It had been reassuring to see that Karl was willing to help her. But now Pam dreaded the call she expected from him. Two weeks had passed since she’d given him the samples, so he’d be getting the results of the experiment any day now. And there was no guarantee that any of those samples were the real thing, not just junk from Holly’s freezer.

She was trying to make herself read a book when her phone rang. Her stomach knotted. It was Karl. She started to answer the call, but couldn’t do it. What if it’s more bad news?

The phone said there was a missed call. And yes, then a voicemail. Alright, let’s get it over with. Her grip on the phone tightened as she pressed the button to listen.

“Pam, call me back. I’ve got good news.”

Good news? Could this be it? She hastily returned the call.

Karl didn’t waste time on greetings. “Pam, you won’t believe it! One of the samples you gave me works just like you published. You have to come see for yourself. You’ve been right all along.”

An enormous sense of relief washed over her. “Are you sure?! I mean, this is wonderful but it almost seems too good to be true.”

“Yes, I’m sure.” He chuckled. “Do you think the old man has forgotten how to do experiments? I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but I wanted to be sure we got definitive results. So I set up two separate experiments and also included samples of the aneurinide we got from the Langmere, just to test it again too. There’s no question about the results. The aneurinide we had from the Langmere did nothing, but one of the compounds you gave me blocked plaque formation and the brain cells are perfectly healthy. But don’t take my word for it. You need to see this for yourself.”

“My God, Karl, this is great. Yes, I do want to come see the cultures. I’ll get a flight out this afternoon and be there tomorrow, okay?”

“Sure, that’d be great. Wait’ll you see these results. And then we’ll sit together and plan what to do next, how to bring this nightmare to an end.”

Finally, progress. Whatever was in that tube really was a drug against Alzheimer’s. A start to getting my life back. If we can just figure out what it is. And what went wrong.

She called Jake, who said he’d be right over to celebrate. Then she booked the first flight out.