Raymond had to move farther into the booth to give room for Angelo. He felt distinctly uncomfortable being sandwiched between the two men.

“Laurie Montgomery is a smart, persistent individual,” Angelo said with his husky voice. “To put it bluntly, she’s a pain in the ass.”

Raymond avoided looking at Angelo. His face was mostly scar tissue. Since his eyes didn’t close properly, they were red and rheumy.

“Angelo had an unfortunate run-in with Laurie Montgomery a few years back,” Vinnie explained. “Angelo, tell Raymond what you learned today after we heard from the funeral home.”

“I called Vinnie Amendola, our contact in the morgue,” Angelo said. “He told me that Laurie Montgomery specifically said that she was going to make it her personal business to find out how Franconi’s body disappeared. Needless to say he’s very concerned.”

“See what I mean,” Vinnie said. “We got a potential problem here just because we did you a favor.”

“I’m very sorry,” Raymond said lamely. He couldn’t think of any other response.

“It brings us back to this tuition issue,” Vinnie said. “Under the circumstances I think the tuition should just be waived. In other words, no tuition for me or Vinnie junior forever.”

“I do have to answer to the parent corporation,” Raymond squeaked. He cleared his throat.

“Fine,” Vinnie said. “Doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Explain to them it’s a valid business expense. Hey, maybe you could even use it as a deduction on your taxes.” Vinnie laughed heartily.

Raymond shuddered imperceptibly. He knew he was being unfairly muscled, yet he had little choice. “Okay,” he managed.

“Thank you,” Vinnie said. “Gosh, I guess this is going to work out after all. We’ve become sort’a business partners. Now I trust you have Cindy Carlson’s address?”

Raymond fumbled in his pocket and produced Dr. Levitz’s business card. Vinnie took it, copied down the address from the back, and handed it back. Vinnie gave the address to Angelo.

“Englewood, New Jersey,” Angelo said, reading aloud.

“Is that a problem?” Vinnie asked.

Angelo shook his head.

“Then, it’s arranged,” Vinnie said, looking back at Raymond. “So much for your latest problem. But I advise you not to come up with any more. With our current tuition understanding it seems to me you’re out of bargaining chips.”

A few minutes later, Raymond was out on the street. He realized he was shaking as he looked at his watch. It was close to five and getting dark. Stepping off the curb, he raised his hand to flag a cab. What a disaster! he thought. Somehow he would have to absorb the cost of maintaining Vinnie Doinick’s and his son’s double for the rest of their lives.

A cab pulled over. Raymond climbed in and gave his home address. As he sped away from the Neopolitan Restaurant, he began to feel better. The actual cost of maintaining the two doubles was minuscule, since the animals lived in isolation on a deserted island. So the situation wasn’t that bad, especially since the potential problem with Cindy Carlson was now solved.

By the time Raymond entered his apartment his mood had improved significantly, at least until he got in the door.

“You’ve had two calls from Africa,” Darlene reported.

“Problems?” Raymond asked. There was something about Darlene’s voice that set off alarm bells.

“There was good news and bad news,” Darlene said. “The good news was from the surgeon. He said that Horace Winchester is doing miraculously and that you should start planning on coming to pick him and the surgical team up.”

“What’s the bad news?” Raymond asked.

“The other call was from Siegfried Spallek,” Darlene said. “He was a little vague. He said there was some trouble with Kevin Marshall.”

“What kind of trouble?” Raymond asked.

“He didn’t elaborate,” Darlene said.

Raymond remembered specifically asking Kevin not to do anything rash. He wondered if the researcher had not heeded his warning. It must have had something to do with that stupid smoke Kevin had seen.

“Did Spallek want me to call back tonight?” Raymond asked.

“It was eleven o’clock his time when he called,” Darlene said. “He said he could talk to you tomorrow.”

Raymond groaned inwardly. Now he’d have to spend the entire night worrying. He wondered when it was all going to end.

MARCH 5, 1997

11:30 P.M.

COGO, EQUATORIAL GUINEA

KEVIN heard the heavy metal door open at the top of the stone stairs and a crack of light cascaded in. Two seconds later, the string of bare lightbulbs in the ceiling of the corridor went on. Through the bars of his cell, he could see Melanie and Candace in their respective cells. They were squinting as he was in the sudden glare.

Heavy footfalls on the granite stairs preceded Siegfried Spallek’s appearance. He was accompanied by Cameron McIvers and Mustapha Aboud, chief of the Moroccan guards.

“It’s about time, Mr. Spallek!” Melanie snapped. “I demand to be let out of here this instant, or you’ll be in serious trouble.”

Kevin winced. It was not the way to talk with Siegfried Spallek on any occasion, much less in their current circumstance.

Kevin, Melanie, and Candace had been huddling in utter blackness in separate cells in the oppressively hot, dank, jail in the basement of the town hall. Each cell had a small, arched window that opened into a window well in the rear arcade of the building. The openings were barred but without glass, so vermin could pass through unimpeded. All three prisoners had been terrified by the sounds of scampering creatures, especially since they’d seen several tarantulas before the lights had been turned out. The only source of comfort had been that they could easily talk to each other.

The first five minutes of the evening’s ordeal had been the worst. As soon as the sound of the burst of machine-gun fire died out, Kevin and the women were blinded by large hand-held lights. When their eyes had finally adjusted, they saw that they’d walked into an ambush of sorts. They were surrounded by a jeering group of youthful Equatoguinean soldiers who’d delighted in casually aiming their AK-47’s at them. Several had been brazen enough to poke the women with the muzzles of their weapons.

Fearing the worst, Kevin and the others hadn’t moved a muscle. They’d been scared witless by the indiscriminate gunfire and terrified it might begin again at the slightest provocation.

Only at the appearance of several of the Moroccan guards did the unruly soldiers back off. Kevin had never imagined the intimidating Arabs as potential saviors, but that’s how it had turned out. The guards had assumed custody of Kevin and the women. Then the guards drove them in Kevin’s car, first to the Moroccan guard building across from the animal center, where they’d been placed in a windowless room for several hours, and then finally into town, where they’d been incarcerated in the old jail.

“This is outrageous treatment,” Melanie persisted.

“On the contrary,” Siegfried said. “I have been assured by Mustapha that you have been treated with all due respect.”

“Respect!” Melanie sputtered. “To be shot at with machine guns! And kept in this shithole in the dark! That’s respect?”

“You were not shot at,” Siegfried corrected. “Those were merely a few warning shots directed over your heads. You had, after all, violated an important rule here in the Zone. Isla Francesca is off-limits. Everyone knows that.”

Siegfried motioned to Cameron toward Candace. Cameron opened her cell with a large, antique key. Candace wasted no time getting out of the cell. She hastily dusted off her clothes to make sure there were no bugs. She was still dressed in her surgical scrubs from the hospital.