Disclaimer: As far as the author of the following work is concerned writing fanfiction includes inherent admission that all the rights to the intellectual property of the work the fanfiction is based on belong to parties other then the fanfiction creator. The author therefore has no claim as to the ownership of any recognisable characters, locations or situations that might have been mentioned in the story.
Summary: Usually when your assistant is having heart problems, you worry about people being at each other's throat and you suspect your partner's ex would like to kill you, you don't mean that literally. Unless, of course, your name is Vicki Nelson. Sequel to That Thin Line.
Special thank you goes to my beta Marlana. For all her help and not giving up after facing a story this size.
Heartfelt Friendships
Chapter VII
They entered the building where Vicki's new client lived and were immediately met with an out of order sign on the elevator. Vicki stifled a groan, earning a quick smile from Henry.
"Does he really live so high?" He asked amusedly.
"High enough, judging from the apartment number. I was hoping to at least skip some of the stair-climbing. Oh well, nothing like a tiring, unnecessary task to present yourself well to your client."
"I doubt your image will suffer too much. After all he did come to you because of your reputation of dealing with things most people don't even believe in."
"Oh, thanks." She threw sarcastically in reply as she started to ascend the stairs.
As they neared the floor her client probably occupied she saw Henry breathe in and grimace before he went further. She looked at him questioningly but soon enough she had her answer as her nose was assaulted by the smell of garlic two floors later.
"If you changed your mind about being unaffected by garlic, now would be the time to say something." She said when to her great surprise it turned out that they still had one floor to go before reaching her client. The smell grew almost unbearable.
"I will be fine. I wonder how he is still able to breathe." He frowned briefly. "To be honest it looks like another Stoker victim in the making."
She looked at him questioningly.
"Stoker victim?"
"Yes. There was this story, it was all over the papers in 1973. A man in New York was so afraid of vampires that he ended up choking to death in his bedroom on a clove of garlic he was holding in his mouth while sleeping. His whole house was full of garlic. And, if I remember correctly, of crosses and plates with water. Presumably holy water but there was no scientific way to find out."
"I'm surprised you remember all the details."
"I happen to be slightly oversensitive when it comes to articles with headlines 'Vampire Victim Found Dead in His Bedroom'. Especially when they appear in otherwise respectable newspapers."
"Wonder why that is. By the way – vampire victim?"
"Probably sounded better than 'Paranoid man choked on garlic'. You have to admit you can't really pin that accident on vampire involvement."
"What did he think the vampire would do to him anyway that he came up with garlic in his mouth? French kiss him to death?"
Before even a second passed, she suddenly found herself in a passionate kiss, that ended before she could properly return it. She saw Henry smirk.
"A truly direful fate that would be, would it not?"
"I may need to see into the matter in more detail later, to form a firm opinion. Hey, who knows, maybe that guy just broke up with a vampire girlfriend and wanted to pass her a subtle message that he didn't want to see her again."
"If he ever had a vampire girlfriend, don't you think he would have known something about how successful his methods would be? But while I understand that you can't quite resist solving a fatality case no matter that it's from the early seventies and happened far from here I believe we should concentrate on your actual case for now. Especially since I believe we've found the place. You can check the number if you like but I believe the smell is a confirmation in itself."
"To put it lightly. Vampire myths aside I'm surprised you are still here. I'm barely able to stand this and your sense of smell is slightly better than mine."
He laughed. "You think that's bad? You should have tried London shortly after I was turned. After that everything else is barely a discomfort."
"I so didn't need that in my imagination. But let's get back to business." She knocked on the door. A moment later she heard someone on the other side of the door but no locks moved.
"Who is it?"
"Good evening Mr. Rosen. It's Vicki Nelson. I just dropped by with my partner to check something with you about the case. Can we come in for a minute?"
"How do I know it's you?"
"Who else would I be? You know, with all that garlic you would have probably discouraged not only all vampires but also most humans from coming even close to you right now." She decided not to look at Henry right now for fear of bursting into laughter.
"Alright. I will open the door. But you are not invited inside." True to his word the door was unlocked and opened a moment later and she could now see the pale face of her client. Who was holding a badly sharpened chair leg.
"How the hell am I supposed to take that?"
"Easy. Vampires can't go into a house unless invited so I'm not inviting anybody in anymore. If they can get in all the same then I at least know they are safe."
"A very sound idea if I may say so." Henry stepped over the doorstep with no problems whatsoever and pointed at the man's makeshift weapon. "Though I would advise putting this away before you stumble and hurt yourself with it."
Rosen looked at the item in his hand and waited until Vicki stepped over the doorstep as well before reluctantly putting it on a table in the corridor.
"Now that we are done with that, how can I help you Miss Nelson and Mr...?" He broke off.
"My apologies. My name is Henry Fitzroy. As Vicki already mentioned, I'm her partner." Henry extended his hand and the man shook it, more automatically than actually registering the action. Before he could say anything more she spoke.
"We don't want to take too much of your time. We are working on your case as I promised and came across something I need to consult with you. You said you remembered how the vampire looked."
"Yes. It would be hard to forget its looks. I have nightmares about it every time I go to sleep."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Vicki noticed how Henry's jaw set at hearing 'it' and she didn't particularly want to see her partner lose his patience. "But in that case could you tell me if you recognise he... i... the vampire in a picture?"
"I suppose so. Do you have a picture of it?"
"Just a sketch." She opened the folder she was holding and took out the drawing that Henry quickly did before they left. "Was it h...i... Is this how the vampire looked?"
The man studied the portrait for a while. Then he frowned.
"It might have been. But its face was so twisted in fury and it had blood smeared on its face. And I think her hair was more tangled and dirty. But it could be the same face. The more I think about it the more sure I am."
Vicki saw Henry close his eyes at hearing that. She didn't dare to imagine what was going on in his head in that moment.
"Thank you very much, Mr. Rosen. You have no idea how much you helped us. I'm sorry for this intrusion. We won't take any more of your time. Have a good night." She couldn't leave her client's place fast enough.
Once they were again in the staircase she risked a glance at Henry.
"You alright?" She questioned even more softly than she intended but she didn't regret it as she saw a grateful flicker in his eyes.
"I'm still praying it isn't her. But whatever small flickers of hope I have seem to be fading. I still hope that since he wasn't absolutely certain..."
"Hey, whether it was her or not we'll deal with it."
"If it is her, I'm not sure we'll be able to even if we wanted."
"As long as we are together we will. She won't know what hit her." She walked a couple of steps without saying a word. "It is her, isn't it?"
"It would be a big coincidence if it wasn't. Still, coincidences happen." He shook his head. "So since you seem to be in charge of planning the operation. What are we doing next?"
"Do you have Christina's cell number?"
"Yes, I do. I doubt though that confronting her over the phone would do much good."
"That's not exactly what I have in mind. Our next stop is the police station. Hopefully Mike stayed after hours and I won't need to cash in any old favours. I doubt if Christina would tell us anything one way or another but her cell might do that for her."
III
When they got to the station they found Mike at his desk, looking through some files and sipping coffee. Kate was nowhere to be seen but Vicki assumed she had to be somewhere on the premises. She couldn't imagine she would leave if they were working a case that kept Mike so long after hours.
They quietly approached the working detective. As he reached for the cup again Henry took it from his reach. When his hand didn't find the item Mike looked up.
"You are incorrigible when it comes to coffee, aren't you Celluci?" The vampire put the cup away on some currently unoccupied desk.
"Well, not all of us can afford to sleep all day. Now give that back."
"I don't think so. Primo, because I don't take orders from you and secundo, because it's already cold anyway."
Mike glared. "I'll let you get away with this for now. Because strangely enough you are just who I wanted to see. You'll never guess what I'm working on right now."
"If you have any grounds to support that assumption, trying to initiate guessing games instead of imparting the knowledge just serves as a proof of your infantilism, Celluci."
The detective gritted his teeth. "Can't you even hold a simple conversation, Fitzroy, or is there a reason why you're acting defensive? Maybe you'd like to share with us something about a girl drained of her blood? And for that matter, what were you doing last night?"
Vicki sighed at the not-so-unexpected way the exchange between the two was going and decided she had enough. Unfortunately for Mike, she didn't particularly like the accusatory tone that sounded in his last question.
"Way ahead of you, Mike. Honestly, if that's how your investigating methods look I'm beginning to think you might have ridden on my coat tails through some of our cases."
"My investigating methods? Let's hear it. How would the great Vicki 'Victory' Nelson handle a body of a girl, wound on the neck, presumably made by teeth, blood missing?"
"Now that you mention it? Look for and question eyewitnesses, possibly get a description of the assailant, ID and do a background check on the victim to see if I could find any motives. Then work with what I got. Any of that crossed your mind?"
"Eyewitnesses. To something like this. What's next, Vic? Or maybe I should hire a PI to find them?"
"You do and I'll charge you for showing you the statement of the one I have."
"Hold it. You have a statement?"
"Is there an echo in here or something? We wanted to work together with you on that one but if this place changed into a kindergarten after I left, I'm starting to have second thoughts."
"You can't withhold vital information to an investigation. And that's legally and not because of our connection. You know that, Vic."
"Sure. Charge me with withholding info on a vampire-related case. We'll see whose reputation turns into a toast faster afterwards."
"Seriously, Vicki…"
"You know, I was willing to work with you on that. But accusing my partner like that is not the best start for cooperation."
From the look on his face Vicki knew that Mike almost – almost – winced at that. Instead he took a deep preparatory breath and with one more glance at her – presumably to see if she hadn't changed her mind about the matter – he turned to Henry.
"Sorry about that, Fitzroy. It was uncalled for." His tone could have used a bit, not to say a lot, of sincerity but Henry didn't give any indication of noticing it. Either he tapped into the lessons of diplomacy he undoubtedly had or after the start of the evening he simply didn't care anymore.
"Apology accepted, detective. I know there was no ill will behind the words." He somehow managed to say in an impeccable manner that at the same time could very well be the only thing needed to set Mike off again. For some reason Vicki couldn't bring herself to believe he achieved that effect unknowingly.
"What do you have on the case, Mike?" She questioned quickly.
"Not much. A guy went jogging to the park early in the morning and found the girl. She didn't have any blood left in her body. No obvious trails as of the moment. As could be expected I'm beginning to think. That's it. You seem to know more than I do, honestly."
"Any?" Henry suddenly inquired.
"What?"
"She didn't have any blood left?"
"Why? That bad table manners for you?"
"A vampire would have to be either newly turned or starving to drain all the blood. Unless she was seriously injured she would have to forgo feeding for at least a week."
"Well," Vicki turned to him, for a moment forgetting about Mike sitting there, without any idea what was going on. "Rajani did say that she would have to either be hungry or covering the trail."
"Hungry would be an understatement."
"But perhaps it fits with what Rosen told us. Her less than presentable looks… Maybe something happened?"
"Maybe." There was a small flicker of hope in his eyes but it died quickly. "I can't think of anything that would bring her to Toronto against all warnings. And the choice of the victim doesn't seem to confirm that. If anything, it implies planning."
"We don't even know for sure if it was her. Maybe it was some newbie vamp who just happened to look like her?"
"Maybe." He sounded doubtful but she couldn't think of anything else to say. Suddenly the fact that Mike was staring at them registered.
"Her?" The cop managed.
"Her." She confirmed. "You're so not gonna like this." For the second time that night she took the picture out of the folder and held it up for Mike to see. "Look familiar?"
III
Mike stared at the sketched portrait for a second before recognition dawned. Once it did, he swore and suddenly felt a strange urge to break something. Had Fitzroy not evacuated his cup it might have been the item's final day.
"You sure about it?" He brought himself to ask.
Glancing at the vampire he could see a reluctant confirmation written on his face. Which caused him to raise an eyebrow upon hearing Vicki's firm "Not yet."
He let his sight travel between them.
"You two wanna agree on one version and get back to me?"
"I told you, we don't know for certain. Henry is just being pessimistic. As a matter of fact, you could give us a hand with that, you know."
"Oh, really? Suddenly I can't help but feel like the only thing you need me for these days is cannon fodder."
"You know me better than that, Mike. But if you could tell the tech guys to trace her cell it would sure spare us a lot of work."
"The hours tech guys work haven't changed since you left, Vic. And they don't extend past eleven PM unless it's a major emergency."
"This is an emergency."
"You want to be the one to tell them that?" He sighed. "Listen, all we'll need to locate her cell is to find out which transmitters are sending the signal to it. She doesn't have to pick up. It would be enough if she doesn't have the phone turned off. I'll have the guys check it in the morning."
"You'd be surprised from how many places it is possible not to pick up the phone, Mike. How do you expect us to find out if she still has it on her?"
"C'mon, Vic, what happened to the detective I knew? Once we have the location confirmed you can call her all you want on your own time."
"Yeah, I expect I'm just the person she will want to take calls from."
"But perhaps," the vampire cut in, "she'd be intrigued enough to take one from me."
"Yeah, that's a brilliant idea." Vicki's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "If she has anything to do with this, seeing a call from you will tip her off that we're on her tail. If she doesn't she may start getting ideas when you initiate contact. Foolproof plan, really."
"So what do you propose?"
"Having someone who she doesn't know call her, or at least calling from a number she won't recognise and seeing if she picks up."
"What I'd like to know for now though," Mike interrupted their discussion, "is if you have any idea if there might be more victims and if so, who might be next on the list before we manage to get her location. We should at least give some warning to those she might go after."
"That shouldn't be hard, considering that most of those people are present." The bastard son of a king answered promptly and suddenly, thinking back to what was said on the matter the last time they worked together, Mike felt a dawning realisation.
"Why the girl then? Some friend of yours you never mentioned before? Favourite entree?"
"Bad luck. Christina…"
"If it's her" Vicki interrupted him.
"If it is her, never met Coreen in person. But she did know her scent as it's easy to detect in Vicki's office. As it probably was on the clothes Coreen sold the girl."
Mike swore again. Then he looked at his former partner.
"What are you still doing here then, Vic? Nobody's gonna say a word if you take a week or two off. It's not safe for you in town at the moment."
"Don't even start. I had this argument tonight already and I'm going to have a lot less patience for it the second time around."
"Are you saying you can deal with it with less patience without turning it into manslaughter?" He heard the vampire ask in a stage whisper.
"No idea. But don't you think it's gonna be fun finding out?"
"Alright. Point taken. But if you want me to help with this…"
"Help with what?" He stilled hearing Kate's voice behind him.
"Oh, hi, Kate." Vicki spoke immediately. "I was wondering where you were."
"I went to get myself something to eat. By the way, Mike, here's your sandwich. Nice to know you decided to wait for me and said something before you chose to start working for Vicki on the side."
"Hey, it's not what it looks like, Kate."
"Oh, really? Then what is it like?"
"Vicki just wanted me to check something. It's no big deal."
"Then I'm sure neither of you will have a problem with sharing it with me, right?"
For a second Mike desperately looked at the vampire, hoping that he would, for once, use his memory-altering skills for a good cause. What he did get was an arched eyebrow. Suddenly an idea struck.
"Vicki had this case some time ago, you see, to find a missing model, Brandon Ledford. The case reached us as well but in the end all either of us got was that he borrowed a sizable sum and skipped town. Now she was asked to locate him again and what she came up with was that the last time he was seen he was with a woman matching the description of the fashion photographer that came up in another case, one I worked with Dave. There is some similarity between how Ledford went missing and how Alexander Demoret, who was our suspect in that case disappeared. If they were both linked to that woman it might be something, so Vicki wanted me to check her out, just in case. That's it."
He sent the pair a challenging look and saw that while Fitzroy's face remained an unreadable mask, Vicki had a bit harder time schooling her features so they wouldn't betray anything. Finally she managed to get a better control.
"Yeah, that's basically it, Kate. If you want to help us as well you are of course welcome to. But I warn you, it's probably not the best way of staying in Crowley's good graces. I guess I'll hear from you once you check her out, Mike?"
"Yeah. But I'll walk you out. I want to get myself some fresh coffee anyway."
Vicki snorted at that but he managed to keep his face impassive. They walked a few steps before they were out of Kate's hearing range.
"And by the way, Fitzroy. You might not have a problem with earning your living by writing fiction but I do, especially when it goes in the reports. I'd appreciate it if you didn't put me in such positions."
"Contrary to what you may think, detective, I am not responsible for all supernatural occurrences. I'm flattered that you give me so much credit but I can't in good conscience accept it."
"Don't push it, Fitzroy." He glared at the vampire who bowed and then turned to leave.
"Anyway, Mike." Was it just him or was there a bit more than usual irritation in Vicki's voice? "Thanks for your help. I guess you'll get back to me with what you find?"
"Yeah. But if you'd excuse me, I'm still at work here and I have a job to do, you know. A concept you seem to have a habit of forgetting."
"It's been great seeing you too, Mike. Bye."
"Bye, Vic."
TBC
Reviews will be very appreciated.
