Viable Hostage — Audrey J. Cole

Malorie's best friend is missing. But due to her friend's wild past, no one is worried -- until another med student's partial remains wash ashore a Seattle beach...

When Malorie witnesses her best friend and roommate leave a campus bar with a mystery date driving a silver Mercedes, she suspects foul play, especially when Lani fails to return home the next day. Both women, med students in their final year at Elliott Bay University, have a lot riding on the line, but due to Lani's wild past, no one in her family is worried. When Malorie's fears for her roommate deepen, she turns to her Uncle Wade, a Sergeant at Seattle Homicide.

Within 48 hours after Lani goes missing, the partial remains of a brutally murdered young woman wash up on Alki Beach, and a human hand is found in a crab pot off Bainbridge Island. When one of the bodies is identified as a pregnant, fourth-year medical student, Wade believes there's a connection with Lani's disappearance. And, that they might be looking for a serial killer.

Malorie suspects Lani's kidnapper is someone they know, possibly even one of their professors at the university, a prominent Seattle anesthesiologist whose wife is the president of EBU. But when Detective Blake Stephenson discovers evidence that links another suspect to the professor's Mercedes, he and Wade must act fast to attempt a wild rescue in the middle of Puget Sound.