A Vampire Killing (3 of ?)
By Kayla Gayle
Thanks to everyone for their kind sympathies during this time. It has been a crazy month, let me tell you that. Anyway, here is another chapter and hopefully I will get to post more without any conflict coming up in my life.
Permission to archive. Thanks for all the reviews--keep them coming.
The dark haired Goth girl looked up when her name was called. And then she smiled.
"Yes?" she answered.
"Nick Knight, Metro Homicide and I'd like to talk with you."
A look of surprise.
"Why? Have I done anything?"
The detective took out a sketch and showed it to her.
"Anyone you know?" he asked, knowing the answer from the look on her face.
"Yeah, it looks a little like Dan."
"Dan..." Nick prompted.
"Dan Touchof. I used to go to school with him."
"Tell me about him," said Nick, leading her to a booth where they could actually talk. Nick had no problems hearing, but she obviously had.
"Not much to say. He's weird. I think he's on medication or something. He's always talking about how his master is coming for him and he needs to prepare."
"Master?"
"Yeah, it doesn't make a lot of sense. At one time he used to be real good-looking, but now he looks like he crawled out of a gutter."
A thought came to Nick.
"Is he homeless?" If he was, then it would make it easy for Nick had good relations with the homeless and had several connections.
Mora shook her head.
"Not that I know of. He gets some sort of check from the government. I know because I used to live in the same complex as he did and, since he didn't work, I asked him about it. His parents come over a lot as well, but I've never seen anyone actually enter his flat."
"Could it have something to do with this scene?" inquired he, looking around and at her outfit.
"Maybe. He never spoke to me in school, he seemed lost in his own world. Then a few months ago he came up to me and asked to join our coven."
Nick's jaw opened.
"Your what?"
"Coven. I play in a Vampire role playing game. He really wanted to be in, but he was just too out there. We let him join us for a few sessions, but then some people got scared of him and told him not to come around anymore."
"How long ago was this?"
"I don't know. Last week, I think. I haven't seen him lately."
"Do you know his flat number?"
"I do." She took a coaster and wrote the name and address of suspect. "I hope you find him. He was talking about sacrifices and all. Like I said, weird."
"Thank you, Mora."
The girl smiled. "Hey, you know, with your looks, you should join us. You look like you'd be a great vampire. You have a certain look about you."
At that, Nick remained silent but returned the smile. Thanking her, he stood and kissed her hand, which made her blush. She flashed her fang teeth and left. Nick almost laughed out loud as he walked back over to Janette.
"So, did you get the answers you came looking for?"
"I did," he said, kissing her quickly on the mouth. "Thank you. By the way, she said I'd make a great vampire."
"Hmm, I suppose at one time you did."
Not sure of whether to be insulted or not, Nick gave her an answering kiss and left the club, pulling his cell phone out of his jacket.
"Yeah?" Schanke answered on the second ring.
Nick told his partner what Mora had told him.
"Right, I'll get on it right away. If he's getting money from the government, he must be in their databases."
After some more small talk, he hung up the phone and got into the Caddy to proceed to headquarters.
"Well, buddy, your source is right on the money," Schanke told Nick as the vampire walked up to their desks. "Touchof is on disability, and get this, for schizophrenia. According to the records, he has been in and out of hospitals. It says here that the last one released him because he was a 'danger to staff and patients'."
Nick shook his head.
"Does it say where he lives?" he asked.
"Your girl was right on that as well. He used to live with his mother, who is supposed to be this really domineering woman. She and the father divorced after he accused her of trying to poison him."
"Wonderful. Sounds more and more like it could be our guy."
"Hey," Schanke pointed out suddenly, "doesn't this remind you of that case in the states about that so called vampire killer?"
"I remember reading about it. He thought he had soap dish poisoning and that his blood was degenerating in his veins so he needed more."
"Yeah, and they had a documentary on the telly about it last week."
A light went off in Nick's head, like it had in his partner's.
"You don't think he saw that show and decided to copy the killer, do you?"
"Why not, Nick. It all fits. Even the crime scene is similar."
A sudden thought hit the blonde detective. "If that's true, then he'll strike again. The killer in the states killed once a week, I believe."
They were just getting ready to leave when Captain Amanda Cohen came up to them.
"Any leads? I'm getting a lot of heat on this."
"Yeah, Cap," said Nick and briefly told her about their suspicions.
Cohen agreed. "Hold on while I go get a search warrant," she told them. "I want this to go by the book."
The two detectives agreed and Nick decided to call Touchof's mother. The phone call however, did not go as planned. Mrs. Touchof could not believe her son would be involved for he was "stupid" and "slow" and "couldn't think of that". Then she complained about being woken up in the middle of the night. Nick hung up the phone and whistled under his breath.
"Didn't go so well, huh?" asked Schanke, stating the obvious.
"No. If that's the way he was brought up, it's no wonder he's killing people." Nick sighed and checked the clock. Cohen should be back soon with the warrant for the flat. "I'm going to try his father. See his take on it."
The conversation with Mr. Touchof went surprisingly well. He was concerned that his son might do something violent and he had seen the documentary and seemed very excited about it. In fact, Mr. Touchof had even told his son to make an appointment at the local clinic. But the boy had not made the appointment and he had not seen him in a few days.
Cohen was back with the warrant and the two detectives left to check out the flat.