“Well, the bottom line is that it was a transplant,” Jack said. “That’s the issue here.”

“If pressed, I’d have to agree it was a transplant,” Ted said. “But how they found a donor with the identical DQ alpha is beyond me. It’s the kind of coincidence that smacks of the supernatural.”

“What about the test with the mitochondrial DNA to confirm the floater is Franconi?” Jack asked.

“Jeez, you give a guy an inch and he wants a mile,” Ted complained. “We just got the blood, for chrissake. You’ll have to wait on the results. After all, we turned the lab upside down to get what you got so quickly. Besides I’m more interested in this DQ alpha situation compared to the polymarker results. Something doesn’t jibe.”

“Well, don’t lose any sleep over it,” Jack said. He stood up and gave Ted back all the material Ted had dumped in his lap. “I appreciate what you’ve done. Thanks! It’s the information I needed. And when the mitochondrial results are back, give me a call.”

Jack was elated by Ted’s results, and he wasn’t worried about the mitochondrial study. With the correlation of the X rays, he was already confident the floater and Franconi were one and the same.

Jack got on the elevator. Now that he’d documented that it had been a transplant, he was counting on Bart Arnold to come up with the answers to solve the rest of the mystery. As he descended, Jack found himself wondering about Ted’s emotional reaction to the DQ alpha results. Jack was aware that Ted didn’t get excited about too many things. Consequently, it had to be significant. Unfortunately, Jack didn’t know enough about the test to have much of an opinion. He vowed that when he had the chance he’d read up on it.

Jack’s elation was short-lived; it faded the moment he walked into Bart’s office. The forensic investigator was on the phone, but he shook his head the moment he caught sight of Jack. Jack interpreted the gesture as bad news. He sat down to wait.

“No luck?” Jack asked as soon as Bart disconnected.

“I’m afraid not,” Bart said. “I really expected UNOS to come through, and when they said that they had not provided a liver for Carlo Franconi and that he’d not even been on their waiting list, I knew the chances of tracing where he’d gotten the liver fell precipitously. Just now I was on the phone with Columbia-Presbyterian, and it wasn’t done there. So I’ve heard from just about every center doing liver transplants, and no one takes credit for Carlo Franconi.”

“This is crazy,” Jack said. He told Bart that Ted’s findings confirmed that Franconi had had a transplant.

“I don’t know what to say,” Bart commented.

“If someone didn’t get their transplant in North America or Europe, where could it have taken place?” Jack asked.

Bart shrugged. “There are a few other possibilities. Australia, South Africa, even a couple of places in South America, but having talked to my contact at UNOS, I don’t think any of them are likely.”