Down On The Bayou Detective Agency - Case Files
Chapter 4
Case File #16 - "Un vampir de energie"
Disclaimer: I do not claim the characters to be mine, only how I used them in my story line. This is an original work of fiction and in no way portrays anyone alive or not.
A/N: I wish to thank my beta Enchanted by Twilight, my pre-readers; buggins74, AnakinsRealMom, and Gabby1017. Wouldn't be able to do this without you! I have a great team helping me bring this weirdness. Y'all make me look good.
~o0o~
Previously:
There was a very loud crash. Everyone looked in the direction it came from to see Sam standing, looking down at the floor and the shards of glass from the beer bottle that Sam had been holding moments before. They all understood the frustration he'd just expressed.
Angela walked over and began cleaning it up-no one saying a word to Sam.
"MOTHER FUCK!" Emmett screamed. "We've got to get that bastard!"
~o0o~
The next morning, they met Special Agent In Charge Riley Biers at the city morgue in Baton Rouge. The only ones who were not shocked by what lay under the sheets covering the mummies were Edward and Sam, and that was because they'd been present when bodies had been exhumed before. They both, however, experienced strong anger and rage.
Bella did not look away, nor did she appear upset - other than the fact that these had been vital young people not so long ago. The only emotion that she felt was a great sadness that this had happened and a strong desire to see this didn't happen to anyone else. Over her ten years as a homicide detective she'd developed a very thick skin when viewing bodies. This was unusual for her to experience any strong emotion.
Angela and Lauren cringed when the sheets were drawn back.
Emmett had never seen a mummified body in all the years he'd been on the Chicago PD. He'd seen bodies that'd been left in closed containers, rotting to a nearly liquid state. He'd seen them left in the trunks of abandoned cars, bloated beyond recognition where the only way to identify the body was through dental records. However, for some reason, these bodies brought up such strong emotions, he hardly recognized himself.
They thanked the M.E. for allowing them to disrupt his day and left the morgue. When they were all in their vehicle, they talked a little about how they'd felt viewing the remains of those young people.
"Sam, have you ever experienced strong emotions when viewing a murder victim before?"
"To be honest, Edward, I was gonna ask you the same question. And no, I can't remember feeling such rage as I did this morning, or for this entire case. There is just something about this whole case that has me emotionally explosive."
"How about you Bella? You didn't seem to have any emotion except extreme sadness. Was that always your reaction to a corpus?"
"Yes and no," Bella replied, "when a young person who's not really had a chance to experience life is cut down it makes me very sad. I can't say I really felt anything as extreme as you and Sam seem to."
Angela and Lauren were silent and seemed to be cringing internally. Sam knew from his long experience with the two women it'd be best to not push them. When they were ready to discuss the events, they would.
Riley was silent, taking in everything that was being said by his companions.
They had been allowed to take pictures with the promise to send copies to the coroner's office, so on the way to the New Orleans morgue, Lauren transferred the pictures from their camera onto her laptop. She then took the memory stick out and gave it to Riley. He looked surprised when she handed it to him when they all got out of their SUVs.
"What's this?" Riley asked with raised eyebrows.
"The pictures we took." Lauren then pulled out a receipt that she had Riley sign the chain-of-custody voucher.
"Efficient," Riley commented as he signed it. "Thank you. I appreciate this very much."
One they arrived they were led into the refrigerated area where the other four mummified bodies were being stored. They were allowed to take pictures under the same restrictions as those in Baton Rouge. Once they were transferred to Lauren's laptop, she handed the memory stick over to Riley, who once again signed a chain-of-custody voucher.
"You just can't imagine how nice it is to work with professionals."
"Well, don't you remember, Riley?" Edward drawled, "Bella was a homicide detective from LAPD, and Emmett was a captain in the Chicago PD. Angela and Lauren have been involved in probably more investigations than you have over the years. They were very active with Sam in the hinterlands of Louisiana's Delta regions."
Abashed Riley said, "Yes, yes. I remember, Edward. It's just such a relief to work with other professionals regardless of your law enforcement status."
"That's why you called me, right?" Edward asked.
Riley nodded.
"So let's get back to the office and see what we can conjure up now that we've seen first-hand." Edward said to his team before turning back to Riley. "As soon as we come up with anything, we'll let you know." With that, they all got back into their vehicles and drove back to the office.
~o0o~
Back at their home base, Angela, Bella, and Lauren started getting supper ready. While they were in the kitchen,casually chatting away, Bella realized that they all had experienced some strong emotions at the state of the bodies and it made her wonder something.
She left the kitchen and found Edward. "Did you say experience anger and rage when you looked at the bodies?"
"Yes, why?"
"I didn't. I only felt extreme sadness for the waste of a life and sorrow for the families."
"Sam, Emmett, please come here," Bella called.
"What's up?" Edward asked?
"I don't know. Just have this nagging feeling."
When Emmett and Sam found Bella and Edward, she asked them the same question.
"Yes," they both said.
"Why, I ask again." Edward questioned.
"Strong emotions. I've never experienced anything like it before when viewing a body." She shook her head and looked down. Then she looked up. "Doesn't it seem strange to you that five of us experienced the exact same emotions?"
Edward just nodded and walked out onto the deck, before sitting down, seemingly studying the water. Bella knew, as did Sam, that Edward wasn't even seeing anything because he was focusing on the question Bella had asked.
Bella tried to get back into the spirit of cooking but was unable to. Instead, she called to see how the twins were doing and chatted with Esme for a while. The twins were watching television with their grandfather and behaving themselves beautifully.
Bella was pleased that she didn't have to worry about the twins since her mind was so focused on the mystery at hand. When in company of her children she needed her full attention on them.
Thirty minutes later, Edward came back inside and called everyone into the war room.
~o0o~
After everyone was seated, Edward began. "It seems to me very strong emotion was used to draw the very life force from these young people." He shakes his head. "I don't know how that would be possible, but I say this because of the overly strong emotions that have been provoked from within us." He looked around at the faces before him.
Sam chuckled, "Ok. I see what you mean. What we, as sensitives, were picking up from the bodies was emotion. Very much like a spell used by Voodoo. Whatever the origin was, it was, no is, very powerful. As a practicing Hoodoo Man, I don't think I've ever encountered anything so strong."
"What I'm going to ask us to do is to go into our various different meditative states and see what we can pick up."
Angela reached for her Tarot Cards while Lauren and Sam left the room, apparently to go to their different rooms to meditate. Emmett and Bella were odd men out and decided to go sit on the rear deck, drink iced tea, and watch the water and nature flow around the house boat.
Edward had gone to the forward deck to contemplate the problem. They all knew he had the ability to ask for guidance from his guardian angel. Edward usually seemed able to find answers to perplexing questions, but Bella didn't really know how he did it, though it didn't matter as long as the answers came.
Bella had begun to experience flashes of intuition stronger than she'd ever experienced before since she'd been with Edward and even stronger still when it came to the twins. She figured that must be a defense mechanism non-gifted people developed around psychics. That made her smile.
"Bella, can I ask you a question?"
"Sure, Emmett, of course. What is it?"
"How did you deal with this supernatural stuff when you first met my brother?"
"At first, I thought he was full of shit and wondered how he'd gotten into the FBI, but then as I worked with him, I figured his knowledge must have come from somewhere because he was always , not just right, he was always spot on, perfect in his assessments! Eventually I just learned to roll with it."
"Emmett, you lived with Edward, weren't you used to his abilities?"
Emmett laughed, "No. I have always been the type of man who needed to finger the wounds. You know, the Doubting Thomas of the family. Give me good hard science, something that can found in test tubes or in physical evidence. The gifts seem to have skipped me and been doubled up in my niece and nephew."
That caused Bella to laugh out loud. "Yes, they seem to have surpassed all of us.
About an hour or so later, Edward came out on the back deck and sat next to Bella. She looked at him, waiting for him to tell her what was on his mind.
"I think I have someplace for us to start. I think we're dealing with some kind of vampire."
~o0o~
