Blood Debt

Almighty' most doctors put on. Make you wait forty-five minutes in their waiting rooms like you've got no life of your own, but just hear them howl if we're more than three seconds getting to a call." Scratching at his mustache, he shot a glance into the passenger seat. "What's bugging you?" Potter, who'd been silent since radioing in the false alarm, shrugged. "I was just thinking; we never actually saw that garment bag."

    "… and you're followed to the disposal site by a police officer from a city half the country away. Tonight, two visitors drop in, leave their captured friend where they find him, and send the local police out to have a look around on no better pretense than they supposedly saw you carry a body in here this afternoon while they were passing." Dr.
    Mui steepled her fingers and peered over them at Sullivan. "Now, what does that say to you?"
    He sighed. She never asked him a question she didn't already know the answer to. "That we're busted?"
    "No. Detective Celluci's friends don't want to become involved with the police."
    "Not very good friends, leaving him tied to a bed."
    "They expected the police to find him, and then we would have been, as you so crudely put it, busted."
    "You told me to lie down on the bed…"
    "To cover the obvious fact that someone had been lying there. And I told you to put him in the back of your vehicle," she added caustically,
    "because we didn't have time to put him anywhere else."
    He knew that. "So what now? Do I bring him back in?"
    "No. His friends, whoever or whatever they are…" She frowned, hating ambiguity. "… found him here once, and if they find him again, they won't leave him. You'll have to take him to one of the guest cottages." Reaching into her drawer, she pulled out a single key on a leather fob and tossed it across the office. "Use the one farthest from the house."
    Sullivan deftly caught the key and shoved it in his pocket. "Mr.
    Swanson won't like it."

    "I'll deal with Mr. Swanson."
    The soft brown eyes looked no less mild as he suggested, "I could kill him."
    "The detective? Don't be ridiculous, Richard. He has two perfectly healthy, very large kidneys—a perfect match for one of Mr. Swanson's buyers that I'd considered to be unmatchable given his size and that our usual source tends toward the undernourished. Alive, he can do some good."
    "Should I stay with him?"
    "Yes, you'd better. Be sure you park your car where it can't be seen from the house. I'll go over and explain things to Mr. Swanson in a couple of hours, as soon as I've finished here."

    Pushing upward through layer after layer of sticky cotton batting, fighting to keep it away from his face, forcing himself to keep moving toward a distant light, Celluci managed to get his eyes open just long enough to catch a brief glimpse of trees and cedar siding before darkness descended again. Vaguely aware of movement, he remembered he'd been captured, knew he should struggle but couldn't seem to make his body obey.
    A mattress compacted underneath him, releasing a faint scent of honeysuckle as he flopped back against a pile of pillows.
    Obviously, he was no longer in the hospital.
    As rough hands secured him to the bed, he reviewed his options and realized he didn't have any. Reluctantly surrendering to the sedatives, he felt almost sorry for the people who'd moved him.
    Man, Vicki's going to be pissed.

    "Dr. Mui, this is a surprise." His expression polite but not exactly welcoming, Ronald Swanson stepped back from the door to allow the doctor to enter his front hall.
    "I realize this is certainly an unexpected visit," Dr. Mui acknowledged, stepping by him, "but what I have to tell you needed to be said in person. Since your neighbors are aware of your connection to Project Hope, they should assume the obvious."
    "Very likely, although my neighbors are far enough away I doubt they even noticed you arrive." His attention caught by the white convertible gleaming in the early morning light, he added, "New car?"
    as he closed the door.
    "I bought it last week."
    "Can you afford such an expensive car right now, Doctor? I'd have thought the condominium you bought recently had taken all your available resources."

    "You assured me a condo in Yaletown was a secure investment, Mr.
    Swanson." She followed him to the kitchen. "And as for the car, I've heard you say you get what you pay for. German engineering is built to last. Besides, you pay me very well."
    "And I get what I pay for." He smiled a