Detective Clara Greene, leaned over the freshly dead body of a young girl. A man from a flower shop, that was a couple of buildings down from the alley way that the girl was laying in; had called in and was frantically explaining that a co-worker of his, Anna Martinez, was dead. So, as soon as the police got the call Detective Greene was called in from the Homicide Unit. She was young, and new to the department, but she had proven herself to all of her doubtful co-workers when she was able to solve three unsolved cases in two months.

She studied the corpse carefully; she was lying carefully against the brick wall, and was sitting in her own pool of blood. She reached into her bag and pulled out some plastic gloves. She snapped them on and reached towards the girl’s neck and moved her hair away. “Well, this is strange.” She stated. Her partner, Noah Blackwell, leaned down next to her and looked at the girl’s neck. “Yes, very strange. What is that?”

“Bite marks.”

“Bite marks?” Noah asked? She nodded, “That’s what it appears to be to me.” Noah began to chuckle. Detective Greene looked at her partner with frustration, his dirty blonde hair gleamed in the bright San Diego sunshine. She never really did like her partner. She actually had preferred to work alone, but since she was new to the department the chief had told her she needed a more experienced partner.

“Come on, Clara; bite marks?” He inquired. She nodded again, “Yes, how many times to I need to say yes? This girl has bite marks on her neck; and see there?” She said brushing her fingers against molar marks just below the major puncture wounds. The two major puncture wounds were just above the corroded artery. “What are you saying? That we have vampires in San Diego?” He joked as he stood up. She stood up as well and stared at him with a bit of anger showing in her soft brown eyes. “Can you please take this seriously for once Noah!” she shouted in aggravation. He raised a brow at her and opened his mouth to answer her but was interrupted by someone coming up to them,

“Detective Greene?”

Clara nodded, “Yes that is me.” She acknowledged. “We have the man that called in this morning.” Clara sighed and looked over at a young man who was looking around with panic clearly expressed on his dark face. She glanced over at her partner and thrust her head to the boy, “Well, let’s go.”

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Adrian looked across the street at the crime scene. Something had gone wrong. Something had gone terribly wrong. Anna wasn’t supposed to die. He was going to turn her; give her the same help that someone else had given him, but no. Somehow she died; he still remembered the gurgling sound she had made as she went limp in his arms. He had gotten frightened and lightly set her on the ground and ran. That’s what he did whenever something bad occurred. Take his life for instance. All his life he has run. That’s what he does. He runs from his problems. Well, what else was he supposed to do? He wasn’t smart enough to be able to fix it. At least so he thought. He wasn’t even smart enough to finish high school. Hell, how could he when he was running away from his home all the time when his father was beating his mother and occasionally him when he was completely wasted.

His mother was the only thing that he remembered that was nice in his younger years. She was always there when he got home from school, to fix up his busted lip from the bullies, to make him dinner. She was a small woman, he remembered; she was short with small bones and light skin. Her hair was dark brown and long. Her eyes are what he remembered best. Since it was the last thing that said ‘I love you’ as she died.

That is why he was so attracted to Anna. She looked so much like his mother.

He clenched his jaw and smashed his fist against the brick wall.

“****.”

This earned a few stares from the people walking past him. He shook his head angrily and stocked off, away from the crime scene.


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Detective Greene walked quickly to the young man and showed him her badge, “Hello, I am Detective Clara Greene and this is my partner Detective Noah Blackwell, we are with the San Diego Police Department. We both work with the Homicide Unit.” She told him with a serious tone. She was normally the one that introduced her and her partner. Noah most likely would joke around with the people that we would interrogate.

“Hey, uh, I am Justin Mayer, I, uh. Well… I scared her yesterday, I think. And well she didn’t come in this morning so the boss sent me to go get her. Her house is right on this street see, and I started walkin’ and as I was walkin’ I uh, well uh, I saw what was lookin’ like blood in an alley way. So I looked and saw her there dead. So, um, uh, I ran back to the shop and called ya’ll.”

Detective Greene glanced over at her partner and saw him writing quickly on the note pad, “Okay,” Detective Blackwell began looking up at Justin Mayer, “Mr. Mayer, do you mind telling us how you scared Miss Martinez?” he asked looking at the young man. Justin shifted uneasily in his spot and looked down. He seemed ashamed of something. “Well, uh, you see, I kinda liked Anna. See, I just always picked on her. She hated me I know, but,” he shifts again, “But uh, I got drunk yesterday and, uh, I kinda told her I loved her and all and crap like that and I kinda tried to hug her but I wouldn’t let go see, but she kicked me, she kicked me hard! Right there!” he shouted pointing at his crotch.

Detective Blackwell nodded his head in understanding. “I know, and we guys, we hate it when we get kicked there, don’t we?” Justin nodded his head angrily. “And, we certainly don’t appreciate it, especially when we are trying to tell a girl that you like her, and you are trying to show some sort of affection right?” Justin kept on nodding. Clara Greene rolled her eyes, this is what she hated, and he always tried to get along with the people. She nudged him gently making him turn his attention from Mr. Mayer to her. She shook her head then she continued on with the interrogation,

“Can you think of any reason that someone might want to hurt Anna?”

Justin shook his head, “No, no way. She was the nicest girl I knew. And we all just picked on her because of her clothes and her hair. I knew though that she didn’t have the money for nice things. But I, I was the worst on her.”

Detective Blackwell continued to write notes as Detective Greene interrogated the boy. When they were done they walked back to Clara’s car.

When they got in Clara turned to her partner, still angry with his nonchalant attitude towards the case. “Can you ever act serious for once?! I mean seriously, he was someone to interrogate NOT someone you just chat with!” she hissed. Noah raised a brow at her. He shook his head, “You don’t get it Clara; that is me way for interrogating a subject, if you make people more comfortable, then they will be open to telling you things. Uptight be with a stick up their **** like yourself tend to make people a little bit less talkative.” He explained with a satisfied look playing on his face. She narrowed her eyes at him. All her life that is what people would tell her.

She couldn’t help it. She wanted to be the best. Always, she would enter all contests possible. She would win all of the contest; and if she didn’t, she would just try again. She was top of her class in high school and college and now was top in the Homicide Unit. Her parents told her to be the best. If not she was grounded. And if she was not the best in college, don’t even bother coming home. If she wasn’t the best she wasn’t good enough.

“I do not have a stick up my **** Noah! I have to do my job. That is why I have a job, to do my job! I am different when off work.” Which was somewhat true; when off the job she didn’t need to be better than anybody; unless that is if she went to go visit her parents, then she had to be the best.

“Well then, how about a chance to prove me wrong, Clara?” Noah asked with a grin on his face.

Clara looked at her partner in astonishment. Did he just ask her out on a date? That couldn’t be possible. She shook her head even though she wanted to say yes. She only wanted to say yes to him because she wanted to prove to him that she was different, but she had promised herself that she wouldn’t not let herself get involved with her co-workers, “No, I don’t like you, and you don’t like me. Let us keep that way.” And with that said she put on her seatbelt and started the car up, signaling the end of the conversation.