“Maureen has only given me one slide of the liver so far,” Jack said. “And that’s the only granuloma I found, so my guess would be that there aren’t a lot. But I did see one on the frozen section. Also on the frozen section were tiny collapsed cysts on the surface of the liver which would have been visible to the naked eye. The transplant team must have known and didn’t care.”

“At least there’s no general inflammation,” Laurie said. “So the transplant was being tolerated pretty well.”

“Extremely well,” Jack said. “Too well, but that’s another issue. What do you think that is under the pointer?”

Laurie played with the focus so that she could visually move up and down in the section. There were a few curious flecks of basophilic material. “I don’t know. I can’t even be sure it’s not artifact.”

“Don’t know, either,” Jack said. “Unless it’s what stimulated the granuloma.”

“That’s a thought,” Laurie said. She straightened up. “What did you mean by the liver being tolerated too well?”

“The lab reported that Franconi had not been taking any immunosuppressant drugs,” Jack said. “That seems highly improbable since there is no general inflammation.”

“Are we sure it was a transplant?” Laurie asked.

“Absolutely,” Jack said. He summarized what Ted Lynch had reported to him.

Laurie was as puzzled as Jack. “Except for identical twins I can’t imagine two people’s DQ alpha sequences being exactly the same,” she said.

“It sounds like you know more about it than I do,” Jack said. “Until a couple of days ago, I’d never even heard of DQ alpha.”

“Have you made any headway as to where Franconi could have had this transplant?” Laurie asked.

“I wish,” Jack said. He then told Laurie about Bart’s vain efforts. Jack explained that he himself had spent a good portion of the previous night calling centers all over Europe.

“Good Lord!” Laurie remarked.

“I’ve even enlisted Lou’s help,” Jack said. “I found out from Franconi’s mother that he’d gone off to what she thought was a spa and came home a new man. I’m thinking that’s when he might have gotten the transplant. Unfortunately, she has no idea where he went. Lou’s checking Immigration to see if he’d gone out of the country.”

“If anyone can find out, Lou can,” Laurie said.

“By the way,” Jack said assuming a teasingly superior air. “Lou ’fessed up that he was the source of the leak about Franconi to the newspapers.”

“I don’t believe it,” Laurie said.

“I got it from the horse’s mouth,” Jack said. “So I expect an abject apology.”

“You’ve got it,” Laurie said. “I’m amazed. Did he give any reason?”

“He said they wanted to release the information right away to see if it would smoke out any more tips from informers. He said it worked to an extent. They got a tip which was later confirmed that Franconi’s body had been taken under orders from the Lucia crime family.”

“Good grief!” Laurie said and shuddered. “This case is starting to remind me too much of the Cerino affair.”

“I know what you mean,” Jack said. “Instead of eyes, it’s livers.”

“You don’t suppose there’s a private hospital here in the United States that’s doing undercover liver transplants, do you?” Laurie asked.

“I can’t imagine,” Jack said. “No doubt there could be big money involved, but there is the issue of supply. I mean, there’s seven thousand plus people in this country waiting for livers as it is. Few of these people have the money to make it worthwhile.”

“I wish I were as confident as you,” Laurie said. “The profit motive has taken over American medicine by storm.”

“But the big money in medicine is in volume,” Jack said. “There are too few wealthy people who need livers. The investment in the physical plant and the requisite secrecy wouldn’t pay off, especially without a supply of organs. You’d have to postulate some modern version of Burk and Hare, and although such a scenario might work in a B movie, in reality it would be too risky and uncertain. No businessman in his right mind would go for it, no matter how venal.”

“Maybe you have a point,” Laurie said.

“I’m convinced there’s something else involved here,” Jack said. “There are just too many unexplained facts from the DQ alpha nonsense to the fact that Franconi wasn’t taking any immunosuppressant drugs. We’re missing something: something key, something unexpected.”

“What an effort!” Laurie exclaimed. “One thing is for sure, I’m glad I foisted this case onto you.”

“Thanks for nothing,” Jack quipped. “It’s certainly a frustrating case. On a happier note, last night at basketball, Warren told me that Natalie has been asking about you. What do you say that we all get together this weekend for dinner and maybe a movie, provided they don’t have any plans?”

“I’d enjoy that very much,” Laurie said. “I hope you told Warren that I was asking about them as well.”

“I did,” Jack admitted. “Not to change the subject, but how was your day? Did you make any headway in figuring out how Franconi managed to go on his overnight? I mean, Lou telling us that a crime family was responsible isn’t telling us a whole bunch. We need specifics.”

“Unfortunately, no,” Laurie admitted. “I was caught in the pit until just a little while ago. I’ve gotten nothing done that I’d planned.”

“Too bad,” Jack said with a smile. “With my lack of progress, I might have to rely on you providing the breakthrough.”

After promises to talk with each other by phone that evening, specifically about the weekend plans, Laurie headed to her own office. With good intentions she sat down at her desk and started to go through the lab reports and other correspondence that had come in that day involving her uncompleted cases. But she found it difficult to concentrate.

Jack’s generosity in crediting her with providing the breakthrough in the Franconi case only made her feel guilty for not coming up with a working hypothesis about how Franconi’s body was taken. Seeing the effort Jack was expending on the case made her want to redouble her efforts.

Pulling out a fresh sheet of paper, Laurie began to write down everything Marvin had related. Her intuition told her that Franconi’s mysterious abduction had to involve the two bodies that went out the same night. And now that Lou had said the Lucia crime family was implicated, she was more convinced than ever that the Spoletto Funeral Home was somehow involved.

Raymond replaced the phone and raised his eyes to Darlene who’d come into his study.

“Well?” Darlene asked. She had her blond hair pulled back into a ponytail. She’d been working out on an exercise bike in the other room and was clothed in sexy workout gear.

Raymond leaned back in his desk chair and sighed. He even smiled. “Things seem to be working out,” he said. “That was the GenSys operational officer up in Cambridge, Mass. The plane will be available tomorrow evening so I’ll be on my way to Africa. Of course, we’ll stop to refuel, but I don’t know where yet.”

“Can I come?” Darlene asked hopefully.

“I’m afraid not, dear,” Raymond said. He reached out and took her by the hand. He knew he’d been difficult over the previous couple of days and felt badly. He guided her around the desk and urged her to sit on his lap. As soon as she did, he was sorry. She was, after all, a big woman.

“With the patient and the surgical team, there’ll be too many people on the plane on the return trip,” he managed, even though his face was becoming red.

Darlene sighed and pouted. “I never get to go anywhere.”

“Next time,” Raymond croaked. He patted her on her back and eased her up into a standing position. “It’s just a short trip. There and back. It’s not going to be fun.”

With a sudden burst of tears Darlene fled from the room. Raymond considered following her to console her, but a glance at his desk clock changed his mind. It was after three and therefore after nine in Cogo. If he wanted to talk to Siegfried, he felt he’d better try now.