Blood Debt - By Tanya Huff Page 0,38

Third, although it's less obvious in person, over the phone your voice mannerisms are pure law enforcement. Forth, you're not local or you would have identified yourself earlier." Her gaze grew fiercely speculative, almost sharklike. "You're federal, aren't you? This is bigger than I thought, isn't it? Maybe even international."

Her ambition burned so brightly he could almost feel the heat. If Tony's theory was correct, and Patri?cia Chou was looking for a story big enough to get her a network show, she seemed to believe-for reasons unclear to Celluci at the moment-that this was the story. Although who the hell she thought he was, he had no idea.

"If I tell you what your friend wants to know," she continued, leaning forward, eyes blazing, "I get exclu?sive rights to this story when it breaks."

Celluci sighed. "Ms. Chou, there might not be a story."

"Exclusive rights," she repeated with no room for negotiation.

He knew when to surrender-especially when it didn't make a damned bit of difference to him. In his opinion, there was as much chance of the John Doe in Vancouver Harbor having been killed by organ-leggers as there was of Henry Fitzroy winning the Governor General's Award for fiction. "All right. The story's yours." Raising a cautioning hand, he added, "As soon as there is a story."

She nodded and sat back. "So you want to know why I think that missing kidney is the reason for the young man's murder. Simple, there're a lot of people who need them, giving an organ-legger a large data?base to chose their buyer from-a database that's fairly easily tracked given that every one of them is on dialysis."

"Wait a minute." An uplifted hand cut her off. "You said buyers."

"They're hardly going to give them away, Mr. Celluci. And, considering that it can lead to infections, stroke, heart attacks, and peritonitis, I think I can safely say dialysis sucks. I'm sure they could find peo?ple willing to pay big bucks to get off it. What's more, because kidney transplants have a 98% success rate, you can pretty much guarantee your product. Which is why they only took a kidney and not the heart and lungs and corneas and all the other things people so desperately need. The left kidney-the one missing from the body-is the one most often used for trans?plant purposes. Also, it's one of the easiest transplants to perform, giving you a larger database of doctors to choose from, and the more doctors you have, the bet?ter the odds you'll find one who can be corrupted."

"That's two completely different computer systems to access; it can't be that easy."

"These are the '90s, Mr. Celluci. Twelve-year-olds are hacking into international defense systems every day."

Unfortunately, he couldn't argue with that. "The newspaper reported that the surgery to remove the kidney was well on the way to being healed."

She picked up a pencil and bounced the eraser end against her desk. "Your point?"

"Why do you think they kept him alive for so long? Why not just take the kidney and let him die?"

"I expect that they kept him alive long enough to be certain that the buyer's body didn't reject the kid?ney. If it did, well, with him still around, they'd have a spare and could try again."

"So why remove the hands?"

"Fingerprints." Her tone added a silent: Don't play dumb with me. "An identity makes it much easier for the police to gather the information that could lead to the person or persons responsible."

"And what does Mr. Swanson have to do with it?"

"Swanson was just the mouthpiece of the BC Trans?plant Society. I was trying to get someone in a per?ceived position of expertise to admit the possibility."

Ms. Chou apparently had an answer for everything, but that was by no means a complete answer. She reminded him more of Vicki every second. "And?"

She leaned a little forward, and her teeth showed between parted lips. "And I've decided I don't like him. When I was researching him for that interview, I discovered that not only is he filthy rich but he has absolutely no bad habits. He works very hard, he gives a lot of money away, and that's it."

"The rich aren't allowed to be nice, hardworking people?"

"Not these days. Now, I'm not saying he's a part of this organ-legging thing, but he certainly has, as you people would say, motive and opportunity." She raised one emphatic finger after another. "His wife died of kidney failure waiting for a transplant. He has more money than most governments, and with