Blood Pact

passively against the wall.

    Who was in number eight's box?

    Then a second memory surfaced.

    Gathering up the contents of the wallet, she tossed them onto a pile of clothes draped over a nearby chair.

    It suddenly got very hard to breathe.

    "Oh, lord, no . . .”

    They could hear the phone ringing from the hall. As could be expected under the circumstances, the key jammed.

    Four rings. Five.

    "God damn it!" Her mood not exactly sunny, Vicki backed up and slammed the bottom of her foot against the door just below the lock. The entire structure shuddered under the impact. When she grabbed the key again, it turned.

    "Nothing like the Luke Sky walker method," Celluci muttered, racing for the phone.

    Nine rings. Ten.

    "Yes? Hello?”

    "Good timing, Mike. I was just about to hang up.”

    Celluci mouthed "Dave Graham" at Vicki, jammed the receiver between ear and shoulder, and readied a pen. "What've you got for me?”

    "I had to call in a couple of favors, you owe me for this, partner, but Humber College finally came through. Your boy was recommended to the course by a Dr. Dabir Rashid, Faculty of Medicine, Queen's University. And as a bonus, they threw in the information that he requested young Mr. Chen serve his four-week observation period at Hutchinson's.”

    "No mention of a Dr. Aline Burke?”

    "Nary a word. How's Vicki?”

    Good question. "Damned if I know.”

    "Like that, is it? You gotta remember that death affects different people different ways. I know when my uncle died, my aunt seemed almost relieved, handled the funeral like it was a family reunion. Two weeks later, blam. Completely fell apart. And my wife's cousin, he . . .”

    "Dave.”

    "Yeah?”

    "Later.”

    "Oh. Right. Listen, Cantree says to take as much time as you need for this. He said we'll manage to muddle through somehow without you.”

    "Nice of him.”

    "He's a saint. Let me know how it shakes down.”

    "You got it, buddy." He turned from hanging up the phone to find Vicki glaring at him. "Our Tom Chen got his recommendation from a Dr. Dabir Rashid, Faculty of Medicine, Queen's University. I don't suppose that could be an alias for Dr. Burke?”

    "No. I met Dr. Rashid briefly yesterday." Vicki stomped across the room and threw herself down onto the couch. "He's a year older than God and isn't sure if he's coming or going. I assume he has tenure.”

    Celluci dropped a hip onto the telephone table and shrugged. "Easy to confuse, then, if you wanted him to do you a favor you didn't want traced.”

    "Exactly." Vicki spit the word out. "He probably thought he was recommending the Tom Chen who's actually studying medicine." She jabbed at her glasses. "From what I saw, if he even remembers giving it, he'll never remember who asked him to do it.”

    "Then we'll have to stimulate his memory.”

    Vicki snorted. "The shock would probably kill him.”

    "You never know. The recommendation included a request that Chen serve his four-week observation period at Hutchinson's, the more details, more chance one of them stuck.”

    "Yeah. Maybe." Snatching up a green brocade cushion, she threw it against the far wall. "Jesus, Mike; why isn't it ever easy?”

    Another good question. "I don't know, Vicki, maybe . . .”

    His voice trailed off as he watched all the color suddenly drain out of her face. "Vicki? What's wrong?”

    "It's a four-week observation period." Her hands were shaking so violently she couldn't lace the fingers together, so she curled them into fists and pressed the fists hard against her thighs. "My mother was given six months to live." She had to force the words out through a throat closed tight. "They couldn't keep placing people in that funeral home." Why hadn't she seen it before? "My mother had to die during those four weeks." She turned her head and met Celluci's gaze square on. "Do you know what that means?”

    He knew.

    "My mother was murdered, Mike." Her voice became steel and ice. "And who was with my mother seconds before she died?”

    He reached behind him and scooped up the phone. "I think we've got something Detective Fergusson will listen to now . . .”

    "No." Vicki got slowly to her feet, her movements jerky and barely under control. "First, we've got to rescue Henry. Once he's safe, she's history. But not until.”

    She wasn't going to fail Henry the way she'd failed her mother.

Twelve
    As the day surrendered its power to hold him, Henry fought the panic that accompanied awareness, the