Good Blood Bad Blood

DAVID hands Paul the photo. There is a sense of controlled excitement about him.

DAVID:

You were right. They are puncture marks, but very peculiar ones. Very peculiar, indeed. The marks on her neck are bite marks.

PAUL:

Bite marks. From what?

The pathologist's brow wrinkled in consternation.

DAVID:

That's where it gets peculiar. Look here and here.

(he points at two yellow circles on the photo)

You can just make out additional subcutaneous bruising indicating two incisors and a molar.

Squinting and moving his head until the light is at just the right angle, Paul manages to make out the faint images on the photo.

DAVID:

Do you see them?

PAUL:

Yes. I think so.

DAVID takes the picture back and stares at it in disbelief.

DAVID:

Those marks were made by human teeth, Doctor Thorsson, in a human mouth.

PAUL takes back the photo and holds it up in front of himself.

PAUL:

Human? But the puncture wounds --

DAVID:

Are too small and too deep to be made from human canines. I quite agree. These canines are long and tapered like a cat's, but with little or no curvature.

PAUL looks up slowly from the picture.

PAUL:

(incredulous)

What are you trying to say, David?

DAVID:

Nothing. I'm just telling you what I found.

PAUL:

But you're suggesting --

DAVID:

I'm not suggesting anything, Paul. I'm just showing you the photograph you sent me.

A sudden knock on the door interrupts them. PAUL motions for David to hide the photo. DAVID tucks it inside his coat.

PAUL:

Come in.

Enter ROBERT TOLMAN, the head pathologist at the lab. His specialties are immunology and serology. All lab reports bear his signature at the bottom whether or not he has personally performed the tests.

ROBERT:

Good morning, Paul, David.

(he makes a strange face at Paul)

Are you busy?

PAUL:

I guess not.

(he indicates a chair to the right)

Sit down. What brings you down to ER?

ROBERT:

One of your patients. A young woman by the name of Isabel.

PAUL:

Yes. A beating victim. What about her?

ROBERT:

How's she doing?

PAUL:

I don't know. She's gone.

ROBERT:

Gone? You checked her out?

PAUL:

Her doctor did.

ROBERT:

Her doctor?

PAUL:

Her personal physician. From Mexico City. He checked her out earlier this morning.

DAVID:

And you approved this?

PAUL:

No. I didn't. I just found out about it a moment ago. In fact, that's what I was inquiring about when David interrupted me.

ROBERT:

(absently)

Just when it was getting interesting.

PAUL:

What's that?

ROBERT:

I said it was just getting interesting.

ROBERT pulls a folded paper from his pocket.

ROBERT:

Have you seen this?

PAUL glances at it briefly.

PAUL:

Her blood analysis report? Yes. A couple days ago.

ROBERT:

This one came across my desk this morning. It's the follow-up to the admission tests.

PAUL shakes his head.

PAUL:

No. I haven't seen that one yet.

ROBERT:

Perhaps you'd better look at it.

He hands the page to Paul who begins reading it.

ROBERT:

Notice anything peculiar?

PAUL continues reading.

PAUL:

Like what?

ROBERT shakes his head and waits impatiently for Paul to finish reading.

ROBERT:

Well?

PAUL:

Nothing. White count is normal, glucose, platelets, everything normal.

ROBERT:

Everything?

PAUL:

(beginning to get peeved)

Yes everything. What exactly is it you're driving at, Doctor?

ROBERT:

What's the HIV indicator?

PAUL:

(finds it)

Negative. So?

ROBERT:

(waits a beat)

When she was admitted it was positive.

David and Paul are both incredulous.

PAUL:

That's not possible.

DAVID:

There must be an error in the test results.

ROBERT:

I ran them again as soon as I saw the results. Twice. She is HIV negative.

PAUL:

Perhaps the first results were wrong?

ROBERT:

I thought of that. Luckily we still had some of her initial draw left.

DAVID:

And?

ROBERT:

I ran that sample twice also. She was definitely HIV positive when she was admitted.

PAUL:

How can that be?

ROBERT:

I was hoping to ask the patient.

DAVID:

That makes two mysteries.

ROBERT:

Two mysteries?

PAUL:

(frowning at David)

I don't think --

DAVID removes the photo from his coat and offers it to Robert.

DAVID:

This is a photo of the girl's neck that Paul took yesterday morning.

ROBERT studies the photo carefully.

ROBERT:

Puncture wounds?

DAVID:

Correct.

ROBERT:

And the yellow circles?

DAVID:

Evidence of subcutaneous bruising from --

ROBERT:

Teeth. It's a bite. From what?

PAUL:

David believes the marks were made by a human mouth.

ROBERT:

These are not human canines.

DAVID:

No. They're not.

PAUL:

(with an obvious note of sarcasm)

Apparently David is suggesting --

ROBERT:

Yes.

(he looks from one of them to the other)

Yes. I don't believe it, but it all makes sense.

PAUL:

What makes sense?

DAVID:

If you can make sense of any of this, please enlighten us.

ROBERT:

(excitedly rising to his feet)

Don't move. Don't go anywhere.

He turns and starts for the door.

ROBERT:

(as he is exiting)

I'll be right back.

ROBERT exits closing the door behind him. PAUL snatches the photo up from the desk.

PAUL:

Are you crazy? It's bad enough you try to influence me with that stuff. Now you've got the head of pathology involved as well.

DAVID:

I made no attempt to influence you or Doctor Tolman in any way. All I did was present the facts.

PAUL:

As you see them.

DAVID:

As they are. How do you see them any differently?

PAUL:

Well, for one thing. I don't believe in... in vampires.

DAVID:

I didn't say anything about vampires.

PAUL:

Well you certainly implied --

DAVID:

I didn't imply anything. I just showed you the photo --

PAUL:

And Tolman. You showed the photo to Tolman, too. Why in the hell did you have to show it to Tolman?

DAVID:

I thought maybe he could help explain it. It seems I was right.

ROBERT rushes into the office with a rather large, leather-bound volume in his hands.

ROBERT:

(out of breath)

Had to get this from my library.

ROBERT spreads the book open on Paul's desk and begins flipping through the pages.

PAUL:

What is that?

Finally, ROBERT stops and points at the page.

ROBERT:

Yes. Here it is.

DAVID:

Here's what?

ROBERT:

This is an article about the peculiar and very unique immune system of the vampire bat.

PAUL:

Vampires again.

(to David)

See what you've started?

ROBERT:

Yes. Vampires. Consider this. If your only sustenance came from consuming blood from other creatures you would be susceptible to whatever they carried in their blood, right?

PAUL:

Yes, I suppose so.

ROBERT:

So your immune system would have to have some way of protecting you from whatever disease or infection that blood might contain.

DAVID:

Like anthrax?

PAUL gives him a questioning look.

DAVID:

Cows.

PAUL:

Of course.

ROBERT:

Precisely!

DAVID:

But anthrax is a bacterium, bacillus anthraces. HIV is a virus.

ROBERT:

Rabies is a virus. Yet the bats that carry the disease

(tapping the page)

are unaffected by it. Their system is immune to it.

PAUL:

You're talking about bats. The girl wasn't bitten by a bat.

ROBERT:

I know.

PAUL:

You can't possibly believe --

ROBERT:

Belief has nothing to do with it. Look at the evidence. You said in the admissions report that this girl comes from a village so isolated, so cut off, even the language is unchanged since the time of the Maya.

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