CHAPTER NINE
A week had passed and Janet still felt herself to be in a state of suspension --as though she were not in contact with the earth, or existed on a different level of consciousness from the people around her. After recovering from her fatigue and state of shock, she had tried vainly to concentrate on her work. Somehow the research problem and its solution seemed trivial and insignificant. She wished she could scrap her project and pursue some straight-forward mechanical activity. It was while she was musing among the current journals in the library in an effort to escape the frustration of her elusive growth factor and the feelings guilt she had amassed over the events at the Pinkney house, that she was suddenly struck by the answer to her puzzle. Afterward it appeared so simple that she wondered why it had not occurred to her earlier. In a sense, she realized that it was like pulling at both ends of a knotted string; while she had kept the tension on by focussing strongly on the problem she had only succeeded in tightening the knot. When she had eased her concentration by looking obliquely instead of head on, the knot had loosened, and popped out by itself.
Janet spent the next few days happily absorbed in the laboratory, working in long stretches to test her idea. And by the weekend it was apparent to her that the idea was basically sound. Rather than a single factor, the growth-promoting activity required the presence of two separate factors -- her protein fraction, plus another fraction that showed no activity alone and had been discarded in consequence. On its own the protein was only weakly active in causing the cells to divide; when recombined with the other unidentified substance that had been separated from it in the fractionation the full stimulatory activity was restored. Thus, the two factors together combined in the proper proportions mimicked the cell growth stimulation of the original extract from which they had been derived. Although it doubled the work ahead of her Janet felt the overpowering vindication of reason over superstition -- that her personal and scientific life was no longer jinxed by some supernatural glitch in the workings of the universe.
"In the end, logic always wins through," declared Kay. They were sitting beneath the shade trees on a balmy Sunday afternoon, well-sated with sausages, scrambled eggs and pancakes drenched in syrup that had been derived from the overhanging maples. Janet leaned back in the ancient canvas deck chair. She would pay up later for the surfeit of food and caffeine; at the moment she revelled in her third cup of strong coffee, liberally laced with heavy cream and sugar. A small cloud passed slowly overhead, casting a shadow along the river-bank and over the Pinkney house beyond.
"Poor, poor Jerry, I have always been a nemesis for him!"
"It could as easily have been poor, poor Janet. Everyone was a nemesis, or potentially one, for Jerry," snorted Kay, "and most particularly himself."
"I know he was the agent of his own destruction -"
"And his father's."
"Yes -- and possibly others later, I suppose -- but I still have bad dreams about that night. I guess I always will."
"Oh, I think you're tough enough to survive. Lucky for you Mr. Moorcroft came along when he did or you might not have survived."
"Apparently he became suspicious when he saw a light go on in the kitchen, probably from the refrigerator when Jerry went out for beer. He had been going to call the police from his apartment over the garage, then decided he had better check quietly first so he let himself in by the side-door. He was too discreet to show himself when he heard our voices, but when he got closer into the dining room and overheard the tail-end of our conversation, he realized it was no lovers’ tryst!"
"You think he will, keep it to himself?"
"I think he was quite genuinely fond of all the Pinkneys including Jerry. And he was the one who suggested that we would serve no useful purpose by drawing attention to Jerry's role, especially to his mother. It was plausible to take events at their face value -- Jerry being upset by his father's death, depressed, drinking heavily and so forth. And he had a reputation for pretty wild behaviour on his motorcycle,"
"So only you and I and Dr. Tower know the whole story?"
"I think Professor Antwhistle may suspect something more. He sounded rather sceptical when I telephoned and told him there had been another accident in the Pinkney family. The Professor was my only possible link to the European address for Joyce and Mrs. Pinkney," she explained.
"Incidentally, how did you find out about the actual link between Hilda and John Antwhistle? Was it from Jerry?"
"No. In point of fact it was one of his acts of deliberate obfuscation that led me increasingly to be suspicious of Jerry. He was so obvious about dragging a plethora of red herrings into the case -- the Solarcon/Raymore connection, the ladies in the office, the Professor (who I thought must have had a youthful fling with Mrs. Pinkney). I would bet that Jerry knew the whole history in the family, but did nothing to prevent me from believing there was some possible motivation of that kind for the Professor to be involved as a suspect. "The thing I am certain of is that we will shortly have a new junior member in the Department."
"And how did you hear about this?"
"From the Professor on the telephone. Apparently one of his functions in going to this Developmental Biology Conference was to do some recruiting. He thinks he has this fellow signed and sealed to come here to work with us. He's a protein chemist by training and has had experience in hormone control of cell differentiation. Seemed very keen to collaborate on my project with isolation of the growth factors."
"That sounds ideal for you."
"And for the Department. There's just one hitch," said Janet.
"What's that?"
"We'll have to get him to switch to some other experimental animal."
"Why, what is he working with now?"
"Bufonidae."
"Bufo-who?" asked Kay,
“Toads!” Janet translated. “I don’t think I could stand it.”
William McMurray was born in Northern Ireland and evacuated to Canada during the Second World War. Growing up in Saskatchewan and Ontario, Dr. McMurray followed an academic scientific career which ultimately led to his appointment as Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. Dr. McMurray now retired, is married and has two children.
Cover illustration and photography by Geoffrey McMurray.
The sculpturing of the toad was done by William Mc Murray.
Thank you for reading books on BookFrom.Net Share this book with friends