Wolf Killer (The Hammer Commission) Read online

  "Oh? Do the girls in Europe like that?"

  Mark shrugged, "I'm married, so it's not like I'm in the market."

  "Really?" Michael glanced at him surprised. "Is that because you work for the church?"

  Mark shook his head, "No, it's not that, my family is just really important to me. I've got no interests in messing that up."

  "Yeah, I saw what the divorce did to my older sister," Michael shook his head, "I don't ever want to deal with that."

  "Well, find a parking space, and let's go inside."

  "Parking space?" Michael laughed. "We're the FBI; we park close to the doors and let everyone see us. Then we see who gets nervous."

  "No wonder everybody hates you," Mark chuckled.

  "Just working with what I've got is all!"

  Mark laughed at that and got out of the SUV, looking around the campus as Michael walked around the SUV to join up with him. He'd never been to college, and this place was huge. He wondered briefly just how many lycans or other monsters were here? With over thirty thousand students, there had to be at least a few.

  Walking in the front door they flashed their badges and were quickly shown into the dean of students' office, who was visibly surprised to see them.

  "Gentlemen, how may I help you?" the Dean said as Mark and Michael were escorted inside.

  "Hi, I'm Agent Mark Levin of Interpol, this is my partner Michael Sykes of the FBI," Mark said as he and Michael shook hands.

  "Stan Jakowski, Dean of Students. How can I help you?"

  Mark pulled out the list of women who they knew had been with Craig, "We're looking for information on these students," and he handed the list to the Dean.

  "I'm afraid I can't help you with that, Agent Levin," Dean Jakowski said looking over the list. "All student information is confidential."

  Mark nodded, "All of the women on that list are either already in protective custody with the FBI, or we suspect that they're deceased," Mark said.

  "What?" Dean Jakowski said sitting down heavily in his chair, his eyes wide as he looked up at Mark, and then Michael.

  "We've been tracking a serial killer that preys on young college co-eds," Michael said, handing the Dean one of the flyers that Woods had printed up. "Here's a picture of him."

  Dean Jakowski looked at it and shook his head, "I don't think I recognize him. Is he a student here?"

  "No," Mark said, "But he owns a photography studio here in town, which we raided last night. Unfortunately, we were not able to take him into custody at that time."

  "He had a modeling business going," Michael picked back up, "he'd convince the more attractive freshman girls on campus to come work for him. After a while he'd enslave them, then eventually he'd kill them. Best we can figure it, they all came from here."

  "Dozens of them," Mark said. "Dozens of young, attractive, women. But apparently no one seems to have noticed all of these young girls going missing from your campus."

  "Are you, are you suggesting my office had something to do with this?" Dean Jakowski said starting to look worried.

  "Somebody did," Mark said. "We need to know the status of all of these girls, if they were un-enrolled, who un-enrolled them. We also want a list of all the other freshmen girls who have suddenly dropped out, or were expelled, over the last two years. We're still trying to find out just how many victims there are."

  "I see," Dean Jakowski said, "I want to help you, I really do, but without a warrant I can't possibly turn over that kind of information."

  "Just tell us what the warrant has to say on it, and we'll have one delivered before the end of the day," Michael said. "And if you could direct your staff to start compiling that information that would save us a lot of time."

  "Of course," Dean Jakowski said nodding and standing back up. "I'll take care of it immediately."

  "Who is in charge of enrollments?" Mark asked.

  "Oh, that would be Janice Vanderwall, come, I'll introduce you."

  Mark nodded and they both followed the dean out of his office and over to a woman sitting in a cubicle.

  "Janice, these men are from the FBI and they have some questions on student enrollment. Also, once they're gone I'm going to need you to compile a list of every freshmen woman who has either un-enrolled, been dis-enrolled, dropped out, or left the school for any reason over the last twenty-four months. Complete with student id, personal and academic records."

  "That will take a while, Stan," She said looking up from her computer.

  "Its top priority, we'll be getting served with a warrant later today, put everyone on it, and no, I can't tell you why, I'm sorry." Dean Jakowski sighed.

  "Okay, I'll put everyone on it immediately," she turned to Mark and Michael. "How may I help you gentlemen?"

  "How hard is it for someone to dis-enroll a student out of the university?" Mark asked.

  "Impossible. If the student doesn't come down and fill out and sign the paperwork themselves, it can't be done."

  "What about for academic reasons?" Michael asked.

  "Well, yes, it can happen then. But there's a hearing and the student still has to sign the proper paperwork."

  "What if they just stop showing up?" Mark asked.

  "In that case, we contact the local sheriff's department and file a missing persons report. We also contact their family, their roommate here, if they have one, and whomever they have listed as their emergency contact on their student information card," she told them.

  "Wow, that's rather thorough," Mark said, surprised.

  "The university takes its responsibilities towards the students here very seriously. Not all students cope well with college, we've had more than a few develop issues, and either lock themselves in their room, run away, or sadly, commit suicide.

  "We've also had a few get into serious car accidents, or suffer other accidents or injury and end up as Jane Does in the hospital until we followed up."

  "So, if a student goes missing, the police do get notified?"

  Janice nodded, "Yes."

  "Who in the office here can file the paperwork for when a student dis-enrolls? After they've signed the paperwork, of course. Is it just you, or can anyone do it?"

  "Most of the people on my staff can do it," Janice told him.

  "Can we have a list of those people, please?"

  "Sure, give me a minute to print it out."

  Mark waited as she worked on her computer a minute, and then took a sheet of paper off the printer beside her.

  "Here you go," she said and handed him the list, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to get done."

  "Sure, and thank you!" Mark said and headed for the exit. Michael had already stepped outside to call in the request for the warrant.

  "Well, shall we walk over to the dorm?" Mark asked Michael as he walked up to him outside.

  "Better to drive over, let everyone see the car," Michael smiled and put away his phone. "Also I want to fax that staff list back to Woods, so they can run backgrounds on them."

  "There's a fax in the back of the car?" Mark asked.

  "Fax, scanner, copier, printer. We are the FBI, Mark!" Michael laughed.

  "Damn, and I'm lucky to get a bag with a cross, holy water, and some incense," Mark sighed.

  "Come on, I'll show you how it all works."

  Mark sat down and took another bite out of his hamburger. It was after nine, Agent Woods was holding a meeting to go over everything before they all went back to their hotel rooms for the night.

  Somebody at least had hit the local Wendy's and come back with a ton of food. Mark had grabbed four burgers and was already on his third.

  "You always eat that much?" Michael joked.

  "Last night took a lot of energy. Still stocking back up," Mark said and took another bite. "Monsters burn through a lot of energy, when they're being monsters."

  "So no fat monsters?"

  "Oh there are fat ones, and not all of them are lazy either. Some are just storing up enough energy to kic
k your ass. So be wary of the fat ones, they're usually the toughest ones."

  Michael and a couple of the others sitting nearby all nodded at that.

  "Okay," Agent Woods said coming into the room, "I'll be quick, and go over what we've got. I'm sure you're all tired and want to hit the rack."

  Mark nodded and several people stopped eating long enough to give a thumbs up.

  "Okay, the private sector folks cracked his computers and got quite the bonanza. Pope was heavily into the porn business, specializing in torture porn. We've got a lot more pictures from screen captures of women to ID.

  "They also found four different snuff films, and from the file dates they believe one of those was filmed this last weekend."

  Several people swore loudly at that.

  "I know, I feel the same way," Agent Woods said, "if we'd gotten involved sooner, maybe we could have saved her, but we can't save everyone people, and at least we're on to him now, so he's not going to be getting away with this anymore."

  "Do they know who he was selling to?" Agent Chance asked.

  "Yes, and they're preparing a major bust as we talk. We won't be taking part in it however as it's not local. He was dealing with a group in Manhattan.

  "We also have a picture of a possible accomplice," Agent Woods said and started passing out copies of pictures of a woman.

  Mark took one and looked at it, there were two pictures, the first was of her in some sort of bondage getup, he recognized the background as Craig's studio. The second was a close up that isolated the face. She was rather pretty; however there were a couple of red specks on her skin, and Mark didn't need any hints to figure out what they were.

  She was wearing a small mask that covered some of the upper half of her face, but that wouldn't stop anyone from being able to pick her out of a lineup. He knew from his own work that the lower half of the face was the most distinctive. If she'd really wanted to remain anonymous, she should have worn a larger mask.

  That or she just didn't know, most folks apparently did not.

  "We don't have a name on her yet, but she was very active in the last movie. She's now wanted for murder. We don't know if she's a werewolf like Pope, or not."

  "She's not, Chief," Mark said.

  "How can you tell?"

  "I only scented the one pure blood, Craig, in the building."

  "He could have turned her."

  Mark shook his head, "She's wearing silver. That knife she's holding in the one picture appears to be sliver as well. I think she's human. She may not even know what Craig is or what the girls are."

  Agent Woods nodded slowly, "I'll take that into consideration. Still, when we find her, I want all of you to treat her as if she is a lycan, just to be on the safe side. Also, I suspect when we find her, we'll find Pope. So again, approach her with caution.

  "We've also managed to find a number of locals who knew Pope, mostly people who did business with him, or his neighbors on the street. They all say he was very personable, polite, and paid his bills in cash. They also all remarked that he always had a lot of young and attractive women working in his shop.

  "He did a lot of school portraits for the local high school, and also for the college. Which probably explains how he found his victims. He showed up here about two years ago and went into business as a photographer. About a year and a half ago, he suddenly appears to have come into a bunch of money, which is when he bought that building and moved into it."

  "What did he tell the locals?" Steve asked.

  "No one seems to remember, they think it was an inheritance or something like that. Mostly people felt it wasn't their business, so they didn't ask."

  Agent Woods looked around the room then checked his watch. "That's pretty much it for right now. I'll have more at the morning briefing, go get some sleep."

  Mark finished his last burger and stood up and stretched, "Let's go," he said and yawned.

  "What? It's not even ten yet," Michael said. "I was thinking about a couple of drinks first."

  "Normally I'd be all for it," Mark said and led the way out to their SUV, "but right now, I just want to sack out."

  "Getting old?" Michael chuckled as they got into the car.

  "Fine, but the hotel bar is as far as I want to go," Mark said and yawned again, as Michael drove them both back to the hotel. The ride back only took a few minutes, then Mark followed Michael as they trooped into the bar, unsurprisingly several other members of the team had the same idea.

  Mark dropped into a seat at the table with the rest of them, with Michael taking one on the other side.

  "So, how do you like being a fed?" Denise O'Brien asked Mark.

  "It's different," Mark said and flagged down a waitress.

  "Bring a couple extra pitchers, and a couple more glasses," he said.

  "Sure," she nodded and scurried off.

  "How's that?" Patrick Waters, Denise's partner asked. From what had noticed so far, Denise was the senior of the two. Denise looked to be in her mid to late twenties, and was a fit redhead with a rather no nonsense look that made you overlook the freckles on her face. Patrick had short black hair, was a bit shorter than Mark, but was pretty strongly built, probably a gym nut. He looked a few years younger than Michael, probably not yet twenty-five, Mark would guess. He may have been on the team longer than Michael, but he obviously hadn't been with the FBI very long.

  "We only investigated crime scenes really; all this canvassing stuff was taken care of by other people. Except for the actual dealing with devils, demons, summoners, and monsters, it was a lot easier work," Mark said with a smile. "So where are the other four?"

  "Jeff, Rich, Bill, and Joe are all married," Mary said. "So they're probably on the phone to their spouses right now."

  "Surprised you're not on the phone to yours," Denise said.

  "That's because she just walked through the door," Michael said.

  Mark sighed, but he couldn't help smiling. "I guess she decided to come down here and join us."

  "Hi, Michael, Steve, Mary, Hon," Helena said sliding around and sitting in Mark's lap.

  "Hello, Dear," Mark said and gave her a hug.

  "Who are the other two?" She asked putting an arm around him and getting comfortable.

  That's Denise O'Brien," Mark said nodding towards Denise, "and the guy with the deer in the headlights expression is her partner, Patrick Waters."

  Helena nodded, "I'm Helena, Mark's wife."

  The waitress came over at that point and put two pitchers of beer down on the table, with several more glasses.

  "Thanks!" Helena said and started filling glasses.

  "Do you want me to get another room, Mark?" Michael asked.

  "Don't worry, I'm not going to jump his bones tonight," Helena chuckled. "I know he has to work tomorrow."

  "So what brings you here, my love?" Mark said smiling as she handed him a beer.

  "You have to ask?" She said and handed another beer to Michael. "But you said you're tangling with a pureblood, and I figured it would be easier if you had some help. Between the two of us, I think we shouldn't have any problem."

  "Agent Woods is gonna love this," Denise sighed.

  "She has a point," Steve said to Denise. "You heard Woods telling us this morning not to try and take this guy down ourselves; I'm not so sure he's going to be all that upset."

  "Let's talk shop tomorrow," Michael said sipping his beer. He turned towards Helena, "So how did you and Mark meet?"

  "Oh my sister and I found him camping in our woods," Helena said and recounted the story to them. Mark was rather happy that she left out any and all references to sex, multiple wives, and breeding. But she did tell them about his killing the bear single handedly.

  "So, if you hadn't bit him, he would have died?" Mary asked.

  Helena nodded, "That or come back as a ghoul. Older vampires can really do a number on a human."

  "But they can't on a lycan?"

  "Oh hell no, vampires are complete wimps!" H
elena laughed. "They have very little magic; they're just charismatic as hell and have a small amount of glamour that they can use to beguile you if you're not very strong willed."

  "I'm gonna have to talk with Woods in the morning," Mark said standing up, and letting Helena slide down to her feet. "Because we are going to need Helena if we do corner this guy." Mark looked at the others, "Sorry guys, but none of you are strong enough to stop Craig if you come up against him."

  "But he's like twice her size," Michael said.

  "I'm a lot tougher than I look," Helena said smiling. "Add in Mark, and he won't stand a chance."

  "Well, I'm going back to the room, and we're going to sleep," Mark said.

  "I guess I'm going to pack it in too," Michael said finishing his beer. "Are you sure I don't need to get another room?"

  "Only if you don't want to sleep in a room with a couple of cougars," Mark said and leading Helena he went back to the room.

  13: Ursula's house, Blacksburg

  Craig looked up from the couch as Ursula came into the house looking rather agitated. It was only five, so she must have come home straight from work. He'd asked her to see if she could find him someone easy to grab, but from the look in her eyes he was wondering if he'd just have to pick up some random girl off the streets.

  "They were at work today!" Ursula said angrily, "I thought you said they didn't know who I was?"

  "Calm down," Craig said standing up and walking over to her. "Who was at work today?"

  "The FBI! Two of them! They came into the office, and talked with Dean Jakowski! Then they talked to my boss, Janice, and she and a couple of other gals in the office spent the rest of the day compiling records on dropouts for them!"

  "Did they talk to you? Ask about you?" Craig said.

  "No, they didn't even look twice at me," Ursula said shaking her head, still rather upset. The FBI was in her office today! How could he not be worried?

  "Then they have no idea who you are, or that you were involved," Craig said and put his arms around her, calming her. "You have nothing to worry about."

  "But they'll find that all of those girls were removed from school!"