"Valentine"

Episode 314
(aired the week of 2/13/1999)
Case # 44-3987

Log line: O.S.I.R. Senior Data Analyst Lindsay Donner becomes involved with a modern-day vampire while investigating a Valentine's Day Murder.

Synopsis: Alone on Valentine's Day, Donner visits a neighborhood after-hours club, where she catches the attention of the handsome bartender, Marc Hagan. Despite her attraction to Marc, Donner leaves, only to be called back to the vicinity the following morning when a body is found in the adjacent alley. The victim, a heroin addict named Kevin Vincent, had been bled dry. Donner recognizes the deceased from the nightclub and, with Praeger, goes to interview the club's owner.

The owner of the club turns out to be Marc Hagan. He tells Donner and Praeger that he didn't know the victim. Donner notices some Egyptian artifacts and a human skull on the counter behind the bar. Examining the skull, she finds that it has fang-like incisors, like those of a vampire. She also determines that it is genuine, which surprises Marc, who received the skull as a gift from a junkie friend who couldn't pay his bar tab.

Donner and Marc visit Sid, the junkie who had given Marc the skull. Sid takes them to where he had found it?? private grave site belonging to the Callum family. Donner notices that the most recent headstone in the family plot belongs to Caitlyn Callum, who died in 1993 at the age of 31. She decides to meet the widowed Reed Callum to find out more about his deceased wife and the strange skull that Sid had found. Despite her attraction for Marc, Donner also finds herself drawn to the wealthy, enigmatic Reed. When she describes the skull and its fangs to Reed, he tells her that it must have belonged to his great great uncle, Angus Callum, and that the man's strange teeth were merely a genetic abnormality. As for his wife, she had died of liver cancer.

The OSIR team gathers to discuss the case. Axon says that Angus's skull was probably buried separately from the rest of the corpse and over the years had been gradually pushed to the surface by frost heaves. Donner's research shows that Angus had been killed by a lynch mob that blamed him for a plague that had decimated their town. When Angus was reportedly seen after his death, his body was disinterred and decapitated. Donahue interrupts the meeting, claiming that the team's research into the history of a possible vampire may have been pointless. He declares that Kevin Vincent's death may have been a case of simple murder after all. Scouring through Kevin's police records, he has found that Kevin and Marc had been arrested together years earlier for the robbery of an electronics store. Marc had lied. Not only had he known Kevin, the two had been friends since high school.

Praeger returns to the nightclub to confront Marc, who tells him that he lied about Kevin because he didn't want to discuss Kevin's drug problems, that he wanted his friend to die with some dignity. He had been helping Kevin try to kick the habit but, when his friend showed up at the club the previous night he was obviously high. Marc threw him out, and that's when he must have been killed.

Disappointed by Marc's dishonesty, Donner tries to suppress her feelings for him and accepts a dinner invitation from Reed. While she is on her way to his house, Praeger and Donahue interrogate Sid. They learn that his group of friends not only included Marc and Kevin but also Caitlyn. He confesses that he had supplied Caitlyn with heroin to ease the pain of her illness. That night, another of the group's drug-addict friends, Debbie, is killed in the alley outside the bar.

After a romantic dinner with Reed, Donner blacks out. She wakes up the next morning in her car outside Reed's house. She is dazed and finds fang marks on both of her arms. After answering a call to visit the scene of Debbie's murder, she returns to confront Reed. He confesses that he is a vampire but insists that he didn't kill anyone, that Caitlyn is the murderer. He had turned her into a vampire to save her from dying of cancer. She is now quenching not her thirst for blood, but for heroin. He begs Donner to accompany him to the nightclub to stop Caitlyn from killing again.

As they enter the club, Reed transforms into a vampire and grows violent. Donner escapes his grasp and hides under a pool table. She then notices Caitlyn sleeping in the rafters. The vampire awakens and swoops down on her. She defends herself with a pool cue, which pierces Caitlyn's heart. Seeing Caitlyn die, Reed flies into a rage. He is about to strike Donner when Marc suddenly appears and plunges a pool cue into Reed's heart. Reed falls to the ground dead.

Starring:
Matt Frewer - Case Manager Matt Praeger
Barclay Hope - Peter Axon
Nancy Anne Sakovich - Lindsay Donner
Colin Fox - Dr. Anton Hendricks
Dan Aykroyd - Host

Guest Stars:
Anthony Lemke - Marc Hagan
C.J. Fidler - Caitlyn Callum
Tony Munch - Kevin Vincent
Richard Clarkin - Sid
Winston Rekert - Reed Callum
Suzanne Sutchy - Debbie

Written by: Sheila Prescott-Vessey
Directed by: Ross Clyde