Danger at Every Turn by Devon Vaughn Archer

Author:Devon Vaughn Archer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Urban Books
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

The woman’s hair was unkempt and she wore tattered, baggy clothing. Deidre, who sat in while Roland prepared to draw a sketch of the possible killer, suppressed a need to gag from the stench emanating from Marina Elkins due to her life on the streets as a drunk and apparently not having bathed in some time. She hated to think that there were so many women out there like Marina—women who had either given up on the world or that the world had given up on.

Maybe this could be a turning point for her, to give life another chance. But Deidre wasn’t counting on that by any means, knowing it was a cruel reality that some of the homeless people were right where they wanted to be.

“Why don’t you describe the man you saw, Marina?” Roland spoke evenly.

Marina fidgeted. “No problem. Ain’t like I never seen him before. He’s about forty—or just looks that old—tall, got dark skin, and kinda muscular, I think, even though I never seen much of his body under all them clothes.”

Deidre took mental notes for work and her personal knowledge of what this serial killer might look like. “What did his face look like? Any distinguishing marks?”

Marina pulled on her nose that looked like it had been broken. “Never ’ave seen much of his face. He’s got a lot of hair on it. You know, a mustache, beard, the whole works. Guess it’s good for livin’ outside during the cold months. Keeps you warm. Maybe it does jus’ the opposite when it get hot.”

Roland started sketching. “Does he have hair on his head? Bald?”

“He’s got them dreadlocks.”

“What about his eyes?”

“Real creepy, they was.” The mere mental image seemed to frighten Marina. “Dark and deep, like they wanted to pop out at you if you was lookin’ at him the wrong way.”

Roland added this to his sketch. “What type of nose did he have?”

“Dunno.” Marina shrugged. “Wide with big nostrils,” she said as if with sudden clarity.

Deidre pictured this, getting a portrait of the man with her mind’s eye.

“Anything else you can think of to describe the man?” Roland asked.

Marina coughed noisily. “Nuh-uh. I didn’t study his face or body too much. Peoples who hang out in the park tend to mind they own business. Me included, mosta the time.”

Except for the ones who like to get into other people’s business like gangbangers, muggers and murderers. Deidre winced at the thought, believing that the woman might well have seen the killer and lived to tell about it.

“Does this look like him?” Roland showed the sketch to Marina.

She studied it. “Yeah, you done good. Looks like ’im to me.”

“You’re sure?”

She paused for further examination. “Yeah.”

“Did he see you?” Deidre asked curiously as she leaned over to look at the sketch.

As if the thought just occurred to her and was unnerving, Marina stammered, “Uhh, I ... I, uh, I don’t think so.”

Deidre had a feeling that this was more wishful thinking than anything on her part. Which meant that if this man was the killer, Marina’s life could be in danger.

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