DISCLAIMER: All DS characters belong to Alliance, I am just playing with them for a while. The rest are all mine. No copyright infringement intended. I promise to put them back safe, sound and clean when I am through! If you attempt to pass this work off as your own you are committing plagiarism and I will be forced to send Mounties and Chicago cops to drag you in.

Cold. He was cold. In fact, he was freezing. That was what Ray was most conscious of as he woke up. As reality began to seep into his slowly awakening brain, Ray became aware that he was, in fact, lying in a tub full of ice. *Now why in the hell would I go to sleep in a tub of ice?* he thought. As his surroundings became clearer it dawned on him that this was not his bathroom. Nor was it the bathroom in the Vecchio house. Come to think of it, he didn't know where he was or how he had gotten there. He looked to his left, at the mirror over the vanity. What he saw there made his blood run ice cold - colder than he already felt. Scrawled in bright red lipstick on the mirror were the words CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY. He looked over at the toilet; sure enough there was a cell phone sitting there. He managed to move his frozen self enough to reach the phone and dial.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Um - I'm not real sure. I woke up in a tub of ice and there was a note on the mirror to call 911."

"You woke up in a tub of ice, sir?"

"Yeah."

"OK, sir, I'm gonna need you to do something for me. Slowly and carefully reach around and feel your lower back."

"OK. Um - feels like stitches." *Oh shit!*

"Alright, sir, just sit tight. Don't move around; help is on the way. Do you know your location?"

Ray thought about it for a minute. What was the last thing he remembered doing? *There was this gorgeous redhead at that bar near the....* "I think I'm at the Excelsior Hotel." Wait - there was a piece of hotel stationery under the phone, with a number written on it - "yeah, the Excelsior, room 311."

"Just stay calm. The paramedics will be there shortly."

"Thanks." Ray hung up the phone after giving the 911 operator his name and sat back to wait for the ambulance crew to arrive. *OK, Ray, try to think - exactly what happened last night?*

last night......

"You sure ya don't want to come along, Frase? Just shoot a few games of pool then call it a night?" The two were leaving the bullpen of the 27th district station, headed for Ray's shiny black GTO.

"Thank you, Ray, but perhaps some other time. The Inspector asked me to help her install some shelves this evening."

"Ahhhhh - the Ice Queen summons! You sure there ain't somethin' goin' on between you two?"

"Now Ray....."

"Just yankin' yer chain, Fraser ol' buddy. Just yankin' yer chain. So ya want me ta drop you off at her place, then?"

"That won't be necessary, Ray, as the shelves in question are in the Consulate kitchen. Perhaps Detectives Huey or Dewey would like a game of pool?"

"Nah, they're on a stakeout tonight - that alleged black-market organ theft ring. So far it seems to be just a rumour, but we got a tip so......"

"Organ theft? The whole idea is patently absurd, Ray. When you consider all the technical difficulties involved, tissue matching, surgical skills and protocols needed... the whole thing is preposterous."

"Hey, ya don't have to convince me of that! But someone upstairs thinks this one might be on the up-and-up so the Duck Boys get to sit in front of a bar for awhile tonight. Better them than me!" Ray pulled up in front of the Canadian Consulate and let Fraser and Diefenbaker out. "See ya tomorrow, Frase!"

"Thank you kindly, Ray. Enjoy your pool game." Fraser turned and walked up the steps to the Consulate door.

*Yeah - a solo pool game. What fun,* Ray thought as he drove away. He drove aimlessly for awhile, having decided that solo pool was not the way to go. As he was about to pack it in for the night, he spotted a small, friendly-looking bar off the beaten path of his usual haunts. *What the hell - stop in, have a few beers, might be a nice change of pace.* So he pulled into the parking lot and went in.

Catching the bartender's eye, Ray ordered a beer. He looked around; seemed like a nice quiet crowd. There was a singer in one corner singing a Gordon Lightfoot tune, on the other side of the bar a few dart games were in progress. And there was a pool table. No one was playing at the moment, but... Ray took his beer and went over to where he could kibitz the dart games. He had been sitting for about fifteen minutes watching two players, one a slender Latino man, the other a tall striking redhead. They had begun to argue about a score on one dart; suddenly the woman turned to him and said, "You look at it for us, OK? Tell us whether you think it should be scored as a 10 or a 15. We'll take your call, won't we, Julio?"

"Me?" Ray was surprised. He didn't even think the two had noticed him, let alone knew whether he had been paying attention to their game.

"Why not? All you have to do is look at this dart here" - she indicated a spot on the dartboard - "and tell us which number it's on. Otherwise Julio here will argue with me forever."

"OK sure." Ray got up and went over to the dart board. He studied it for a few seconds, then said "Looks like a 15 to me."

"Thank you, sir! I told you it was 15," the woman said to her companion. She turned back to Ray. "Can I buy you a drink? What're you having?" She was motioning to the bartender as she spoke, ignoring Ray's pleas that he had had all he was going to have. "Nonsense," she said, looking at the two empty mugs on Ray's table. "One more isn't going to hurt." She sat down at the table with him as the waitress set a third mug of beer in front of Ray. "I'll have a Tequila Sunrise," she told the waitress. Extending her hand, she introduced herself as Danielle. "Haven't seen you in here before."

"Nah, I just happened on this place tonight. Seems like a nice little bar; guess I should come more often."

They chatted for awhile, then Danielle excused herself to go to the ladies' room. Ray watched her round the corner out of sight, then turned his attention to the pool table. A game was underway. *Damn,* he thought, *if I'd been paying attention maybe I coulda played this one.* He finished his beer and set the glass back on the table.

Danielle had not gone to the ladies' room, however. She stopped at the door to the men's room instead, rapping softly on it. Almost immediately Julio came out. "Well?"

"I think this one will do nicely. He seems to be in good health and takes care of himself. Notify the others and be ready to help me in about ten minutes."

"Right." Julio took a quarter out of his pocket and moved over to the pay phone. Danielle returned to Ray's table, ordering another beer for him on the way. She and the fourth beer arrived at the same time. Ray protested when the waitress set it in front of him, but Danielle was not to be dissuaded. Truth be told, Ray didn't protest all that much anyway. He was definitely enjoying this evening, and was glad Fraser had to hang cabinets with the Ice Queen. Who knew where this could lead? Who, indeed......

As they talked, Danielle began fishing through her purse. Pulling out items left and right, she dropped a spray bottle of perfume on the floor; it rolled under the table out of sight. "Oops! How clumsy," she said.

Ray bent down to pick it up for her. "Here, let me," he said, trying his best to be gentlemanly. As he did she reached over and dropped a small white pill into his beer mug. No one noticed. He straightened back up again and handed her the perfume. "Thank you so much." She picked up her glass; Ray responded in kind. "Cheers," Danielle toasted. They touched glasses, then drank. "Care to throw a game of darts?" she asked.

"I've never played darts before. Not sure I'd be much sport."

"Well, I'll just have to teach you then. Come on, it isn't hard."

Within a few minutes Ray was throwing the darts quite well under Danielle's tutelage; before they had thrown one complete game, though, Ray was out like a light. He simply pitched forward onto the floor. Danielle beckoned for Julio to come over and help her; the two of them wrapped Ray's arms around their shoulders and helped him out, remarking casually to the bartender that their friend had had a rough day and they were going to take him home to bed. The bartender just shrugged. He'd seen passed-out drunks before.

The two, with their unconscious burden, made their way to the parking lot of the bar. There was very little traffic on the street. A dark van was waiting for them; they opened the door and got Ray's unresisting body in, then drove out of the parking lot. It went a few blocks north and made a left turn into the parking lot of the Excelsior Hotel. Danielle, Julio and the driver got Ray out of the van, into the elevator and up to a room on the third floor. They knocked on the door of room 311. It opened and they quickly went in.

The man who opened the door looked Ray over critically. "So this is the one," he said. "Seems a likely enough prospect." He opened a medical bag and took out a blood pressure cuff. Shoving Ray's shirtsleeve up, he wrapped the cuff around his upper arm and took a reading. "BP's good. Let's get started."

**********

The 911 operator was as good as his word; paramedics and cops were on the scene in less than ten minutes from the time Ray called. One of the uniforms knew Ray and he contacted Lt Welsh and apprised him of the situation. As the paramedics checked him over and got him ready to transport, he told the uniforms as much as he could about the events of the previous night. The uniforms then went and talked to the desk clerks about the people who had had room 311. Unfortunately the occupants had paid in cash up front and left the keycards in the front box. No one had seen them leave. Almost certainly the information on the registration card was bogus, but it would be thoroughly checked anyway. They got an excellent description of Danielle from Ray, and a reasonably good one of Julio.

The Duck Boys were already on this case but Ray knew that they would accept Fraser's help in tracking down the responsible parties; no one could track like the Mountie. The ambulance was met at the hospital by Lt Welsh, Huey and Dewey. When the doctors had finished examining Ray they sent him up to surgery; the lieutenant then had a chance to speak to the doctor in charge.

"Well, Doc, how's it look?"

"I won't lie to you, Lieutenant. He's very lucky. Back alley surgery like this is extremely risky. The ones who did this appear to be pros; possibly a cashiered surgeon. We can tell you more after he's out of surgery here but my opinion is he'll make a complete recovery. The ice kept the blood loss to a minimum. There's still the risk of infection but we'll have him on IV antibiotics for a few days. Pretty much all they're doing in there now is cleaning things up; at this point in time even if his kidney was recovered it would most likely be too late to reattach. There is only at most a 48 hour window for a removed kidney to be transplanted and chances are whoever did this is long gone from the area."

"And I thought all this talk of waking up in ice with instructions to call 911 was just an urban legend. Never thought I'd be talking about it happening to one of my own men. Any ideas on places to look for the people who did this?"

"Regrettably no. No hospital transplant program would touch an organ procured under these conditions. We're bound by very strict rules regarding donor sources and the like. Must be an underground operation. I can give you a list of people awaiting kidney transplants; you could get another update in a few days and see if anyone has dropped off the list and why, then go from there."

"Good idea. I'll have Detectives Huey and Dewey pick up that list and get on it. How long before I can talk to Detective Vecchio?"

"Probably four or five hours at the earliest. He'll be in surgery for a few hours, then recovery. A lot of it depends on how long it takes for him to come out of the anesthesia. Check back sometime this afternoon."

"Thanks, Doc. When can my detectives get that list?"

"If they can wait about ten minutes I can give it to them. They can follow me to my office, I'll print it on the computer. Won't take long at all."

"Huey, Dewey, go with the doctor here and get a copy of the list of people awaiting kidney transplants." The two came over to where the lieutenant was talking to the doctor; they had been getting information from the uniforms who were first on the scene and making arrangements for a fingerprint team to see what, if anything, they could get from the hotel room.

"Lieutenant, Officer Hibbs says they just found Ray's car in the parking lot of the Peace of Mind Lounge over on Utica. We're going to head over there and see what we can find out from the bartender," said Jack. "Get a bit of a head start on this angle, until we can get more from Ray about last night."

"Good idea. But wait a little until you can get the list from Dr Thornton here. It won't take long; go with him to his office. Run a check on the names on the list; see who might be desperate enough and have the resources to do something like this. By the time you've done that Vecchio should be out of recovery and able to talk. Come back here and get with him. And let Fraser know what's going on; maybe he can help. God knows the man could track a mouse in a blizzard and something tells me that might be easy compared to this."

"We're on it, Lieutenant. Should we have Ray's car towed to his apartment?"

"Yeah, I think he'd appreciate that."

**********

On their way to the Peace of Mind Lounge Huey and Dewey stopped at the Canadian Consulate to let Fraser know what had happened to Ray. He was completely shocked, not only at the thought of something like that happening to his friend and partner, but at the idea that it was happening at all. He agreed to do all he and Dief could to help; in his many years as a law enforcement officer he had seen any number of unbelievable things but this one took the cake. Even Inspector Thatcher and Constable Turnbull expressed their sympathies towards Ray, and they too pledged to do anything they could to help in the investigation. After all, Canadians might also have been victims of this gang of black-market organ thieves. Fraser promised to meet Huey and Dewey later at the hotel room; he also wanted to talk to Ray to see if he could get a good description for a sketch of both Danielle and Julio.

The drive to the bar was a quiet one. Both detectives were lost in thought about their friend and fellow cop. Neither of them believed in a black-market organ theft ring initially; they were merely staking out a location based on a tip. It was shocking to hear that it actually existed.

"Y'know, here we were sitting in front of that club half the night and Ray finds the ring without even trying," Tom said.

"Yeah, but I bet he wishes he hadn't. I know I would if I were in his place. I wonder if this will be the end of his career?"

"Good point. D'ya think only having one kidney will be grounds for medical retirement? Then what happens to Vecchio's cover? They'd better think long and hard about that one."

The two were still mulling this over when they pulled into the parking lot of the Peace of Mind Lounge. Ray's car had been picked up by the police tow truck already and taken back to his apartment. The bar had just opened so there were no patrons yet. Huey and Dewey talked to the bartender and waitresses; fortunately they had also been there last night. While they remembered Ray, Danielle and Julio they had not seen any of the three in there before so could not really give any more details. All they knew was that Danielle and Julio had been there about an hour before Ray arrived and the two had carried an apparently dead-drunk Ray out of the bar about an hour after his arrival and helped him into a black van. Aside from that...

The waitress who had served Ray remarked that he had only had four beers. "He must have an awfully low tolerance for alcohol to have passed out from only four," she said.

"He was drugged. She must have slipped it into that fourth beer," Jack said.

"You mean like that date-rape drug? Oh wow!"

"That's most likely what she used. Thanks for your help," said Tom as they left the bar.

Back at the station the two proceeded to go over the list of names they had gotten from the doctor; of the twenty or so names on the list there were five who could be considered desperate enough and who had both the financial resources and criminal connections to procure black-market organs. Three of them were on the West Coast, but the other two were near enough to Chicago to make it worthwhile checking them out.

"Lieutenant, I think we may have something," Jack said, sticking his head inside Lt Welsh's office. "We've got two close possibilities, one in Indiana and the other in Wisconsin. Think we should check it out on our own, or call in the Feds?"

Welsh sighed. Calling in the FBI was the last thing he wanted to do, but he knew that he might have no choice. "Let's do this on our own right now. I don't want to get the Feds involved until it's absolutely necessary. Call the police departments in both towns and see what you can find out."

**********

Indiana and Wisconsin both proved to be dead ends. The Indiana name died earlier in the day and the Wisconsin name was in a hospital in Milwaukee getting a legitimate kidney transplant. Jack and Tom left after talking to the police in the three West Coast locations to go back to the hotel room; they were meeting Fraser there to see what the crime scene technicians had come up with, if anything. Sadly, the room was a dead end. It was amazingly clean; even Fraser couldn't come up with anything, and without anything of Danielle's or Julio's for Dief to fix on he wasn't any help either. It appeared that the perpetrators had done some housecleaning of their own before leaving. Detectives and Mountie went to the hospital to see if they could glean any more useful information from Ray.

Once there, Jack asked at the information desk about Detective Vecchio's condition. He was told that Ray was out of Recovery and could have visitors for a short period but not to tire him out. The three made their way to the fourth floor where Ray's room was and stuck their heads in the door. Ray looked up at them somewhat groggily, but he was happy to see them nonetheless.

"Hey, guys, how's it goin'? Any luck?''

"Fraid not, Ray," said Tom, "they cleaned that room out better than the hotel cleaning staff does. Even Fraser here couldn't find anything."

"Frase? Is that true?" Ray seemed amazed. "Then I guess I'll never see my kidney again. I wonder if they'll make me retire because of this? God, I hope not. This sucks!"

"Now, Ray, there is no reason to think that you will be forced to retire," said Fraser. "There are many people in the world who are born with only one kidney and they manage just fine. Perhaps you could give me a description of the two people you saw in the bar for a sketch. The sooner we can get something disseminated the sooner they might be found and brought to justice. I have my sketch pad and pencils here, do you feel up to it right now?"

"Yeah, I guess. Jeez, I'm uncomfortable - what the hell did they stick down here anyway?" Ray lifted the sheet just as the nurse came in to check on him.

"Don't even think of removing that," she said. "We have to make sure that your remaining kidney is functioning sufficiently."

"Oh yeah? How long will this have to stay where it is?"

"Until the doctor says it's OK to take it out. And when he does, I will be the one to remove it, not you. Understood?" She proceeded to stick a thermometer in his ear, then take his pulse and blood pressure and check the IV. "Your dinner will be here shortly. You're on a clear liquid diet for the next few days." After she had left, Ray shot Huey and Dewey a look - "Don't you even think of laughing!"

"What - us? Laugh? Why Ray - if it hadn't been for you, we would never have found these - these - " At that, Jack had to leave the room. Tom looked at Ray, then at Fraser. "Er - ah - I'd better make sure Jack's..." He quickly followed Jack down the hall. At least they had the good graces not to laugh until they were out of earshot.

"Ray, how are you feeling?" Fraser asked. "Do you feel up to this? If not I can come back tomorrow..."

"Nah, Frase, the sooner the guys can get a sketch in circulation the better. Maybe we can keep this from happening to someone else - who might not be as lucky as I was."

Ray began to describe Danielle and Julio as best he could, and Fraser began to draw. By the time Ray's dinner of chicken broth arrived, Fraser had produced two remarkable likenesses. He got up to leave so Ray could rest and have dinner in peace.

"Hey, where ya goin'? You don't have to leave now, do ya?"

"No, Ray, I just thought you might like to rest after your dinner. If you wish I shall stay for awhile longer."

"I'd like that. You can tell me what's going on so far with the case. The Duck Boys there left before I could get anything out of them."

"From what they told me there are as yet no solid leads..." Fraser told Ray all that he knew about the case, until Ray began to get drowsy. Fraser and Dief got up to leave, just as the night nurse was coming in with Ray's nightly medication. "I'll let you get some rest, Ray. I will see you tomorrow. Perhaps by then there will be some strong leads."

"Yeah, thanks Frase. See ya then."

**********

The next morning the doctor came in to see Ray. "You were very lucky," he said. "Whoever did this did an excellent job, surgically speaking. All we did here was clean up some details. We'll want to keep you here for another couple of days, make sure everything is working well, then you can go home. Take a couple of weeks off to recover, then there's no reason you can't go back to work."

"Yeah, well, Doc, I don't know if I've got work to go back to. I don't know if this will force me out on a medical or not."

"I don't think it will, Detective. I've spoken to Lt Welsh and he sees no reason you shouldn't be declared fully fit for duty."

For the first time since waking up in the tub of ice Ray saw a light at the end of the tunnel - and for a change it wasn't a train. "Really? Gee, Doc, that's great! Really great! Thanks!"

"Don't thank me, thank the Heavens Above that whoever did this was skilled. You could just as easily have bled to death in there."

"Amen ta that! By the way, when will this" - Ray pointed at the catheter - "come out? It ain't the most comfortable thing, ya know."

The doctor chuckled. "I know, but I'm afraid the Foley will have to stay in place until you're about ready to leave. That's the only way we have of making sure your other kidney is functioning well and picking up the slack. I'll be back to see you later on this afternoon." And with that the doctor left Ray to his own devices. Ray picked up the remote and turned on the TV to see if there was anything worth watching on. After channel surfing for a few minutes, he came to the inescapable conclusion that it was all a vast wasteland. He settled on CNN Headline News. After lunch (more chicken broth) the Duck Boys stopped by; unfortunately there were no breaks in the case as of yet. They had taken Fraser's sketches to several of the car rental agencies in the area that had vans; the waitress at the bar who had seen the two load Ray into a van had remembered seeing a rental agency sticker on the back, but she couldn't make out the company name. None of the agencies had recognized either sketch, but at three of them the person who had rented out a van in the recent past was not in so there was still hope. Around 5:30 Fraser rapped on the door; when Ray responded he went in.

"How are you feeling, Ray? Any news on when you might be released?"

"Probably by Monday but I still can't go back to work for a few more weeks. The doc told me that Lt Welsh said I could return to full duty."

"That is wonderful news, Ray! Hopefully by then there will be a break in the case."

"Y'know, Frase, for the life of me I can't figure out why someone would do something like this. It just doesn't make sense."

"There are people out there who are just so desperate to help people they love that they would resort to any means possible, including criminal ones. How many times have we seen other examples of this in our day to day work? From the man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his children right up to the woman who kills an abuser to save another family member. No matter how misguided, it happens every day. Granted, this is somewhat of an extreme case, but still, someone somewhere has a loved one who is in desperate need of a kidney. They have the resources, both financially and criminally, to attempt to obtain it through illicit means, so they do."

"Yeah, I know, but it still don't make sense..."

**********

The next day when Fraser came to visit Ray, he wasn't in his room. Fraser and Dief walked back to the nurse's station. "Excuse me, can you tell me where Detective Vecchio is? He's not in his room; has he been moved?"

"Oh, he's down in the Children's Ward. He's been there most of the day, in fact; it being so close to Halloween he's been telling some of the older children scary stories. They love it!"

"Yes, he does get along well with children." Fraser was thinking of how well Ray got along with Tony and Maria's children; they too loved his Halloween stories. "Can you direct me to the Children's Ward?"

"It's on the third floor; turn left out of the elevator and listen for the giggles."

"Thank you kindly. Dief, let's go." Mountie and wolf turned and got back on the elevator. Sure enough, when they exited the elevator on the third floor the sounds of delighted shrieks and giggles could be clearly heard.

"That ain't real! They don't steal your kidneys, that's just an urban legend. Everyone knows that!" A boy of about 14 was challenging Ray's story.

"Sure it's true! Ya wanna see my scar? Oh, hi, Frase," Ray said, looking up as Fraser entered the room. The plaster cast on Ray's left leg had gained several more signatures, he noted. Ray pulled up his pajama top, exposing a long-healed surgical scar.

"That's an appendix scar! I gots one of them too!" The skeptical boy had seen through the story.

Ray looked over at Fraser, a look of mock hurt on his face. "They don't believe me, Frase! You tell 'em!"

"Shall I also tell them about the time we found a hook on your car door after a stakeout?" Fraser fell into the joking too.

If anything, Ray's grin got even wider. As he was about to launch into yet another tale the nurse came in, announcing that it was time for dinner and everyone needed to return to their rooms and beds. "And that includes you, Detective Horror Tale!"

"OK, OK, see you guys tomorrow! C'mon Benton-buddy, shall we?"

"I think that is an excellent idea, Ray. Have the doctors said when you'll be released?" Fraser asked as they made their way back to Ray's room.

"Probably by the weekend. They're going to X-ray it again tomorrow and make sure the break is healing right since it was so nasty." They had arrived back at Ray's room; as he settled himself into the bed Fraser asked him what story he had been telling the kids.

"I took the urban legend about the black-market organ theft, you know the one where the businessman wakes up in a tub of ice and sees 'call 911' written on the mirror? I took that one and made it like it had happened to me. They loved it."

Ray's dinner had arrived; Fraser took the tray from the nurse and looked at the contents. Smiling, he set it on the tray table over the bed.

"Well, then, I think you'll agree that tonight's menu contains a very appropriate item."

"And what would that be?" Ray asked.

Fraser removed the lid on the plate. "Kidney beans!"