Something I thought of this morning.

Phototoxin

I thought of this this morning and wrote it down, so I've typed it out now. CC always welcome but dont be too harsh !! =p
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“Jesus!” Paul whispered as he looked over the room, “it must be the same surely ?”
“We’ll find out in a moment” said Simon as he opened his silver case and began to examine the storage room.

Ever since his came home to find his family massacred, blood all over every room in the house, Simon couldn’t give up. He was a forensic examiner, and a good one too, but had seen nothing like it. There was no trace of his family, just wet blood. Blood everywhere. Walls floors, doors, in the sink, and on the ceiling. Everywhere. It was unlike anything he’d ever seen in his six years of processing crime scenes. He was just thankful that the blood didn’t belong to his family. Strictly speaking there was no actual evidence of a crime. However Simon was not convinced when his superiors told him that his wife must have just left him and defaced the house. His disagreed for his relationship with his family was great and besides it was defiantly peculiar. Regardless, the police weren’t going to investigate once they discovered that the blood wasn’t human. Standard ABO typing didn’t give a result and DNA was impossible to extract. Microscopy showed no white blood cells. Otherwise everything else was visible which only served to make the case weirder. However the detective in charge just seen the words ‘BLOOD, NON HUMAN’ and thought ‘case closed’. That was when Simon went a step further, and got the sample cross checked with animal samples as well as giving it to his friend Larry at the hospital. A full blood work came back negative leaving Simon at a dead end.

For now he put the thought out of his mind and taking a swab and some sterile water he dampened the swab and began to obtain a sample. Although in his heart he knew what the result would be – Negative for human blood.

Paul surveyed the storage room, shivering from the chill of 4ºC, and looking at the empty aluminium shelves. There wasn’t much he could do for Simon and Anna were the brains, he was the brawn, carrying his pistol under his jacket as he had a concealed weapons permit.
Like Simon, Paul too had arrived home to find his family missing and blood everywhere.
However, as with Simon’s family, the police weren’t interested; ‘No evidence of bodies, of fowl play or human blood so drop it Paul’ his superiors told him. He was now on leave for ‘psychological trauma’ but couldn’t let it go. Who could if their beloved family had just up and vanished leaving the house covered with something that resembled blood? This all happened some two weeks after Simon’s family went missing. Having worked a couple of cases with him, and with the whole department whispering about the missing family and strange circumstances he got in contact with Simon and they both began to investigate together for the two scenes almost had to be linked.
Paul blinked as the flash of Anna’s camera illuminated the room three times. She was bracketing her shots, if he recalled the crime scene lecture. They take three shots one darker one lighter and one normal to make sure that they have ever thing covered.

Anna was an investigative journalist who had been writing a piece on the unusual non-crimes. She was taking photos of the scene with her Nikon as Simon had instructed. This was the second such similar situation they had come across since working together. The police were treating it as a robbery with no evidence of foul play short of the strange blood was detected. They decided that the burglar was a copycat and had smeared blood all over the walls for humours effect. To Simon, Paul and Anna, it was no laughing matter.

Anna was involved because after having been to the third such incident, another two weeks after Paul’s family disappeared she had arrived home to find Ginger dead, blood everywhere and the word ‘STOP’ smeared across the remains of her beloved cat. The showed her that whoever did this was afraid of her finding something. She called Paul and Simon and since then she had decided to work with them, not just for they story, or to sate her inquisitiveness but also to seek justice for her cat. It was related as it happened exactly two weeks after the last incident. She checked her notebook.

5/8/08 - Simon’s family disappears, blood all over house
19/8/08 –Paul’s family disappears, blood all over house
2/9/08 -Homless person dead, blood all over alleyway
16/9/08 –Ginger killed, blood everywhere, ‘STOP’ on wall
30/9/08 –Blood bank broken into, all blood gone from storage, blood all over walls.

Simon was now thinking. Strictly speaking there was no actual evidence of a crime. The blood wasn’t human. 3 killings plus the cat. Now a bloodbank. The mental machinery in his head began to tick and somewhere the correct gears meshed. “Heparin !!”
“Huh ?” asked Paul, “Who has Herpies ?”
“No, Herp-a-rin” That’s what links it all. This is a blood bank, when they take blood they use a green vacutainer tube if its for testing, or a bag if you are donating. Both are lined with heparin to stop the blood coagulating!
“Which”, interrupted Anna, “Explains why the blood was still wet at all 3 crime scenes.”
“Then why no DNA or blood grouping?” asked Paul. Simon could see the sceptical look, developed from years of police work forming on Pauls brow; “DNA needs a nuclear cell, the white blood cells were missing, and as for the blood grouping, well now that we know its not a 'creepy' as it seems, it probably means that whoever is responsible is contaminating it somehow or perhaps..”
Simon paused, twitching his lip. Inwardly Paul smiled, as it was something he picked on while working together – Simon twitched when he’d come up with a hypothesis.
“If the blood was centrifuged – you know spun down so that it all separates out - then that would enable the white blood cells to be removed.” Anna interrupted Simons scientific high. “But surely every lab has a centrifuge – that doesn’t get us very far.”
No said Paul, it doesn’t but it’s better than what the rest of the police are doing. Lets make some calls. We need to see what lab techs in the hospitals are mysteriously absent on Tuesdays…

Matt Holck

Strictly speaking there was no actual evidence of a crime. The blood wasn’t human. 3 killings plus the cat. ???

the characters are definitely targeted

etymon

Interesting genre work. Needs a lot of fleshing out - more characterisation. There's a whole lot going on in that short piece of writing that could benefit from teasing out the characters.
I agree with the previous poster though - the repetition that there was no evidence of a crime is irritating precisely because the reader presumes that a crime has taken place and becomes confused if you reiterate otherwise. A crime has undoubtedly taken place - but is it homicide? And if so, where are the bodies? Focus on those questions instead.