“Aimee, you’re ready?” Thomas knocked on the door to Aimee’s room: “The coffee’s getting cold and your donuts are gonna get gone and I don’t wanna run across the street and buy more.”

“Okay, okay. I’m done.” Aimee opened the door and came out in her clean and tidy suit: “Let’s go find the captain and get this over with.”

“And after all that business I’ll start tasting donuts differently.” Thomas laughed out loud, and when met with Aimee’s judgmental look, he shrugged: “What? We’re still cops! I can’t make a donut joke?”

“We’re making a decision today, Thomas.” Aimee looked at Thomas’s clothes and sighed: “And please tell me you have an idea how to tell Dad.”

“Yeah, I’m just thinking: ‘Hey Dad, guess what? We don’t wanna be cops anymore! The crimes still suck, and the funding’s shrinking. So we’re out!’” Thomas waved his hands in the air and said.

“Ha-ha.” Aimee shook her head and walked over to the kitchen to eat her donuts, “Umm, Jen’s Donut’s still good.”

“Well, look who’s talking.” Thomas laughed and finished his coffee.

After both Detective Chavers finished with their breakfast, they drove to the SJPD precinct in which they worked for several years. The last few weeks was the first time they ever took a leave from work, and they were feeling quite uneasy about delivering their letters of resignation right on the day they’re back. Not to mention many colleagues came to visit while they were on leave and wished them a soon recovery and expressed that they were missed at work. The only ones who might be able to understand were probably Caroline and Jason, who dropped by about a week ago.

“You’re sure we’re making the right choice?” when both of them were standing right in front of the captain’s office waiting for the captain to come back, Aimee asked Thomas nervously.

“Sis, you’ve asked this question a few dozen times.” Thomas took a big gulp from his thermal mug: “But you know we’re making the correct choice. It’s the right thing to do, SJPD will no longer be a right place for either of us.”

“Yes. I know, I know, it’s the logical choice.” Aimee sighed: “It’s just … this wasn’t how I pictured my life would turn out! You know? I was expecting a few more years and I’ll make it as a lieutenant, then after maybe a decade of struggling and hard work, I will become a captain.”

“Then you’ll be the first ever captain to get bitten by a freakin’ vampire!”

“Aimee, Thomas, I’m so glad you’re here already.” at this very moment, the captain came back to his office with : “You remember the ‘Drainer’ case you worked on a few years back? We believe the killer was back, or maybe a copycat. Whatever it was, I want you both back on this case ASAP.”

Thomas tried to interrupt: “Actually, Captain...”

“Yes, I know you’re just back and need to get up to speed. But this is kind of a crisis situation - with all the related gang activities on the rise, we are extremely short on officers and detectives. So please, get on this right away. You know the ‘Drainer’ the most, we have no one to count on but you.”

“We’re on it.” before Thomas could attempt to object, Aimee already acknowledged the request from the captain.

“What? We are?” Thomas stared at Aimee.

“Yes. We are.” Aimee gave Thomas a warning look then turned to the captain: “Where’s the body?”

“In the morgue, I think Rob has . A young girl, same M.O., but this time the scene was messier, which is why we suspected it might be a copycat.” the captain handed them one of his many folders in his hand: “Figure this out, as soon as possible. It’d be great if we can wrap this up before Christmas. I know it’s weeks away, but we could really use a break before then.”

“Understood.” Aimee nodded nervously as the captain went back into his office.

“What the hell Aimee? What happened to doing the right and logical thing?” Thomas asked Aimee in a low voice when they walked away from the captain’s office.

“The department’s underhanded! Plus we still have a few months of time, we could still do this.” Aimee’s facial expressions showed that she was not so sure of her answer either: “I mean… we CAN do this.”

“Alright, it’s your choice.” Thomas sighed: “But we’ll need to leave the force eventually.”

“Alright, alright, I know!”

-------------------------------------------

“Hey Rob, we’re here to check on the body, suspected killed by the ‘Drainer’. ” when Thomas went into the morgue with Aimee behind her, there was already someone they knew there waiting for them.

“Thomas, Aimee, welcome back. How you’re feeling?” Rob laid down the tablet in his hands and walked over to greet the detectives: “You shouldn’t be back so soon. You need more rest!”

“Thank you, Rob. But duty calls.” Aimee sighed asked: “So, I trust that you already had your preliminary examinations of the body? Anything stood out to you?”

“Alright, hopefully this doesn’t bring back any bad memories. But this is exactly what I read from the past notes on the ‘Drainer’. So, Captain thinks this is some copycat, but I think this is definitely the same killer from years ago.”

“Okay. What makes you think so?” Thomas asked.

“I took some samples of our poor Jane Doe’s blood. ” Rob walked over to a body on an operating table covered by white cloth: “Our victim, Pamela Higgins, fitted the Drainer victim profile almost perfectly - young and troubled girls with no close family and involved with the wrong gang, and also a drug addict - you see these needle holes on her arms? ”

“Okay, but those details are public .” Aimee flipped the white cloth over and looked at the young girl’s pale body: “Oh, and she’s a redhead, like two of the previous victims.”

“Yes, it definitely fits the Drainer’s preferences, the list of victims doesn’t limit to only redheads, but consists mostly of them. And this is one of the reasons I think this is the Drainer, not the copycat.” Rob walked to the right side of the body and pointed at the body’s neck and wrist: “You see these? These are puncture wounds on the body, NOT on the arteries and teeth marks around them, the same kind of wounds on the past victims. This is not public, right?”

“Yes. But it was leaked on the news anyway. Some tabloid ran the leaked document, and Captain was really pissed” Aimee shook her head.

“Okay, then what about this?” Rob was surprised by what Aimee said, but then he turned back and picked up a small vial of red liquid: “This is the victim’s blood, you see, after all this time it was still mostly liquid? I was wondering, with these couple of small puncture wounds, and not on the arteries no less, how the hell can someone kill a person just by draining them? The answer? Blood thinner, and a very potent kind.”

“Which is the same thing that remained in the previous victim’s bodies. And just like previous victims, their wounds were not on any major arteries. This info is still not public till this day.” Thomas looked at Aimee with grave concerns in his eyes.

“Yes. The records didn’t say what kind of blood thinner the Drainer used, and just documented some chemical characteristics. At first I thought it was a mistake.” Rob continued, with excitement and not noticing the worried looks on Thomas and Aimee’s faces: “But when I double checked, it turned out they didn’t know what it was! So now I’m gonna run a deeper match against all known blood thinners, thanks to development of tech, this is possible now.”

“Thank you Rob. Great work!” Aimee headed to the exit of the morgue: “Please let us know what you find.”