‘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 a 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