11 comments/ 15971 views/ 22 favorites Diamond Murders By: donalde I would like to thank Kalamazoo707 for all of her hard work editing this story. I would like to thank both Kalamazoo707 and Iread2relax for all of their help with this story. Both of these fine ladies have excellent stories posted. For everyone who is wondering Heritage is still being worked on and I hope to be posting the next chapter real soon. Thank you for taking a moment to read this little story and please vote and comment. Here is the story hop you enjoy it. ************************* Detective Andrew Martin had been in the homicide division of the Baltimore police force for twelve of his seventeen years enforcement. For the most part he loved his job except for the kind of cases that he was currently working on. There was a string of unsolved murders the last count was ten that was driving him nuts. The problem was that the deaths had several things in common, they were all young healthy males, all of them had been drained of blood, and each of them had had a set of puncture marks that looked as if they were made by large bore needles that were surrounded by bright red lipstick. The similarities didn't end there, all of the victims were between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight and all of the deaths occurred around four AM after apparently having sex. There was also no evidence that any of them struggled and there was no evidence of a robbery. The first victim had about 500.00 in cash on him; even his credit cards were still in his wallet as were the cash and credit cards of each subsequent victim. As it stood the murders were occurring every four to five nights and the bodies were always found in plain view of passersby in the inner-city although each of them had rented a hotel room the night before their death. This struck Andrew as odd because three of the men lived alone and wouldn't have needed to rent a hotel room. There had been no witnesses to the murders or the body dumps and in the cases of the males who had been out with friends no one could recall when or with whom the male had left the club. In one case, the club video equipment had actually been working and caught the victim leaving the club. The odd thing was that it appeared as though he had his arm around someone but the image of the person was missing. The frustrating thing was what Andrew considered to be the lack of evidence; there were a few long black hairs, the lipstick left on the skin which the lab guys said was custom made and the vaginal secretions of a female. The lab also said that there was some type of anticoagulant around puncture marks. "We don't know what in the hell it is." Bill said, "I can tell you that it's even more potent than heparin but not only that, you know that we have samples of vaginal secretions and hair." "Yeah and?" "We can't get any DNA from any of it. I won't lie to you." Bill said, "In all of my years on the job I've never seen anything like it." "Can you give me anything to go on?" Andrew asked. "Well, your perp is female and your victims didn't struggle or fight her which begs the question how in the hell did was she able to subdue them enough to get those puncture marks in their necks and what did she do with the blood?" Andrew left the lab with more questions than he walked in with. The last victim, Akili Adoyo a Johns Hopkins's University student was in the United States on a student visa was from Kenya. According to his professors and his roommate, he was a serious young man whose focus was on his studies. "Akili on a date?" his roommate asked shocked, "Are we talking about the same guy? All he did was go to work, class, came home and then stayed in his room and studied." They got the same reaction from other students and the professors who knew the unfortunate young man; it simply wasn't like him to be out on a date when he had a paper due amongst other things. It just didn't make sense. What Andrew did know was that he had to catch a break within the next four days or another man was going to die. Through some basic profiling it was determined that the killer was indeed female although it was rare for a serial killer to be female, she was between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-five, Caucasian and that she would have a well above average intelligence. Andrew was finding himself very grateful that he took the classes that the department offered on profiling, it was proving to be worth the Saturdays spent in a classroom. The list of questions about the perp were continuing to grow, added to the ones that he already had were these, how was the perp able to kill the men without them struggling? From what the coroner said there was no indication that the men resisted having their heads moved to the position needed to get to their jugular vein, in fact, he said it was almost as though they offered themselves to her. Andrew's cell phone chirping interrupted his thoughts. "Andrew? Bill here, can you come back to the lab?" On his way to the lab Andrew wondered how long it would be before the press heard about the murders, he was actually surprised that they hadn't already and thanked God for big and small favors alike. He could only imagine the headlines. They would be screaming about the fact that the murders were kept from the public and that they had the right to know so on and so forth. Added to the mix would be the accusations of the department being inadequate and or not caring. Andrew had requested FBI involvement when the body count reached three but had been refused. Now that it was ten, they couldn't get the Feds here fast enough. "Better late than never." Andrew grumbled under his breath as he pulled in front of the lab. "Hey Bill what you got for me?" Andrew asked as he walked into the lab. Bill looked up from what he was doing and grinned; he loved the challenge of the hard cases and had helped solve some of the hardest ones in Andrews's career as a homicide detective. "You sure brought us a doozy!" he replied, "the anticoagulant that was used on the victims was a highly concentrated version of the one used by the vampire bat when it feeds." "Vampire bat?" Andrew asked and began to laugh, "What the fuck are you saying? That I have some kind of giant bat running around killing people?" Bill chuckled and then turned serious, "No, but I did talk to someone over at the zoo and what he said was that when the vampire bat bites, it's only a small opening and they lap the blood up with their tongues. It would appear that whoever killed your guys is using a pump of some kind to take the blood from the bodies. Here's another thing, mixed in with the anticoagulant in the dried saliva was a paralytic/anesthetic solution, which would explain why there was no struggle. We're still trying to figure out exactly what it is but I can tell you this much, whatever it was... it worked almost instantly." Andrew listened carefully as Bill talked, mulling the information over for a few minutes when Bill was done talking. "Why do you say that she used a pump?" he asked. "That's the only explanation that makes sense." Bill replied. "All of the victims were drained almost dry, what other answer could there be? I also talked to a few colleagues and they agree that's the only way that she could have done it but that begs another question." "I'm listening." Andrew replied. "Did she have her victims already picked out or is it random? And... did or does she have an accomplice? Just think about it, how could she have done all of that alone? I know that there are some relatively small pumps but still, it takes planning." Andrew's head began to hurt. It was bad enough that they had one that they couldn't catch but two? "What else?" Andrew asked. "Nothing, isn't what I've told you enough?" Bill asked. "I'll call you with any updates." Andrew thanked Bill and left the lab feeling overwhelmed, he didn't know anymore than he did at the beginning and more questions had been added to his rapidly growing list. Time was running out, someone else was going to die and there wasn't a damned thing that he could do about it. An hour later Andrew was back at his desk going over everything that he knew when the captain, Ted Conroy interrupted him. "You're getting extra help on this and before you say it I'm well aware that you've been asking." The captain said holding his hand up when he saw that Andrew was about to say something. "I'm assigning Lisa, Paul and Drew to help you and we've contacted the FBI." "It's about fucking time!" Andrew growled. The captain ignored the comment and continued, "We've set up one of the conference rooms and copies of the file are being made as we speak. The Feds are sending Special Agent Amelia Hensley who will act as a liaison between us and the bureau." As glad as he was for the extra help David was furious that it had taken ten deaths to get it. "Anything else?" he asked watching his tone. "Yes, you report directly to me, I want daily updates more if it's warranted. I almost forgot," the captain added," Shirley and Cindy will act as your extra pairs of hands. They had to take a prisoner to the courthouse and should be back in a couple of hours, Bill Wilson is the lab guy assigned to this and Jane Wiseman will be in charge of any press releases so run everything through her before talking to the press." "Got it." Andrew said already planning how to best use the assets that he had finally been given. "Andrew, I can't stress enough how important it is that we catch this suspect as quickly as possible...." Andrew lost it. "Why the fucking hurry now?" he asked, "I've been asking for support ever since the third death and the fucking budget was thrown in my face!" He was yelling and he didn't care. "And now you can't stress the importance of catching the suspect quickly? So what in the hell happened? Did the press find out or is your job on the line?" His brain screamed for him to stop talking but he couldn't, the too many sleepless nights and exhaustion had finally caught up with him. "My office, now!" Captain Conroy said and then walked away. Andrew had no choice but to follow the order, had more than overstepped his bounds and hoped that he wasn't going to be suspended for insubordination. "Shut the door." The captain said as he sat on the edge of his desk. Andrew shut the door, turned to face the captain and waited for the dress down. "Sit down." Andrew was going to refuse but thought better of it. "I know that you've been working your ass off on this case with little to no help and I'm sorry for that but that doesn't excuse insubordination." the captain said. "I know and I'm sorry." Andre replied. "It's just that this could have been stopped a few bodies ago and no one was listening." "That's not true." The captain replied. "I've been fighting for additional help ever since your first request, why they decided to give in is anyone's guess. "As to your outburst out there, I'm going to attribute it to exhaustion and lack of sleep, do it again and you'll be put on suspension without pay. We're done here." "Captain? What about overtime?" "Approved and I want every single hour of it justified." Andrew nodded his understanding, left the office and went to the conference room to find that Special Agent Hensley had arrived and was already organizing the files. "Hello." Andrew said interrupting her work, "I'm Detective Andrew Martin." "Hello." Amelia replied extending her hand, "I'm Special Agent Amelia Hensley." she replied. Andrew shook her hand liking that it was a firm, confident handshake. "Where do we start?" Andrew asked. "From the beginning." Amelia replied, "Please don't take this wrong but you were working on this alone and something may have been missed. With several pairs of new eyes maybe we'll find something that we can use to help us. Andrew was far from offended, she was right and if it helped to stop the crazy bitch from killing again she could have as many people that she wanted look at the files. By the time the rest of the team got there, the files had been organized into neat stacks, a stack for each person and a timeline was already drawn up on the white board. Introductions were made and the battle plan laid out, "Each of you will read through the files." Amelia said, "Mark anything that jumps out at you no matter how unimportant it seems, sometimes it's the little things that break a case." The team worked well past end of shift trying to glean every bit of information from the files that they could. After one was finished with a file, he or she exchanged it for another with someone else until all of the files had been looked at. After taking a short break, they all looked at the white board to fill in the blanks. Andrew was getting impatient; a couple of more days and someone was going to die unless they got a major break. ****** On March fourteenth, Frank Barnes a sixth generation Baltimore cop had just finished his shift. For the most part he enjoyed his job except for days like today. There had been two domestic disputes with the second one being a nightmare. The husband had beaten the wife up pretty badly but when the police tried to intervene, the wife attacked the officers. They hadn't realized that there was a fifteen year old boy in the house or that there was a gun. They found out when the boy pulled the gun on them while they were trying to subdue the woman. It was a very tense few minutes until Frank had managed to talk the boy into giving up the weapon. Frank breathed a sigh of relief that neither he nor his partner had to shoot the boy. Although he usually stayed away from the bars because he preferred to drink alone, Frank decided to stop at the 'Driftwood bar and Grille. The 'Driftwood bar and Grille' was a nice little place that was a favorite because it was cop friendly and served one of the best burgers around. Frank walked in, looked around and took a seat up at the bar ordering a draft as he sat. He took a casual look around the rapidly filling bar and noticed that he was being watched by a gorgeous raven haired woman. He gave her a quick once over taking note of her figure that included large breasts and long sensuous legs. When she made eye contact, she smiled and gave Frank a slight nod of her head before turning away. Frank's attention was pulled away from the woman by loud cheers when an older couple walked into the bar. When he turned around to face forward, the raven haired woman was sitting next on the stool next to him. "Diamond," she said as she offered him her hand as her full lips curled up into a seductive smile. "Frank, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said taking her hand and returning the smile. He couldn't believe that this was happening. While he wasn't a bad looking man with dark wavy hair and dark eyes he wasn't the type that women like this one was attracted to. As they made small talk while they sipped on their drinks, Frank took in her scent. It reminded him of a freshly cut field after a rain shower on a warm spring day. He felt himself becoming enamored with her and was powerless to stop. He hung on to every word that she spoke becoming drunk with the sound of her soft but melodic voice. When she suggested that they leave and go somewhere more private, Frank quickly agreed. He paid his tab while the woman called the 'Harbor Inn' where she had decided to spend the evening with her friend for the evening. Ten minutes later they were in the room where they quickly undressed. When Frank reached for her, Diamond stepped back; she wanted to see what he looked like without his clothes. She licked her lips as she started at the top of his head and slowly moved her eyes down his body. "I have chosen an exceptionally fine donor this evening." she said as she continued her appraisal, "I shall enjoy feasting on you." Frank wondered what she meant but didn't have time to ask as Diamond was pushing him back on the bed as she kissed his chest as she stroked his rapidly stiffening member. Frank cried out as Diamond gently stroked him while dragging her nails lightly across the skin of his cock. Her slow, leisurely strokes were driving Frank nuts but she wouldn't allow him to do anything to hurry her along. "Trust me." she whispered in his ear, "this is going to be the best fuck of your life, a real heart stopper." Diamond nipped at his earlobe and then slowly kissed and nipped at his skin until she was at his right nipple. She swirled her warm wet tongue around the nipple several times before finally taking it into her mouth gently biting on and tugging on it with her teeth. Frank moaned and cried out as the sensations in his nipples traveled down to his cock. He moaned in frustration when her mouth left the left nipple and moaned in pleasure when he felt his right nipple being taken into her mouth and given the same treatment but biting to the point of pain. Frank was out of his mind with lust, no other woman had ever driven him to such heights of pleasure and all she had done was suck his nipples and stroke him. His heart felt as if it was going to jump out of his chest as she began to make her way southward taking the time play with his belly button with her tongue. Diamond continued her trek southward, kissing his pelvic bone and then giving it a lick before blowing over the moist spot. "Shit!" Frank exclaimed when he felt the head of his cock enter her hot, moist mouth. Diamond smiled to herself as she began to slide her reddened lips down the length of the cock of her latest victim. Each time she took Frank's cock into her mouth she took more of him in until she had all of him deep in her throat. Every so often she would let his cock fall from her mouth so that she could lick the length of it like she was eating an ice cream cone. When she reached the sensitive spot where the head of his cock met the shaft she would give quick but firm licks until Frank began to beg her to end it. "Soon lover." she murmured as she took the head of his cock back into her mouth. He had to stop her, it was too much. Frank grabbed Diamond's arms and pulled her up to him for a kiss. "What's the matter?" she asked teasingly, "is my warm mouth too much for the big strong man?" Both of them laughed as Diamond positioned herself over his throbbing cock and eased down on it so slowly that Frank wanted to grab her by the hips and slam her down on him. Diamond began to rock back and forth and then moved up and down at that same maddening unhurried pace. Whenever he tried to alter her movements, Diamond would pin Frank down so tightly against the mattress that he couldn't move. In his lust he didn't seem to notice the strength that she had. Frank felt his balls tighten signaling that his release was imminent. Diamond also sensing that his time was near, bent down kissed and then licked Frank's neck releasing the chemicals that would render him helpless. She looked down at Frank whose eyes widened in surprise and horror when he saw the fangs in her mouth. Frank tried to scream as Diamond's face moved closer to his as she still rode him, her orgasm just beginning. She bit deep into his neck releasing the anticoagulant that would allow the blood to continue to flow freely until there was very little left. Diamond gulped down the blood as fast as it came out while wondering why this donor's blood seemed to be sweeter than any of the others. Frank's body was discovered early the next morning in an alley just off of Lexington Street. The first responding officers quickly blocked the area off, started interviewing the man who found the body and placed a call to Detective Andrew Martin. ********* Amelia and Andrew were having breakfast to discuss a few thoughts that Andrew was having about the case when the call came. Ten minutes later they were at the scene and so was a large crowd of people. Diamond Murders "Let's get someone to talk to the crowd," Amelia suggested, "sometimes the killer likes to watch and we need to take note of anyone who seems too anxious to help in any way." After assigning officers to interview the crowd Amelia and Andrew went over to the body which had already been identified. "Oh god!" Andrew said softly as he recognized the victim. "You knew him?" Amelia asked. "Yeah I knew him." Andrew replied, "I was his training officer before I got moved to homicide. He was a good cop with a good future in the department." The murders were now in a whole new light; one of their own was now a victim. "This is exactly like the others." Medical Examiner Walter Lassidar said as he examined the body, "down to the lipstick. Who in the hell is doing this?" he murmured under his breath. "Here's a hotel receipt." The ME said after he emptied Frank's pockets. "That's just two blocks from here." Andrew said as he motioned for Drew and Lisa to come over. He watched the crowd as Paul moved around taking pictures and sneaking in a few of the crowd. Somehow he knew that whoever she was, she wasn't in the crowd but they needed to be thorough. "Get over to the hotel and let's hope that housekeeping hasn't gotten to it yet" Andrew said, "a forensics team will be there in a few minutes, keep me posted." A few minutes later Lisa was interviewing the manager of the hotel. "Yes he was here." he said as he looked through the guest log from the night before, "checked in at eight-nineteen." "Was there a woman with him?" "Yes but don't ask me what she looked like because I can't tell you..... Why do I remember him but not her?" he asked. "Good question." Lisa replied, "Are your security cameras working?" "Yes... I suppose you want the footage?" "I would at least like to see it." Lisa replied. While she waited for the manager to get the tape she checked on Drew. "Anything?" she asked. "No and housekeeping swears that they haven't been in here, you?" "The manager is getting the security tapes as we speak." she replied, "keep your fingers crossed that something shows up." Lisa watched the tape in disbelief, Frank was on the tape and his arm was positioned as though it was around someone but there was no one there. "I have to take this." she told the manager who only shrugged not really seeming all that concerned that one of his guest who happened to be a cop was murdered. "Didn't happen here did it?" he asked when Lisa asked about his reaction. "No but..." "Then I'm not going to obsess over it." ******* The team met back at the conference room to compare notes. Andrew had an appointment with the captain for later in the morning to give updates on the case; he hoped that they had something to tell him. As with the other cases there was very little physical evidence that was of use. There was the single strand of black hair and body fluids from the couple having sex. "Everything is exactly the same!" Bill exclaimed exasperated. "Cindy, you talked to the man who called it in, what did he have to say?" Andrew asked. "Not much, he's a city sanitation worker and was heading to work when he spotted the body. At first he thought that it was a bum but changed his mind when he saw how well dressed the vi.... Frank was. Then he thought that it was a mugging victim and called as soon as he realized that he was dead, he says that he didn't touch the body." "He didn't see anyone around?" Andrew asked. "He says he didn't." Cindy replied. "Drew, what do you have?" Amelia asked. Just as Drew was about to begin his report there was a tap at the door. A young patrolman nervously opened the door and stuck his head inside. "Excuse me but could I please speak to Detective Martin?" "I'm Detective Martin." Andrew said, "What do you need?" "I'm Officer Hank Johnson, is it true that you think a woman killed Frank?" Andrew gave the young officer a wary look before replying. "You know that I can't divulge that information." "I know... sorry. It's just that Frank was a friend of mine and..." "Officer do you have something to tell us?" Andrew asked his tone curt. "Oh, yes sir." The officer replied nervously. "Maybe it's nothing and I hope that I'm not wasting your time..." "Hank," Amelia said softly, "tell us what you saw and heard." "I saw Frank last night at the Driftwood; he came in alone but left around seven-forty five with a hot number on his arm." Andrew sat up straighter, "Can you describe her? "Sure! She was around five feet seven inches tall, one -hundred twenty pounds give or take a few, black hair that fell to about mid back and blue eyes. She was wearing a white blouse with a black miniskirt and stiletto heels." "I want you to meet with a composite artist!" Andrew said excitedly. They had just gotten their first big break, now if they could only catch the bitch. Andrew gave everyone assignments to do while he and Amelia met with the captain. Reenergized, everyone set out about their tasks. Bill set Hank up with a composite artist who would then make copies of the drawing to pass out to everyone and Drew and Shirley went back to canvas the area around the bar and hotel to talk to people that they may have missed. After the meeting with the captain Amelia and Andrew went to the morgue so that they could sit in on Frank's autopsy. Each of them was hoping that the autopsy would give them more clues as to solving the mysteries of the case. Unfortunately the medical examiner could offer no new information with the exception of one thing. "I doubt that a pump was used." he said. "If that were the case the veins and arteries would have been collapsed." "Then how?" Andrew asked. "Vampire?" the ME quipped, "I don't know but if you find out tell me." As they drove back to the office Andrew decided to pick Amelia's brains. "What are your impressions?" he asked. Amelia took a moment to formulate her answer. "This has got to be one of the most perplexing cases that I've ever worked on." she replied, "The unsub is very highly organized, intelligent and resourceful and to date her only mistake was being spotted by the officer which if you think about it was very careless on her part. These are the questions that are going through my head, You heard the description of her, she's beautiful! So why doesn't the hotel manager remember her? How is she able to convince her victims to comply enough so that she can drug them and if she isn't using a pump to drain the bodies how is she doing it and what is she doing with the blood? There hasn't been a trace of blood spotted in any of the hotel rooms- how is she managing that?" "And," Andrew added, "Where is she getting the anticoagulant? My understanding is that it's a hundred times more effective than heparin and the blood would be useless because of it." "Maybe she's like Elizabeth Bathory- the so called Blood countess." Amelia said. "Who?" Andrew asked. "Elizabeth Bathory was a Hungarian Countess during the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries who is reported to have killed somewhere around 700 young women for their blood. The story is that she bathed in it because she thought that it would keep her looking young." "Nice! What happened to her?" She was tried and then walled up in a tower with only a slot big enough to slide her food and water through. She was never released and spent the last four years of her life there." Amelia replied. "So that's your official profile?" Andrew asked laughing. "No." Amelia replied with a smile, "just imparting some interesting history but here's something else that's bothering me, how did she get the body out of the room without attracting any attention?" "And how do you not show up on camera?" Andrew added. "How do we proceed from here?" "I would suggest that we keep the photo of her out of the press for now but we give one to every cop in the area, we also need to pick out the most likely places that she'll try to pick up her next victim. Maybe we'll get lucky and grab her before anyone else dies." Amelia replied as a feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. The rest of the ride passed in silence as Amelia tried to think if they had missed anything and Andrew was formulating a plan on how to best utilize his resources to catch this woman before she killed again. He wondered if the captain would give him at least one more person to help with some of the leg work. Everyone was back at the station sitting in the conference room looking exhausted. They all needed to sleep; their brains were no longer functioning. "Go home." Andrew said when he walked in, "Be back here by 8AM and bring an overnight bag, we have a lot to do before the next night that she kills." ******* Andrew was the first to arrive; his hope was that the captain would be there early so that he could get the meeting with the captain over with. Much to Andrew's surprise he received the extra help that he had requested. "I'm giving you Jason Standish for your core group; he'll be a fresh pair of eyes and may have some insight that could make a difference. Also starting tonight we're adding extra patrols to the night shift just in case she changes her time table." In the end the captain agreed that the sketch of the woman and all information should be kept away from the press for now. "We don't want her getting a heads up and moving to another area." he said. The day was spent going over clues and evidence and forming a plan. In the late afternoon several of them went to the bars and hotels that they thought the woman was likely to go to talk to the night staff. After several heated moments of conversation, Andrew decided to take a calculated risk and to leave a picture of the woman at each of the places of business. If the woman showed up she was not to be confronted but the police were to be called immediately. By March seventeenth all of the surveillance was in place and after a long night in which four muggings and one attempted rape had been stopped it was clear that the guest of honor wasn't going to show. Andrew met with the Captain that morning already knowing that he was going to be taking some heat for the amount of overtime his task force was generating. He spent a good hour begging for one more night but it wasn't the captain that he needed to convince. Finally after a long and arduous talk with the mayor he was granted his one more night. March 18 The night started out as the others had. Quiet. Andrew was starting to become concerned that he and the captain had stuck their necks out for nothing. "Andrew," Amelia said seeing his anxiety, "this was a good call." "Where in the hell is she?" Andrew asked not really expecting an answer. It was quiet for the rest of the task force until about nine pm. Lisa who was partnered with Drew asked him to stop at 'O'Shay's Pub' so that she could use the bathroom. After parking they went inside where Lisa headed to the restrooms while Drew ordered a couple of sandwiches and diet cokes for them and settled in to wait for both the order and Lisa. As soon as Lisa walked into the restroom, she saw the woman that they were looking for standing at the sink. Without saying anything, Lisa stepped into the first empty stall and pulled out her service weapon, a Glock twenty-two forty caliber pistol. Next, she pulled out her cell phone and called Drew. "She's here in the restroom, hurry before anyone else comes in." Lisa stepped out of the stall, aimed her gun and called out in a loud, clear voice, "Baltimore City Police! Place your hands on the wall and do not move!" Diamond turned to face Lisa and sneered, "You've just made a mistake love." and began to approach her. Lisa couldn't believe that the woman was still coming at her even though there was a gun pointed at her. "Stop or I will shoot!" Lisa called out as she wondered where in the hell Drew was. Diamond smiled and threw herself at Lisa who discharged two rounds into Diamond's chest. Lisa watched as the blood flowed from the woman's chest amazed that the woman was still coming for her, hadn't even slowed her down. Diamond snarled as she felt the bullets slam into her. They weren't fatal but they would cause her considerable blood loss. She reached out, grabbed Lisa by her neck and twisted effectively snapping Lisa's neck as if it were no more than a twig. She dropped Lisa's body and then heard Drew on the other side of the door. She launched herself at the door almost taking it off of its hinges and surprising Drew. Without looking back Diamond disappeared into the crowded pub and out onto the street. Blood continued to flow from her wound causing her to become weaker by the minute, she had to feed and soon. She cursed as she thought about the fine specimen that she had picked out for her meal that evening. If the clumsy woman sitting next to her hadn't spilled her drink on her she would be enjoying her dinner. ****** Drew had just gotten off of the phone with Lisa and was by the door when he heard the shots. Before he could open the door it blew open and driving him backwards and slammed him into the wall knocking the wind out of him. He staggered to his feet and ran into the bathroom. The second he saw Lisa he knew that she was dead, there was no way that she could be alive with her neck and head at the unnatural angle in which it lay. Panicked and grief stricken he called for help. "Officer needs assistance O'Shay's pub on Baltimore Street! Shots fired! Officer down! Need backup and medical assistance!" Andrew's heart stopped when he heard Drew's voice. He started the car and flew up Orleans Street and had just made the right hand turn onto Central Avenue when Amelia spotted Diamond. "There she is!" Amelia said pointing at Diamond who was running toward a school building. Andrew sped into the school parking lot and parked his eyes on Diamond who stopped, looked at them with her face already changed into its true form, her eyes were nothing more than black orbs with no discernible pupil and her mouth hung open revealing her fangs. She seemed to be taunting them as she grinned and then jumped through a window twenty feet away. Amelia and Andrew looked each other in disbelief. "What in the fuck was that?" Andrew whispered, "Did she have fangs? And what was with that face?" he added. "I... I don't know." Amelia replied in a shaky voice. "Are you alright?" Andrew asked. "I'm fine." Amelia replied after a minute. "Now let go get this bitch!" Andrew went to the trunk of the car, got out a shotgun and handed it to Amelia. "There are extra shells in the glove box and grab the flashlight too." he said as he checked his own weapon. Amelia got the shells and flashlight before chambering the first shell and turning on the tact-light that was mounted on the shot gun. Andrew had already called in giving all of the pertinent information. The thought to wait crossed his mind but he didn't want to take the chance that the subject would get away. He turned the volume of his radio all the way down and began to make his way to the window where they had seen the woman go in. They cautiously peeked into the classroom hoping to spot the woman but she was already gone. Andrew used his jacket to cover the broken glass on the window pane, climbed in and then helped Amelia in. ****** Diamond knew that she was being followed, saw the car approaching and decided to let the cops see her as she truly was. Her goal was to lure them into the building so that she could feed from them so that she could speed her healing. Because she wouldn't be having an orgasm the paralytic/anesthetic component of her saliva would be ineffective but even so, they were no match for her, even together. She looked around for a place to lay in wait for them. ****** Andrew and Amelia slowly moved toward the door that led to the hallway and opened it. Andrew went first looking both ways and listening before proceeding. "Cover the hall while I check out the room across the hall." Andrew whispered. "Be careful!" Amelia whispered back as her eyes swept up and down the length of the hall. Andrew ran across the hall as quickly as he could trying to make himself as small of a target as possible and opened the door. Finding the room empty, he went back to Amelia and they repeated the process until they reached the end of the hall which opened into a large common area. To the right was the office and the main entrance, the entrance to the cafeteria lay to the left. Next to the cafeteria was the gymnasium and directly across from it was another long hallway. They cleared the cafeteria and office areas without seeing any sign of the woman. Andrew was beginning to wonder if the woman had somehow given them the slip but deep down he knew that she was still in the building. He could almost feel her; he could almost feel her evilness and knew that Amelia was feeling it too. They moved to the Gymnasium next. This was the room that was going to be the hardest to clear because of its size and many blind spots. Andrew leaned over to Amelia to give her instructions. "Stay with me and keep your eyes and ears open. I'll watch our backs and you watch the front." Amelia gave him a nervous nod and they slowly entered the gym. They were no more than ten feet in when a noise above them caught their attention. He saw the woman dropping down towards them and pushed Amelia out of the way. Amelia wasn't ready for the hard shove lost her balance and slid twenty feet across the slick gymnasium floor before coming to a stop. Andrew had just enough time to raise his arm before the woman slammed into him knocking him to the floor as he grabbed his arm. Before he knew what was happening the woman had his wrist in her mouth, had bitten down and was greedily drinking from him. Managing to keep a hold of his weapon, Andrew fired off four rounds before the woman yanked it out of his hands and tossed it away. Amelia struggled to her feet, ran over to the woman and wrapped her arms around her neck from behind and pulled her back from Andrew. The woman snapped her head back making contact with Amelia's nose crushing it and dazing her. Diamond reached behind her, grabbed Amelia and flipped her so that she was flat on her back. Diamond looked at Amelia and smiled, "I don't usually drink from women as their blood isn't as sweet as a male's but for you I will make an exception." Without pause Diamond grabbed Amelia by the hair and exposed her neck. She licked her lips and bit deep into Amelia's jugular vein and began to feast. Distracted by feeding from Amelia, Diamond didn't notice Andrew now weakened by blood loss retrieve the shotgun. She didn't notice until she felt the weapon pressed tightly against her right side. She released Amelia to turn to Andrew and screamed in pain when she felt the shot slam into her side. "Go to hell bitch!" Andrew murmured as he pulled the trigger again. He watched with satisfaction as what was her face was nothing more than a red mass. He dropped the gun, took out his radio and made a frantic cry for help. "Two officers down! Need assistance now!" he screamed as he removed what was left of his shirt and tried to staunch the flow of blood that was coming from Amelia's neck. He passed out a few minutes later not realizing that he hadn't given their location in the school. Four minutes later the first police unit arrived followed by medical support. Detective Andrew Martin died on the way to the hospital and Special Agent Amelia Hensley died a few minutes after her arrival. They were the last two victims of the woman known as Diamond. The medical examiner was at a loss as to how to explain why a woman who had just died and was still warm looked like a one hundred year old mummified corpse. Diamond Murders ******* Epilogue The bodies of Detective Andrew Martin and Special Agent Amelia Hensley were waiting in the morgue to be autopsied first thing in the morning. When the medical examiner arrived the next morning he was shocked to find the bodies gone having disappeared during the night. The only other thing of note that happened that night was that a clothing store had been broken into with the only things taken being a set of clothes for a man and a woman. Headline from a Mexico City, Mexico newspaper: "The bodies of the Martinez drug cartel found drained of blood" The end? Or maybe the beginning.