Maud's Moon Pies was the name of the greasy spoon in question, an old modular diner from the sixties painted on the outside with the images of various types of pies. Jefferson found the inside of the establishment being a vibrant place, covered wall-to-wall in pie-related memorabilia; it appeared to be an old culinary institution in the area, specialized in pies, serving the confection whether sweet or savoury for over thirty years to the date. Jefferson chuckled at a statue of a 'Pie Man', what appeared to be a version of of the moon from and old French movie where people get shoot from a canon to a moon with a face, in this case the 'Pie Man' smiled at new costumers with a smile full of apple teeth, a classic display of charming Americana marketing.
Jefferson looked around and was quick to spot his table, at a walled corner sat a tall man with a mane of golden brown dressed with a short sleeve shirt that was a couple of size too big for him.Besides the man a large dog laid obediently, head down but eyes open, trying to look as docile as friendly as possible, something barely achievable due to its size; a German Shepherd is not supposed to be that big.
"Detective Sebastian Mortis, good to see you my friend" Jefferson said as he took a seat opposite to the man. Mortis raised his gaze and look the forensic in the eye, Mortis had a stoic face, long but not too long, a jaw that mixed a triangle and a square in a solid way, a five o'clock shadow covered the man's muzzle, his hair was long but with a sense of order to it, as if a gardener had given up in trying to trim a garden, and yet the plants grew long trying to stay in the pattern. Mortis's face gave the feeling that he was in a constant war with something, with the bags under his eyes and the clenching of the teeth, but what you ended up focusing in was those winter green eyes, when they looked at you it felt as if Motris was a wild beast peering into your soul. His arms looked thin and wiry at first, especially thanks to the oversized shirt and pants, yet a close inspection would reveal very muscular arms tanned due to a very outdoor life, and the muscles happened to be the type built for endurance, but they had a strange built to it, making you think that they were being forced into thinness, compressed by raw power, ready to expand like the spring of a trap and grow large and powerful. Curiously on the wrist a matching set of tattoos had been drawn, black lines dense and thick closed around each wrist with an extremely tight sense of solidity. In many ways the title of Detective fit Mortis to a tee, you could imagine the Dictionary definition of gum-shoe to have his picture attached as reference.
Mortis was the type of detective that dealt with things most people could not, or wish not to deal with for reasons ranging from too insane for anyone sane to believe, to things that the world of science and technology could not understand and did not want to understand. Mortis fought things people kept out of mind and out of sight, yet still sipped little by little into the other side of reality, controlling and eroding our world one drop at a time.
"Jefferson, good to see you too" Mortis voice was rough, as if coming from a hollow tree, yet very restrained. The man nodded amicably.
Jefferson patted the large dog with affection, the dog returned a tail wag and happy eyes.
"Hello to you too Cicero."
Introductions had barely finished when a lovely young waitress come to the table to deposit two platters: a portion of apple pie stacked taller with apples than Jefferson had ever seen in his life accompanied by a generous ball of vanilla ice-cream landed in front of the forensic, followed by a piece of Mississippi Mud Pie you could loose a truck in was placed in front of Mortis, with two mugs of coffee to crown.
"Anything else honey?" asked the young waitress, looking at the Detective with flirtatious eyes and really meaning the word 'honey'.
"Do you want anything else?" Mortis asked Jefferson.
The forensic shook his head negatively "No, I think not."
"Thank you madam."
The waitress left the duo to converse, Jefferson looked at his plate with a slight sense of confusion and shame. "Am I that predictable?"
"Is the only pie or confection you order regularly" pointed Mortis.
"How about that time I ordered peach pie?"
"You mean the time that the diner we were in had run out of apple pie?"
Jefferson tried to gesticulate, it was a comedic moment that cracked a light smirk from the stone-faced detective, culminating in the forensic lowering his hands with a defeated "Okay, you are right."
The forensic sank his fork into his pie, he had to admit the thing tasted good, he made a slightly disgusted face when he saw Mortis take a chunk of the sauce and custard of his pie and dropped it into the coffee, stirring it to turn the dark liquid into a brownish dark thing that made it look like bog water.
"Do you have to do that?"
"You should try it" Mortis took a sip of the coffee.
Jefferson smirked, he had known Mortis for a long time now, before and after he became the man he was today. Jefferson had met Mortis when he was a starry-eyed young man with a bright future, and was there when Mortis came back from his journey as the stone-faced warrior with cold eyes he was today. To remember the hell his friend had gone through, and what Mortis did for a living today made Jefferson give thanks for his rather monotonous and predictable life.
Jefferson was pulled out of memory lane when he felt Cicero shift underneath his feet; his toes being rubbed by over a hundred pounds of dog muscle felt strange every time. Mortis seemed not to mind it as the detective pulled a notepad from the neatly folded jacket sitting besides him.
"Where have you been the last couple of weeks? I tried calling you but it all went to voice mail and message recorders. Wanted to invite you to a barbecue last weekend" asked Jefferson, trying to make some small talk.
"I had a job that took a lot of my time, had to go underground to do a lot of my work" Mortis answer was short and simple. Mortis was not one to talk about what he did for a living, but Jefferson liked to hear the stories.
"Anything interesting?" prodded Jefferson.
"If you could call it interesting" said Mortis as went through his notes.
"Could you divulge some of the details maybe?" asked Jefferson hopefully. Mortis looked a the forensic like a psychologist to a patient with a very weird and bizarre death-wish, it was less a curious look and more of an expression of serious evaluation of what series of odd and disturbing events could make a man get to this sort of place in life.
"This is something that still confuses me about you Jefferson, you deal with the strangest and most disturbing side of police work, and you have this eagerness to seek out more. It is a side of your predictability I still have a hard time trying to get used to" pointed Mortis.
"Is not like I deal with exactly the same things you deal with Mortis. Plus I work the police forensic lab, it is good for me to know so I can keep my eyes peeled" argued the forensic.
Mortis tilted his head, there are some people born to be fools.
"If you really want to know, I had to help the Arizona Rangers deal with a people trafficking ring."
Jefferson's eyes sparkled with child-like curiosity. "What sort of thing you were dealing with this time?"
Mortis shook head seriously this time. "I cannot tell you anything else, the case is still ongoing, plus there are some things in there that you should better not know about, unless you want to have bad people coming after you" stated Mortis.
Jefferson looked at his pie worried, "That bad, uh?"
"Harder than what you have been dealing with the last month or so: Homeless murders, attacks on random people, and the slaughter you had tonight. What the hell has been going on here while I was gone?" asked the Detective, finally getting down to business.
"Yeah, it has been insane to say the least, and what happened tonight. Truth is, I noticed a few weeks ago, no one in the force took me serious until things escalated. I wanted to let you know earlier, but you were on your other case" explained the forensic.
"I had heard from the homeless about what was going on before I left, and have been catching up ever since I returned. Unfortunately the Arizona case required a lot of my attention. Although I am slightly surprised it escalated so quickly in such a short time" explained Mortis.
"Escalate quickly!?" Jefferson raised his voice so loud he turned heads, aware of his behaviour the forensic sat back and tried to act more professional. "Mortis, it did not escalated quickly, it exploded in a single night! I have seven teenagers dead in a parking lot! One cut in half like in a samurai movie, and another tortured before death! There is a huge hole in solid steel car engine I cannot explain and people will be pressing me for explanations!" Jefferson broke his affable persona to let out the stress he was under now, he was scared of what he was dealing with and afraid for what was about to come. Sometimes it was not good to be the one that cared.
"And you still want to know what I was doing with the Arizona Rangers?"
"Yeah, because I am not the one loosing his sleep over it!"
Mortis took a look at the notes he had taken.
"Do you have ANY idea of who or what is behind the killings?" asked Jefferson, less question more plead.
"Surprisingly, I do not know" said Mortis slowly and clearly.
Jefferson blinked slowly, the answer did indeed surprise him, it should have been simple.
"Mort, you know this thing clears the blood of its victims, right?" Jefferson felt weird having to ask the question, let alone trying to spell what he believed to be the clear answer, but Mortis remained impassive, unflappable, a true example of a stoic.
"No John, I do not believe it was a vampire" stated the Detective, adding to the forensic's confusion.
"But the missing blood!? Blood doesn't go missing like that!" explained the forensic.
"Believe it or not John, there are a lot of things out there that drink blood. Also, if this was a Vampire I would know, and there would be less slashing and more blood sucking" pointed Mortis.
Jefferson nodded, he remembered when Mortis told him that Dracula was a relatively accurate depiction of modern European vampires than people wanted to believe, but that there was a lot more to the world of pseudo-immortal blood suckers. Not to mention that Mortis was quite definitive when it came to vampires.
"There have not been witnesses in any of the killings. Some people have seen a few suspicious things here and there, but no solid lead. I am hoping to get some clues from talking to you, maybe checking the crime scene" said Mortis.
Jefferson shook his head negatively "Sorry Mort, things are tense inside the force right now. Rhodes has been loosing support among the people in government and there are faction in the force looking to take him down, I can still sneak you into the forensic's lab and the morgue, but is better if you do not appear openly in police business."
Mortis tapped the notebook, took a big piece of pie and shoved it into his mouth to think.
"What is the official position?" asked Mortis.
"Serial killer, I have instructions to keep the missing blood and the gore quiet " Jefferson gave a sad grin, the look of a man trapped in a terrifying irony. "How can I hide that a kid got split into two? Is not right."
Mortis took as sip of coffee "Parents only care about the dead kid, the general public about the gory gossip and not being next, government about not being kicked out of office; for all three parties anything else are extra details."
John took a bite of apple pie, try to get his head clear.
"John, I need you to tell me anything that can help me catch this bastard" Mortis looked the forensic dead in the eyes, those cold green eyes came to Jefferson as calculating and focus, the Detective was ready to begin his hunt.
Jefferson took a long drink from his coffee, it was bitter and hot and made the forensic feel a warm pain that pulled him out his mental spiral.
"Right" Jefferson pulled out his own notepad and went through everything he had written down, he had underlined everything that stood out from this case that he found odd, unusual, or plain out of place. When it came to working with Mortis the Detective had taught the forensic that no detail was too small or insignificant when it came to crimes powered by things from the world outside the one dominated by the human mind, trapped in the plane of the material.