Chapter 1
Since I was a young girl I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. When most girls played with Barbie dolls creating fantasy stories with them in this imaginary world where they were waiting for prince charming I was creating crime scenes with them and playing to be a detective looking for the murder. Yeah, now that I think about it I wasn't exactly what you can call a normal kid. I remember my parents taking me to a psychologist because they were worried about me. Of course, they were overreacting, but that is what parents do, right?
When the time came and I started college I couldn't be happier. I made a lot of friends that shared my love for criminalist and I also meet my mentor Mr. Jacob Bennet. He was one of the most brilliant men I have ever met and I made my goal to make a career just like the one he had. After I finished college I started to work on the local police department of my town, being a fresh graduated from college made my expectations for this job too high so when my job wasn't exactly solve crimes and catch the bad guys but was to do paper work on cold cases I got frustrated.
A few months on my job I received a call from Mr. Jacob. He saw potential in me so when he discovered what my job on the police department was he got mad and told me about his old friend who was a private detective and was in need of help. I didn't even let him finish when I told him I was taking the job.
My new boss was called Samuel Smith. He was a 50-year-old man, really tall with peppermint hair and hazel eyes. I was intimidated by him from the moment I saw him and I remember he laughed when he saw my scared face when he entered in his office lobby the day of my interview. He was the kind of man who has a scary exterior but is like a puppy on the inside.
I started to work for him a few weeks after the interview and I stared to be almost like the second on command after a few months. Samuel had secretary named Sharon, she was a really sweet girl with red hair and blue eyes and taller than my by a few inches. We became good friends after a while.
It was a normal day on the office, Samuel was sick so that meant that I was in charge for the day. The day started slow, really slow so I was spending my time checking a few local cold cases and playing on my laptop….. Yeah, really slow.
I was getting ready to take my lunch break when my cell phone started to ring.
" Alice Carter speaking, in what may I help you?"
"You sound so professional" Detective Jhonson told me laughing. He was a good friend of my boss so he wasn't a stranger to me, after all he spend a lot of time in the office. I have been working with him in a few cases so we also became friends. He saw me as an equal and that was something I loved about him.
"I know I have to keep the appearances" I joked with him
"Good to know" I could hear the smile in his voice "Anyways, getting on serious talk I need a new and fresh brain with a case I'm working. Can you come to the crime scene?"
"OK, but can I tell you something first?"
"Sure, I am all ears"
"That part about "fresh brain" was kind of creepy. It made you sound zombie like" I loved to joke with Detective Jhonson.
"Trust me if I was a zombie I know I could find a better brain than yours"
"Ouch"
"See you on the scene, Alice" he laughed and after our goodbyes he hanged.
Taking my small bag I stood from my small desk and went to Sharon.
"I received a call and I have to go. Call me if something comes out" I told her with a smile.
"OK, don't worry Al"
I left and took a cab to the crime scene. I still couldn't afford a car so cabs were my way of moving in the time being. I arrive and the place was full of police cars, I gave the money to the cab driver and went to the ally were the crime occurred.
It was a really small alley, I think only 3 persons could fit there at the same time. It was full of garbage, cans and it didn't have any exit. I was pretty sure that if you pass by this place at 8 at night it would be really dark. As I was getting closer to the body I saw someone kneeling next it, I instantly knew who it was.
"Detective Jhonson, sorry it took me long"
"Don't worry about it, I know how the traffic is at this hour" he said standing and offering me a smile.
"So what do we have here?" I told him taking a few steps closer to the dead body.
"Well, our victim here is a male probably on his 30 or middle 30. According to our doctor he has at least 12 hours dead. Cause of dead is still unknown and the only think unusual on his body besides his obvious appearance is those puncture wounds he has on his neck"
When he mentioned the wound on his neck I started to look for it. They were really small and they looked kind of deep, there was still fresh blood on their surroundings. Looking generally at his body I noticed that he looked kind of dehydrated, I didn't found a better word to describe it.
"What did the doctor said about these wounds? And why his body looks like this?"
"He has no idea what could have made them. He is waiting for further investigation on the morgue to know about the mark. And about the weird look on his body we think the cause is going to be exactly like the other victims"
"Which is…..?"
"Their blood was drained from their body. Almost like it was sucked out of it"
"Excuse me?" I saw him with an incredulous face.
"That was exactly the look on my face when I heard it the first time"
"Let me get this straight. You are telling me that the murder drained blood from the victims?"
"Yeah"
"All the blood"
"Sort of"
"So what is this, Red Cross going wild for blood donors?"
My sarcastic comment was received with a few laughs from a few police officers on the place; they stopped once I throw them a glare. I was frustrated already.
"Well" Detective Jhonson was trying to hide his smile "No, not exactly. I am actually starting to think of my daughter suggestion." At my silence she continued "She said vampires did this"
"I hate you so much. You put me working on this case?"
Now I knew why he wanted me there. This case was becoming pretty popular on the city and all the news were taking about it. The famous "Vampire case" was on everyone's mouth since it started a few months back. There were a total of 5 victims (6 if you counted this one) all dead by the same cause and same MO. Vampire lovers were sure this meant vampires were real and started to profess their love publicly in case "they were watching".
"Is not that bad"
"Is not that bad? They are everywhere. There is this girl on my apartment building that, and I discovered this on this morning, that leaves her apartment windows open in case a vampire wants to enter there and take her. Can you believe that?"
"I know, my 16 year old does that too"
"You better lock that damn window"
He just laughed and I took a look at my surroundings, noticing the lack of blood.
"In a more normal topic conversation, you know what I found weird" I said looking all over the alley "There is no trace of blood in here. Maybe this wasn't our crime scene"
"Again, this happened on the others too. Never founded another place"
"Well there is nothing more here except for the body….."
"I will call you when the doctor starts the autopsy. There is nothing more we can do here"
"Yeah, please call me as soon as you know something and can you please send me the reports of the other cases"
"Of course, I´ll send them to you"
After saying our goodbyes I called Sharon to know if something happened on the office in my absent. Knowing that everything was fine I went to grab some lunch on a small dinner that was pretty close to my office. I finished my lunch and went to the office to finish some paper work while making small talk with Sharon to avoid my mind to wonder to the case that was already making me frustrated. At 4pm I received the information about the old cases so I started to read it.
Reading only frustrated me more. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that the victims had in common. Nothing that could tell you what kind of murder weapon could drain blood from your body. Nothing that could help me trap this psycho. At 7pm I call it a day and Sharon and I left the building.
I entered to my apartment and turned the TV on, looking for some kind of distraction. This lasted for a few minutes until they started to show the news and the top news was the new victim of the "Vampire Case". Groaning in frustration I turned it off and went to made dinner. I took a shower and went to sleep hoping that vampires didn't haunt my dreams.
This is another story in reposting, Please review and let me know what you think! =)
