| General Fiction posted August 15, 2025 | Chapters: |
2 3 -4- 5... 
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Lunch and payment for Bo's participation
A chapter in the book Beating the Devil
Beating the Devil - Chapter 4
by Jim Wile
| Background A cancer researcher invents an early cancer detection system. |
Recap of Chapter 3: Brian calls his partner in the project, Abby Payne, whom he had worked with previously on a national emergency. She is as baffled as he about the results of the most recent test. He tells her of the plan to use the dog to verify the accuracy of the data from the test, and she thinks it’s a good idea.
Maddy and Bo arrive at the Kendricks’ the next day to perform the verification test on the breath samples Brian had collected over the last three days. Bo does very well, detecting VOCs from 22 of the 25 rats who had cancer and no others, which confirms to Brian that there has been some contamination to 10 others that skewed the results. He hasn’t yet determined the source of contamination, but it proves that Abby’s modeling is correct after all.
Chapter 4
“Maddy, won’t you stay for lunch? I’ve got a big pot of chili on the stove and some cornbread,” said Julia.
“That sounds wonderful. Thank you. You have a lovely home, by the way. How long have y’all lived in Cherryville?”
Brian said, “We used to live in Charlotte up until six years ago when we decided we liked the slower pace of country life, so we built this house. Many of the friends we made from Julia’s band live nearby. We love it out here.”
“Julia, if you don’t mind my asking, how is it that a famous violinist like yourself has ended up playing in a bluegrass band?”
“Why don’t I tell you that story over lunch? Kids, wash your hands, please. Then we’ll head out to the Florida room and eat there.
The Florida room faced east and overlooked the Kendricks’s big backyard, which featured a beautifully landscaped patio area with a koi pond fed by a continuously running waterfall. Beyond the half-acre of lawn in back, the yard was bordered by dense woods.
While Julia poured the chili into a large tureen, Brian filled a bowl with water for Bo and placed it in a corner of the kitchen. After drinking his fill, Maddy instructed him to stay, and he curled up on the floor for a snooze.
When everyone was eventually seated in the Florida room and bowls of chili and the cornbread had been passed out, Johnny said, “Momma, tell Miss Maddy the story of how Uncle Willy asked you to join his band now.”
“Thank you, Johnny. Yes, I’m dying to know,” said Maddy.
“Okay. It was one afternoon about 10 years ago when Brian and I decided to stop at a bookstore and coffee shop. It was a beautiful spring day, so we sat outside in back to drink our coffee, and there was a little bluegrass band playing a concert for the folks on the patio. After a while, the fiddle player got ill and had to quit in the middle, so Willy, the band leader, jokingly asked the audience if there was a fiddler in the house. I wouldn’t have said anything, but Brian encouraged me to go up there, so, on a whim, I decided to. Willy was surprised because he said it as a joke, but I picked up the fiddle the fiddler had left and started playing with the band. I didn’t know the music, but I just listened to it and was able to pick up the melodies and join in.
“Now, Willy’s quite a musician, and he recognized me but didn’t let on. He asked me in front of the crowd if I’d ever played professionally before, and I said I’d made one or two CDs. Then he asked my name, and when I told him, he said, ‘Wait, you’re not the Julia Kendrick who’s the world-famous violin soloist who plays concerts all over the world, are you?’ So, I said, ‘Uh, maybe.’ Then he introduced me to the audience and asked me if I would play something for them. I played a couple of minutes’ worth of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and the crowd loved it. Then, in front of the audience, Willy gave me his business card and, tongue-in-cheek, asked me if I’d like to join his band, so I gave him mine and said, ‘Maybe I’ll take you up on that one day.’ And one day, I did.”
“My goodness, what a story!” said Maddy, laughing. “Do you think either you or your band would be willing to play a concert at one of the assisted living facilities that Bo and I visit for therapy sessions? I’m sure it would pay you for it.”
“We’ve done that a number of times. I’ll talk to Willy about it and let you know.”
“Daddy, could we get a dog just like Bo?” asked Lindsay, changing the subject.
“Hmm, first Pete and now Repeat,” said Brian. “Johnny asked me the same thing. Alright, Maddy, how does one go about getting a purebred Labrador Retriever puppy?”
“Well, I’ll email you the contact information for the dog breeder I got Bo from. He’s a very reputable one. He should have several to choose from.”
“That would be great. Thank you.”
When lunch was over, Brian said to Maddy, “I would like to pay you for your help today, Maddy. Would—”
“The only payment I will accept is to have Julia play something for me if that isn’t too steep a price.”
“Oh, Maddy, I’d be happy to. Why don’t we just leave these dishes for later and head back into the family room where we practice and play?”
When they had moved into the family room, Maddy said, “Could you play what you played for the crowd at the coffee shop? I’d love to hear that.”
“Sure.” After Julia spent a moment tuning, she launched into Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and played for about three minutes.
“That was beautiful, Julia. I’ll never forget that.”
“Momma, could we play ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ for Miss Maddy?” asked Johnny.
Julia looked questioningly at Maddy.
“Oh, I’d love to hear that!”
“Yes!” said Johnny with a fist pump. “I’m getting a lot faster now.”
“So, are you a big Earl Scruggs fan, Johnny?” asked Maddy. “He lived near here, you know.”
“Yeah, he lived in Shelby. I’ve been to the Earl Scruggs Museum there.”
While he chattered away about the father of modern banjo-playing with its three-finger picking style, he and Julia got out their banjos, put on their picks, and began the classic banjo tune. When they’d played the melody through a few times at moderate speed, Johnny stopped and said, “Momma, why don’t you play it super-fast now?”
Julia picked up the pace considerably as her fingers flew over the strings. She played it a few more times at high speed, finishing it in an upper register. Everyone applauded wildly.
Maddy said, “Now, I don’t know which one I enjoyed more. You certainly are talented in both, Julia, and Johnny, you are a terrific banjo player too. And you’re only six!”
“Yeah, I’m pretty good. I’m not as good as Momma but allllmost.”
Laughing, she said, “Well, I certainly enjoyed the concert, but now I think it’s time for Bo and me to head home. This has been a very rewarding and fun day. I was thrilled to help you, Brian. You have a beautiful family here. If you ever need any more help, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“I appreciate that, Maddy. You and Bo have truly set my mind at ease, and your contribution has been exceptional. You’ve done an amazing job training Bo. I can’t thank you enough for coming and helping me out today.”
The kids said goodbye to Bo and got in their final pats. Then the whole family stood on the front porch and waved goodbye to their guests.
Brian called Abby that night after the kids had gone to bed. “Well, it’s good news and bad news. The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with your algorithms. Bo was able to correctly identify 22 of the 25 samples from the rats who had been given the aflatoxin-treated water and none of the others, including the 10 who tested positive in the breathalyzer test. I feel confident he identified all the ones there were to identify since his nose is just about as accurate as the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer I’ve been using.”
“And the bad news?”
“It must be due to contamination, but I haven’t figured out yet where it’s coming from.”
“What are the possible sources?” asked Abby.
“The most likely are either the breathalyzer filters or the tenax sorbent tubes that are also in the breathalyzers. The filters remove water vapor, dust, and other particulates before the breath passes through the tenax sorbent tubes, which trap the VOCs and concentrate them.”
“Could it have been a single contaminated box of one or the other that could be responsible?”
Brian had previously put a lot of thought into this very question and decided that couldn’t have been the case.
“Probably not. The distribution of results doesn’t support it. If that were so, we would see the false positives clustered closely together, but instead they are relatively evenly distributed among rats 26-100. There are 20 filters per box, and five boxes were used for the test. Same for the sorbent tubes. That says to me there were a few contaminated ones in each box.”
“So, what could account for that?”
“I suppose there’s always the possibility of a manufacturer’s defect, but I know for a fact there is terrific quality control in the facilities that make those.”
Brian stood and sighed. He hesitated a few seconds before continuing. “I hate to say it, but sabotage is the more likely reason. I would guess that about three per box of 20 would account for the results we saw.”
“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, but that thought occurred to me too,” said Abby. “Any idea where the sabotage might have taken place?”
“I’ve thought about that a lot too, and it was probably right here by one of my two lab assistants.”
“Oh, Jesus, Brian. Not this again!”
Brian Kendrick: A 41-year-old neuroscientist and cancer researcher
Julia Kendrick: Brian's 41-year-old wife. She is also a world-class violinist.
Johnny Kendrick: Their 6-year-old son
Lindsay Kendrick: Their 3-year-old daughter
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother
Madison (Maddy) McPhail: Owner of Bo
Bo: Maddy McPhail's cancer-sniffing therapy dog
Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant
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© Copyright 2025. Jim Wile All rights reserved.
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