"I'm sorry," he said.

"We need to find a bone marrow match."

"I thought siblings were an almost automatic match."

Her eyes flicked around the room. "One-in-four chance," she said, stopping abruptly.

"Oh."

"The national registry found only three potential donors. By potential I mean that the initial HLA tests showed them as possibilities. The A and B match, but then they have to do a full blood and tissue workup to see--" She stopped again. "I'm getting technical. I don't mean to. But when your kid is sick like this, it's like you live in a snow globe of medical jargon."

"I understand."

"Anyway, getting past the initial screening is like winning a second-tier lottery ticket. The chance of a match is still slim. The blood center calls in the potential donors and runs a battery of tests, but the odds they'll be a close enough match to go through with the transplant are pretty low, especially with only three potential donors."

Myron nodded, still having no idea why she was telling him any of this.

"We got lucky," she said. "One of the three was a match with Jeremy."

"Great."

"There's a problem," she said. Again the crooked smile. "The donor is missing."

"What do you mean, missing?"

"I don't have the details. The registry is confidential. No one will tell me what's going on. We seemed to be on the right track, and then all of a sudden, the donor just pulled out. My doctor can't say anything--like I said, it's protected."

"Maybe the donor just changed his mind."

"Then we better change it back," she said, "or Jeremy dies."

The statement was plain enough.

"So what do you think happened?" Myron asked. "You think he's missing or something?"

"He or she," Emily said. "Yes."

"He or she?"

"I don't know anything about the donor--age, sex, where they live, nothing. But Jeremy isn't getting any better and the odds of finding another donor in time are, well, almost nonexistent." She kept the face tight, but Myron could see the foundation starting to crack a bit. "We have to find this donor."

"And that's why you've come to me? To find him?"

"You and Win found Greg when no one else could. When he disappeared, Clip went to you first. Why?"

"That's a long story."

"Not so long, Myron. You and Win are trained in this sort of thing. You're good at it."

"Not in a case like this," Myron said. "Greg is a high-profile athlete. He can take to the airwaves, offer rewards. He can buy private detectives."

"We're already doing that. Greg has a press conference set up for tomorrow."

"So?"

"So it won't work. I told Jeremy's doctor we would pay anything to the donor, even though it's illegal. But something else is wrong here. I'm afraid all the publicity might even backfire--that it may send the donor deeper into hiding or something, I don't know."

"What does Greg say to that?"

"We don't talk much, Myron. And when we do, it's usually not very pretty."