When I lay there naked, spread-eagled and helpless, Gravely ran his cool hands over each leg, ankle to crotch, and then nodded to Tisdale. Tisdale repeated a similar action on my arms, wrists to shoulders, winking when he let his fingers brush against my breast. My body broke out in goose bumps. When I tried to scream, no sound came.
“Perfect specimens,” Tisdale said.
“Get the face cone while I prepare the solution,” Gravely ordered.
For a moment, Tisdale disappeared from my sight and I heard him open a cupboard behind me and begin moving pans. Metal scraped metal.
“It’s right there in front of you,” Gravely said. “Beside that stainless steel bowl.”
“Right,” Tisdale said. “I see it now.”
Tisdale stepped into my view, carrying a mesh cone-shaped object. Frantically, I turned my head this way and that, trying to keep him from placing the cone over my nose and mouth.
“Ease up,” Gravely ordered. “Back off. Don’t hurt her. It’ll take me a minute or so to ready the solution.”
“What are you going to do to me?” Panic left my voice sounding thready and weak.
“We’re going to make you a hero.” Gravely laughed.
“Right.” Tisdale winked at me. “You’re going to make lots of people very, very happy. You’re going to be one of the eight thousand body donors who leave their organs to science each year.”
“How?” Horror was an icy balloon inflating inside me. “What are you getting ready to do?”
“Surely you’ve guessed by now.” Gravely laughed again. “We’ll put you in a coma—give you a knock-out drop or two while I harvest your body parts. Lungs. Liver. Kidneys. To be of value they must be taken from a living person. Rest assured we’ll let nothing go to waste and you’ll feel no pain.”
“You can’t do this to me.” My shout escalated to a shriek. “No! No! No!”
Tisdale laughed. “A single heart valve might bring us ten thou. Knee cartilage, fourteen. Millions of people have arthritic knees. They’d pay almost any price for cartilage that might preclude knee surgery and ease their pain. You’ll be an unknown hero in their eyes.”
“There’s a special demand for kidneys,” Gravely said.
“Right,” Tisdale agreed. “People in need spend hours on dialysis machines waiting for months, even years, for someone to donate a healthy kidney.”
“Tucker and I have worked together for months now—surgeon and undertaker. When someone in my clinic dies, I have the equipment and the know-how to harvest body parts and deliver them to black-market dealers quickly and in prime condition. Tucker handles the funerals. I take only a few parts from each body, and his work disguises my mutilations from grieving families. You’re a bonanza for us—all parts available and no family on scene.”
“Too bad Francine’s body went to waste,” Tisdale said. “No way we could harvest any parts with the police around. There would have been many calls for her organs.”
“Yes, there are many uses for a cadaver.” Gravely stood out of my sight. I could hear him pouring liquid, mixing a solution. “Sometimes the army has used whole cadavers—blowing them up as they search for land-mine-resistant footwear. Your body might spare some soldier from losing a foot or a leg.”
“That’s a lie,” Tisdale said. “We’re not selling your body as a whole. It’d only bring us a pittance. The real money lies in harvesting your parts and selling them individually for use in hospitals or research labs. But cut the talk. You don’t need to know so much.”
“What does it matter?” Gravely snorted. “She’s not going to live to reveal anything she’s heard here. Nothing. Nada.”
For the first time, I noticed a power saw lying on a countertop near the stainless steel sinks. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. I thought of my mother and how we’d spent weeks studying the body donor program before we’d decided to bequeath our remains to the University of Iowa’s transplant program in the altruistic hope of helping others lead a better life.
We’d pictured our bodies being gently and carefully dissected by grateful teachers at medical schools, by respectful students. We certainly hadn’t suspected that our body parts might be gleaned with a power saw and sold by hardened crooks for profit.
“You’re making a huge mistake if you think no one will miss me,” I warned. Where was Zack? Didn’t he wonder why I hadn’t returned to the police station?
“There’s no way to stop us.” Gravely continued to mix and stir. Metal scraped metal. I felt sick, humiliated. My stomach churned. What if I vomited? I’d heard of people choking on their own vomit.
“We have contacts.” Tisdale tried to fit the cone over my face again, and again I fought it, turning my head from side to side until he called to Gravely in frustration.
“You’ll have to help me with this one, Winton. Give her a shot before she damages her head and neck.”
Gravely stopped stirring and Tisdale retreated with the face cone. A few more minutes passed before Gravely stood at my side with a syringe, a drop of liquid hanging from the tip of its sharp needle. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and the tic contorted his cheek. He looked at me in disgust.
“You and Zack are lousy detectives, Bailey Green, or you’d have figured out that I use my speedboat for transporting body parts, not marijuana. You’d have figured out who left the note on your door—who slashed your bicycle tires.”
Although I sensed death hovering near, I clung to life, using my only weapons, my brain and my voice. Keep him talking. Give him a chance to brag.
“Why? Why target me?” The fluid clinging to the needle felt icy as it dropped onto my breast.
“You and Francine Shipton were two of a kind—nosey do-gooder busybodies. Francine planned to destroy our neighborhood with her homeless shelter, and I knew you’d help Francine do whatever she wanted done. A surgeon in my business can’t risk having snoopers nosing around his clinic. And if Francine had her way and enticed the homeless to an Eden Palms shelter, they’d soon be snooping. I had to kill her. She gave me no choice, and you sealed your fate when I caught you boarding my boat.”
I tried to confuse Gravely by abruptly changing the subject. “What about Wizard?” By now my mouth was so dry I could hardly speak, but I croaked the words, afraid that he might ignore my question.
“What are you talking about?” His needle scratched at the skin on my arm as he searched for the best spot to plunge it in. “You’ll only feel a prick. You’ll calm down after that, calm down and let us get the face mask in place.”
“I’m calm. And I want to know about Wizard—Mitch Mitchell’s homeless friend. You were afraid of his snooping, too? I’d never seen him around here, but when I saw his Conch Republic scarf hanging on your wall, I guessed you’d murdered him.”
“Oh, him!” Gravely rolled his eyes. “Yes. We made that scumbag a hero, too. Last Wednesday. Probably the first good thing he ever did for the world.”
“Cut the talk.” Tisdale stepped closer, face cone in his scaly hand. “Let’s get on with it. Now.”
Gravely stood pressing the hypo needle against my arm when a door splintered and feet pounded in the hallway.
THIRTY-FOUR
With my scant remaining strength, I lifted my head and shoulders from the gurney, and managed to knock the needle from Gravely’s hand with my chin.
“Police!” a voice shouted.
In the next second Detectives Cassidy and Burgundy stormed into the room. Zack, Mitch, and Quinn followed.
“Hands up!” Cassidy ordered. “Both of you. You’re under arrest.”
Detective Burgundy grabbed scissors and cut my bonds, pulled me to my feet. He and Zack helped me into a lab jacket Burgundy jerked from the supply closet.
Zack held me close, and I managed to speak. “They’re murderers,” I said. “Gravely confessed to killing Francine and Wizard.”
Cassidy read both men the Miranda warning. They said nothing. Tisdale made a break for the door, but Mitch tackled
him, bringing him to the floor. Gravely and Tisdale rode to police headquarters in the detectives’ car. Mitch drove Quinn in my car, which Mitch had claimed at the photo shop when he rushed there searching for me.
Zack and I stopped at the cottage long enough for me to get dressed again and give him a heartfelt kiss before we rode to police headquarters in his convertible.
“Thank you. Thank you, Zack. I’ll always be in your debt.”
“No debt accrued.” Zack squeezed my hand. “Your sharp thinking saved you—connecting Wizard’s scarf and Gravely’s wall hanging, your taking those snapshots.”
“How did you know where they were holding me?”
“After Quinn vouched for Mitch, the police released him. When you hadn’t shown up, Quinn, Mitch, and I drove to Glockner’s Photo and Phrame to check on you.”
“But how did you know to come to Gravely’s clinic?”
“Thank Free Glockner for that. When he checked to see what those noisy kids were doing in the parking lot, he saw Gravely urging you into his car. He knew you’d never willingly abandon the chocolate malt you’d set on your car hood. He called nine-one-one.”
“So you made a lucky guess and drove to the clinic?”
“A lucky guess—maybe. But your negative feelings about Gravely influenced me—your intuition…I hate to admit I’ve been so wrong about him.”
By the time we reached the police station, officers had put Gravely and Tisdale in holding cells. The detectives listened to each of us as we told our stories and signed statements. Then they released us.
In the parking lot, I drew Quinn aside. “When you write Wizard’s grim story, Quinn, it’ll help alert the public and law authorities to a dark side of the organ donor program. Mom and I were naïve, seeing only the bright side.”
“I’ll do my best. That’s a promise.”
I gave Quinn a hug. “You do that, and Wizard won’t have died in vain. Guys like Gravely and Tisdale—” I almost choked on their names. “They’re sociopaths—scum. Your article can help put readers on guard.”
Quinn nodded and smiled and when I left her, I knew we were friends again.
Zack and I started to drive Mitch to the Bridle Path, but he stopped us.
“Drop me off at my apartment, okay? I’ve had it with sleeping under the stars.”
“Any special future plans?” Zack asked.
“I’ve been reading online at the library about the Homeless Management Information System. Lots of information on their website. I’ve applied for a job.”
“Where?” I asked.
“At the Neighborhood Improvement Association. Their office’s on Emma Street. While I’m waiting to hear about a permanent job, I’ll go to work there as a volunteer.” He lowered his head. “That’s the least I can do for Wizard.”
I understood his grief. I didn’t say a word. If I sounded too approving of his plans, he might change his mind.
“Good thinking, Mitch,” Zack said, stopping at Mitch’s apartment. “Go for it.”
“See you later, guys. Thanks for the lift.”
“Where are we going?” I asked as Zack headed toward the highway.
“It’s a surprise. Something I want to show you—if you feel up to it.”
“Strange, but I feel great. Guess the adrenaline’s still pumping. But I’m warning you. After a day like today, it’s going to be hard to surprise me.”
Zack drove to Stock Island. We passed marinas and mobile home courts, slowed for kids skateboarding in the street, then stopped beside the dock at Shipton Boatyard & Salvage. Zack led the way to a small sailboat bobbing on the water. Gulls perched on the stern, screamed outrage as Zack shooed them away.
“This is my work-in-progress and today, although I still have some finishing details to complete, we’ll take it on its maiden voyage. I’ve bought a bottle of champagne for the christening.” Zack stepped aboard, pulled a bottle from a storage compartment, then joined me on the dock again.
I gasped, surprised. I’d only seen this sort of thing in movies, but I took the bottle he offered and faced the bow of the sailboat.
“Here’s to calm seas and gentle breezes.” Using strength I didn’t know I had, I slammed the bottle against the steel tip of the bow, laughing as champagne splashed onto my legs and shattered glass dropped into the sea.
“Now we’ll go for a sail.” Zack helped me aboard the boat. “It’s getting dark, but there’ll be a moon.”
We rigged the green sails, and after we motored from the dock and under the Boca Chica Bridge, Zack cut the engine and we sailed in peaceful silence while we watched the moon rise like a golden globe. I enjoyed the gentle roll of the boat, and we skimmed across the water until Zack anchored near a tiny islet. He carried a blanket and we splashed to shore, reaching dry sand where we spread the blanket.
There were things I wanted to say to Zack about all that had happened to me this day, but he stopped my words with long slow kisses until our bodies joined in a feverish embrace, and we released our pent-up emotions.
“Bailey, you must know by now that I love you.”
I stopped his flow of words with another kiss. Was I really ready for love? Love called for a commitment. What about my career?
“Bailey, do you love me?”
I hesitated only a moment before I answered. “Yes, Zack. I love you with all my heart.”
“We can blend our careers and create a wonderful life together, Bailey, if you’ll be my wife. Will you marry me? Will you spend the rest of your life with me?”
I pulled Zack close. “I live in possibility.”
Eden Palms Murder Page 24