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Winville used to be a nice place…

By Chuck Semenuk

Police Chief Rick Kale pulled into the parking lot of Winville General Hospital. Winville was a quiet little town. Nothing much ever happened there. A motorist passing through town and spitting his chewing gum out the window was a major event. With a small operating budget, Chief Kale’s police force consisted of one patrolman, Bob Rollins and a “Girl Friday”, Lisa Barnes who filled in as a sometimes patrolman, dispatcher, secretary, and most anything else that came up. The Chief often wondered what he would do if Lisa ever decided to leave. She had come to Winville from Cleveland where she had worked as a detective on the police force of one of the Cleveland suburbs. She had experience in forensics and crime scene investigations; with her qualifications, why would she want to come to Winville?

Chief Kale entered the office of Doctor Frank Benson, head physician at Winville General.

“Hey, Doc. What’s going on?”

“Chief, I’m sure glad to see you. There’s something happening here and I think I’m going to need your help.”

“I’m intrigued. Nothing ever happens in Winville.”

“I’ve got four young girls here. Their symptoms are similar but not exactly the same.”

“Doc, I don’t think I’m the guy who can help you with a young girl’s symptoms,” laughed Chief Kale.

Doctor Benson furrowed his brow and looked back at Chief Kale. “I’m afraid that there may be some sort of epidemic starting. One girl has some sort of rash or burn on her face. Two others have developed lesions on their lips. The fourth appears to have some contamination of her eyes.”

Brenda, the ER nurse rushed into the room. “Excuse me, Doctor Benson. We’ve got another young girl that I think you need to look at.”

Doctor Benson moved quickly to the door. “Chief, come with me.”

Nurse Brenda led the two men to an examining room where an attractive young girl sat, her hands resting on a small examining table. “Hello, young lady. I’m Doctor Benson. What seems to be the problem?”

“I don’t know. These awful blisters have formed around my fingernails. They hurt.”

“Do you have any other areas of your body that have any unexplained redness or blistering?” asked the doctor.

“I have a spot on my chin and another on my arm.”

Doctor Benson looked at the areas indicated. “It’s too soon to know what that is around your fingernails but I’m afraid that you may contaminate other areas of your body. Be very careful about touching yourself.” He instructed the nurse to bathe the infected areas and to apply an anti-biotic cream.

As they left the ER, Doctor Benson said “That makes five girls. Whatever this is, it doesn’t appear to be life threatening at this point but, I need help to figure out what’s going on before it gets worse. I want to keep the girls here for a couple of days until we know what’s causing this.”

Chief Kale thought for a moment. “I’m going to assign one of my people to work on this. Her name is Lisa Barnes. I think she has the expertise to help us resolve this thing.”

“Good. Have her see me for anything she needs.”

####

Back at the police station, Chief Kale walked quickly toward his office. Lisa Barnes was busy with paperwork at her desk. “Lisa – come to my office please.” Lisa didn’t get called to the Chief’s office very often and wondered what he wanted.

“Close the door and have a seat. We’ve got a bit of a mystery going on and I think it will be right up your alley.” Chief Kale explained everything that he had learned from Doctor Benson. “Lisa, I think you should ditch the uniform for this assignment. It will draw less attention if you’re in plain clothes. We don’t want folks getting all worked up before we find out what we’re dealing with. You’ll have full cooperation from Doctor Benson and his staff.”

####

Lisa quickly changed out of her uniform and drove to Winville General. She wanted to interview the girls and see the affected areas first hand. Doctor Benson and his staff were very cooperative. At this point, the only obvious common denominator between the girls was that they were all about the same age and went to the same school. After briefly interviewing the girls and photographing the afflicted body areas, Lisa drove to Winville High School and spoke to the school nurse. She was not aware of any new occurrences and could not shed any light on what was happening to the girls.

Feeling a little hungry, Lisa pulled in to the Burger Buddy restaurant. As she ate her burger, she went over her notes and the photos that she took of the girls’ injuries with her cell phone camera. “I’ve seen pathology like this before but I just can’t place it.” Her thoughts were interrupted by the conversation of two boys at the next table.

“Man that is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. The woods are full of dead animals,” exclaimed one boy.

“Excuse me,” said Lisa. “I couldn’t help but hear you talking about a lot of dead animals.”

“Yeah, the woods over on Beaker Street are full of dead animals.”

“Can you show me?” asked Lisa.

“I don’t know,” stammered one of the boys. “We’re not supposed to go anywhere with strangers.”

Lisa showed the boys her badge and ID. “It’s alright. I’m a policewoman. You may have discovered something that can help me.”

The boys agreed. After they finished their burgers, they rode their bikes to Beaker Street while Lisa followed in her car. They led her into the woods, showing her the bodies of various wildlife; birds, squirrels, even a cat. “Thank you for your help, boys. I think it would be best if you went home now. I would appreciate it if you would keep this quiet. We don’t want to get the citizens all excited yet,” Lisa smiled and winked at the boys.

“Don’t worry. We can keep a secret,” pledged the boys, feeling important to be entrusted with a secret by the police.

After the boys left, Lisa took a closer look at the dead animals. Suddenly the cat moved slightly. It wasn’t dead but was obviously suffering badly. Its hair was falling out, its skin an angry red and starting to blister. Lisa noted that the dead birds and squirrels appeared to have suffered a similar fate. Lisa got a blanket from her car and wrapped the poor animal in it along with a squirrel and a couple of the dead birds. Back at her car, Lisa called Doctor Benson on her cell phone. She explained what she had found. “I know animals aren’t your field but I’d like you to look at these to see if you come to the same conclusion as I have.”

“What might that be?” asked Doctor Benson.

“I’ve seen this before. I think we might be dealing with some sort of radiation poisoning,” said Lisa. “Your young patients may also be infected.”

“My God,” exclaimed Doctor Benson. “I hope not. Bring the animals directly to Pathology. We’ll perform some tests and try to figure this out.”

####

After leaving the animals with Doctor Benson, Lisa drove back to the Police station to report to Chief Kale.

Chief Kale looked across his desk at Lisa. “You’ve been busy. How does this animal business connect to the girls?”

“I’m not sure yet but the appearance of the girls’ injuries does mimic what I saw on the animals. Hopefully, Doctor Benson will be able to confirm my suspicions.”

“What’s your next move?” asked Chief Kale. The phone on Chief Kale’s desk rang. It was Doctor Benson. “She’s with me now, Doc. Let me put you on speaker-phone.”

“I’ve got the results of the blood work we performed on the animals. You were right, Lisa. They have a fatal case of radiation poisoning. There is no indication of any physical contamination but they’ve apparently been over-exposed from some source, maybe an industrial isotope.”

“What about the girls?” asked Lisa.

“We had another girl come in since you were here. She has burns on her lips. Here’s the twist. We were able to detect some radioactive surface contamination of her lips with a survey meter. We don’t have the results of her blood work yet but the other girls have tested positive for radiation poisoning. Good work, Lisa. At least now, we know what we’re dealing with,” said Doctor Benson.

“Now, we need to find out who’s responsible. Doctor, do you think I could borrow one of your survey meters?” asked Lisa.

“Sure, no problem. Just stop by the radiology lab. I’ll tell them to fix you up with whatever you need.”

Chief Kale hung up the phone. “What’s your plan, Lisa.”

“I want to go back to the Beaker Street woods tonight and do some snooping around. We have to find the radiation source. Whoever is doing this might be more likely to be careless at night.” Lisa walked over to the city map on the Chief’s wall. “What’s on the other side of the woods on Beaker Street?”

“There are a couple of buildings belonging to Sanford Technology. I’m not sure what they do. They front on the next street, Freeman Avenue.”

“I wonder if they use isotopes?” mused Lisa.

“I don’t know but, you’re not creeping around in the woods at night by yourself,” exclaimed Chief Kale. “I’m going with you.”

####

Chief Kale and Lisa pulled off the road by the path into the woods. They had stopped at the Hospital Radiology Department and picked up a survey meter. Armed with the meter and flashlights, they started into the woods.

“Okay, you shine your light ahead of us so we don’t break our necks and I’ll keep my light on the meter,” said Lisa.

After working their way into the woods, Lisa suddenly stopped. “Whoa! I’ve got something. It seems to be a narrow beam of radiation. I’m thinking, if this is coming from an industrial radiography source, we’re dealing with gamma radiation.”

“Kid, you’re starting to scare the hell out of me,” said Chief Kale.

“Gamma radiation travels in a straight line. That’s what makes it good for taking images. If I’m right, we should be able to follow this beam to its source. Let me borrow your belt, Chief.”

“What? How will I keep my pants up?”

“You only need one hand to hold your flashlight,” quipped Lisa. “Hopefully we won’t have to run”, she snickered.

Chief Kale grumbled as he took off his belt. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to fasten the meter to this stick. That way, I can keep my hands out of the radiation beam. I’m sure that the animals were suffering from repeated exposure but I don’t want to take any chances.”

“What if we get contaminated?” asked Chief Kale.

“We can’t get contaminated from this beam of radiation. Think of this as a plain old x-ray. It does its job without physically contaminating anything. You just need to be sure that you don’t get over-exposed. Timing is important. Not knowing how many other “hot” areas there may be here, we want to move quickly and not linger in any one spot. Try to stay a little behind me.”

Carefully, they followed the beam of radiation, Chief Kale holding his flashlight in one hand and trying to hold his pants up with the other.

“This is damned undignified,” he mumbled.

By pure dumb luck, there were no trees in the way to intercept the beam. They soon found themselves at the back wall of one of Sanford Technology’s buildings. There was a hole in the brick wall that had probably had an electrical conduit or pipe through it at one time. Lisa had a brief thought about how many other holes or cracks might be in the building where radiation was finding its way to the outside, exposing anything in its path.

“What in hell are they doing in there?” exclaimed Chief Kale.

“I don’t know” said Lisa “but, I think we’re on the verge of finding out.”

Chief Kale tried the door. It was locked. There was a car parked next to the other building.

“You better put your belt back on, Chief. I’d hate to have a potential suspect see you stumbling around with your pants around your ankles.”

After securely tightening his belt, Chief Kale tried the door; it was unlocked so they went in. There was a grubby looking character sitting with his feet up on a box, reading a “girly” magazine. He was startled to see them and almost fell off his chair. Chief Kale showed his badge. “Sorry to bother you. I’m Chief Kale and this is Detective Barnes.”

Lisa grinned. “Wow. Detective Barnes. Did I just get promoted?” she said under her breath.

“I’m Mike Dirt,” said the grubby looking character.

“Got that right,” thought Lisa.

Looking around the large room, Chief Kale was impressed. Large enclosures, banks of instruments, loud humming noises – right out of a science fiction story. “What do you do here?”

Pointing behind him, Mike said “We grow electronic grade crystals in these autoclaves.”

Lisa asked “Do you use radioactive materials here?”

Mike hesitated. “Uh---Yeah. We use it to take pictures through the walls of the autoclaves.”

“Mind if we take a look in the other building?” asked the Chief. Mike’s eyes darted back and forth and he suddenly became aware of the survey meter that Lisa was holding.

“I can’t let you in there. If you get hurt, it’s my butt. You’ll have to come back in the morning when the bosses are here.”

As they drove back to the police station, the Chief asked, “What do you think? I’m thinking that I need to see the judge first thing and get a warrant.”

“Yeah, there’s something not right there. More than just sloppy shielding of that radioactive source.”

####

Lisa and the Chief arrived at Sanford Technology bright and early, with a search warrant in hand. They were greeted by plant manager Harry Dawson.

“Mr. Dawson, let me get right to the point. We’re interested in your radioactive source. What can you tell me about it?” asked Chief Kale.

Mr. Dawson looked surprised. “There’s nothing illegal going on. We’re licensed to use a 10 curie Cobalt 60 source to take gamma graphs of quartz crystal while it grows inside these high pressure autoclaves.”

“And who performs that operation?” questioned Chief Kale.

“The night man, Mike Dirt usually takes care of that. He’s carried on our license as a radiographer; he’s been formally trained to perform that job.”

“Mr. Dawson, are you aware that there has been radiation escaping from your rear building? We’ve found wildlife in the woods that have become ill and died from overexposure to radiation.”

“That can’t be,” stammered Dawson. “The source is safe in a vault when it’s not being used; the gamma camera is shielded with lead when we’re making images.”

“Well, Mr. Dawson, last night detective Barnes and I followed a beam of radiation through the woods from Beaker Street right to a hole in the wall of your rear building.”

“Let me get Mike Dirt in here. I want some answers as much as you do.” Dawson picked up a phone and dialed a number. “Mike, I need you to come in here. I don’t care what you have to do. I want your butt in here now!”

“He doesn’t live far from here. He should be here shortly.” Mr. Dawson was noticeably angry.

“Does anyone else use the Cobalt 60 source besides Mike Dirt?” asked Chief Kale.

“Yes. Jerry Turner does it occasionally if Mike is off or we need to run a gamma graph during the day.” Spotting a man across the room, Dawson motioned to him. “Jerry, please come here.”

The Chief looked at Jerry, a young man of about twenty years of age. “Jerry, we’re trying to figure something out. We traced a radiation leak to the rear building last night. Do you have any idea how that could have happened?”

Jerry began to fidget and look nervously around the room. Mr. Dawson was impatient. “Speak up, Jerry. This is serious business. Tell these officers what you know.”

“Well, I know that Mike often takes shortcuts at night so he has more free time. He runs the gamma graphs without shielding on his setup at night. He saves the setup time that way. He just locks the door and stays here in the main building.”

Lisa’s jaw dropped. “I guess we just found out how the animals in the woods out back were killed.”

“Jerry, get back to work,” scowled Dawson. You and I are going to have a serious discussion when I finish with these folks.”

“Mr. Dawson, do you mind if I look at your service and audit records on the source and vault?” asked Lisa.

“I don’t mind at all. You can use my desk,” said Dawson as he pulled the file and handed it to Lisa.

“On the surface, everything appears to be fine. This log shows that the last swab test for contamination of the equipment was performed just yesterday by Mike Dirt and no contamination was found. Do you mind if I repeat the test to check it?”

“No, I don’t mind. I’ll take you to the radiation source. We move it between buildings as necessary. It’s still in the back building. Mike ran a gamma graph last night.”

The three of them stopped by the lab to pick up a survey meter, some protective gloves and a swab test kit, and walked to the rear building. Chief Kale glanced at Lisa. He was very impressed with Lisa’s knowledge and the way she took charge of the investigation. As they reached the door, Dawson led them inside.

“There’s the vault,” said Dawson. The vault was a fairly good sized lead-lined cabinet on wheels, weighing around 800 pounds. Lisa turned on the survey meter before approaching the vault. Everything appeared to be in order. She put on the gloves and opened the door of the vault. Lisa carefully pulled out the end of the guide tube which normally got fastened to a probe placed in the side of the autoclave during use. Opening the swab test kit, she took out the cotton swab and carefully swabbed around the inside of the guide tube and then checked it with the meter. The survey meter began indicating a high level of radiation.

“My God,” said Lisa. “The meter shouldn’t be detecting anything. It looks as if the isotope capsule is leaking. The guide tube is contaminated. I’m sure your gamma probe is also contaminated. Who knows where there may be more contamination. Mr. Dawson, it would be wise if you would get your people out of both buildings until they can be verified to be safe. Call the nearest HAZ-MAT office and get someone out here. You’ve got some serious problems here. Chief Kale, I’ve got a feeling that we may be close to discovering how those girls were contaminated.”

Dawson locked the door to the rear building. “I’ll get the HAZ-MAT people out here right away.”

Chief Kale scowled, “Well, it looks like our friend Mike Dirt isn’t going to show. I’ll put out a warrant to bring him in for questioning. We still don’t have proof that he contaminated the girls, or how.”

####

Chief Kale was back at his desk while Lisa went to talk to the girls to see if she could establish some sort of connection to Mike Dirt. She had been gone for a long time. As the Chief hung up his phone, Lisa walked in with a couple of coffees. She sat down and leaned back in her chair. Taking a sip of her coffee, she smiled at Chief Kale.

“Well, are you ready to hear what I’ve found?”

“We haven’t located Mike Dirt yet. I hope you have some good news.”

Lisa took another sip of coffee. “I talked to all of the girls; none of them knew Mike Dirt.” As disappointment began to show on the Chief’s face, Lisa continued her news. “But, they all knew our friend Jerry Turner. It seems that Mr. Turner graduated from the same high school. He used to consider himself “God’s gift”. He was a real player. He had a special thing for the younger girls. Before he graduated, he had dated all of our victims while they were still freshmen. It soon became evident that all he wanted was to get in their pants. A couple of the girls admitted to giving in but eventually they all told him to get lost.”

The Chief scratched his chin. “Get back out to Sanford Technology and see if you can pick up our Mister Turner.

“On my way,” said Lisa.

####

It wasn’t long before Lisa returned to the police station with Jerry Turner. It was obvious from his demeanor that he wasn’t going to be cooperative.

Chief Kale led the way into the interrogation room. “Sit down Mr. Turner. We need to have a serious talk.”

Turner was belligerent. “I haven’t done anything. I don’t have to sit down. I’ve got nothing to say. You can’t hold me. I’m out of here!”

He spun around and headed for the door. In an instant, Lisa moved in on him. She twisted his left arm into a hammer lock, grabbed his collar and slammed him face first into the wall.

“I suggest that you behave yourself Mr. Turner, or my detective will break off that arm and shove it so far up your backside that you’ll be able to scratch the back of your throat!” said Chief Kale.

Keeping pressure on his arm, Lisa grabbed the back of Turner’s pants and pulled up hard, guiding him on his tip-toes to the chair. Chief Kale had to turn his head until he could suppress his desire to burst out laughing. Nothing like being humiliated by a girl to put a punk in his place.

Taking a seat across from Jerry Turner, Chief Kale looked him straight in the eyes. It was obvious that he knew he was busted. Lisa had taken the fire out of him. He sat nervously wringing his hands, beads of sweat covering his forehead. The Chief spread photos of the girls with their burned and blistered skin in front of him.

“Do you remember these girls Mr. Turner?”

“N-n-no, I don’t think so,” he stammered.

“That’s strange,” said Lisa. “They certainly remember you.”

She tossed a lead packet on the table in front of him. “I found this in your locker at Sanford Technology. It has a couple of contaminated swabs in it.”

“Time to ‘fess up, Mr. Turner. Why did you hurt these girls?”

Turner started to talk. “I didn’t hurt the girls – me and Mike Dirt just provided the swabs.”

“Mike Dirt was in this with you? Did he poison the girls?”

“No. We gave the swabs to his sister,” stammered Turner.

“Sister?” exclaimed Lisa. “The girls told me that they didn’t recognize the name ‘Dirt’.”

“She’s Mike’s step-sister. They don’t have the same last name. Her name is Joan Harper.”

“What did she want with the contaminated swabs?”

“She told us that she needed them for a science project. She said that she was doing a study of the effects of radiation on living organisms,” said Turner.

“So, where is Mike Dirt?” asked Lisa. “He seems to have disappeared.”

Turner shook his head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the beginning of his shift yesterday.”

Chief Kale got up from his chair. “Well, Mr. Turner – I think you’re going to be our guest until we can sort this mess out.”

As the Chief locked the door to the holding cell, he turned to Lisa. “Lisa, get back to the girls and see what you can find out about this Joan Harper.

####

It was almost evening when Lisa got back to the station.

“What did you find out?” asked the Chief.

“They all knew Joan Harper. They didn’t realize that she had a brother. They did know that she was dating Jerry Turner.

“Joan Harper and the victims all had the same phys-ed class. They didn’t get along well at all with Joan. She always seemed to have a problem with them.”

“I searched her locker at school and found some lead foil packets like the ones that are in the swab test kits. I took them to Doctor Benson and he had his people in the Radiology lab check them out. They contained contaminated swabs. Some of them appeared to have make-up on them. We checked the make-up, mascara and nail polish that the girls had in their purses. Various items were contaminated with radioactive material. Joan had access to their purses in the locker room where she apparently contaminated their make-up with the swabs. It looks as though she didn’t contaminate the same items for each girl so they would appear to display different symptoms.”

The Chief finally spoke. “That is some bit of detective work, kid. Downright awesome, as a matter of fact. I never could have figured all this out on my own.”

“Awe shucks, Chief. You only say that because it’s true,” she laughed. “Seriously, since they’re both missing, it looks as if the Dirt siblings were in this together. Do we have any leads as to where they may be?”

Chief Kale shook his head. Just then, the radio came alive. “Car 2 to base. Car 2 to base, over.” Chief Kale picked up the microphone. “Car 2, this is base. What do you have, Bob?”

“I’ve spotted Mike Dirt’s car at the old Blair place on the edge of town. Damn ---- Shots fired, shots fired!”

“Stay put, Bob. Stay put. We’ll be right there!”

Before Chief Kale could put the microphone down, Lisa was already on her way out the door. She jumped behind the wheel of the Chief’s cruiser. Chief Kale got in the passenger seat and had no sooner closed the door before Lisa stomped on the gas pedal, leaving two streaks of rubber on the pavement. Lights flashing and siren blaring, they soon came to a screeching halt next to Bob’s cruiser.

“What’s our situation, Bob?”

“There were shots fired when I was talking to you on the radio. It’s been quiet since. No signs of any movement.”

Chief Kale picked up the bull horn.

“Mike Dirt, Joan Harper. This is Police Chief Kale. We need to talk. Come out with your hands behind your head.” There was no reply. The Chief tried a couple more times – no response.

“Okay. We’re going in. Keep low and keep your eyes open.” Guns drawn, they carefully made their way through the overgrown yard to the old house.

“Bob, take the back door. Lisa, cover me – we’re going in the front.”

They found Mike Dirt on the floor bleeding profusely through a wound in his chest. He was barely conscious. His step-sister Joan stood over him, an automatic pistol in her hand. Lisa made the first move – “Joan, let’s talk. Please put the gun on the floor.”

“I had to shoot him. He was going to tell what I did. I had to shoot him.”

“We know, Joan. Please put the gun down and let’s talk about it. Why did you poison the girls in your class?” Lisa slowly edged closer.

“They always thought they were better than me. So pretty. Always made up like movie stars. They won’t be pretty anymore,” she laughed nervously.

She looked at her step-brother on the floor. “Oh, Mike – I’m sorry Mike. I was afraid that you would tell. I couldn’t let you tell.”

As Joan Harper began to raise the gun to her head, Lisa dove at her, knocking the gun away and bringing her to the floor.

####

Chief Kale, Bob and Lisa sat quietly at the Chief’s desk, thinking about the day’s events and the sad outcome. What moves people to do the things that they do? The peer pressure on a young girl to compete with the perceived beauty of her classmates moved her to shoot her brother, maim her classmates and likely resulted in her being locked away for a long time.

Finally, Lisa said “Well, I guess I’d better get some sleep so I can catch up on my filing in the morning.”

“Forget the filing. There’s a new girl starting tomorrow.”

“Oh?”

Chief Kale looked at her and smiled. “Yep. Can’t have my ace detective doing that menial stuff. You did good, kid. You saved those kid’s lives and figured out what happened to those girls so they could be properly treated.”

The Chief looked into space and took a deep breath. “I remember when Winville used to be a nice place.”

Lisa smiled at him. “It’s still a nice place, Chief. Between the three of us, we’ll keep it that way.”