Most Wanted (7 page)

“I really like Dr. Davidow,” she said. “He took me seriously, but he didn't become alarmed.”

“There's no reason for alarm.”

“He told me that if there were any problem with our donor, they would take the sperm off the shelves.”

“Really.” Marcus lifted an eyebrow, and Christine leaned over, pulled her laptop into her lap, and pressed
ENTER
to wake it up.

“Yes, they take the donation off the shelf if the kids are born with a clubfoot or a lazy eye, stuff like that.”

“Interesting.”

“Agree.” Christine felt she had redeemed herself, knowing something he didn't. She navigated out of the Nutmeg Hill website and back to Homestead's, plugging in Donor 3319 into the search function. She had checked it every fifteen minutes until she had fallen asleep. “He said that it probably wasn't a problem if his sperm was still available.”

“That makes sense.”

“He and I checked together, and it was still available.” Christine clicked the link for Donor 3319, but froze when she read the screen. The entry for Donor 3319 had been changed. Now it read:
Sperm Temporarily Unavailable! Sorry!

“Oh my God, no,” Christine said, stricken.

 

Chapter Six

“Who are you calling?” Christine asked, as Marcus pressed a number into his cell phone. Still in his towel, he had gone for his phone as soon as he'd seen that the sperm was unavailable. He didn't seem upset, only determined, but Christine was panicking. Her mouth was dry, her heart was pounding. She kept refreshing the laptop screen, thinking there must have been some mistake with the website.

“I'm calling Homestead.”

“But they work through Davidow.”

“Homestead sold us the sperm and they're going to answer to us.” Marcus brought the phone to his ear.

“Don't you think we should call him first?” Christine couldn't think clearly. Her emotions tumbled one over the other: fear, disbelief, agony, shock. She didn't know if she was making too much of it, or too little. She felt sick to her stomach again, not knowing if it was from her pregnancy, the turn of events, or both.

“I'm not going to ask anybody for permission to find out what I need to know.”

“Not for his permission, just to see if he talked to them.” Christine didn't even know why she was fussing at him. Marcus was great in an emergency, a logical thinker with an innate mechanical sense. He was tailor-made to be an architectural engineer, working every day to make buildings functional and structurally sound, and he had endless patience for calculating stresses and loads, as well as hammering out the details of electrical, heating, plumbing, and energy efficiency systems, which had become a growing specialty of his firm.

“Davidow must have called Homestead. It's too coincidental that our donor comes off the shelves after you phoned him.”

Christine couldn't deny that Marcus might be right. Still, she couldn't collect her thoughts.

Marcus said into the phone, “Hello, my name is Marcus Nilsson, and my wife conceived about two months ago using Donor 3319. I would like to speak with someone in charge about him. Yes, I'll hold for the assistant director.”

Christine sat straighter in bed, trying to get her act together. “Can you put it on speaker?”

“Yes.” Marcus hit the
SPEAKER
button, then a woman's voice came on the line.

“Mr. Nilsson, this is Lee Ann Demipetto. How may I help you?”

“My wife conceived using sperm from Donor 3319 and she is almost two months pregnant. We saw a news report today that a man named Zachary Jeffcoat was arrested for serial murder in Pennsylvania, and my wife is concerned that he is our donor. Now we see that Donor 3319's sperm has been taken off the shelves. We'd like to know if Donor 3319 is Zachary Jeffcoat.”

“Mr. Nilsson, we usually deal with your healthcare provider—”

“I understand that, but I'd like you to deal with me.” Marcus kept his tone firm and controlled. “Is Donor 3319 Zachary Jeffcoat?”

“Mr. Nilsson, I did have a phone conversation tonight with Dr. Davidow, and he told me of your concerns. We are going to investigate this matter, and we agreed that in an abundance of caution, we would remove 3319 from our general inventory of available donors.”

“You didn't answer my question. Is Donor 3319 Zachary Jeffcoat or not?”

Christine tried to stay calm while she listened. Her panic was giving way to stone cold fear. If Marcus was worried, then she was really worried.

“Mr. Nilsson, I'm sorry, but we cannot disclose that information. If you review the contract you signed with Homestead—”

“I didn't sign any contract.”

“I have the file in front of me, and you did sign a contract. I'm looking at a scanned copy of your signature and your wife's signature. It would've been given to you by Dr. Davidow or one of his associates.”

Christine remembered their signing the contract, four pages of fine print, probably in her file. She didn't remember reading it, but she would've signed anything to get a baby.

“Mr. Nilsson, do you recall that contract now? Paragraph 27 of your agreement clearly states, ‘Homestead will not under any circumstances release identifying information on our donors to any other party, including the parents of individuals conceived using Homestead donor sperm.'”

“So you're not going to answer my question?”

“No, I can't. The terms of our contract with you are clear. In addition, we have a contractual relationship with 3319, which states explicitly that we promise to keep his identity anonymous, under any and all circumstances.”

“So you really won't tell me?” Marcus raised his voice.

“I'm legally bound to 3319 not to.”

“Legally bound to a serial killer, over a paying customer? Over
us
?”

“In any event, Mr. Nilsson.”

Christine's heart hammered. Demipetto sounded so final, her voice rich with authority, as if she had been ready for the call.

“Mr. Nilsson, our legal requirement that we keep confidential the identity of our sperm and egg donors is the cornerstone of Homestead and every other bank in the country. In addition, 3319 stated explicitly in his interview that he did not want his identity revealed because of his parents' religious beliefs, which conflicted with his own.”

Marcus scoffed. “What kind of religious beliefs does a serial killer have?”

“I understand your concern, and we hope that you will understand our concern. Homestead helps over twelve thousand women a year to conceive, and the integrity of our process is of paramount importance to us. The keystone of our system is the anonymity of our donors—”

“Can you at least tell me his birth date?”

“No.”

“Place of birth?”

“No.”

“When did he make the donation?”

“I can't disclose that.”

“Can you verify that he's in medical school? He had been accepted when he filled out the form.”

“The information we are given by our donors is verified, to the extent possible, at the time of donation. We do not keep ongoing tabs on our donors, and you can understand how updating this information would be beyond our means.”

Christine felt herself slump backwards against the headboard, suddenly weak. She tried to wrap her mind around what she was hearing, the shock settling into her very bones.

“No, I
don't
understand that,” Marcus shot back, irate. “I think that's your responsibility. I own a business, and I stand behind my relationships to my clients.”

“Homestead is not a business,
per se
—”

“Of course it is. You charged me for the sperm. What screening do you do for your sperm donors, specifically?”

“We screen for chlamydia, HIV one and two, hepatitis B, gonorrhea, hepatitis C, syphilis. We do genetic screening for cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy, and various hemoglobins for thalassemia. We do a standard CBC and chem panel. Our sperm samples meet current FDA and Tissue Bank licensing protocol at the time of release, which you will see at paragraph 17 of your contract and—”

“I'm not talking about blood panels. This is a situation where someone is arrested for serial killing. Do you do criminal-background checks?”

“Yes.”

“You checked our donor's criminal record?”

“Yes, or he would not have been approved for donation.”

“So Donor 3319 had no criminal record?”

“As I said, no one is approved with a criminal record.”

Marcus shook his head. “That doesn't answer my question, but okay.”

Suddenly a text alert sounded on Christine's phone, and she glanced at the screen. The banner showed it was Lauren, and the text read,
Call Me. The website is changed
. Christine picked up the phone and texted back,
On it
.

Marcus was asking Demipetto, “Do you do psychological checks?”

“We screen for immediate family with a mental illness, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. You can see that in the online donor profiles.”

“But that relies on the donor's say-so.”

“Yes, and we note that in every donor profile, including 3319's. It reads, ‘The above family and medical history, and all other information, has been self-reported by the donor. We work with each donor to obtain as complete and accurate information as possible, but we are unable to completely rule out the existence of health or other information that is not known or that remains unreported to us.'”

“You're missing my point. This isn't health information.”

“True, but this falls within ‘other' information, such as a subsequent arrest or even any other adverse occurrence, such as a donor who developed alcoholism or a substance-abuse problem, as well as late-onset cancer or any other illness. This is not something we warrant against, nor could we be expected to—”

“But a serial killer is somebody with major psychological problems. A
sociopath
.” Marcus raised his voice, but only slightly. “How could you
not
pick that up? What testing do you do for psychological problems?”

“Homestead uses Myers-Briggs—”

“Myers-Briggs is an employment test.”

“It's used in a variety of applications to classify temperament, which is something that many of our sperm and egg recipients are interested in—”

“But any idiot can see which is the right answer to yield the right result. If I answer yes to the questions about liking people and making friends easily, I'm an extrovert. Anybody smart enough to be a serial killer knows how to manipulate that test.”

“We can't be expected to account for intentional deception—”

“Then how are we protected? How can we have confidence in your product?” Marcus raked his wet hair back with his hand. “Is Donor 3319 even a medical student? Did you check that out, or did you just take his word for it?”

“We ascertained, at the time of his application and interview, that 3319 was accepted as a medical student to an accredited medical school. I can assure you, we will begin our investigation of this matter tomorrow—”

“How long does it take you to
investigate
?” Marcus threw up his free hand. “You have a file, a list somewhere that tells you exactly the identity of Donor 3319. It will take you three minutes to look that up. You probably know the answer to this question right now. Tell me if it's him or not.”

“I can't do that, Mr. Nilsson.”

“Is that why you took him off the shelves? Because you looked up the file and you saw that Donor 3319 is Zachary Jeffcoat?”

Christine didn't want to think about what Marcus was saying, about the implications. He was acting like it was true. Like they wouldn't have taken it off the shelves if it wasn't true. Like they wouldn't tell the truth because they wanted to keep it secret. And the only way they'd want to keep it secret was if Donor 3319 really was Zachary Jeffcoat. Murphy lifted his head from his paws, watching her.

“Mr. Nilsson, we removed 3319 from general inventory out of an abundance of caution. That same is true, I might add, of the other samples you purchased, which are stored in our tanks and reserved for you.”

“What other samples?” Marcus frowned, confused, but Christine knew what Ms. Demipetto was talking about. When they had picked Donor 3319, they'd bought the standard set of three vials, in case the pregnancy didn't take the first time. They were paying storage fees on the two remaining vials; Christine had just written the check.

“Mr. Nilsson, I will direct you to paragraph 15 of your agreement, where it states, ‘I understand that Homestead reserves the right to retain any samples that I have purchased if an unforeseen situation arises where, at the complete discretion of Homestead, it is necessary to do so. In such an event, Homestead shall not reveal the reason for retaining the samples, if issues of confidentiality or other privacy issues are involved. In the event that Homestead retains any samples that I have purchased, Homestead shall refund the cost of the samples but will not refund any storage fees I may have paid.'”

“So this is an ‘unforeseen circumstance'?”

“Certainly, it would fall easily within an ‘unforeseen circumstance.' We share your concerns.”

“No you don't. You can't. You're protecting your donor. My wife is pregnant. We're the ones left holding the bag, so to speak.”

Christine cringed, hearing the way Marcus talked. She never thought about the baby that way. She didn't know he thought about it that way.

“Let me ask you this,” Marcus was saying. “How long have you been using Donor 3319's sperm?”

“We don't disclose that information.”

“What about other women who use his sperm? There have to be others.”