“Call up our friend Varini and ask her what time is on the death certificate, or if you are going out there, ask to look at the death certificate yourself, which you are entitled to do. I’d like to know the time, and I’ll tell you why. With my granny, I heard about her passing around seven-forty-five a.m. Los Angeles time, which is around eight-fifteen New Delhi time. Here in New Delhi, when I asked to see her death certificate, the time was ten-thirty-five p.m., which is curious, to say the least. Her time of death was later than it was announced on television.”

“That is curious! It suggests someone knew she was going to die before she did.”

“Exactly,” Jennifer said. “Now there could have been some screw-up here in India that could explain the discrepancy, like someone writing ten-thirty-five p.m. when they were supposed to write nine-thirty-five, but even that is too short an interval for CNN to get the tip, verify it in some way, write the piece about medical tourism, and get it on the air.”

“I agree; I’ll be happy to find out.”

“Now, the last thing,” Jennifer said. “When my granny was discovered having passed away, she was blue. It’s called cyanosis. I’m having trouble explaining that physiologically. After a heart attack sometimes the patient can be a little blue, maybe the extremities, like the tips of the fingers, but not the whole body. With all the other similarities between Granny and Herbert, I’d like to know if he was also blue.”

“Who would I ask?”

“The nurses. It’s the nurses who know what goes on in a hospital. Or medical students, if the hospital has them.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

“I’m sorry to be giving you all these tasks.”

“It’s quite alright. I actually like having things to do. It keeps me from obsessing over my emotions.”

“Since you’re not up for sightseeing, how about dinner? Are you going out to the airport to meet your sons, or are you going to wait for them here?”

“I’m going to the airport. I really am anxious to see them. As for dinner, could I let you know later?”

“Absolutely,” Jennifer said. “I’ll call you in the afternoon.”

After appropriate good-byes, Jennifer hung up the house phone and hastened over to the concierge desk. Now that she had decided to sightsee, she wanted to get on her way. Unfortunately, there was a line at the desk, and she had to wait. When it was her turn and she had stepped up to the desk, she couldn’t help but notice the reaction of the concierge. It was like he’d just recognized an old friend. What made it particularly surprising was that he wasn’t even the concierge who’d given her the city map the day before.