Path of the Vampire forum

Dominique:The rookie felt the hard edge of the clipboard press into each of his gloved palms. He licked his dry lips nervously and wondered if he could take seeing some old broad set up like that...like Rick described. He glanced over at him and tried to figure out in the brief amount of time he had if the man was serious and had seen stuff like that. He swallowed slowly and with his left hand signed his name up for the tour that was about to begin.


Doc: The clipboard was all but snatched free of the rookie’s hands the millisecond the pen finished its job. The paper’s pulled free of the clipboard’s grasp, folded and securely tucked inside Eli’s coveralls. Eli allowed himself a freeing breath. He was off the hook, it was all Lt. Rick Brown’s scene now. He drew in a deep breath, and then slowly let it exhale in a cleansing manner. “Well boys..” Eli gave them both a no nonsense look, “As best we can tell, this is the beginning of the scene. How do we know this? Due to the state of dryness of the blood.” Eli.pulled a penlight flashlight and flashed the spot. “Now you will see small spots well dried, partially covered by wetter spots. What does this tell us?” He glanced at the rookie who wasn’t able to answer, “It tells us, that blood fell here.. headed this direction” He pointed down the hallway, “Then something else happened some time later, not immediately, because the first spot had time to dry, before it was overlaid with more blood. Follow me..”

Eli followed the blood trail, spot lighting the various blotches and spatters on the way. “That room is the scene of the most heinous bits.. so we will hold that for last.” Eli flicks the light toward the study, before he headed further down the hallway, “Victim number 1, whom we believe to be Doctor Lars Nilson, was struck with a blade of sort sort, we know this due to the type of splatter, he then retreated in this direction, where he was struck again. This time though, however, it was a blunt force hit. He hit the floor here.. and stayed down for a period of time.” The light stayed on a pool of coagulated blood. “He eventually got up.. smearing the blood, with his hand as he got to his feet.”

The flashlight beam now went the to wall, “He braces himself on the wall here.. and further along here.. He picks up the phone .. he still has landline.. only to find that the phone is dead. He pulls the knife from the butcher block and heads back down the hall.” Eli was about to continue, when the Rookie pointed at the tiny paw prints. “Good eye rookie.” He looked at Rick, “Rookie has instincts.” Eli’s face wore a look of confusion. “We can’t cannot figure these out. They only appear in this room. None of the other rooms. The maid swears they didn’t have a pet. She thought they were rat tracks.. but CSI says they are feline, most likely kitten.”


Dominique: Rick had a chip on his shoulder the size of a PIzza Hut serving tray. However, now that the tour started there was the fact Eli knew his **** and then some. The badge under his suit stuck to his nothing special business shirt could open doors that were otherwise chained and could demand answers that most wouldn’t spill in a confession booth. But the power it held only went so far when it came to the man leading the way. He could pull the attitude and be the cockiest suit with a badge on the streets but there was a reason why he wasn’t interrupting the guy with the flashlight. Because it was a crime scene and now that his *** was inside it was all business. He was with Junior in audience mode. Lips shut and absorbing all the information being pointed out like a dry sponge. Opinions would have their time later when the tour was over. Or...until the rookie spots the trail of kitten size tracks.

“No one has seen it since?” Of course they hadn’t. Eli said as much. “We need to call the next of kin. Who are we looking at talking to? This is not random. People who do this…” He squats down and gets a look at the blood that he can smell. Dry or not each had it’s own scent just like urine. “Someone is waiting for us to call them.”

The tour isn’t done yet but it is a gut feeling. Just from the brief amount he has set eyes on he figures family. They are old and in the same house with each other. Insurance policy? They are loaded. A scab scraping deadbeat child who has lost their patience waiting for what they aren’t entitled to? Why he thinks family and not lover or shortchanged pool guy is based on more than what he is looking at. It is that tell-tale knot in his gut that twists a little more when he rises to stand back on his feet.


Doc: Eli had seen the bodies, they had not. In his professional opinion, if it was a family that had done .. what was done to those bodies; it was a family member in serious need of psychiatric help. In one way, Eli had been in awe, the depth of the incisions on Mrs Nilson, were uniform. That required time and control. But those incisions showed no hesitation marks. The tell tale pulling of the skin, because of indecision. No, they were all precisely alike. It baffled him. Really baffled him. He had stopped counting when he hit 100 incisions on the face and neck alone.

Eli held his hand toward the study. “Now before we go inside, I want you to brace yourselves. There is no shame in not wanting to see. I knew a detective that never looked at the bodies, because it made to close for him, too real, and it took away his objectivity. CSI took over a 1000 photos. There is more on those photos than you could ever take in with your eyes.” He looked at Rick. “Once it is seen .. it cannot be unseen.”

Eli was, in his own way, trying to allow Rick to save face, and not see the abomination that was in that room. He turned to look at the Rookie, “No shame at all.”


Dominique: Rick nodded with Eli’s delivery of the words of warning to the young and promising rookie in their company. Had half the time invested in the profession compared to Eli’s time served. Still in that short span he had seen things he would never forget. It was the creepy **** with animals and kids that really was the hardest to shake. The couple was older and that shouldn’t make it any easier but for some reason he could stomach a married old couple smeared around the inside of their home far easier than the fucked up **** that was out there happening to kids and their best friend Toto or Whiskers. He believed there was a special hell reserved for the bastards that made such crimes their continuing hobby. He glanced at the pale face that was looking a little uneasy next to him. He could handle it.The kid would too. He made the decision for the rookie and patted his gloved open palm at the suited up chest.

“That’s right. Some **** you can’t forget. Such as my ex wife riding my ex partner's lap when I came home early from the shift I was covering for the prick.” Rick gave the kid’s shoulder a light squeeze.”When that happens get rid of the *****. Keep the partner who will have your back. That reminds me I need to send them anniversary card. Can you believe they have lasted three years now, Eli?”


Doc: Eli had tried. He had tried to give Rick an out. Hell he had tried to give the kid an out. But Rick was arrogant and he had to be ‘the man’. Fine. He would let Rick see it all. Eli gave the Rookie a sympathetic look. He led the way to the study, he wasn’t going to look at it anymore than he needed to. Eli had enough of the scene in his mind’s eye to keep up from sleeping for the rest of his life. It was definitely going to be a three finger scotch night. Taking a deep breath, and swallowing hard, he stepped into the study. The sun had set. The only light that was on, was a desk lamp that bathed the room in an eerie manner. The shadows were elongated and gave the room a spooky and satanic aura. As Eli stepped into the center of the room, a floorboard squeaked, the lamp shook ever so slightly causing the shadows to dance for a second. Eli kept his eyes focused on the toes of his shoes.


Dominique: Rick used that brief contact on the rookies shoulder and weighed in on him assisting him to move through the doorway. He made sure to advance a step for every one that the kid in front of him made. It was less like a crime scene and more like he was the guy stuck moving the line forward in a haunted house. The rookie was finally inside and it was at that moment things went backasswards.

Just when he thought he was finally get to feel the thrill of seeing something new in a case he could sink his teeth into that he felt the decent weight of the rookie slam back into him and nearly knock him a foot to the left. A gagging sound followed the kid as he bolted the direction that they had come from. Rick gives a look back releasing an amused chuckle. That all ends when he turns his attention back to what he missed with someone in front of him, who is now dropping his lunch in the streets, far from the crime scene. He swallows hard and holds it down like he used to with his mother’s god awful **** paste squash. What he is given no choice but to take in, has him frozen in his steps and left standing like a flagpole unwavering.

“Holy ****....”

Please note that Doc mun is playing the part of Dr. Eli Olmstead

“I told you so..” Were the disgruntled words that Eli wanted to say. Wanted to, but didn’t. He would be the professional that Rick wasn’t. He didn’t begrudge Rick his skill with sniffing out the perps; but it did irk him that Rick so easily brushed off his words of caution. Did Rick think he was saying things, just to hear himself speak? Obviously. That, or, Eli gave in the devil’s advocate, Rick thought he was only trying to give the Rookie a way out. Eli sighed to himself, it had been a long day. He shouldn’t take his ire out on Rick. Eli himself had discounted the words of the first officer on the scene who warned him.

With the Rookie now outside, puking his guts up, Eli had a feeling he wouldn’t be back any too soon. Steeling himself once more, for the scene, that wasn’t getting any easier to see, Eli aimed the pen light beam at the body of Dr. Lars Nilson. “Dr. Lars Nilson, well respected surgeon, with a history of anger issues. The body has received a superficial wound to the neck, it would not have caused him to bleed out. there is also blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Not hard enough to kill, just hard enough to incapacitate.” Eli aimed the beam of light toward the blood trail that had led in from the hallway.

“You will notice that the blood trail is faint at best. As I said, superficial. The pool of blood in the hallway, came from the head wound. Head wounds always bleed like a son of a *****. But this wound he had staunched, with a tea towel.” The light beam flicked to a tea towel that was folded neatly and laid to the side. Eli looked at Rick, then to the blood spray that criss crossed the room in .. what could be described as a macabre artistic flair, “Notice the precision of the blood spray. Four lines evenly apart and arced, in a repeated fashion over the whole room. This is a weapon I, in all my forty plus years on the job, have never seen.”

Please note that the part of Lt. Rick Brown is written by writer of Dominique.

Please note that Doc mun is playing the part of Dr. Eli Olmstead

“Surprisingly enough.. the grandkids brought that movie over and we watched it. That was the first thing I thought of too. But that is only a three bladed weapon. And ..” Eli looked at Rick, “believe it or not, those things are actually made. You know I am not big on technology, but Hooper, my assistant is. He pulled this up on my phone. I saved it. I think the situation behooves me to look deeper into the weapon, if for nothing else, to rule it out.” Eli pulls out his cell phone, fumbles with it for several minutes.

If Eli had bothered to glance at Rick, he would have noticed that Rick was barely controlling himself. Eli’s lack of expertise with gadgetry was about to drive Rick batty. “Ahh.. here we go. This thing. It supposed to mimic that effect of the Mutton Chop man from the movie. But,” Eli finally looked at Rick, “Here is the problem with that.. even in the photograph, you can see the blade are hefty. Far too thick to make these fine razor like incisions.” Eli bent over the female’s body. “And look here.. “ Eli pointed to the female’s chest. “What do you notice?”

Eli was silent as Rick perused the body in obvious Rick fashion. The female body was lacerated in a criss crossing manner, that caused all exposed skin to seep and weep blood. The criss crosses were almost exactly three centimeters from point to point. It was almost as though they were precisely measured before each oncoming blow, to make sure they would be correct. “These cuts are so precise. I could not do it .. on a flat piece of paper, yet this perpetrator was able to do this precision cutting on a non-flat surface, and while the victim.. was moving.”

Eli nodded, “Yes.. the victim was still alive and moving throughout this ordeal. We can tell that from the different blood weeping patterns that caused the blood to run. At one point her arms were up and folded in front of her face, as a means of protection. My guess is though, that she passed out .. or fainted from blood loss, and that was the cause of death. My other guess would have been stress induced heart attack..”

Rick looked at Eli, “Would have been? **** man.. she’s a 100 years old.. of course it was heart attack if it wasn’t blood loss…”

Eli sagely nodded, “Quite right.. except.. “ Eli flipped a blood soaked lace tie back so Rick could get a better view. “The killer took her heart. Hooper didn’t even realize it, until I had to point it out to the man. He had been so focused on the .. what he called the ‘beauty of the cuts’ he missed that she had a hole in her chest. Without the organ I cannot say it was or was not a heart attack. But I do know.. the heart was removed.. post-mortem.”

Please note that the part of Lt. Rick Brown is written by writer of Dominique.

Please note that Doc mun is playing the part of Dr. Eli Olmstead

Eli lifted his eyebrows and nodded, “Ah yes, Doctor Lars Nilson. Yes His heart is also missing. Again, removed post-mortem. It is my belief that his heart was removed first. I will know more once I get them both back to the morgue. But based on the cuts, there were hesitation marks, false starts, replacing of the cutting tool. All those add up to tell me, that the killer was new to organ removal. Even the opening to the torso tells a lot. It’s centered over the sternum. Anyone who was experienced, would know, that’s not going to get you much, unless you have the tools to cut sternum. This killer did not have those tools. So his chest wall has been brutalized in order to get to his heart.

“Now.. on Mrs. Nilson, you will notice the opening.. is to the left. Our killer is learning. And learning on the fly. The easiest and best way to get at and remove the heart. Also on Mrs. Nilson, the incision for removing the organ are precise. No false starts, no hesitations, just clean quick cuts. I will tell you Rick. This killer scares me. The speed at which they are learning, is phenomenal. Typically a person has to practice over the course of several months, to get that clean in their cuts. But this person, Dr. Nilson was done by an amauter, but Mrs. Nilson, a pro. How does someone get that good in one go?” Eli held up a finger, “Yes I can tell what you are thinking, two killers. But no, the style of cuts are unique to the one. Two killers there would be so many differences. There are not.” Eli sighed, “Plus.. we haven’t found one finger print, one shoe print, the only smudges have been from the victims. Yes this guy scares me.”

Please note that the part of Lt. Rick Brown is written by writer of Dominique.

Please note that Doc mun is playing the part of Dr. Eli Olmstead

Eli scratched the back of his head tiredly, “Oh yes.. the eyes. The killer took them too. Hers as well. A lot of killers take the eyes. I guess I am showing how jaded I have become. I halfway expected them to be gone when I first saw the scene.” Eli shook his head, “But this case is unlike anything I have experienced. There are so many questions, that.. in a usual case we would have -at least- some answers to. But this one.. The usual questions don’t have answers, leading to more questions.. with more lack of answers. The cat prints. CSI didn’t find a thing. Other than the prints. Not a thing.. the prints.. that was the only thing they ‘did’ find.” Eli was quiet for a long moment. Finally he spoke, “Once I get the bodies back to the morgue, the first thing I am doing is tenting them with cyanoacrylate. There have been cases in the United States where bodies had prints pulled from them. That’s one of the reasons I am still here with them. I want to make sure that they stay in my custody. No cleaning until they are both tented and any prints are pulled.”

“But don’t get your hopes up Rick. My guess .. is if we are able to pull some type of print, it will smudged and of no real use. My guess is that the killer wasn’t stupid and they wore gloves. We’ve checked all the trashcans in the house. Not even any usable trash for us to go through.”

Eli didn’t know it, but the maid Dorothy had emptied the trash cans before she called the cops. She emptied the trash cans, and the Doctor’s wife jewelry box into the same bag, and then shoved that bag into her large tote. Why had Dorothy emptied the trash cans? Because she needed another job, since this one just fell through, so she figured she might make some brownie points with the cops noticing the clean state of the house. Why had she emptied the jewelry box? Well the Mrs. wasn’t going to need it, now would she?

“Damnedest thing Rick.. damnedest thing…”

Please note that the part of Lt. Rick Brown is written by writer of Dominique.