Mr. Marcus allowed himself to be led out of his home. He scanned the area to see any sign of Cal in the hope he would show up and clear up this incredible mess. He thought for a moment he saw someone in the woods across the path. No one emerged. He concluded it was just the breeze moving the shrubbery.
“I’ve got to check-in a minute” said the lead FBI agent. He walked a distance from the car and took out his cell phone. “Yeah, it looks like a real pro job, totally cleansed the house and the professor’s office. We got a lead on some DNA, though, though we have to extract it from a witness’s ass. I’ll explain later. No sign of him around. Marcus doesn’t seem to know anything. He’s real upset. I guess the suspect was his boyfriend. I’ve already alerted the local cops. We’ve got to get this area locked down. Yeah, that’s right. An APB for the missing student and now we can add this Calvin Stephenson. Too many links, he’s got to be involved.” He got into the car next to Mr. Marcus, looking for any tell tale reactions. Nothing.
Mr. Marcus had lost his spirit and allowed himself to be packed into the car and taken to the hospital He was put on a stretcher and whisked to an examination room. There a doctor, already in surgical attire asked him to disrobe.
“No need to be nervous, Mr. Marcus. This is a very routine procedure. Tell you what, let’s get an intravenous going so we can give you something to help you relax. It will all be over in no time.” The doctor wrote some instructions on Mr. Marcus’s chart and asked a nurse to complete the pharmacy order and administer the sedative. He excused himself to attend to another patient, promising to return shortly.
The nurse was gone only a few minutes and returned with an IV setup and some small phials. She expertly inserted the IV needle and completed the process, injecting the contents of the phials into the IV. The preparation room had another patient who called for the nurse’s assistance. As the nurse went behind a curtain dividing the room, a doctor she did not recognize came in. The doctor greeted her in a friendly fashion. The nurse looked at the doctor’s badge to be able to call her by name and welcomed her to the hospital staff. The patient called again, and the nurse went to help.
Mr. Marcus had begun to feel woozy from the drugs. He looked up to see a female doctor examine the chart at the foot of the bed he lay upon and do something to the IV. She then lifted the sheet covering him and seemed to touch his ass. She recovered him and left the room.
As she left, a large man came into the room. He leaned over Mr. Marcus and spoke quietly in his ear, “I’m sorry Stu, I’m so sorry.”
Mr. Marcus recognized that voice from within the deepening confusion of the drugs. He replied, “Cal, Cal” and lost consciousness.
***
The unconscious Mr. Marcus was wheeled into the examining room. As the doctor began the procedure of obtaining the semen sample from Mr. Marcus’s rectum, he knew something was wrong. “My god, he’s got no pulse.” The doctor called for assistance from the emergency room. They arrived in less than a minute and began a heroic effort to revive Mr. Marcus.
“How can this happen? You’re just going up his ass with a swab and he dies?” The FBI agent was furious.
“It’s impossible to say until we have an autopsy. I gather he was under significant stress. People react differently to even minor procedures with minimal anesthesia” the doctor replied defensively.
“Did you get the sample?”
“Yes, it’s already been sent to the lab. I’ve cleared everything but emergency analysis. You should have initial results within the hour. DNA matching after that is up to your laboratories.”
The FBI agent had commandeered a doctor’s office to review the DNA analysis that came an hour later. After a moment’s review, he leaped to his feet and stormed off to find the lab.
“These results can’t be right.”
“I agree that the results seem unlikely. I ran the test four times and had my supervisor run the test again. It’s not conclusive, but it is certain that the sample provided contained semen from at least six men and perhaps as many as a dozen. I’ve only seen this kind of thing once before, and that was an instance of a gang rape. Horrible.”
“Where will I find the hospital administrator?” the FBI agent demanded.
“All the admin offices are behind the welcome desk at the main entrance.”
The FBI agent was on his cell phone as he marched along the corridors toward the administrator’s office. “Better broaden that search perimeter. I want every way in and out of this area locked down. The local airport, train stations, highways, hell hiking trails. This thing is getting out of hand. The State Department is weighing in? Just who was this kid anyway? Diplomat’s son? Those kids seem to get in more trouble. And one of those foreign royals? I wondered what all the noise was about. Stephenson shouldn’t be hard to identify, six two or three, 220, buzz cut, voice like a church organ. Not fat, built. I’ve got a situation here at the hospital I’m on right now. I’ll call you back.”
He had arrived at the hospital administrator’s office. “Look, I need you to get everyone involved with this ‘simple procedure’ in a room to get the facts straight. This is a high profile case and the lead witness just died — while under the care of this hospital.”
The proctologist, the head of the pharmacy, and the attending nurses were all summoned. Once in the room, the FBI agent paced back and forth, shooting questions. Nothing out of the ordinary was reported. The pharmacist was adamant that the correct prescription for the anesthetic had been provided and that the FBI was welcome to verify and audit their procedures. The agent assured him that would be done.
Then the nurse who had prepped the patient shyly raised a hand.
“Yes?” demanded the agent, “You know something?”
“Where is that new doctor? I thought everyone who had worked with this patient was to be here.”
“What new doctor?”
“Doctor — oh I can’t remember her name. I tried to read it off her badge, but it was one of those long, foreign names. She seemed very nice.”
The FBI agent scowled at the administrator. “You’ve left someone out?”
“No, no one else was involved with this patient.”
“Better round up all the female doctors that fit the description — ‘stat.’ Anything else you should tell me?” he said to the nurse.
“Well I didn’t see anything else, but when I was attending to the other patient in the room, I heard a voice from Mr. Marcus’s side.”
“You heard a voice?”
“Yes, the rooms are divided by privacy curtains and I heard a man’s voice say something like ‘I’m sorry’. Then another man’s voice, it could have been the patient said, ‘cow’. It doesn’t make sense to me. I checked in on the patient a moment later and no one was there.”
“Was the voice distinctive in any way? You could tell it wasn’t the patient’s voice.”
“The voice was very deep, like a bass opera singer.”
“Stephenson! Get an autopsy done, now” he shouted at the administrator.
The FBI agent was on his cell phone again in a second. “This case has just gone to a new level, chief. Our lead witness died and it looks like Stephenson was in the room minutes before. I’d say it’s beyond suspicious. We’ve got the APB out now, but we’ve got a probable murder to add to our charge of conspiracy to kidnap. I’ll get the autopsy moving and an audit of the pharmacy to rule out accident, but this looks like pros at work. You think that’s necessary? I guess so, if there’s one murder, it might not be kidnapping.”