Shock by Robin Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

a Ph.D. in biology," Sheila said. "She knows something about anesthesia. I made some suggestions, but she didn't bite. I figure Carl can have a go."
    "But you tried?" Paul persisted.
    "Of course I tried,' Sheila said irritably.
    "All right, have Carl talk to her," Paul said. He hung up the phone without saying good-bye. Sheila could annoy him on occasion with her obvious jealousy.
    "THAT MUST BE THE TOWER THE PHARMACIST WAS TALKing about," Deborah said, pointing through the windshield. They'd just made the turn onto Pierce Street from Main, and in the distance a narrow brick structure could be barely discerned poking up above its surrounding landscape.
    "If that's two or three miles away, it's got to be one tall tower."
    "From here its silhouette looks a little like the tower on the Uffizi Gallery in Florence," Deborah said. "How apropos."
    Once they left the town behind, the trees lining the road blocked any further view of the tower or the Cabot complex itself until they'd passed a dilapidated red barn on the right. Around the next bend they came upon a sign for the Wingate Clinic on the left with an arrow pointing up a gravel road. As soon as they turned onto the unpaved road they caught sight of the two-story, gray granite gatehouse set back amongst the trees. It was a heavy, squat structure with small shuttered windows and a dark gray slate roof with elaborate finials at either end of the ridgepole. The trim was painted black. Stone gargoyles stuck out from the corners.
    As they approached they could see that the road led under the house into a tunnel where it was blocked by a heavy chain-link gate. Beyond the gate they could see a recently mowed lawn, the only evidence the place was currently in use. An imposing cast-iron fence topped with razor wire was attached to both sides of the gatehouse and ran off into the trees on either side.
    Deborah slowed, then stopped. "My word," she said. "That pharmacist wasn't joking when he said the inmates of the Cabot were locked up in a fortress. It almost looks like a prison."
    "There's certainly nothing welcoming about it," Joanna added. "How do you suppose we get in? Do you see a buzzer, or do you think we have to call on a cell phone?"
    "There must be a video monitor or something," Deborah suggested. "I'll pull up to the gate."
    Deborah eased the car forward and nosed it into the tunnel. The moment she stopped again, a heavy, paneled, windowless door opened and out stepped a uniformed man clutching a clipboard. He approached the driver's side window, which Deborah lowered.
    "Can I help you?" the guard asked in a pleasant but no-nonsense tone. He had on a shiny, black-visored hat similar to a policeman's.
    "We're here to see Dr. Donaldson," Deborah said.
    "Your names, please?" the man asked.
    "Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner," Deborah said.
    The man consulted his clipboard, checked off the two names, then pointed with his pen through the gate. "Follow the driveway to the right. You'll see the parking area. Someone will meet you there."
    "Thank you," Deborah said.
    The man didn't answer but instead touched the brim of his hat. With a screeching sound, the heavy chain-link gate began slowly to swing open.
    "Did you see the gun the guard is packing?" Deborah asked in a whisper when she had the window back up. The guard was still standing off to the left.
    "It would be hard to miss it," Joanna said.
    "I've seen armed police in inner-city hospitals," Deborah said. "But never at a rural medical clinic. Why on earth would they need so much security out here, especially at an infertility clinic?"
    "It makes you wonder if they're more interested in keeping people out or keeping people in."
    "Don't even joke like that," Deborah said. She started forward through the open gate. "Do you think they might be doing abortions, too? I've seen guards at abortion clinics in this state."
    "I couldn't think of anything more inappropriate at an infertility clinic."
    "I suppose you're right,"