The email came earlier than expected, Fenton fulfilling his end of things in under three minutes. The document was a bit underwhelmingjust a list of names and addresses along with the age and current diagnosis of the listed individual. She didnt have to scan it long before she came across Bruce Webbers name.

Webber is the seventh name from the top, she told Jack. After a bit more scanning, she found Marias. Maria Ramirez is the nineteenth entry.

So the question then becomes, Jack said, is one of the people on this list the killer?

Why would they be?

To get close to the top, Jack said, and Rachel was a little ashamed she hadnt gotten there first.

Another question, though. And before she could even say it, the weight of what it might mean slammed into her like a brick. Does that mean anyone higher than Webber on the list could be the next victim?

Jack gave her a determined smile, one that may have seemed evil or malicious to people that did not know him. I think we need to find out.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

They arrived at the Roanoke City Police Department at 2:35 and Rachels mind was alighted with the new questions and possibilities. Deputy Stanhope met them there, just having got in from routine patrols himself. He looked hurried but slightly excited when he saw Rachel and Jack coming to his desk. He didnt have an office, but a large cubicle space where a few other officers shared the floor. A busier area that Rachel supposed served as the bullpen sat on the other side of a wall, slightly noisy. Like any other police station, shed ever stepped foot in, there was the murmur of several conversations, the sounds of fingers dancing across keyboards, and the smell of too-strong coffee in the air.

So I take it the docs were helpful? Stanhope said as they huddled around his desk.

We only spoke with Fenton, Rachel said as they came to his desk. She had her phone out, the transplant list already pulled up. But it was your email with the records that really helped and led us to this.

She handed him her phone and he took it eagerly. What am I looking at? he asked.

A transplant list for people in need of a liver. Notice that Bruce Webber is listed as seventh from the top. Maria Ramirez is a bit further down.

We suspect the people above Webber may be potential targets for the killer, Jack said. And that the killer may be somewhere below Webber. This is all speculation, of course.

If thats the case, Stanhope said, why skip so far down to Ramirez? Wouldnt it make more sense to hit someone further up?