Free The Angel Maker - 2 by Ridley Pearson Page A

leash around the circle. As Dr. Elden Tegg, he had healed a gunshot wound to Elsie's humerus. Scanning the field of contestants, he recognized several animals as patients of his. He knew each by name, knew each case history in detail; in a way, he regarded them as members of his own family. He hoped that Elsie won something-if for no other reason than to prove his own expertise with a scalpel. In another vet's hands, she would have been a three-legged dog today.
    His wife's nervous voice came from behind him. "It's going beautifully, don't you think?" He turned and kissed her.
    "Splendidly. The food is excellent. You've done a wonderful job."
    "We might consider using these same caterers at our party next week. If we could get them. What do you think?"
    I/Itts a great idea." This, he knew from the hopeful glint in her eye, was what she wanted to hear, so this was what he told her.
    She kissed him lightly, as an excuse to whisper into his ear.
    "Be nice to the Feldsteins. He's had prostate cancer, you know?"
    "Alan has?" He relied on Peggy to keep him up on such things.
    How she kept it all straight was anybody's guess.
    She reminded, "Alan is very close with Byron. He has his ear."
    The aging Byron Endicott, who ran a multinational shipping company, was City Opera's chairman and someone Peggy would have to win over in order to be invited onto the board. "So, basically, what you're saying," he teased, "is I should avoid asking Alan what it feels like to be reamed with something slightly larger than a penlight."
    She winced and chased a waving hand aimed at her from the crowd.
    Tegg headed straight to Alan Feldstein. "Feeling better, Alan?
    Hmm?"
    "They got it all, I'm told. Nothing like the big C to get you thinking, I'll tell you that." He studied Tegg and said confidentially, "You're a doctor. How much of what you tell your patients is B.S.? I don't believe half of what my doctor tells me."
    "my patients have four legs. We don't enter into a lot of conversation."
    "I suppose not."
    "Have you seen Byron this afternoon?"
    "I don't believe he's here," Alan Feldstein said, stretching his neck. He added, "if you had a wife that young, would you be here?"
    "Well, at least we know your operation was successful," Tegg whispered quietly to the man. Feldstein grinned. Tegg bailed out while he was still ahead.
    He was on his way to check how Pamela was handling Pin the Tail on the Zebra when he spotted a leather jacket out of the corner of his eye. Maybeck pretending to be one of the public spectators of K dog show.
    Tegg did his best to contain his anger. He brushed off several attempts to snag him, cut outside the tent, and walked over to stand beside the man, facing in the direction of the dog show.
    "What are you doing here?" he asked. "Connie found an AB-NEGATIVE in the database," Maybeck said softly, screening those horrible teeth from sight with his hand. "Ninety-five pounds. Single. She ain't been an active donor in over two years, but she's in the phone book--lives in Wallingford.Tegg experienced that weightless feeling in his stomach of being in an elevator that was falling too quickly. It was one thing to consider performing a heart harvest, another thing entirely to actually set it in motion. "Can you deliver?" Tegg inquired.
    They had never attempted a kidnapping. "This ain't pizza we're talking about."

    "Don't toy with me, Donald," Tegg said, knowing how the man disliked the use of his proper name. "Are there any other AB-negs?" Tegg asked rhetorically, knowing AB-negative accounted for less than four percent of the population. He was one himself. They were extremely lucky to have found even a single match. "None.'/ "Age?"
    "She'd be. Maybeck attempted to add in his head. It bothered Tegg it should take him so long. "About twenty-six."
    "That's very good."
    "Why you think I'm here? I know it's good."
    "Look into it. Find out if it can be done."
    "We can do it. I already got it figured. I been watching her place. Back door