Woody was sitting at the head of the autopsy table writing notes in a notebook when they walked into the room. He had a pen in his right hand and a half eaten beefy jerky stick in the other, but at the sight of the two detectives, he ungracefully shoved it in his pocket and stood up.
"Detectives, Shawn, Gus! To what do I owe the pleasure? I was just finishing up some notes on this beautiful lady you guys brought me!" Juliet wrinkled her face in disgust at his words.
"Have you determined COD?" Lassister asked, getting straight to the point. Woody smiled excitedly, rubbing his hands together.
"This is a fun one. I'm not done running all my tests, but from what I can tell, this lovely lady doesn't show any signs of abuse or defensive wounds. No broken bones, puncture wounds, or lacerations of any sort. We'll, besides the obvious cut to her throat. Interestingly, that injury was sustained post mortem. She had already been drained of blood before the killer slashed her throat."
"How is that possible? Her blood was everywhere" Gus spoke up, his voice wavering slightly.
"I can confirm that the blood found on the victim was definitely all hers. After she died of blood loss, the person who did this then slashed her throat and smeared her blood everywhere"
"So you're telling us that our victim died because she lost too much blood, but that is somehow not related to the massive gash on her neck" Shawn asked, slightly confused.
"Yup, pretty much." Woody shrugged his shoulders.
"Can you give us anything else to go on" Lassiter asked annoyed.
"We'll, when I was examining the body, I did find this mark on her neck." Woody rounded the table until he was standing by the victim's head. He reached over and pushed the woman's hair to the side, exposing her neck. His motioned the detectives to move closer and he pointed out a faint mark marring the victims skin.
"It almost looks like something bit her here, but the skin is completely healed over. The skin is too smooth to be scar tissue, but the pattern of the mark is too unique to be a birth mark. I don't think I've seen anything like it before."
Shawn felt his heart drop in his chest. Smacking Gus to get his attention, he tore his gaze away from the familiar looking mark and locked eyes with his confused friend.
"Dude, what?" Gus whispered quietly. Oh wait, Gus wouldn't recognize the mark. He wasn't there.
Looking over to the two detective, he saw that Juliet was still observing the victim quietly. When he turned his head, Lasseter's intense stare met his. Lassiter saw what Shawn did. He watched as the detective’s eyes glanced down to stare at his partner's neck, her skin exposed as she craned her neck to see what the coroner was still pointing at. When Lassiter's eyes met his again, he was sure that they came to the same conclusion.
"Woody?" Shawn asked, a slight tremor in his voice.
"What's up Shawn?" Woody said cheerfully.
"Did they say anything about the second sample of blood that they brought in." Woody stood up straight and clapped his hands together.
"Oh ya, I knew I was forgetting something! I can't give you an ID yet, but you were right Shawn. The blood they found on the window definitely didn't come from our victim. All I can tell you right now is that the blood came from a man"
Shawn could feel his hands start to clam up, a slight tremor causing his hands to shake nervously.
"Thanks Woody, you were very helpful like always." Woody smiled at Shawn, moving closer to clamp his hand down on his shoulder.
"I was born to serve Shawny."
With a tight smile, Shawn moved away from the coroner and looked over to Lassiter, tilting his head in the direction of the door.
"Why don't we go talk in the conference room. I think im getting something." Lassiter nodded his head grimly, taking the lead to head out the autopsy room and up the stairs to the bullpen. Juliet followed right behind her partner while Gus stayed behind with Shawn.
"Did you see something" he whispered to Shawn quietly as he followed his friend up the stairs. "I'll tell you in a second buddy."
Once they were all settled in the break room, Shawn shut the door behind him and closed the blinds. "Shawn, what's going on?" Juliet asked confused. She noticed the troubled look on her boyfriend face.
"Jules, we've seen that mark before" He finally said once he said down next to his friend, the two detectives sat across them. Juliet looked over at her partner and her frown deepened when she noticed he was nodding in agreement to Shawn's statement. "What do you mean?"
"Well, let me rephrase that. You haven't seen the mark before but we have." Shawn smiled sympathetically at her, moving his hand up and tilting his head to the side slightly to point at his neck. Juliet still didn't get it, her eyes moving away once again to glance at her partner. It was when she noticed his eyes focused on her own neck when she finally connected the dots.
Her hand rose up the press into the crook of her neck, fingers lightly pressing onto the spot she remembered Shawn's mouth pressed to not too long ago. "Oh" she whispered quietly.
Gus sat quietly and watched his friends as understanding settled on all their faces. "Can someone please explain to me what I'm missing."
Shawn put his hands back down and turned to his him. "Sorry buddy, but I may have left out some important details earlier." Gus nodded his head, waiting for his friend to explain. Shawn took the next couple minutes to explain the entire story to Gus. By the end of it, his face had paled considerably.
"Wait, so you…" he paused to clear his throat. "You bit Juliet and drank her blood" he asked, sounding appalled.
"Yes he did." Lassiter said angerly, glaring at Shawn. Shawn threw his hands up in front of him.
"Hey, in my defensive, it didn't hurt her. Actually, if I remember correctly, she enjoyed it immensely." Shawn grinned, loving the flush of red forming on his girlfriends cheeks.
Gus leaned forward in his chair and stood up slightly to get a look at the female detectives neck. Juliet turned her body and tilted her neck so Gus could have a better look. With the light of the conference room right above then, the mark on Juliet's neck stood out against her pale skin.
"That looks just like the one on the victim."
Shawn's smile fell off his face as he nodded. "Exactly. And I have a feeling I know exactly what happened to her." Gus flinched slightly, his hand slowly rising to cover his neck as he grimaced.
"Do you think it was Will?" Juliet asked, her question directed at Shawn.
"That's the only thing that makes sense. I know there could be other vampires out there but this is too much of a coincidence to not be connected."
You must login () to review.