X-MAN SCREENPLAY by BRIAN R. LUNDIN (ereader for comics txt) 📕

snapping photos and another was writing notes. Ringo glanced into the bathroom. Deloris was dark brown skinned and her hair was in corn curls, she looked to be in her late teens. She was naked and propped against the rim of the bathtub, a pair of pantyhose was tied tightly around her neck and duct tape covered her mouth. Carved between her breast were numerous stab wounds and a large x, a bloody x was scrawled on one wall. I looked at Evetta and we both wondered had the X-Man returned, I felt a knot in my stomach, a tremor of revulsion and recognition, I’ve seen this before. A CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR pulled of his latex gloves and walked out the bathroom, Evetta, Cahill and Ringo followed.

EVETTA
What we got?

Evetta pulled a small notebook and pencil from her purse

INVESTIGATOR
Black female, Deloris Whitfield, seventeen, raped, stabbed and strangled have to wait until the ME get her on the table to find out cause of death, but looks like she been dead only hours, that‘s the grandmother Bertha Whitfield.

The investigator pointed to the front room. Ringo headed into the front

EVETTA
I’ll handle it.

Ringo moved aside as she approached Bertha.

I’m Detective Evetta Lunden from Chicago, me and my partners Sergeant Ringo and US Marshall will be assisting the Joliet Police Department.

Bertha’s eyes shifted to the bathroom as police officers were removing Deloris in a body bag, tears swelled in the grandmother’s eyes as the officers and her granddaughter left the apartment.

I hate to intrude at a time like this, but it’s important to gather as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, can I ask you a few questions, please?

Bertha dried her eyes with a napkin, looked at Evetta.

BERTHA
(quietly)
Yes.
Bertha said that her granddaughter was an honor student and a senior at Joliet High School and she had raised her every since her mother and father was killed in a drive- by when she was two, Deloris had a scholarship to Indiana University and she wanted to be a social worker, she wanted to help the young girls living in the projects, she didn’t have a boyfriend or many girlfriends, she stayed mainly to herself studying and surfing the Internet.

EVETTA
Can you check her room and see if anything is missing?

They followed Bertha into Deloris bedroom, Bertha checked the closet and dresser drawers. She removed two one hundred dollar bills and showed them to Evetta and continued opening drawers. Bertha looked at Deloris neatly folded blouses and bras, but when she got to the last drawer she stopped.

BERTHA
All of her panties are gone.

Evetta thanked Bertha and we left.

EXT. CHICAGO POLICE HEADQUARTERS-EVENING

The rape and murder of Deloris was on the national news and an hour later a crowd of reporters, black ministers and news crews stood in front of Chicago Police Headquarters demanding to know the latest on Deloris’s murder.

REPORTER
Is this the X-Man, has he returned and what’s the department going to do to protect our black women?

We pushed through the crowd without commenting and entered the building and went into Captain Woods office

CAPTAIN
Bad?

RINGO
Yep, young high school girl, raped, stabbed and strangled, x carved into her body and smeared on a wall and panties missing.

CAPTAIN
Sound like the X-Man! But why now, he’s been gone for months.

EVETTA
Who the fuck knows, maybe the urges got too strong for him to handle; he’s just a homicidal nut and by this evening every black leader in the city will be demanded to know what we’re going to do

CAPTAIN
The city is already a racial cinder block and anything could ignite it. I got a call from Sergeant Hickman, Joliet Police Gang Unit, he’s got his guys out in Fairview talking to their informants, somebody has got to have seen something.

RINGO
Believe me, Captain if, no, when we catch him this time he won’t get away again. I should have blown his fucking brains out when I had the chance.

INT. JOLIET MOTEL 12 AUGUST 2008-MORNING

Esau sat on the bed in room 201 at the Joliet Motel naked except for Deloris’s pink lace panties. He swallowed a Valium and a Librium with a sip of Miller’s High Life beer and lay on the bed and began to masturbate, he thought of Deloris. He smiled as he remembered how he had fooled her into thinking he was going to help her with her algebra. How stupid she was, unable to figure out those elemental algebra questions. His mind drifted to how excited she was as she had let him into her apartment, all ready to be tutored; well he tutored her alright, with his dick. He remembered the shock on her face when he hit her knocking her out, duct taped her mouth and tied a pair of pantyhose around her neck. He remembered her tight and bloody pussy; it had been a long time since he had a virgin. He remembered the wanton look in her eyes when she came to, she was really enjoying this lesson. The little man increased the rapidity of his masturbation and remembered how she looked when he let out a groan and ejaculated. He felt good; he popped an Ativan, downed it with a swig of beer, and fell asleep.

INT. JOLIET POLICE DEPARTMENT 12 AUGUST 2008 -MORNING


The next morning Evetta, Cahill and Ringo were at the Joliet Police Gang Unit drinking coffee with SERGEANT HICKMAN.

SERGEANT HICKMAN
I remembered getting a teletype of a serial killer in Chicago called the X-man, rape and killed young women and carved X’s into their bodies, think it’s the same asshole?

RINGO
Yep, we’re pretty sure it is.

SERGEANT HICKMAN.
One of my guys talked with an informant and was told that he saw a little dude talking with Deloris, the day before she was killed and he had never seen him before, no one paid any attention to him because he looked too small to be a cop.
Matter-of-fact most of the homeboys were proud of Deloris and she recently been awarded a five thousand dollar college scholarship by the housing authority, the informant said that if he see the man again he‘ll let us know or they take care of him themselves.

RINGO
Any description?

SERGEANT HICKMAN.
Small man about five feet, one hundred fifty pounds, well built, long straight hair, sharp facial features, dark eyes and a coffee colored complexion.

EXT. FAIRVEW PROJECTS-MORNING
.
Ringo and his team returned to the projects, parked in the parking lot that had it share of broken down and semi--stripped vehicles and interviewed the residents in Deloris building and neighboring buildings, but the people living in this drug and gang infested area did not talk to the police, as they walked toward the building they saw a copy of the Sun-Times Newspaper in a paper stand. On the front page in bold headlines,
“HAS THE SERIAL KILLER KNOWN AS THE X-MAN WHO ESCAPED FROM POLICE CUSTODY THREE YEARS AGO RETURNED?”
The article was written by Irene Mujhasi, a black columnist who had been critical of the police investigation of the earlier X-Man killings, she accused the department and the city of not being concerned enough or exerting enough effort and resources in apprehending the X-man since all of his victims were black and poor They continued to apartment 10B and paid our respects to Bertha. There were three women in the kitchen, the smell of fried chicken, collard greens and cornbread filled the small apartment. Two older men sat in the front room with Bertha drinking beer, Bertha was sitting on the couch next to another older woman. Bertha introduced us to Deloris cousins and uncles and one of the ladies brought us a cup of coffee, Evetta again took the lead as we sat on the couch.
EVETTA
Just want to keep you up to date, we’ve got a good description of a suspect and our investigation revealed that no one had broken in to your apartment, we think Deloris let the killer in. You told us that she didn‘t have many friends, why do you think she would let someone come in?

Bertha was quiet for a moment.

BERTHA
I don’t know, Deloris knew how dangerous this place is and after I would leave for work she always would double lock the door.
RINGO
What time did you leave for work?

BERTHA
I usually leave around noon.

RINGO
What time did you get home?

BERTHA
Around eleven-thirty, that’s when I found Deloris.

EVETTA
Again our deepest condolences’ and we will keep you informed.

OLD MAN
When you catch the son-of-a bitch let me and CLYDE have two minutes with him!

RINGO
I might do that, after I’ve had my two minutes with him.

EXT. 54TH SOUTH WABASH AVENUE 13 AUGUST 2008-NIGHT

Esau Sneed returned to Chicago and drove to, a run-down warehouse section of the city. Esau Sneed walked slowly along the dark street; this time of night, in this neighborhood the streets was deserted. He passed an alley where a group of homeless winos stood around a blazing fire in a garbage can drinking. Most of the warehouses were abandoned and shorted-out electrical signs advertising the businesses had long ago burned out, a three storied apartment building stood like a sentinel in the break neighborhood. He had been here before and knew that the second and third floor was empty and the resting place for the homeless people when the weather was cold and had no place else to go. Esau stood behind a tree and watched DEBRA ALLEN a prostitute that lived alone on the first floor he had had sex with her before in her apartment.

AT 9:00 pm she left home and walked two blocks to the 55th Street CTA elevator station and entered Pete’s Joint. Debra wasn‘t especially attractive but had a nice body that she was more than willing to display in short, tight skirts and low-cut blouses.


INT. PETE’S JOINT-NIGHT

Pete’s Joint was a typical neighbor bar located on the ground floor of a three flat building, rat and roach infected apartments were on the second and third floor. Esau entered and smelled the familiar stench of dry rot and fermenting urine that was so common in these old Chicago neighborhoods bars in the black community. The exterior consisted of a Budweiser sign that blinked on and off over a wooden door. The outside wall was painted dull gray and surrounded a grimy, bullet proof Plexiglas window. The inside walls looked like it had never been painted and the worn hardwood floor was a dirty brown. The u-shaped oak bar had ten bar-seats and was pitted with the marks of forgotten cigarettes. A few small tables were haphazardly scattered around and behind the bar on a lopsided shelf stood a bottle of Gordon’s Gin, Dmitry Vodka and a bottle of unlabeled rum. A juke box sat against one wall and an old, patched up pool table sat in the middle of the room. A telephone booth sat against another wall with an “OUT OF ORDER,” sign posted on the door. There were only three other customers; one had his head on the bar and was snoring and the other two sat at a booth in the back. The bartender whom name tag read “OSCAR,” was sitting on a stool behind the bar drinking an orange colored drink and reading