Page 56 of Whispers at Dusk
She seemed to know what he was thinking. He reached for her bag from the back of the van and she teased, “Good team—brain and brawn?”
“Oh? You mean I have the brain and the brawn?”
She grimaced.
They all had their things in their Kirkwall lodgings quickly. The first stop was the autopsy. The medical examiner was a Dr. Calleigh Harper, a woman of about forty, serious as she looked up from her work as Robertson introduced the group he was bringing into the room.
“I understand these killers are using saliva from dead men on the teeth they use on the victims after using medical equipment to withdraw their blood. I’ve sent samples to the lab already,” she informed them. “From what I have ascertained, this murder was much like those that occurred in Paris, London, and Lillehammer. And as you can see, the victim was left as if sleeping. Cause of death, exsanguination.”
“Was she drugged?” Mason asked.
“I believe so. Rohypnol. Reports are due back shortly that will verify my findings,” Dr. Harper said. She shook her head, looking from one person to another in their group. “She simply closed her eyes and her blood was gone. Before she knew it, she was dead and left as you see her. This is...diabolical and horrific. Detective Robertson caught me up this morning. Killers have been apprehended, I understand, but there may be many more out there following a head vampire? That’s ridiculous, but just so, I suppose it might well be true. Horribly true.” The gentle rolling of the woman’s words somehow made it all the more tragic.
Dr. Harper had pulled the sheet from the body of the dead woman. She had been lovely with a head of dark curling hair that lay like a beautiful halo. Her eyes were closed and as Dr. Harper had said, she looked as peaceful as someone who had just fallen asleep and was having a gentle dream filled with sugarplums and fairies.
Mason looked back at Dr. Harper. “I’m afraid the couple apprehended had fallen in with someone they believe can make them eternal. We don’t know if thehead vampirecame here and committed this murder, or if it was done by another disciple of this man. And we don’t even know if he’s really crazy, or perhaps a psychopath with an agenda we haven’t begun to understand.”
“Whoever he is, wherever he is...you’ve got to stop him,” she said.
“We intend to,” Mason told her solemnly. “And we thank you for your help.”
“Of course,” Dr. Harper assured him. “Please tell me if there is anything I can do that might help in any way.”
Robertson and the others thanked her as well, and they started out. But while they were stripping away the paper garments they had donned to enter the autopsy, Dr. Harper came after them.
“Wait, please.”
They all paused and waited.
“I don’t know if this means anything or not but I understand that in Lillehammer, the killers were focused on popular pubs in the area. There is a new place that advertises it is totally Euro-American, and it’s drawing tourists from everywhere and locals, too. You might try—well, this poor girl might have been there, enjoying the evening out. Of course, we have several popular places to go to, restaurants, pubs, and so on, but...the newest places always attract the most attention.”
“Thank you,” Della told her, glancing at Mason. “Definitely. Are there any traffic cams or ATMs in the area? We might pull footage, too. And, of course, I believe that the UK always has an abundance of CCTV?”
Dr. Harper looked back at her and then at Detective Robertson.
“Yes. There is an ATM nearby, too, a bank,” Robertson said. “I’ll call and get someone pulling everything from the pub. It’s Evie’s Euro-American Pub, right? That’s the place you’re referring to?”
“Exactly,” Dr. Harper assured them. “I don’t mean to send you on a wild-goose chase or the like, but from what I read in the reports about you catching the killers in Lillehammer, well, it might mean something,”
“Beyond a doubt,” Mason said.
Again, one by one, the group thanked her. Detective Lapierre shook her gloved hand with his own and said, “We have stopped a monster in Norway. He claims he did not kill in Paris or London. What you have said may well help us here and back in my homeland, too.”
“And in London,” Edmund added quietly.
“I can only hope!” Dr. Harper told them.
They were finally back in the van. Mason excused himself to call Angela at headquarters, bringing her up to date on the autopsy, and the fact that Dr. Harper had suggested a new pub as a local killer’s hunting grounds.
But what he wanted was something only she could give him.
“I know you’re already working on it, but we need to cross-reference visitors to the prisons where our saliva donors were incarcerated. Of course, we don’t know more yet about other killers, but I believe one person, one man—the main vampire—is accruing the saliva for the fangs being used.”
“I’ve been on it. And I’ve asked for any visual as well. Your head vampire must have a case full of aliases, passports, driver’s licenses, and more. But I will sift through it all, Mason. And I hope to have something for you soon,” Angela told him. “I have everyone here working on this. We’re using facial recognition and more, but as you suggested, he’s a master of false identities and disguise.”
“The longer he’s out there—”
“We know that, Mason. Trust me, we’re working, twenty-four seven. And François Bisset has been seeing to it the proper law enforcement in all countries is informed each step of the way—and other nations in the area are on alert.”
