An Angel/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/CSI crossover. This story is a sequel to "Should Have Gone To Vegas...", which involved Angel, Riley Finn, and other characters from BtVS. It is set a few weeks later, towards the end of Angel Season 3, Buffy Season 6, and contains mild spoilers for Buffy seasons 3 through 6.

All characters are the intellectual property of their respective creators, film companies, etc.; this story may not be sold or distributed on a profit-making basis.

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far.

WORK IN PROGRESS - Expect at least one more segment.

Manhunters
By Marcus L. Rowland

III

Warrick came through on the car phone with the results of the record search.

"..so there was one similar attack reported this month, and two last month?" asked Nick.

"Yeah. All victims resident within a mile or so of the Bonnington apartment. We're still looking for earlier incidents."

"Looks like Teri was right. Have you checked the current whereabouts of the victims?"

"All accounted for, nobody missing. And nobody's mentioning having turned into a wolf last week, for what that's worth. Not that I could exactly ask that."

"Not something that fits easily into a conversation," said Catherine. "'Are you now or have you ever been a werewolf?'"

"Hmm..." said Nick, "let's say that there are three people attacked every month, and usually one gets the disease. That would mean that one victim didn't report an attack this month, and that someone else was attacked last month, didn't report it, and was presumably infected and murdered."

"At least that many," said Warrick. "On those figures four out of six attacks were reported, which sounds a little on the high side. There was no obvious harm apart from some scratches, and at least some of the victims would assume that they'd got falling down drunk. I wouldn't be surprised if it was four or five people attacked each month."

"If it was that many the whole operation would be too complex," Sara said over the radio. "Cain, or whoever it is, has to be monitoring the victims somehow, and there'd be a substantial risk that at least one werewolf would get away from him. I think Nick is right, it's three a month, even four would be stretching things."

"Let's check out the other victims," suggested Catherine, "we may be able to find some sort of common link, or work out how they're being monitored, or Oz may smell something. We're in the area, let me have the addresses."

"Downloading to you now," said Warrick.

"Have you found out where the rabbit she ate came from?" asked Sara.

"Looks like she bought it, ready for cooking, then changed and ate it raw. There was a recipe book in he kitchen with a marker at the page for rabbit stew."

"Full moon..." said Oz "...it gives us an appetite for meat."

"By the way, know anyone who writes computer viruses, Catherine?"

"No. Why?"

"We tried to take a look at an order form for werewolf pelts on a web site. It looks like the site had been hacked, the form was a phoney carrying a macro virus payload. Nasty one, targets Macs as well as Windows. Slid through our firewalls and virus checkers like they weren't there, crashed the network, would have wiped the hard disks on the records server if it hadn't been down for maintainance. The systems guys are still getting rid of it."

"What's that to do with me?"

"Oh, just that it seems to be called 'wil0'. Probably just a coincidence."

Oz winced slightly, but said nothing.

* * * * *

Grissom's eyes were glazing slightly as he watched his second hour of video. It hadn't been hard to find a factory with security cameras that covered the road at its next junction, the trouble was that the resolution was poor; the picture was quartered to show the view from four cameras, so vehicles were little more than boxy blurs. He had the recorder linked to a portable computer with image enhancing software, as anything that looked remotely like a camper passed he froze the picture and waited thirty seconds or so to get the enhanced view. So far it was eight times unlucky, now he was waiting for vehicle number nine, recorded a few hours before sunset on the first night of the full moon. And... bingo. Even enhanced it wasn't possible to read the licence plates, but it certainly looked like the camper. He ran the tape back a few seconds; it had turned left, out of another road leading further into the industrial zone. He noted the date, time, and direction, and patiently settled back to watch the rest of the tape.

An hours later he started to repeat the process at a factory that had cameras overlooking the next junction. He had a feeling this was going to take a while.

* * * * *

"Just thought of something," said Oz as they went up to the first apartment. "Were any teeth missing from the body?"

"No," said Nick. "Why?"

"I was told he takes one for every werewolf he kills."

"That picture," said Catherine, "I thought he was wearing a necklace of sharks' teeth. You're saying those were werewolf fangs?"

"Yeah."

"Then he's killed twenty or thirty..."

"...people," Oz finished.

"Maybe he stopped doing that when he stopped hunting them." contributed Nick.

"Maybe," said Oz.

"It'd make sense if an accomplice is doing the killing," said Catherine. "Someone who wants the money, not souvenirs."

"Here we are... Apartment 14, Laura Howard. Smell anything, Oz?"

"Mmm. Yeah, same man, smell of gun oil and leather, very faint, but there's no blood and no wolf."

"Okay, sounds like she wasn't infected. Look at the lock... similar scratches, not as recent. Oz, stay in the background, Nick and I will do the talking."

"Okay."

The door opened. Laura Howard was an attractive brunette in her twenties, who didn't seem particularly pleased to see them.

"Miss Howard? I'm Catherine Willows, this is Nick Stokes, Daniel Osbourne, here's my identification. We're investigating a homicide which may be related to the drug incident you reported last month."

"You'd better come in."

Catherine asked a few routine questions, leading her into a long recital of the evening's events. "...so I got to the bar and I asked for a bloody Mary. And then they wouldn't take the voucher I gave them, so I had to pay $4.95 which is ridiculous for a drink that size."

"Just a moment," said Nick. "I don't think you mentioned a voucher before, what was it?"

"Oh, someone sent me a half-dozen vouchers for free drinks at that bar, some sort of promotion, only the barman pretended that he didn't know anything about them. I wrote and complained to the management and the Chamber of Commerce."

"These vouchers... did you have to use them at a particular time?"

"Yes, how did you know that? That evening, between six and eight."

"Miss Howard, we have a murder victim who seems to have been lured to another bar and drugged under similar circumstances. It's possible that the same person or persons was responsible. Those vouchers may be a vital clue. Do you still have them?"

"Maybe... I don't know." She moved to a desk and rummaged throught the drawers, eventually pulling out two crumpled paper tickets. Nick bagged them as evidence.

"But why me? Why drug me?"

"It's a little difficult to explain.." said Nick, floundering slightly, as he realised that there was no way she would believe the truth.

"Tissue typing," Catherine improvised, recognising the problem.

"Tissue typing?" echoed Laura. As she looked at Catherine she missed seeing Nick silently mouth "What?"

"We think that when you were drugged they took tissue samples for organ donation. We have evidence of several similar incidents. Eventually we believe that they found a victim who met their needs."

"Oh.. my.. God. Are you serious? Suppose they come back for me?"

"It isn't likely, we think they got what they were looking for. But I'd strongly advise you to be more careful about invitations from unknown sources."

While they were talking Oz wandered around the apartment, almost unnoticed, looking at ornaments and pictures. From somewhere he'd picked up a notebook; he jotted a few words then gave it to Nick, saying "I forgot to pass on this message." It read: "I think the room is bugged."

* * * * *

"Organ thieves? What in hell made you say that?" asked Nick when they were back outside.

"We couldn't very well tell her the truth. 'Someone tried to turn you into a werewolf but you were lucky and didn't get the disease'; that's really going to freak her out. But organ thefts are an urban legend, everyone has heard stories, it's just inherently more believable."

"I would have said alien abduction." contributed Oz. "Less threatening, especially if you liked ET."

"Thanks," said Nick. "That really helps. Now, what was that about the apartment being bugged?"

"Smelled damp plaster and the same man-scent as before, so I found the place it was strongest. Looked like the wallpaper had been cut and replaced, with something plastered in underneath. Two little pin-holes through the paper, and something about a foot long going up above it. My guess is a camera with a pinhole lens and microphone, and a wire antenna above it. Seen them on sale in electronics shops, a couple of hundred bucks including a short-range transmitter. I made sure that I didn't look at it directly."

"Well, there must have been a reason why he went into the apartment, and it wasn't to kill her," said Catherine. "You're probably right. Presumably there was one in the Bonnington apartment too, and in the apartments of the other people who were drugged."

"Yeah, that would make sense," Nick agreed. "Why didn't you just say something, Oz?"

"Cain might still be using it. Doubt it, the batteries have probably run down, but I didn't want him to see me find it. Too easy to guess what I am."

"You're worried that Cain will panic if he finds out a werewolf is on his trail? Okay, we'll check the Bonnington apartment with a frequency scanner, and pretend to find the bug accidentally if we pick up transmissions."

"That's good, but it's not why. Cain doesn't think werewolves are human; he won't panic, and I don't want to set myself up as a target. Not unless you can use it to catch him."

"You'd let Cain take a shot at you?" asked Catherine.

"If it's the way to catch him."

She shivered, despite the heat, as she realised that he meant it.

* * * * *

That evening they met back in Grissom's office. "Well? Warrick, Sara?"

"We've three Rohypnol victims, this month and the month before, no other bodies," said Warrick. "Reno PD say they have five similar cases over the three months before that, including one girl who disappeared three weeks later. Sounds like that month's werewolf. We're still trying to find where they were before that."

"No men?" asked Grissom.

"None so far. But men are less likely to report something like that, they tend to assume that they've blacked out and had a wonderful evening."

"Nick, Catherine?"

"We've visited four apartments," said Nick, "it looks like all four were burgled and bugged while the occupant was out. Oz smelled damp plaster where the bugs were hidden."

"Anything useful about the bugs?"

"Not really. They used Mitkoto 2300 modules, that's an integrated monochrome camera, microphone and transmitter unit. The transmitter only has a range of about fifty feet, less through walls. There would have to be a relay somewhere picking up the signal and re-transmitting it, or putting it on line, but we haven't found one yet, I'd guess they retrieved them. Only one transmitter was still live, the batteries had died in the others. Typically they have a battery life of three to four weeks."

"Oz?"

"No more werewolves so far, but I picked up the scent of the same person in all four apartments. Not Cain, someone else. I checked the camper again, Greg got the seat out so that I wasn't distracted by the blood smell. Cain's smell is definitely there, as well as the other man, so he has a partner."

"Greg?"

"Yeah, I can confirm that, I've got hair and skin cells from two different males. Both Caucasian, black hair. No prints. The vouchers were printed on a colour inkjet, something that takes a standard high-resolution Hewlett Packard cartridge. Again, no useful prints."

"Teri?"

"I've contacted customs and the CITES organisations which monitors traffic in endangered species, warned them that we've had a tipoff that poachers are smuggling wolf pelts from Las Vegas to Sri Lanka. We'll be contacted if anything unusual turns up. I haven't been able to find out anything about existing smuggling routes, unfortunately."

"Keep on it, ATF or Narcotics may be able to tell you something. Well, we're certainly getting a picture of their M.O." said Grissom. "They come into town and find some likely prospects - looking at your report I'd describe the typical victim as single, unattached, a part-time worker or unemployed, with the beginnings of a drinking problem - and trick them into visiting a bar where they can be drugged and led outside to be infected with the disease. Meanwhile another perpetrator breaks into the victim's homes and plants the cameras. At the full moon they wait to see if any of the victims change; if they do the victim is murdered. I'd guess that the murder is usually much neater, and tends to be reported as a missing person. Once the victim has been killed the corpse is transported somewhere where it can be skinned and buried or destroyed. The camera tapes seem to indicate it's somewhere in the industrial zone, but I haven't pin-pointed it yet. Ought to have it tomorrow. Comments?"

"There could be more than two perps," said Sara, "or some information source giving them the names of suitable victims. They infected the first victims in Las Vegas only two weeks after they left Reno."

"I thought about that," said Catherine. "All of them would have been at home during the day occasionally. I think one of the perps might have posed as a market researcher, offered some token payment or a prize for taking the time to answer a few questions. When we finish I'll check it out."

"There's probably at least one other vehicle," said Nick. "I think they kept the camper as an expendable vehicle for moving the bodies, didn't use it for anything else. There are no prints inside, and it'd been through a car wash no more than a day or two before it was abandoned so nothing outside."

"We might get lucky with the car wash," said Warrick. "Most service stations have a few cameras to get the licences of drivers who leave without paying. It's possible that our perps would show up."

"Unless you can find something to indicate where it was washed we'll save that for a last resort." said Grissom. "There are more than four hundred service stations in this town. Something I'm still not clear on, if there were two perpetrators, and two vehicles, and they weren't both in the camper, why did they skin the body in the camper? It would have made more sense to get the other vehicle, clean up the camper before abandoning it, maybe set fire to it, and transport the body to be skinned at their base."

"I think I know," said Teri, "It makes sense if Cain is out of the picture that evening, and the other perp has to do everything on his own. Oz, when you examined the camper the first time you said that you smelled a male werewolf as well as Cain, but the evidence suggests that most of the victims are female. Could you still smell the werewolf when you smelled the seat tonight?"

"Yeah, still there."

"Oz, could the male werewolf be Cain?"

TO BE CONTINUED