ME's Office - Cook County Morgue
Hazel is once again in the office, at her desk, but she looks rather like she has had little sleep, and a lot on her mind. She has a mug of black coffee, papers all over her desk, and the sort of expression that indicates justifiable homicide is an option if she is disturbed with mere trivia.
No introductory scent of baked treats this time and Nadia's face is set in a half frown, half confused, grimace. They'd agreed to meet up and compare notes again once results were in and interviews had been conducted and now...she had found what she hoped for on the tapes but at the same time had absolutely nothing that wasn't unbelievable and likely to make everyone's lives more difficult. "
Hazel waves a hand at a chair, produces a mug, and pushes a pot of coffee across the desk. No need to speak about it. Coffee is LIFE! She looks up from her papers, and smiles a very grim sort of smile. "Well. This is going to be interesting. So why don't I give you the option. Do you want the good news, the bad news, or the keep you awake all night staring at the ceiling news?"
"I'll be honest, I've spent a couple of nights staring at the ceiling already. Caught something on cctv...Something..." Coffee is splashed from pot to mug and Nadia looks around for sugar, failing that she'll grit her teeth and and take it as is, the caffeine is the important part. "Is good news last going to soften the rest of it enough to help me sleep? Because otherwise we might as well start at the top and work down."
Hazel gestures to where the coffee and cream can be located. "I can't guarantee it will, but it might help give some people some peace of mind, somewhere down the line, when this is all over. You remember how I said I was going to do a DNA anaylsis on the teeth? Well, it took a while, but I wanted to be very careful. I can safely say that the teeth came from the same... whatever it is. I can't match it with anything on record. But what I did match was the blood ingrained in the cracks in the teeth. This guy does not believe in decent oral hygeine. The freshest blood was from Angel Bell, of course. If that had not been present, it would have been really weird. Er. Really weirder. What I did not expect to find was four additional and unique blood types. It took me a while to be absolutely certain they were unique, and not corrupted, but with both teeth to work on, I was able to mix and match until they were definitely differentiated." She sighs and sits back in her chair. "They match four other missing persons cases around Engelwood. So, those are cases we can probably progress. And when we catch this bastard, hopefully close. That's the only good news. Which gives you an idea how bad the bad news must be."
"That's...good news for paperwork, potentially. Hopefully for the families of the others." Nadia dumps a spoonful of sugar into her coffee and stirs, it might not help the news go down but it will help her concentrate on receiving it. "As to 'what'..." She pulls out her phone and turns the screen to face Hazel, hitting play on an edited clip of video. It shows Angel stopping to glance between two townhouses and seeing something that sends him from a relaxed teenager on his way home to a terrified boy running for his life. Several still shots that linger for a while with a blurred figure on the margins of the image, it seems to be the thing Angel is running from, then a final image. The blurred figure seems to have broken into centre frame but there's... If not for the fact that it shows Angel clearly it would be an obvious case of the camera glitching, a tangle of encoding errors and random pixels that shows...nothing recognisable as more than a vaguely humanoid shape.
"I didn't include all of it, five hours of footage and...well we both know how that chase ended up. Witness statements confirmed that they saw Angel running, that he seemed utterly terrified of something they never saw, he didn't stop to talk to anyone and didn't try any other houses just headed for home. The only other thing I can add is that everything seemed fine until sundown." Nadia shrugs, shaking her head. 'Vampire' had been thrown around before but mostly as 'but they don't exist, right?'.
With a rather bleak smile, Hazel turns to her computer and hunts up another file. "I think you need to see this. Let's compare. If this is the same thing as in your clip, then we have got a very serious problem on our hands." She produces another clip. This time it is a DVD recording of a hunched, blurry figure trampling on someone's front lawn as seen from the window. The tape seems to pop and sizzle, blanking out the figure's face when it turns to glance into the bay window. Whoever recorded it can be heard whimpering on the floor with just a stitch of audio editing.
The problem here is that this clip? It's from right here in Chicago. But it's twenty years old. Whatever this thing is, it's been around quite a while. Or it went elsewhere and came back. or hibernated. or maybe this is the little baby, all grown up. But whatevere the answer is, whatever did for Angel Bell was responsible for similar killings twenty years ago. I had a talk to my contact at the CDC. They put me onto this. They remembered similar cases from back then. There's a lot of connections. Several gruesome killings just like the Bell case. Two of the bodies even had teeth emebedded in them. And those cases ground to a halt. They're probably still in the cold case files."
"They are." Nadia's voice is flat and she drags her eyes from the clip to stare into the depths of her mug. "That's part of the reason this got pushed my way. I scanned the files because I hoped they might at least tell me whether this was a copycat or if someone had done time and might have got out recently. Sounds like I need to take a closer look but..." She sighs and looks up to meet Hazel's eyes. "Someone old enough to have been running around murdering people 20 years ago is probably getting on 40 now. While it's not unfeasible that they could keep up with a sprinting sixteen year old running for his life... And the fact that it's not showing up on...anything. None of my witnesses said they'd seen anything more than Angel running..." She runs a hand back through her hair, messing the curls. "Am I actually going to have to start researching cryptids in my downtime?"
Hazel rummages amongst her papers, until she finds the ones she needs. "I think that may be the only course of action. Take a look at these." It's all rather scientific, studies of jaws and teeth. "I dug down deep into the research on hominid jaws and bite patterns. I can't find anything that matches. I went through modern human, early human, neandertal, homo habilis, homo erectus... no matches. These fangs are... aberrations. In all forms of early human ancestor, or related lineage offshoot, teeth evolve out of necessity. They all have a purpose. the human mouth is an exceptionally well refined tool, with exactly the right number of incisors, canines, molars... But whatever jaw gave up these teeth, it wasn't like that. It had these fangs. But they're nothing like anything human, or even like near genetic cousins like chimps or gorillas. And this is where it gets REALLY weird." Oh, only just now? How delightful. "I'm sure that someone else has been looking into these, at some point. But... the research is just... gone! I spent hours chasing down promising leads, trying to tie up loose ends. I emailed, I even tried to call, some of the people who might have known anything. It's all gone. Dead ends, every time. Papers deleted from the internet, if they even existed at all. Emails bounce back from addresses that no longer exist. There's traces, places where I can find the same sort of information we have to start from but... it goes nowhere." She frowns in frustration. "It's like someone - or someTHING - has taken great pains to eliminate any sort of investigation or evidence relating to the sort of cases we are now sitting on. Who does that? I mean, who COULD?"
"Tell that to my wisdom teeth..." The grumble is not a serious one but comes in response to the assertion that the human mouth is a refined tool with the correct number of teeth, Nadia has had her share of bad dental experiences that suggest otherwise. "Assuming someone else is looking into it, are they doing so now or are their investigations and erasures from 20 years ago as well?" She returns to staring into the coffee, sipping at it as it cools enough to be drinkable without burning her mouth. "Angel was taking short cuts, heading through the backstreets, it feels like he wasn't a target so much as a victim of opportunity. If this was just a regular mugging or something I'd be writing it off as just another day in Chicago. And if it was some kind of big conspiracy cover up, I would expect to have been yanked off the case from on high, or at least have had a visitation...Ugh!" Nadia scrubs hands through her hair again, obviously a frustrated habit or possibly stopping herself from relieving her irritation at the case through other means.
Hazel shrugs. "Humans try to eat stupid stuff. We were never designed for candy and hot sweet coffee. But I couldn't function without either. No, these investigations look like they have occured at any time - I mean, for all we know, there's cases like this all over the place. They go nowhere, and nobody shares the information as they get pushed off to cold cases. But I have a sneaking suspicion that someone out there knows a lot more about this than they want anybody else to uncover. And they have reach. Influence. And probably the ability to shut someone up if they make too much noise. The fact neither of us has been pulled off this is entirely due to the fact that we haven't told anybody what we're doing. But..." She sighs again, and swigs coffee. "I've looked into every avenue I can think of. And while it might break your brain, you need to suspend credulity a while. This is definitely cryptid territory. Or worse."
"Worse?" That single word laden with disbelief and more than a little fear. Sure some cryptids mostly seem to be harmless or just frightening to look at but... "Do you know something I don't? Because the options I have here are surprisingly spry serial killer with bad teeth, a Hapsburg jaw, and some MiB level coverups going on or a cryptid. Maybe aliens but I don't want to get too silly with all of this..." There, the sarcasm that tended to come out when she felt out of her depth or was hitting her limits of frustration with a situation. How Hazel was staying quite so calm she didn't know. "I can try and get someone from cyber looking for leads on where this data WAS at least? And dig up some of the cold case files for previous Wes Craven style murders...I can't promise anything though, least of all getting a sensible reaction from anyone else at the precinct."
"Well, looking back in files is something. But I think we need more than that to deal with whatever this is." Hazel scratches her nose and frowns in thought. "Okay, look. I've worked in pathology and forensics a long time, on two continents, and with agencies that look on covering up the truth as pretty much standard practice. Half of what I saw at the CDC would make your hair stand on end. We can't tell the public about it, or there would be mass panic. The world is only a couple of bad days away from a civilisation destroying outbreak at any given moment. But this is different. I've got specific knowledge of things that... well, things that don't exist. Officially. Some of them might be able to do to someone what happened to Angel Bell, and all these other poor bastards as well. Are you willing to take what I tell you at face value, and not run off to tell the DA that they need to ship me off to the funny farm?"
Only a couple of bad days away from...well that is entirely comforting and not apt to make people run for the hills... "I know you've probably been through a whole lot of pysch assessments and they obviously deemed you...not dangerous if not entirely sane - I don't think you end up in either of our fields if you're absolutely sane and 'normal' - I want to solve this, and if something is attacking people like this," a vague wave in the direction of their combined evidence, "I want it off the streets. If I think you're crazy enough to be bad at your job then I will have to inform someone, but right now you're trying to help me and I appreciate that. For now let's say that I'm willing to keep an open mind that you are not any crazier than my Nonnina was when she knew exactly where my mom's wedding ring was because she asked the 'spirits' of our hearth. And if I'm going to report you I'll at least let you know first."
Hazel considers that assessment. "Fair. Nobody normal wants to dissect corpses for a living. But they are far better patients than those who are alive. I've never had a single complaint from one of my charges." She ponders how to approach the subject. "All right. Let's say that there are creatures in existence that have been given the names of entities we think are fictional, and associated with horror, or fairy stories. Or both, as they often are. Most of them existed before the stories, some of them inspired those stories, and some had other names down through history. They have their own culture, their own ambitions and problems. And, yes - some of them have abilities we might consider strange. But to clarify, the supernatural does not exist. The word is ludicrous. If something exists, then it is natural. And super means outside or beyond. These creatures are NOT beyond nature. They are possibly more natural than either of us. Paranormal, sure. But some of these things have ties to nature so strong that we could never hope to match them." She topped off her coffee as she spoke, adding more sugar. "So. First of all. Vampires are real. I have not met one that I know of, but I know people who have. We might both have met them and not even known. Most of them are indistinguishable from humans, unless they do something unusual. Same goes for faeries, ghosts, goblins, and for all I know, the old woman who lived in a shoe. But most of all, I can say with total conviction, that werewolves are real. I know this because I know some of them. Personally."
"Vampires...and faeries, and werewolves...Oh my?" Nadia's laugh is shaky and she looks around the office as though expecting to find a camera or a bunch of her colleagues waiting to see if she'll buy it. "And you know some. Ok..." She is breathing slowly, evenly, as if she is controlling herself very carefully to avoid screaming, or running, or maybe both. "Are you...? I mean, if it's not rude to ask? Fuck. Are we talking like...DSM-V stuff here or? I mean you know this sounds like a conspiracy nut's wet dream right? The kind of person who insists lizard people are running the Senate?" She finishes the remainder of her coffee and tops the mug up, wishing that it was the whiskey Hazel had offered last time. "Ghosts...ghosts I can get behind, spirits I guess but...Fuck..."
Hazel snorts. "No, if lizards were in the senate, they might make some decent decisions occasionally. As far as I know, the country is still firmly in the grip of old rich white guys, who allowed a token woman or minority in now and then for appearances sake. And no... I am not a werewolf. But..." She picks the picture off her desk. "My father was. I was raised amongst them. I know a great deal about who they are, where they came from, and what it is they do. And most of the time? They're just regular folks. They have jobs, families, a mortgage... And they don't get furry and kill people at the full moon like crazy beasts. They can transform into huge wolf-like creatures, and when they do, they are pretty much capable of ripping apart anyone or anything you like. The ones I know have dedicated themselves to the protection of humanity, not to killing people for food. If we showed them our evidence, they would dedicate themselves to hunting down and killing whatever it is that's doing this. Of course, there are some... others. Werewolf society is as batshit as any other. They have their opposed factions. Some of the wolf kind are pretty set on destroying anything they consider to be tainted... which means you, me, and any werewolf that doesn't agree with them."
"Genocidal werewolves. Of course." If nothing else it has distracted Nadia from the horror of Angel's death. "Now I'm just stuck in a Wolfenstein game." Her voice remains level, the kind of calm she uses when the details of a case are too horrific for emotion but still need to be relayed to others. "You're half werewolf then...your periods must be a real bitch...Can I say that? Shit. I mean...I guess...there are a few folkloric creatures that turn up across the world, it's like flood myths. Ancient Roma was all about the wolves but I think Lycanthropy came from the Greeks, the word I mean, Lycaon. I'm babbling, sorry this is a lot...you're honestly not dicking with me? This isn't some kind of 'haze the new detective' bs?"
Hazel snorts once more. "I am lucky to only be a half blood, believe me. A full wolf with PMT is not something you EVER want to meet. Werewolves have pretty short tempers anyway. But... I have very little in the way of any sort of paranormal power. Most of the wolf blooded like me are just plain ordinary humans. We pick up a couple of unusual tricks here and there, but that's about it. I have an affinity for... well. Spiritual things? SOmetimes I see or hear things that are there. Not that are not there... I see the stuff other people can;t see because they really do not want to. I've solved a number of high profile cases during autopsy because the dead person's shade turned up and TOLD me what killed them. I can't really talk to them. They mostly have to draw me a picture, like charades. I got very good at that game. And this is no hazing. I'd fill your locker with marshmallows, maybe. But I'd not tell you this stuff as a joke. It's too weird, and too personal. As for the genocidal wolves? They call themselves the Pure. Whenever anybody starts talking about racial purity, you know EXACTLY who and what they are. Werewolf nazis. Without the other wolves, like my family, you'd probably find a lot of people trotting off to camps, or something. They fight a battle human beings do not even know exists."
"The women in my family are supposed to have 'the gift' but...it's just one of those family stories, you know?" Another drained mug, another refil. Maybe it's best that this isn't alcoholic since Nadia seems to be set on drinking her feelings just now. "So...I'm guessing you'd know if it was...something wolfy that shredded Angel?" Cop face, focus on the case, the evidence, ignore the fact that the answer might be something you can't ever put into a report. "D'you still have the tooth? Of course you do, could you ask around maybe? If your...people might know of anything?"
Nadia carefully avoids the thought that there are a bunch of nazi werewolves out there who would cheerfully...well, the label said it all. "I believe in bringing killers to justice one way or another. You probably know my family aren't exactly on the up and up, the number of times they have offered to 'help' and I've turned them down because it comes with strings attached, I don't want to be just another corrupt cop with mob contacts. If we can tap someone more knowledgeable though, expert witnesses, even if we have no chance of bringing them into a court room and having them believed..."
Hazel shakes her head. "I think if it was something wolfy, I might have spotted it. I am, understandably, very familiar with wolf bites. I've stitched up enough of my own kin, believe me. Wolfkind heal well. Sadly, a lot of their human allies do not. They rely on people like myself, who are in the know, to keep them alive. If I knew anything, I would have told you, or told THEM. The fact I am revealing this to you is a declaration of just how stumped I am right now. We do not tell this to anybody without a very good reason." She then quirks a brow. "Have you ever been tested for psychic potential? You're from an old Italian family, right? There's a lot of very potent magic in some of those lines. The old stories might be more valid than you think. And I have the teeth." She digs the bags out of the desk drawer. "I can take it to them, but honestly, I would be surprised if they recognised it. I'm generally considered the investigative brains in the local area."
"Can't say I have, it's not one of the tests they go in for at the academy or in your medicals once you join the force." She is obviously trying to relax but not doing a particularly good job of it. "Not wolfy then but maybe something else? Vamp..." Whether it's pure bad luck or a momentary lapse of judgement, Nadia's hand slips and as she goes to pick up one of the bags the tooth pierces the plastic and brushes her skin. She freezes, eyes rolling back for a moment and then closing as she sits bolt upright in the chair, one hand flinging out and sending her half full coffee mug flying. "Blood. Fear. Blood. Pain. Blood. Blood. Blood blood bloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodbloodblood...." The words tumble from barely moving lips and it is clear that Nadia has no idea what she is saying or that she's even speaking. Her hands twitch, jaw working, the effect is that of a dog chasing rabbits in its sleep, as if her brain is trying to get her body to do things it doesn't currently have the function for.
Eventually she pauses for breath and shudders as though emerging from the grip of a nightmare. "Vampire." She swallows. "I think we're dealing with a vampire. Something bestial, uncaring, hungry..." Nadia reaches for her cup as though unaware that anything has happened, she frowns a little as she finds it empty and horizontal.
Hazel starts, then watches in a sort of horrified fascination. She then very carefully reaches out and reclaims the tooth. "I think we'd best put this over here. What... what exactly was that? You just sort of... went. Started speaking. I thought you were having a fit or something. Do you mind if I just check you out?" She rose and rummaged in a file cabinet, bringing out a stethescope, and one of the ocular light scope things. "How do you feel?" Ever the scientist, she cannot help but study this oddness, before even registering the implications of what was said.
"I'm fine." She swats away the concerned hands and the stethescope, "What do you mean, what did I do? Aside from make a mess of your desk..." Nadia looks across at the brown stain spreading across Hazel's papers and winces. "Sorry about that." She starts looking around for a towel or some tissue to contain the liquid and maybe rescue at least some of the paperwork. "Like I was saying, and I can't believe I'm saying it, but I think...vampire. Sort of an informed hunch, you said last time that something had used his femoral artery as a straw to drain the body completely. If I'm going to believe in superna...paranormal weirdness then I can at least be logical about it..."
Hazel frowns, looking concerned. "You really do not remember? Detective, you went into what I can only describe as a trance, like you were possessed! You started ranting about pain, and blood! It was like you moved out and something else moved in!" She lays the tools aside and starts to mop up with some tissues from the desk drawer. "I've heard of this sort of thing before. I've never seen it. I mean, yes, vampire. That came across pretty clearly. No clue what else to make of it, but we can talk to some people now. My wolf friends will definitely help with this. They have very little love for the blood-drinkers, believe me. A chance to get one over on them and take down a monster? They'd be delighted, to be honest."
"I...I did?" Nadia looks even more shaken at this news than she did the revelation of vampires, werewolves, and whatever else was out there. "I get...hunches sometimes? Instincts? Inspirations maybe. Like I see the scene played out and suddenly something makes sense. It's one of the things that makes me good at what I do. We should get out there if you have people who can point us in the right direction, no point in sitting around here debating it." She jumps from her seat, pacing now like a big cat chafing at the bars on its zoo cage. "I promised Mrs Bell I would find the thing that did this, all of Angel's friends and neighbours."
Hazel watches the pacing detective, thoughtfully. "I think we need to look into this. If you are getting hunches like that, and react this way... I think there's a lot more going on with you than meets the eye. I've read about this. Flashes of insight. Some people can get it from places, or from photos. Or from holding something associated with particularly strong emotions. When we have more time, I would like to stick your head in a scanner..." Well, that didn't sound at all weird. "But you are right. We have work to do. I'll set up a meeting with my friends. They probably won't be happy with your knowing about them, but this is no time for pussy footing about. You are hip deep in this, and without you, we wouldn't have anything like the same amount of information. How are you fixed for tomorrow? I may have to talk them into it, but I can be very determined."
"Tomorrow." Nadia nods thoughtfully. "Bring whiskey."
Hazel grins. "You'll fit in with those priorities. I'll call you. We'll meet somewhere we can talk openly. Not here, it is too public."
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