The Vampire Obsession

Chapter 15

Until the day I left everything related to my old life behind, including her. If there was any regret in me for that, it was not having kept contact with Nadia. The last time I saw her, she was a dedicated student who still wore braces on her teeth. She looked nothing like the confident woman, dressed in white, who was in front of me now.

"I would give you a hug, but you do not seem exactly clean at this moment," I commented.

"It is alright, you can redeem yourself by paying me a drink later." She smiled openly, eyes shining with genuine joy at seeing me after all those years apart. That was when relief fell over me. Nadia held no resentment for my distance, and I was extremely grateful to her for that. "By the way, I am not a doctor, just an autopsy technician. But my father can never understand the difference. So, to what do I owe the honor of your illustrious presence?"

"I would like to see Steve Jackson’s body before it is prepared for burial." I put my hands in my pockets, and nodded toward the mortuary drawer at the side of the room. "I heard he is still around here."

"You were lucky. We still have a few minutes before the body is taken to the funeral home. What exactly are you looking for?"

"I want to see the mark on his chest one last time."

The noise of a door opening filled the room. Nadia and I looked back simultaneously.

It was Alan.

"Well, I guess my work is finished here. I will leave the girls alone," he said, looking at the morgue one last time with an exaggerated grimace before leaving.

"He never understood why I wanted to work at the city’s morgue," Nadia revealed when her father left and only me, her and the corpse remained in the room. "He always dreamed that I would follow a career in the police, like him, like..."

"Me," I completed for her. "Although I do not work exactly for the police. I am autonomous in my field."

Nadia nodded, understanding.

"I heard about what happened in the forest. How are you?"

"Fine, except for a stab wound in the right arm." A stab wound that the same killer sutured last night, when he invaded my lodging through the kitchen window. And now I am about to analyze the body of the man he killed. Just another normal Wednesday. "They told me it could have been worse. I will survive."

"Without a doubt, it could. My father said there are patrol cars day and night at the chalet you rented near the forest." The judgment was explicit in her tone. I knew what she was thinking: who rents a house in the middle of the forest? Apparently, me. Nadia threw me a look over her shoulder while walking to the metal cabinet where the bodies rested. "You should abandon that place and stay with us, you f*****g crazy woman."

"I am happy to know that I have at least one f*****g characteristic."

Nadia pulled the drawer, revealing the pale and rigidly motionless body like a wax sculpture, thanks to rigor mortis. The biochemical change that occurred in the limbs of a corpse hours after death.

With no more sign of blood, his appearance was clearer now. He had assumed a bluish tone. The grotesque cut on his throat had been stitched and there were cottons in all his orifices, as far as I could see. He was completely naked.

"You can come closer, no need to be afraid. They do not usually get up after they lie down on my table," Nadia commented, raising a provocative eyebrow. "Although there is a first time for everything."

I rolled my eyes at her, approaching the metal table to analyze the body. I pulled the cellphone from the pocket of my jacket and opened the gallery in search of the photo of the latest homicides committed by the Ripper. I looked at the dead man in front of me, and then at the photos on the screen.

I took a step back and brought my hands to my mouth.

How had I not seen that before?

"Evelyn, is everything alright?" Nadia asked, seriousness returning to her composure. "What happened? Talk to me."

"There is a C carved on his chest," I said, my normally steady voice sounded loud and trembling between the four walls of the morgue. I showed the photos on the cellphone to her, and then pointed to the corpse on the table. "Look, he never did that before."

Nadia’s eyes widened when she saw the mark. Her dark skin paled under the fluorescent lights of the room.

"A C for Cassandra. Damn, Evelyn. This guy really wants to mess with you. We need to get you out of Grimwood as fast as possible. This is sick and intimately personal, he may try to kill you agai—"

"He is not going to kill me," I said, with a conviction that left her even more disconcerted.

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"He had that opportunity in the forest, and he did not do it." He had his chance more than once, actually. However, I thought it was better not to reveal the entire story to her. Nadia’s green eyes were like two planets on her face, staring at me with concern. I could not reveal the whole truth of my relationship with him, but I could tell some parts that did not compromise my work. "He said he would not kill me. Said that I was too interesting for him to let me die."

Nadia’s lips opened and closed like a fish out of water.

"This cannot leave here, understand? You cannot tell anyone what I revealed to you, not even about the C carved on the chest of the corpse," I said.

"Of course I am not going to tell anything to anyone. I will take this to the grave, woman." Nadia nodded frenetically.

And then threw herself into one of the swivel chairs in the morgue and placed her hands on her head, looking at a distant point.

"Maybe it is better to let him continue," she let out, out of nowhere, surprising me. "If my father knows that I said that, he kills me. But, honestly? Maybe the Ripper is simply doing a good service to the community."

"Where did you get that from, Nadia?"

She pointed to the corpse on the table like someone who points to a bag of trash in the corner of the kitchen.

"I am at least ninety percent sure that this retired officer was a pedophile. When I was little, he was very close to my father, and always threw me suspicious looks and kept talking about how beautiful I was for my age. There are rumors in the city that he lured minors to hotel rooms in exchange for money. He was a disgusting and filthy old man, and he will not be missed by anyone. And if the rest of the Ripper’s victims also fit into that pattern, have you thought about that?"