by C R Trolson
“But the medical examiner doesn’t think it’s possible to spread LX through the blood supply, that’s what you told me. And mostly because of the system of checks and balances that Ajax created.”
“He knows how to beat his own system, believe me.”
“Why order Homer Wermels to kill raven-haired women in LA?” she asked. “Wait, I don’t want to know. Here we are, two adults, sitting in bed and sounding like a couple of philosophy students high on LSD. We might as well be discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.”
“Clinical trials,” he said without missing a beat. “Guinea pigs. Rawlings, the wino, was also a test. Cheevy and Father Ramon got in the way. Ajax killed them because they knew what he was up to. He didn’t trust them.”
She looked at him for a second - he looked dead serious - and decided to humor him. What else could she do? “Why didn’t Homer burn up after you killed him?”
“Like most drugs, LX doesn’t work the same for everyone. Rawlins burned, but Ramon, Cheevy, and Thomkins didn’t. I can’t explain it. That’s why Ajax was running trials. He was trying to find out exactly what he’d developed.”
“Clinical trials are run by drug companies wanting to cover their butts from lawsuits and to convince the FDA that their drug actually works. You don’t run clinical trials on a drug you know turns people into maniacs. Not when you’re trying to poison the world.”
“You do if you want to find out how fast you can take over the planet.”
“Take over the planet?” The man she had just slept with was sounding like a crackpot, a conspiracy nut. She had tried to convince him, logically and step by step, but he was steadfast.
“I think the bodies you found at the mission are also part of the experiment.”
“I’m listening.”
“I checked missing persons in the area. Not long ago, three girls from the Chumash reservation, three Indian girls, disappeared. Three Indian girls missing. Three female Indian skeletons found. And the kicker: They’d worked for Ajax as housemaids.”
“When?”
“Less than a year,” he said. “It’s in the police report. Joni Bluerock, one of the missing girls, sang in a Gothic band. A Mexican dentist fit her with two false canine teeth, two fangs surgically implanted, part of her Gothic band act. Ramon saw the teeth, didn’t want any vampire speculation, and broke them out. Halloran found them in Ramon’s robe. You saw the stubs on the first skull.”
That answered one nagging question, she thought. If it was true. “Fake fangs? How did the girls get the jade whistle? The one Hamsun claims he found in 1963?”
“They worked for Ajax as maids. They cleaned his office. They had access to his museum. Ajax probably bought the whistle years ago.”
“Why was a cross stuck inside one’s vagina? And the mission doll? The first skeleton wore authentic mission sandals. A maid wearing museum quality sandals? And the bodies, less than a year old, turning to dust? It doesn’t add up.”
“They stole the sandals, doll, and whistle from Ajax’s museum. LX turned the bodies to dust. Maybe one of them stole the cross, too, and Ajax punished the girl with it. Used it as a warning or a lesson.”
“Warning who? A forty-thousand-dollar cross as a warning? Who’s he teaching a lesson to when he buries the body? Three girls you say he killed?”
“Forty thousand? That much? No wonder you got so worried.”
“I wasn’t keeping the cross to sell. I was keeping it until I could find the rightful owner and you’re only assuming the skeletons I found are the missing girls and that Ajax killed them.”
His eyes were on her. Now, she thought, the eyes were not so pretty. “I could get DNA from the bones we found last night to match one of the girls’ relatives.”
“Wouldn’t prove Ajax killed them.”
“You could be his lawyer,” he said and walked over to his pants, hanging on a chair, and grabbed his wallet. He handed her a small photo. “Look familiar?”
“Who is it?”
“Have you seen her?”
“I’ve seen this girl.”
“You recognize her?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Alive?”
“The thing I saw. If you want to call it alive.”
“The ghost?”
“Who is it?”
“Joni Bluerock.”
“The dead girl.”
“You’ve seen her.”
“The second time I saw her she was dressed in jeans, pointing to the mansion, screaming. I told you. But she’s not alive. What I saw was not alive. I don’t even know if I saw anything.”
“Warning you?”
“She’s not alive.”
“I know.”
“You could have told me who she was.” She handed him the photo. “I don’t like tricks. I especially don’t like cheap cop tricks. Not at all, Reese.”
“I had to be sure.”
“It’s her,” she said. “Are hallucinations allowed in court? How far would I get if I told the police I’m identifying bodies though mental telepathy? That I’m channeling dead people? But we aren’t worried about ghosts or proving anything, are we? We’re talking about killing Ajax.”
“Quit him.”
“You want me gone?”
“I want you safe.”
“You’re still not sure,” she said. “Are you? You want me out of the way. You want me out of the way before you do something stupid. I’ll tell you something, before you pull that trigger, you’d better be sure.”
“I’m sure now,” he said.
But she knew he wasn’t.
An hour later, Reese called Unicorn Medical from his apartment. He eventually got the manager. He asked about shipments from Cirrus Industries. “All the time,” the manager said in a casual but wary voice.
“Did you receive a box of vials, three hundred, marked as a plasma anti-toxin, in the last day or two? This is Captain Steven Carsabi, LAPD. It’s an investigation, a murder investigation. I told your secretary.”
“Yes, and she should have told you what I’m going to tell you now and what I told the other guy - I can’t discuss business over the phone. Being a policeman, you should appreciate our security concerns. We’re dealing with human blood here.” The manager took a moment before throwing him a crumb, “But if you would like to make an appointment, I’ll have my secretary - ”
“ - I said it was a murder investigation. I don’t have time for an appointment. I have time for a judge, for a cease and desist order. I have time to shut you down.” Neither did he have time to be subtle and hoped the manager would take the legal threat seriously, no matter how ludicrous it sounded.
The manager was not taking Reese seriously. “Are you threatening me? I’m getting damn tired of you guys calling every - ”
“You don’t understand. If you haven’t already, then you’re going to receive a shipment of vials from Cirrus Industries with a Santa Marina postmark.” He couldn’t say tainted with a vampire virus - the manager would hang up on him. “The vials are poisoned.”
“Poisoned? I thought you said it was marked as anti-toxin? That’s absurd. All deliveries are double-and triple-checked for contamination before they leave the Cirrus laboratory. I already told the other officer - ” The manager stopped. “Who did you say you were?”
“Carsabi. Someone else called?”
“I already told you. A detective. He kept asking if anyone had notified me about an occurrence at one of the hospitals.”
“What occurrence?”
“There was an incident, he said, possibly involving some of our blood. And he was wondering if the hospital or the police had contacted me.”
“You sure it was a detective?”
“He said he was a detective. He sounded like a detective. I think his name was Tarrant, and I assumed - How do I know you’re a police officer?”
“Do not send out any more blood. Shut down all your operations. Immediately.”
�
�Is this a joke? Listen, we supply twenty-nine hospitals with blood and I am not shutting down anything. I’m calling the FBI. We have Federal mandates, mister.”
The line went dead.
When he called back, the secretary archly gave him the number of the company’s lawyer before hanging up on him. He hung up and dialed another number. It took five minutes cajoling Carsabi’s secretary to get the captain on the line.
“I told Shirley I was busy,” Carsabi said leisurely when he picked up the phone. Reese heard him chewing. “She’s supposed to tell people I’m busy. I’m in a meeting. Whatever. I’m trying to eat. She says you’re being disagreeable. Called me a lazy bastard?”
“I told her I doubted you were in a meeting. I told her you were probably eating the strawberries you get fresh at the Farmer’s Market, the strawberries you’ve been eating everyday at ten o’clock for the last five years of your life.”
“They’re filled with vitamin C,” Carsabi said. “What’s so important? Have you seen Hernandez? Is Hernandez up there fucking around?”
“It’s not about Hernandez and I haven’t seen him. Remember Cirrus Industries?”
“Sure, I do. I keep trying to forget, but you keep bringing it up. Don’t you have anything better to do? You’re supposed to be retired. You’re supposed to be out bird-dogging women. Taking the sun. Whistling at all the pretty girls.”
Reese told him about the talk he’d had with Unicorn’s manager, about the other detective inquiring about a mishap involving blood at one of the hospitals. Carsabi told him he’d check it out, but only, Reese felt, to get him off his back, only to shut him up. It took Carsabi nearly ten minutes to call him back.
“It’s not a hospital,” Carsabi said. “It’s an acute care facility called Pine Creek. They had a little accident this morning. Three people dead.”
“An accident kills three people?”
“An LA County coroner’s investigator is on scene with a patrolman. Three dead. That’s all I know. The investigator’s going to call when she knows more.”
“Find out if any of the victims had a blood transfusion in the last day or two.”
Before Carsabi could answer, Reese heard a phone ringing in the background and Carsabi told him to hang on. He heard Carsabi talking for a few moments, unable to make out what he was saying, and then he came back on the line. “Coroner wants me to send a homicide team, forensics.”
“Murder?”
“Looks that way.”
“Blood transfusion?”
“Yeah,” the captain said slowly.
“Unicorn Medical? Did you ask?”
“Of course I asked,” Carsabi snapped. “And yes, Unicorn is the supplier. And there was a transfusion yesterday. An old man. Same room they found the bodies in. They haven’t found the old man, yet.”
“Tell them to look for a pile of ash.”
“Ash? That’s cute. Just what aren’t you telling me, Reese? And what detective called Unicorn Medical before you did? If it was one of my guys he must have had a vision, because we damn sure didn’t know anything about three homicides. And if it was one of my guys, I want to know who the hell it was.”
“The manager wasn’t sure,” Reese said. He didn’t tell Carsabi that it was probably Ajax who had impersonated a certain Lieutenant Tarrant. Neither did he tell Carsabi that Ajax had most likely called Unicorn to check up on his latest project. There didn’t seem to be any sense in confusing the captain any more than he already was. “Listen Steve, you know as much as I do.”
“You always say that when you’re lying.”
He didn’t argue and made Carsabi promise to keep him informed.
After the captain hung up, Reese examined the vial Rawlings had dropped last night. He opened the top and sniffed. The smell was acidic but not harsh and with a slight hint of rust and something copperish below that. He could have Halloran test the residue, but what would that prove? Nothing, and he didn’t want to give Halloran any more fodder for his fountain-of-youth fantasies.
He didn’t need to build a case against Ajax. He simply needed to wait for an opening and strike. He did not have a lot of time, either. Ajax was already moving. He was sure of it, just as he was sure that along with a slew of other killings, Ajax had caused the deaths at Pine Creek.
He walked into the Chief’s office.
The Chief did not look good. He hoped the Chief was thinking about Thomkins which would make the Chief a better man than he’d thought. But the Chief was probably glum because he’d just discovered his ass was hanging out in the wind, that his little world was collapsing.
“What’s that smell,” he asked the Chief.
“Gardenias,” the Chief said. “Thomkins’ mother just left. Her perfume. She blamed me for killing her son and said, emphatically, that I’m not welcome at the funeral.” The Chief shook his head and bit his lower lip. “We were having a special ceremony. Rifle salute. Flag on the coffin. Honor Guard. A real sendoff.”
“I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t want that.”
“She’ll probably sue.”
Reese said nothing for a moment, unable to believe he was talking about Thomkins’ funeral arrangement and not about who’d really killed him. “I’m quitting. I figure you owe me about five hundred dollars.” He didn’t figure he’d get any money. He simply wanted to remind the Chief of it. “I’m not charging you extra for using my gun last night.”
“Extra for killing a man?”
“Five hundred is cheap.”
“That’s a lot, considering that since I asked you to help, the murder rate has increased around here considerably. A couple hundred percent by my reckoning.”
“A check will be fine.”
“Leaving town are we?”
“I didn’t say that. Do you need a statement for the shooting investigation? It might help when you try to straighten out all the lies you’re going to be telling.”
“What shooting?”
“Rawlings.”
“Why would I need a statement from you?” the Chief asked. “I know exactly what happened. I shot Rawlings while he was escaping. That’s it. You weren’t even there.”
Smith came in with a cup of coffee for him and a refill for the Chief. After Smith closed the door, the Chief said, “You don’t think it was Rawlings that killed Thomkins and the others?”
“Don’t even ask.”
“And that business at the end? When Mr. Rawlings burned up? The ME tried to sell me his spontaneous combustion theory. Since you don’t think Rawlings did it, Who did?”
“The same guy killed the three girls missing last year.”
“Ajax? Smith told me about your theory and you’re wrong. They ran off to LA. Your neck of the woods. I have proof.”
“Didn’t you find it strange that all three had worked for Ajax as housemaids right before they disappeared? They all quit Ajax the day before they disappeared. Imagine.”
The Chief held up his hand. “Now, wait a second, hold on. I checked on that. They were hired by Ajax because he had a business conference and needed the extra help. I checked all that. When they quit Ajax, he paid them off, and they bought bus tickets for LA. I personally talked to the agent at the bus station who sold them the tickets, who saw them get on the bus.”
“They all work for Ajax, they all quit, and then they all head to LA on the same bus?”
“It happens,” the Chief said. “Small town girls head for the big city. Nothing strange about that. They probably felt safer going as a group. There’s safety in sticking together.”
“It didn’t work.”
The Chief shrugged. “They went on to bigger and better things. End of story. It happens all the time with young people. They get the urge to see the bright lights.”
“One of the girls had fangs.”
“I know - she was one of those Goths. A Tijuana dentist made them for her. Porcelain fangs. Implants. So what? I’ve gone over that a thousand times.”
He spoke slowly, s
o the Chief would hear. “The first skeleton found at the mission had large canine teeth, porcelain fangs. So large that Ramon had to break them off. Hide them.”
“Porcelain fangs? Who told you that? Your girlfriend?”
He went on, “Ramon panicked when he saw the fangs. Worried he had vampires buried in the backyard.”
“Vampires? Your girlfriend told me those skeletons were two hundred years old. So old they disintegrated in the sunlight is what she said. Now you’re telling me the bones were those three girls?”
Reese pulled the fangs out of his jacket. “The ME found these in Ramon’s robe. They’re dental prosthetics. They’re porcelain. I believe they belonged to Joni Bluerock.”
“Believing only means you have no proof.” The Chief picked up one of the fangs, a quick glance, and set it down. “Means nothing. Could of been Ramon picked them up anywhere. They might have been his good luck charm. All kinds of Tijuana teeth floating around this town. My wife - ”
“ - The girl had Tijuana fangs, not teeth. Ramon had Tijuana fangs. There’s a connection.”
“Okay. There’s a connection. What are we trying to prove here? That those three girls never left town?”
“We removed a third skeleton from the mission last night. It’s now at the university under the care of a Professor Hamsun. The skeleton is intact and I’m pretty sure DNA from the bone marrow will match one of the girls,” he said. “You be sure and tell your boss that.”
“Can you prove he killed them?”
“What I’ll have is Cheevy found dead after driving to his mansion. Cheevy and the three girls that worked for Ajax before they conveniently disappeared.”
“And Thomkins? I know you think he killed Thomkins. We can’t pin every murder in town on Ajax Rasmussen. You’re trying to pin all the tails on one donkey.” The Chief straightened papers and shook his head. “You’ve got moon dust, buddy. Wishful thinking.”
He put the fangs away and told the Chief about the jade whistle, the one Hamsun had found in 1963, the one that matched three others in Ajax’s possession. He told him about the carved baby and the mission sandals. He did not tell him that Rusty had seen Joni Bluerock when she blew on the whistle. Nor did he tell the Chief that she thought the whistle had other magical qualities, the best one being its vampire killing option.