Playing With Vampires - An Izzy Cooper Novel (5 page)

I had my doubts. Not only was it my experience that ghosts didn’t normally kill people, but if there was a link to the Coos Bay victim, whoever was responsible for the murders, might not even be connected to the island.

I was fully prepared for the look of irritation the boss man threw in my direction as soon as I walked in.

“Hi guys. Sorry I’m a little late,” I apologized, and then hurried to explain. “While I was at the Quick Stop, I decided to do some asking around about Polly. It seems that she was out and about last night because she had taken a second job. Her coworker, Janet, didn’t know exactly what it was that Polly was doing. It was supposed to be some kind of secret, but Janet thought it might have something to do with the new owner of the Marsh Estate.”

By the time I’d finished with my explanation, the dour look on Ayden’s face had changed. Now I had his attention.

“Maybe Polly’s grandfather knows,” Ayden suggested. “I think I’ll stop by there this afternoon and talk with him.”

My attention fell on Tim. His eyes were glued to an open file on his desk.

“What have you found out about the Coos Bay victim?” I asked.

Looking up, Tim ran fingers through his long hair. “The victim’s name was Ann Chase. She was in her early thirties, and according to the autopsy report, she was killed in almost the same way as Polly Nielson. Her throat was cut in the exact same manner, plus there was postmortem mutilation of the body.”

“Any other connection?” I asked, plopping down in my desk chair.

“Not so far.” Tim shook his head. “The MO is close enough to say we are probably dealing with the same perpetrator, but that’s where it ends. There are no similarities in occupation, age, physical appearance, etc. The only real connection is the island. It seems Anne Chase made a trip out here the day before she was murdered.”

“For what?” I asked, as I studied the autopsy pictures that Tim handed me.

“She was buying a stereo from the pawnshop on Anchor,” Ayden put in. “Anchor is our connection.”

I had to agree. Although Anne Chase hadn’t been killed on Anchor, she’d been a recent visitor.

But there was something that still wasn’t clicking. Although I wasn’t a trained profiler, I knew a few of the basics, like the comfort zone theory.

“That would mean that he probably lives or works somewhere near Anchor, which would put that area as his comfort zone. Coos Bay is way off the mark with that.”

Ayden shrugged. “We don’t know enough to really profile the subject yet, but it’s possible he works on the island and lives on the mainland.”

That was something I hadn’t thought of. If he did live in one place and work in another, that would give the perp two comfort zones.

While I was chewing on this possibility, I noticed something in Polly’s autopsy pictures. It was difficult to make out because of the lacerations to the throat, but I was almost positive what I was seeing were puncture marks near the artery, just below the side of the jaw.

Grabbing a magnifying glass out of my penholder, I studied the picture up close. What I was seeing were definitely two puncture marks at the artery. The bruising around the wounds indicated the injury occurred prior to death.

When I opened Anne Chase’s file to examine the autopsy photos, I found the same thing. Strangely enough, there was nothing in either report about the marks.

“Did you notice the lack of blood at the crime scene?” I asked Tim.

He nodded. “It was the same with Anne Chase.”

“There are puncture wounds on both victims. Why isn’t this noted in the report?” This time I directed my question to Ayden, who happened to be busy on his computer, and not paying any attention to the conversation.

“The Council wanted it kept out of the report,” Ayden informed us.

By Council, I assumed he meant the Council of Supernatural Beings, which was something along the lines of the NSA for, not so normal people. We’d recently discovered that the boss man was a double agent. He worked for the FBI, but first and foremost, he worked for the CSNB.

If the Council was getting involved, it must mean they believed the perpetrator was a supernatural, and I had a pretty good idea what they suspected he was.

“So I take it you think we are dealing with a vampire?” I asked.

“It would appear so,” Ayden replied, without looking away from his computer screen. “The mutilation could be an effort to cover the true cause of death,” he added.

The name, Marty Morrison jumped into my head. He was the paranormal investigator we’d used on our last case. I knew he frequented the island on his ghost hunting expeditions, but he lived on the mainland. Even more incriminating, he was a vampire.

The problem was, he just didn’t seem like a killer. Then again, neither did most serial killers.

“What about Marty Morrison? He’s familiar with the island, and he lives on the mainland.”

This got Ayden’s attention. I could tell by the look in his eyes that I’d hit on something he hadn’t thought of. “The only reason we have to bring him in for questioning is that he is a vampire, and knows the area. I’m not sure that would go over so well with the Bureau, or the CSNB.”

“We could always ask him if he’d come in,” I offered.

Tim shook his head. “If he is our subject … the last thing you want to do is tip him off.”

He had a point.

Not just that, but with Marty being a vampire, we would only be able to question him after sundown.

But I had an idea.

“What if I question him, without him knowing that’s what I’m doing?”

Ayden lifted one brow. “And how do you propose to do this?”

“They are having a town meeting tonight to discuss the proposed resort on the Marsh estate. I could invite him to attend with me on the pretense that we suspect the killings could be connected to someone at the this new resort.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Tim put in. “Especially in light of the fact that Polly’s employment may have had something to do with why she was victimized.”

“Doesn’t he specialize in ghosts?” Ayden frowned. “I can tell you for sure, a ghost didn’t commit these murders.”

“Well of course not.” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, a ghost wouldn’t have bitten them, he’d just scare them to death.”

Ayden wasn’t amused. “You don’t seem to be taking this situation too seriously. I can tell you first hand, vampires are cold blooded predators. They kill indiscriminately. As far as a vampire is concerned, the human race is simply food.”

Sighing, I leaned back in my chair. I had a feeling this might be a long conversation. “How is it that you know so much about vampires?”

Tim glanced away nervously, which told me that he knew a lot more about something than I did.

I totally resented that. The boss man was always favoring Tim.

Getting up from his desk, Ayden walked to the coffee maker we kept in the office. After filling his cup with straight black coffee, he looked back at me.

“It was my senior year in college … UCLA. I was studying for semester finals one night when I got a call from home. It was the Seattle PD. My entire family had been wiped out … murdered for no apparent reason. Everyone … my parents, my younger sister, Allyson, who just happen to be unlucky enough to have returned home for summer break early. Even my youngest brother was killed. He was only twelve years old.”

Pausing, Ayden made his way back to his desk and sat down.

“I’m so sorry,” I kept my voice low and contrite.

Nodding, he continued, “Nothing was missing from the house, and neither my parents or siblings had any enemies … that the police could find, in any case. All of them had puncture wounds on the neck, and were drained of almost every drop of blood.”

“And you believe a vampire was responsible?” I asked, though it was obvious that he did.

“The Seattle police believed it was some kind of psycho who viewed themselves to be a vampire, but it was too perfect. Someone like that would have shown disorganized traits, but it was clear that whoever killed my family had been meticulous and very organized. The more I looked into it, the more homicides I found with the exact same MO, but they were spread out over decades, and all over the world. That’s what convinced me that vampires were no myth,” he finished.

“So that’s why you got involved with the ACMU and the Council?”

He nodded. “Eventually my search led me to the people who knew about these things. I’ve been hunting vampires ever since.”

Poor Ayden.

Suddenly I had a better understanding of the boss. Lots of things made sense now, especially his reaction to Marty Morrison the night he’d shown up to help us out with a case.

“Did you ever find the vampire … or whatever was responsible for killing your family?”

“I thought I had when I first came here. There was that Beaufort legend. I figured the old bloodsucker had fooled everyone into thinking he was down under, while he went about killing all over the Pacific Northwest, but so far, I haven’t found any evidence to support that theory.”

I decided it was time to get Ayden and Tim’s opinion on something that had been bothering me since I’d heard the news about the resort.

“So do you think, like the rest of the town … that this new owner opening a resort on the property could break the binding spell and free that old vampire?”

With my entire family being witches, I knew all about binding spells, but I didn’t have a lot of info when it came to vampires. Apparently the boss man did.

“If there are renovations being done, it is a possibility they could disturb the body, but I have no idea if that would be enough to break a spell or not … that is, if all that hocus pocus about Beaufort being bound to another dimension is even true.”

I wished I could say for sure that it was, but the only person I knew who had any experience with this hidden dimension was my sister, Annabelle, and she didn’t remember much about her experience.

“I think I can get Marty here without raising any suspicions,” I told them. “If you remember right, it was Marty who gave us the information about the Marsh estate to begin with. I’ll just tell him we need some of his vampire expertise.”

Ayden shook his head. “I don’t know. You can’t trust vampires, even those who seem harmless,” he said, his skepticism evident in his voice.

“I can handle myself,” I assured him. “Besides, I’ve been reading up on vampires. I know that garlic can weaken them, and silver burns them. There’s also the old stake through the heart trick too.”

“It’s a little more complicated than what you see in the movies,” Tim warned.

“I know, but I’m not totally helpless. If worse comes to worse, I do have a friend or two I can call on for help.”

I was thinking of Julius, though if I were to be truthful with myself, I had no idea if he’d actually show up in the event that I did call on him.

But he had saved me at least one other time.

“I’ll be okay,” I told them again.

Ayden nodded, which meant go for it, and that’s exactly what I intended to do.

I just managed to squeeze Lady Luck between a Jeep Wrangler and a Tundra, whose owner had parked it with half its front end in my spot.

What was it about truck people that made them think they could do anything they wanted with their vehicles?

I really wasn’t a fan of trucks, especially since it had been a truck that hit and killed me. Partly it was my own fault for not looking both ways before crossing the street, but the guy driving the truck had taken off after the accident. The police still hadn’t found him.

There had to be something evil about a person who would leave someone to die in the middle of the street.

Taking only my digital voice recorder and phone, I hid my purse beneath the front seat and locked Lady Luck. Under normal circumstances, we didn’t have a high crime rate in Storm Cove, but there was no sense of pushing it. It would be just my luck to get back into my car and have a murderer waiting for me in the backseat.

I’d always had a phobia about dark cars and back seats. Of course it didn’t help much that it happened so often on TV. The girl would run through a dark parking lot, and as soon as she got into her car and thought she was safe, bam. The bad guy would sit up in the backseat and put a gun up to her head, or maybe even cut her throat.

No thanks. I would just as soon keep Lady Luck locked.

The New Hope Christian Church was a little white church, like you might see in New England, complete with a steeple and bell. It reminded me of a church from another era. It suited Storm Cove.

Tonight the parking lot was so jam-packed that people were having to park up and down the street. I knew this new resort was a hot topic in town, but I hadn’t quite realized just how hot.

I saw Granny Stella near the entrance, her arms loaded with a big box of refreshments. At least that’s what I assumed was in the box. These days Granny spent much of her time helping out at the church and doing charity work. You’d never guess that at one time, Stella Osborn had been considered a witch to be reckoned with.

She was still the same witch she’d always been, but these days she’d toned down her temper quite a lot.

I’d have to remember to ask her how she’d managed to do it. Heaven knew I could use a bit of whatever it was that had helped her. The way I was going, I’d be lucky to ever see the pearly gates, let alone gain admission.

Double checking Lady Luck’s locks, I hurried to catch up with her. “Hey Granny.”

Just as I was ready to relieve her of the box, another set of hands grabbed it.

Marty the vampire smiled. “Let me get this for you.”

“Thanks,” I told him. “This is my Grandma Stella.”

Turning to Granny, I said, “And this is Marty Morrison.”

Granny nodded. “Hello there, young man.”

She was wearing one of her pink flower print dresses and had her long gray hair secured in a bud at the back of her head. With Granny being such a stout woman, she probably could have handled the box without a problem, in spite of the fact that she was well into her sixties.

Marty Morrison didn’t exactly resemble what you’d think a vampire would look like, or even a ghost hunter for that matter.  I had no idea how old he really was, but I guessed he would have been in his late forties or early fifties when he was made into a vampire. His brown hair was turning gray, and was thin on top. Like the last time I’d seen him, he was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt.

After delivering the box to the church’s recreation room for Granny, he pulled me aside. “Now what exactly did you need help with? Looks to me that if there were a ghost or two here … they probably aren’t going to make an appearance with this kind of crowd hanging around.”

“That’s not what I asked you here for,” I told him, shaking my head. “I need your vampire expertise. We are working a case right now, and it’s very likely the perpetrator is a vampire. I just thought that maybe with you being a vampire and all, you would know one if you saw one. Maybe if someone like that shows up tonight, you could … I don’t know, point him out or something.”

“I see,” he said, giving me a half smile.

I hoped I sounded convincing enough, but it was hard to tell. The one thing I’d learned about vampires was they were hard to read. Of course it wasn’t as if I were real good at
reading people to begin with, my ex fiancé being a good example of that, but vampires were even more difficult than normal people.

Marty’s eyes scanned the gathering crowd. “I don’t see any yet.”

“Well, we should get a seat before they’re all taken,” I suggested.

Most of the front pews were already filled up so I opted to sit in the back. I figured that way I could question him without disturbing too many people.

“So how have you been?” I asked, once we were both seated.

“Good.” He nodded. “I was very impressed with how quickly your team solved your last case. From what I’ve heard, you had one strange case on your hands.”

“It damn sure wasn’t your everyday day case. Even for what we do, it was strange.”

We slid into an uncomfortable silence, during which Marty continued to study the crowd.

“So I hear you’ve been doing a lot of ghost hunting on the island.”

Marty nodded. “I’m fascinated by this Captain Marsh ghost everyone keeps talking about. But I have to tell you. … I’m not so sure if the ghost people see is actually that old captain, or the vampire the founders witched during their mutiny on the Mystique.”

“Well if it’s true that the original captain of the Mystique was a vampire entombed beneath the Marsh estate, it was probably a good idea for you to come to this meeting anyway,” I told him.

Marty nodded. “Actually, I already had plans to be here tonight.”

“So … were you here on the island last night?” I asked, hoping the question didn’t put him on the defense.

Smiling, he shook his head. “You know … you could have just asked me to come in for questioning. This charade wasn’t really necessary.”

Damn it! Maybe I wasn’t so good at stealth questioning.

“Well where were you last night between the hours of 8:00 and midnight?” I figured I might as well go for it, since he already knew what I was up to.

“I was at the Four Square Clinic blood bank in Coos Bay. I have a friend there that slips me a bag or two of O Positive every few days.”

“I thought you only fed off animal blood?” I frowned, not sure I liked the idea of a vampire that actually subsisted off human blood.

“I do most of the time, but once in a while I like the real thing,” he explained.

“That couldn’t have taken very long. What about the rest of the night?” I was becoming more suspicious by the minute.

“I stayed there with her for awhile. You could say that I repay my friend with services.”

“What services … and does your friend have a name?” I asked, shifting positions to where I wasn’t sitting quite as close to him. It wasn’t so much that he made me
uncomfortable, though he did a little. My discomfort was due more to the hard wooden pew, than Marty.

“You know … services,” he said with a devilish grin as he arched his hips a little.

The blood rushed to my cheeks.

“Oh.” It was all I could think to say.

“I can give you her name, but I’d just as soon not. She kind of has a husband, but he can’t provide for her in that way,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders.

“Still … that’s not a nice thing to do,” I came back with a scowl.

Since my ex’s fiasco with the wedding planner, I wasn’t exactly tolerant of cheaters. Not that I had been before that, but now the idea really irritated me.

“I can’t force you to give up her name, but it’s the only way to clear you,” I informed him.

“Let me think about it,” he said, draping his arm over the back of the pew. “She’s a nice lady. I’d hate to ruin her life and marriage over this.”

“Sounds like she isn’t too worried about that,” I responded, twisting my mouth into a sour grimace.

“She loves him … she just has needs he can’t fulfill. It’s worse for my lady friend because of her expanded sexual appetites. Even a healthy human male would have trouble meeting her needs,” he explained.

“But not a vampire?” I was doubtful.

Marty shook his head. “You really don’t know much about vampires, do you?”

“I guess not.”

“Well let’s just put it this way. If you ever find yourself in need of a good lay, you won’t do any better than a vampire.”

My face grew hot. The last thing I’d intended to do with Marty was talk about sex, especially in a church.

Before I could respond, Reverend Chadwick stepped up to the podium. As soon as he picked up the microphone, there was a loud squeal. He fiddled with it until the sound was gone.

Just then I heard a voice that nearly stopped my heart.

“Do you mind if I sit with you?”

It was Elias Moreland.

Elias just happened to be the devastatingly hot werewolf from Roseland, and the guy I’d crushed on throughout most of my high school years.

When I looked up, he was gazing at me with those sexy dark eyes of his.

“Sure,” I said, scooting a little closer to Marty, giving Elias more room.

Since Elias didn’t make an appearance in Storm Cove too often, I was a little surprised to see him, though I shouldn’t have been. He and the other Roseland wolves belonged to a secret order charged with keeping the dreadful Beaufort entombed for eternity.

“How have you been?” he asked in that deep - smooth voice of his.

Every time I heard that voice, I felt as if I had fire running through my veins, especially when I recalled our one and only sexual encounter.

I had no idea what having sex with a vampire was like, but I could tell you for sure that being with a werewolf was a mind-blowing experience, and it was an experience that I really did want to have again.

And that was the problem.

Elias’s life evolved around his pack, and the Knights of the Eclipse. After what had happened with Jasper, I wouldn’t accept a relationship where I took second to anything or anyone.

Perhaps I was a little screwed up in the head, but that was me. Besides, why would I want to play second to some old vampire anyway, especially one who was probably more legend than real.

“I’ve been okay,” I answered, but without looking at him. Instead, I forced my eyes to focus on Reverend Chadwick.

“Thank you all for coming here tonight,” Reverend Chadwick started. “I know everyone is concerned about the new resort that is to open on our island soon, so we have Mayor Christensen here to talk with you, as well as a representative from Dupree Enterprises.”

As I was watching the Reverend, I noticed that Commissioner Sawyer was sitting in the front pew. From the frown on his face, it was apparent that some people in the city and county government weren’t exactly keen on the idea of turning the Marsh estate into a resort.

That wasn’t a big surprise. When Annabelle went missing and we’d tried to get permission to search the Marsh property, Sawyer had done his best to stop us. Of course he hadn’t been successful, but that was mostly because I had a nasty habit of doing things my own way, even if it meant breaking a law or two.

Mayor Doug Christensen was in his usual gray - pinstriped suit. Every time I saw him, he had his black hair slicked back. The man reminded me of a gangster from the 30s or 40s.

The mayor had always seemed a bit shady, which really made me wonder why it was the citizens of Storm Cove kept electing him.

“Thank you all for being here tonight,” he said, with one of those, used car salesmen smiles, pasted on his face.

“We are very much aware that the citizens of Storm Cove … and in fact, all of Mystique County, have concerns about the proposed resort on the old Marsh Property.”

The crowd stirred, and the mumbling grew so loud that Mayor Christensen had to hold up his hand to bring it under control.

“We appreciate your concern … we really do, but after a lot of discussion with the new owners, and some analysis, the Mayor’s office, as well as the county, have come to the conclusion a new resort would be great for our little community. It would mean jobs for locals, and a lot more revenue coming to the island. It will be good for everyone’s businesses,” he explained.

As soon as money was mentioned, the crowd seemed to settle down and the mayor continued, “Most people here are aware of the old legends concerning the Marsh estate, but I’m telling you, those stories are nothing but a bunch of hot air. Restoration of the property has already started. Due to public concern, Dupree Enterprises even used ground-penetrating radar to look for remains beneath the estate, and they have assured us nothing was found. Mister Olsen, the acting manager for Dupree Enterprises, is here tonight to address any concerns the public might have. If there are no questions for me, I’ll turn it over to him.”