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

an executive secretary at the Learn to Read center on 47th Street. Two months pregnant and William Smith, her boyfriend was the father. Vic was found naked in bathtub, large x carved on her body and a bloody x smeared over the bathroom wall. When the victim failed to show up at work her supervisor sent a co-worker, William Johnson over to check it out. He stated that the front door was wide opened and when he went in he found her in the bathtub

The stink of unwashed bodies, urine and vomit washed over us as Evetta and I entered the dark building. We started up the stairs and stepped around a sleeping homeless man curled up in a dark corner. Another uniform police officer was posted at the second floor apartment surrounded by bright yellow tape and Crime Scene Tech was examining the door. We showed our badge to the officer and ducked under the tape and entered the small twelve-by-twelve, one bedroom apartment. It was darker in the apartment then it was in the hallway. Evetta found a light switch and flipped it, nothing happened. The only light came through the one bare window. We flicked on our flashlights and walked carefully down a narrow hallway trying not to step on anything and entered a small front room that contained a 12 inch television, a two seat brown couch and a brown old recliner. Off from the front room was the kitchen and on the stove was a pot still warm that contained greens. Further down the hall was the bedroom that contained a queen size bed, a three drawer dresser and a small clothes closet. Evetta took the closet and I started looking in the drawers.

EVETTA (LOOKING INTO THE CLOSET)
Nice wardrobe, conservative business suits and dresses, find anything?”

RINGO (OPENING THE FIRST DRAWER)
Blouses neatly folded, bras, women napkins, no panties

EVETTA (RIFLING THROUGH THE VICTIM’S CLOTHES)
No wallet or ID

The air in the bathroom which was next to the bedroom had the smell of death. I swept my light pass the sink, the toilet bowl and finally to the bathtub. As we entered the room we were careful not step in the pools of blood on the floor. The young naked woman was half sitting up in the bathtub full of bloody water, eyes bulging and foam was around her mouth and nose and one hand was resting on the bathtub rim. She was attractive despite the death mask. Her skin was very dark and she had short black hair and a nice body. Duct tape covered her mouth and a pair of brown panty hose was tied tightly around her neck and a deep x was carved in her chest and a large x smeared in blood was on the wall.

EVETTA
Jesus! Thinks it’s him?

RINGO
Yep

A young female Crime Scene Investigator accompanied by Doctor Dixon from the Medical Examiner‘s Office begin to unpack their equipment in the bedroom.

CSI INVESTIGATOR
Ok for us to start detectives?

RINGO
Yes, go ahead

Doctor Dixon squeezed himself between the toilet and the bathtub. He tenderly lifted the woman’s hand and turned it over.

DIXON (EXAMINING THE FINGERNAILS)
Hopefully we can find some hair, fiber or biological trace as he carefully wrapped her hands in plastic baggies. No rigor and the body is still warm, she’s been dead less than twelve hours

Dixon examined her neck and motioned for the CSI investigator to take pictures.

DIXON (POINTING TO THE VICTIM’S LARYNX)
There is evidence of Petechiae and sclera hemorrhage in the eyelids and the nostrils also there is a bloody discharge from the nose and mouth indicating some kind of trauma I believe the cause of death was ligature strangulation, but I’ll know more when I get her on the table

EVETTA
Let’s interview Mr. Johnson

Evetta and I found Mr. Johnson sitting in a squad car, shaking. I introduced myself and Evetta and helped him out the car and we walked to our vehicle, Mr. Johnson sat in the rear seat.

RINGO
Can you tell us what happened?

JOHNSON
Robin worked as an executive secretary at the Learn to Read Center at 47th Vincennes, she was very competent and was always at work half hour before the starting time. Today when she failed to come in, my boss Mrs. Anderson became concerned and asked me to go to her apartment and make sure she was alright. When I arrived the front door was cracked, I knocked and called her name, when I got no answer I went in and found her in the bathtub

RINGO
Did you touch or remove anything?

JOHNSON
No, but I knew she was gone. I was a Marine in Iraq during Iraqi Freedom and I know when a person is gone

EVETTA
What kind of person was Robin?


JOHNSON
A really nice young lady, always pleasant and had a big smile for everybody

EVETTA
Did she have any trouble with her co-workers?

JOHNSON
Not to my knowledge, she got along with everybody, such a tragedy

EVETTA (HANDING MR. JOHNSON HER BUSINESS CARD)
Thank you, and if you think of anything else give us a call

Evetta and I watched as Mr. Johnson walked to his car and drove off.

EVETTA
Hellava way to start your day

RINGO
Yep, certainly is, well, let’s talk to some of the neighbors

Evetta rang the door bell at 4325 South Prairie Avenue and got no answer, although she saw the curtains move, we walked to 4321 South Prairie Avenue and I knock hard on the door.

WEAK VOICE
Who’s there?

EVETTA
Police!

After a moment the door was cracked and an old woman peeped around the door, Evetta showed her, her badge and identification.
EVETTA
We’re investigating the death of Robin Honeywell, did you know her?

WOMAN (THE WOMAN PUT HER HAND TO HER MOUTH)
Oh my God

RINGO
May we come in?

The woman opened the door and directed us into the dining room and motioned for us to sit, we noticed how upset the woman was and waited a minute.

EVETTA
Did you know Robin well?

WOMAN
Yes she grew up in the neighborhood and was a nice girl, always polite and mannerable

EVETTA
Did she have many visitors, males or females?

WOMAN
No, not many but sometimes I would see a young man and her going out, but no. not to many other visitors. Matter of fact just last week she seemed so happy she told me she was pregnant and was going to get married

RINGO
Thank you, we’ll be in touch

EVETTA
We know that Robin Honeywell was about two months pregnant and William Smith, her fiancé’ was the father and has an alibi as well as her husband. There were no prints or any trace evidence, just a laceration on her head that Dixon said was caused by a blunt instrument, there were signs of sexual abuse and the murder weapon was probably one of her kitchen knives, no prints

10 June 2008
I needed a break from the X-man case, I thought about Monique and my ex-wife Elizabeth, deep down I knew Elizabeth was right, I loved my job and knew I would not be happy doing anything else, especially being a college professor. I remembered an old saying, “He who can does, he who can’t teach.”I knew the job was dangerous, but right now if something happened to me, there was no wife or children to be affected. It was 2:00 am, John and his alley cat Piper, that he found abandon in a drain lived in the Quadrangle House at 67th South Shore Drive. It was an expensive adult only building and most of the tenants were professionals; school teachers, police officers, doctors and lawyers. John lived on the 24th Floor and all of his windows faced Lake Michigan. It was a warm night and a soft breeze off the lake was pressing through the screened window along with the bright moonlight. Miles Davis, his favorite artist was doing his thing on the CD player while he was winning an Internet chess game with some character named “TheBobby,” when his cell phone ranged. I looked at the phone and knew nothing good comes from a 2:00 am phone call and picked up the receiver.

LIEUTENANT O'SHEA (SCREAMING)
I think we got another one

RINGO
Where?


O’SHEA
4650 South Calumet, your partner is on the way

RINGO
On the way

RINGO (TYPED ON THE COMPUTER)
You win, gotta go

FADE IN:
The weather had changed and I remembered and old Chicago saying, “If don’t like the weather, wait a few minutes it will change.”The winds had picked up and rain clouds were closing in as I parked in front of 4650 South Calumet Avenue. South Calumet Avenue like many of the old buildings in Bronzeville was once an upper-class neighborhood. The once single family homes have been converted into kitchenettes or three-flat apartments.

EXT: 4650 South Calumet Avenue.
Police officers had moved a large crowd across the street, a combination of concerned citizens, neighborhood crazies and the usual sullen homeboys and drug dealers, cursing at the police, a woman and two homeless people were standing around a blazing fire in a trash barrel as sparks leaped into the cold air.

SHOUT
Get the fuck out, pig motherfuckers

Ringo looked around to where the shout came from and saw a young boy maybe ten, swaggering off with a group of other young boys. A crime scene had been established that included the entire three flat structures and I told one of the Crime Scene Unit technicians to video tape, photograph and sketch the entire crime scene. Officers were stationed to keep the curious away as teams of detective began canvassing the building and neighborhood. As I retrieved my flashlight from the trunk the clouds erupted and I got soaked to the bone as I jumped over pools of dirty water gathering in the gutter and hurried across the broken sidewalk. Inside the building lobby gang graffiti, smoke and water stains covered the molded wall that reflected their lost and forgotten tenants.

RINGO (CAREFULLY WALKING UP THE BROKEN STAIRS AND TALK TO A YOUNG OFFICER)
Who found the body?

YOUNG OFFICER
The maintenance man, he’s inside being interviewed by one of the detectives

As I passed the uniformed officers and ducked under the bright yellow crime scene tape, I smelled the bitter afterglow of sweat, stale cigarette smoke and the sweet odor of marijuana that I found so disgusting.
When I reached the second floor I