“Are you sure this is the right place?” Lyra asked, ducking her head under the police tape draped across the doorway.
What, the signs saying ‘Crime Scene, Do Not Enter’ weren’t enough for you?
“Well…”
The apartment’s windows had been covered with thick sheets of canvas, forcing her to squint as she surveyed the room. Her hoof bumped against something in the darkness; lifting it up with her magic, Lyra discovered it to be a half-full carton of long-discarded noodles.
Wow, this place is a dump! Vinyl said, eying a stack of greasy pizza boxes that had been piled haphazardly on the connected kitchen’s countertop. And ‘Tavi thinks I’m bad…
The lights came on suddenly, blinding Lyra. Blinking repeatedly, she turned towards Bon Bon, who had discovered the light switch.
“I thought vampires couldn’t eat solid food?” she asked.
It probably wasn’t hers, Vinyl explained. Crystal Cup was a complete party animal. That’s how I knew her, she kept turning up in clubs I was playing.
She chuckled. Usually didn’t leave alone, if you know what I mean.
Bon Bon began searching through several stacks of unopened mail that had been left on a table by the door. “Seems like a poor use of an immortal life to me.”
Vinyl shrugged. Eh. She was young. Clever, but young. Celestia knows she could have been doing worse.
“So was she the youngest of the three of you?” Lyra asked. “You, Crystal Cup and Snowbound, I mean.”
Yep! Snowbound’s a couple decades younger than me, but Crystal Cup was only around 40… I think. Pretty sure, anyway.
“Oh, okay.”
Vinyl peered at Lyra’s face. What, not surprised that the adorable nine-year old is actually almost seven times your age?
Lyra laughed. “Honestly, I was expecting her to be older than you!”
Bon Bon, now having moved on to the living room proper, paused in her searching to shoot a glare at the other two. “Save the chit-chat for later! For now, we need to get looking. We don’t want to get caught trespassing at a crime scene.”
“Sorry!”
Sorry!
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t apologize, just get looking. Lyra, I think that’s a bedroom,” she said, pointing towards an open doorway. “Could you take a look in there?”
Lyra grinned and gave a mock salute. “Sure thing, boss!”
What about me, ‘boss’? Vinyl asked.
Bon Bon shot her a glare. “You’re searching in here, where I can keep an eye on you.”
She shrugged. Whatever keeps me on your good side, Drops.
“You aren’t on my good side. And that isn’t my name.”
Lyra swallowed as she left the front room. I hope those two can keep away from each other’s throats long enough for us to catch… A chill passed over her as she realized that, distracted by her company, she had almost forgotten why they were here. Focus, Lyra. You have a job to do.
She cast a glance around the bedroom; nothing in the mess stood out to her. “What should we be looking for, anyway?” she called out over her shoulder.
“Anything suspicious,” Bon Bon’s voice came from the other room. “Letters, notes, hidden caches… anything the police would have missed or overlooked.”
Oh! came Vinyl’s voice, accompanied by the sound of hoof meeting head. Blood locker! Duh!
“Blood locker?”
Blood locker! Vinyl said, walking into the bedroom with Bon Bon following close behind her. She raised her snout into the air and sniffed, then walked over to the wall beside the bed. Smelling it for a moment, she smiled and lit her horn. Magenta magic enveloped a section of the plaster and, much to the surprise of the other two, pulled it out of the wall entirely to reveal a hidden compartment. Inside was a very compact miniature refrigerator, a pile of papers and envelopes stacked on top of it.
Vinyl popped the door of the fridge open and grabbed a blood bag from a small pile of the things. Tearing a hole open with her fangs, she tipped its contents down her throat… and then caught the looks of revulsion the other two were giving her.
What? I’m hungry. She slurped the last of it down. ‘Sides, this stuff’s expensive. I’m not letting it go to waste!
Something about the bag makes it so much more disturbing… Feeling just a little greener than usual, Lyra grabbed the papers in her magic and floated them in front of her.
“What are these?”
The kind of things you don’t want ponies to see when you’re a monster that isn’t supposed to exist, Vinyl said as she snatched the documents from Lyra’s magical grasp. Sorry, but these are for vampire eyes only. She held the pile up to her eyes and began skimming each paper’s contents. Bon Bon made to protest, but Lyra cut her off with a hoof and a head shake.
After a few moments of reading, Vinyl’s eyebrows rose up from behind her sunglasses. Dropping the rest of the stack on the bed behind her, she unfolded the remaining item into a nearly three-foot square.
Bingo. Here, take a look at this. She turned the paper around so that it faced them.
It was a detailed map of Manehatten, complete with street names and points of interest. What stood out from the mess of roads and walkways, and what immediately captured Lyra’s attention, was the series of marker-drawn red x’s that had been left in one particular area.
“The East River…” Lyra murmured.
Stepping closer to the map, Bon Bon traced the path of the markings with her hoof. They started on the west bank, near the bottom end of the river, and made their way up along the river’s edge until they reached the other end, crossing several bridges in the process. They then began again at the bottom, this time on the eastern side, and made it about half as far as the other side before ending abruptly.
“It looks like the police weren’t the only ones investigating,” she said.
“But why does it stop like that on the right side?”
“Probably because that’s as far as she got before she was killed,” Bon Bon said. “Which means that there’s a decent chance she stumbled across something she wasn’t supposed to somewhere past where the x’s end.”
Then that’s our next move. We can be over there in an hour.
Bon Bon shook her head. “No, we should get the police’s files first and go through them. Crystal Cup died weeks ago; any evidence that’s still there isn’t going anywhere. Plus, knowing what’s in those files could add context to anything we do find.”
After mulling it over for a bit, Vinyl shrugged. Can’t argue with that. She folded the map back up and stowed it in her bag. I’ll go to get the files, do you want to meet back at the hotel?
“Sounds like a plan.”