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kikkimax
Author of 20 Stories |
The medical examiner pulled back the bloody sheet and looked over the bullet shattered body. “So they finally got you, you sick son-of-a-bitch,” he muttered under his breath. The dead eyes stared back at him as he jabbed the huge needle deep into the chest just below the left clavicle, probing until at last a flash of dark red appeared in the sixty cc syringe. It filled quickly with the still warm blood. He handed it to the nurse and she filled half a dozen different tubes with it before dropping it into a sharps box.
“Find anything?” the weary sheriff asked from the doorway.
“I’d say he died of multiple gunshot wounds,” the doctor answered glibly without looking up.
“No. You know what I’m asking.”
“You’re asking me what turns a young, soft spoken family man into a fucking animal?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“We’ll ship the body to Chapel Hill for the autopsy. If he’s some kind of monster they’ll let us know.”
“Shut up, you sarcastic old bastard. This kid grew up with my daughter. He was never anything but respectful and polite….”
“I’m sorry, Phil. I really am. But I’ve been in this room too many times lately with the lifeless bodies of my fellow citizens. I don’t know why Robert suddenly developed a hunger for blood. All I know is that it’s over now.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry,” the sheriff sighed, wiping a hand over his face. “Thank God, it’s over.”
“All set to go. My flight is tomorrow afternoon.”
“It’s a shame you had to take call on your last night. Where are you moving again?”
“Cascade, Washington. Don’t get me wrong, I love North Carolina, but I can’t wait to get home.”
“Well thanks for coming in tonight. Dr. Hall really appreciates it.”
“Sure he does,” Patty smirked as she took the vials and laid them on the counter. “You got what you need?”
“Yeah, I already packed up the samples that need to go with the body. But you know Dr. Hall. He wants the usual run on these.”
“I’ll get right on it,” Patty said cheerfully.
“Listen, if I don’t see you, good luck.” The nurse pulled the much shorter woman in for a quick hug.
“Thanks. You, too,” Patty said and smiled at her coworker. “I think I’m going to miss this place.”
“I’m sure you’ll get over that in a hurry,” the nurse called over her shoulder as she left.
“I’m sure I will,” Patty mused as she reached for a pair of gloves. One of the vials rolled off the counter, seemingly under its own power. Patty instinctively grabbed it, catching it before it could hit the floor. The glass tube seemed to pulse in her hand and she almost dropped it in shock. Suddenly it shattered, the shards digging into her fingers. The blood from the vial mingled freely with her own.
She felt a spasm rush through her and although her mind screamed to her about blood borne pathogens, her body refused to move. Sometime later she snapped out of her little traumatic freeze up and deposited what was left of the tube into a plastic container and quickly washed her hands with antiseptic soap. Much to her surprise and relief, she had been mistaken. There was no sign that the glass had pierced her skin. Somewhat baffled, she double gloved and cleaned up the mess before running the expected tests on the dead man’s blood.
“Oh, man,” Blair grumbled as they approached the car. “Turn down your sense of smell,” he instructed unnecessarily. “Waaay down.”
“No kidding,” Jim answered under his breath, screwing up his face until he got his unruly nose under control. “What have we got?” he asked Dan Wolf from the coroner’s office.
“It looks like the body has been in the trunk for awhile, maybe two or three days judging by the decomposition. It has been unseasonably hot, so it may not have been that long. We’ll know more once we get to the lab.”
“Cause of death?”
“Exsanguination.”
“Ew,” Blair said as he peeked into the trunk over Jim’s shoulder. “If he bled to death, where’s the blood?”
“That’s the question indeed,” Dan said seriously. “There are several short, deep cuts on the body that were made at different times while the man was still alive. There aren’t any defensive injuries, which made me look closer at his wrists. Sure enough, he has ligature marks on them and his ankles. He was tied up for awhile and very much alive until too much blood was taken.”
“Taken? As in on purpose?” Jim frowned.
“Vampirism?” Blair asked.
“Whoa, hold on there, Chief,” Jim protested. “Don’t go twilight zone on me.”
“I’m not talking about night of the living dead here, Jim. There are psychological disorders where people actually drink human blood. Of course there are also people who do it just for kicks. Maybe they just went too far.”
“Well don’t go around saying words like ‘vampire’ or ‘werewolf’ too loud. I’d hate for the press to latch on to that. Let’s just stick with what we know,” Jim cautioned. “Dan? What do we know?”
“We know that somebody for reasons unknown methodically drained this man of his blood,” Dan said. “Sounds like a vampire to me,” he added with a wink at Blair.
“His wife reported him missing six days ago after he didn’t come home from work,” Jim supplied.
“We went to see her this morning. She went to pieces when we told her about her husband. I don’t think she had anything to do with it,” Blair said confidently.
“Is that right, Sandburg?” Simon scoffed.
“Yeah, Simon, I know that a lot of times you don’t have to look any further than the family to find the murderer, but this feels different to me. It has ritualistic overtones,” Blair insisted.
“He thinks it was a vampire,” Jim teased.
Blair shot an exasperated look at his partner. “I just have a nasty suspicion that we’re going to be seeing more of this.”
“For once, kid, I hope you’re wrong,” Simon conceded and settled behind his desk. “So get out of my office and catch the guy. Both of you,” he growled.
“He just said that I’m usually right. Didn’t he?” Blair asked with a grin as Jim shut the office door behind them.
“Don’t let it go to your head,” Jim smirked as he ruffled Blair’s hair.
“You okay?” the nurse asked. “You don’t look too hot.”
“I haven’t eaten yet,” she explained, trying to steady her shaking hands.
“Oh, sorry, I know how it is, but I really need that blood.”
She showed the nurse where to sign and watched disappointedly as she left. “Yeah, me too,” she sighed staring at row after row of the little plastic bags lined up in the blood bank cooler, handy, but hardly a meal. She made a distasteful decision and reached into the fridge.
“Excuse me,” a man said from the door, causing her to jump and pull back.
“You’re not supposed to be back here,” she snapped as if caught. “Blood bank employees only.”
“Actually, I’m Detective Ellison and this is my associate Blair Sandburg. I’d like to talk to you about Russell McAllister.”
“Mr. McAllister? He’s my supervisor,” she said distractedly, noticing the shorter of the two men. He smelled absolutely heavenly, his blood rich and sweet. She bit her lip and stared at him.
“Was,” Sandburg said quietly. “He was killed last week. His body was found this morning.”
“Oh,” she replied hesitantly. “I only met him once. I just started here and then he wasn’t around.”
“Can you tell us anything about him?” the detective asked.
“No, I’m sorry. I didn’t even know his first name until just now. Maybe you should talk to Ms. Marsh. She’s been in charge since…. well, all week.”
“I’m Eleanor Marsh,” an attractive black woman said from the door. The taller man turned and began to speak to her.
Patty watched with interest, listening unashamedly, but her eyes kept drifting to the younger man. “Hi. I’m Patty Simmons,” she said to him at last, drawing him away from the interview.
“Hi, I’m Blair,” the man said uncomfortably and moved closer to her so as not to disturb the conversation.
“You must eat a really well balanced diet,” she blurted out.
“Excuse me?” Blair asked, picking up a strange vibe from the woman.
“I just get a very natural feeling from you.” She edged closer. “Your aura is so clean.”
“Oh, um, I try to eat right I guess. I slip up sometimes, you know, pizza” Sandburg babbled nervously as he backed slowly away, stopping only when he hit the counter. “I do use, um, certain cleansing… herbs.”
“Mmm,” she murmured as she closed in on him. Leaning deeply into his personal space, she sniffed him intensely. Blair shot a not quite panicked look towards his partner’s back, but the other man was oblivious to his plight.
“I know this might seem forward of me, but I’ve got to see you tonight,” she purred into his ear, breathing heavily against his neck.
“Um, well, that sounds very nice,” he hedged. “Maybe under different circumstances…. Um, Jim?”
She couldn’t resist a taste and pressed her mouth against him. Blair made a startled noise and jumped away from her, slapping a hand to his neck. Keeping his widened eyes on her he brought his hand up and spared a quick glimpse at the small spot of blood on his finger. She licked her lips and practically drooled.
“I’ll be seeing you, Blair Sandburg,” she whispered roughly.
The cop turned around and glanced at them questioningly. “You ready, Chief?” he asked.
“Oh, more than ready,” Blair blurted out and moved quickly through the door.
“You get anything?” Blair asked, still looking a little wild eyed as they stepped into the late afternoon sunshine.
“Not really. What about you? You seemed to be working that little red head pretty hard.”
“Me? Working her? Oh, I don’t think so,” Blair denied vehemently. “She gave me the creeps. There’s something wrong with that girl.”
“What do you mean?” Jim asked, shooting Blair a dubious look.
“I mean, she bit me,” Blair exclaimed.
“Bit you, as in…”
“As in BIT me. On the neck!”
“Let me see,” Jim commanded urgently.
Blair stopped walking and pulled back his hair.
“Crap. Why didn’t you say something? She did this with her teeth?”
“I just wanted out of there and of course she did it with her teeth. You think she gummed the blood out of my neck?”
“Sorry, stupid question. I’ve got a first aid kit in the truck. We need to clean that. Human bites are notorious for getting infected,” Jim put his hand on Blair’s back and moved him towards the parking lot. “Do you want to press charges?”
“No, but I do think we need to check her out. Sane people don’t go around biting people they’ve never met before. How do you know so much about human bites?”
“You don’t seriously think she’s our killer do you? Come on, she’s not more than a hundred pounds. How could she have hefted six foot three McAllister into the trunk of his car? And I know more than you think.”
They reached the truck and Blair leaned against it as Jim dug around for the first aid kit. “She could have had help lifting the body; an accomplice or even a group like a cult or something.”
“Hold your hair back, this is gonna sting.”
“Ow, quit,” Blair whined and tried to pull away as Jim cleaned the small wound with one hand and held him in place with the other.
“Hold still. You really should get some blood work done. I wish you had said something sooner. Do you know what kind of germs can pass through saliva into blood?”
Blair nodded and looked at his feet. “What do we do?”
“You should file a complaint. That way we can get blood drawn on her, too. Just to double check. Come on. Let’s go back in. We need to take care of this right away.”
“Aren’t you sweet?” Patty said, still lusting after the man who had just left. She really wanted that one, but she was willing to take what she could get. Besides, she knew his name. If she made a few arrangements, she could contact him later and really enjoy him. Making up her mind she turned back to the one on hand. “I’m done, too. Let me take you to lunch,” she replied.
“He’s a little spooked,” Jim admitted reluctantly.
“What? He thinks he’s gonna turn into a vampire?”
Jim glared at his boss. “I’m glad you think this is funny, sir. I think hepatitis and aids are more of a concern for him right now than turning into a vampire. That girl is seriously off her rocker to bite somebody in a public place with a police detective less than ten feet away. And now she’s missing.”
“You’re right,” Simon said raising his hands in a placating gesture. “I’m sorry. So if you were less than ten feet away, how come you didn’t see or hear the attack?”
Jim flushed. “I was conducting an interview,” he said guiltily.
“Do you think that this girl had anything to do with our dead body?” Simon asked, changing the subject.
“It looks that way. After she attacked Sandburg we did a little more digging. We found a witness who saw her get into McAllister’s car the night he disappeared. I still don’t see how she would be strong enough to overpower him.”
“Could she have drugged him?”
“Not according to the autopsy. She could have had help, as Blair pointed out. I would definitely describe her as blood thirsty. You should see Sandburg’s neck.”
“Maybe she seduced him into letting her tie him up and then changed the rules. Stranger things have happened,” Simon pointed out.
“Maybe,” Jim agreed. “He was restrained.”
There was a tap at the door and Rafe stuck his head in. “Jim, Dan Wolf just called from the docks. He said he’s got another Cascade General employee.”
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