‘I mean, I know it goes on in the States. But does it go on here as well?’ He hoped he sounded casual, but something in Christopher’s demeanour led him to believe that he might not have succeeded.

Christopher cleared his throat. ‘I have heard rumours.’

‘Rumours? Is that all?’

‘I was trying to be diplomatic. No. Rather more than rumours. It does go on here. Shamefully. There was at least one member of a large hospital’s staff who was convicted of supplying material. Bones it was, in that case. But it goes on with organs as well. Strictly illegal of course.’

‘So what happens?’

Christopher relaxed a little. ‘We have around ten thousand bone transplants a year, so there is a demand for good bones, strange as it may seem. Seven thousand people are waiting for kidneys but there are only three thousand kidney transplants a year. It’s actually harder to get a kidney than it used to be.’

‘Why’s that?’ Gary asked.

‘Road safety. Our records have improved. Fatal accidents are one of the main sources of organs. Safer roads mean fewer deaths, fewer deaths mean fewer kidneys.’

‘So where do we get them from?’

‘Abroad in the main.’

‘Right. Now I was reading about that.’

‘Yes. Most of them come from India. Well, they did until new laws were passed. There was a time, not so long ago, when India was known as the Great Organs Bazaar.’

‘That easy?’

‘Not any more.’

‘I was reading about other countries that do it, though. Moldova, for instance.’

‘Yes. It makes my blood boil.’

Gary nodded in agreement, then asked, ‘Do you have much involvement with transplants?’

Christopher looked uneasy again. ‘A little. I’ve had patients who’ve needed them. But I don’t have any involvement in locating them. That’s down to the hospitals.’

‘So everyone stands an equal chance of getting one, then?’

‘They should do.’

‘But they don’t?’

Christopher sighed. ‘Money talks, I’m afraid. Even in medicine, it saddens me to say.’

Gary noticed that Christopher had become tight-lipped. His jaw clenched, as though some memory had been reawakened. Then he asked his sixty-four-thousand-dollar question: ‘You don’t know people who trade in body parts do you?’

‘Good God no! Not illegally.’

‘Is there a legal way?’

‘I do know people who have helped others to jump the queue. Because they can pay. It’s not illegal as such but I really can’t condone that sort of thing.’

‘Unethical?’

‘Totally.’

Gary moved the conversation along. ‘Of course, you know where the majority of illegal organs come from nowadays?’

‘Nigeria?’ offered Christopher.

‘No,’ said Gary, pausing before playing his trump card. ‘China.’

Chapter 21

The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.

The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde, 1854–1900

‘So did you learn much?’ asked Sarah.

‘Well, I learned that there’s enough illegal trading going on over here to make it a very profitable business,’ confirmed Gary.