The group walked out of the restaurant into the cold dark night. It had a feel of foreboding as a cloud formed over them from their breath. They discussed where they were going to go for they're after work drink. When the decision was made and they all made a break for their perspective cars. Three of the people, two men and a woman, head for two cars side by side. Chris a tall dark hair man with a lean tanned body moved to get into the driver side of his sleek charcoal grey Maxda XR7. The other man, Graham, and Denise the woman, moved in-between the cars to get into them. They both froze at once, paralyzed as if they were two statues.

There on the ground in a puddle of blood, was a man or at lest that was what they thought it was. Steam was rising from the gapping hole in his chest. The two took in the scene, but except for the rising steam, only the blood splatted everywhere was registering on their minds. They were mesmerized watching the steam rising and Graham thought, 'it looks like a ghost leaving the body.' At that moment Graham snapped out of it and he quickly spun Denise around so she faced away from the horrific scene. She was so pale that her skin looked to be made of marble and had a sheen from her own sweat, making her look even more like a statue. Graham called to Chris in just over a whisper,

"Chris, come here and take Denise inside." Chris looked at him, but saw the look on both their pale faces. An aura of fear mixed with horror was oozing out of every pour with each bead of sweat that formed on their faces. He quickly moved around the car. Seeing the body on the ground, he at once put his arm around Denise and took her inside. At the some time Graham regained a little more control and called out to the others,

"I need help over here." He then pulled a blanket out of the back of his car and covered over the body. As he bent down to put the blanket over the body his nose was assaulted by the smell of blood. Graham almost gagged but finished covering the body. When the other four come over Graham said,

"We should all go inside, someone is going to have to call the police." The four of them looked at him, the confusion showing on their faces. Then realizing there was something on the ground Suzanne said,

"What is that?"

"It is a body, and I am pretty sure it is dead." Christine said,

"Let me take a look maybe I can help." Dave and Darren signaled that they were going inside to call the police. Graham looked at Christine and said,

"There is nothing you can do and I really don't think you want to see it."

"Why was it hit by a car or something?"

"No, it was not an accident. The man was killed by someone and it is not a pretty sight." At that a shiver went through the two girls. Suzanne with her dark brown eyes and hair looked mad. She said,

"Who would do such a thing?" Christine who was the opposite of Suzanne, with her blond hair and rosy red cheeks said,

"You would be surprised at the number of murders in Canada. We are becoming more and more like the States everyday." She then looked at Graham and said,

"How about you, are you OK?" Graham nodded his head and said,

"Why don't you go and check on Denise? I will wait there until the police arrive." They both nodded their heads and went back inside the restaurant. Graham watched them; they were both tall and shapely. Christine Coleman had a natural innocence to her that fooled most people while Suzanne Bouche had a very strong and confident personality that gave her a determination she put into everything. They entered the restaurant and Graham thought, 'How can they both seem so calm. Maybe I should not have told them? No they are both strong they can handle it. After all they did not see what remained of that bloody corps. It will probably haunt me to the ends of my life.'

Standing in the freezing cold, with a dead body only a few feet away, was a humbling experience for Graham. It pointed out the fragility of human life. The time passed incredibly slowly, it seemed like hours for the police to arrive. He thanked God when the police finally arrived. Standing there, as three police cars came racing up, their sirens blasting and lights flashing. He was a wash in red and blue lights and felt a relief come over him. It was somehow not his responsibility any more. They got out of their cars and started to ask Graham questions. It took a few minutes but they had a fairly compete picture of what had happened. Dave and Darren came to the door and an officer said,

"Gentlemen I am sorry but you can't come out here." Darren said,

"Yes of course, but we would like to go home soon."

"We will get you out of here as soon as possible." Dave then asked,

"How long does questioning in a matter like this usually last?"

"You were here when the body was found?" They both nodded their heads yes. Graham then asked if he could go inside as he was freezing. The officer said,

"Of course but is the restaurant not closed."

"Yes, but the people I was with are inside waiting for you."

Walking away from the body Graham realized he had been standing in blood. It sent a cold shiver through him and he had to get it off. Picking up a piece of paper he wiped the red goo off of his shoes. At that moment an officer came up to him and asked if he could move his car. Graham got into his car and throwing the paper in the garbage bag he started up the car. The car roared to life and scared the life out of the policeman who was standing beside it. Graham's car had lost the muffler earlier in the week. He smiled over at the policeman as if to say, sorry. He then moved it away from the crime seen.

Entering the restaurant he headed straight for the bar where he poured himself a very large Grand Mariner. Graham was a little older then most of the rest and had been around. That experience had still not prepared him for seeing a dead body. Thinking about it and taking a sip he realized that he was going to be sick. Running to the washroom he got to the toilet just before his stomach gave up on him. After spending a few gut-wrenching minutes over the toilet. Suzanne came in to see if he was all right. He rose from his knees and was getting cleaned up when Suzanne asked,

"Are you OK?" Nodding his head he said,

"I guess the reality of what happened just hit me. You did not see it Suz, who ever did that must have been some sort of animal." Suzanne wrapped her arms around herself and said,

"I don't think I will ever feel safe going out there again." They both stood there in silence for a few moments. Then Graham having finished getting himself together, said,

"Well I guess we should go back out and help the Police get this guy, so I don't have to walk you out to your car for the rest of my life." They both half heartily smiled at the attempted humor. Then in a more serious tone Graham said, "They are going to get the person responsible, so don't worry." He gave her a reassuring smile and continued, "I also think I need that drink now." The two of them walked out of the washroom and back to the bar. Picking up their drinks they both took a big swallow. A police officer came over and asked if they would give their statements now.

Escorting both of them to a different police officer in different areas of the restaurant. Graham was asked to describe what he had seen and done. He told the officer he had seen the body and the actions he had taken, as he did he had a cold shiver run down his spine and a mental picture of the body and the steam rising from it came rushing back into his head. The officer said they had done well. Then the questioning started. It lasted another couple of hours for Graham and Denise with the others sitting there for morale support. Every once in a while a officer would call a break and Graham took the opportunity to get another drink. The Grand Marnier was helping, and his hands had stopped shaking. When they were finished it was very early in the morning, but no one felt like sleeping.

The group decided to go out for something to eat, not that any of them were hungry. The idea of sleep was frightening or should I say the idea of dreaming was frightening. They knew their dreams would all be full of the murder. They headed for an all night restaurant and got a table. They were all very quiet; everyone involved in their own thoughts. Denise had gotten some of her color back and started to look herself again. She was slim with an athletic build, and sat straight of back with an air of independence about her. She had recovered most of her composure, and said,

"I can not get the image out of my head. Who could do such a thing? It was as if his internal organs were cut out." The people who had not seen the body all turned as white as a ghost. At the thought of a ghost Graham's mind flashed back to the image and he saw the steam rising from the body again. Chris put his arm around Denise and said,

"Don't think about it, it will not do you any good to dwell on it." Darren then shifted in his seat, he was a little shorter then the rest of the men with slicked back blond hair. He had a very competitive nature and did not like to be out of control. This outlook on life lead him to said,

"Maybe it would be good to talk about it, sometimes that is the best thing for people. It might even help if we look into the murder." Everyone at the table looked at him as if he were mad. "No think about it. Instead of dwelling on the negatives of the situation, we could pool or resource and see if we can help to solve it." The group looked at him again, but this time there was a new look on their faces. The helpless fear was gone and it was replace with a resolve to do something.

Figuring out where to start was a bit of a problem. Eventually Suzanne came up with a good idea, she said,

"We need all the information we can find on the case. We have two sources available to us as I see it. The first is the newspapers. Who would like to look into that?" Chris and Denise looked at each other. Chris could see in her eyes that she needed to do this, it would be her way of dealing with the whole thing. He nodded to her and she said,

"Chris and I will." Everyone else nodded OK. Suzanne said,

"The second source is to write down everything we remember from are interviews with the police. That may tell us if they have any leads they are working on." Suzanne got out a pad of paper and started to write down every question the police had asked. This turned out to be harder, then they had thought. They had been concentrating on their answers not the questions. After a couple of hours they felt pretty sure they had it all down. Looking it over no one could see any sort of pattern. Darren said,

"Even if there is a pattern in their questions I don't think I could see it right now. I am to tired, I think we should go home and get some sleep." Everyone was exhausted at this point, and they decided to go home and get some sleep. After all it was now six o'clock in the morning. Before they left they made plans to meet that night after work. Picking a local pub to compare notes and any thoughts. Leaving, they all went there separate ways.

Denise got home and slept for a couple of hours from pure exhaustion. Her daughter, Jessie a cute little blond hair bundle of energy woke her up. Denise went into her mother mode. Mothers can do amazing things like get no sleep and still function all day with a child. After getting Jesse ready she called Chris, and thought, 'If I have to be up then so should he.' She woke him as he was still asleep but he grudgingly got up at her call. They met at the library. Chris was not at his best he was not use to functioning on only three hours of sleep. The big black rings under his eyes made it obvious too anyone who saw him; even Jessie did not try to get Chris to play with her. They started to go over the newspapers from that morning. It was a long and tedious task and they were both exhausted. This condition lead to a startling discovery. Chris was reading in a paper about the murder. The paper mentioned the stolen organs. It described the whole thing similar to what he had read in numerous other articles. Then it hit him; the murder victim in the article was a woman. This was very confusing, how could a reporter get such a simple thing wrong.

Taking the paper over to Denise, he showed it to her. She read the article and said,

"There are at least five noticeable mistakes. I don't understand?" At that point an elderly man came up to them and said,

"Excuse me when your finished with the Calgary Sun can I have it?" They looked at each other and quickly turned to the front of the paper. There it was in big letters, The Calgary Sun. It was today's paper, but from that city. Chris looked up at the elderly man and said,

"Yes of course, just let me photocopy this article and you can have it." He did and returned to find Denise had grabbed papers from all over Canada. She found there had been similar murders in five other cities. They photocopied all the stories then they headed out. Jessie had been very good in the library, so Chris said,

"Who wants to go to Mc Donald's?" Jessie at once said,

"ME ME!" Chris looked at Denise and she said,

"That is not fair. Now if I say no I am the heavy."

"So don't say no."

"Well it is almost lunch time and Jess was a good girl at the library, Ok lets treat ourselves." The three of them went for lunch, that is Chris and Denise had coffee while Jessie had a kid's meal. Chris also bought her a toy; Chris loved to spoil Jess. Denise could not keep up with Jessie once they got to Mc Donald's, so she let her go to the play-land and run herself out. Denise kept watch out of the corner of her eye; she did not like when Jessie was out of her sight, and after last night she was even more watchful. Jessie came back to the table and said,

"Chris come and play with me."

"I can't right now your mommy and I are talking." Chris and Jessie had always gotten along and finally she sat beside him and quieted down, while Chris and Denise talked. Chris said,

"Should we talk about it now?" then he looked at Jessie as if to say with her here.

"I don't think she will understand, but keep it general just incase I am wrong." Chris nodded and said,

"This does not make any sense. What do you think is going on?"

"Six incidents that sound exactly the same in six different cities all at the same time, I don't know what to think," and she looked confused.

"Lets just leave it until we meet with the others tonight. How about I meet you early so we can discuss how we are going to tell them what we have found." She nodded OK and said,

"8:30, how is that for you?"

"Great." Denise then rounded up Jessie and she said,

"What do you say to Chris?" Jessie looked up at him with big puppy eyes and said,

"Thanks Chris." Then a big smile lit up her face.

"Your well come." They left and Chris sat there for a while thinking about Denise and Jessie.

That night Chris and Denise went to the pub early. They needed to figure out what they were going to say. Once they had got a couple of drinks Chris said,

"Are we really sure all these murders are connected?"

"You read the articles, did they sound like they were connected to you?" She paused for a second then continued, "If the second victim had not been a woman, we might not have noticed. Of course that man waking you up for the paper helped."

"I was not asleep I just did not look." They then discussed different ways to break the news to the rest of the group. After about half an hour the other five showed up. Everyone relaxed after work and had a drink. Darren was the first to ask,

"Well what did you find?" Chris and Denise looked at each other then passed out the articles they had photocopied. Suzanne was the first to speak out,

"This article is all wrong. They even got the sex of the victim wrong." Denise said,

"Look at the top of the papers." They read in silence. Then they looked at each other's articles. Dave said,

"These are all from different cities. Did they all happen at the same time?"

"From what we can tell, yes," said Denise.

Silence engulfed the table and its occupants as they realized what was being suggested. There was a little panic in Graham's voice as he said,

"What are we going to do now?" Seven pairs of eyes were searching the other faces at the table looking for a clue as to what the others were thinking. As they looked around they saw fear, anger and curiosity on the other faces. No one wanted to be the first to say anything, but the seven pairs of eyes all asked the same question, 'Should they go on?' After a minute Suzanne looked around and said,

"It looks like we may have gotten ourselves into something we can't handle. I think we should vote on whether to go on or not." Everyone agreed and they got out paper and pens. Darren said,

"Before we vote I would like to say, we got into this for both are good and to help the police. We were all sickened by the violence so close to us." Graham then said,

"Yes you are right, but I don't want that violence to end my life. This is obviously not just some random killing. There are over tones here that could have far reaching effects. I am not saying I do not want to go on I just want us all to think about what is happening here." Then everyone filled out a ballot and handed it to Suzanne. She mixed them up then stated to open them. The first one she opened was to stop. She pushed it off to the right. The next two were to continue on and they went to the left. Everyone was trying to look at each other to see how they were reacting to the vote. The fourth vote was to stop and it was all tied up at two apiece. The group was holding its breath now as the next one was opened. It was to stop and that made it three to two. Darren said,

"I am going to keep looking into this no matter what." Suzanne picked up the last two votes and opened them at the same time. She pushed them both to the right then said,

"Four to three that we continue on, but before we do is there anyone who feels they can not go on?" They looked at each other, and there was indecision in some of the eyes, but no one said a word.

"OK then, I guess we should figure out our next move," said Christine.

Darren said,

"We need to look at the police report. Does anyone have any ideas" There was silence at the table for a couple of minutes while they all thought about it. Dave then said,

"Well I could pretend to be from a news paper trying to get a story. That might get us more information. Only I would need to have a newspaper back me up." He paused for a second and the rest of the group could see he was debating something. Then he continued, "I may just have someone who will help. I will look into it, I always wonted to be an investigative reporter." Dave had that look of the old time investigative reporters. The ruff and tumble drink all night, and work all day type. His ruff looks also gave him a certain sex appeal.

"I also have an idea," said Christine. "We have a career day coming up and one of the options is a day at the coroners lab down town. I might be able to find something out there."

"My god we are a sneaky lot. It is amazing what we can get access to or at lest hope to," said Darren. Chris then asked,

"By the way does anyone know if in cases like this they will have a coroners inquest, and are they open to the public?" Looking around he noticed that no one really knew for sure. "I will look into that. Maybe we can find out something that way." Denise said,

"I will go to talk to the police and make sure they know about what we have stumbled on to. Does anyone still have the number of the officer who was in charge?" Graham handed her a card with the officers' name and phone number on it. The group was very pleased with what looked like a great deal of progress. They had a couple of drinks and talked about how they were going to accomplish their individual goals. They figured it would take until the weekend for them to have any information. Just before they left they decided to meet again on the following Saturday.

The following morning Dave got up early, he did not really like getting up early but he wanted to get an early start. Dave was the biggest of the group, as tall as Chris was, but broader of shoulder. While he was showering he planned out what he was going to do. He wanted to get a hold of his friend as soon as possible. Still in a towel he got on the phone and dialed the number for the Canadian Crime Journal. The receptionist answered, announcing he had dialed the right number. Dave asked for his friend who was the editor of the small paper.

"Parry is that you? How the hell are you?"

"My god Dave is that you? It has been a long time, how are you?" They talked for awhile about old times and then Dave said,

"Parry I need a favor. I need a press pass for a couple of days." Parry was quiet for a couple of minutes then said,

"We will have to get together to talk about that. How about I meet you for lunch." They agreed on a place and time to meet then Dave hung up. Dave thought 'What is he up to?' He went to the restaurant early and waited for Parry. Dave was on his second cup of coffee when Parry walked in. Parry was an older man; he had been a friend of Dave's dad. Dave had not seen him for a couple of years and he noticed that Parry looked all of his sixty years, but was still tall and straight of back. Dave was glad to see that the glint was still in his eyes. His hair had turned silver and it was thinning on top just like Dave's. His age really showed in the wrinkles on his face. He sat down across from Dave and thrust his hand at Dave. They shook and Dave found he still had a grip like a bear.

Parry got right to the point.

"What is all this about a press pass?" Dave looked at him and felt a little sheepish for using an old friend like this, but he said,

"Did you hear about the body found behind Frankie Tomatto's?"

"Yes what about it?"

"Well I was there when it was found. I work there. The people I was with are sort of looking into the murder. It is, sort of therapeutic to get over what we saw. We have found something interesting. The night of the murder there were four other identical murders in four other cities across Canada."

"What are you sure?"

"You can check the papers yourself." They sat quietly for a few minutes while Parry thought this over. "So why do you need a press pass?"

"I need to interview the police and anyone else involved. If you give me the pass I will keep notes of what me find and in the end you can have it all, what do you say?" Parry looked up at Dave from his coffee and the glint in his eyes had turned into a full-blown sunburst. Dave knew at that point that he had got Parry hook, line and sinker.

"OK I will give you a free lance press pass. You will be on the list if anyone checks but not on my payroll. It should allow you to do what you want." They talked a little more about what each other knew about the case. Dave loved to talk with Parry he always challenged him and made him think. They had lunch and afterwards Dave went back with Parry to get the press pass. By three in the afternoon he was walking out of the newspaper office with his press pass in hand. He had to work that night so he could not get anything else done.

The next day he went to the police station and started to ask questions. He played it up as if it was his first big break. The people at the police station were very helpful. There was one young woman who helped Dave out more then all the rest and showed him a few things he probably should not have seen. She had a vibrant shade of reddish brown hair; it was cut short to keep with the business image she portrayed, but what caught Dave's attention most were her piercing blue eyes. Betty as he found out her name was showed him the official police report and also the coroner's preliminary report. Dave took full advantage of his good fortune and took notes on everything he saw. A lot of it was gibberish to him and he was not sure what would be important later. He did notice a couple of interesting thing. The first was that the body was killed some place else and moved to the restaurant. The second was the organs that had been removed had been done so as if they were to be transplanted. These both seemed very unusual to Dave. As Dave was leaving Betty came up to him and handed him a piece of paper. Dave could not be sure but he thought she rubbed her hand up against his. He looked down at the note and it had two phone numbers on it. She said,

"The first is my work number and the second is my home. If you need anything don't hesitate to call me." Dave was a little shocked but said,

"Thanks maybe when I get this all done we could have lunch." She smiled and for the first time Dave saw past the blue eyes, and he found she was a very attractive woman in a plain sort of way.

Christine went into school the next day and asked if the coroner placement was still open. They told her it was, and that no one had really shown any interest in going down there. Christine said,

"I would like to take it." Her instructor said,

"Great, but you know it is a little unpleasant dealing with only bodies."

"Oh I think I can handle it." She went down to her placement on Friday of that week. The first part of the placement was on the paper work that had to be done in the coroners' office and how it had to be very accurate. They got to look through a couple of cases and Christine picked the case the group was interested in. She found that the victim's name was Hal Robertson. The man had been a fairly successful businessman. He was divorced but left behind a small daughter. She checked into his medical records but did not see anything to unusual, until she noticed a visit to one of the professors at the university. It was Christine's staff advisor Professor Johnathon Wagner. She thought that is unusual, Professor Wagner is doing research in organ transplants. She then checked Mr. Robertson's file to see if he needed any major surgery. She could not find any mention of it. She just let it go, as it was time for lunch. After lunch she came back and they did an autopsy on a body that had come in the night before. Christine found the whole process fascinating. She thought it was very similar to what the group was doing. They took little clues and expanded on them until they had an answer as to why that person had died. With the case they were working on now it was a pretty clear-cut case of exposure, but the doctor showed them how they could confirm that and went through the whole procedure for Christine. She had never thought of going into forensic medicine, but now that she had been exposed to it, thought it might be something to look into. She thanked the medical examiner when she left and he said,

"If there is ever anything I can do for you don't hesitate to call."

Denise called Detective Victor Edwards; he was the officer in charge of the case. She told him that she had some more information about the murder. She did not want to go to the police station and asked if he would meet her at a local coffee shop. He agreed and the two of them got together that afternoon. Denise got there early and was having her coffee when Detective Victor Edwards walked in. He came right over to her table and sat down and she said,

"Can I get you a coffee and a donut?"

"No I don't really like donuts and I hate coffee, I think it has made me a better cop. I am not always in a donut shop." Denise laughed and then said,

"Well then I guess I should tell you why I called you here. I have been following your investigation in the newspaper and I came across something. Did you know that the night Mr. Robertson was killed there were four other deaths in four different cities across Canada and they were all opened up and had organs removed."

"How do you know all of this?"

"It was quite simple really, we found it out in the newspaper. I must admit that we came across it by accident, but it is true." He looked surprised but it was obvious he knew about what was going on or at least about the other deaths. "You knew?"

"Well yes, but we do not understand what is going on. Do you?"

"No but we thought you should know."

"Well I thank you but you should not be getting involved with something like this. I do not know how big this is going to be and it has me worried. I do not need to be looking after you and trying to find out what is going on at the same time."

"That is good advice, but I will only follow it if you promise to keep me up dated as to what you find out. Is it a deal?"

"Alright I guess after all you have been through you deserve to be kept up to date." Denise finished her coffee and the two of them left the Donut Shop.

When they got together for their meeting on Saturday night they all discussed what they had found out. Chris did not have as much luck as Dave and Christine. He could only confirm everything that Dave had found out. Christine did not come up with anything new. Though they did have a much better understanding of what had happened to the victim. They figured out that the man had been killed for the organs that were taken. Christine said,

"Though how does that help?" Suzanne said,

"Well someone must have wanted them pretty bad to kill people for them. To kill someone for his or her organs, it sounds impossible. They must have gone somewhere all we have to do is find out where they went?" The group was quiet for a second then Darren said,

"We also have to consider the fact that these other cities also had organs stolen. From that we can assume that the organs were probably not used in Toronto or even Canada."

"How do you figure that?" said Graham. "They could all be coming into Toronto or Calgary or any other city for that matter."

"I don't think so, that would be risky. I think the police would be on someone if they were doing a great deal of transplant surgery."

"OK, so how would you get organs for transplant out of the country?" said Suzanne. Everyone looked at Christine but she shook her head.

"I can find out at school on Monday." They could not really do any more that night so they just had another drink, sat and talked. Talking about the excitement of finding out the information they had found so far, it was obvious they were getting addicted to the excitement. Graham thought about that as he listened to everyone talking. He was not sure whether this was a good thing or not. He hoped things would not get too far out of control or even dangerous.