Mortal Agent of a Vampire - Chapter 11

Like a crappy detective in most suspense movies, I went back to the scene of the crime, and since the kidnappers had said Liz hadn’t committed suicide, it was obvious that it was a murder, so this place where her body had been found became a crime scene.
It’s Fallen Street (every city can’t help but have a place like this, like every home has a garbage can), and I pulled out the photo of her when she was curled up next to a dumpster in the corner of the back alley wall of a bar. Now that the place has been cleaned up, only a suspicious hint of ebony remains in the cracks of the stone tiles.
I could imagine the classic drama that played out here at night, the j□j, the johns, the junkies and drug dealers, the dirty illegal trade, and I frowned.
“No virtuous woman should be here.” My reason said, but I ignored it’s, there was no way I was going to find any valuable clues if I was biased to begin with.
Well, let’s get cracking. At six o’clock in the morning someone found Liz and called the police from a pay phone across the street, and by the time we arrived the coroner said she’d been dead for eight hours, which, with the time of the autopsy, meant that it had happened at about two in the morning. I stood in the alley and looked out, the buildings on either side of me blocked most of the sunlight, even in the daytime it had an eerie air about it, there were no streetlights around, only further down, a neon sign on the back door of the bar.
It seemed that no matter what happened at night, there would be no witnesses, maybe a curious sideways glance, but he would see nothing but darkness.
‘Dream Paradise’, I wrote down the name of the bar, walked around to the front door and went in. There were no lights on and no one inside, the sunlight filtering in through the cracks in the blinds, stirring up the dust like a deserted battlefield. A mixture of alcohol, tobacco, makeup, and human j□j drilled into my nose, and I immediately felt the urge to turn around and walk away.
“You won’t find anything.” A voice inside me said.
“She most likely walked out of this bar, and if you don’t get anything here, it’s even more unlikely to be anywhere else.” Another voice countered.
The first voice gave in. I walked stiffly towards the bar, keeping my breathing slow, careful not to inhale too much of the mixture here. It’s definitely carcinogenic.
“Anyone?” I called out three times in a row, and the metal door behind the bar opened and a skinny guy with a heavy black eye burrowed out.
“We’re only open at night.” He said.
“I’m not here to get drunk.” I said, “Have you seen this woman?” I held up Liz’s photo.
He came up rubbing his dyed purple exploding head with a wary look on his face, “Where’s your badge?”
“I’m not a cop.”
“Hey, told you so. ……” He relaxed all of a sudden and flopped down on the bar like a lump of mud, “Why would I tell you that?” He held out his hand and made a motion of counting his money.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. I pulled out fifty bucks.
He took the bill, shook it out, and slipped it into his jacket pocket, “Brunette Britney.”
“What?”
“She’s a singer here, Brunette Britney is her stage name.” He explained.
Bingo.
“Was she here on the night of the fifteenth?” I continued to dig.
The skinny guy rubbed his exploding head again as if there was an answer hidden there, “Well, I’m not sure – Glenn!” He suddenly turned his head toward the inside of the iron gate and shouted, “Was the brunette sweetie here on the fifteenth?”
“What day of the week is the fifteenth?” A gruff voice said.
“Wednesday.” I prompted in friendship.
“Wednesday!” The skinny guy passes the word.
“Been here!”
I asked a few more more detailed questions, when did she leave? Who was with her? Even Glen couldn’t answer. The skinny guy hacked me another fifty bucks and I left.
As soon as I stepped out of Dream Heaven, the phone rang and I pressed answer.
“You’re being followed.” Vince’s voice said.
He was following me? Even though I had done that to him, “You’re boring.” I looked up, trying to find him.
“Stop and look around. There’s someone else.”
Vince sounded serious, not like a joke, and I tensed up, “What am I going to do?”
“Keep going, I’ll take care of it.”
“Oh, it’s probably my kidnapper, you’re not going to hurt him, are you?”
“I never hurt anyone except for hunting.” Vince hung up, that was so reassuring.
I kept walking forward and before long Vince pulled up beside me in his blue Ford, the commotion in the trunk caught my attention, “You’re keeping him in the trunk?” I said incredulously.
“He’ll live.” Vince said.
We went back to the little pantheon and as soon as the trunk opened, he popped out like a scared spring clown. Vince blocked him, picked him up by the collar and led him into the small living room.
He was strapped into an armchair.
“Look at that… wind and water don’t they?” I have to say, I was really out of breath.
“You’re kidnapping!” Our guest yelled at me as he desperately shook in his chair.
“Look on the bright side, I haven’t hit you over the head with a bat yet.” Oh, how cold-blooded of me.
“It’s not a bat, okay? It’s just a big spoon!”
Humans just can’t suppress the urge to correct others, I whistled, “Big soup spoon, mark my words, so you’re the one who attacked me last night, right?” I pulled over another chair and sat down in front of him.
Our guest looked incredulous, “You punked me?”
“I’m more than happy to chalk it up to questioning tactics.” He was half a head shorter than me, which is to say, about five feet four inches or so, with curly hair, clean-cut features, and a ring of freckles around his nose. He was wearing a fast-food chain-cum-clerk uniform with a large, unknown stain on his chest.
“How old are you?” I asked, “Dean?” How do I know his name? Good question, he was pinning on a gold nametag, you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to observe that.
Dean pursed his lips and glared at me with the characteristic middle-aged stare of a teenager. Silence is golden, great.
“He’s seventeen.” Vince intervenes at the right time, “The deceased was her sister.” He sat on the couch reading today’s morning paper without even looking up.
“Thanks.” I mentally cheered him on. Mind reading, cool, as long as it wasn’t used on me.
“I heard that one too.” Vince gave a smile.
“Okay, no more for you.” I turned around, excluding him from my sight.
Dean was in real shock, he looked at me with a look of deep awe, “You guys investigated me?”
“Of course, we have an information network.” There was no harm in letting him think that, I leaned back closer into my chair and crossed my legs, “Now, tell me what this is all about from beginning to end.”
At the mention of Liz, Dean turned into a teary puppy, “She …… she’s the best sister in the world, you know that?”
“Oh.” I nodded, thinking about how my sister forced me to wear my mom’s bra on my head when I was five years old, and how that was on my list of darkest memories (she actually took a picture of it), which didn’t help understanding him at all.
“She …… we were orphans ……” Dean huffed and continued, “We lived in a shelter until we were adopted …… she always covered me……”
“I understand, big sister, right?”
He threw me a look like a nail, “Don’t talk about her like that!”
“Okay.” When I say okay, I mean, whatever.
“When she graduated high school, she left home …… because she wanted to pursue her ambitions ……” Dean said, his eyes shining with longing, he truly adored this big sister, “She’s so handsome! And you know what?She rents apartments out there and takes care of herself so well that if Mom and Dad hadn’t disapproved, I would have moved in with her …… just like when I was a kid ……”
takes care of herself so well that I’m not sure that description is, given that Liz is now lying in the morgue was accurate.
“And then ……” I throw in.
Dean’s gaze dimmed and he took a few deep breaths to build up his courage, “I saw the news the other day …… They said that Liz …… But that’s impossible!” He shook his head violently, “She came to see me at school just a little while ago, she looked so happy …… she said she was close to her goal! Turns out …… you see …… it’s impossible, Liz is the most positive person I know, even when life was at its most gray, she wouldn’t …… wouldn’t have chosen that way……”
Dean’s trailing voice trailed off as he finished.
It kind of touched me that he trusted his big sister so much, but it was pure speculation without a shred of foundation, “So you want to prove that someone plotted to kill Liz.”
Dean nodded firmly, “I want the murderer to be punished.”
“However, you must understand that to get the police to reopen the case, we need more evidence, evidence that stands up.” I said.
Dean was much calmer today, “I know, but I …… wait,” he suddenly looked up with a surprised look on his face, “You said we, you’re going to help me?”
“I’m helping you.” I revised.
Dean finally breaks into a small smile, “You’re such a nice guy!”
I held up a finger, “If you ever mention the word nice guy again, we’re going to go bye-bye,” I hated that word, why did God invent it, “And no more hanging around with guns.”
Dean froze for a moment and then started laughing, “That’s ……” he was laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath, I was confused, “That’s a toy gun!”
Why am I always the idiot? I was ready for a long sermon when I was interrupted by a short laugh and Vince finally looked up from his paper, “Brilliant!” I hope he’s talking about today’s news.

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