Laura forced herself to smile. "I reconsidered and called Graybridge yesterday after Mr. Chalmers and I left here, Mr. Davis. I asked them to come out at nine instead of ten to get a head start on things."
"Excellent decision, Miss Holt," Remington praised. "Getting a jump on the day, so to speak."
"I'm pleased that you're here, Mr. Steele," Davis said.
"Thought I'd just drop by, see what Miss Holt and Mr. Chalmers have come up with," Remington said as they entered the gallery which housed the more valuable pieces of Mr. Davis' collection. He missed Laura's attempt to hold him back at the doorway, not seeing the two security men working on either side of the portal.
When the alarm went off, Laura grimaced, and Remington winced, glancing at her. Davis, however, laughed softly. "Wonderful! I was wishing one of these men would show me how this was supposed to work- and here you came along and just did it."
Steele laughed, tugging at his ear in embarrassment, and grinned at Laura, recalling another time that he'd done much the same thing. "That's our Mr. Steele," Laura commented. "Always willing to jump into the middle of things with both feet."
Remington looked round the large room. "Your collection is certainly- impressive, Mr. Davis. Seeing it on paper is one thing. In person-" he said, waving toward the display before him.
"Mr. Chalmers said the same thing," Davis told him.
"Really?" Remington asked, already engrossed in the first edition of a Shakespeare play.
"Yes," Laura agreed, giving Remington a strange look. "He did."
Remington turned at the sound of her voice and gave her a smile.
"It's like being in a candy store, for a true art connoisseur," Davis said, sounding for all the world like a proud parent. "Come. Let me show it to you." He led Remington around the room before ending up at a glass covered stand with a pedestal base. On a bed of black velvet lay the Crucifix of the Chalice, its gold reflecting the sunlight from a nearby window, making it seem to glow.
"Lovely," Steele commented.
"My most valuable piece," Davis agreed.
Steele reached out a hand toward the case, but Laura stopped him with a discreet movement. "Mr. Steele- I wouldn't-"
Remington paused, looking at her, then examined the pedestal and case, quickly discovering the mechanism for the alarm. Looking at Laura again, he asked, "Electrical current into the wires in the case-" he picked out the incredibly thin wires easily. "And once armed, if the cover is touched-"
"Even the slightest jostle," Laura confirmed.
"Brilliant idea," Remington agreed.
"Mr. Chalmers' idea," Davis told him. Glancing at Laura, Remington saw that Davis' words weren't quite the truth, however. "Speaking of Mr. Chalmers, Miss Holt, I'm rather surprised to see you here today. After he called me-"
"Mr. Chalmers called?" Remington asked.
"Why, yes. Just before the two of you arrived. He wanted to let me know that he was going to be tied up longer than he had first thought on that- seminar with the police commissioner that you told me about yesterday, Miss Holt. So he promised to be here first thing tomorrow morning to inspect the security people's work." He glanced from Laura to Remington and back again. "You didn't know about it?"
"Probably missed the call in transit," Remington suggested, but he was concerned about why Daniel had cancelled the appointment with Davis. "No doubt he left a message with Miss Krebs at the office."
***
They made their apologies to Mr. Davis once the tour was over and he was satisfied that the security men were doing their jobs as prescribed. Once in the limo, Laura asked, "Well, did you see anything in there that Daniel might consider worth the risk?"
"Several things, actually," Remington confirmed absently, picking up the car phone and dialing the number for the office.
"Remington Steele Investigations," Mildred answered.
"Mildred, has Daniel called this morning?"
"Oh, Mr. Steele, yes, he did. Said he was going to be tied up at the hospital all day after all, and that he'd called Mr. Davis to-"
"He did that," Remington confirmed, cutting her off. "Did he happen to say why he was going to be at the hospital?"
"Something about more tests," Mildred said. "He sounded fine, Boss," she said reassuringly.
"He always does," Remington told her. "Mind the shop, Mildred. Laura and I will be at UCLA." He hung up the phone.
"The Medical Center, Fred," he told the driver, sitting back.
"What's going on?" Laura asked.
"Daniel told Mildred that he was going to be at the Medical Center most of the day for more tests."
"You think that he wasn't telling the truth?" Laura asked. "That maybe he's using that as a cover to plan something?"
"That's what we're going to find out," Remington said.
***
Dr. Becker's secretary pointed Laura and Remington toward the hospital cafeteria. "Dr. Becker and Mr. Chalmers went down to have an early lunch before the next round of tests," she explained.
"Next round of tests?" Remington questioned. "I thought they were scheduled to be finished this morning."
"Dr. Becker decided to go ahead and schedule a few more for the afternoon," she told him.
Laura looked at Remington's worried expression as they went toward the bank of elevators. "Maybe Dr. Becker found something encouraging and wants to check it out," she suggested.
"Maybe. Or maybe he's discovered that Daniel's worse than he thought."
"Pessimism isn't your style, Mr. Steele," Laura chided gently, grateful that they had the elevator to themselves. "What happened to the man who always saw the possibilities, hmm?"
"I DO see the possibilities, Laura. All too well."
"What did you find at Mr. Davis' that Daniel might consider worth his effort?" Laura asked, and Remington smiled gratefully at her attempt to distract him.
"I don't think he'd go after anything large. Something small, easy to conceal."
"Like that set of perfectly matched emeralds?"
"Maybe," Remington mused. "Might not be a bad idea to have the security people increase their watch on that part of the exhibit."
***
"If you want my advice, I think you should consider agreeing to the drug therapy, Daniel," Dr. Becker said sincerely. Sometime during the morning's tests, the two men had crossed the line between easy formality and first names.
"Then you think this medicine can help, Nathan?" Daniel asked, stirring his lukewarm- and perfectly awful- coffee.
"We won't know until we try. But we don't have a lot a time," Becker said honestly. "The drug's never been tried on someone with symptoms as far advanced as yours are."
Daniel coughed, then brought out his handkerchief. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. That's just another reason why we shouldn't wait. I'll need an answer by Monday, Daniel. I need to get the paperwork started to get you into the experimentation program. Why don't you discuss it with your son, see what he has to say?"
"My - son?"
Becker looked at him for a moment. "I'm sorry. I thought that you and Mr. Steele- his concern for you the other day seemed that of a son for a father than- did I read it wrong?"
Daniel smiled, coughed again.
"There they are," Laura said, pointing to a table across the room. She winced as Daniel coughed, then glanced at Remington's set features, then followed him as he headed toward the table.
When Daniel recovered his breath, he looked at his doctor. "You're very observant, Nathan. But- I'd just as soon you not mention that to- Remington."
"He doesn't know." It was a statement of fact, not a question. "You should tell him, Daniel."
"Well, if you're right about the treatment, and it works, I'll have a great deal of time to do that, won't I?"
"There are no guarantees, Daniel," Becker reminded him. Daniel pushed the Styrofoam cup holding the now cold coffee away, and Becker sighed. "As your doctor, I can't divulge anything to anyone without your permission, Daniel," he said at last.
"Thank you."
"Now, about the treatment-"
"What treatment might that be, Dr. Becker?" Remington asked.
Daniel lifted his head upon hearing that voice, his eyes searching for any sign that Harry had heard-. "Mr. Steele," Becker said, rising to offer Remington a hand. "What a surprise. And who is this lovely young lady?" he asked, smiling at Laura.
"My associate, Laura Holt. Laura, this is Dr. Nathan Becker."
Becker shook Laura 's hand, smiling at her. "So. The 'unidentified woman' in all those newspaper pictures DOES have a name," he said.
"What brings the two of you down here?" Daniel asked, hoping that Harry would be distracted by the question.
" Mr. Davis told us that you called and told him that you wouldn't be there today," Remington said. "I was - concerned," he admitted slowly.
"Nothing to worry about, Mr. Steele," Becker told him. "I just thought that it might be best if we got all of these out-patient tests overwith today. Daniel informs me that he needs to be free tomorrow- and once Monday comes around, we'll start the more invasive tests."
"Invasive?" Remington repeated.
"You were talking about a treatment when we came up," Laura reminded him. "What's that about?"
Daniel sighed, realizing that Laura was in full terrier mode and wasn't going to let it go. He waved a hand and sat back. "Why don't the two of you have seat? I won't recommend the food, Remington. It's nowhere near up to your standards."
Remington and Laura pulled chairs away from neighboring tables and sat down as Remington smiled. "I know. When I was in the hospital several months back, I had Laura bring food in from outside."
"Indeed?" Becker asked.
"Being Remington Steele does have its privileges, Doctor," Remington said. "Now, about this treatment-?"
Daniel sighed and nodded in Becker's direction. "You might as well explain it to them, Nathan. Apparently they're not going to apologize for eavesdropping and let it go away."
"We weren't eavesdropping, Daniel," Laura insisted. "We just happened to overhear the end of the conversation-"
Daniel lifted a hand to stop her explanation. "Which still boils down to eavesdropping, deliberate or not. Go on, Nathan."
Nathan cleared his throat slightly before beginning. "As I explained to Daniel, there's an experimental drug that's being tested on cases like his. It's shown great promise in early intervention- but there's been almost no testing in more advanced cases."
"You said that it's experimental?" Laura asked. "Does that mean it's dangerous in some way?"
Becker took a deep breath. "Not necessarily. Admittedly, all of the side effects aren't known yet. So far, the worst of those have been nausea- headaches, a tendency for the patient to have memory lapses- but in the majority of cases, the progression of deterioration has been halted- or at least slowed. Now, as I said, it's never been tried on a case as far advanced as Daniel's, and the longer we delay beginning, the less likely it will help at all."
"Do you have any reports on the drug, Dr. Becker?" Laura asked. "Something we could look at-?" Becker nodded in answer.
"What about a second opinion?" Remington asked.
"Really, H-" Daniel stopped himself. "Remington- Dr. Becker knows what he's doing. It's up to me to give him the go ahead."
"And you haven't done it already?" Laura questioned.
"I wanted to think about it," Daniel said.
"Mr. Steele's well within reason to ask that question, Daniel," Becker said quietly. He turned to look at Remington. "I can give you a list of other physicians to consult, if you'd like. But they're all going to say the same thing. Unless Daniel starts this treatment now, he hasn't a chance."
Remington looked thoughtful as he toyed with a packet of sugar on the plastic tabletop. Finally he looked across at Daniel. "I think you should do it, Daniel."
"We'll discuss it later, Remington," Daniel said in a firm voice. "I'll stop by the office after I finish here and we can go over all the pros and cons- How did things go at Mr. Davis' this morning?"
Nathan Becker rose from his chair. "If you three are going to talk business, I think I'll go take care of setting up this afternoon's tests." He glanced at his watch. "Fifteen minutes, Daniel. And then I'll send Nurse Reinhold to drag you upstairs."
Daniel looked almost fearful at the "threat". "I'll be there, Nathan, never fear. No need to bother the dear woman."
Becker chuckled, and nodded toward Remington and Laura before walking away from the trio.
"Nurse Reinhold is a bit of harridan, I take it?" Remington questioned, smiling for the first time since their arrival.
"Just a bit of martinet," Daniel confirmed. "Reminds me of a Sergeant I had in the Army. Detested the man."
"A veritable 'Nurse Ratchet', eh?" Remington asked. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," he explained. "Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher-" he stopped as Daniel raised a hand.
"I remember, my boy." He took a sip of the ice cold coffee. "Harry, would you mind rounding up some fresh coffee for the three of us? I believe the vending machines are in that alcove over there." His words were punctuated by a spate of coughing, but Daniel waved them both away. "I'm all right," he quickly reassured them when he was able.
Remington glanced in the direction that Daniel had indicated. "Be right back. Keep an eye on him, eh, Laura?"
"Like a hawk," she promised, watching Daniel closely. Once they were alone, she asked, "Why are you hesitating about the treatment, Daniel?"
"Perhaps I don't want to overstay my welcome," he told her. "I'm sure you'd much rather I be- out of the picture, so to speak."
Laura shook her head. "Believe it or not, Daniel, that's not true. Remington - whether or not he admits it, sees you as the father he never had. Losing you would be a major blow to him. For his sake, if no one else's, tell Dr. Becker that you'll take the drug he's offering."
"Does Harry still want to find his after, Laura?" Daniel asked.
"He hasn't mentioned it since we came back from London," she told him. "But I know how disappointed he was when the Earl of Claridge turned out not to be his father."
"Hmm. And- does it matter to you whether or not he ever finds out who he really is?"
Laura shook her head again. "He's Remington Steele. That's all I need to know."
"Good. Now, about Mr. Davis. What were you and Harry doing out there this morning?"
***
Mildred waited for the printer to fall silent, then pulled the paper from it to read the information again. It wasn't possible. Surely she'd put something into the system wrong. Made some mistake. But there it was, in black and white- Daniel had some heavy duty explaining to do. "And it had better be good," Mildred muttered.
To Be Continued . . .