"Would you mind if I asked you a question just between you and me?" Laurie asked.
"I guess not," Marvin said warily.
"Obviously, I've been interested in how Franconi's body was stolen from here," Laurie said. "That's why I talked to you the afternoon before last. Remember?" "Of course," Marvin said.
"I also came in that night and talked with Mike Passano," Laurie said. "So I heard," Marvin said.
"I bet you did," Laurie said. "But believe me I wasn't accusing Mike of anything." "I hear you," Marvin said. "He can be sensitive now and then." "I can't figure out how the body was stolen," Laurie said. "Between Mike and security, there was always someone here."
Marvin shrugged. "I don't know, either," he said. "Believe me." "I understand," Laurie said. "I'm sure you would have said something to me if you had any suspicions. But that's not what I wanted to ask. My feeling at this point is that there had to be some help from inside. Is there any employee here at the morgue that you think might have been involved in this somehow? That's my question."
Marvin thought for a minute and then shook his head. "I don't think so." "It had to have happened on Mike's shift," Laurie said. "The two drivers, Pete and Jeff, do you know them very well?"
"Nope," Marvin said. "I mean, I've seen them around and even talked with them a few times, but since we're on different shifts, we don't have a lot of con tact." "But you don't have any reason to suspect them?" "Nope, no more than anybody else," Marvin said. "Thanks," Laurie said. "I hope my question didn't make you feel uncomfortable." "No problem," Marvin said.
Laurie thought for a minute, while she absently chewed on her lower lip. She knew she was missing something. "I have an idea," she said suddenly. "Maybe you should describe to me the exact sequence you go through when a body leaves here." "You mean everything that happens?" Marvin said. "Please," Laurie said. "I mean, I have a general idea, but I don't know the specifics."
"Where do you want me to start?" Marvin asked.
"Right from the beginning," Laurie said. "Right from the moment you get the call from the funeral home." "Okay," Marvin said. "The call comes in, and they say they're from so-and-so funeral home and they want to do a pickup. So they give me the name and the accession number." "That's it?" Laurie asked. "Then you hang up." "No," Marvin said. "I put them on hold while I enter the accession number into the computer. I gotta make sure the body has been released by you guys and also find out where it is." "So then you go back to the phone and say what?" "I say it's okay," Marvin said. "I tell them I'll have the body ready. I guess I usually ask when they think they'll be here. I mean, no sense rushing around if they're not going to be here for two hours or something."
"Then what?" Laurie said.
"I get the body and check the accession number," Marvin said. "Then I put it in the front of the walk-in cooler. We always put them in the same place. In fact, we line them up in the order we expect them to go out. It makes it easier for the drivers." "And then what happens?" Laurie asked.
"Then they come," Marvin said with another shrug. "And what happens when they arrive?" Laurie asked. "They come in here and we fill out a receipt," Marvin said. "It's all got to be documented. I mean they have to sign to indicate they have accepted custody." "Okay," Laurie said. "And then you go back and get the body?" "Yeah, or one of them gets it," Marvin said. "All of them have been in and out of here a million times." "Is there any final check?" Laurie asked. "You bet," Marvin said. "We always check the accession number one more time before they wheel the body out of here. We have to indicate that being done on the documents. It would be embarrassing if the drivers got back to the home and realized they had the wrong corpse." "Sounds like a good system," Laurie said, and she meant it. With so many checks it would be hard to subvert such a procedure.
"It's been working for decades without a screwup," Marvin said. "Of course, the computer helps. Before that, all they had was the logbook."
"Thanks, Marvin," Laurie said.
"Hey, no problem, Doc," Marvin said.
Laurie left the mortuary office. Before going up to her own she stopped off on the second floor to get a snack out of the vending machines in the lunch room. Reasonably fortified, she went up to the fifth floor. Seeing Jack's office door ajar, she walked over and peeked in. Jack was at his microscope. "Something interesting?" she asked.
Jack looked up and smiled. "Very," he said. "Want to take a look?" Laurie glanced into the eyepieces as Jack leaned to the side. "It looks like a tiny granuloma in a liver," she said.
"That's right," Jack said. "It's from one of those tiny pieces I was able to find of Franconi's liver." "Hmmm," Laurie commented, continuing to look into the microscope. "That's weird they would have used an infected liver for a transplant. You'd think they would have screened the donor better. Are there a lot of these tiny granulomas?"
"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. 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 menage 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."