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Tojian was in the Emerson lobby when Calvin arrived. In one hand was a folder. "How're you doing, Calvin?" |
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Tojian nodded. "I'm sorry to get you in here, but there's something I think you should know." |
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Calvin followed him to the elevators and they rode in silence to the sixth floor. They walked down a white corridor to a small sitting room with stuffed vinyl chairs and a coffee table. Calvin took a seat and Mitch sat beside him and put the folder on the tabletop. |
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"I know how painful it is, but I'd like to talk to you . . . about Matty." |
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"Aren't we a little late?" |
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"For Matty, yes." Tojian opened the folder. "I think we've found the source of his condition." |
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Calvin looked at him blankly. Why would Tojian think he cared anymore? They had buried Matty two days ago. He was steeped in his grief, holding onto the bare threads of defense. The last thing he needed was to feign intellectual interest in the metabolic culprit of precocious puberty. |
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For a moment Calvin did not react, then the words penetrated. "But we had that checked. Terry sent a sample in two weeks ago. It turned up negative." |
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"Yes, I know, but what caused the changes was a hormonelike substance that standard screening could never have picked up. I took a water sample to a friend in the department of microbiology at MIT and asked him to test for certain families of organic com- |
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