At six in the morning, the bullpen was quiet as usual except for a rogue cleaning lady working her way around the office to empty the wastepaper bins.

Sitting down at his desk and going over every detail of their case once more to refresh his mind before their trip began, Steve had his forehead parked in the palm of his hand, absent-mindedly massaging his temple as if it would help him relax.

He'd split up with Mike first thing this morning, allowing for him to stop at the apartment for a quick shave and shower and then drive over to the Hall of Justice Building, while the Lieutenant headed for down to the DA's office to grab the warrant.

Steve was almost gleeful to find several stacks of paperwork on his desk when he entered, signaling that R&I had been able to dig up quite a bit of information on their requests from the previous day. The first file was a complete cross-check on Luther Watson, down to his educational background and anything that would stick out as odd in their investigation.

Interestingly enough, it read that the Sheriff, the second of three sons of Ken and Louise Watson, was an average student and subject to several encounters with bullying classmates, most of which he came out of as the loser.

Upon graduating high school, he worked for the then-newly founded Angel towing company, owned by a Wesley Hill. Twelve years into the job, Watson had climbed the corporate ladder all the way into co-ownership before leaving the company to focus on his law enforcement career.

Despite taking some classes here and there, his academic achievements remained anything but stellar but nonetheless, the City Counsel of rural Lucerne, California elected him as Sherriff just over a decade ago, a position he'd held ever since with no opposing candidate popping up to challenging him in the run for reelection.

The most noteworthy piece of information for Steve was the fact that Angel Towing paid for several of Watson's classes to get him certified for his Sherriff position, something he couldn't wait to ask the man in question himself.

The file on Angel Towing itself was thin, listing Wesley Hill Jr. as the current owner, only thirty-eight years old, the late Wesley Hill's only son, mother passed away during childbirth. The company's headquarter was in Lucerne and there was no mentioning of the connection to the pole barn out in the woods that seemed to serve as their repair shop. It listed fifteen employees and nine trucks to its fleet. Besides several insurance claims that included wildlife collisions or required maintenance on the vehicles, nothing struck him as odd.

Then again, without a bookkeeping background, Steve was limited on detecting any falsifications on their income statements and copies of the W2's that could prove payoffs. If nothing else, he planned on sending the file downstairs to the forensic accounting lab, hoping to detect what his senses told him was hidden beneath the countless figures.

"Stephen."

It was Roy DeWitt's quiet voice that shook him out of his deep pondering. Glancing up from his desk to acknowledge the Lieutenant of Homicide, Steve was surprised to find him holding two breakfast bagels in hand, one for himself and one he handed over to him.

"Danny O had a buy one, get one free special, so I thought you could use some actual food before you guys take off…", DeWitt said with a faint smile, before pointing his chin at Mike's office, "He still out and about?"

Nodding in gratitude, Steve set the cherished breakfast down at his desk and leaned back into his office chair.

"He's with Gerry, grabbing the warrant for the property we found in Mendocino Park by the campground. We're going to hang around until we hear from Ed on the blood we found too. The lab should hopefully be done with the sample within the hour."

DeWitt let his eyes sink, quietly pondering away for a brief moment, before looking back up at the young Inspector.

"I'd give you Tanner and Lessing for support, but I need for them to finalize this Homer Gibson case and get the DA's office some solid proof for an indictment. That's been going on for way too long. I am just sorry that resources are stretched so thin right now. This whole playing politics to get some support around here is starting to get on my last nerve. Never used to be this bad. Anyways, depending on what you guys find out today, make sure to let me know right away so that I can use that to sway Condon into getting us some manpower. I think robbery is fairly slow right now. In the meantime, I told R&I to prioritize your requests."

"We're going to be alright. As a matter of fact, we're taking an ex- park ranger with us today. He should be able to help us navigate the area much better than we did yesterday."

Steve tried to sound reassuring, but he could tell that Roy didn't buy it for one second. Considering the increasingly morbid nature of their case, he had a hard time believing himself too.

"Mike said something about a link to the tow truck company up there in Clear Lake. You think they just pick stranded people off the road as they find them?"

"I think it's a bit more complicated than that…", the young Inspector cautioned and pointed at another file near his phone, "I did some research on organ donation this morning. See, a lot of it depends on both, the blood type and the level of antibodies in the blood of the recipient. So, there's a timing problem our organ traffickers need to deal with. Plus, there's no way for those guys to test for a donor's blood type before they kidnap people. And that's where things become quite scary…"

"Scarier than harvesting organs off living and breathing humans?"

"Well, scarier if they snatch somebody who doesn't match their…their order, so to speak."

DeWitt froze in his tracks, a haunted expression flooding his bright blue eyes.

"Stephen, Baby, it's been a busy few days, give me the reader's digest version of this please…because I think I know what you are talking about, but my mind can't quite fathom it…"

"Here, let me show you …"

Nudging the Lieutenant over to the large blackboard in Mike's office, Steve reached for a piece of chalk, before writing down the four blood types.

"Well, here's where our guys have a challenge in coordinating this effort. Blood type A is only compatible with A and AB, B only with B and AB. AB is even worse, it's only compatible with AB. Their cash cow would be somebody with a blood type of 0, because it's compatible with any other blood type. Pending that the antibody level of their recipient can be controlled with immunosuppressant drugs in a timely fashion, there's a good chance that the transfer of the organ becomes successful. When Lew Davidson's body was found, he was missing all the usual organs that can be transplanted. And he was a blood type 0 positive. Emily Smith on the other hand only missed some of her organs, and she was an A-. It follows our theory to a tee."

"I bet you once they have enough orders for organs of the same blood type, they start to go hunting…", Roy speculated and rubbed his chin.

"That's what Mike thinks as well. This way it's kind of…more efficient, pardon the expression."

"Don't worry, I get the picture…", DeWitt mumbled reassuringly and shook his head, before shoving his thumbs into his belt, "This sounds like a commodities exchange to me. How sickening."

"It gets worse."

Steve's words caused the Lieutenant to glance up instantly, his eyes narrowed to tight slats.

"How much worse can it get?!"

"A lot, believe me."

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Steve leaned back against Mike's desk, clenching his jaws at what he was about to say.

"The big question is…what if these guys receive an order for say, a liver for a 0-positive recipient. They start picking people off the road, take them to a secret hideout, test them, and then find out that neither one of them is compatible…"

DeWitt drew in a deep breath before letting his eyes drift across Mike's office, his shoulders slumped under the weight of his angst. When he spoke up again, Steve could hear an involuntary shudder in his voice.

"Then you're going to have one of two outcomes…Either there's a chance that these missing people are still alive and hidden at some abandoned property…or somewhere up in these mountains is a mass grave."