Day 7 - part 4
“I have elicited some support in your endeavour,” Ellery said, it seems that your concerns raised ripples here.”
“I am not surprised, I would do more than ripple if I were where you are.”
“Ah, but then you never will be here, will you Mavis?”
“No, indeed not Ellery, indeed not, it is a pity that we did not meet when you were here, I am sure that a Wytch and a Wytchfinder would have made an interesting mix.”
“Indeed Mavis, but then it was never your kind of Wytch that I sought.”
“Indeed Ellery, did you ever realise that there was more than one kind? What an interesting education that could have been.”
“You are baiting me madam?”
“Just preparing you for the battle ahead Ellery, nothing more.”
“The trick is going to be finding him.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem, just you make sure that you are ready, I am not keen to face a Vampyre alone, no, that is not something I relish.”
“Indeed not otherwise Mavis Williams may no longer be holding her little séance sessions, and Monacella may find her self conversing with her sisters a little sooner than she expected.
The three girls and one boy, all teenagers, were shown to a bedroom each and told to shower and clean themselves. For now they would go around unclothed, she cared not what Long John thought, his brain was incapable of understanding events, and the housekeeper would not even notice them in her thrall. Their clothes were frankly disgusting, well beyond repair and were laying in a heap in the garden, awaiting disposal. Vanessa knew that at some point she would need to go and get some clothes, and that would mean another trip into town. But she would go a little further afield, somewhere she was unlikely to be recognised. The girls would be simple enough to clothe, they would need only dresses, the boy, trousers with braces and a shirt would be best. None would need shoes whilst they were here, but those were considerations for further down stream , first they had to be repaired and turned into palatable food.
She had no desire to taste their drug curdled blood but knew that in their untransformed state she needed to bite in order to start their repair. She took the boy in her arms, “there my lovely’” she said, “your treatment begins” and bit into his neck.
‘Eurgh’ she mentally exclaimed, ‘that is completely disgusting.’
Eldred was with one of the girls, a young blond with eyes sunked from drug use, he could see her hidden beauty and knew that it would soon return thanks to the power of his blood. His needs were different to Vanessa and he laid the girl on the bed, “Now my dear, don’t you worry, I am going to make everything right,” and lay on top of her, penetrating with a single thrust as he bit into her neck. He needed a distraction, but even he had underestimated how vile her blood would taste.
“Well?” Bones asked?
“Sir,” Christine reported, “the crypt was the original store for the bones found in the corner. Inside the crypt were some matching phalanges that confirm it. Sir, there was also DNA matching the target, some black cat hairs, and another as yet unknown DNA source, but definitely not matching Vanessa Hilt. The Lab says it shares aliels with the cat fur, sir”
“And how much effort was it to get the lid removed?”
“Well, apparently none really for the undertakers, they have a special tool that does it, but they say virtually impossible for anything less than at least ten strong men if they don’t have the tool. It seems that the crypt lids were always heavy to dissuade grave robbers sir, and undertakers would pay local men to lift and place the lid in place. Nowadays they have a small hydraulic lift.”
“So, does matey boy have a hydraulic lift then?”
“Well, sir, they do leave a distinctive mark on the floor, and well, there was no such marks when we examined the Mission sir, and there are the SOC photo’s that also confirm that there was no disturbance save to the dust layer around the lid. Sir.”
“So DC Jackson, are you telling me that our target has the strength of 10 men? I doubt that even if he were on PEP, don’t you, DC Jackson?”
Christine just stood quiet, there was nothing she could say either way.
Bones continued. “So, I am right in assessing your summation of the case so far is that we are looking for an eight thousand year old Vampyre that has risen from an old abandoned grave, that has the strength of ten men, can run across a mile of open water and sinking sand, and has a pet cat? This is what you are saying?”
Bentley had come into the room as Bones was laying into Christine. He moved to stand between Christine and the DCI.
“Sir, with respect, shut the fuck up. You want to have a go at how things were done, you do it to me, not a Detective Constable who has only done as her DI instructed, and, may I say has done it fucking well.”
Bones looked around Bentley and said “dismissed Detective Constable.” He then sat back on the corner of a desk and looked hard at Bentley.
“I suppose that could class as insubordination, fancy a spell back in uniform?”
“Don’t fucking threaten me, sir.”
“I guess you are used to things pretty much your own way around here Bentley. Well it didn’t get you very far in this investigation did it?”
“Sir, well yes, I do tend to be allowed to get on and that is because I have a history of getting results and not creating cold files.”
“Well you have no results to show here man, do you?”
“Sir,” Bentley pulled a chair from a near by desk and twirled it round and sat in it backwards. “There are just two teams here, we don’t tend to get many major incidents, and usually Jackson and I work it out and get to the bottom. This case is a bit different, I admit that, but I do not believe I made any mistakes and I do not believe that even your vastly more experience DI’s would have progressed any further. May I ask sir, did you get anything from the CCTV?”
“Well Bentley, you surprise me. You know about that?”
“Well, yes sir, as soon as I realised that our target had indeed crossed the river, I asked one of the girls in CCTV control to look on the main bridge approaches. Not having even a photfit of the Target, I gave her a picture of Vanessa Hilt. She found nothing, but she did kindly let me know of your request and actions of today, sir.”
Bones Maccoigh stood and went to the window and looked out for a minute before turning back to Bentley.
“We need to stop trying to outdo each other and work as a team Bentley. Go and get your DC.”
Bentley stood and went to the door and beckoned Christine to come and rejoin them.
“Ah, DC Jackson,” Bones said when she entered the room. “I was a little harsh on you and I apologise. But I have to tell you your boss is an Arse.”
“Oh, we all know that sir,” she said, “but then, we would all be stuck and full of shit if we didn’t all have arses wouldn’t we?”
“I have elicited some support in your endeavour,” Ellery said, it seems that your concerns raised ripples here.”
“I am not surprised, I would do more than ripple if I were where you are.”
“Ah, but then you never will be here, will you Mavis?”
“No, indeed not Ellery, indeed not, it is a pity that we did not meet when you were here, I am sure that a Wytch and a Wytchfinder would have made an interesting mix.”
“Indeed Mavis, but then it was never your kind of Wytch that I sought.”
“Indeed Ellery, did you ever realise that there was more than one kind? What an interesting education that could have been.”
“You are baiting me madam?”
“Just preparing you for the battle ahead Ellery, nothing more.”
“The trick is going to be finding him.”
“Oh, that won’t be a problem, just you make sure that you are ready, I am not keen to face a Vampyre alone, no, that is not something I relish.”
“Indeed not otherwise Mavis Williams may no longer be holding her little séance sessions, and Monacella may find her self conversing with her sisters a little sooner than she expected.
The three girls and one boy, all teenagers, were shown to a bedroom each and told to shower and clean themselves. For now they would go around unclothed, she cared not what Long John thought, his brain was incapable of understanding events, and the housekeeper would not even notice them in her thrall. Their clothes were frankly disgusting, well beyond repair and were laying in a heap in the garden, awaiting disposal. Vanessa knew that at some point she would need to go and get some clothes, and that would mean another trip into town. But she would go a little further afield, somewhere she was unlikely to be recognised. The girls would be simple enough to clothe, they would need only dresses, the boy, trousers with braces and a shirt would be best. None would need shoes whilst they were here, but those were considerations for further down stream , first they had to be repaired and turned into palatable food.
She had no desire to taste their drug curdled blood but knew that in their untransformed state she needed to bite in order to start their repair. She took the boy in her arms, “there my lovely’” she said, “your treatment begins” and bit into his neck.
‘Eurgh’ she mentally exclaimed, ‘that is completely disgusting.’
Eldred was with one of the girls, a young blond with eyes sunked from drug use, he could see her hidden beauty and knew that it would soon return thanks to the power of his blood. His needs were different to Vanessa and he laid the girl on the bed, “Now my dear, don’t you worry, I am going to make everything right,” and lay on top of her, penetrating with a single thrust as he bit into her neck. He needed a distraction, but even he had underestimated how vile her blood would taste.
“Well?” Bones asked?
“Sir,” Christine reported, “the crypt was the original store for the bones found in the corner. Inside the crypt were some matching phalanges that confirm it. Sir, there was also DNA matching the target, some black cat hairs, and another as yet unknown DNA source, but definitely not matching Vanessa Hilt. The Lab says it shares aliels with the cat fur, sir”
“And how much effort was it to get the lid removed?”
“Well, apparently none really for the undertakers, they have a special tool that does it, but they say virtually impossible for anything less than at least ten strong men if they don’t have the tool. It seems that the crypt lids were always heavy to dissuade grave robbers sir, and undertakers would pay local men to lift and place the lid in place. Nowadays they have a small hydraulic lift.”
“So, does matey boy have a hydraulic lift then?”
“Well, sir, they do leave a distinctive mark on the floor, and well, there was no such marks when we examined the Mission sir, and there are the SOC photo’s that also confirm that there was no disturbance save to the dust layer around the lid. Sir.”
“So DC Jackson, are you telling me that our target has the strength of 10 men? I doubt that even if he were on PEP, don’t you, DC Jackson?”
Christine just stood quiet, there was nothing she could say either way.
Bones continued. “So, I am right in assessing your summation of the case so far is that we are looking for an eight thousand year old Vampyre that has risen from an old abandoned grave, that has the strength of ten men, can run across a mile of open water and sinking sand, and has a pet cat? This is what you are saying?”
Bentley had come into the room as Bones was laying into Christine. He moved to stand between Christine and the DCI.
“Sir, with respect, shut the fuck up. You want to have a go at how things were done, you do it to me, not a Detective Constable who has only done as her DI instructed, and, may I say has done it fucking well.”
Bones looked around Bentley and said “dismissed Detective Constable.” He then sat back on the corner of a desk and looked hard at Bentley.
“I suppose that could class as insubordination, fancy a spell back in uniform?”
“Don’t fucking threaten me, sir.”
“I guess you are used to things pretty much your own way around here Bentley. Well it didn’t get you very far in this investigation did it?”
“Sir, well yes, I do tend to be allowed to get on and that is because I have a history of getting results and not creating cold files.”
“Well you have no results to show here man, do you?”
“Sir,” Bentley pulled a chair from a near by desk and twirled it round and sat in it backwards. “There are just two teams here, we don’t tend to get many major incidents, and usually Jackson and I work it out and get to the bottom. This case is a bit different, I admit that, but I do not believe I made any mistakes and I do not believe that even your vastly more experience DI’s would have progressed any further. May I ask sir, did you get anything from the CCTV?”
“Well Bentley, you surprise me. You know about that?”
“Well, yes sir, as soon as I realised that our target had indeed crossed the river, I asked one of the girls in CCTV control to look on the main bridge approaches. Not having even a photfit of the Target, I gave her a picture of Vanessa Hilt. She found nothing, but she did kindly let me know of your request and actions of today, sir.”
Bones Maccoigh stood and went to the window and looked out for a minute before turning back to Bentley.
“We need to stop trying to outdo each other and work as a team Bentley. Go and get your DC.”
Bentley stood and went to the door and beckoned Christine to come and rejoin them.
“Ah, DC Jackson,” Bones said when she entered the room. “I was a little harsh on you and I apologise. But I have to tell you your boss is an Arse.”
“Oh, we all know that sir,” she said, “but then, we would all be stuck and full of shit if we didn’t all have arses wouldn’t we?”