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

you check your records and see if a Louise Johnson and a Cynthia White is one of your member?

JULIE (SHE TURNED TO HER COMPUTER)
Sure, one moment. Here she is, Louise Johnson, joined the club in 2007, White joined in February this year

EVETTA
Can you tell us the last time they were here?


JULIE (TYPING)
White two weeks ago, Johnson two days ago

RINGO ( SHOWING THE RECEPTIONIST PHOTOGRAPHS OF LOUISE AND CYNTHIA)
Is this them?

JULIE (LOOKING AT THE PHOTOS)
Yep, that’s them

EVETTA (PUT HER ARMS UNDERMINE AS WE WALKED TO THE WEIGHT ROOM)
Thanks,

EVETTA (CONT)
Not your type

RINGO (SMILING)
Yes, ma’am

Lee, the personal trainer was sitting on a workout bench sipping water from a bottle. She smiled and rose when she saw me and Evetta.

RINGO
I didn’t know you worked out here

LEE
Yeah, I split my time between the one in River Oaks and here. Guess you’re not her for a workout

RINGO (SHOWING HER THE PHOTOGRAPH OF LOUISE AND PEGGY)
Not today Lee, got a question for you, do you know these woman?


LEE (LOOKING AT THE PICTURES)
Yes, that’s Louise; I worked her out a couple of times, I’ve see the other one but I don’t know her she was in the aerobic class

EVETTA
What kind of person is Louise?

LEE
Kind of bossy, but very intense. She an adrenaline addict and she pushed her body to the limits

RINGO
Did she associate with anyone in here?

LEE
A couple of times I saw her in the Health Bar with a good looking little guy, I don’t know his name

EVETTA
What about White, ever see her with anyone?

LEE (LEE THOUGH FOR A MOMENT)
No not really. There is a lot of predators in these clubs trying to get over, they think they are real ladies man, real smooth and got a line of bullshit from here to Gary Milwaukee

EVETTA
They ever try the bullshit on you?

LEE (WINKING AT RINGO)
Hell yes, they try but only once, I like real men, like the Ringo, not boy toys


RINGO
You’re going to make me blush

EVETTA
Go on, you look cute when you blush

RINGO
Thanks Lee, see you later

We returned to the receptionist and I turned on the charm.

RINGO (FLASHING AN ENORMOUS SMILE)
One last request
The receptionist rose from her seat, revealing well-muscled legs and a shapely body.

JULIE (SMILING AND IGNORING EVETTA.)
Anything for you detective

RINGO (STILL FLASHING A BIG SMILE)
Do you know if a little guy, maybe five feet or so is a member of the center?

The receptionist bent over her computer displaying a well-rounded ass. Evetta looked at me and shook her head.

JULIE
Yeah, there a short little guy who is a regular and flirty, he’s always sniffing behind some woman real strange, he always looks like he high off something.”


EVETTA
Got an address and phone number


JULIE (IGNORING EVETTA AND TYPING ON THE COMPUTER)
Yep, Esau Sneed, 5251 South King Drive, no phone

EVETTA
How often is he here?

JULIE (ADJUSTING HER LOW CUT TOP)
Two or three times a week, work out in the weight room generally

RINGO (LEANING ACROSS THE DESK AND LOOKING DOWN JULIE’S LOW CUT BLOUSE)
Here’s my card it got my cell and home number, give me a call the next time he’s here and maybe we can have dinner sometime

JULIE (SMILING JULIE SLOWLY SLID THE CARD IN HER BRA)
Sounds like a winner to me, I certainly will call and take you up on that dinner

As we were walking away Evetta looked at me, rolled her eyes.

EVETTA
You’re the biggest bullshiter I know

RINGO (SMILING)
I learned from the best

QUADRANGLE HOUSE -2 October 2008

The doorman ranged my apartment and announced that a Monique Brown had arrived; I was at my apartment door and watched as she walked from the elevator. She carried a large bag, but still had the grace of an African princess. She wore a white pleaded skirt and a green pleated blouse, gold earrings danced from her lobes.

MONIQUE
Dinner time, I’m counting on the fact that you have probably not had a good, old-fashioned, soul food meal in a while

RINGO
Good guess

MONIQUE (POINTING TO A BAG)
Show me the kitchen and get out the way and
get a bottle of the Chianti out and let it breathe

I did as ordered and sat down on the kitchen island chair and watched her as she unpacked the bag. A sudden cool breeze blew through the slightly opened window and captured the scent of her perfume.

RINGO
Like Miles?

MONIQUE
Heck yeah, got “Porgy and Bess?

I put the CD on and watched as Monique began placing microwave food containers on the island counter and removing lids.

MONIQUE
Smothered chicken and gravy, steamed rice and vegetables, removing another lid she said, home made buttermilk biscuits

RINGO (HANDING HER A GLASS OF WINE)
This is a treat. A toast to home cooking and the chef
Monique slowly sipped the wine, humming her approval.

MONIQUE
I know white wine is supposed to go with fish and chicken, but the gravy makes the meal unique, so the red is fine

I got the silverware and plates out the cabinet and sat them on the island as Monique placed the containers in the microwave and swayed to Miles version of “Summertime.” She took another sip of wine and retrieved two scented candles from her bag, melted the ends and placed them in candle holders. The microwaves timer went off and she removed the containers. I topped off our wine glasses and we stared each other through the light of the flickering candles.

MONIQUE
Dinner is almost ready, ready to eat?

RINGO
Hm, something is smellin’ real good

Monique placed heaping amounts of food into our plates and sat.
After dinner I cleared the table and we went into the living room and I positioned some large soft pillows next to the large window as Monique brought in the candles, we stood and looked out the window, the weather was warm and the bright moon caste an eerie glow on the dark waters of the lake. Muted voices could be heard drifting up from the sidewalk and a sailboat could be seen in the distance and Piper rubbed against Monique’s legs.

MONIQUE
How you doing John?

RINGO
Ok, but this X-Man thing is starting to get to me. We know for sure he’s responsible for at least five young women in the prime of life cut down by a damn maniac

MONIQUE
I’m concerned about you. Lieutenant O’Shea is struttin’’ around like a chicken with its head cut off and getting on everyone’s nerves and blaming you for not catching this monster. In my profession we seek reasons for a person’s actions, the why-fors for their behavior, we need completion just as police officers do and too many incompletes in one’s life and the stress and tensions can become too much to bear

RINGO
That’s why so many cops gets divorced and commit suicide. I’ve isolated myself, being a cop is all I ever wanted to be, but being a cop consumes you, entirely, slowly but surely. It had taken everything out of my life, when I found out that my ex-wife was having an affair, I was devastated and angry, and I kept asking myself why. When I confronted her she told me that I was married to the job not her, and when I think about it, she was right. The long hours, the coldness and aloofness that comes with being a police officer must be hard on any relationship; I am beginning to resent all that being a cop have taken from me

I took another sip of wine and suddenly felt pleasantly light head. I sat on a pillow and Monique joined me.

RINGO (CONT)
What about you, how did you get involved in police work?

MONIQUE
After graduating from the University of South Carolina I opened a clinic in my home town and most of my patients were neurotic, old white women and court referrals. One of these referrals was an eighteen-year-old black girl name Jean. Jean was abandon when she was three and was placed in a foster home when she was five. Her foster parents worked and she was left in the care of the foster mother father who was in his late seventies. From the time she was five until she was thirteen he sexually molested her. At first he made her give him blowjobs while he fondled her and masturbated, as she got older it was intercourse. As strange as it seems for her to get pregnant by such an old man, she did when she was fourteen. When she told the foster parents who the father was, of course they didn’t believe her and the foster mother aborted the baby, herself. After that, the girl became insolent and hard to handle; she started staying out and was gang raped by a group of young boys when she was fifteen. Finally, the foster parents went to court and she was sent to an orphanage where two elderly attendants raped her. When I got her she was all screwed up and angry, and I believe she was schizophrenic. I considered recommending she be institutionalized, but I thought I could help her, big mistake. She attended counseling for about two years and then she stopped coming. About a year later she entered a nursing home and killed three old men and was subsequently killed by the police. I felt guilty, I made a mistake that caused the life of four people, and she should have been institutionalized

RINGO
There was no way for you to know what she was going to do

MONIQUE
But I am a professional, I should have seen the signs, but I didn’t. After that I started researching how police departments dealt with people with mental problems, and to my surprise most of them didn’t. Their answer to dealing with a mentally handicapped person who was violent was a bullet in the brain or a jail cell

Monique took another sip of wine and Ringo noticed the tears. He cupped her in his hands and kissed away the tears. After his divorce Ringo had always thought that nothing or no one could touch him emotionally many things didn’t, but Monique felt so precious to him that he never wanted to lose her. The lights were low and the CD player changed to Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain. Monique lay back on the over sized pillows and pulled me on top of her. She started unbuttoning my pants as I unbuttoned her blouse. She wiggled out the blouse and exposed her small breast, I moved down her body, kissing her stomach and thighs. She removed my pants and I raised her skirt and pulled down her panties. I felt her body become rigid and arc beneath me and could feel her stomach muscles tense and ripple as I entered her. Her moans merged with the size of the waves on the beach as we collided with the rocky shore. I kissed her lips as I trusted deeper; Monique rolled me over on my back and straddle me making my erect penis