The Body Thief (26 page)

Relief surged through him and he tightened
his arms around her. “I’m glad. I think we’ve found something very
special. I’d like to give us time to find out.”

She stared at him, her eyes huge and serious
in her face. “I’d like that, too.”

He bent his head and captured her lips and
kissed her with every emotion that burned way down deep inside. She
moved beneath him, holding his head in place and kissing him back.
Hard and hot and ready, his cock pressed insistently against her
belly. Tearing his mouth away from hers, he kissed his way to her
breasts and then suckled one of her nipples.

She groaned and her hips came off the
mattress, silently urging him on. Sheathing himself with a condom
from her newly purchased supply, he positioned himself between her
legs. His cock probed her slick entrance and without hesitation,
plunged inside. Her arms tightened around his shoulders and she
moved underneath him in a rhythm that drove them both toward the
crest.

“
Rohan!
” she gasped a little while
later and her inner muscles tightened around his cock, flooding him
with heat. A moment later, he reached his own climax and came with
a triumphant shout. When he was able to move again, he shifted his
weight and lay down beside her, trying to slow his breathing.

“I’d have thought, after all the loving last
night, you’d be keeping your distance,” he teased.

She turned her head and looked at him. “Are
you complaining?”

“Hell, no. You can love me any time you
want.”

Snuggling up against his chest, she breathed
in deeply and then exhaled on a quiet sigh. A moment later, she
gasped.

“Oh, my goodness! Is that the time? I’m
going to be late for work!” With that, she bolted upright and
dashed, naked, to the shower. Rohan chuckled and slowly climbed out
of bed. He threw his clothes on for the second time and headed to
the kitchen to prepare the promised coffee.

* * *

Hours later at his desk in the squad room,
Rohan stacked his hands behind his head and blew out his breath on
a heavy sigh. He’d been over the reports at least three times. The
evidence was there for all to see.

No matter how he looked at it, one thing was
certain: Between June and August thirty-one people had organs and
tissue illegally removed—and those were only the ones they knew
about. Short of exhumation, there was no way of determining how
many others there were. The only records available for comparison
were for those people who’d required an autopsy and were processed
at the Glebe Morgue.

Rohan thought about the other fifty-seven
patients who’d died over winter who had undergone organ removal at
the Sydney Harbour Hospital before being sent directly to the
funeral homes. He couldn’t help but wonder how many of them had
also suffered illegal organ and tissue removal. It angered him to
concede that it was impossible to know. Even if the police went so
far as to obtain exhumation orders from the court, that could only
confirm suspicions in the ones who’d been buried. The cremated
victims were lost to them forever.

One name kept coming up over and over again:
Doctor Alistair Wolfe
. In every single instance where the
consent didn’t match the actual organ removal, or there simply
wasn’t a consent form on file, Doctor Wolfe had led the surgical
removal team and had signed off on the death certificate. Rohan
derived no satisfaction when his suspicions were confirmed.

Now, he looked across at Bryce, whose
expression was just as grim. “What have you found?” Rohan asked,
dreading the answer.

“Doctor Alistair Wolfe’s name dominates the
list of organ retrievals. He’s the only consistent staff member
across the ninety-three cases. He has to be the one. There’s no
other explanation.”

Rohan’s gut tensed. Knowing Bryce shared his
suspicions didn’t make things any easier. If only their prime
suspect wasn’t related to the woman he cared for most.
Why the
hell did life have to be so complicated, throw so many curve
balls?
Reluctant to dump Samantha’s brother firmly in the
spotlight just yet, Rohan hedged his answer.

“It certainly appears that way, but we need
hard evidence. All we have right now is proof that he was present
during all of the suspicious retrievals. It doesn’t prove that he
was the one who removed the organs without consent. For all we
know, he might have operated within the terms of the consent and
then left the room. Anything could have happened after that.”

“What about the ones where the consent
form’s missing? There are several of them. Don’t you think that’s
suspicious?”

“Of course, but until we speak with the next
of kin and confirm they did or didn’t give consent we can’t know
for sure; it’s anybody’s guess if and where the consent forms were
mislaid. The surgeons could blame the porters who transported the
bodies to the hospital morgue. The hospital could argue the forms
were lost during the transportation to the Glebe Morgue. We have to
be careful not to muddy the waters. A good defense lawyer could
tear our case to pieces. We need to concentrate on the relatives
and ask them what they gave consent for—if anything,” he added
grimly.

“We need to understand the organ removal
procedure, from start to finish,” Bryce added. “We need to know
what happens from the time the consent is given and the patient is
wheeled into the operating room with everything intact, to when
they come out…less.”

“We’ll have to interview all the theater
staff who were present during each organ retrieval, in particular
the nursing staff. They often work in the background, unseen and
unacknowledged by the surgeons. It’s possible some of them saw or
know something that will confirm our suspicions.”

Bryce nodded and Rohan added, “I’ll call
Deborah Healy and set up another meeting—this time without Doctor
Alistair Wolfe. We need to make sure he’s unaware we’re onto him.
If he’s involved, I don’t want him alerted too early. That could
give him the opportunity to cover his tracks.”

“Do you think he’d approach the staff with a
view to changing their stories?”

“Who knows? Don’t forget, we don’t know
anything for certain at this stage.”

“My gut is telling me Wolfe’s our man.”

Pain and dread clenched Rohan’s gut tight at
the thought of Samantha and her family. For a moment, he thought he
might be sick. Swallowing back bile, he grimaced. “So is mine.”

“There’s something else,” Bryce said, his
expression grave.

“What?”

“Based on the consent forms we’ve examined,
we know that ninety-three people who were patients at the Sydney
Harbour Hospital donated various organs and tissue since the
beginning of winter. That’s a hell of a lot of transplants.”

Rohan stared at him and his heart began to
pound. “You’re right and if we accept that the autopsy records and
statements made by the various funeral parlor staff members are
closer to the true number of transplants, it’s even greater.”

He sucked in a deep breath and tried to get
control over the adrenaline that surged through him. He pushed back
his chair and began to pace. “Deborah Healy told us several
hospital transplant teams can be present at a retrieval, depending
on the organs involved. We need to interview the staff at the other
hospitals with transplant units so that we can compare the
transplant rates over the past few months with the number of organs
we know have been harvested. Let’s hope to God they match.”

Bryce stared at him grimly. “And if they
don’t?”

Rohan slowly shook his head back and forth
while icy dread poured into his gut. “Then this is far bigger than
any of us ever imagined.”

* * *

Sam removed the last of the organs from the
male body stretched out on the gurney and carried the steel tray to
a nearby bench so she could begin her examination. She was relieved
Edmund Rolf appeared to have all of his organs intact. She looked
across at Phillip where he worked quickly on the body of an elderly
woman who lay on the adjacent table. “You seem like you’re in a
hurry, Phillip. What are you up to this afternoon?”

Phillip glanced up and gave her a quick
grin. “It’s my daughter’s graduation from college. It’s not on
until seven, but it’s being held in the Grand Ballroom at the
Hilton Hotel in the city. If I don’t get out of here on time, I
won’t get home, shower, change and get back in here again before it
starts. Zoe will never forgive me if we walk in late.”

“I can’t believe Zoe’s graduating! It seems
like only yesterday she was starting her first year of college.
Where has the time gone?”

“You’re telling me!” Phillip laughed. “It
feels like yesterday we were bringing her home squalling from the
hospital.”

“Two kids down and two to go, right? The way
time’s flying by, you’ll have them all off your hands in no
time.”

“Yep, we’re halfway there. Maree and I are
counting down the years until the younger two are off our hands.
Afterwards, we want to buy a caravan and travel around
Australia.”

Sam lifted Edmund Rolf’s heart out of the
tray and examined it closely. Several blood clots and narrowed
arteries told an all too familiar tale. She put the heart into the
bowl of the scales and weighed it. “Where are you planning to
go?”

“Alice Springs, for starters. We’ve always
wanted to see Uluru at dusk.”

“Sounds good,” Sam said, feeling a little
wistful. She’d spent so many years working hard to further her
career, she’d hardly been anywhere.

“Yes, it does, doesn’t it?” he said,
smiling.

Glancing at her colleague again, she nodded
toward the body. “Are you nearly finished?”

“I just need to suture her up and she’s
pretty much good to go.”

“I’ll do it, if you like. Go and clean up
and get out of here. It will give you a head start on the
traffic.”

Phillip smiled in surprise. “Really?”

“Yes. After this PM I’m done. It’s no
trouble to finish yours.”

“Thanks, Sam. I really appreciate it.”

“No problem. That’s what friends are
for.”

Phillip blew her a kiss. “You betcha.” He
threw her a wave and headed for the exit, peeling off his mask and
gloves as he went.

“Give my congratulations to Zoe and tell
Maree I said hi,” she called out.

“I will, and thanks again, Sam. I’ll catch
you tomorrow.”

The door closed behind him and Sam returned
to the job at hand. Quickly and efficiently, she finished weighing
the rest of the organs and then returned them to the open chest
cavity. Her findings would show Edmund Rolf had died from a massive
heart attack. She was sure it wouldn’t come as a surprise to his
family.

Overweight by at least one hundred pounds
and with his lungs showing clear signs that, in life, he’d been a
heavy smoker, death by heart attack was not only common, it had
been predictable. In this case, the pathology confirmed it.

Closing the abdomen and chest with small,
neat sutures, Sam restored the body to the way she’d found it and
then wheeled the gurney back to the fridge. After depositing Edmund
Rolf onto the shelf, she went back into the autopsy suite and
finished with Phillip’s lady.

It was nearing five o’clock by the time she
cleaned up and deposited her scrubs in the laundry bin provided for
that purpose. An ache in her lower back told her it was well and
truly time to take a break. Heading to the showers, she stripped
off and washed away the effects of the day.

She heard her phone beep over the sound of
the water and hurriedly turned off the faucets. Drying quickly, she
dug in her handbag and checked the screen.
Rohan.
He’d
texted to say hi and to ask if she had any plans for dinner.

She smiled and excitement coursed through
her. She was tired after a long day on her feet, but at the thought
of spending the evening with him, her fatigue fell away. Naked
except for the towel tied hastily around her, she sent off a
reply.

No plans 4 dinner. Would love 2 catch
up.

She stopped short of ending it with a “love
Sam” even though she wanted to. It was still early in their
relationship. Neither of them had taken the next step of
introducing the other to their respective families, even though
they’d talked about it. The more time she spent with him, the more
certain she was that she was falling in love with him… But she
didn’t want to preempt things by using the word prematurely.

He was snowed under with his investigation.
An investigation that involved her and Alistair. It would be best
to wait for that to be resolved and have his undivided attention
before making any rash statements. Her phone beeped again and she
checked it.

Beer and pizza at my place? I owe u
remember?

Sounds good
, she typed.

Seven ok?

Seven’s perfect.

* * *

Rohan read the message on the screen of his
phone and smiled. Knowing he was having Samantha over for dinner
was the only good thing that had happened to him that day. He and
Bryce had met with the relatives of the deceased patients whose
files had been missing consent forms.

Unwilling to be premature in raising the
alarm that something was amiss, they’d been purposefully vague
about their reasons for needing the information and had chosen
their words with care. It gave Rohan no joy to discover that all of
the people they spoke to denied giving permission for any organs
and tissues to be removed. It was no surprise those files were
missing the consent form. There had never been one to start
with.

A check with the other transplant units had
also brought to light a strange and disturbing reality. Of all the
organ and tissue harvesting that had been conducted at the Sydney
Harbour Hospital over the winter months, not one single tissue
sample had been received by any of them.