He managed to get himself mostly under control by the time we got to the ME's office. "You good? I didn't think it was that funny."

He snorted, chuckled a few more times then stopped smiling. "Yeah, I'm good."

"Well, let's see what he's hiding." We parked, got out and opened the doors to the place. Morgues, like liquor stores, all start to look the same after a few years. I guess there's only so many ways you can configure a place around holding dead bodies. The people that work at a morgue usually aren't too much into interior design and the people the work on tend not to complain about the wall color, being dead and all.

Whoever worked in this one must be an outdoorsy type even though they work in a basement, there were a few potted plants scattered around and a vase of fake flowers. I thought that made it feel like a funeral home, not liven the place up but who am I to judge.

We rounded a corner and heard a rather cranky female voice. I ducked back around the corner, Roy followed me and we waited. Eavesdropping usually pays off.

"I don't know why he had to go. He just called, said he had a family emergency and was gone before I even got here. I checked the video logs since he's always too lazy to log visitors in the book and some tall guy in a suit, probably a fed was here right before he bailed. No! Of course there's no record! God I hope they don't come back around. I don't know what happened to the guy. He used to be on top of things, now he's never here, misses shit and makes my life a living hell. Yeah, okay. I'll try to be home for dinner. Love you too."

Roy's eyebrows were up when he looked at me, I gave him a quick nod and walked around the corner. She had her back to the hallway, black hair tied up in a bun, the usual white coat on, was in fitted slacks that showed off her legs and was barely five feet tall. "Excuse us ma'am. We're with the FBI and have some questions."

She turned around, her face was average looking and aggravated, "Of course you are. As if I don't have enough crap to deal with today. What do you need?"

I gave her a quick smile, which just seemed to irritate her more so I went back to business face, "We'd like to look at the bodies of Simon Harris and Teresa Spencer if we could. My partner was here earlier and noticed some irregularities between the autopsy photos and the bodies."

"Not surprising, Jim did those two and he's been slacking lately. I'm Susan, and you are?"

She didn't take too long to throw him under the bus, she must really hate the poor guy. "Agents Ragsdale and Henderson." We flashed her our badges, she nodded, led us to the storage units and pulled open two drawers.

"Here you go. Let me grab the files and we can straighten this out." She walked away.

Simon was closest to us so I started with him. "Yeah, those aren't vamp bites at all. Damn." He had an incision, not knife wounds but a surgical style cut over where his kidney would be which stood out in pretty obvious contrast to the bites and tears all over the rest of him. "Someone worked damn hard to make sure this looked natural but Sam's right, nothing on him looks like a mountain lion had him for lunch. There'd be a lot less left of him if that was the case. Let's look at Teresa." Roy was starting to look a little green but he stayed didn't back down. Teresa was more of the same but she the incision was closer to her liver.

A file drawer slammed shut and I could hear Susan walking back and judging from the sounds of her footsteps she was not too happy. I looked up from Teresa's body and knew exactly was going to come out of her mouth. She didn't have any folders in her hand and was trying to keep the fear of future unemployment off her face. "I'm sorry Agents, the files don't seem to be here."

"Really? Not even in your computers? How about the files from the other bodies that came in like this earlier this month?"

She shook her head but her eyes widened. "These two aren't in the system, let me check the others."

We followed her back to the desk area, "When did Jim start working here?"

"Three months ago, he came with good references, seemed normal. Then about six weeks ago he starts acting weird." She'd started searching the system for the other three.

"Weird how?" Roy asked.

"Late, leaving early, calling in sick. Then his work started slipping. Just weird. What the? They're not here, pretty sure they won't be in the filing cabinet either but I'll check. What is he thinking?"

"That's not good," Roy muttered.

"Nope. Damn." I pulled out my phone, texted the updates to Sam just as Susan came back empty handed again, jaw clenched and her earlier fears of not having a job seemed to have faded into straight up anger.

"I'm going to have to report this. What irregularities did the other Agent notice?"

"The incisions over where the liver and kidneys would be. Any chance we can open them back up and see if they still have all their parts?"

"Of course." She shoved her emotions back down and grabbed a pair of gloves.

We got the bodies on the tables and she went to work. "I just got back from maternity leave last week," she explained while slicing into Simon's body, "And it's been one thing after another. There was supposed to be another guy covering my shifts, someone from out of town. He would have had to sign off on the autopsies so I have no idea how this happened."

When she shoved her hand into Simon's stomach area looking for organs I thought Roy was going to lose it but he looked away, took a few deep breaths and held on. Susan didn't seem to notice. I've always found it interesting how people like Roy and I are more repulsed by blood and guts in a clinical setting then out in the field. It doesn't get to me anymore but it took a lot longer to get used to it than it did chopping off heads or blasting holes into something's chest. Hell, it's less disturbing stitching up our wounds than watching an autopsy. There's something about seeing everything that should be inside a person getting pulled out, set on trays, weighed and measured. It strips away the humanity of a person I guess, reduces them to parts, numbers, a series of things carefully documented and filed away. It's an emotionless process, cold, there's no adrenaline to get you past it. You just sit there and watch a person get dismantled then put back together.

Susan dug around inside of Simon for a minute and froze, "Kidney's gone. I'm going to have to do another autopsy, same with Teresa. It will take an hour or two. Do you want me to call you when I'm done?"

Well things just went from not good, to very bad. "Yes please. I'll put my card on the table. Why did you guys need to hire Jim? Someone quit or get promoted?"

"No, the person who was here before him died in his sleep. Heart just stopped." I saw her start making some connections she really didn't seem to want to make. "Do you think...?"

"Sort of our job to think like that. If Teresa's missing organs call me."

"I, I.. of course." Then the shock started to sink in. She was probably thinking some sort of black market organ stealing operation, which would be a lot better than what was really going on.

"Thanks."

Roy followed me out then cut hard right into the men's room, I was pretty impressed he'd made it that long. I gave him a minute than went in to check on him, "First autopsy I take it?" He staggered out of one of the stalls, I handed him some damp paper towels to wipe his mouth off with.

He put his hand on his stomach, bent slightly over and closed his eyes. "Yes."

"Deep breaths, it helps. Get some water after your stomach stops trying to shove it's way up your throat."

Once he grabbed the towels from me, wiped his face off and grabbed a drink from the sink he looked a little less sick. "Sorry."

"No problem, we've all puked at least once. Let me call Sam while you get your breath back." He gave me a weak nod, I hit the button to call Sam.

"Hey."

"Hey, your hunch was right. Simon was missing his kidney. The ME you saw, Jim? Wiped all the records, snagged the files and bailed. We talked to a chick named Susan, the usual ME I guess. Apparently Jim's not all that bright he called her in to cover for him. Anyway, Susan is going to check out Teresa too and call me back. She has to do a whole new autopsy. Jim started about three months ago, last six weeks he's been a pain in the ass employee. Late to work, screwing things up, calling in sick. The guy that worked there before him mysteriously died in his sleep. No known cause."

He didn't seemed too surprised. "Guess we're meeting at Jim's house?"

"Yeah. Hey do you have a pic of the guy you can send so we know who we're looking for."

"Yup, I'll shoot you the link and bring the picks."

"Cool, see you there."

My phone beeped, Sam had sent a link to a newspaper article about the recent killings and there was a shot of Jim on the crime scene on the website. His name was listed as James Garcia but I doubted that was his real name and not just for obvious reasons. Coyote used to complain when people thought she was Mexican or some other race and I'd been around enough of her people to spot the differences. James wasn't Mexican, he was Native American. I didn't know which tribe but it didn't really matter. "Heads up he's Native." I texted to Sam.

"Got it." Was his reply followed by an address.

I held my phone up so Roy could see the screen, "This is our guy. He's Native. Not sure he's who we're looking for but he should have some answers."

"We're heading to his house then?"

"Yup. Stomach back where it should be?"

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Let's roll then."

We met Sam about thirty minutes later in front of Jim's house. Jim lived on a cul de sac, in a two story house that sat back a bit from the road. It was surrounded by a block fence that limited vision from the street. Sam got out of Roy's car, slid into Baby's back seat and started filling us in. "The house backs up to a flood control channel which is conveniently located in front of a forested area. I saw some sort of off road bike tracks going from the house to the woods that look fairly new. What I could see through the windows makes me think he's not home. It's pretty bare inside. I figured I'd wait for you before I went in. I did see an alarm company sign right next to the door though."

"Guess we're cutting some wires."

"Hold on Dean," Roy said, "Let me take a look around first. Maybe there's a different way in then the front door."

"Knock yourself out, we'll cover you."

We all got out, walked across the street and Roy jogged around the side. I signaled to Sam to watch the front and I followed Roy, more out of curiosity then any real concern he'd get jumped. I didn't think anyone was in the house either. As Roy worked his way down the side of the house he kept his eyes trained on the second story windows. He hopped the fence that separated the front and backyards instead of bothering to unlock the gate. I wasn't sure if he was showing off or just in that mode but I'm sure Thea would have been thrilled to know just how he was treating the suit she'd bought him. I went through the gate because I am that lazy.

He pointed to the window above the porch roof, "It's open."

"And?"

"If it's open it's not alarmed." He backed up a few feet, pulled off his suit coat and hung it over the back of a chair, ran, grabbed the edge of the porch roof, pulled himself up and walked to the window. Yup, he'd definitely learned a thing or two from Oliver. "Coming?"

"How about you scope out the house and check for alarms on the doors and windows downstairs?"

"Why? This is already open. Can't you do a pull up?"

He didn't even bother to try to hide the smirk on his face. Show off. "Fine." I pulled off a less graceful version of what he'd done, he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut about it. He popped off the screen and pushed aside the curtains and we crawled into an empty room. The brown carpet still had those streaks in it after the super deep clean realtors do when they're selling a house, the off white walls were bare and the paint seemed new. There was no furniture, nothing to make you think someone lived here. I had my gun out as soon as my feet hit the floor, something didn't feel right. I motioned for Roy to check the door out of the room and I worked my way to the closet.

Roy turned the knob, "Not locked," he whispered. I pulled open the closet door, it was empty too.

"Hold up." I dialed Sam again.

"Yeah?"

"Second floor window in the back was open. Roy and I are inside. Keep an eye out in case anyone shows up."

"Sure thing."

I realized I had no idea if Roy had a gun or even knew how to use one, dumb move on my part. "Weapons?"

He rolled up his left sleeve, there was a brace of darts strapped to his forearm, "Knockout darts. I don't use guns too much, you know how Oliver is."

"Right. Here." I handed him my backup knife. "I'll take point."

He nodded, took the knife, counted to three and pulled the door open. I cased the hallway, we were at the end and I spotted the stairs down at the other end of the hall. No one was in view. I paced down the hall, Roy barely made any noise as he followed. We heard a bang like a door slamming shut from downstairs and froze. Next thing we heard was papers being shuffled and books hitting a counter or the floor. I motioned to Roy to keep moving. I got close enough to the second floor landing to look over the rail and down to the ground floor. Jim had his back to us and seemed to be getting ready to torch a bunch of paper work. Before I could say a word Roy stepped around me and his arm flashed in my peripheral vision. Jim grunted, grabbed his neck, spun around and was about to say something when his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped.

"What's on those things?"

"Horse tranquilizer with something extra that Felicity found. I have no idea what it is."

"Nice shot by the way. I didn't expect him to be here."

"Yeah. Looks like he isn't really planning to make a permanent home here."

There was no furniture in the kitchen either. We made our way down the stairs and spotted three folding chairs and a card table in the living room and that was it.

"No food in the fridge," Roy said.

"This is a cover for him. Alarm's not even armed." I pulled open the front door. Sam was standing about ten feet away facing the street. The sound of the door opening got him moving though. He whipped around, drew his gun and had it pointed at me "Hi there."

"Jerk, you could have said something."

"Not as fun. Come on in."