“Thank you,” Jennifer said. She wrote it down on the pad by the phone. She then called down to the concierge and asked for the phone number of the Aesculapian Medical Center. Once she had it, she dialed it. She had to wait for a number of rings. When it was answered, she asked to be connected to David Lucas’s room.

“I’m sorry, we are not allowed to ring patient rooms after eight.”

“How do family members call after eight?” Jennifer thought she knew but wanted to ask anyway.

“They have the direct-dial number.”

Jennifer hung up without saying good-bye. She felt she was on a roll, and called down to the front desk. She asked if there was a guest in the hotel by the name of Mrs. David Lucas. As she waited, she wondered if she’d be able to muster the courage to call the woman so soon after the event.

“I’m sorry, but we have no Mrs. Lucas registered at the hotel,” the front desk clerk said.

“Are you certain?” Jennifer questioned. She felt an immediate letdown.

The clerk spelled the name and asked if Jennifer had an alternate spelling. Jennifer said no and discouragingly was about to hang up when she thought of something. “I’m here at the Amal Palace Hotel because of the Queen Victoria Hospital. Do other private hospitals put their international patients’ next of kin at other hotels?”

“Yes, they do,” the clerk said. “Even the Queen Victoria does as well if we are fully booked.”

“Can you tell me what hotels I might try?”

“Yes, of course. Any of the other five-star hotels. The Taj Mahal, the Oberoi, the Imperial, the Ashok, and the Grand are the most popular, but the Park and the Hyatt Regency are used as well. It depends on availability. If you’d like to be connected to any of these hotels, the operator will be happy to do it.”

Taking the clerk’s advice, Jennifer called the other hotels in the order in which they had been given. It didn’t take long. Jennifer scored on the third hotel, the Imperial.

“Can I connect you?” the Imperial operator asked.

Jennifer hesitated. She would be seriously disturbing and upsetting the woman, no matter whether the woman was aware of her husband’s status or not. Yet with the similarities between her grandmother’s case, Mr. Benfatti’s, and this current one, she felt she had little choice. “Yes,” Jennifer said finally.

Jennifer grimaced as she heard it ring. When it was answered she rapidly jumped and initially stumbled over her words as she explained who she was and apologized effusively for being a disturbance.

“You are not disturbing me,” Mrs. Lucas said. “And please call me Rita.”