Hiss of Death: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

Virginia Hospital sat in the middle of a large, round beltway. Spokes were the various departments, the core of the new building being a large six-story square. The architects felt they had created a state-of-the-art medical center, but like so many new things, it was confusing as hell. Did one go to the core building to check in, or did one go to the wing that housed one’s specialist?
    One thing they did right was the emergency room, which was easy to find. It was the first spoke off the main building once one turned off the state highway onto the beltway. The overhang where ambulances pulled in had a series of lights. You couldn’t miss it.
    Another thing the designers accomplished was exciting landscaping and plantings. One saw lots of green spaces, too. Dr. MacCormack’s office sat on one of the roads off the beltway, away from the hospital. Like the hospital, those buildings were sparkling new. Many doctors could perform minor procedures in their offices, a great convenience to patients. Harry drove along to Willow Lane, turned right, and within less than a minute arrived at the modern glass-and-steel three-story building. An expensive carved and painted sign with Apollo’s caduceus identified this as Willow Lane Medical Associates. Once at the front door, another painted sign, again expensively done with incised letters in black with gilt edges, cited all the doctors within.
    Harry passed through Regina’s office door at ten and passed back out at ten-thirty. She felt a weight on her shoulders she’d never felt before.
    As she walked through the parking lot to her truck, she said hello to Cory Schaeffer, M.D.
    “How are you, Harry?” he asked.
    “Fine,” she lied. “And you?”
    “Good, thank you.” He locked the door of a small car painted a pretty light metallic misty green.
    “Is that an electric car?”
    “It is. The Lampo. Just bought it last week. You put the key in, there’s no motor noise. That’s taken me a bit to get used to, but the mileage is unbelievable. Even better, screw the Arabs. I don’t need their gas.”
    Given Cory’s aggressive views on that and other subjects, Harry demurred. “There’s wisdom in that. Correct me if I’m wrong. Doesn’t the battery for this thing cost twelve thousand dollars?”
    “Uh, I’m not sure of the exact price, but there’s no danger of me having to buy a battery. I have a cruising range of four hundred miles. Now, that’s really incredible. The car will switch to a four-cylinder engine should the voltage drop too low. I’ve not yet heard those four cylinders. I expect I will sometime or other.”
    “So, if you drove, say, to the Greenbrier,” Harry said, mentioning a gorgeous retreat in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, “you wouldn’t need gas?”
    “Not a drop.”
    “Where do you plug in the car? I mean, you’d have to put it in the parking lot. How would you recharge the battery?”
    “Right now gas stations and retreats like Hot Springs or the Greenbrier don’t have a facility for a recharge. But given the push for autonomy from foreign powers when it comes to transportation and energy, I’m confident that within a year or two we will pull into a gas station or a parking lot even at a motel and there will be a recharge station so more than one car can fill up, so to speak. I envision it as a low bank with big square outlets.”
    “I hope you’re right, or you won’t be going too far.” Harry couldn’t resist the little jab.
    “Trust technology, Harry. It’s gotten us this far.”
    She wanted to say “And yes, it’s polluted our rivers, our skies; ruined our eyes in many cases as people stare into screens all day; it’s helped create far too much obesity as people sit hours upon hours; but worse, it’s broken the bonds between people.”
    She knew he wouldn’t see it that way, but then again, maybe a physician couldn’t. So much of what happened in their world involved nanotechnology, lasers, imaging, new ways to