Never in her life had Beth seen so much blood. The body had been discovered the night before in a bad part of town with blunt force trauma to the head. The poor boy was barely 17 years old. She couldn't help but feel angry towards whoever committed such a crime. "Who could do this to someone?", Ben Talbot mimicked her thoughts as he stood beside her looking at the corpse.

Beth shook her head, " I couldn't tell you."

"I think we're through here", Ben told Guillermo as he recovered the body. Guillermo handed Ben the autopsy report. "Ready, Beth?"

"Yeah, just give me a second", Beth said as Ben began to exit the room. He nodded understandably and went into the hall. When he was out of ear-shot, Beth pulled Guillermo to the side. "Mick wanted me to tell you to be extra cautious. He and Josef got a mysterious list of names from an unknown source. A list of vampires here in L.A.".

"Are you serious, Beth?"

Beth nodded, " That's not even the worst part. Ben has the list too."

"Ben Talbot?"

"Yeah. Just be careful ok?"

Beth exited into the hall as her cell phone rang. She reached inside her purse and answered her phone. "Beth Turn…"

"Beth!" It was Mick. "Beth, any chance you can get to my apartment? I think we're in more danger than I thought."

"Mick. Sure, I'll be right over".

Ben Talbot perked his ears up at the mention of Mick St. Johns name and as Beth ended the phone call he was already standing close to her. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. Everything is dandy. Listen, Mick wants to meet for lunch, is there anyway we can meet up around one to go over the autopsy report?"

"Sure. We'll meet at the office later."

Ben Talbot knew that something was up. Mick St. John was not only a liability to Ben but also a threat. He couldn't help but have feelings for the lovely Beth Turner. But, he knew she would never trust him if he pushed his way into whatever she had going on with St. John.

Beth raced across town to get to her beloved. Was he in danger? Was he fighting off a ruthless attack from his ex…or worse? Her thoughts flooded her with panic. She was so panicked that she almost missed the Cleaners van and workers that crowded the entrance to the parking garage of Micks apartment. Parking her car she raced out, hoping that the Cleaners weren't there for Mick. "Beth!"

She nearly jumped out of her skin at Micks voice. Regaining her composure she spotted Mick and raced to him, "What's going on?" Finally able to see around the Cleaners van, she noticed the headless corpse of Sigmund Todd. Okay, this was the most blood Beth had ever seen. Beth looked away only to notice a devastated Josef Kostan kneeling over Sigmund Todd's head.

"Is he okay?" Beth asked as she and Mick made their way over to Josef.

"250 years, Mick", Josef was muttering, "250 years. I can't believe he's dead. He was one of my best employee's".

"Josef, I'm so sorry", Beth tried to comfort him.

"Before he was my employee, we were really close friends. Back in the 20's we thought we were hot shit. We were the inspiration for Jay and Nick in the Great Gatsby, ya know? We did Fitzgerald a couple favors, back in the day."

Mick laughed, "You're full of it, Josef!"

"What was he doing here Mick? Why Sigmund?"

"I don't know, Josef. I don't know but, whoever this is, their getting incredibly too close to home."

CLICK! Sitting in a car across the street sat a raven haired woman, snapping pictures of the small gaggle of friends surrounding the decapitated head of poor Sigmund Todd. She smiled and pulled her cell up to her ear. "You know, I'm paying you far too little for your work. Did you collect the sample I requested?...Good. We'll be in touch."

The call ended and she sped off down the road, her fleur di lis tattoo growing smaller in the distance.