Can I have some of that?

This week’s prompt at https://moreoddsthanends.home.blog/2020/04/29/week-18-of-odd-prompts/ was simple. Those are always fun!

“So, he found a dead body when he was wakeboarding off of Jersey.”

A little brainstorming...

Who is he? What kind of dead body? Wakeboarding... who was driving the boat? What kind of stunts was he performing?

Oh, what the heck, let’s get back to our chef in a monster hunting outfit...

Can I have some of that?

By Mike Barker

Gil was relaxing, working the line, dipping out portions as people walked by, when he heard someone tell another guy, “So, he found a dead body when he was wakeboarding off of Jersey.”

He shook his head, then smiled at the man.

“What did you say? What’s wakeboarding?”

The man smiled back at him.

“Oh. Sorry, one of the teams was out yesterday, tracking down an incident in New Jersey. It started with some guy wakeboarding. That’s that thing where you get a boat to pull you, and you ride a surfboard in the wake of the boat? Most of them do fancy tricks, riding into the wake and jumping up, flipping and stuff. Anyway, this guy was doing some of that in the ocean off New Jersey. And he hit a dead body!”

The guy took a deep breath. Then he glanced at the steam trays.

“Can I have some of that bacon?”

Gil picked up some and dropped it on a plate, then passed it to the man.

“A dead body? Wow!”

The guy grinned.

“I guess he was about to flip or something, and his board hit the body, so everyone went flying. The boat came back, and picked up the dead body first. But it didn’t look like him, and he swam up. I guess for a while, they were afraid he had killed the guy, but... he’d been drained off blood before being put in the water, according to the medical examiner. That’s how we got involved, the ME called the government, and they called us. The team poked around, and found several other bodies drained of blood in the area.”

Gil licked his lips.

“No blood? Vampires?”

The guy nodded.

“That’s what everyone was guessing. But...”

He looked at the steam trays again.

“Are those eggs sunny side up? Can I have two of those?”

Gil reached over, slid them onto his spatula, and reached them out to the man’s tray.

“So what was it?”

The man shook his head. 

“They’re still trying to figure it out. According to the team, someone used a kitchen gadget, like a giant pump, to suck the blood out. Vampires don’t do that.”

Gil blinked. He knew what the man meant, he had some of those in the kitchen behind him. But if they were sucking out the blood... he grimaced.

“Did anyone check for blood sausage? I mean, I can’t imagine why you would make it with human blood, but that’s what we’d do here in the kitchen with pig’s blood?”

The man’s eyes went wide. 

“Wait! You know what, that...”

He pawed at his pocket, and pulled out a cell phone. He hit buttons, and talked to it. He listened for a moment. Then he turned to Gil, and really smiled.

“Ouch! I don’t know how to thank you. The team had found a kitchen where they knew something was done with the blood, but they didn’t know where to look next. Thanks to you... we found the sausages. They were in the refrigerator! They tested one, and it’s human blood. Nice catch!”

Gil grimaced. Then he looked at the steam trays, and the man’s tray.

“Did you want anything else for breakfast?”

The man laughed.

“No, I think this will do it. Thanks again! Blood sausages. Who would have thought?”

To be continued, maybe...