Kevin sighed and sagged in his chair. “All right, I give up. What time is this mission scheduled?”

“Oh goody,” Candace said, clapping her hands together. “I knew you’d come.”

“The sun comes up after six,” Melanie said. “I’d like to be in the boat and on our way by then. My plan is to head west, then swing way out into the estuary before going east. That way we won’t evoke any suspicions here in town if anyone sees us getting into the boat. I’d like them to think we were going off to Acalayong.”

“What about work?” Kevin asked. “Won’t you be missed?”

“Nope,” Melanie said. “I told the people in the lab I’d be unreachable at the animal center. Whereas the people in the animal center I told…”

“I get the picture,” Kevin interjected. “What about you, Candace?”

“No problem,” Candace said. “As long as Mr. Winchester keeps doing as well as he’s doing, I’m essentially unemployed. The surgeons are golfing and playing tennis all day. I can do what I like.”

“I’ll call my head tech,” Kevin said. “I’ll tell him I’m under the weather with an acute attack of insanity.”

“Wait a second,” Candace said suddenly. “I just thought of a problem.”

Kevin sat bolt upright. “What?” he asked.

“I don’t have any sunblock,” Candace said. “I didn’t bring any because on my three previous visits I never saw the sun.”

CHAPTER 16

March 6, 1997

2:30 P.M.

New York City

With all the tests on Franconi pending, Jack had forced himself to go to his office and try to concentrate on some of his other outstanding cases. To his surprise, he’d made reasonable headway until the phone rang at two-thirty.

“Is this Dr. Stapleton?” a female voice with an Italian accent asked.

“It is indeed,” Jack said. “Is this Mrs. Franconi?”

“Imogene Franconi. I got a message to call you.”

“I appreciate it, Mrs. Franconi,” Jack said. “First let me extend my sympathies to you in regards to your son.”

“Thank you,” Imogene said. “Carlo was a good boy. He didn’t do any of those things they said in the newspapers. He worked for the American Fresh Fruit Company here in Queens. I don’t know where all that talk about organized crime came from. The newspapers just make stuff up.”

“It’s terrible what they’ll do to sell papers,” Jack said.

“The man that came this morning said that you got his body back,” Imogene said.

“We believe so,” Jack said. “That’s why we needed some blood from you to confirm it. Thank you for being cooperative.”

“I asked him why he didn’t want me to come down there and identify it like I did last time,” Imogene said. “But he told me he didn’t know.”

Jack tried to think of a graceful way of explaining the identity problem, but he couldn’t think of any. “Some parts of the body are still missing,” he said vaguely, hoping that Mrs. Franconi would be satisfied.

“Oh?” Imogene commented.