Raymond called the manager’s home. The housekeeper put Siegfried on the line.

“Things still going okay?” Raymond asked expectantly.

“Perfectly,” Siegfried said. “My last update on the patient’s condition was fine. He couldn’t be doing any better.”

“That’s reassuring,” Raymond said.

“I suppose that means our harvest bonuses will be forthcoming,” Siegfried said.

“Of course,” Raymond said, although he knew there would be a delay. With the necessity of raising twenty thousand cash for Vinnie Dominick, bonuses would have to wait until the next initiation fee came in.

“What about the situation with Kevin Marshall?” Raymond asked.

“Everything is back to normal,” Siegfried said. “Except for one incident when they went back to the staging area around lunch time.”

“That hardly sounds normal,” Raymond complained.

“Calm down,” Siegfried said. “They only went back to look for Melanie Becket’s sunglasses. Nevertheless, they ended up getting fired at again by the soldiers I’d posted out there.” Siegfried laughed heartily.

Raymond waited until Siegfried had calmed down.

“What’s so funny?” Raymond asked.

“Those numbskull soldiers shot out Melanie’s rear window,” Siegfried said. “It made her very angry, but it had the desired effect. Now I’m really sure they won’t be going out there again.”

“I should hope not,” Raymond said.

“Besides, I had an opportunity to have a drink with the two women this afternoon,” Siegfried said. “I have a feeling our nerdy researcher has something risque going on.”

“What are you talking about?” Raymond asked.

“I don’t believe he’ll be having the time or the energy to worry about smoke from Isla Francesca,” Siegfried said. “I think he’s got himself involved in a ménage à trois.”

“Seriously?” Raymond asked. Such an idea seemed preposterous for the Kevin Marshall Raymond knew. In all of Raymond’s dealing with Kevin Marshall he’d never expressed the slightest interest in the opposite sex. The idea he’d have the inclination and stamina for one woman let alone two seemed ludicrous.

“That was the implication I got,” Siegfried said. “You should have heard the two women carrying on about their cute researcher. That’s what they called him. And they were on their way to Kevin’s for a dinner party. That’s the first dinner party he’s ever had as far as I know, and I live right across from him.”

“I suppose we should be thankful,” Raymond said.

“Envious is a better word,” Siegfried said, with another burst of laughter that grated on Raymond’s nerves.

“I’ve called to say that I’ll be leaving here tomorrow evening,” Raymond said. “I can’t say when I’ll arrive in Bata because I don’t know where we’ll refuel. I’ll have to call from the refueling stop or have the pilots radio ahead.”

“Anyone else coming with you?” Siegfried asked.

“Not that I know of,” Raymond said. “I doubt it because we’ll be almost full on the way back.”

“We’ll be waiting for you,” Siegfried said.

“See you soon,” Raymond said.

“Maybe you could bring our bonuses with you,” Siegfried suggested.

“I’ll see if it can be arranged,” Raymond said.

He hung up the phone and smiled. He shook his head in amazement concerning Kevin Marshall’s behavior. “You never know!” Raymond commented out loud as he got up and started from the room. He wanted to find Darlene and cheer her up. He thought that maybe as a consolation they should go out to dinner at her favorite restaurant.

Jack had scoured the single liver section Maureen had given him from one end to the other. He’d even used his oil-immersion lens to stare vainly at the basophilic specks in the heart of the tiny granuloma. He still had no idea whether they were a true finding, and if they were, what they were.

Having exhausted his histological and pathological knowledge with respect to the slide, he was about to take it over to the pathology department at New York University Hospital when his phone rang. It was Chet’s call from North Carolina, so Jack asked the appropriate question and wrote down the response. Hanging up the phone, Jack got his jacket from the file cabinet. With the jacket on, he picked up the microscopic slide only to have the phone ring again. This time it was Lou Soldano.

“Bingo!” Lou said cheerfully. “I got some good news for you.”

“I’m all ears,” Jack said. He slipped out of his bomber jacket and sat down.

“I put in a call to my friend in Immigration, and he just phoned me back,” Lou said. “When I asked him your question, he told me to hang on the line. I could even hear him entering the name into the computer. Two seconds later, he had the info. Carlo Franconi entered the country exactly thirty-seven days ago on January twenty-ninth at Teterboro in New Jersey.”

“I’ve never heard of Teterboro,” Jack said.

“It’s a private airport,” Lou said. “It’s for general aviation, but there’s lot’s of fancy corporate jets out there because of the field’s proximity to the city.”

“Was Carlo Franconi on a corporate jet?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know,” Lou said. “All I got is the plane’s call letters or numbers or whatever they call it. You know, the numbers and letters on the airplane’s tail. Let’s see, I got it right here. It was N69SU.”

“Was there any indication where the plane had come from?” Jack asked as he wrote down the alphanumeric characters and the date.

“Oh yeah,” Lou said. “That’s gotta be filed. The plane came from Lyon, France.”

“Nah, it couldn’t have,” Jack said.

“That’s what’s in the computer,” Lou said. “Why don’t you think it’s correct?”

“Because I talked with the French organ allocation organization early this morning,” Jack said. “They had no record of an American with the name of Franconi, and they categorically denied they’d be transplanting an American since they have a long waiting list for French citizens.”

“The information that Immigration has must correlate with the flight plan filed with both the FAA and the European equivalent,” Lou said. “At least that’s how I understand it.”

“Do you think your friend in Immigration has a contact in France?” Jack asked.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Lou said. “Those upper-echelon guys have to cooperate with each other. I can ask him. Why would you like to know?”

“If Franconi was in France I’d like to find out the day he arrived,” Jack said. “And I’d like to know any other information the French might have on where he went in the country. They keep close tabs on most non-European foreigners through their hotels.”

“Okay, let me see what I can do,” Lou said. “Let me call him, and I’ll call you back.”

“One other thing,” Jack said. “How can we find out who owns N69SU?”

“That’s easy,” Lou said. “All you have to do is call the FAA Control Aviation Center in Oklahoma City. Anybody can do it, but I’ve got a friend there, too.”

“Jeez, you have friends in all the convenient places,” Jack remarked.

“It comes with the territory,” Lou said. “We do favors for each other all the time. If you have to wait for everything to go through channels, nothing gets done.”

“It’s certainly convenient for me to take advantage of your web of contacts,” Jack said.

“So you want me to call my friend at the FAA?” Lou asked.

“I’ll be much obliged,” Jack said.

“Hey, it’s my pleasure,” Lou said. “I have a feeling that the more I help you the more I’m helping myself. I’d like nothing better than to have this case solved. It might save my job.”

“I’m leaving my office to run over to the University Hospital,” Jack said. “What if I call you back in a half hour or so?”

“Perfect,” Lou said before disconnecting.

Jack shook his head. Like everything else with this case, the information he’d gotten from Lou was both surprising and confusing. France probably was the last country Jack suspected Franconi to have visited.