Page 54 of Death is Familiar

How convenient… unless….

“They do this at all their events? Set up cameras?”

Thruppy nodded.

We were getting somewhere.

And while we were getting somewhere, I brushed past Thruppy’s arm as I pinched, flicked, and buckled. Putting Fawzy’s watch on Thruppy’s wrist was like riding a bike, if not as smooth as I remembered.

Slipping the lanyard clip off Thruppy’s waist, however, was child’s play.

“How about the other familiars?” I picked up the takeout menu fanning it over my face, hoping it wouldn’t look too out of place with the air conditioning on full blast. “The two familiars Jezebel said were found in a cemetery in Lexington, not in Spring Grove. Did we get the footage from their last fang ceremony too?”

“Wait, wait. Hold up. Before we confuse Thruppy, we should get the locations straight.”

“Zhou.”

“We normally have a board for this, Hess. I’m just trying to ensure clear lines of communication, and we all know Thruppy thinks better in pictures. Why do you think he makes all the presentations?”

“It’s true,” Thruppy interjected before the matter could escalate. “I do think better in pictures. I’ve got one right here.”

He pulled up a map on his screen, where three points of interest were marked with notes.

“Lexington, Kentucky: two familiars found dead in Lexington Cemetery. Cincinnati, Ohio: five familiars found dead in Spring Grove Cemetery. Huntington, West Virginia: home of vamp headquarters. And if anyone’s wondering, Huntington is two hours and change from both Lexington and Cincinnati.” Having proved his point, Thruppy changed gears. “As for the footage from the last fang ceremony, it’s been requested. Not yet in hand. The vamps are locating the footage then sending it over. Apparently, they have a lot of tapes. Not all organized.”

I highly doubted Lenore’s tapes were not ‘organized.’ But what reason would she have to withhold, unless⁠—

“You want to know if anti-vamp groups were also at the fang ceremony in Lexington.” Jack latched onto my thought process from earlier. When I nodded, still fanning my face with the takeout menu, he turned his attention to Fawzy. “Were you able to dig anything up with Lexington PD on the two deaths Jezebel reported?”

“Not much. Lexington PD was not easy to work with.” Fawzy walked over to a briefcase and began rooting through it.

While the room’s attentions were pinned on Fawzy, I placed the menu back on the coffee table, using it to cover my hand as I palmed Zhou’s cellphone.

“I spent five hours on the phone and was passed around to more officers and administrators than I could count. When that didn’t get me anywhere, I flashed my badge down there this morning. I drove over three hours roundtrip, and the only thing I have to show for it is this.” Fawzy pulled out a manilla envelope and shook it. “The police and coroner reports. They don’t show much, but they do confirm that both victims had bite marks on their necks, their bodies were found in the cemetery, and both died from cardiac arrest.”

Jack accepted the envelope and pulled out the file. “Modus operandi’s the same then. And only a year ago?”

“A little less. Eleven months.” Fawzy moved to sit on the edge of the nearest bed. “Lexington PD also labelled the case a double suicide. The coroner found evidence of sustained cocaine use. And because both victims died from a heart attack, the coroner presumed the consumption was intentional. Meant to induce overdose so their deaths looked suspicious. Lexington PD didn’t want to sensationalize the victims’ deaths, or draw too much attention from the community, so, nothing made it to the press. They called it an ‘attention-seeking gesture meant to spark interest from the public’. Internally, of course.”

“What’s your take, Fawzy?” Jack flipped through the file, landing on the coroner’s report.

“People saw something they couldn’t explain, they didn’t want it to become a media circus, so they blamed the cocaine and didn’t look any further.”

When it came to drawing conclusions, people taking the easy route was nothing new, but this didn’t add up. “Heart attacks, at the same time, from drugs? Does that sound right to you.”

“Simultaneous cardiac arrest from cocaine is highly unlikely.” Fawzy flipped the hair from her face. “Though not unheard of.”

“It sounds convenient.”

To my surprise, both Zhou and Thruppy agreed with me.

“They’d been dead a day and subject to the elements.” While Fawzy spoke, I moved to read what I could of the coroner’s report over Jack’s shoulder. “And it was a hotter than normal start to summer, which means decomposition progressed a lot faster. The coroner in Lexington may not have been thorough, but they were also working with less-than-ideal conditions.”

Skimming through the report, something struck me as odd. “They didn’t check for excess adrenaline?”

“It’s not that common. But even if the coroner had checked for excess adrenaline, their levels would have been elevated. Cocaine produces an adrenal response, so any results would have been tied back to the victims’ drug use.”

“But the deaths… The situation is nearly identical to the deaths here.” My mind churned, the pieces coming together. “And there was no evidence of cocaine use in the victims found here, in Spring Grove. Correct?”