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covered her hair; its two ends hung to her waist. Her speech was crisp and quick with the hint of a lisp.
    “All we were likely to do,” she said, “was add god-knows-what infection on top of her heart failure, so we gave her a referral to come back on Monday to see our cardiologist, but the two sisters were the first patients in the waiting area Sunday morning—one catatonic, the other, as it turned out, suicidal.”
    “Sisters,” suggested Benedict. “Mightn’t they have the same dementia gene?”
    “They might, but what’s the statistical likelihood of it coming to full bloom in both in the same twelve hours?”
    Lucy suggested, “Stress! Sadie was sick, Lilly was scared, and you sent them home?”
    “But Sadie’s vitals were normal! I sent my head nurse to check her out, and her vitals were normal! Nurse Gomez diagnosed sudden-onset white hair.”
    Al said, “My nana suffered sudden-onset red hair.”
    “But what is suddenly driving every one of our older patients around the bend?”
    Benedict asked, “And where exactly do we come in?”
    “Mr. Bernstine has advanced the possibility that there might be entities that have an interest in manipulating—let’s call it Alzheimer’s—into an epidemic.”
    “Joe!” cried Benedict, “An Alzheimer’s epidemic! Better than the common cold!” Now, Benedict knew better than to air an office joke in public, but it irked him that the pretty doctor continued to keep her intelligent eye on Uncle Joe Bernstine.
    “Ordinarily, as Mr. Bernstine says, all you would do is wonder, but now you think, what if in twelve months, we’resitting in a congressional hearing and someone asks ‘How come you didn’t connect the dots?’ ”
    Benedict said, “What if they ask why you didn’t report an epidemic to the Centers for Disease Control?”
    “Because,” Joe said, “at the moment there isn’t anything to report. You,” he said to Benedict, “will research types of dementia and the known causes of each.”
    “About these entities,” Benedict asked Joe. “How are they understood to be manipulating what happens inside the confines of the ER?”
    “That’s what we are going to find out,” Joe said. “Legionnaires’ disease was spread through the air conditioning. Water can be contaminated. There are rats, mosquitoes; bio- and radiological hazards. There are odorless gases. The person who, some years back, tampered with pill bottles is at large. So is the sender of anthrax through the mail. Lucy, we’ve arranged for you to spend the night in the ER to look around.”
    “What am I looking around for?” Lucy was worried.
    “Dots and entities,” said Benedict.
    Joe said, “Lucy, I remember our Venice trip. It got to be a joke, your telling us what the rest of us had been looking at and never noticed? You’ll check in as a regular patient and observe what you observe.”
    “And I’ll be on night duty,” Dr. Haddad said.
    Joe said, “I’ll check myself in in the morning and cover the next twelve day hours. Lucy, Benedict will show you how your new cell phone works, in case we need to contact you. Benedict, Beth, Al, you’ll see Dr. Haddad’s husband,Salman Haddad, in security. He will infiltrate you into the Social Service department. You’ll interview the incoming sixty-two-pluses. Dr. Haddad, might there be a holding area where we could isolate the patients who have, and who may, become demented? Meanwhile, if you see Lucy in the ER, you don’t know her,” Joe said. “For the moment we will keep what’s going on under wraps. No use alarming the hospital population till we have something to report. Rumor and speculation would be counterproductive. But I would like to set up a meeting with the the principals.”
    “In my husband’s office on the fourth floor of the Seymour D. and Vivian L. Levi Pavilion,” proposed Dr. Haddad.
    Lucy said, “Just show me how to answer a cell phone. When would I ever need to make a call?”
    “ Mom!