The X-Man by Brian R. Lundin (100 best novels of all time .TXT) 📕

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. He knew her routine; she left home at 9:00 pm, walked two blocks to the CTA elevator station, had a drink at Pete’s Joint and then went to work, she never altered her routine. When and if she found a customer she would walk them back to her apartment, she must be good Esau thought because usually in an half hour she was back walking, but tonight he knew she would be busy a little longer. 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, Esau sat down and waited to be served. 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 a racing form.

OSCAR (HEAD DOWN)
What do you want?

Esau ordered a beer and Oscar poured him a warm Miller’s Lite sat it down on the bar and continued reading. At nine-fifteen he glanced out the grimy window and was just able to make out Debra swaggering towards the bar; she walked in and sat on a barstool two stools from him. She ordered a gin and water and turned towards him. She slightly opened her legs and he could see her brown thighs and pantyhose, she smiled and he smiled back.

DEBRA (SMILING)
Want a good time?

ESAU
If it’s not too much

DEBRA (DOWNING HER DRINK)
It won’t be I promise

Esau put his warm beer on the bar and said, “Let’s go.” As they walked in silence, Debra thought to herself, “This trick isn’t bad-looking, short but well-built and strong looking, he might be a good fuck, she was tired of those limp-dick motherfuckas that she had to spend a lot of time sucking on their dicks to get it hard and when they finally did come, it was like a dripping water faucet, maybe this time she could get a nut, she needed one. They arrived at her building and she led him into the lobby. The terrible stench nearly overwhelmed him, he wanted to leave but he felt the stirring in his loins and he knew he needed a release. She grabbed his hand and led him into her apartment; a bare bed in the center of the room was covered with threadbare and soiled sheets which, lay across a ragged mattress. Brownish worn carpet was stained with spilled liquor and stomped out cigarette butts. He took in the stench of soiled clothes, unwashed bodies and dishes, he felt nauseas, but he held it back.

ESAU
I have to use the bathroom

DEBRA
First door to your right, sweetie


Debra began taking off her sweater and revealed drooping breasts, Esau smiled as he continued to the washroom. The toilet was unflushed and a blob of shit was in the bathtub. The throbbing between his legs got stronger; he had to release the fullness in his penis. He dry swallowed a Valium and a Librium and immediately felt better. When he returned to the front room Debra was removing her tattered skirt and stood, turned around and smiled. Esau saw the brown stains in the rear of her flimsy white panties, still smiling Debra pulled the front of the panties down exposing her hairless pubic area.

DEBRA (RUBBING ESAU’S PENIS)
I’m a naughty girl. See you ready for some action ten bucks is not too much for the fuck of your life is it?

Esau didn’t answer but sprung like a jungle cat striking Debra in the face with his fist, blood sprayed from her nose and mouth as she fell backward on the bed, her fingernails lashed out cutting his face.


ESAU
Dirty, fuckin’ whore

Debra face was contorted with fear and anger as she flung her thin arms in the air, Esau saw the tracks the needles had made and in the struggle Debra caught his ear between her nails and squeezed, Esau howled and with his right hand he grabbed her thin throat and began to choke her, she twisted loose and hit Esau upside the head with something, he felt dizzy and felt the blood dripping down his forehead, and his head hurt terribly. He got out his knife, but suddenly weak arms were around his waist.

MAN
What you doing mutherfucka

The man’s wine so breathe was suffocating. Esau released Debra and struck the man holding him, the man staggered, Esau looked around and saw two of the neighborhood bums. The other man was rail-thin and Esau knocked him down as he ran out the apartment. Once outside he saw a police car cruising, he walked slowly as the police vehicle passed. His head was throbbing and his face was bloody. He popped a Valium and wiped the blood from his face, “No pussy tonight,” he said to himself and laughed aloud as he drove away and headed towards Interstate 80 West.

CAHILL
Interviewed a couple of the workers at the construction site and was told that Ada drove a black Escalade, it still hasn’t been located

EVETTA
Ten to one Esau took it, I’ll check the DMV for a license and VIN number also just got a call from Sergeant Bill Turner, 2nd District Vice Officer and he told me that there was an attempt rape of a whore at 5422 Wabash, could not be connected at all to our guy, but what was interesting was the description; small man, very handsome, maybe we should interview her

RINGO
Sounds good, but let do it tomorrow, okay?

Evetta looked at Ringo and could sense he wasn’t feeling well. Evetta Lunden was assigned as Ringo’s Field Training Officer after he graduated from the Chicago Police Training Academy. She was a big woman; over six feet and Ringo estimated that she had to weight close to 200 solid pounds; she was twenty years older than him and getting close to the magical retirement age of fifty. Over the six months of his probationary period he was impressed with her street knowledge and take charge attitude and they became good friends. Her husband Clarence was a high school teacher and like Ringo a former Navy Seal. Evetta never wanted to be a sergeant or even a detective; she was content working as a patrol officer and she taught him how to be a street policeman and she was impressed with my quick mind, aggressiveness and willingness to learn. After his probationary period they were assigned to the vice squad which required long and irregular hours and the assignment began to put a strain his marriage. Being young his wife Elizabeth didn’t believe him when he would leave home in the middle of the night to catch a dope dealer or prostitute who usually worked at night, she accused him of having a girlfriend and became suspicious of Evetta, they divorced in 1999. Ringo enrolled in the Criminal Justice Program at Chicago State University but dropped out after September 11, 2001 and joined the United States Navy and eventually became a Navy Seal. In 2005 he was discharged from the Navy and returned to the Chicago Police Department, pursued his education and was awarded a PhD in 2007.

EVETTA (PUTTING HER ARM UNDER RINGO’S)
Okadoke, listen you go home and try to get some rest, I’ll pick you up in the morning

Evetta dropped Ringo at his building. Ringo was tired and his leg hurt, he maybe had an hour sleep since they found Deloris, but he had to keep going he had to catch this monster. Ringo took the elevator to his apartment and took off his shoes as pain shot from his leg to his brain. The Navy doctor who treated him told him that later on he would probably develop arthritis. He rubbed some of the ointment on the scar on his leg, laid across the large couch in the living room and closed his eyes as Piper snuggled up beside him. Images of all the killed and raped young women, Reverend Wilson, the man in the church and the police locker keeper flooded his thoughts. Ringo knew that his job was to arrest the X-Man and let a judge and jury decide his fate but he wanted the X-Man dead. He had seen too many cases where homicidal maniac with smart lawyers had gotten off and sentenced to a mental health facility, this was not going to happen with Esau Sneed. The following morning Evetta and Ringo met with Debra and her two saviors at a restaurant on East 55th Street. Evetta told them to order whatever they wanted the Chicago Police Department would pick up the bill. They ordered a big breakfast and they ate like they hadn’t had a good meal in days, Evetta and Ringo only had coffee. After finishing the meal and wiping her mouth with her sleeve Debra related the incident and how she had fought the man off, Claudius and Billy stated their part in the rescue and how strong the little man was.

BILLY
Yep he was a strong little fucker, damn near knocked me down

EVETTA (PLACING A PHOTO OF ESAU ON THE TABLE)
Is this him?

Debra, Claudius and Billy mouths were too full to talk but they nodded their heads. I called Cahill and he took them to headquarters for a formal statement. I returned to my office, lay on the too small couch and dozed off but was awaken by Captain Woods.


WOODS
Think we got another one, young girl in Ottawa found by her brother, Evetta and Cahill waiting in the parking lot

CAHILL
Vic is Rhonda Flemmings, white, sixteen, good student, found by brother Jean, seventeen when he came home from school at three thirty, address 321 Westmort Road,” Cahill read from a folder as Evetta activated the emergency equipment, I checked my watch it was five. We arrived at the scene in forty-five minutes

1 July 2012
Ottawa, Illinois is about ninety miles from Chicago and maybe forty from Joliet. It’s a small, clean little town with friendly people who main entertainment is fishing and boating in the Illinois River. 321 Westmort Road is a small middle-class, integrated public housing development that consisted of row houses, in a cul-de-sac that had three neat, well- maintained houses. Rhonda house sat on an acre lot with a manicured front and rear yard, a 14 foot fishing boat sat on