The investigator gave her the man's work number and tried to arrange a three-way call, but when that attempt fell through because the man was at a meeting, she never tried calling again.

Perez, who was able to arrange a three-way call for Alberto Hernandez with his wife in Cuba, said the players did not tell her how they left the island.

For a three-way call, the first called party is dialed.

"We were on a three-way call with my real estate agent and I said I didn't feel comfortable with that," he says.

Southwestern Bell, for instance, lets customers add the new caller to a conversation, making it a three-way call, or send the caller to the phone company's voice-messaging service.

They have all heard of the kind of three-way call Wiseman had told me about; all but two have done it or had it done to them.

I ask if boys ever put together three-way calls like that.

That victory resulted in a three-way call from Ajaj to Yousef via Texas on December 29.

"He thinks so," said Rob Plummer, his agent, acting as interpreter in a three-way call.

It has four Spanish-speaking operators and can respond to calls in 86 languages, including Hmong, Tagalog and Wolof, through a three-way call with California.