Blood pooled around the lifeless body. There was not much of a face left where the young woman stood. She stepped back an inch to avoid the blood. She inhaled a deep breath as she remembered she worked on worse cases and seen worse things.
But it was worse when the murder was done on purpose in a neighborhood that included humans, werewolves, vampires, witches, and mages. It made the evidence to find the perpetrator harder.
Fog clouded the dense air in the alleyway, adding a misty scent to the already foul scent of blood in her nostrils. She coughed behind her hand and covered her nose briefly to stop the churning in her stomach. There were brief flashes as the rest of the cops got to the crime scene to clean the site. A photographer took quick shots of the dead body.
“Detective Kamiya, what have you been up to?” the officer asked behind the camera. Automatically, his shining blue eyes latched with her blue eyes. His smile brightened his face causing her lips to quirk in a small smile. She was contented to have distraction for a little while.
“Nothing much,” she answered. “Just stopped watching a movie and left my bag of nachos on the couch at home. You know tonight is my movie night.”
The officer snorted at her and went around her to angle his camera in a new direction before taking pictures. Random people began hurling around the crime scene, curious to know what happened and who died tonight. She shook her head and walked around the crime scene. Once again, her face turned grim as she observed the lifeless body surrounded by blood.
The victim was a man who looked as though he were not passing through the neighborhood. By his clothes alone, she knew he was not from a rough neighborhood. Sprawled out on the pavement, his tattered clothes were name brand clothes. Judging by his silky black shirt, navy blue jeans, and leathered shoes, his attire was expensive. His body was soiled in blood and marred with deep slashes from legs to ribs. Only his hands and throat remained in perfect condition as though the killer did not bother to attack the victim there.
Turning her face away from the lifeless body, she felt her heart filled with sorrow. Every since she was younger, her father raised her with a belief that all life was precious. The moment her father died trying to solve a case, she joined the police force, hoping to get revenge for her father’s death. Several years passed until she was promoted to Homicide. Instead of raising her gun to shoot people, she had to witness dead bodies that reminded her of her father’s dead body.
The victim before her could be described in his late twenties. She averaged him to be five feet and eight inches. He had a powerful body, strong muscles to wield a sword.
However, his strength proved no threat to his killer nor did his sword that lay away six inches away from his out stretched hand.
“I wouldn’t do so much thinking if I were you Detective Kamiya. You might overlook some things.”
Turning her head away from the crime scene, she looked to see the officer put his camera down. His smile never faded from his face. “If you stay here any longer, this place will remain the same.”
If possible, he smiled even more. “Is that the way to talk to your partner?”
A ghost of a smile flickered across her pink lips. “You wish you are my partner.”
He brought a hand to his chest and feigned a hurt expression. But he did not look hurt with a smile still flickering across his pale lips. “Is that how you really see us?”
“Oh Soujiro,” she said. “Will you ever learn?”
“But Kaoru, I did learn.” He said her first name. He was one of the few people to call her Kaoru. “I learned from the best and that is you.”
She was grateful for knowing him. Soujiro Seta had been her best friend since high school and had a strong desire to join the police force. When he met her and discovered her father was a police officer, he insisted to meet her father. Eventually, they became the best of friends and attended the same college. It was as though they walked the same path. After her father died, he took good care of her by checking on her regularly, taking her out to the movies and shopping. He became her family, the brother she never had.
“What I learned from you is how to gather information to key the evidence.” The brightness in his face left, but his smile still remained on his face. “There was or were no witnesses claiming to know about how the victim died or who killed the victim. They were partying at the nearest night club.”
“You mean Blood Lair.”
He nodded his head.
In not all her twenty six years of living, had she not been close to a joint such as Blood Lair. Blood Lair was no ordinary night club. In a rough neighborhood such as this one, humans intermingled with werewolves, vampires, mages, and witches. Blood Lair attracted people of all sorts. It would be harder to find the perpetrator of the crime scene there.
“What makes you think our murderer would hide there?”
“Well, for one, a human couldn’t kill this victim like this.” He pointed to where the dead body was located, causing Kaoru to turn her head to look at it. “Two, Blood Lair attracts all types of people. It’s a great place to hide from the law. Three, we could narrow down the murder, because of his throat.”
She shook her head as she looked at him. And she smiled at the fact that he was capable of assisting her to keep a sane head when the situation, such as this one, got too emotionally tough.
“You did learn from the best,” she complimented.
“Yes I did,” he replied, walking away from the crime scene with her in tow.
Kaoru watched as Soujiro packed his things into his bag once they got to the police car. “Judging by the two horizontal marks at the neck, the attacker is a vampire.”
“But why did the vampire leave blood?” asked Soujiro. He frowned, his facial expression displaying confusion.
“Maybe the vampire was interested in subduing his opponent by battling with a sword,” she answered. Her mind was deep in thought as she conjured the picture of the crime scene.
“Now that’s the part that strikes me. Why use a sword?”
Kaoru could not form an opinion to his question.
“Another part that strikes me is the slashes. Why leave the hands and throat without droplets of blood?”
There was a brief pause as both of them tried to formulate answers. Finally, something struck Kaoru as she remembered Soujiro referring to the horizontal marks across the victim’s throat. “The marks on the victim’s throat are unusual.”
Soujiro’s forehead wrinkled as he turned to look at Kaoru with curiosity glinting in his blue eyes.
“Here’s another thing to learn Soujiro. A vampire usually leaves two vertical marks on their victim, because before a vampire bites their victim, they tilt their head to create two vertical marks on their victim’s throat.”
“The vampire never titled his/her head before biting their victim’s throat.”
“Exactly, as vampire laws clearly state vampires do,” Kaoru confirmed. Her approval at her friend shimmered in her eyes as a true smile blossomed on her lips.
But the smile disappeared as fast it appeared. Her face turned grim as she stared intently at him. “Therefore, the vampire we’re dealing with either knows he/she broke one of the conducts –the laws of the vampire- or we’re dealing with an insane vampire.”
