Chapter 3

(A trip to the morgue)

As Mick walked into the morgue, he was hoping that whatever was going on, he would be able to deal with it and still have time to ask Beth to dinner.

"Hey Guillermo, what do you have?"

"Mick, good I'm glad you're here. I wanted you to take a look at a body before the DA sends someone down." Guillermo led Mick to the next room to the body of a young women.

"Jane Doe, she was found in a dumpster last night. She died from extreme blood loss, but look at this." Guillermo pulled down the sheet covering the women and there were hundreds of puncture wounds. All pretty fresh. They were not just any kind of puncture, they were vampire bites. It looked like she had been bitten repeatedly on her neck, arms, breast and legs.

"What the hell?" Mick could not believe what he was seeing. If this was a freshie and things got a little out of hand, any vamp would know to call the cleaner. Not just leave a body lying around. "What happened to her?" He said mostly to himself.

"I don't know but the DA is investigating and I thought you might want to look into this before they have a chance to find something."

Mick closed his eyes and took in a long sniff over the body. He could smell the fear and see many vamps biting her all at once. This didn't look like it was going to be an easy day. Crap.

"Did they find any personal belongings with her? What was she wearing?

"Nothing, she was naked and they didn't find anything that could have belonged to her."

"Where was she found? I'll start there."

"Here." Guillermo was just handing Mick the address of where the body was found when he heard footsteps coming down the hall.

"That must be someone from the DA; you better get going before they see you here with the body."

Mick smiled. He wasn't going anywhere. It took Guillermo just a second longer, and a quick sniff of the air to know why.

Just then, Beth came around the corner and into the room. She stopped suddenly. She didn't expect to see Mick here, but she was extremely glad he was.

"Mick, hey!" She said with a big smile.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Mick smiled back at her. He couldn't help himself; he walked over to her and gave her a light kiss on her lips. Right after doing so, he wondered how she would react. He didn't know how she felt about public displays of affection, even though Guillermo was their only audience.

As he pulled back, he could swear he actually saw her eyes sparkle.

It took Beth a minuet to answer. She couldn't get over the feeling of electricity that she felt on her lips as Mick's lips touched hers.

"I'm working on a case. Ben sent me down to look at the body of a Jane Doe."

Mick and Guillermo both shared a look with each other.

"Well, I'm glad they sent you. Come on." Mick led her over to the body. Guillermo had already covered it back up. "What do you know so far?"

"That she was found naked with no ID. She is believed to have died from blood loss and has wounds covering her body. I'm supposed to take a look at them and then go to the crime scene and try and find out what caused them."

"Well, you won't find them at the crime scene, that's for sure." Guillermo said as he pulled the sheet down exposing the women's neck and arms.

"Oh my!" Beth's hand flew to her mouth. She stood there taking in what she was seeing. "And these are all over her?"

"Yes." Guillermo lifted the sheet to show Beth the other wounds. She just shook her head.

Something about the wounds caught Beth's attention right away. She tried to be sly as she looked at the two small marks on her left wrist, but Mick saw her.

"That's right, they are vampire bites."

"Why would a vampire need to bite so many times?"

"Because it was more than one. Still this shouldn't have happened. At the very least the cleaner should have been called."

Beth just shook her head again. She knew not all vamps got their "food" they way Mick did. Or Josef for that matter, but this was just more than she had ever really considered.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I am here. We can't just tell the DA that she was killed by some hungry vamps."

"No, we can't." Mick was glad Beth was here too. Not just because she could help keep the DA off the real story, but also because he would get to work with her on this case. More time to be spent with her even if they were both working. "I'm heading over to the scene now. Do you want to come with me?"

"Sure." Inside Beth's stomach did a flip. She loved working cases with Mick. And after last night, any reason to be close to him was a good one.

""Thanks for the heads up Guillermo. If you find anything else give me a call."

"No problem. Bye guys."

With that, Mick and Beth were on their way. Another day, another case. Only this time they walked hand in hand to Mick's car.