"Well, it's unusual."

Esposito glanced at Ryan, a very slight smile on his face. "Unusual? Is that the only word you can think of to describe this?"

"No. Gruesome springs to mind. Creepy is another one."

"How about freaky?"

"Oh, yes, that one's for sure."

"You two ghouls like to go and wait someplace else?" Lanie Parish asked, looking up from her work.

"No, no, we're fine right here," Ryan said, juggling two hot cups of coffee and trying not to burn his fingers.

"That wasn't a suggestion." She pulled the liver temp thermometer from the body and studied it. "Find someone else to lean over."

Esposito jerked his head at his partner, and they both pushed their way back through the sheets of plastic hanging from the ceiling towards the open roll-top shutter. As they reached the fresh air, a car drew up, disgorging Kate Beckett and Rick Castle.

Ryan smiled. "Couldn't ditch him, huh?"

"He's like the stray dog who follows you home," Kate agreed, taking one of the cardboard cups of coffee from her colleague's hand.

"Want I should take him to the pound for you?"

Kate's face brightened considerably. "Now that's an idea."

Rick looked hurt for only a moment, then laughed. "Nah, I'd get sprung."

"Unfortunately, that's probably true." She sighed theatrically then looked up at the building in front of her, its faintly gothic architecture in the process of being cleaned and renovated. "So what have we got?"

Esposito glanced at Ryan, then said, "This is one I think it's better you see for yourself."

"Words don't really do it justice," his partner added.

"Fine. Lead the way."

They walked back inside.

"What's with all the plastic?" Rick asked, feeling it brushing against his skin and pushing it away quickly. It felt cold and clammy to the touch.

"It's one of the original buildings in the area," Ryan explained, glancing back over his shoulder and indicating the wrought iron columns just visible through the gloom. "Give it a few months and you'll be the only one able to afford a place here."

"Apartments?"

"Fully stocked. Supposed to have individual gyms, full security, the works."

"Sounds interesting."

"Yeah," Esposito put in. "The workmen come in this morning to carry on, and find … this." He pushed the curtain of sheeting to one side and stood back, as if raising the tabs on a stage. Indeed, the light shafting down from an opening high in the wall of the building was like a follow-spot, illuminating an area of the floor.

Rick stared. "That's … disturbing."

"You know, I think that's even better than creepy," Ryan said, and Esposito nodded.

Kate moved closer, nodding at Lanie. "Hey."

The Medical Examiner smiled at her friend. "Hi."

"Is this how he was found?"

Lanie stood up. "Pretty much. I gather the man who made the discovery kicked the jar over, but other than that, I don't think he touched anything, not after he threw up on the way out."

"I can't say I'm surprised." She gazed at the body.

In the centre of the pool of light was a young man lying on a medical gurney, his eyes closed, his face exceptionally pale but peaceful. He wore the usual uniform of a certain kind of youth – athletic shoes, jeans, and a button-down short-sleeved black shirt, and he looked like he was asleep. Or at least he would have, if it hadn't been for the two-foot long tube running from his neck. Traces of blood remained inside it, but there was more in a large puddle on the floor, next to a broken glass jar. Another four jars were lined up underneath the body, each filled with a viscous red liquid, already clotting.

Lanie sighed. "I am constantly surprised at the inventive ways we humans find to kill each other."

Kate's hand hovered over but didn't touch the tube. "A needle?"

Lanie nodded. "Probably a wide gauge. Straight into the jugular."

"Is he … drained?" It sounded such an odd question even in her mind that she almost didn't ask it.

"Looks like it. I'll know more when I get him on my table, but either he was injected with an anticoagulant, or something else was attached to the other end of the tube."

"A pump?" Rick asked.

"Probably. And from the way the blood's beginning to separate in the jars, I'd say that was the most likely option."

"Someone really didn't want him to wake up."

"Got that right."

"Was he dead before … this?" Kate indicated everything.

"Honestly, I'd like to say yes, but I don't think so." Lanie touched the young man's neck with delicate fingers. "If the heart was pumping, it would make it easier, otherwise you'd probably have to flush out the rest of it with something or other, and I don't see any sign of that."

"Then why not just cut his throat?" Kate asked. "Or stab him, or … anything else."

"Honey, that's your province, not mine."

"What about time of death?"

"Well, liver temp's 92, it was cool last night … I'd say around midnight. And before you ask, lividity - what there is of it - is set. He died here."

"I wasn't going to ask." She indicated the jars full of blood. "I can't see a murderer carting all this around."

"Me neither." Lanie signalled her boys. "I'll let you know as soon as I find out anything else."

"Thanks."

Kate moved away from the body, and Rick understood it was a sign of respect. Even he didn't feel like saying anything remotely tasteless.

"Did the CSU get anything?" she asked, lowering her voice for the same reason.

Esposito shook his head. "Whoever it was wore gloves, probably latex, and this whole floor area's been scuffed up. They can't even tell for sure yet which footprints were made by the vic, or even if he was carried."

"Keep them looking."

"Will do, boss." He walked back to where the forensics personnel were still brushing red powder over everything.

Kate turned to Ryan. "What about ID?"

"Nothing as yet. Pockets are empty, and his clothes look like any other kid around."

"Any kid with money. Or parents who indulge him," Rick added.

Kate looked sharply at him. "Why do you say that?"

"His sneakers. They're custom, and cost around seven hundred and fifty bucks."

Taking a moment to digest this somewhat surprising news, Kate asked, "And you know this … how?"

"Alexis wanted a pair, black with pink stripes."

"And I suppose you bought them."

"No." Rick smiled. "I was going to, but she slept on it, then came down the next morning and asked for the money to go to charity."

Ryan grinned. "That's one special girl you've got there."

"I know." He could feel his chest puffing up with pride. "She's a credit to her old man."

"So he's not poor," Kate said, attempting to bring the conversation back on line. "The dead boy. Unless he stole them."

"It's possible," Ryan said, seeing another officer trying to catch his attention. He hurried away.

Rick shook his head. "I think they're his. Like I said, these shoes are custom, so to be lucky enough to happen to steal a pair that fit like a glove? Unlikely."

"Maybe they hurt. Maybe he got fallen arches from them." Kate glared at him. "Unfortunately he's dead so we can't ask him."

"Do you want to bet on that?"

"No."

Rick grinned.

"Oh, shut up." Kate turned to watch Lanie and her colleagues place the young man reverently into a black body bag.

"Did you ever see Flatliners?" Rick asked after a moment, not waiting for a response. "Keifer Sutherland, Julia Roberts in the days when she actually got out of bed for less than twenty mill, the Baldwin brother I can never remember the name of –"

"William."

He stared at her. "I always knew you were a closet movie freak."

"No."

There was more, he could tell. "But? I feel a 'but' hanging in there." He leaned closer. "Come on. For Nikki Heat's sake."

She glared but he didn't move away. Fine. Maybe a titbit, just to keep him happy. "But I did have a thing for Keifer Sutherland once."

"Really?" He looked very interested. "What kind of a thing? A purely cerebral appreciation of his acting skills? Or was it something more panty-twisting? I'm guessing the latter."

"Castle, I was about twelve."

"So? When Alexis was that age, you should have seen some of the girls she was going to school with." His hands indicated shape, and size, then realised what he was doing and thrust them into his pockets.

"Should I be worried about you?"

He was shocked, or at least managed to appear that way. "No. I'm not that way inclined."

Kate hid the smile that threatened. If nothing else, she knew Richard Castle wasn't a paedophile, nowhere near it. "Anyway, I watched the video until I wore out the tape."

"And you've got a good memory."

"Exactly. Anyway, what about it?"

"Mmn?"

"You asked if I'd seen Flatliners. Why?"

"Oh. Just … doesn't this remind you of the set they used?" He looked around at the workbenches, plastic sheeting obscuring their view on all four sides.

"I think you mean The Lost Boys," Ryan said, sliding back into view.

The partners turned to look at him.

"What are you talking about?" Kate asked.

"Uniforms found a wallet, tossed in a trash bin half a block away." He held out a plastic evidence bag, a multi-coloured nylon billfold, driver's licence and other bits and pieces loose inside. "ID, but no cash, no credit cards."

"I doubt this was a robbery." Kate read the licence. "Keith Niedermann. East 79th Street."

"Money," Rick murmured, but loud enough for her to hear.

She ignored him. "According to this he's twenty-eight."

Ryan chuckled faintly. "I doubt it."

"Fake?"

"There's been a rash of good ones lately – this looks very similar."

"Check out the details."

"On it."

Rick stopped Ryan from leaving, a hand on his arm. "Why The Lost Boys? You said this was more like The Lost Boys. Why?"

Ryan moved the plastic around until a card was visible, all matt black with shiny gold lettering. "It seems Keith was a member of the Polidori's."

"Damn," Kate breathed.

Rick's gaze when from one to the other. "Sorry, I don't get it. What's the Polidori's?"

Kate didn't answer, just turned back to stare as the mortal remains of Keith Niedermann were wheeled away, her face an unreadable mask.

Rick looked expectantly at Ryan.

"It's a place on 38th, in the old garment district. A short term tenancy in one of the empty shops," the detective clarified. "A lot of young people hang out there, mostly wealthy, disillusioned, lonely." He shrugged. "We've had one or two calls about it, pretty much all complaints about possible drug use."

"And last year there was the little matter of one of their members turning up dead in the parking lot," Kate finished, not looking at either of them.

"Murder?" Rick asked.

"Raped and strangled. We got him, though." There was satisfaction in her voice, a job well done.

"Well, I've not heard of it," Rick admitted.

"I'm surprised." Kate finally turned back. "I'd have thought it was just the kind of place you'd know about."

"Why would I?"

"Very literary," she explained. "Everyone who goes there wants to be a vampire."

Rick's eyebrows threatened to migrate into his hair. "A … you're kidding."

"No."

"But vampires … Kate, tell me you're not thinking someone … someone drank this boy's blood?" He couldn't stop the faint expression of revulsion crossing his face.

"That will be up to Lanie to tell us, after she's measured what's left, but no, I don't think so."

"But you think it's … they're involved."

"A young man dies and his blood drained, and he's a member of Polidori's? I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't ask." She went to walk away but he restrained her.

"Wait a minute …" He was thinking, trying to pin down the memory lurking just in the back of his brain. Yes, that was it. "Of course. John Polidori."

"Who's he?" Ryan asked, notebook at the ready. "A person of interest?"

"If you're into bloodsucking, probably. But not the way you mean." Rick looked from one to the other. "John Polidori is credited with introducing vampires to the world in his book The Vampyre. Spelled with a 'y'."

"Not Bram Stoker?" Kate asked, interested despite herself.

"He made it a phenomenon, but Polidori got there first. Early 19th century, if I recall."

"Don't tell me … Derrick Storm was going to come up against a nest of vampires."

He dropped his head and looked at her. "I don't just do research for my books, Kate. I do like to read other stuff."

"And there I was thinking you'd got all this from Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

"Never seen it," he avowed.

"Hmmn."

"No, honestly. Alexis might have watched it once or twice, but I wasn't taking any notice." He started to squirm a little under her unblinking gaze. "Besides, Gina said it was too far fetched."

The thought of Rick's ex-wife was enough to make her smile. "And you really didn't know about the club."

Rick grinned. "I don't know everything."

"That's not what you usually say."

"Kate, that hurts."

"I'd have thought you'd be used to that by now," Ryan put in.

"True," Rick admitted. "The trouble is, I'm getting to like the pain."

"If it's pain you want …" Kate reached up towards his nose.

He back away hurriedly. "Not that much."

"Didn't think so." She glanced at Ryan. "Keep a lid on this if you can, otherwise all the crazies will be out in force. And find out if Neidermann has any relatives."

"Yes, boss."

Kate pushed through the plastic sheeting towards the daylight, then paused, her outline blurred, softened. "Well? Are you coming?" she asked.

Rick glanced at Ryan, but he shook his head. Not me, he was saying.

"Where to?" Rick asked out loud.

"Polidori's."

He grinned and ran after her.