The Fibromyalgia Factor

By Theresa Covington

There is something awful going on in the town of New Sanford. The people who live there are coming down with a strange illness known only as virus F-7. Dr. David Carter comes to town for his uncles funeral and meets up with Rachel James, the medical transcriptionist who worked at the New Sanford Clinic with his late uncle. Dr. David Carter replaces his late uncle at the clinic and together they investigate Vorchang Pharmaceutical Company, the new owner of the clinic, to discover why anyone who inquires about virus F-7 either ends up dead or missing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 21, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462822034

Theresa Covington

Theresa Covington is a work-at-home medical transcriptionist who suffered with fibromyalgia for many years before reading a book and finding the cure. Theresa lives in Sanford, Florida with her husband, Matt and dog and cat, Shiloh and Midnight.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Dr. Raymond Carter is very worried because almost everyone he has confided in about virus F-7, the strange illness that is affecting the people of new Sanford, is now either dead or missing. It’s a rainy, dreary Friday afternoon. It’s late in the day, and everyone has left the New Sanford Medical Clinic except for Dr. Carter.

Dr. Carter is very upset because he cannot speak to Mr. Huoang who is out of the country, a trip back to China to the main office, according to the secretary. Mr. Huoang is the head of Vorchang Pharmaceutical Company’s satellite office in New Sanford, and Vorchang Pharmaceutical has been the owner of the New Sanford Clinic for almost six months now. Mr. Huoang is Dr. Carter’s boss.

Dr. Carter wants to talk to Mr. Huoang about this strange illness. He now believes that Chen Huonag knows more than he is letting on. Dr. Carter does not know what else to do.

After a few minutes of deep thought, Dr. Carter hears a creak out in the hallway. He goes out and checks, but no one is around. It gives him the creeps. Dr. Carter thinks it must just be the storm outside. Dr. Carter is thinking about what the late police chief, Paul Lawton, had told him.

Paul Lawton was a very close friend of Dr. Carter since they met about 20 years ago. That’s how long Dr. Carter has been working at the New Sanford Medical Clinic. Over those years Dr. Carter has never seen anything like what has been happening over the last two weeks. Almost everyone in this town is getting sick from virus F-7. This mysterious virus is totally incapacitating the people of New Sanford. They have virtually no energy and everything hurts all the time to the point they can hardly get out of bed.

Dr. Carter reported the contagious virus in New Sanford to the Center for Disease Control to Dr. Jacob Adams. He had told Dr. Carter to be very careful about whom he talks to. Also Dr. Adams told him he would contact him in person in a few days, but it has been a week now and Dr. Carter still has not heard from him.

Dr. Adams had referred to this mysterious illness as virus F-7 and had told Dr. Carter that when he contacts him he will know it is he because of certain code words they would use. Dr. Adams also told Dr. Carter not to mention virus F-7 to anyone else or his life could be in danger.

Also Police Chief Paul Lawton had told Dr. Carter that he believed that the New Sanford Police Department has been infiltrated. Yesterday, on the day of his death, Paul Lawton found out that the reports he had made to the state were never sent. Paul Lawton did mention that he was working with an investigator on the police force, but Dr. Carter could not remember his name. Dr. Carter hopes that this detective will contact him.

Paul Lawton was going to go to Vorchang Pharmaceutical yesterday to talk to Mr. Huoang, and that was the last that Dr. Carter had heard from him. Today Dr. Carter received a call from the coroner’s office telling him of Paul Lawton’s death in a hit and run accident yesterday. Dr. Carter was notified because he was Paul Lawton’s primary care doctor.

Also a newspaper reporter from the New Sanford Herald who was very interested in talking to Dr. Carter about some information he found out did not show up this morning for their meeting. When Dr. Carter called he found out that the reporter is now nowhere to be found, and his wife is worried sick about him.

Dr. Raymond Carter is really starting to feel uneasy. He decides to warn his nephew, David, from Wisconsin because he is also involved in this. He tries to call David, but the phone line is dead, probably the storm he tells himself. Dr. Carter also needs to warn Rachel, his medical transcriptionist. Rachel knows what has been going on lately because of the patient’s medical records and what they had discussed.

Dr. Carter hears the floor creak again and goes into the hallway, nothing but silence. He calls out, Is anyone there? There is no answer, but he feels very uneasy, and Dr. Carter decides to leave a message in case anything should happen to him. He shuts his office door and starts dictating a message for Rachel to transcribe. Dr. Carter is almost finished when he hears the doorknob rattle. He takes out the tape and throws it into a box of blank tapes and puts another partially dictated tape into the machine.

Just then the door bursts open. Dr. Carter is relieved and says, I thought there was an intruder in the building. I am so glad it’s you because I need to talk to you. These are the last words to ever come out of Dr. Carter’s mouth. He dies instantly from a gunshot to the head.

Chapter 2

Rachel James is still in shock over Dr. Carter’s death. She loved him like a father. Rachel had known Dr. Carter long enough to know that there is no way he would take his own life. They had a talk last week when a patient suffering from this strange illness that is affecting everyone had committed suicide. Dr. Carter had a strong Christian faith and was looking forward to an afterlife with his wife and daughter who were killed in a plane crash years ago. Rachel knew there was no way Dr. Carter was going to mess that up by killing himself, but his death is being considered a suicide.

Rachel has just arrived at the New Sanford Memorial Gardens where a memorial service is being held for Dr. Carter. She has to park in the back of the parking lot by the woods. Rachel has never been here before. She is impressed by how beautiful this place is and thinks how peaceful it would be if it were not so packed.

There is standing room only. Dr. Carter had a lot of friends. He was the doctor that all the patients loved and requested. Most of these people are from out of town though. Most of Dr. Carter’s friends from New Sanford are too sick with the mysterious illness to get out of bed.

It is a very hot day at the end of September, a real scorcher. There are several people taking turns speaking about Dr. Raymond Carter, but Rachel cannot concentrate on what they are saying. Her head is pounding from a bad headache, and she is feeling dizzy from hardly eating anything since she heard of Dr. Carter’s death.

There is a man speaking about how the good a man does in his life can outweigh the sin of suicide. Rachel wants to scream to everyone that this is not true, Dr. Carter did not commit suicide, and someone must have murdered him.

Rachel decides she needs to leave the memorial service before she passes out. She decides to go back to her car and sit in the air conditioning before she tries to drive. Rachel heads to the back of the parking lot by the woods and as she approaches her car, she sees a man and yells, Hey, what are you doing?

The man spots her at the same time and runs into the woods. At the same time another man gets out of a car nearby and runs after the fleeing car thief. The stranger tackles the car thief, but the guy has a knife and after slashing the stranger’s arm, the car thief runs off.

Rachel runs over to the man and asks, "Did he