless she had felt without underwear. She had hardly been able to think of anything else. Yet when she was in love with Will Temple she had liked to go around with no panties on. It made her feel sexy all day. Sitting in the library, or working in the lab, or just walking down the street, she would fantasize that Will showed up unexpectedly, in a fever of passion, saying, “There isn’t much time but I’ve got to have you, now, right here,” and she was ready for him. But without a man in her life she needed her underwear like she needed shoes.
Properly dressed again, she returned to the car. Lisa drove them to the Richmond-Williamsburg airport, where they checked their rental car and caught the plane back to Baltimore.
The key to the mystery must lie with the hospital where Dennis and Steven were born, Jeannie mused as they took off. Somehow, identical twin brothers had ended up with different mothers. It was a fairy-tale scenario, but something like it must have happened.
She looked through the papers in her case and checked the birth information on the two subjects. Steven’s birthday was August 25. To her horror she found that Dennis’s birthday was September 7—almost two weeks later.
“There must be a mistake,” she said. “I don’t know why I didn’t check this before.