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."