Collinsport. There have been several attacks upon young woman in Collinsport. The official reports indicate that they are animal attacks. A detective from Providence has arrived to examine the bodies and to discuss the case, as there have been similar attacks in Providence. The similarity in the cases are the twin puncture wounds on the victims throats and that they have all been drained of blood. Although the word has been used, those in authority in Providence and Collinsport refuse to allow it to be put into any of the official reports. Vampire. That is all except for one . . . .
The elevator ding seems almost an anarchism, the sound that would have accompanied an Otis elevator from years gone by, not a modern one, but then again there were a lot of things in Collinsport that seems oddly out of place out of time, Izzy Collins thinks as she steps into the hard light of the morgue. And most definitely out of place was the man now sitting in the chair beside her desk. Hes wearing a tan lab coat with Miskatonic U stenciled on the breast pocket.
She stops and stands glaring at the man. The elevator doors close behind her.
Ding.
He turns to look at her, watching as she removes the red twizzler dangling from her mouth and tucks it in her pocket staring at him with those bright deer in the headlight eyes.
Hello my I help you? She asks unable to conceal the irritation in her voice.
“Oh, hello . . . theres no reason to be startled.” He says quickly. No reason to be disturbed, and then in a lower voice adds, “Well, about me, that is. Youre Isabella Collins, the Medical Examiner, right?”
“Yes . . .” she looks around as if expecting other people to appear. It had only been a little over an hour since she had had other visitorsthat Lieutenant Mills and the detective from Providence, who had come down to disturb her solitude. Although, she had to admit–the detective had been rather nice on the eyes and he had asked her out.
But nowthere was this man who was certainly not as easy on the eyes.
“I’m David Silva. I used to be a medical examiner, much like yourself, in Seattle. He says and pushes his glasses back with a fingertip pressed against the frame at the bridge of his nose, I got fired for telling the truth. Most people dont want to hear the truth dont want to know the truth and are far more comfortable with lies. Now, I am here working for St. Clair . . . on a special investigation. Im a consultant. But that special investigation is not what I came to talk to you about.” He clears his throat. “It’s the – um the animal attacks that have occurred recently. Do you have any of those corpses here? Have you examined them? Forgive my presumption, I think we should talk about this.”
Izzy Collins narrows her eyes as she gave him a quick inspection, the shoe partly unlaced and undetected, the third button missed in dressing hurriedly, the way he seem to engage in a series of nervous tells, pushing the glasses, his fingers tapping, I am sorry but your going to have to come back later.” She puts the red twizzler back into her mouth and walks over to one of the stainless steel autopsy tables and picks up the metal clipboard lying there and turns her back on this David Silva.
“I must admit you’re not quite what I expected.” He added for a bit of humor. “I thought you’d be a nerdess in a while lab coat.”
She continued to flip pages on the clipboard, apparently ignoring him as she writes something on a form.
He frowns at her response. “Miss, you really should hear what I have to say. Those were not animal attacks. Surely you realize that.”
“I know . . .” She replies with a cold indifference to the intruder. Izzy Collins wasnt full-blown anthropophobic, she just hated people in her office, in her private space, well, in most spaces around her, but after having had the conversation with Detective Frid, she was beginning to be interested in what this Silva had to say.
Here, let ME tell YOU exactly what you found. He says standing up and looking down into the autopsy room, Two neat puncture wounds, or maybe four, in the neck, into the juggler vein. The victims neatly exsanguinated, and then transported to the location in which they were found. Dumped, just tossed aside and left to be found. As if without remorse or concern. Now, I ask you to consider logic: what kind of animal bites its prey only once, sucks the blood out of it, and then transports it to another location and then leaves all that fresh meat to rot? Rhetorical question. NO animal behaves that way.” He pushes his glasses back, “There is in fact only one species with that M.O., and it isn’t an animal.”
Izzy Collins puts the clipboard down, and steps over to wipe her hands on a towel. She moves the twizzler from the left to the right side of her mouth with her tongue and grabs a pair of purple latex gloves from the box, pulling them on and snapping them over her pale long hands. Her back still to David Silva she steps over to one of the morgue drawers and pulls it out, Yeah, I know,” She says.
David Silva nods. “And, like you, I have written animal attack as the cause of death in these kind of cases. But one day, I just couldn’t stand the lies anymore, and I wrote the real cause of death: exsanguination due to vampire attack. There are vampires you know. There are vampires here in Collinsport, Miss Collins. Do you believe me, following where the evidence points? Or do you dismiss me as a nutcase?”
She looks at the body lying in the drawer, And what do you want me to do about it?”
“I . . . I . . . I want you to verify this. So that we can go to acting Chief Mills and tell her. If it’s just one of us, she’ll probably think we’re crazy. But maybe if both of us go, maybe we can make a dent in her hard shell of disbelief.”
Izzy Collins turns now and looks him for the first time, “She will just think we’re both crazy”
She closes the drawer and opens another rolling out another body that of an old man whose family demanded a second opinion, as they disagreed with the doctors certification that he had died from a heart attack. She works at moving the body out and onto one of gurneys.
“Probably. Thats a risk certainly, but this vampire or these vampires are new. I mean, I know of a vampire that lives in Collinsport, and another who recently visited. Neither of them did these attacks. That means there are new vampires in town who think nothing of killing people. There should be some kind of warning, some curfew, or both about going out at night.
She looks up at him. He knows a vampire?
She locks the wheels of the gurney.
Or you are going to start getting a whole lot more of these attacks. Believe me – I’ve seen it before.”
She rolls the body over to the autopsy table, Keeps me busy.”
“In a town of millions, like Los Angeles, these mysterious attacks can be swept under the rug. People are murdered every day in Los Angeles. But here . . . This ‘increased business’ is going to draw a lot of attention.
She makes the incision, placing the scalpel aside. She looks up at him, then returns to her work, cracking open the chest, exposing the lungs, heart, and other internal organs.
He steps over to the edge of the second level landing of the Morgue, where her office desk is located, and looks down at her, So
Izzy Collins finally looks up at him again, “Exactly, when people can no longer deny something then perhaps there is something that can be done . . .”
“Do we really have to wait for that? How many bodies does it take?” He thought he would have to argue about the existence of vampires, not the revelation of them since she is well aware they exist shes just protecting her job! “I wish you’d consider joining me in talking to Mills. If there’s a chance she would believe, it might save lives.”
She turns her back to him again and working in the dead mans chest, she pulls out the heart and drops it onto the stainless steal scale, weighting the three pound organ.
Silva simply watches, waiting for her to answer. He’s cut up a lot of people himself, though not for a few years, and it hardly fazes him watching her work.
You know everything there is to know, you go talk to the chief. She tells him, moving the twizzler back to the other side of her mouth with her tongue.
“So you won’t help me? He moves over to the steps leading down into the main floor of the morgue, With your help I’d have a much better chance.”
She looks at the empty shell of a human on her table, she didnt know what to think, she knew that the man was saying was true, no animal would or could do what had been done to those two women, but what he was talking about were stories she heard about her family long ago. Her aunt told her about how long ago one of the Collins had been a member of the undead how it had started a curse on the family. About other horrid things. Headless corpses. Necromancers. Why Desmond and his sister Floria Collins had left Collinsport for Chicago, how her branch of the family had lost all contact with the New England family. This would only bring up more tales about the Collins which she had someday hoped to learn more about. Too start this kind of talkhere in Collinsport it would be a betrayal of her family. A family she had yet to get to know. She took a deep breath.
David Silva slowly approached the autopsy table, he heard her deep breath and hoped for the best.
Izzy Collins looked at him, her eyes gone cold the Collins stare, he had heard about it. Okay I will say something, but I doubt it will do any good other than causing me to lose me my job”
“Well, if you think it would lose you your job – then don’t. I’ve been there. I wouldn’t want you to loose your career because of me.”
“No its fine . . . my findings do not coincide with animal attacks”
“Then you will come with me? If she reacts badly . . I’ll say it was my fault; I talked you into it.”
“Okay . . . I’ll go with you science is science and one should not disregard science and factsno matter where they may lead.
He nods. “Thank you Miss Collins. I know this is asking really a lot. But there are human lives at stake here. I’ll make an appointment to see Mills.”
Izzy Collins drops her scalpel on the stainless steel instrument table, “Like I said, I am not doing it for you or the humans. I am doing it for science.”
“Can’t say I understand what you mean by that. But I don’t need to. The important thing is that Mills be made aware of what’s going on. I shall set up the appointment then. Thank you, Miss Collins. Thank you very much.”
She simply nodded and continued with her work.
“I’ll be calling you soon.” He said as he straightened his lab coat and left. “Thank you again.”
Cue Music End of Episode