Parole (Hypernaturals 7)

Crew Scene Dressing

Anne decided to stay behind with Carol, and work with Vivian and on the house. They would erase every trace we were ever there, using Vampire senses to see things and smell things that the Police Crime Scene people can't.

"With your two sets of enhanced senses, you would be even better at this than us." Anne pointed out.

Morgan and I said nothing to that. Instead, Morgan said to Jessica "Your Honda is going to be crowded."

Denise, Rachel, Helen, Jessica, Morgan, and myself. Not THAT bad. We have had more in it. I realized that is Morgan tacitly saying 'Adrian and I are GOING, not staying.'

"Let's go. Times a wasting." Jessica said.

I had to ask "Vivian will not remember ANY of this experience?"

"Not a thing. Tommy used Juice on her. I can use that as a checkpoint to bury everything since then and just before." Anne said softly, understanding my concern. Everyone on the Crew knows what happened to me. Sometimes the kid gloves are even annoying. Not right now. I appreciated the care, not just for me but for a fellow survivor. 

I wish I could forget. In some way s now the worst thing is remembering I gave up on living. Gave up on my family. Was ready to die. In survivors' meetings I talk about that. Other survivors understand that. Vivian won't have to.

Anne continued in a low, reassuring way: "Adrian: We already started on the memory work before you got here, however, I will spend a great deal of time talking to Vivian about replacing every memory with pleasant ones. Her first trauma when I am done will be waking up to the police at her door, and her husband dead. That will be plenty of trauma, but I can do nothing about that."

Vivian will have to deal with that for the rest of her life.

"To make sure that Vivian does not get any possible blame for her husbands' death, we are ONLY erasing traces of us and Vampiric activity. Every trace of Tommy will remain. That and the way Ramesh Sethi died should keep the correct murderer in the spotlight."

Anne held up a small black bag in one gloved hand. "Crew medical kit." She unzipped it and showed me various stoppered bottled and syringes.

"This will be the reason she can't remember anything. We'll be leaving used syringes with a pharmacy grade psychoactive drug. We'll carefully inject traces into Vivian a number of times and in various locations to leave tracks. Upper and lower arms. One or two in the shoulder. That type of thing. How Tommy came into having this drug will be left open to Police speculation. This is standard Crew scene dressing. This drug exists. It is there, on the scene. Vivian clearly remembers nothing. Tommy, therefore, came into the drug and used it. The alternative is what? Vampires? Not even someone as sharp as DeWayne will look past this obvious solution to the issue. There will be no related pharmacy break-ins. No missing drug company stock to put this back to. Maybe it came from Canada? They will speculate, but the murder and who did it will swamp this."

"'Standard Crew Scene Dressing'. Nothing I know about the world was real before I turned, was it? I assume that Tommy left his fingerprints everywhere. I did not look." I said.

"Yes. In particular, they are on the freezer handle and lid." Morgan told me. "They will know this was Tommy."

"Good. She is going to have to deal with enough." I looked one last time at Vivian. "Feel better, Vivian." I told her.

"OK." She said placidly.

"You all need any more Juice?" I asked, tapping my front teeth.

"We have this Adrian. Go." Anne said gently.

On the way to the car, Morgan wordlessly slipped her fingers between mine and held my hand.