'So, what do we think?' asked Sarah. She was sitting on Blake's bed, legs crossed, skirt fixed elegantly. She was eating chocolate with tiny little bites, obviously enjoying every piece. Sarah didn't need normal food, but she could eat and she liked to do it. She was vegetarian, though: as she explained to Blake once, if she wanted her food to taste like fear and pain, she would just drink from someone. 

Blake sat at the little writing-table, with his sleeves rolled up and with a laptop in front of him. His suit jacket was thrown over his chair's backrest.

'Detective Zelezny was so very suspicious that I almost want to disregard the idea that he is guilty in something,' answered the man, turning towards Sarah. 'In the books and movies, if someone is so obviously dirty, it always turns out they were the good guys all along.'

'Meanwhile in reality, if someone is acting guilty, it's probably because they are guilty,' pointed out Sarah. 'Chocolate? ' 

Blake nodded and Sarah flicked a chocolate bar across the hotel room. The glossy wrapping shined up for a second as it flew through a stream of the afternoon sunshine, over Blake's open suitcase on the carpeted floor and ended up in the man's palm before it could hit the flat-screen TV on the yellow-ish wall. 

'Question is, was he only trying to protect his daughter and her friend or did he have something to do with the murders, too?' asked Blake, tearing up the wrapping on the chocolate bar.

'He did let the forensic people take away the body while we were talking to Dorka,' Sarah reminded Blake. 'That implies he had something to hide on the crime scene, doesn't it?'

'It could,' agreed Blake, then he took a bite of chocolate. 'But I think it was only an act of petty revenge to show us who the boss is.'

'Possibly,' nodded Sarah. 'He looked like a guy who would do something like that. I'm going to head back there anyway, just to see if the local "experts" missed something.'

'They aren't all bad,' obstructed Blake. 'Detective Novak seemed professional, for example.'

'Detective Novak's shirt seemed to be more and more opened all the time she spent five minutes with you,' said Sarah with a grin. 

'Really?' asked Blake in a surprised voice. 'I didn't even notice.'

'You never do,' the woman shook her head. 'Nevertheless, you should ask her out for dinner, see if you can find out something about her boss.' 

Blake finished his chocolate and threw the empty wrapper into a bin next to the table.

'Maybe,' he said. 'If it will be necessary. But I don't like the idea.' 

'Then ask her out because she is cute,' shrugged Sarah. 

'I don't date cops,' said Blake.

'You were a cop,' sighed Sarah.

'And all of my exes would tell you it was a mistake to date a cop,' he smiled. 'Can we focus, please?

'Fine,' Sarah rolled her eyes, then she bobbed towards the laptop. 'What did you find?'

'I checked the PCR's records. There were six other murders just like these two, all unsolved. But here is the catch: they were spread out in the last 90 years. And it's just Prague: the closest cities had ten more altogether. The oldest one in...' he blinked at the report file on the screen to see the name of the city. '...in Benesov, 119 years ago. And that's just the files that didn't get lost over the time.'

'Weird,' said Sarah. 'Sounds like a vampire, except for the wings. I know Hollywood loves that nonsense but we cannot shapeshift,' she uncrossed her legs then crossed them again, only this time the other way around. Then she set her brown skirt right.

'Could be a costume,' suggested Blake.

'A real vampire dressed as a movie vampire killing people brutally for more than a century and nobody ever connects the dots even though a vampire that old is rare as a white raven.' 

'White raven?' asked Blake, lifting his eyebrow.

'Hungarian saying,' waved Sarah. 'The point remains: the theory is very unlikely at best. Not to mention we already dismissed the idea of a vampire as the killer, remember? We agreed that it has to be something much stronger.'

'You should do your "walk",' said Blake. 'Maybe there is a local legend or something about a winged creature.'

Sarah's "walk" was an information-gathering expedition. Every city had its character, its own habits, history and legendarium, things only the people who lived there knew about. Sarah was exceptionally good at catching it: she was nice, pretty and never hesitated to buy another round for the old men in the bars. People tended to be afraid and distrustful of vampires, but not with Sarah: though she never even tried to hide what she was, her natural charm won over everyone. She wouldn't even have to use the vampire's mental-control abilities even if she possessed such a thing, although she was one of the very rare members of her kind who never developed any of those.

Blake was jealous of Sarah's "people skills" and wanted to learn how to do that, but he had no chance to practice it whatsoever. Especially not in this part of the world. He could never blend in the same way as Sarah did.

'After I checked the crime scene,' nodded Sarah as an answer to Blake's idea. 'What are you going to do?'

'Cop-stuff,' he shrugged. 'The vampire-victim was just passing through, no relatives or friends in the city. But there was a murder twelve years ago and the relatives of that victim still live here. Also, I will have to talk with Helenka Zelezny.'

Sarah grimaced.

'Her father won't be happy,' she said.

'Fortunately, people's happiness isn't a part of my job description,' Blake answered. 

Sarah moved on the bed, away from the rectangle of sunlight on the sheet that crawled closer and closer to her. Vampires didn't burst into flames from the touch of sunshine, but they weren't fond of it either.

'Even so,' said Sarah. 'Be careful. Keep an eye out. Something tells me that if we are not cautious enough, there will be a third and fourth victim before the end of the week…'