Chapter 34

Two hours later the sound of a key in the lock told me that the family was back. Some work had been accomplished but more was spent on thinking of Natalie. It was a difficult time to keep my focus.

The next day I spent shopping for the various businesses. Most of my activity was for the Works. Even though Bell was working on the lasers, I ordered some glass tubing, vacuum pump and another fair sized ham transmitter for RF energy. It was still much cheaper than making our own. My name now got faster service and, I think, a better price. I was not shy about buying used; as long as I could send it back if defective.

When I got back to the motor home, I wanted nothing better than a warm shower. Dr Hopps was there, though, talking with Doctor Smiles and Janice. After our greetings he said, "The school wants to see how you implant the pacemakers you made. I think it is a test of some sort. They are supplying a cadaver, if you wish to try."

Doctor smiles said, "You have never worked on a body before, Alex. Are you sure you want to try?"

"If I am going to learn, it has to be done. I am not squeamish. If it proves too much for me, then maybe you can continue."

"I can certainly do that but I think the school is trying to frighten you off or prove that you can't do what is necessary."

"There always has to be a first time."

"I will do it but we have to make some leads. Tell me what you are using." I got a short description. One was similar to what was used in the future: one wire with a single conductor had an open helix at the end, much like a screw for removing a cork from a bottle. This was inserted into a vein and threaded towards the heart. At the appropriate point it was twisted into the muscle to lock it in place.

The other method had four fins that pop out and embed themselves into the muscle of either the atrium or ventricle. This was similar to the tool used to pick up hard to get at objects. After six months they will not come out without surgery.

"I can use these but I can see some minor improvements. I want to make the leads more flexible. A clear coating over a stainless steel mesh will not only look good but doctors will buy it," I said with a smile.

Though I was tired, I walked with the two doctors to where the test was going to take place. It was cold but many people were still around to see if I could pull off a miracle for them.

I looked at the crude pacemaker I had made and then at the various leads that were supplied. I was able to attach them fairly easily. I looked around at the equipment and found the x-ray fluoroscope machine that I would need.

What I was concerned with was that I would get a good exposure to the x-ray source and my testicles would suffer the most. There was more shielding than there was before but it was still inferior to what I knew was a more stringent standard of my day.

The lead-impregnated fabric used in a dentist's chair was not used yet and I had to look around for a suitable barrier. There were some doctors around and none of them had been on the last panel. I explained my problem and asked for some metal to protect me. They made a phone call and a sheet of mild steel came in. It was not good but it certainly was better than the shielding in the machine. I gave the standards for x-ray exposure that were in effect in 2004. The doctors were incredulous of my requests and thought I was just being a child.

When I was ready, the cadaver was wheeled in. I had my own gown on, complete with a hat and a mask, as if this were an operation. The latex gloves were not tight but were the same size as I used on Lass.

When I pulled the sheet off the upper torso, I fell back in shock. The doctors were stunned. Doctor Smiles was, too but for the same reason as me.

He said, "I should have checked first. Do you want another, Alex?"

I got control of myself and said, "Place a cloth over the head. As long as I can't see, it will be possible."

The doctors asked what was wrong and Doctor Smiles explained how the corpse looked a lot like a woman I loved and who had passed away only recently. An extra lab coat was wrapped around the head and Doctor Smiles said that I could start.

One from the original panel came into the room with another right behind. The first said, "Hello Mr Kramer. Since you made quite a bit of assertions recently, perhaps you can tell me what you know of this body. When that is done you can continue with your procedure."

Even though I did not think so I said, "I will do that. Who picked this particular body?"

"I believe Doctor Hopps did."

I looked at the doctor in question and he nodded his head. "I am sorry Alex. I knew you experienced a recent loss but didn't tie it to this," he coughed to pause in consternation, "body."

"It bothers me but I will continue. Will someone transcribe to fill out the autopsy report?"

Hopps replied, "I would be glad to."

I did a visual examination. There was no way of determining the time of death. The woman was described as accurately as possible. I had only done three autopsies after leaving medical school but this was nothing new. It was not an enjoyable task either. I would have preferred this to be an old man, though.

I found contusions in many places on her body. Many were on her neck and arms. The body had lumps on the bones of the arms and possibly the ribs. I had to peal back the cloth and found a large trauma area that could be the cause of death. Before turning the body over, I asked for ten sample bags and with a scalpel scraped the material from under the fingernails making sure to label each bag where the material came from.

I steeled myself and slowly removed the lab coat. The woman was young, just a bit older than Natalie. I was glad that she had blond hair and had different facial characteristics. I examined the mouth and face. There were some recent contusions that were indicative of a fight. The inside of the lips were damaged and I noted all this for the report.

The trauma to the skull intrigued me and I used the scalpel to bring the portions of skin now in the skull to the surface. There was some gray material on one section but I did not touch it. Before saying anything more, I looked for traces of powder burns but found none. The method used was a sticky material mounted on paper or plastic that would remove any loose debris and would show any burnt powder. A microscopic examination later would show burns, if the shooter was close.

I now mentioned the bullet wound and the obvious method used to hide the trauma. The first man from the panel said, "That is where you are wrong, Mr Kramer. She died of a fall. You will never make a doctor even though you seem to put on a good act. You are much too theatrical for your own good."

I asked bluntly, "Are you an administrator or a doctor, sir?"

He was very indignant. "I was a doctor before you were born, young man. I was in the first war and served my country. I saved many men, too. I..."

I cut him off. "If you are a doctor, put some gloves on and examine this body and tell me if there is or is not some lead smears around the wound."

The man was angry again but did roll up his sleeves and donned a pair of gloves. Then he looked close and checked it three times. "That could be anything from a fall Mr Kramer. I think it impossible that it could be a bullet wound. This woman was the daughter of a very respected family in our community."

"Well, if you agree that she has some foreign substance around the wound, then let me continue with this examination. I don't appreciate your innuendo and comments till this is done." He snarled at me but did back up so I could finish.

When I was done I said, "This body had to be donated to the school for it to get here. I am telling you now that this woman was murdered." I got a lot of yelling now at my diagnosis. Most were that I was everything imaginable except a human being.

Doctor Smiles turned to the vocal group and said, "Young Alex is right. I can see that the woman lost her life to a bullet to the skull. The massive trauma was indubitably the cause of death. The head was then struck onto a solid object to make it look like a fall had done this. If we examine the brain, then we will know for sure."

I looked at Hopps. He swallowed and said, "I also agree with Mr Kramer. This woman was murdered."

Some doctors were almost frothing at the mouth and were taken out by their colleagues. I wheeled over the fluoroscope. This time we examined the skull from many angles and wrote down what each of us saw, for now we needed some witnesses. Some areas were pointed out and examined more fully. There were fragments of lead in the skull that had not had the energy to escape.

I asked, "What do we do now? There may be portions of the attacker's tissue under the cuticles. If we leave the body and the evidence, then it will not be admissible because the defence may say that somebody had substituted it. It doesn't look like that doctor is going to give us any help. I don't even know if the police already know if this woman was murdered. I feel that they would have at least collected the evidence before this.

In the end we convinced a doctor to call the police. They did come an hour later and we presented our findings. I stayed back again, so the police would be able to get the reports from two reputable doctors.

Before the police had come I suggested that the coroner come here so the evidence of the wound never leave our sight till it was taken into custody. When the doctor did come, all he had to do was view the streaks of lead around the wound and then take a look in the fluoroscope.

"Who found this first?" He said.

Doctor Hopps said, "Young Mr Kramer invented a pacemaker and he was going to show us what new features he found."

The coroner said, "He was doing an autopsy? He is only a kid."

Hopps backed me up, "Yes, a kid who made a better pacemaker, probably cured polio and perhaps found the structure of DNA, which we have been looking for, for a long time."

Doctor Smiles added, "He invented the new artificial hip that shows much more promise than the other ones we had. What does he have to do, get a Nobel Prize?"

The coroner conceded defeat and asked me what I found and how I had done it. He did ask to start all over again.

Dr Hopps started it off with my gift to the Council, then the request to show how the device was to be placed. This was to be a test, too, for I was asked to find out what I could about the body.

The objections and actions of some members of the administration were mentioned. This went into the coroner's report along with the ten bags of evidence. The police also thanked us. I think it was mainly for lining up the evidence so much. At least the university allowed me to take a hot shower even if I had to put my old clothes back on.

The next morning we visited Margarete once more and found her in pain but thinking more clearly. She thanked us all for what we had done for her. We left the two in the hospital as planned. Margarete would come home in an ambulance in five more days.

On the way out of the hospital reporters surrounded us once more. The questions now centred on the murdered woman. The girls looked at me wondering what this was all about. Mom said, "Tell me Alex. What happened?"

"I made a new and improved pacemaker. Some of the patent rights were given to the National Research Council who hold the old and original patent. Doctor Hobbs actually invented the first machine. He asked me to show him how this unit should be inserted in the human body. The school wanted to see what I knew of medicine, again and allowed me to do this simple procedure on the body of a recently deceased woman."

I paused for a moment still seeing her and the face of Natalie. In a moment I continued, "Sorry, I was thinking of Natalie. As part of the school curricula, I was asked to find out what information I could about the body. They assumed the death to be from an unfortunate accident. We had a fluoroscope for use in feeding the leads into the cardiac muscle. This we used after finding traces of lead around the trauma on the skull.

"The school quickly called the police and the coroner. They reviewed our findings and took the body away for further examination."

More questions came quickly. I answered them to the best of my ability. Eventually, when they could not think of anything good to ask, I said, "Most of you gentlemen have interviewed me before. I do not like your being rude and I do not like to be asked childish questions. If you can't think of something serious to say, keep your mouths closed so someone else can ask.

"Now I am going into my home away from home and have a coffee. You may ask Doctor Smiles here or Doctor Hopps for more details for they were working hand in hand with me."

The questions now centred on Doctor Smiles and I excused myself. In a moment we were all in except the good doctor and his wife. I felt like the person in the old Russian fable about running from hungry wolves and throwing one of their number from the sleigh to appease their pursuers and hopefully slow them down.

There was almost a full pot of cold coffee. I put a cup in the microwave and in a moment the mechanical timer rang. The door opened at that time and the good doctor came in followed by Janice and then by four of the reporters.

Doctor Smiles said, "It is nicer to talk in here than out there and there are fewer of them."

This was alright with me, so I took their coats and hung them up. I asked, "I have some coffee I can reheat, if anybody wants some."

I got some favourable comments and passed the cup in the microwave to one then got out the milk and sugar. More coffee was poured into cups and I turned the microwave on for one minute. When each cup was done I handed them out while they looked around at my home.

One of the men said, "What is that you are putting the coffee into?"

"My company made some high voltage and high current electric components much like how a transistor is made. Then we made a new magnetron that produces intense microwaves. This is what heated the water molecules in the cup and made the warm coffee hot."

"I heard of those. Aren't they supposed to be big?"

"Others make big ones that need water cooling and lots of electricity. Mine will go on every counter of every house in North America and Europe. Russia too, if they have the money."

"Don't you get cooked too?"

"I am very careful about exposure to any radiation. These units are very safe. You have my word on it."

"Show me how it works, if you would."

I did as he asked and he said, "Is that all?"

In a moment I was taking things from the fridge and cooking them for our guests. Only when they were well fed did they continue with asking Doctor Smiles about last night. In my opinion, the doctor was a bit too biassed in regards to my ability.

Over fresh coffee they talked a bit more with me and then with my family. The reporters looked at me from time to time to gauge if they were getting into the frivolous territory.

Just when the reporters were about to leave, the Minister of Health knocked on the door and Helen invited him in. Now the reporters started to ask him questions but were at least polite. They got from him that he had come to tell me of the way my examination of the night before was viewed by the school.

"In the school's opinion you did a marvellous job. It was very professional and above reproach."

"Does that mean that I get to go to pre-med if I want?"

"You are probably well past pre-med. You haven't done any written tests yet, though. They would admit you after they find what level you would be at."

"Why not skip the written work and have another verbal test? This time, we get a room full of mostly impartial teachers to ask me questions. I can get secretly graded by a hundred teachers at once."

"You are really pushing, Alex. Doctors are very conservative, especially with a patient's life at stake. I doubt if they would go for that."

"Give it a try. If I fail, I fail. If they are polite, I will be polite. They want answers from the book and I will give those answers back but I may know, or suspect, a different and better way."

The Minister and the reporters rode with us to test the motor home till we got to the outskirts of Toronto. We waited till they got a ride back in a taxi and then continued on our way back home.

We were a bit later than usual getting to North Bay because of the snow. Laura seemed to be the best at driving through this condition, as she was the best in congested traffic.

The Works got its new shipment of equipment in a few days. It was just set up, when I got a new group of boys. Half were from Toronto but some were from the States or other provinces. Beds were set up like barracks, the way the original people liked. It was near work and they could be called at any time to help. Things were just moving too fast for any of them to consider that they were living in poor conditions.

Izzy had made partitions and we had a full-time staff just to make food and do laundry.

I kept all thirty-seven of them. Derrick had prepared more contracts and the wording was explained in detail. Again, I did not want them coming to me later and saying they did not understand.

After the first few minutes of an impromptu tour I doubted if I could have evicted them, anyway. My group had worked hard to make the small laser pointer I wanted and now each of the original group sported one in his pocket. In typical nerd fashion, it was right beside their pens of various colours.

The newspaper came from Toronto with a big write-up. The husband of the dead woman had admitted the crime after the police told him that I was the one going after him. The article was fairly well written and honest the way I liked but the lie about me being after the killer still rankled me. The papers could say they hated me but they better also say that it was the paper's opinion or a reporter's.

The test at a future date was mentioned and the paper urged me to take it. Since they knew about the verbal preference and the chance of having many people marking me, they knew it would be fairer. I really wasn't too interested in taking it just yet, anyway. There was just too much to do in other fields.

Margarete had come home and was making great strides at walking. As predicted, she was much more sore than she was before but she also had expectations of the pain slowly diminishing, now. She also tested out our new walkers, which were much better than a simple cane.

The school board had given up the battle for their code of conduct and accepted everything I had written in the original text. When elections came, I would make sure that there were some people, who would do a better job, running against them. The board lawyers I would never hire. They were not blacklisted, just that I would never want to do anything with them again.

Margaret Sanger, a radically thinking nurse and Katherine McCormick, the heiress to the International Harvester fortune. She gave a considerable amount of money to get a birth control drug developed for all women. Though the money could be used, I really wanted their support. Making the 'Pill' would be easy. Getting it approved and accepted would be harder.

The drug laws at this time were lax and that was why I wanted to get as many drugs out as possible, before the process got too time consuming and expensive.

The 'Pill', though, would be illegal, even for married women in North America and perhaps all over the world. Women were seen as chattels in many ways. They could not even regulate their own bodies. The church would see sixteen children as sixteen new converts and not see the suffering that the parents had to go through to raise them. They also did not see that fewer children could be raised with more attention and resources put at their disposal. I guess sixteen poor, illiterate farmers who died young were better than two college educated people who would lead the country or the world.

A year earlier, the two women commissioned the work to be done, for nobody believed the pill to be a salable item. Gregory Pincus took the job with Doctor M. C. Chang and Doctor John Rock. This year, Carl Djerassi found progestin in yams.

Progesterone would eventually be the result. Enovid-10 was the first trade name. It was a combination of many drugs but mainly it was estrogen and progesterone, at ten times the amount needed.

What I needed both Margaret Sanger and Katherine McCormick for, was to fight for the pill's acceptance. This would be a much harder fight. She had given ten million dollars eventually and now this money could be better spent on advertising.

This time I was able to sit in a comfortable chair and just dial one number I had got through the people at Bell.

After the first hello to the party I wanted, I said, "Hello. My name is Alex Kramer. Do you have a few moments to talk to me about a new contraceptive drug I have found?"

"Certainly. Are you that boy in the papers?"

"Yes, that one. Does that make any difference in my findings?"

"No, it is just that you are so full of new things. I don't know what you are going to do next. Did you really complete this task?"

"With six months and a bit of help I can have the pill ready for tests. I already have done the basic research."

When I paused she said, "That is very good to hear. Why is it that you are personally telling me this?"

"First of all, I want no money from you. I know you are financing another study. In a few days I can present my findings to that group. I plan on marketing my product. Your money could be much better spent promoting contraceptives regardless of who makes them. The men running this world will not want this product to reach its intended targets."

"You want me to help you market your product? I see that this contraceptive is what I have long wanted but why should I help you?"