Blood Debt

know, they have an isolated incident. A moment of violence. A lover's quarrel that got out of hand. They haven't even pressed charges yet." She frowned, and looked absently toward the images flickering by on the television. "If Swanson in a coma in police custody isn't enough for Henry's ghosts, I wonder how much more they want."
    "Not how much.," Celluci declared suddenly, jerking toward the TV.
    "Who, Fitzroy! Wind it back and play that bit with the woman talking."
    "… am, of course, dismayed by what has happened. Richard Sullivan was a hardworking member of our staff who'd managed to rebuild his life after an unfortunate past."
    "Prison," Celluci explained shortly. "And that's her. That's the doctor who…"
    "Took your blood." The statement had edges that flayed. "Dr. Mui.
    Now we know for sure." Vicki stood. And stopped. Slowly, very slowly, she turned her head and looked down at Michael Celluci.
    He reached out and took her hand. "I want her, too," he said grimly. "But not like that. You can't kill her."
    Vicki shuddered, once, the movement traveling through her body like a wave. "You're getting awfully goddamned pushy lately," she muttered when it was over. Then, still holding his hand like an anchor, she sat back down.
    "I'm impressed by your control."
    "Don't fucking patronize me, Henry." Her chin rose, but she managed to hold onto her anger even though every instinct told her to throw something at him and then throw him out the window. "Now, what do we do?"
    "I'm an idiot!"
    Eyes silvering just enough to keep Henry from commenting, Vicki patted Celluci's denim-clad knee with her free hand. "Don't be so hard on yourself," she suggested, "and tell me what you're talking about."
    "Ronald Swanson was not the man responsible for those deaths.
    That's why Henry's ghosts are still around."
    "Maybe he didn't do the actual killing, but he provided the resources."
    Celluci shook his head. "He provided the resources to buy kidneys from the poor and sell them to the rich—but the poor can function fine with only one kidney. This sort of thing goes on in a number of third world countries."
    "Your point?"
    "Dr. Mui, already making good money doing the illegal transplants, saw a way to make a little more. The donor doesn't survive, and she pockets the purchase price. Simple."
    "Yeah, but…"
    "If she didn't have to hide the deaths from Swanson, why wait until they healed? And we know she waited because of the body they found in the harbor." He glanced from Vicki to Henry and answered his own question. "She had to keep the donors around until close to the time they'd normally be discharged or Swanson would be suspicious."
    "So he didn't know she was killing them?"
    "She told me herself that she believed in only letting people know what they needed to to do their jobs. Uh, Vicki? I can't feel my fingers anymore." When she released his hand, he started to work the blood back into the whitened fingertips. "Swanson's job was to provide the money and the buyers."
    "All right…" It wasn't agreement. It wasn't even conceding he had a point. "… what about the missing hands on the first ghost?"
    "Sullivan disposed of the bodies—he found out this guy had no record, and he thought of a way to make an extra buck. He probably made plenty of gang contacts in prison."
    Vicki shook her head. "Completely circumstantial."
    "And completely unimportant. The loss of the hands distracted us at the beginning, sending us out after the gangs, and I don't want that to happen again." Henry moved to stand by the windows. He always thought better looking out at the city. His city—in spite of the unfamiliar pattern of lights below. His condo overlooked False Creek, Lisa Evans' overlooked the parking lot between the buildings. "I believe Mike's right about Dr. Mui being in charge. Last night, Swanson went to pieces when he found that body."
    "Well, sure," Vicki snorted, even less willing to cut Henry any slack,
    "he was afraid that the operation, so to speak, had been discovered."
    "I don't think so." He could feel Vicki bristling behind him, so he continued studying the traffic on Pacific Boulevard. "The first thing Dr. Mui asked Swanson was, did he call the police. If Swanson knew about the other deaths, that's not something he'd even consider, and the doctor would know it. When she found out he hadn't called anyone but her, she began planning the cover-up."
    "Dr. Mui had both opportunity and motive," Celluci pointed out.
    "Ronald Swanson