studying with Jack’s. Without a word, he scanned it for all of one
minute.
Raising his head, Dr. Malovar put a drop of oil on the slide and
switched to his oil-immersion lens for higher magnification. Once again,
he examined the slide for only a matter of seconds.
Dr. Malovar looked up at Jack. ‘Interesting!’ he said, which was a high
compliment coming from him. Because of his hearing problem, he spoke
loudly. ‘There’s a small granuloma of the liver as well as the cicatrix
of another. Looking at the granuloma, I think I might be seeing some
merozoites, but I can’t be sure.’
Jack nodded. He assumed that Dr. Malovar was referring to the tiny
basophilic flecks Jack had seen in the core of the granuloma.
Dr. Malovar reached for his phone. He called a colleague and asked him
to come over for a moment. Within minutes, a tall, thin, overly serious,
African-American man in a long white coat appeared. Dr. Malovar
introduced him as Dr. Colin Osgood, chief of parasitology.
‘What’s your opinion, Colin?’ Dr. Malovar asked as he gestured toward
his microscope.
Dr. Osgood looked at the slide for a few seconds longer than Dr. Malovar
had before responding. ‘Definitely parasitic,’ he intoned with his eyes
still glued to the eye pieces. ‘Those are merozoites, but I don’t
recognize them. It’s either a new species or a parasite not seen in
humans. I recommend that Dr. Lander Hammersmith view it and render his
opinion.’
‘Good idea,’ Dr. Malovar said. He looked at Jack. ‘Would you mind
leaving this overnight? I’ll have Dr. Hammersmith view it in the
morning.’
‘Who is Dr. Hammersmith?’ Jack asked.
‘He’s a veterinary pathologist,’ Dr. Osgood said.
‘Fine by me,’ Jack said agreeably. Having the slide reviewed by a
veterinary pathologist was something he’d not thought of.
After thanking both men, Jack went back out to the secretary and asked
if he could use a phone. The secretary directed him to an empty desk and
told him to push nine for an outside line. Jack called Lou at police
headquarters.
‘Hey, glad you called,’ Lou said. ‘I think I’m getting some interesting
stuff here. First of all, the plane is quite a plane. It’s a G4. Does
that mean anything to you?’
‘I don’t think so,’ Jack said. From Lou’s tone it sounded as if it
should have.
‘It stands for Gulfstream 4,’ Lou explained. ‘It’s what you would call
the Rolls Royce of the corporate jet. It’s like twenty million bucks.’
‘I’m impressed,’ Jack said.
‘You should be,’ Lou said. ‘Okay, let’s see what else I learned. Ah,
here it is: The plane is owned by Alpha Aviation out of Reno, Nevada.
Ever hear of them?’
‘Nope,’ Jack said. ‘Have you?’
‘Not me,’ Lou said. ‘Must be a leasing organization. Let’s see, what
else? Oh, yeah! This might be the most interesting. My friend from
Immigration called his counterpart in France at his home, if you can
believe it, and asked about Carlo Franconi’s recent French holiday.
Apparently, this French bureaucrat can access the Immigration mainframe
from his own PC, because guess what?’
‘I’m on pins and needles,’ Jack said.
‘Franconi never visited France!’ Lou said. ‘Not unless he had a fake
passport and fake name. There’s no record of his entering or departing.’
‘So what’s this about the plane incontrovertibly coming from Lyon,
France?’ Jack demanded.
‘Hey, don’t get testy,’ Lou said.
‘I’m not,’ Jack said. ‘I was only responding to your point that the
flight plan and the Immigration information had to correlate.’
‘They do!’ Lou said. ‘Saying the plane came from Lyon, France, doesn’t
mean anybody or everybody got out. It could have refueled for all I
know.’
‘Good point,’ Jack said. ‘I didn’t think of that. How can we find out?’
‘I suppose I can call my friend back at the FAA,’ Lou said.
‘Great,’ Jack said. ‘I’m heading back to my office at the morgue. You
want me to call you or you call me?’
‘I’ll call you,’ Lou said.
After Laurie had written down all that she could remember from her
conversation with Marvin concerning how bodies were picked up by funeral
homes, she’d put the paper aside and ignored it while she did some other