The Scottsville Vampire Invasion

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The "Vampire Hunter" stands in the doorway. Great, another vampire nut coming into the office. I get a few of these a week. Niki is probably taking another smoke break, so he was able to walk right in. "Thanks for the offer, but we're good on this investigation," I say. 

He walks into the room. "You may think that now, but pretty soon you're going to be up to your ass in vampires just like that town down the road." He points off in the general direction of Sharpsburg. 

"Sir, thanks for the information, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We're in the middle of an investigation. 

The man removes his cowboy hat and smooths out his straight, white hair. The hat is old and dirty and his hair is a greasy mess. He reeks of rotten garlic. "You make your decision about this, Sheriff, because when I walk out of this room, I ain't coming back and you'll be left to fight these creatures yourself." 

Josh breaks in. "That's fine, pal."  

We go back to the map. "Where were we?" I ask. "Oh yeah, the mountain pass. So, what are we thinking? These creatures or vampires from Sharpsburg cut through to Scotts Farm and killed Jenn?  

"Yeah, but why would they do it? They could have just done that in town. Why bring her out there?" Bear asks. 

"We'll figure that piece out later. Let's just stick to this theory for now," I say.  

I hear, "It must be hard to run an investigation with your head up your ass." Once again it's the crazy guy. 

"I thought you were leaving," Bear says. 

He ignores Bear. "You got it all wrong. Those vampires didn't just show up here; they were invited. Vampires can't come into your house unless you invite them in. It's the same thing with a town. You need to figure who invited them in and used your friend Jenn as the bait to entice them." 

I take a deep breath to restrain myself and say, "Sir, you need to leave immediately. This meeting is not open to the public." 

The man looks me up and down and says, "That's it then. You don't want my help." 

"Yes, like we told you last time, we're not interested." I walk over to my desk, pull open a drawer, take out a flyer, and hand it to him. "If you have a tip, you can call the hotline and leave a message. I check it every night." 

He laughs as he walks out the room. "You're going to need more than a phone number to deal with these monsters, but you have it your way. I know when I'm not wanted. I'm done here."  

Once he leaves, we let out a collective chuckle. This investigation has brought in a lot of crazies. People call the line with all sort of wacko ideas. UFO's, government conspiracies, you name it and I've heard it. We go back to work on the map. "We need to go back to the crime scene and see what we can learn from a fresh prospective."  

The three of us head out to the field and to the spot where we found Jenn handcuffed to a fence post. The chain link fence that used to be there has been removed, but the farmer never took the time to get rid of the posts. 

An impromptu shrine has been built where we found her. At first it was vibrant with colorful flowers, teddy bears and hand written notes. Now, after being out in the weather for several weeks, it's a truer representation of death with brown flowers, faded stuffed animals and notes with the color falling off the pages. 

We trace the path back to the road and go through the mountain pass. Soon enough we come across a dead deer. It is surrounded by flies and filled with maggots. I carefully step over it and study its neck. There's a gash but not like the ones we found on the victims. This is more like a knife was run across its neck and it was bled out.