Chapter Sixteen

"Do you think Kevin could be involved in all of this?" Daniel asked as they walked.

"I sure don't want to," Carly said. She was looking at her phone; it had just buzzed again.

"They've picked up the orderly, Rusty Teller, aka Vince Randolph," she said. "That will give Luke plenty of ammunition against Lily Connoly."

"He will trip her up," Daniel said. "I just wish..."

"You're worried about Jordan."

"I am."

"We know that he's innocent," Carly assured him. "Hmm..."

"Hmm what?" Daniel asked.

"I was thinking. I mean, our Burke and Hare seemed to be able to bribe or threaten anyone. But I was also thinking our orderly might just be the one who made a point of setting Jordan up. But I don't know if he ever saw Jordan."

"Doesn't matter. Enough people knew about all of us," Daniel reminded her. "Any of us might have been the target for a setup. But Jordan lives here, has a home here, and that was the way to go. I really don't think that any law enforcement is involved. It was a way to throw a wrench into the efforts to stop it all."

"I think you're right."

They were nearing Kevin's.

"Get away from me!" Carly said, teasing yet serious. They didn't need to be seen together. While there were those who might recognize one of them, there were those who might not. And if anyone was seeking organs that night, the plan was always to work on one person.

So far.

But it seemed best.

"Yuck, yeah, get away from me!" Daniel replied.

They were both grinning as she walked ahead of him and entered Kevin's first.

There were a few empty stools dead center at the bar, and she noted there were a few more empty seats just around to the left side. Daniel would take one of them when he entered.

Kevin saw her. He wasn't surprised; once again, he played it as the friendly bartender and the pub owner who was determined to make all feel welcomed.

"Ah, so, I'm creating something that looks like whiskey but is not," he said, grinning as if they shared a great joke.

"I so appreciate you, Kevin!" she told him.

"No," he said very seriously. "We appreciate you."

He disappeared to create her drink. A minute later, Daniel came in and took the stool she had noted to the left.

There were people filling the tables. Couples, a few families and one lone man. Around to the right at the bar, there was a group that consisted of three young women and two young men who were apparently college students. She could hear them talking about a certain professor.

The seats by Daniel were taken first. Three young women had come in together. He offered to move so they could sit together.

They didn't want to bother him so one took the stool to his right while two took the stools to his left, laughing and chatting and drawing him in.

She lowered her head and grinned. Daniel could be very charming.

She felt a strange sensation at her back and realized Keith MacDonald was behind her again. His spirit took the stool next to her.

"I don't like this," he said.

Carly took her phone out and put her earbuds in so that she could pretend to talk on the phone.

"Keith, what don't you like?"

"This place."

"It seems a fine pub, Keith. And Kevin and Catherine have been helpful in ways they didn't need to be."

He shook his head, and then shrugged. "Last night, someone planned that setup. I think the fellow arrested after he had the knife to the woman's throat was intended to be sacrificed so that Jordan could be accused, and the public could make an outcry against the police. First, they were using Filigree, and now they are using this place."

Carly hesitated and said honestly, "Keith, that's what we're doing. We need to draw these people out. One of their van drivers wound up dead, but there's another. Maybe more. But anytime they do attack one of us, at least someone is saved."

Keith turned to look at her. "I don't want ye to be joining me too soon!" he told her.

She smiled. "I swear, I'm careful, I have great people behind me. I have you, Keith, and that makes me tremendously lucky and gives me an advantage others could never have."

"I can do so little!" he said.

She shook her head. "No, you have already done so much."

He turned suddenly and slid off the stool. She focused her attention to her phone, realizing that he had left because someone else had come in, and that person was going to take the seat.

"Ah, great, I am a lucky man!"

The man who slid onto the stool was the same man she had met the night before. The handsome man she thought to be in his early thirties, strong jaw, and quick and charming smile.

The same man who bore a resemblance to the person first suspected to have been the fake Harold Gleason.

But then different as the security guard approached him...

Much like the man sitting next to me again.

Possibly either the "Burke" or "Hare" pulling the strings on the operation.

"Hey!" she said.

"It's me, Robbie. Do you remember me?" he asked her.

"I do, of course. And you're alone tonight. Where's your friend?"

"Ah, me mate, Cullen, he had to work tonight. And what about you?"

"Oh, I am on my own. I don't think my friends are going to make it, but...I do so love this place. They suggested it, of course—"

"But then you ran out so quickly," he said, eyes light and teasing. "I thought that...well, hmm. I'm on my own, you're on your own. I think fate intended this evening."

She smiled flirtatiously. "Fate. Maybe. So..."

"May I start by buying you a drink?" he asked.

"Well, that would be lovely. But I think I should finish this one first."

He laughed. "All right—but no running out on me!"

"I won't run out," she promised. "Except..."

"I'll not leave you alone here. I'll see that you get back to your lodgings safely, oh, aye!"

"That's very kind of you."

"Well, not to be too forward, but I was hoping we might get to know one another."

"Okay," Carly said, and turned in her chair, drink in hand, sipping through her straw as she watched him. "I get to start. What do you do for a living?" she asked him.

"I'm in the moving business," he told her. "Alas—moving. Not movie."

Carly laughed. "A legitimate business!" she assured him.

Is it? Tongue in cheek, he might well be talking about moving body parts from one human being to another.

She decided to answer in kind when it got to her. And it did. Swiftly.

"And what do you do, Miss Carly...MacDonald it was, eh?"

"MacDonald, yes, Scottish grandparents," she explained truthfully. Then she smiled. "Travel and research," she told him. "Reports...helping others find out what goes on in various places."

"Ah! And Edinburgh?"

"One of the most fantastic cities in the world, in my mind," she told him.

"And so it is!" he agreed. "Are you ready for that second drink yet?"

"Uh, yes, thank you. I believe I am."

He motioned to Kevin and ordered a whiskey for himself and said, "Another of whatever the young lady is drinking, too, please."

"Coming right up!" Kevin assured him. "I make a special drink for the lovely American, a bit of a mix of alcohols," Kevin said, lying easily.

"How long will you be here?" he asked her.

"My timeline is open-ended at the moment," Carly told him. "And you—this is your home?"

"It is for now," he told her, shrugging. "As long as business lasts here, as long as it works...and then, of course, if it doesn't, I will move on."

"Well, hmm. Would you consider moving anywhere?"

"Anywhere where my work—works," he assured her.

As long as you're able to procure bodies for their parts?

"So, we're both here for a bit at the least," she told him. "What do you do with your free time?"

"Ah, there is a great deal to do here, and so much that is very close. How much have you gotten to see?"

She was able to put a little truth in the conversation. "I love the city and I've been here several times."

"MacDonald is a good clan name," he assured her. "Family?"

"Yes."

"Any still here?"

"Not that I know about. My grandparents on my dad's side immigrated to the States about eighty years ago, so..."

"No distant cousins?"

"Not that I know about."

"So, you are all on your own and I can fix that!" he told her, grinning. "That is, if you're up to getting to know me."

"I say that we are making a start on that," she told him. "Hmm. Movies. It may not be your business, but do you like movies?"

"Depends on the movies, but if you'd like to see a movie, I would love the movies!"

She grinned. "Maybe. Then...museums! I love museums. And, of course, there is a fabulous exhibit going on right now by the castle. There's always something. Hmm..."

"Naturally, you've done the castle."

"I have. But I'm always willing to go back!"

"There is something new playing. I think it's an alien movie. Maybe an alien/horror movie. I'm not sure that's a first date kind of a thing, unless you love horror movies and strange..."

"Strange?"

He shrugged. "That it's opening now. Many people feel there is too much real-life horror going on right now. And you do, of course, need to be careful. Not tonight because I will see you safely to your lodging." He frowned suddenly. "Are you staying with your friends?"

"Oh, no," she lied. "I'm in a little bed-and-breakfast. And I must admit, I'm awfully glad that you're here tonight. It's not so far that one can't walk easily, but I might have been afraid to walk it alone. But with you helping me... Well, I'm quite lucky."

She realized Keith MacDonald's ghost was at the end of the bar, between her and Daniel.

Then, suddenly, he was gone.

She didn't know why.

But Daniel was still there having a wonderful time, or so it appeared as he continued to flirt with the three girls who had come in.

Of course, if she were to leave with this man, he would leave them and follow. No matter how much fun he was probably really having.

Kevin returned with fresh drinks.

"Okay, favorite sport!" Carly asked.

"That's easy. Soccer. You?"

She laughed. "Football—American football. Then again, I like tennis a lot, too."

They continued to laugh, talk, say the things that people say when they are getting to know one another.

Then they were flirting, seeking something more.

What if I'm wrong? What if he just drives a moving truck around the city and is simply happy to make the acquaintance of a young woman and flirt and have fun, truly determined to see me safely home?

But she couldn't forget the security footage. The hospital security officer was convinced at first that he had been the man calling himself Harold Gleason.

Footage that had seemed to show one man, and then another. A change that had even seemed to take years away. In a flash, just lowering his face, touching his face...

No matter; there had been something in the footage that had spoken of this man.

Could he be the one slicing up one person to sell the greatest gift, that of life, to others?

"Music!" he said.

And she played the game, flirting away, wondering if she was right...

Or wasting the evening with a friendly man who was determined to charm her?

She wouldn't know until it was time to leave, until they took the dark path that brought them behind Greyfriars Kirkyard and came to the area by the weathered old stone walls of Edinburgh where it seemed the body-collecting vans were soon to arrive.

It wouldn't be long...

He ordered them both a third drink.

And she kept laughing with him, not at all intoxicated but certainly appearing to be in the midst of a very nice buzz.

Campbell and MacDuff were both in the observation room when Luke entered the second interrogation room where "Rusty Teller," in truth Vince Randolph, had been brought.

The man was simply sitting there, staunchly silent, staring straight ahead.

"You!" he spat out, seeing Luke. "What the bloody hell is this?"

"I'm quite sure you were informed why you are being arrested," Luke told him. "I'm sorry, but it is illegal to enter the country under false pretenses."

"What false pretenses? I'm an orderly. A good one."

"But your name is Vince Randolph. You came in under a phony passport. And then there's another real crime."

"What's that?"

"We can start with you trying to feign that Scottish accent when you spent your life in small-town Arkansas."

The man looked down. He exhaled and spoke entreatingly as he looked at Luke again.

"Okay. I needed a move. I screwed up my younger life—" he said, dropping the accent.

"Not to mention breaking out of prison in the United States. I don't know if you face charges here first, if you're extradited—or if you'll face murder charges," Luke told him.

"I did not kill Dorothy Norman!" he snapped. He winced. "I mean, I swear, I did not kill her. I didn't like her. She was a total witch. But I didn't kill her."

"Maybe not physically. But, hmm, I think I know why you had to tell your cousin about her. She started grilling you about being late to work or not showing up period. You were busy planting evidence as ordered in the home of Jordan Dowell," Luke said.

The man sat back, staring at Luke.

He began to stutter. "I, uh, no. I was sick. Yes, I was sick. I needed the time off. Oh, yeah, she gave me a hard time for it. But—"

"Like I said. I don't think you killed her physically. But you did tell your cousin, Mrs. Lily Connoly, that she was getting suspicious and being a pain in the neck. In fact, she was so hard on you that you were growing worried she'd fire you. Then you couldn't tell your cousin who was coming, who was rich and needed a transplant, or maybe what the doctors were saying, if they were onto anything."

He shook his head strenuously. "No, no, no. I mean, um, yes, I am a distant cousin of Lily's, but I don't call her—"

"Well, that's not true at all, is it? She already told us you reported to her on everything. Maybe she did tell you that you were going to need to take care of the situation yourself. I'm not sure how you got Dorothy Norman to accompany you anywhere, but you took her out to Arthur's Isle. And once you had her there, you hacked her head off. She was older, maybe suffering from a disease. She wasn't a planned kill, there was no one waiting for her organs. But you did hate her, and you were told that she needed to be a warning to others—and so you dumped her head."

"No! I didn't kill her."

Luke leaned forward, smiling grimly, and lied.

"Lily Connoly has already confessed to us that you killed her. She helped you get the false identity, helped you get out of the United States. In return, you had to tell her about things happening at the hospital. Then, when things started getting out of hand, you had to take care of Dorothy Norman."

"She told you that!" he exclaimed.

"She did. She said, though, that the whole thing was your idea."

"That horrible bitch! That's a lie. I didn't kill Dorothy. I swear it! I didn't even pick up Dorothy anywhere and take her to the island. That was Lily. I..." He stopped speaking, wincing, shaking his head in anger and disbelief. "All right, all right! She helped me get out of the States. Yes, she knew someone who could give me a new identity and the papers and history that went with it. And I had to talk to her, to tell her everything that went on at the hospital. And..."

He broke off. He appeared to be in tremendous pain.

"I should have finished out my time. I should have known she'd make me pay the debt. If I had just stayed and done my time...but I thought I would never get a job again. And if I came here, I could start over. I didn't know the price that I would have to pay."

Luke believed him. Oddly, he believed him. Lily had used him, just as others had been used.

But was she the impetus of all this? Because she hadn't been operating on people, disappearing for endless hours...

"Help me!" the man said suddenly. "Help me. I'll tell you anything I know!"

"All right. Do you know she has been behind the killings that have been going on?" Luke asked.

He let out a long breath. "I don't know exactly. But..."

"But?"

"She found out years ago she needed a kidney. Not here, she was on vacation in Thailand, and then she went to Pakistan..." He let his voice trail. He straightened and stared straight at Luke again. "She bought a kidney there. I don't think her husband ever knew. She lied and never told him that she was even sick. When she had the transplant, she told him she was on a family vacation, and she begged his forgiveness, saying that she'd left everything behind for him, and she needed some time with her own family. My mother helped her, then. I was still...really just a kid. When she helped me, I might have wanted to believe it was payback for what my mom had done for her by pretending that they were seeing many places in Asia. Time went by...my great-grandparents died, and I think she had some money. I'm not sure. And when I came here... I swear, I didn't know what she was doing, but now..."

Luke knew Campbell and MacDuff were hearing everything he heard.

"I will do my best to help you, Vince, but you will do time. It will help in your sentencing—here or maybe in the United States."

He cried easily. There were tears in his eyes but he nodded.

"I'm ready to go home, even if home is prison."

"One more thing. How did you find out about Jordan Dowell, and how did you plant the evidence in his home?" Luke demanded.

Vince looked downward. "The dude doesn't have any kind of an alarm. I can pick just about any lock and leave no trace. I just walked in."

"Where did you get the cooler?"

He didn't even hesitate. He just shrugged. "She called me. Lily called me and told me to pick it up from the vennel behind her house. I didn't... I didn't open it. I didn't even know what was in it. I just did what she told me."

"Is that the truth?"

"Oh, the absolute truth," Vince said. "Please..."

"Your testimony will help with your sentencing," Luke told him. He rose then, gave the man a nod and headed into the observation room.

Campbell looked at him and told him, "Damned good job."

"Jordan Dowell is innocent of any wrongdoing. You heard that, right?"

"I never believed Jordan was guilty!" MacDuff said. "We just had to—"

"Follow proper procedures," Luke finished.

"Right. But we will see he is cleared of all charges immediately," MacDuff promised. "And, we've got her! We'll start getting on the records to prove everything that the man is saying. We've got her."

"From what he's said," Luke told them, "I believe when she bought her kidney, she realized what kind of money might be made in a scam like this. But she isn't the surgeon—"

"No," Campbell said. "It has to be our mysterious fake Dr. Gleason."

"And," Luke said, "I imagine we'll find the missing parents of the children who were kept with Marjory Alden's children. One or both of them was probably in the medical field, and they're being forced to assist in the surgeries."

"Quite possibly," MacDuff agreed. "So, we will add to her charges. I'd like to watch you let her know."

Luke nodded. He was going to be very happy to let the woman know.

He walked back into the interrogation room where Lily Connoly looked as if she were waiting with extreme irritation.

"Why am I just sitting here?" she demanded. "You are going to let me go, and you are going to let me go right now!"

"Ah!" Luke said, sitting in front of her and smiling. "No. No, I am not."

"This is outrageous—"

"Oh, no, Mrs. Connoly, in truth, all your actions have been outrageous. I'm afraid we have a truly solid witness who has told us a great deal about you. So. You needed a kidney. Simple enough for a woman of your talents. You faked a great vacation—and went and bought yourself a transplant. And when you did that—"

"That little bastard told you that? Lies!" she screamed.

"I'll keep going. You found out just how much money was involved. And you like money—that's how you buy your boy toys. You know, the men who help you with your needs while your poor husband walks about thinking you're the dear woman of his heart, tolerant of any of his problems, the mother of his child. Ah, well, that's beside the point. Somewhere along the line, you and the good Dr. Gleason met, and you realized how much money could be made in the illegal organ transplant trade. I mean, it's not as if you could just go to a store and steal what you needed for other incredibly rich people willing to pay the price as you did. So...hmm, I'm still guessing Gleason was the brains behind the enterprise. After all, he was the one with the talent as a surgeon—"

"No!" she screamed.

"Lily. We have you. Deny all you will. We needed proof. We have it."

"Proof from a lying little beggar. No, I don't know what he's saying—"

"Lily, it will be easy to prove you have had a transplant. What surprises me is we didn't find the pharmaceuticals you must now be on when we searched your house, but they were probably hidden better than your sex toys. We will find them. And we know you were warned that Nurse Dorothy Norman was becoming suspicious. And maybe she even had something, not on you perhaps, but on our mysterious doctor. Now, he is the brains—"

"No!" she screamed.

"Lily—"

"I am the brains! What are you, an idiot? I am the smart one. He is just a stupid and resentful man ready to do anything to get even with the world. He was kicked out of a hospital for killing a patient! I am the brains!"

Luke stood, shaking his head.

"Thanks for the confession."

"What?"

"You just confessed, Lily. The officers and courts will be taking care of you now. I'm going to suggest that you be really grateful the United Kingdom doesn't have the death penalty."

"Wait, no!" she cried. "I...didn't kill anyone!"

"No, Lily. You didn't physically kill them. You ordered their deaths. That's enough."

"No, no, no. I am not responsible."

"But you're the brains!"

"I... You go to hell! I will get a new solicitor. A good one. This will all be thrown out of court!"

Luke just shook his head, amazed she had managed to hide the depths of her truly malicious personality for so long.

"Good luck with that," he told her. "Now, of course, you can help yourself. You can tell us where to find the good Dr. Gleason. In fact, you can tell us who he really is, and most importantly, you can tell us where to find him and his new base of operations."

She sat back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Lily, it could mean a lot to help you when this goes to court," he warned.

She lifted her head, and then for a minute she laughed. "You are not the brains of any operation!" she snapped at him.

"Oh? Because I'm suggesting you help yourself?"

"Because we were both too smart for me to know! I can't tell you anything, anything at all, because I didn't know whom they were going to kill. I just made the arrangements with those who needed a body part," she announced.

He smiled pleasantly at her, set his hands on the table and loomed over her.

"You're lying. But that's okay. We know it was moved to a home along the Firth of Forth with easy access from the water, maybe very easy for a few of the customers. You only get one chance, Lily. Which house?" Luke demanded.

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her back on him.

There was a tap on the one-way mirror.

He left the room. Behind him, she was suddenly screaming at the top of her lungs again.

He ignored her and hurried in to find out what Campbell and MacDuff had to say.

"They think they have something," Campbell said. "Your teammates, Mason Carter and Della Hamilton. We're setting up with officers from Police Scotland, but they're not sure what they have. They believe they have found the car in the video surveillance from the hospital. They're about to go in."

"I'd like to be there. Is there time?"

"Go. Backup is being organized. The house is quiet. We don't have any new missing persons that we know about. Hopefully..." MacDuff said.

"Hopefully, we'll find our fake Dr. Gleason and the surgery," Luke said. "I need the address."

"Sending it to you now," Campbell assured him.

Luke hurried out to his car, set his GPS and drove as quickly as possible.

When he arrived, he saw police cars were gathering on the street. He parked his own behind them and quickly headed toward the house.

It was a fine manor house with a great property. And he saw what had alerted Mason and Della to the possibility they were in the right place.

Someone hadn't closed the garage doors carefully. And through the few feet of the opening, he could see a car of the make and color in the surveillance video from the hospital.

Moving quickly, he found Mason and Della.

He smiled. "Wow. You just got here and—"

"Oh, we had help," Della told him. "One of the officers noted the door. He alerted us, and we came. Of course, we can't be certain—"

"I can," Luke said. "This is a small community. There can't be more than one of these exact cars, color, year, make and model, even if we can't see the emblem from the street."

"Then let's do this," Mason said.

"Officer?" Luke called.

A man from Police Scotland joined them at the front door with other officers fanning out behind him, and with Luke, Mason and Della at his side.

He banged at the door and shouted, "Police Scotland. Open up!"

There was no response. He tried again. Nothing.

Then Luke frowned, thinking he heard something from within, someone...

Trying to cry out, not able to do so.

"Break it," he said.

An officer came forward with a ram. Using a heavy swing, he slammed against the door. Once, twice and then again.

The door shook and then splintered, and they broke in.

Luke knew what he had heard. Because there, in the middle of the large parlor floor, was a couple, bound at their wrists and ankles and tied together with more rope in such a way that if they had struggled, they might have strangled themselves. They were gagged as well.

"I've got them," Della said as she hurried over to the couple and was joined by an officer.

Luke glanced at Mason, and they turned and went in opposite directions. The kitchen and dining room appeared normal.

But there was another door to the right.

Closed. Locked.

Luke called the officer again, nodding.

The door was broken down. And in that room, they found the new surgery.

Beds... Trays with a surgeon's tools. IV stands, cabinets filled with pharmaceuticals, more...

And more.

"We've got it," Mason said.

Luke nodded in agreement as officers flooded the house. They could hear shouts.

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

"Clear."

And in a matter of minutes, they were back together, shaking their heads.

By then, Della and an officer had freed the couple who had been tied together on the floor. The woman, a young redhead, rushed forward with her husband, a tall thin blond man behind her with his hands on her shoulders.

"They're not here, they're both out!" she cried. "But you must help us, you can't be here! They have our children—if anything goes wrong, they promised us they'd kill them and do it slowly and horribly—"

"No, no, your children are safe! We have them!" Luke told her. "We found the children a few days ago. They are safe. We need to know—"

"We don't know where they went! I think they—"

She broke off, choking, tears in her eyes.

Her husband had to answer for her.

"We believe they are out to kidnap another victim. There's a boat due in tonight with—with a customer."

"All right," Luke said. "Please, help us now. Who are they?"