Interrogation of a Vampire

Chapter Ten

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I don't own any more than I did in chapter one. Rating: M in places. Time: After season eight, before children.

The briefing at One PP wasn't much. Kate truly had no leads and she wasn't the type to try to BS her way through a briefing.

"Captain Beckett?" Chief Patterson looked uncomfortable. "How is…Dr. Carsen doing? Um, helping with the investigation, that is?"

Kate was surprised that he hadn't been brought up before. Using someone like Carsen was highly unusual and she was expecting to get heat for it. "He's provided several possible avenues of approach. However, we've gotten no solid leads yet."

Chief Patterson nodded. "The mayor got a call from Congressman Charles Baker yesterday. It seems that Congressman Baker's daughter knows Dr. Carsen as an archeologist. He helped her find a previously unknown Roman fort in the Negev Desert. It made the daughter's reputation. The Congressman was quite…impressed with Dr. Carsen."

'We also got a call from Mrs. Phyllis Lyons." Said Deputy Chief Bellows. "It seems Dr. Carsen is very active in helping with her many charities. Very active. And very, very helpful."

"And the young lady that Dr. Carsen brought in? How is she doing?" The Chief asked.

"Ms. Renoir? She hasn't been with me long enough to form an opinion of her abilities."

"Mayor Weldon got a call from the mayor of New Orleans. They met at a conference some years ago. It seems Ms. Renoir is well known in political circles in New Orleans. She owns a very popular club and is….helpful to the local politicians."

Kate nodded. Carsen and Simone seemed to have cut off any complaints about her use of them as consultants. "I'm glad that everyone is happy with my consultants. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get back to the scene of the latest crime?"

Simone didn't know much about crime solving, but as a vampire she did understand blood. She wandered down the hallway, following the scent of blood. She turned a corner and found that she was out of sight of the police gathered at Ms. Reynolds' apartment. She stopped at an apartment where the scent of blood was quite strong.

She looked around. "I'm not doing this in front of anyone, so…" Simone jumped to the other side of the door. To her disappointment the apartment was empty. It was completely bare of any furnishings. It seemed that no one lived there.

"But there's that scent of blood." She muttered to herself. She tracked the scent through the apartment to the bathroom. There she found fresh blood around the sink. "Got you, I think."

She walked back to the front door, opened it slightly and finding no one there, walked back into the hall. She left the door to the apartment open.

"Excuse me? Detectives?"

Ryan and Esposito, as well as Castle, turned to her. "Yes?"

"There's a door open just down the hall. It could be significant, no?"

Esposito glared at two uniforms. "I thought you said you checked this floor?"

As the two tried to explain, Simone spoke. "The killer might have just left."

The four of them walked down the hallway to the now open door. Ryan and Esposito pushed Castle and Simone out of the way, and entered with guns drawn.

"Clear." Espo announced a minute later. "The place is empty."

"Got something in the bathroom." Ryan called out. "Fresh blood. Get CSU to sweep the place now."

Simone moved out of the way as the CSU techs began their work.

"Did you have anything to do with this? Finding this, I mean?" Rick whispered to Simone.

"Of course."

"Get ahold of the super and find out who the last tenant was. And find out if they changed the locks on the front door to the apartment." Espo said.

The building super had been standing at the end of the hallway, watching the police. Ryan got the information they needed. "The tenant moved out three days ago, and they hadn't gotten around to changing the locks. The tenant, Joseph Nordgren, turned in all of his keys, but it would have been easy for him to make a copy."

"What can you tell us about Nordgren?" Castle asked.

The super shrugged. "Quiet type. Never any trouble, no wild parties, in fact I'm not sure he ever had anyone over, but then, I'm not their keeper, you know. I got his work info in my office. You want me to get it?"

"Please." Castle said, smiling at Simone.

Nordgren worked for a medical supply house in the Bronx. When they went to see him the next morning, the detectives found that he hadn't shown up for work and hadn't called in. The only address they had for him was his old address and his phone was shown as a land line to his apartment.

"Did he have a cell phone?" Ryan asked.

Nordgren's boss shrugged. "I never saw one, but every kid his age has one, so I guess he did."

"Have you noticed anything missing?" Castle asked. "Specifically something that might be used for a blood transfusion?"

The boss shrugged again. "I'd have to do a full inventory, and even then, some stuff is always missing and some stuff we have more than the inventory says we should have. It's a crapshoot."

"But you do have equipment for a blood transfusion?"

"This is a medical supply house. We have everything a hospital would need."

After asking that he contact the police if Nordgren contacted him, the three left.

"Anything?" Kate asked, when they returned to the precinct.

"Nordgren's in the wind. His boss says he hasn't come to work today. We'll get started on phones and financials." Ryan said.

"Nordgren is our killer. I just got the CSU report while you were out. The blood is from Reynolds and we got a bloody fingerprint. It's Nordgren's."

Espo nodded. "Nordgren's family lives in Nebraska. They say they don't hear from him much. He's always been kind of a loner. No record of a cell phone, but he could have a burner. His landline shows a few calls to his work and some calls to a Chinese food place, a pizza place and a deli. Apparently all food deliveries. I've had uniforms canvas the places to see if anyone knows Nordgren or knows anything about him."

Several hours later, the uniforms reported back. All Nordgren ever did was call for his food, pay for it and go back inside his apartment. "The people we talked to said he probably never said two words to them and he never tipped. But, he did come into Marcello's Pizza on the night that our vic died, about the time of death. The manager said he ordered a pepperoni pizza and ate it there, but he said our perp seemed upset."

"Did he notice anything else? Blood on his clothes? If he beat her to death with his hands, he should have had cuts and bruises on his hands." Kate asked.

"They said he's not the kind of guy that people notice. And they didn't notice anything out of the ordinary."

"He has some cash from his bank account, so he could stay at an SRO for a while without attracting any attention, but sooner or later he's going to have to move and then we'll get him."

The precinct settled back down to the routine of the ongoing murder investigations. And, just as it got dark, Simone came in, Flynn being back at The Library researching the Chalice. Kate briefed the woman on what they had found.

"Pizza?" Simone said. "I'd love some pizza right now. Perhaps we could visit this Marcello's?"

"Do you have an idea?" Kate asked.

"If he killed her and took her blood, he'd have been carrying it on him. It's possible that I can track the scent of the blood. I did get a good idea of its scent in the apartment."

Kate and Rick grabbed their coats. "Worth a try."

Marcello's was busy, so the three stood outside, as if trying to decide whether to go in or not. Then Simone smiled. "He was here. This way."

They followed her for two blocks and then she stopped. "I've lost the scent." She looked around. "There. The butcher shop. It's full of fresh meat and masking the scent of human blood." Simone walked two blocks past the butcher shop going north, then turned and walked two blocks south of the ship. Finally, she walked two blocks east and regained the scent. "I think he might have spilled some blood around here. The scent is strong."

Another two blocks brought them to an SRO, the East Side Inn. "This would be a good place to hide. I'll bet no one asks any questions here, ever." Rick said.

"Then we should ask no questions either. "Simone said. They followed her from floor to floor until they got to the fifth floor. She stopped in front of a door. "The blood scent of our vic is very strong. He's inside. "

Kate pulled out her phone. "I'll get a warrant and some uniforms to back us up."

"We can't just go in and grab him?" Simone asked.

"Not without a search warrant."

"But what if he comes out into the hallway willingly?" Simone said with a smile.

"Why would he?" Castle asked.

"Silly boy." Simone laughed. She turned away from Rick and put her hands inside her blouse. In seconds, she had pulled her bra off and handed it to Kate. When she turned around to face the door, Rick could see her nipples straining against the thin cloth of her blouse, and the blouse itself was unbuttoned all the way.

"I should stand over there." Rick said quickly and began to move away, looking away from Simone.

Kate grabbed his arm. "Stand where you can help if he tries something." She smiled. "They're just like my boobs, you know."

Simone rapped on the door. "Joey, it's me, Simone. Please come to the door."

They could hear movement inside.

"Joey, don't you remember me? I need you so badly. Don't you remember our night together?"

"Go away."

But they could hear footsteps coming to the door.

"He's looking through the peephole." Simone whispered. "Joey, lover. Open the door, please. I need you so badly."

Joseph Nordgren opened the door, but kept the chain on the door. "I don't know…Oh, my god. Who are you?"

"It's your Simone. Don't you want to see me?" Simone opened her blouse a bit and then smiled, showing her fangs.

Nordgren opened the door and stepped in the hallway, his mouth wide open. "Simone…who?"

"NYPD!" Kate yelled, stepping in front of Simone.

Nordgren pushed Kate away, only to find Simone had somehow gotten in his apartment. One punch from Simone and he was unconscious.

"Nasty boy." Simone said, looking down at him.

"How are we going to explain this?" Kate asked, once they were back at the precinct.

"Simple." Simone said. "I was looking for a friend, got the wrong building, and he attacked me."

"How do we explain the fangs, and you standing there showing him your boobs?"

Simone shrugged. "So I dress a bit provocatively. That's no reason for him to attack me. And as for the fangs, do you really think his public defender will let him mention that? Unless he's going to try to get his client off as not guilty by reason of insanity."

Simone was right. When they found containers of Chelsea Reynold's blood in Nordgren's room, as well as photos of her dead body, the public defender wasn't at all interested in Simone and worked very hard for a plea deal that kept his client off of death row.

Kate had to stifle a yawn when Ryan came in to tell her that the DA had signed off on the plea deal.

"Twenty five to life, but as odd as Nordgren is, he could get shanked long before that."

"Did he tell us his motive?" Kate asked.

"Basically, he has no social skills. He's in his mid thirties, has no friends, and no girls, ever, apparently. Chelsea was not only gorgeous, but very outgoing. She talked to everyone. Nordgren took that to mean that she was interested in him, but she wasn't. When he turned him down for a date, he snapped and beat her into unconsciousness. He spent a lot of time in front of his TV and remembered about the vampire killer. He had borrowed, his attorney's word, some blood transfusion equipment. He went to her apartment, with the medical stuff and started removing her blood. He made a mess of it, but it killed her."

Kate shook her head. "What a strange world we live in."

"We'd be out of a job if it weren't."

"Speak for yourself, Espo. I can still go to law school."

The next week was slow. There were no more vampire killings, or any copycat vampire killings. The detectives went back over the alibis of all of their possible suspects with Simone, although neither Ryan nor Esposito were too happy to have to deal with a self described "vampire expert".

Both Ryan and Espo came to see Kate one morning when Simone was back at The Library sleeping. "Look, Captain, Simone is certainly easy on the eyes, she's a nice lady, and she knows all about vampires, or would be vampires. But, vampires don't exist. Do we have to go over all of our witness reports and checks on possible suspects? I mean if one of our suspects can turn into a bat and fly, then we've got more suspects than we can ever alibi out." Espo said.

"And we should be issued with silver bullets, or crosses or garlic or something." Ryan added, somewhat facetiously.

"Suppose the vampire is Jewish, or Muslim? Look at all the religions in the city." Kate said as seriously as she could.

"Simone just doesn't add anything to our investigation. Ryan and I would like her to go. In as friendly and as nice a way as we can manage, but she needs to go."

"That's not possible. Dr. Carsen, as well as Ms. Renoir turn out to have some powerful friends in this city, as I discovered at One PP. So, unless you two successfully run for mayor, or start some huge charity that the great and good of New York love, she stays. And remember, she got Nordgren, didn't she?"

Both Ryan and Esposito thought that there was something very odd about how Simone had just happened to be looking for a friend and came across Nordgren, but they could hardly call their captain a liar to her face.

"We'll have some more surveillance footage ready for Ms. Renoir when she comes in tonight." Ryan said as the two left.

Once back at their desks, Ryan leaned over towards Esposito. "There's something about that woman. She knocked Nordgren out with one punch. Gave him a concussion that send him to the hospital."

"She should have knocked his damned head off." Espo laughed. "That does make her hot, though."

"Hot enough to date?" Ryan asked with a smile.

"She's got a boyfriend, and she thinks she's a vampire. Two good reasons to stay away from her. Especially her thinking she's a vampire."

When Simone came in, Kate was just finishing up some paperwork. She called Simone into her office to tell her what her detectives had said. "Both Ryan and Espo came to me and asked that you be let go. Since they don't believe vampires exist, they don't think you add anything to the investigation."

Simone giggled. "Do you believe vampires exist?"

Kate slowly nodded her head. "Yes." she said quietly. "Now I do." She stopped and looked at Simone and decided to ask a question that had bothered her. "How many vampires are there world wide? Or just in the US, or in New York? Can you give me a number?"

Simone shook her head slowly. "I have no idea. I would guess that New York had no vampires until recently. When people start showing up drained of blood, it attracts attention. I think our killer either moved here recently, or perhaps had a blood supply that was somehow cut off and so he had to feed on humans. Of course, vampires like to feed. It makes them feel superior. And that's why I doubt there are many vampires in the world. Each vampire considers himself a god, superior too all other living beings. It damages their egos to know that there's someone just as powerful around."

Espo knocked on Kate's door. "Captain, we have one to roll on."

Kate sighed and called Castle to meet her at the crime scene.

"A super market?" Rick asked once everyone had reached the crime scene. "Really? What's here?"

"The place is abandoned. It was a family owned place, but the neighborhood changed since they moved in forty or so years ago." Kate replied. "They kept getting robbed and someone shot one of their employees. The owners tried to sell, but no one wanted to buy. It's been sitting empty for close to four years now."

Espo spoke up. "Con Ed monitors electrical usage to see if anyone is stealing electricity but apparently they don't have a very big staff to do that. Someone finally got around to checking this place out and found something really nasty."

"What?" Rick asked, not sure he wanted to know.

"Come with me." Espo led them past the uniforms and through a mob of CSU types and people from the morgue. "Lanie's inside still."

They stopped at a large walk in freezer in the back of the store. "Can we come in?" Espo called.

Lanie answered. "Just a second. I'm right in front of the door with a gurney and some people. Give me two minutes."

Kate noticed Simone looking around and looking perturbed. She took her arm and led her away from the others. "Did you find something?"

"Yes. He's been here. I'm getting so that I can sense his personal….aura, or whatever quite easily."

"Coming out." Lanie called. The door opened and as the gurney with a corpse on it left, Rick took a step forward. Then took a quick step back. "Jesus Christ!"