Chapter 5

Martin unlocked his office. He switched on his computer and removed papers from his case. His phone rang. “Hello?”

“Doctor Lang -- Dean Barnes wants to see you.”

“Okay, Margot. When?”

“Right away.”

“I’ll be there.”

He hung up the phone and headed for the dean’s office. “Go right in, Doctor Lang,” Catherine said.

“Martin -- have a seat.”

“What’s on your mind, John?”

The dean narrowed his eyes and regarded him. “Martin -- is something going on between you and Irene Wagner?”

“We’re friends,” he replied. “What would make you think...”

“Catherine let slip that she saw Irene’s car parked in your drive on Friday night. It seems she was driving past your neighborhood.”

“Is Catherine keeping an eye on me?” Martin asked.

“It caught her eye -- a silver Prius ... with Pennsylvania plates. Hard to miss.”

Martin sighed. “All right -- yes. I had her over for some drinks. We were talking ... shop.”

“Catherine said she saw the car in the same spot the following morning.” Martin felt his blood pressure rising. “Martin -- you know my feelings on these things. The last thing we need is to turn this school into Peyton Place. I know there’s nothing I can do to prevent you two from fraternizing. I’m offering some advice. In my opinion, these things are fraught with danger. Personally, I’d rather have Carmen Miranda do a flamenco on my back -- in stilettos -- than risk one of these affairs. If you two are romantically involved...”

“There is no romance,” Martin protested. “We had some drinks ... she decided to sleep over rather than drive all the way to East Colton that night.”

“If you say there’s no romance, Martin -- I believe you. In fact, the notion of you mentoring her has some appeal to me. I’ll tell you something else. I shouldn’t be saying this but I know you can be discreet and keep it between us. If I had my druthers, I wouldn’t have offered her the post.”

“No? Why not? She seems fully competent.”

“Competent in a book-learning way, Martin. When it comes to the bread and butter of this school, she’s pretty green. Greener than I would expect for someone with her years of experience.”

“Why did you offer her the post, then?”

“Believe it or not, she was the strongest candidate ... of a pretty thin field. She’s here on a two-year contract. If she doesn’t come up to the mark -- we’re cutting her loose.”

“Understood. I’ll watch out for her.”

“Thank you, Martin. We really would prefer to see her succeed than go through another search.”

He stepped from John Barne’s inner office and cast a sideways glance at his secretary. Then, he headed for his own office.

Irene awaited him there. “I saw your note,” she said. “Really, Martin -- it’s just as easy to compose an email as it is to slap a sticky note on my door. What did you want to see me about?”

“I have Shawna’s first sensitivity study here.” He laid a piece of paper on his desk.

“Yes.”

“Did you look at this?”

“I did -- I thought the numbers looked good.”

“They look too good.” He looked in Irene’s eyes. “These figures have been fudged, Irene. Look...” He turned his computer display so she could view it. “I punched them into this spreadsheet. The correlation is near ninety-five percent. I don’t know an awful lot about antibiotic sensitivity studies, but I know enough. The methodology she’s using can’t possibly give results this consistent. If I were doing a peer review of a paper with these figures, that sort of correlation would send so many red flags flying I’d think I was at a cold-war Kremlin parade.”

She began to blush. “I ... I see what you mean,” she said. “If you’d like, I can run the study myself.”

He shook his head. “Only as a last resort. This needs to be Shawna’s work, Irene. You’ll need to have a talk with her ... do some mentoring. Okay?”

“Okay ... I’ll have a talk with her.”

“Make sure she understands we’re not looking for pretty -- we’re looking for the truth. True facts are what make science.”

“Yes, I know. I’ll have a chat with her.” Irene turned and left his office.

Martin sat at his desk and began reading a paper. He looked up and saw Irene standing before him again. “What?” he asked.

“I’m going to volunteer some more,” she replied. “Martin -- I don’t know how to talk to Shawna. I don’t know how to deal with graduate students. I’ve never had one before.”

“You’ve been a prof for eight years and never had a graduate student?”

She shook her head. “My first post was really more of a lecturer than a professor,” she explained. “And when I was at Pitt, I wasn’t sought out by any students ... nor did I go seeking any. I always wanted to teach, Martin. I like the classroom dynamic. I like giving lectures and interacting with students ... making up and grading quizzes and tests...”

“I saw the list of papers to your credit.”

“Did you look up the full citations?”

“No.”

“I’m the only author on all of them. They’re all based on work I did myself. I enjoy lab work, too ... it’s sort of a release for me. I’d go in between classes and putter around. Something would arouse my curiosity and I’d run some experiments. I got some publications out of it.”

“Shows some initiative.”

“It wasn’t enough. This is one of the reasons I left Pitt.”

“How so?” he asked.

“I know you think I ran away from something there...”

“That you committed some crime? Killed someone or ran off with the donut fund?”

“In fact, I left Pitt because I was told there is no way I would be offered tenure. I wasn’t being offered tenure because I didn’t play the research game. Not the way they wanted it played, at least. I never got into writing grant proposals, preparing research projects ... I just did my own little putzing around.”

“If you’re going to succeed here, that is something you will need to master,” Martin replied. “This place is just as intense as Pitt in that regard ... more so, maybe.”

“I know. I realize that. I know it’s something I need to do or else my career will be a dead end. I suppose you’ve mastered it.”

“I am an old pro at it, Irene. I’ll be more than happy to mentor you. I’ll show you all the tricks that are in the book and a few that aren’t.”

“This is the first real research project I’ve been on -- and Shawna is my first ever grad student.”

“Irene -- Dealing with Shawna is simply another form of teaching. How will the next generation of researchers know how to do research if no one shows them?”

“Don’t you like doing lab work, too?”

“I don’t get a chance to do any of it these days. Besides Geoff I have three other grad students, all working on diverse projects. I’m more of a traffic cop than a researcher.”

“Give me some advice,” she said, “on how to approach her.”

“Explain to her about scientific bias and how counterproductive it is. It’s why drug testing is done double-blind -- to eliminate the chance of observational bias. Show her the proper technique. Look at her notebook. Make sure she’s taking good, contemporaneous notes.”

Irene smiled and nodded. “Got it. I know just how to broach the subject to her, now.” She headed out his door.

“Irene,” he called after her.

“What?”

“Are we on for tonight?”

“Sure.”

“Dinner and a movie? The cinephile society is showing Cactus Flower. It ought to be innocuous enough.”

“Okay ... Here at five?”

“Fine. Oh, Irene...”

“What?”

He closed the door to his office. “We’re going to have to be more discreet.”

“What do you mean?”

“John Barnes called me into his office for a talk. It seems Catherine saw your car at my place on Friday and again on Saturday. What the hell she was doing cruising my neighborhood no one explained to me. She’s a busy-body, Irene -- and she won’t protect any of us. In fact, I think she enjoys playing one of us against the other.”

“Oh, God! What did the dean say?”

“He gave me his usual warning about intramural romances. I told him there was no romance -- that I invited you for drinks -- which is true, we did have some drinks. And I told him you decided to stay the night -- which is true, you decided to do so.”

“So you blamed it on my ... alcoholic tendencies?”

“I didn’t blame it on anything. I simply suggested ... and he bought it. Would you rather he comes to a different conclusion?”

“I suppose not. What do you think we should do?”

“There’s a one-car detached garage and a parking pad behind the house. Now that the coldest weather is behind us, I’ll shovel the snow out of the parking pad and put my car there. You can pull yours into the garage. Then it’ll be out of sight.”

“Okay.”

“And -- by the way. You’re overdue for getting your car registered in this state.”

Martin sat at his desk during his office hours. Another Friday had rolled around and he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering to the upcoming evening.

“Knock-knock.” Irene stood in Martin’s office doorway.

“Come in. I was just thinking about you.”

“I have Shawna’s do-over of the sensitivity test,” she said.

“Let’s see it.”

“I emailed it to you.”

He turned to his desktop computer and brought up the material. “Yes ... This looks much better. How did you handle it?”

“I spoke to her about observational bias. She was disturbed because she thought she was seeing too many outliers -- so she adjusted the figures. Just like you observed, Martin.”

“It’s not the first time I’ve seen a student cook the numbers.”

“I made up the standard dilutions, but I didn’t label the flasks with the concentrations. I labeled them, A, B, C and so on. I also added a couple of distilled water and a couple of known antibiotics and put them in the mix. Then I had her run the study.”

“The old blind test,” he remarked.

“Afterwards, we sat down and went over the results. It was a revelation to her. There was nothing wrong with her technique -- it’s simply the nature of the beast.”

“Excellent job of mentoring,” Martin said.

Irene smiled. “I’m happy with myself. I’m starting to enjoy this.”

“So, are we on for tonight?”

“You know next week I’m traveling to San Francisco for the microbiology conference. I had to beg and plead with Dean Barnes for him to green light the trip, but I managed to persuade him.”

“What does that have to do with tonight?”

Irene bit her lip and gazed at the floor. “Martin -- I think I need to volunteer some more to you. Is there a place where we can talk in private?”

“How about finding a booth down at the Coffee Pot?”

“Okay. I’ll get my coat.”

He locked his office and the two walked down the hill to a small coffee bar on the corner of the street where he lived. He ordered two tall lattes and they sat in a corner booth at the back of the shop.

“Martin,” she said, “I don’t quite know how to start...” She sighed. “The thing is -- there’s another.”

“Another?”

“Another man.”

He felt his heart sink. “Are you telling me that this whole time you’ve been seeing another man?”

“No. I haven’t been seeing anyone. It’s more complicated that that. Do you know Paul Tomlinson?”

Martin shook his head. “I don’t.”

“He’s another microbiologist at UCSD.”

“San Diego?”

“Yes. He and I met at the microbiology conference three years ago. We hit it off and we’ve been corresponding ever since.”

“So, you’re going to San Francisco to hook up with Paul.”

“That’s not the only reason, but it is on my agenda. Do you know Doctor Gregory at Weir?”

“Yes, I know Pete Gregory. He’s the head of the natural sciences department there.”

“Did you know he’s retiring?”

“I had heard that.”

“It’s been in the works for a couple of years. Paul studied under Doctor Gregory, who hand-picked him to be his successor.”

“Weir is only about an hour away from here,” he remarked.

“Actually, it’s only twenty minutes from East Colton.”

Martin nodded. “That’s why you found an apartment there.”

“It’s equally inconvenient to both Weir and this place,” she replied.

“You must’ve had this in the works for some time.”

“Yes. My contract was up at Pitt. When I learned about Paul’s opportunity at Weir I applied to schools nearby. I applied there, too; but I was accepted here.”

“And, you two would be together at last.”

Irene nodded. “But -- there was a kink in the plan. The Weir board of regents wasn’t ready to rubber-stamp Doctor Gregory’s choice. They formed a selection committee, and the committee passed over Paul for someone else.”

“The best laid plans,” he remarked.

“I was devastated. Fortunately, he heard about this before tendering his resignation at UCSD.”

“But, after you had already committed to coming here.”

“Correct. I couldn’t stay at Pitt, anyway. My contract was up and not being renewed.”

“So, Paul is stuck there and you’re stuck here.”

“That’s right. God, Martin -- I can’t believe how calmly you’re taking this.”

“I remember the terms of our arrangement,” he replied. “Just for fun, no strings ... we can see other people. I agreed to those terms so I must abide by them. I’m not happy about this, though. Why didn’t you mention any of this to me before now?”

“Because I didn’t think it had any bearing on our friendship. I can’t do a long-distance relationship, Martin. I just can’t. I need the physical intimacy. When it became clear that Paul wasn’t coming here...”

“You weren’t near the one you love, so you loved the one you’re near.”

“ ... I thought it was over with him. I thought it was just another in a long string of disappointments for me. Physical contact is something I NEED, Martin. It’s like food to my soul. I wasn’t simply using you. Please, believe that. I really enjoyed our times together...”