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.”