Bruce Webber, a sixty-three-year-old man. Maria Ramirez, a thirty-three-year-old woman. Christina Ragland, a forty-one-year-old woman. At first glance, none of them had much in common (aside from the bum liver). The age range was spread around fairly well, only excluding the very young and the elderly. None of them were especially wealthy, and from what the records showed, they had a few different doctors, though Ailsworth did show up on a few of them.

Hey, Jack, do you remember the age of the youngest person on the transplant list?

Um… he said, looking through his own thin stack of papers hed brought with him from the precinct. That would be Michael Reeding. Nineteen years old and suffering from a genetic disorder. Right slap-dab in the middle of the list. Why?

And the oldest?

He frowned at her ignoring his question, but looked back to the sheet he currently held. That would be a Mrs. Pam Jones. Eighty-three. And shes number eleven on the list. Why?

Just trying to see if theres anything similar to the people hes gone after alreadyor the people hes maybe skipped over. Based on what we have so farwhich isnt much, I admitit looks like hes fine with taking out middle-aged women and older men.

Jack thought it over, looking back to his paper and adding: That doesnt really tell us much, though.

No, not yet. I mean, we have no one younger than thirty and thats not saying much, true. But we

The ringing of her phone interrupted her. Shed spoken with Stanhope so many times in the past two days that she recognized his number this time. She answered it quickly, hoping to knock another name off of her list.

Hello, Deputy Stanhope.

Hey there, Gift. Thought youd want to know that I just got off the line with Captain Brown. He just got word that a gentleman by the name of Antoine Evans got the call this morning. They found a matching donor for him and hes currently in surgery to receive it.

Rachel looked to her list and saw that Antoine Evans was second on the list. So, positions one and two were now off the list, along with the three victims and those under police protection.

Also, Stanhope said, weve got two more on the list that can be added to the protection list. He gave the names and Rachel marked them off, realizing that she was now looking at a very short list indeed. If she took the gamble and assumed it was not anyone currently in the hospital, then it became a very manageable list.

In fact, that would leave only five people on the listtwo of which were listed below Christina Ragland. She eyed the five names carefully. As she studied them, she was fully aware that not only were they potential victims, but one of them could very well be the killer.

Gift? You still there? Stanhope asked in her ear.