“How about we all head over to Little Italy for a quick dinner?” Lou suggested. “It’s right around the corner.”
“Not me,” Jack said. “I’ve got a bike ride ahead of me. At this point, a meal would do me in.”
“Nor I,” Laurie said. “I’m looking forward to getting home and taking a shower. It’s been two late nights for me in a row, and I’m frazzled.”
Lou admitted to having another half hour of work to do, so Laurie and Jack said goodbye and descended to the first floor. They returned their temporary-visitor badges and left police headquarters. In the shadow of City Hall, they caught a cab.
“Feel better?” Jack asked Laurie, as they headed north up the Bowery. A kaleidoscope of light played across their faces.
“Much,” Laurie admitted. “I can’t tell you how relieved I am to dump it all in Lou’s capable lap. I’m sorry I got myself so worked up.”
“No need to apologize,” Jack said. “It’s unsettling, to say the least, there’s a potential spy in our midst and that organized crime has an interest in liver transplants.”
“And how are you bearing up?” Laurie asked. “You’re getting a lot of bizarre input on the Franconi case.”
“It’s bizarre, but it’s also intriguing,” Jack said. “Especially this association with a biotech giant like GenSys. The scary part about these corporations is that their research is all behind closed doors. Cold-war style secrecy is their modus operandi. No one knows what they are doing in their quest for return on investment. It’s a big difference from ten or twenty years ago when the NIH funded most biomedical research in a kind of open forum. In those days, there was oversight in the form of peer review, but not today.”
“Too bad there’s no one like Lou that you can turn the case over to,” Laurie said with a chuckle.
“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Jack said.
“What’s your next step?” Laurie asked.
Jack sighed. “I’m running out of options. The only thing that’s scheduled is for a veterinary pathologist to review the liver section.”
“So, you already thought about a xenograft?” Laurie asked with surprise.
“No, I didn’t,” Jack admitted. “The suggestion to have a veterinary pathologist look at the slide wasn’t my idea. It came from a parasitologist over at the hospital who thought the granuloma was due to a parasite, but one he didn’t recognize.”
“Maybe you should mention the possibility of a xenograft to Ted Lynch,” Laurie suggested. “As a DNA expert he might have something in his bag of tricks that could say yes or no definitively.”
“Excellent idea!” Jack said with admiration. “How can you come up with such a great suggestion when you’re so beat? You amaze me! My mind has already shut down for the night.”
“Compliments are always welcome,” Laurie teased. “Especially in the dark, so you can’t see me blush.”
“I’m starting to think that the only option that might be open to me if I really want to solve this case is a quick trip to Equatorial Guinea.”
Laurie twisted around in the seat so she could look directly into Jack’s broad face. In the half light, it was impossible to see his eyes. “You’re not serious. I mean you’re joking, right?”
“Well, there’s no way I could phone GenSys or even go up to Cambridge and walk into their home office and say: ‘Hi folks, what’s going on in Equatorial Guinea?’ ”
“But we’re talking about Africa,” Laurie said. “That’s crazy. It’s halfway around the world. Besides, if you don’t think you’d learn anything going up to Cambridge, what makes you think you’d learn anything going to Africa?”
“Maybe because they wouldn’t expect it,” Jack said. “I don’t suppose they get many visitors.”
“Oh, this is insane,” Laurie said, flapping her hands into the air and rolling her eyes.
“Hey, calm down,” Jack said. “I didn’t say I was going. I just said it was something I was beginning to think about.”
“Well, stop thinking about it,” Laurie said. “I’ve got enough to worry about.”
Jack smiled at her. “You really are concerned. I’m touched.”
“Oh, sure!” Laurie remarked cynically. “You’re never touched by my pleas not to ride your mountain bike around the city.”
The taxi pulled up in front of Laurie’s apartment building and came to a halt. Laurie started to get some money out. Jack put a hand on her arm. “My treat.”
“All right, I’ll get it next time,” Laurie said. She started to climb out of the cab, then stopped. “If you were to promise to take a cab home, I think we could rustle up something to eat in my apartment.”
“Thanks, but not tonight,” Jack said. “I’ve got to get the bike home. I’d probably fall asleep on a full stomach.”
“Worse things could happen,” Laurie said.
“Let me take a rain check,” Jack said.
Laurie climbed out of the cab and then leaned back in. “Just promise me one thing: you won’t leave for Africa tonight.”
Jack took a playful swipe at her, but she easily evaded his hand.
“Good night, Jack,” Laurie said with a warm smile.
“Good night, Laurie,” Jack said. “I’ll call you later after I talk with Warren.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Laurie said. “With everything that’s happened, I’d forgotten. I’ll be waiting for your call.”
Laurie closed the taxi door and watched the cab until it disappeared around the corner on First Avenue. She turned toward her door, musing that Jack was a charming but complicated man.
As she rode up in her elevator, Laurie began to anticipate her shower and the warmth of her terry-cloth robe. She vowed she’d turn in early.
Laurie treated Debra Engler to an acid smile before keying her multiple locks. She slammed her door behind her to give Mrs. Engler an extra message. Moving her mail from one hand to the other, she removed her coat. In the darkness of the closet, she groped for a hanger.
It wasn’t until Laurie entered the living room that she flipped the wall switch that turned on a floor lamp. She got two steps toward the kitchen when she let out a muffled scream and dropped her mail on the floor. There were two men in the living room. One was in her art-deco chair, the other sitting on the couch. The one on the couch was petting Tom, who was asleep on his lap.
The other thing Laurie noticed was a large handgun with an attached silencer on the arm of the art-deco chair.
“Welcome home, Dr. Montgomery,” Franco said. “Thank you for the wine and beer.”
Laurie’s eyes went to the coffee table. There was an empty beer bottle and wineglass.
“Please come over and sit down,” Franco said. He pointed to a side chair they’d put in the middle of the room.
Laurie didn’t move. She was incapable of it. She thought vaguely about running into the kitchen for the phone but immediately dismissed the idea as ridiculous. She even thought about fleeing back to her front door, but with all the locks, she knew it would be a futile gesture.
“Please!” Franco repeated with a false politeness that only augmented Laurie’s terror.
Angelo moved the cat to the side and stood up. He took a step toward Laurie and, without warning, backhanded her viciously across the face. The blow propelled Laurie back against the wall, where her legs gave way. She slumped to her hands and knees. A few drops of bright red blood dropped from her split upper lip, splattering on the hardwood floor.
Angelo grabbed her by the upper arm and roughly hoisted her to her feet. Then he powered her over to the chair and pushed her into a sitting position. Laurie’s terror made her incapable of resisting.
“That’s better,” Franco said.
Angelo leaned over and stuck his face in Laurie’s. “Recognize me?”
Laurie forced herself to look up into the man’s horribly scarred face. He looked like a character in a horror movie. She swallowed; her throat had gone dry. Incapable of speech, all she could do was shake her head.
“No?” Franco questioned. “Doctor, I’m afraid you are going to hurt Angelo’s feelings and, under the circumstances, that’s a dangerous thing to do.”