Snippet #2046718

Melodie was in her office, bare feet atop her desk, when the call came in. Sighing, she reached over and reluctantly lifted the phone off the reciever.

"Melodie Jenson speaking." The voice on the other end was silent for a moment, before explaining the situation at hand.

"I see," She mumbled into the speaker, "Another body's been found with the same markings, but is there anything NEW?"

"Nothing else, Mel." Melodie rolled her eyes.

"Then please give me a call when you find something that's actually helpful." With that, she tossed down the phone and missed the reciever by a long shot. Instead, it landed in the wastepaper basket by the window. She didn't even bother to pick it up. She laid back against the plush office chair and ran both hands through her long hair. The constant attacks by the local press and the calls from her supervisor were enough to drive anyone crazy.

The case papers were scattered about the room, thirty-seven to be exact. In all her years as a part of the Lakeview Investigation Force, she'd never had more than one incident left unsolved at a time. Yet somehow, a madman was able to walk free, killing tourists and leaving two holes on their necks. Soon enough, reporters began to regard the man behind it as "The Vampire Killer".

Melodie laughed humorlessly at the notion and stood, grabbing her shoes before leaving the office. It was time to examine yet another crime scene.

Pulling up in her beat-up car, she could tell that it wasn't going to be a good day. Despite how early it was, there were already swarms of reporters at the scene. Melodie did little to hide her irritation when they surrounded her vehicle.

"Mrs. Jenson! This is the fourth murder that you've been called to investigate this month with no obvious leads; would you say that this is due to the intelligence of the culprit or an error on the part of the police handling the case?"

"Rest assured, the Lakeview PD is doing everything in their power to see this criminal brought to justice." She replied through gritted teeth. Even though Melodie wanted nothing more than to knock every single press reporter to the ground, there was a certain professionalism that had to be maintained. The questions only became worse as they progressed.

"Is it true that the department is bringing in a senior investigator that they believe to be more capable of tracking down a suspect?" Turning on her heels, she faced the questioner.

With icy glare, she replied for a final time. "No comment. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a job that needs attending to." Pushing her way through the crowd, she finally reached the taped off crime scene.

What she saw was predictable. A middle-aged man was sprawled out on the floor, a few drips of blood splattered across the pavement by his head. She slowly crouched down by the victim to get a closer look. Scenes like this no longer shocked her. She reached out to move the head, but was stopped by a nearby officer.

"We're still photographing the body, Mrs. Jenson. Please refrain from moving it for now." Seeing the face she gave him, he pulled a pair of latex gloves out of his bag and handed them to her. "You can take a look at the rest of the scene though. Not that there's much to see." Melodie sighed and stood. She didn't need to see the body, they were all the same anyways.

Her search of the rest of the scene turned up nothing new. There were no footprints, no fingerprint, not a single thing that could be used to track a culprit. Calling over her shoulder, she shouted, "Call me when I can get a look at him."

As Melodie crawled under the yellow caution tape, she was relieved to notice that all the press agents had been shooed away. She stopped for a moment to fix a stray strand from her ponytail and was approached by one of the force's senior officers.

"Nothing new to report on?" He asked cautiously. Everyone knew better than to mess with Melodie after a failed investigation.

"Nope."

He nodded thoughtfully and was silent for a moment. Thinking aloud, he sighed, "What sane person feels the need to mutilate a body after a murder? It's cult activity if you ask me."

Melodie sighed, "Probably."

With that, she found her car and crawled into it. Before she could even muster up the strength to stick the key in the ignition, all of the anger that she'd been concealing for months came pouring back out. "Dammit!" She shrieked, pounding her hand against the dashboard. She could see her fellow officers watching in shock, but she no longer cared. "I'll find you eventually, you bastard!"