Crime Scene Tour

Once her escort was bundled up for the weather, she followed him into the parking garage. "So," she began swinging her arms like a school girl panning the row of vehicles. "Which one is yours? The little red Honda Civic or ancient white Bug?"

"Um... the Dodge truck. The black one over there." He pointed to his right towards a jacked up 4X4 truck.

She smiled, genuinely pleased. It was decked out with all the chrome that was possible. Chrome stacks in the back, chrome running boards along the side, chrome encased KC lights across the top, fog lights under the chrome bumper, silver, red and chrome pin striping down the sides. "I like." She ran her finger over the front fender, across the door before settling on the handle. It was exceptionally clean for this time of year. It was apparent that he preferred things to be in order. "You like to drive fast." It was a statement, not a question. "Good. I like fast." She boosted herself into the seat and buckled safety belt.

She quickly ran her nimble fingers over the interior of the large truck; the door, the seats, the dash. It was immaculate as one would expect from the exterior. Not a single candy wrapper or empty water bottle in sight. No garbage stuffed in the door compartments like all the other vehicles she'd ridden in. A pleasant change. It still carried the new car smell though it was nearly five years old. Her scan of the truck told her several things about this familiar face. First, he was single, in spite of the wedding ring, which was a good thing in her estimation.

She fumbled through the presets on the stereo to what kind of music her familiar stranger listened to. The first one was set to country, as was the second and the third. Personally, she hated country music. Most of it anyway. Too depressing to listen to for very long. Someone was always losing somebody or something and crying over a beer about it. Not that the lyrics of other styles like rock or pop were any different, but at least the music behind the words wasn't whiny. A person could easily forget the forlorn words if it had a catchy beat. The fourth finally picked up a familiar rock station as did the fifth. The sixth was a station that played classical music, uninterrupted. She was bemused by the contrast, but dismissed the emotions without showing outward signs of her evaluation.

*

To Aden she looked utterly bored. He hoisted himself into the driver's seat firing the engine. He glanced again at his companion for some sort of direction; her eyes remained forward beneath those dark sunglasses. Silence hung thick in the cab as he thought how to proceed. He chose silent caution, watching her a little too closely. His cheeks flushed a bit when turned her attention to him. She didn't seem to notice his nervousness; she simply demanded to be driven to the location where the first body was found, saying she needed to see it for herself. Insisting there were clues the investigators had missed. Things only she would be able to find.

He pulled into the north entrance and parked under a large decorated pinion pine next the restrooms. All the bigger trees were decorated for the Christmas holiday. Even in the light of the afternoon the lights were on. The smaller trees and shrubs were left bare. Many fruit trees stood bare and barren in contrast to the large pines and junipers that hugged the edges of the expanse.

He led her down the walking trail that wound down toward the stream that flowed to the east in a hidden crevice within the thick trees. Just before it wrapped back up away from the stream he turned left into a small outcropping. "She was found over there." He said pointing an area off to his right. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered against the cold. His large ski jacket wasn't keeping the biting wind out. It was colder today than it had been. Snow was in the forecast this week and Aden wasn't looking forward to it.

He was also left a bit thunderstruck at this strange woman he was playing chauffer to. Rose was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. No coat. No sign of being the least bit chilled. Her breath wasn't noticeable in the air like his. He'd offered her a coat, of course, as any gentleman would have, but she refused. The wind whipped through hair, but she ignored it. Her focus was on the site not the weather.

She stepped lightly to the resting place of the first victim. Dropping to her knees she put both hands on the ground and closed her eyes. She ran her hands in circles. The left first, then the right and the left again. Her fingers ever searching for shreds of unnoticed evidence. Her touch was gentle, thorough, ever diligent in its search for the missing clues she said would there. She occasionally picked up and object, a rock, and studied for a moment longer than Aden thought necessary. Her eyes were distant in her searches, like she was lost in thought.

Aden stood back and watched her closely, feeling completely helpless. He wanted to ask her questions but the look in her eyes remained distant; unobservant, uninviting. She spent a full fifteen minutes searching the ground stopping only when every leaf, every stone, every grain of sand had been touched. Suddenly her eyes returned to the present and she popped back up on her feet in a single movement, like a cat that had been startled from a nap. She brushed her hands on her jeans as she approached him. "Next." She marched back up the trail toward his truck. Even with his long legs he found it difficult to keep up with her. She was too quick for one so short.

"What do you mean, next?" He queried a bit winded when he was finally able to catch up to her at the truck.

"Victim number two. You do know where she was found, do you not?" She asked in a doubtful tone.

"Of course, but..."

"But nothing. I need to see them, Agent. All of them. I can go without you if you'd rather..."

"No." He cut her off. Oddly, he found this vixen quite captivating in spite of her abrasiveness. He smiled to show his willingness to ferry her wherever she wanted to go. "No. It's fine. I'll take you."

"So where to driver?" She was grinning now.

"Kmart."

They spent the better part of the afternoon searching each site for something that may, no, must have been missed. The girl was thorough in her searches, touching every item with a ten foot radius. She remained quiet as she did her work. He watched her grow more and more somber with each site. Her red eyes misting with sadness, then widening in what looked to be fear and then steeling against emotion all together. By the fourth site, Aden had opted to wait for her in truck. He had been utterly useless beyond being the chauffer. Besides, the cold was getting to be too much for him. The frigid temperature seeped through is downy jacket threatening to halt the flow of blood to his extremeties, and yet it didn't seem to have the tiniest of effects on her. He simply shook his head in disbelief.

She returned to the truck after looking over the last site, obviously shaken to the core. Her eyes bore the familiar red tinge of tears at their rims. Her cheeks, salty. No effort was put forth this time to remove the soil from her hands. She tried to blame it on the cold, but Aden had seen enough to know that wasn't true. She pulled her sunglasses from the dash a slapped on her face. He took it to mean she wasn't ready for questions. "Um..." he searched for words but couldn't find the ones he wanted. They had seen every site. There was no where else to go, but he still couldn't find the most obvious of words. It was time to take her home, though he really didn't want to let her go. He felt connected to this stranger, this 'vampire' he'd met only a few hours before some how. But he couldn't tell her that. He could never tell her that. He gave up with sigh. "Where to now?"

"Where else?" She snapped with a hint of both sarcasm and defeat. "Back to prison." She stared out the tinted window through her tinted shades at the darkness that had already fallen within the last thirty minutes.

"Prison?" Obviously not the response he expected.

"Five thirty-one Everglades Drive then." She cut off the question he was forming. He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn he saw a tear run down the woman's cheek as she spoke. "Dracula's Castle."