12. When I go outside, I find a traffic cop writing a ticket for the illegally parked Caddy. I don't gain any points with her when I identify myself as a fellow cop. She merely insists on seeing the car's registration. I figure it's got to be in the glove compartment, but I have trouble finding it. What I do find however, is a New York driver's license -- sans photo -- belonging to someone named Nicholas Forester. The thing's over thirty years old. Still, no current registration is found, so with parking ticket in hand, I head back to the office where I have Vera run a background check on the Forester license.

Man, oh man. I'm so exhausted that I doze off for a while and I dream about Janette and Nick hypnotizing me into dropping my investigation and forgetting the weird stuff I've seen Nick do. When Vera nudges me awake, she's got the info I requested on that driver's license. This time, there's a picture available, and except for the beard and mustache, this Forester guy looks exactly like Nick. Things are getting weirder and weirder.

13. I pay another visit to Nat and tell her what I've discovered so far. When I mention to her that I'm positive that both Nick and Janette have hypnotized me into forgetting things, she doesn't believe me. She still refuses to see that there's anything odd about him. I guess I've done the same thing for a long time. Even when the facts were staring me right in the face. I've even defended his actions to others. So what if he has an aversion to sunlight, that he has no family, he shies away from all social functions, still hasn't bought me not one meal, doesn't seem to ever eat himself -- not even doughnuts -- and he keeps bottled blood in his refrigerator? What's so eccentric about that? Hey, I may have overlooked all that stuff in the past, but not anymore.

I head back to the station and add a few more notes to the list I've been making using John Doe instead of Nick's name. And it's Vera (bless her heart) who figures out what has been eluding me all along. Reading the list over my shoulder, she quickly adds up the facts. "Allergic to sun, hypnotizes, needs blood. Oh, you're looking for a vampire, right?" Jackpot!

14. I rush out to the library and get a stack of books on vampires. As I'm reading about how vampires exist, I start to think about how some of Nick's actions fit the profile. I've seen just how far he'll go to avoid sunlight hitting him. And he's incredibly strong for someone who's not the muscular, bodybuilder type. I've seen him hold a man suspended out the window with just one hand. I believe he was actually angry enough to drop the poor slob, but I was able to talk him out of it. I recall the guy referring to him as a monster after Nick flung him like a rag doll onto the floor.

15. Then there's the blood he keeps in the refrigerator. He says he uses it in his oil painting, but that would mean he's using more blood than actual paint. Then again, if he really drinks the stuff, why is it he seems to gets so freaked out around bloody crime scenes? Or could it be that he's just trying to control himself around fresh human blood?

The book goes on to mention stuff about a vampire's aversion to religious symbols. I remember Nick almost had an accident while driving when someone innocently showed him a necklace with a cross on it. And there was that time that we had to stakeout a church and he passed out just from being inside it for a while. The more I think about it, the more it's beginning to all add up. I think my partner is a vampire!

16. I'm convinced that Nick isn't the only vampire. I believe that Janette's one too, and the master vampire has to be that Nightcrawler guy. I find a copy of the same picture of him that Janette had, in Nick's desk drawer. If I'm going to get any answers at all, I figure they've got to come right from the top. So, I go down to the radio station. The guy is even creepier in person, and it's probably not the greatest idea I've had to confront him like this, but I have to know. I ask him straight out if Nick is a vampire. Then I add, "Are you?" For a moment, I think he's going to sprout fangs and swoop in after me, but instead, he just looks at me like I'm a bug under his shoe and says, "You tell me."

17. So, I tell him about some of the weird things I've noticed about Nick, and like everybody else, I can tell that he just doesn't see it. He asks me what has changed in my life to make all these things about Nick suddenly so apparent. I tell him about last night, about the shootout and about me killing a man. He asks me how did it make me feel. I remember that my heart was beating like a rabbit at the time. When the guy managed to momentarily get back on his feet and draw on me, it would have been curtains for me if Nick hadn't been there to save my...

Jeez, have I been an idiot! Been running around all day butting my nose into Nick's affairs when the guy saved my life! The Nightcrawler begins to put it all into prospective for me. He can tell that I'm tired, stressed and traumatized and he tells me that any shock to the system like that can play on the imagination. And boy, has my imagination been working overtime today. The Nightcrawler advises me to go home to my family and let Nick be with his. He confesses that he and Janette are the only family Nick has. He implies that Nick is adopted and of course is not a vampire. (Hey, I knew that.) I thank the man for listening to my ramblings and ask that he not tell Nick anything about my little visit. Before I can leave, the Nightcrawler offers one last comment. "Detective, you asked me if Nicholas is different. Au contraire. The Nicholas that I know is very much like you. He doesn't like to kill people either."

It's been a hell of a busy day for me, so I book off sick from work to get some much needed rest and get my head back on straight. First thing in the morning, I go out and finish up a little business. I remember I promised to wash Nick's Cadillac. It's the least I can do for the man who saved my life. My partner. My friend. Yeah, I still think he's a little weird, but hey, I can live with that.