[Tuesday, Almost midnight.]

Parker & Cisco's main office building, Redmond.

The kid rent-a-cop at the security desk was reading "Rouge Warrior" again and still had 4 hours before his shift ended. Chet was about 6 months out of the Navy, and had stayed in the area when he got out. At 5 till, his watch went off and he got up to make his rounds.

- "Crack, Crack, Crack, Crack!"

As he spun around, his heart skipped a beat, knocking on the glass walls with an open claw was a large black werewolf! It just stood there staring at him with its hands opening and closing, looking so real that Chet nearly wet himself. Then the werewolf snapped its jaws at him and walked around to the side of the building. Chet dashed to his console, but that camera was black, then as he watched, the rest of the cameras went black. He mashed the panic button about four times, but as he picked up the phone, the building and parking lot blacked out.

The phone line was dead. Armed only with a flashlight and a nightstick, a dead phone was not a good thing. The darkness outside was more visible than the pitch black behind him, but Chet's eyes weren't adjusting very quickly. He strained to see through the glass front of the building, walking slowly back out of the reception station and around towards the front of the building.

Nobody. He looked at his car just down the front steps.

He had seen someone in a werewolf suit - and he looked dangerous. He had lost cameras, and then power and phone lines. There was nothing he could do here but sweat in the dark - he was leaving.

Chet walked around looking as far as he could from inside the glass wall - nobody. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath letting it out slowly. There was no one out front, he looked again at his car. He unlocked the main door, stepped outside, locked it again glancing left and right.

Once outside his nerves held him back. He stared at the corner of the building the "werewolf" had gone around. He pulled out his nightstick and walked a slow arc towards the front of the landing and the side of the building and then stepped over and shined his light past the corner - just as the werewolf flew around it and straight at him!

- - - -

[Wednesday Morning.]

Cpt. Steve Greene - Homicide detective for Washington State.
Lt Bill Sperry - Homicide detective for Washington State.
Jennifer Greene - Forensics for Washington State.
Dr John Grey - FBI Homicide investigation.
Cpt. John Roster - Homicide investigation from British Columbia.
Lt Frank Espinosa - Parks Division for Washington State.

"We're here to talk about 3 separate instances; 1 in Canada and 2 here in WA.", Cpt. Greene began unceremoniously, "apparently we have a worst case scenario in three different ways - One, this looks like a serial killer who likes to do groups. Two, He's apparently a crazy - he dresses up in a werewolf suit and uses real wolves to help him attack his victims. Three, He's very good at what he does. We have only one survivor and no significant leads.

You all have your full case files? Good. Ok, we got coffee, pizza, donuts, – whatever – but nobody checks out of here till we get some real action items. This is your wake up call. Mr Lon Chaney Jr out there has done at least 47 civilians, including one massacre of 33 college kids, an entire family, and a landed boat just inside Canada. This perv has now been waltzing around scott-free, in my state, and is making us all look like a bunch of helpless idiots. It's your job to convince me otherwise...

I want to cover all 3 instances in chronological order, in detail. Espinosa, you're first. Please give us your case summary and then talk us through the report."

"Ok, I'm Lt Frank Espinosa of Parks & Wildlife for WA state. Our first instance is all the way out near Spokane, on Halloween - full moon and everything. Our link to the massacre is based on the condition of the bodies and some matching prints. We lost a family of 4 camping on some private land, the mother was tied and raped, the father torn apart, and two boys were killed and partially eaten..."

[Three hours later.]

"Excuse me Cpt., you need to see this now. Looks like your wolfman was active last night."

"Shit. Ok - alright, ok, let's do lunch now everybody back by two, and plan for a long day."

[Two o'clock.]

"Lt Sperry is investigating, what is indeed another werewolf attack last night. We have a security officer and two Redmond police officers killed and mauled at Parker & Cisco's main office building. We lost cameras and had electric, but we're hoping to get some film anyway - they had good camera coverage of the building and parking lots.

[Four o'clock.]

"Excuse me Cpt., Jean's got your film ready in the conference room 6B, and Sperry's there ready to go over last night."

"Great, Ok, 6B's just down the hall - lemme show you where it is and we'll take about 10 minutes."

It was actually about 20 minutes later that Cpt. Greene lead Lt Sperry back into the room. The information was limited, and Sperry was stoic as he gave it;

"The silent alarm went off at 11:57pm, 2 cars were dispatched. The first car arrived at 12:08 and reported all lights out and that one glass panel had been completely broken out, the two officers went in together to investigate. The second car had arrived at 12:20, the officers in the second car found the violently mauled bodies of both the first two and the scattered remains of a third person unofficially identified as the security guard on duty. Like the other attacks, one of our victims is missing his heart and the majority of flesh from his arms and legs, and like the Van Couver attack there is no evidence of wolves being used. Unlike any other attacks, there are several major distinctions:

One - this time we lost a pair of officers. Our man is now a cop-killer.

Two - this is also the first time that our perpetrator was confronted by armed, combat trained professionals. The officers killed were in light body armor, both had discharged their firearms multiple times, and both were killed in close combat, one with half his neck torn away, and the other with his neck broken so violently that the skin tore. There was no evidence of any injury to the murderer.

Three - This is our first instance inside a real metropolitan area.

and Four - We have part of it on film. Three cameras went black before the incident at approximately 11:50. The live camera was on the opposite side of the building from where the "werewolf" came around, and points down from about 25' on the front of the building."

Lights went out in the conference room and a bad black and white image of the building entrance appeared on the wall.

The werewolf suddenly stepped round the corner in front of the door and stood silently, with his hands opening and closing for about 30 seconds. Then he slapped the glass door four times with his open (left) hand, snapped at the door, and walked around the corner again. Three more seconds and the tape ended.

- - - -

[Wednesday Night.]

It always rains in Seattle.

The red Jetta seemed to wander aimlessly through the night. Kim Harper was exploring the night life and wasn't finding anything comfortable. She got trapped by another one-way street and knew she needed to turn around again.

"dammit..."

Instead she decided to keep going south until she could get a clear bearing. Another mistake - now she seemed to be in a warehouse area up against the docks. She was getting ready turn back to find the freeway again when she saw a club dead ahead with a lot of traffic for a Wednesday night. "Red Nails" in red neon, she pulled to the curb and checked her book.

"Red Nails" - An upscale goth scene without the goth music. Red Nails is a live music club showcasing amateur and starting groups. The format is neo-classical, and often very good. The style is hard vampire and the club is patronized by quite a few "lifestylers".

The club was marked with five "$" and "Selective admittance".

It was a vampire club in the wrong part of town. Kim had nothing to do with goths or classical music (neo-classical?) but she was exploring - and the parking lot screamed upscale; she saw other VW's, Mercs, Beamers, Porches, - even a Hummer. She pulled in.

- - - -

It was the first time Kim had ever had any trouble coming into a club - she was attractive, alone, and was in a new silk shirt and leather skirt. It wasn't until she had said she had recently moved to town that she seemed to pass some weird test.

The place turned out to be a graveyard - literally.

It was as if someone had built a big warehouse over a cemetery. Grave markers were as dense in here as in a real cemetery, and they were all different and they were all marble. There were even some trees. The walls were painted murals as if the building didn't exist and the graveyard continued in all directions - even the front door was hard to see.

The place was devoid of music. Lots of conversation, some laughter in a corner, very relaxed and upbeat as far as the crowd went. The more she looked around the more she realized the money spent on the place. It wasn't what she'd expected, but it was nice, and after the ordeal getting in she wasn't going anywhere soon. There was a bar set up near by, and some clean tables around. She decided to start at the bar.

As she sat down it began to rain. The effect was awesome! Soft rolling thunder, wind, and rain from the speakers (everywhere) and horizontal ceiling pipes around the walls began spraying the murals with rainfall. The bar was wine only, and as she looked over the list the bartender quietly offered her a glass of port on the house. There were no prices on the wine list, only categories, names, and years.

Kim was left to herself for half a glass when the rain tapered off and a harpsichord began. She could see the players over in the right-rear corner on a ground-level stage, but the sound floated over soft and clear. The harpsichord was accompanied by some drums and a pan-flute, and as Kim began to recognize the Elvira suite, she began to understand "Neo-classical".

"Hello, you're new here. My name's Brian".

Spoken by a tall/dark/handsome in an all black tux and a black pearl choker, ears triple pierced with ruby studs.

"Yeah,... I'm Kim - this is my first time here."

"Yes, well. I'm here to invite you for a glass with the owner, David Artus, and to extend our welcome. If you like, please come with me -"

(why not?)

As Brian reached for her hand he smiled vampire teeth and kissed her hand, catching her eyes hypnotically. She rose and walked with Brian to the table where David waited - Brian fading somewhere behind as David rose, skirted a largish headstone, and met her.

David was a massive athletic man with long black curly hair and dark eyes, dark silk shirt and pants, bare-footed, no jewelry, no belt, and a distinctive Mediterranean accent.

"Welcome to 'Red Nails'. I'm the owner, David Artus, and I like to meet our guests - we're more like a group of friends than a business establishment.", as he helped her to her seat and poured a glass of wine for her, a small black velvet box at her place.

"I believe you, this place is great! Why do you call it "Red Nails?"

"It's based on an old Conan novel. See the big wood pillar in the middle of the room? If you go to it, you'll see that it's practically covered with red nails. In the Conan story, there were these clans at war with each other, and they counted their kills with red nails. Here, every club member receives a red nail and the tradition is that the first time you score with someone you met inside the club, you can get a hammer from a bartender and go hammer in your nail."

"Oh, gods! I guess you've got a pretty active crowd. So, is this my nail?", Kim asked as she picked up the small box.

"No one comes here because they want to go home alone..."

His natural easy laughter was as musical as his rain and haunting as his harpsichord as Kim opened her box to reveal a single red enamel nail.

Her attention slipped off the nail to the warmth of the wine in her head, the softening of lights as they swayed gently, and the feral gleam in David's eyes which was both arousing and captivating. Somewhere in the back of her head an alarm was going off, but she could ignore that...

- End of Chapter Two. -