“Speaking of Mr. Dominick,” Raymond said. “He paid me an unexpected visit yesterday morning.”

“I hope on a cordial note,” Daniel said. He was quite familiar with Dominick’s career as well as his personality, and surmised that extortion would not be out of the question.

“Yes and no,” Raymond admitted. “He insisted on telling me details I didn’t want to know. Then he insisted on paying no tuition for two years.”

“It could have been worse,” Daniel said. “What does that mean to my percentage?”

“The percentage stays the same,” Raymond said. “It’s just that it becomes a percentage of nothing.”

“So, I help and then get penalized!” Daniel complained. “That’s hardly fair.”

Raymond paused. He’d not thought about Daniel’s loss of his cut of Dominick’s tuition, yet it was something that had to be faced. At present, Raymond was reluctant to upset the man.

“You have a valid point,” Raymond conceded. “Let’s say we’ll discuss it in the near future. At the moment, I have another concern. What’s the status of Cindy Carlson?”

Cindy Carlson was the sixteen-year-old daughter of Albright Carlson, the Wall Street junk-bond mogul. Daniel had recruited Albright and his daughter as clients. As a youngster the daughter had suffered from glomerulonephritis. The malady had worsened during the girl’s early teens to the point of kidney failure. Consequently, Daniel not only had the record number of clients, he also had the record number of harvests, two: Carlo Franconi and Cindy Carlson.

“She’s been doing fine,” Daniel said. “At least healthwise. Why do you ask?”

“This Franconi business has made me realize how vulnerable the enterprise is,” Raymond admitted. “I want to be sure there are no other possible loose ends.”

“Don’t worry about the Carlsons,” Daniel said. “They certainly aren’t going to cause us any trouble. They couldn’t be any more grateful. In fact, just last week Albright was talking about getting his wife out to the Bahamas to give a bone-marrow sample so she can become a client as well.”

“That’s encouraging,” Raymond said. “We can always use more clients. But it’s not the demand side of the enterprise that has me worried. Financially we couldn’t be doing any better. We’re ahead of all projections. It’s the unexpected that has me worried, like Franconi.”

Daniel nodded and then twitched. “There’s always uncertainty,” he said philosophically. “That’s life!”

“The lower the level of uncertainty, the better I’ll feel,” Raymond said. “When I asked you about Cindy Carlson’s status, you qualified your positive response as healthwise. Why?”

“Because she’s a basket case mentally,” Daniel said.

“How do you mean?” Raymond asked. Once again his pulse quickened.

“It’s hard to imagine a kid not being a bit crazy growing up with a father like Albright Carlson,” Daniel said. “Think about it. And then add the burden of a chronic illness. Whether that contributed to her obesity, I don’t know. The girl is quite overweight. That’s tough enough for anybody but especially so for a teen. The poor kid is understandably depressed.”