Life Blood's Vengeance

Deja vu

Déjà vu

Waking up with a splitting headache again for the second day in a row was in a word annoying.

I had not yet opened my eyes and yet I took inventory of my current well-being. I knew I was laying on a fluffy and comfortable surface and covered by a thick blanket, that alone told me I was in better circumstances than the last time I had woken up from a nap. I was not in any significant pain beyond my head, but I was vastly annoyed at myself as I remember the mistakes I had made the night before. I felt my shoulder was bandaged heavily though and that my arm has been immobilized.

I had opened myself up to attack foolishly by appearing alone in a public place and by windows I knew were not bullet proof. Not only that, but the attack was in a public place meaning it would be reported to the news, police, whichever hospital they demand I be taken to and that I would now be a public item to be gossiped about.

I did not want to open my eyes to the yet more damage control that needed to be done in my professional and business life. This also meant I had to pretend to be injured as to make it seem like I am healing at a natural speed and not vampire speed. I would have to wear this contraption on my arm for weeks in public, which also made fighting back and protecting myself more difficult. It would bring attraction to my abilities I would not need.

I open my eyes and I see I am not in a hospital room, which surprises me. I was sure after such an event I would be taken in an ambulance to the closest hospital, questioned by police as to why I was shot and then questioned by doctors about the blood they would take for tests. Being questioned about the properties of my blood would then reveal my true species and I would no longer be a free woman. I would be a lab rat. Yay me. That had not happened, and it left me with more questions than the relief I would otherwise feel.

The room seems very well decorated, but more like a hotel room with no personal items around and a mini fridge near the entertainment center. The TV was large and there was a large window open to the Atlanta skyline. There was a small medical bag that was open and brimming with supplies in the only arm chair in the room, tucked snuggly into the corner. The atmosphere was clinical yet comfortable in general and clearly was only a portion of the room with no door leading to the rest of the suite. Jacob had probably paid for the room, or at least I hope that is what happened.

I could here someone speaking in another room near me and it sounded like a man and a woman arguing. If the rest of the week continued in the current trend it was going to be the longest week of my life on record. The record of longest weeks alone was impressive, including months of house arrest in France under Michell’s SS men. This week might just be a tie breaker, I hoped it would not be.

I start to climb out of the comfortable and the bed lightly squeaked as if it had been abused to many time by overzealous lovers. The squeak attained the attention of the fighting individuals and I hear them stop speaking and head towards me. Thankfully I am still dressed in the clothes I had worn yesterday a black cotton blouse and black dress pants. The problem however was that I had now been wearing the same clothes for a little over 3 day. I hoped my care takers had another change of clothes for me as the bullet hole, blood, dirt from running in the woods away from Michell and oil in my hair made me look like I had come out of a grave.

My long toned body completely in this outfit with my light olive skin tone would normally look great with my reddish brown hair and my bright blue eyes would make a striking and alluring sight. Now with my hair looking disheveled and my clothes more brown than black I was as they say a wreck. I see Jacob appear first and he is followed by a man in a police uniform. I feel my face freeze into a polite, but distant expression and analyze Jacob’s face for any clues about what is happening. One wrong statement to this police officer would bring suspicions upon everyone and if I seemed uncooperative with his questions he would wonder even more.

I am about to do what I hate, but it must be done “Officer, this is not a great time to be visiting. I have just woken up and in quite a bit of pain. Would you mind coming back in a few days to my office to discuss the incident.” I am playing the victim, but to be fair to myself you don’t have to play the victim if you are the victim.

The officer glances at Jacob who is remaining silent and grim, “I’m sorry Miss Renquist, but this is a murder attempt and it caused significant damage to the local restaurant you were in at the time. This is considered a high profile case now that it has made the statewide news. I have a few questions if you are willing to answer them we can go down to the station and get your testimony.” I use my right hand to gesture for Jacob to take over the conversation as I know he would like to handle the situation from a legal stand point.

Jacob goes to my side and picks something up off the end table next to me and it looks like a stapled document that is fairly thick. The officer takes it as Jacob uses his most annoyed professional voice, “Officer Waren, my client is a busy woman and she is the victim of this attack and was the only person seriously injured during the attack to Benedict’s. The matter might be more public, but that is all the more reason to protect my client from the person who attacked her who might look to finish his attack and public curiosity. We would be happy to give you our statements, hers as the victim and mine as the first on scene to give medical aid from the safe location of our offices at Life Blood Medical instead of the place the media and her attacker expect her to be the police station.” The officer is looking through the legal looking stack of documents and frowns between the document and Jacob.

Some of them look to be images and lab results which only confuse me further. After the officer leaves Jacob has some very long explanations to give me. On being why is he not at Life Blood at the moment and spending time in a hotel room with me. Granted I am happy he is here to deal with the police officer, but I need him working on how to nail Jackson for the crimes he committed against Life Blood. Jacob seems to have his own mind and does not care if he angers me as he knows he is the best and I would never fire him. He knows how to manipulate words and others well.

What upsets me more is the grudging envy I have for his different set of clothes he is wearing instead of the more causal affair he had on last night. Now he is wearing a full suit and silk tie with top of the line dress pants and shoes that shine so brightly you could almost see your reflection. He also has showered recently. In contrast I look like a homeless person who stole some nice clothes out of a garbage can. The officer finishes looking at the document and sighs, “Let me have the chief and the magistrate look at this and see if I can make an exception.” He turns his irritated brown eyes toward me and asks if he can make an on sight witness statement like he conducted last night with the other patrons of the restaurant.

I look toward Jacob again and he nods his head, he is clearing me to discuss the issue. Again, why I have no clue, but I will find out if I have beat it out of him. The officer pulls out a voice recorder and we begin. The transcript Jacob was able to get follows below.

DW: “This is Detective Warner badge number 5746 of the Atlanta PD, station 23 taking the statement of Anita Renquist, President of Life Blood Medical Industries at the Omni Hotel in downtown Atlanta regarding the shooting at Benedict’s deli on August 13th 2019. Miss Anita Renquist is the only injured victim of the incident and is waking up from being unconscious the day after the event August 14, 2019 at 9:15am. Please confirm your name, location and social security number.”

AR:“I am Anita Renquist President of Life Blood Industries currently located for this interview at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta. My current address is 2652 Acorn Avenue NE Atlanta GA 30305. My social security number is private information I do not want on record.”

DW: “That is fine as long as you have a valid state ID. Do you promise to tell the whole truth as you know it to the best of your ability.”

AR: ”Yes.”

DW: “Do you understand that falsely accusing anyone of a crime is a criminal offence?”

AR: “Yes, I do. That is always why I obtain evidence before I make a claim.”

DW: “Alright, let’s get started. Do you remember what happened at Benedict’s deli last night in detail?”

AR: “Yes, I was at a late dinner with my business colleges Theodore O’Lander and Jacob who I was told is the first responder to the incident. I had a bottle of wine and had a long day at work. I was tired and I was not watching around me. I left the table near the bar in the back party room early and walked to the deli counter to get pastries for my staff. After I bought and paid for the treats I pulled out my cell phone to call for my ride because I did not feel like it was safe to drive. The phone was ringing and then I was shot in the shoulder. I felt like I was losing blood and then I was unconscious. These are the last things I remember.”

DW: “Do you know anyone who would commit a crime against you or attempt to harm you?”

AR: “I had just fired my IT Director Jackson earlier that day as he had been attempting to embezzle money with his girlfriend’s help from my company. We are and were planning to lay charges against him once we collected all the evidence. He made threats against me when he was terminated and I have that interview recorded. My car was also vandalized last night in the parking deck and he have not moved or touched the vehicle since. It happened the morning while my IT Director was staying late with his team, but he had not yet been fired. He might have decided to make a hit against me. We don’t know who attacked my property. Other than that I know of no one who I have upset recently.”

DW: “Would you be willing to share this evidence with my department?”

AR: “Yes. Jacob will give you the tapes and you must sign documentation not to copy them under any circumstances or release them to the public.”

DW: “I will share your request with the captain and magistrate. However, we might have to subpoena them under court order if the restrictions are too tight in the contract to release them. What was the nature of his threat?”

AR: “It was a physical threat through body language, tone of voice and the unprofessional name calling he engaged in?”

DW: “Did he try to physically injure you at the time of the encounter?”

AR: “No. That is why I did not report the issue to the authorities immediately. The recording I made of the meeting was a pre-cation as I have worked with disgruntled employees in the past and was unsure how the interview would happen. It turned out that I did as he was found to be committing criminal acts against my business and that is why I recorded it?

DW: “Madam if you will only answer the questions posed. Thank you. Was a verbal threat made at any point in time?”

AR: “He threatened to release information about by family, personal information about my private property and my families shared and sensitive medical condition. He was attempting to blackmail me into keeping his job. He also asked if we know who vandalized by car Monday night.”

DW: “So he did not verbally threaten to physically harm you?”

AR: “No.”

DW: “I did not see a file made under your name for a vandalized car or company complaint. Is there a reason for that? Why did you not contact the Atlanta PD about the damage done to your car when it happened?”

AR: “I did not think it a matter that was a large concern. I had taken a ride home anyway with my cousin and came in the next morning. I had other matters that needed my attention first including an emergency board meeting. I thought to take care of it the day I fired Jackson, but in the concerns I had about replacing a key leader of my operations team it escaped my attention.”

DW: “You should have reported the damage immediately. Do you plan or want to file an insurance claim for the damage?”

AR: “The car has major damage due to dents from a weapon. Clearly the damage was intentional. Yes, I would like the claim to go through my insurance.”

DW: “I will file a separate report after I see the damage. Then another officer will investigate the issue and possible culprit of the damage. That might take a week to arrange, especially with the shooting taking the top concern.”

AR: “Sure, I will have my assistant Lucy show you the damage at our offices. The car has not been moved since Monday.”

DW: “You mentioned you have had disgruntled employees before. Could any of those people be a suspect to harm you and if so do you have information about their current locations?”

AR: “The issues I have encountered in the past have been dealt with through internal investigations through our HR department. I would be happy to give you the contact information to get whatever records you need.”

DW: “Thank you. It seems like I have many suspects to consider. Are you sure there is no one else who has physically attempted to harm you? I will be asking your neighbors and co-workers about the incident with Jackson as well. Do I have your consent to do so?”

AR: “Jacob, what are your thoughts on questioning employee’s? Should it be done externally?”

J: “If we want to pursue the crimes of blackmail, attempted extortion, attempted embezzlement and intentional and delinquent professional practices with the intent to expose or do harm we to let external departments and the justice system investigate.”

DW: “Thank you Jacob for the explanation. What is your choice Miss?”

AR: (I roll my eyes, I hate to be called Miss, I consider it condescending) “My preference considering our goals would be an external investigation with all permissions and requests being approved by my representation Dr. Jacob.”

DW: “Thank you. I wish you a quick recovery. We will be in touch soon. Please take my card and if you think of any additional information you can think of please call me. I will contact you if I still need you to come down to the station.”

AR: “Thank you, have a great rest of your day.”

End of Transcript

Detective Warner was more of a bull dog cop then I expected to show up to such a high profile interview, but it served the purpose I wanted it to have. Planting seeds of doubt concerning Jackson’s actions and placing blame for the majority of the issues I have had the last two days on him seemed a just reaction for his botched attempt at blackmail.

I did not often meet intelligent police officers, but Warner seemed to know that I was holding back some pieces of information. A benefit that came out of the interview was that I knew he was not interested in my families condition. Once they found Jackson and questioned him I wonder if that will change.

My fear is Jackson will share his suspicion about my family and I never aging and that they might take him even the slightest bit seriously. I did not need more government officials, past demon’s or anyone else for that matter knowing about our species existence. I did not need to become the focus of a vigilante uprising of super worshippers who believed vampires were sent by the Devil to ruin everything I have worked for or to harm my family.

If I have one nightmare and worst case scenario is what Uncle Samuel went through with the Russian prison camps. Being a prisoner and being forced to kill human after human like a rabid animal or worse a science experiment for Doctor Jackal like figure Michell was proposing seemed like a vison worse then hell. I would seriously contemplate murder or an assassination before I let my freedom be taken. That being the case I needed to find out what in the world Jacob did in such a public place in order to save my life, what he did not make sure no one at the hospital analyzed a vampire’s blood and how to decrease the growing interest in me as a person.

This week seems like it can’t get worse, even if I appreciate the fact that I was not waking up in a hospital. When I think about it, this might be a good day to have one of the many sick days I have been holding on to for five years. It might make Theodore worry, but odds are he knew I was shot last night after dinner. He would understand and it would allow me to take care of Jacob as I wished.

Jacob and I have not had a duel in some time and it would do my soul good to see him a little bloody at the moment while I get some answers after a nice long shower, a fresh change of clothes and an eggs benedict for breakfast. Speaking of which, where did my pastries from Benedict’s last night go!!! Jacob better have saved them and not eaten all of them!