promised me the body was gone. Some job he did!’
The phone rang and Raymond jumped.
‘Do you want me to answer it?’ Darlene asked.
Raymond nodded. He wondered who could be calling so early.
Darlene picked up the phone and said hello followed by several yeses.
Then she put the phone on hold.
‘It’s Dr. Waller Anderson,’ Darlene said with a smile. ‘He wants to come
on board.’
Raymond exhaled. Until then he’d not been aware he’d been holding his
breath. ‘Tell him we’re pleased, but that I’ll have to call him later.’
Darlene did as she was told and then hung up the phone. ‘At least that
was good news,’ she said.
Raymond rubbed his forehead and audibly groaned. ‘I just wish everything
would go as well as the business side.’
The phone rang again. Raymond motioned for Darlene to answer it. After
saying hello and listening for a moment, her smile quickly faded. She
put the phone on hold and told Raymond it was Taylor Cabot.
Raymond swallowed hard. His already irritated throat had gone dry. He
took a quick swig of water and took the receiver.
‘Hello, sir!’ Raymond managed. His voice was still hoarse.
‘I’m calling from my car phone,’ Taylor said. ‘So I won’t be too
specific. But I have just been informed of the reemergence of a problem
I thought had been taken care of. What I said earlier about this issue
still stands. I hope you understand.’
‘Of course, sir,’ Raymond squeaked. ‘I will . . .’
Raymond stopped speaking. He took the phone away from his ear and looked
at it. Taylor had cut him off.
‘Just what I need,’ Raymond said, as he handed the phone back to
Darlene. ‘Another threat from Cabot to close down the program.’
Raymond put his feet over the side of the bed. As he stood up and
slipped on his robe, he could still feel the remnants of yesterday’s
headache. ‘I have to go find Vinnie Dominick’s number. I need another
miracle.’
By eight o’clock Laurie and the others were down in the ‘pit’ starting
their autopsies. Jack had stayed in the ID room to read through the
records of Carlo Franconi’s hospital admissions. When he noticed the
time, he went back to the forensics area to find out why the chief
investigator, Bart Arnold, had not come in that day. Jack was surprised
when he found the man in his office.
‘Didn’t Janice talk to you this morning?’ Jack asked. He and Bart were
good enough friends so that Jack thought nothing of marching right into
Bart’s office and plopping himself down.
‘I just came in fifteen minutes ago,’ Bart said. ‘Janice was already
gone.’
‘Wasn’t there a message on your desk?’ Jack asked.
Bart started to peek around under the clutter. Bart’s desk looked
strikingly similar to Jack’s. Bart pulled out a note which he read
aloud: ‘Important! Call Jack Stapleton immediately.’ It was signed
‘Janice.’
‘Sorry,’ Bart said. ‘I’d have seen it eventually.’ He smiled weakly,
knowing there was no excuse.
‘I suppose you’ve heard that my floater has been just about conclusively
identified as Carlo Franconi,’ Jack said.
‘So I’ve heard,’ Bart said.
‘That means I want you to go back to UNOS and all the centers that do
liver transplantation with the name.’
‘That’s a lot easier than asking them to check if any of their recent
transplants is missing,’ Bart said. ‘With all the phone numbers handy I
can do that in a flash.’
‘I spent most of the night on the phone with the organizations in Europe
responsible for organ allocation,’ Jack said. ‘I came up with zilch.’
‘Did you talk to Euro Transplant in the Netherlands?’ Bart asked.
‘I called them first,’ Jack said. ‘They had no record of a Franconi.’
‘Then it’s pretty safe to say that Franconi didn’t have his transplant
in Europe,’ Bart said. ‘Euro Transplant keeps tabs on the whole
continent.’
‘The next thing I want is for someone to go visit Franconi’s mother and
talk her into giving a blood sample. I want Ted Lynch to run a
mitochondrial DNA match with the floater. That will clinch the identity,
so it will no longer be presumptive. Also have the investigator ask the