The Legend (10 page)

The vile inscriptions covering the living room walls
and ceiling continued into the bedroom.  More horseflies hovered over his sheet-less bed.  There were yellowish stains on his mattress and the stench of urine emanated from it.  I noticed more empty prescription bottles on top of a journal on his dresser.  The journal caught my inquiring mind.  I retrieved it and sifted through his entries.  Everything was written in red ink. 

Before I could finish re
ading the first sentence, red strobe lights penetrated through the rifted blinds in his bedroom window.  I looked outside and noticed several unmarked Crown Victorias pull up to the front of the building.  Plainclothes officers sporting police windbreaker jackets swiftly exited the vehicles and surrounded the individuals gambling out front.  One tried to flee but was tackled halfway down the block.  They were all handcuffed and placed against the building fence.  A middle-aged, heavyset detective sporting a green trench coat sauntered towards one of the individuals.  He pulled a purple latex glove over his left hand then reached into the individual's pants.  Seconds later he retrieved a sandwich bag containing packaged narcotics from the individual’s groin area.  This appeared to be some sort of police drug sting. 

Suddenly several officers rushed into the bu
ilding.  I didn't want to be a part of this dragnet.  I placed the journal back on the dresser and fled out of the apartment.  Laden footsteps raced up the hallway staircase.  Flashlight beams oscillated along the walls as the footsteps drew closer.  I made my way to the roof, leaped to an adjacent building and fled into the night.

"Detective Wu, I found out something you'll find useful.  We need to meet." 
I sent the detective a text message.

"How about the alley b
y my station in an hour?" 
She responded seconds later.

"I'm on my way."

Detective Wu was already parked in the alley when I arrived.  She noticed me approaching her unmarked Crown Victoria
through her rearview mirror.  The transmission grinded as she threw the gear lever in park.  The driver side door opened slightly and a black ladies walking umbrella unfurled as she stepped out underneath it.  She held onto a clear evidence bag as she sauntered to the rear of her car. 

"I found out who he is." 
I disclosed.

"WHAT?  YOU DID?  WHO IS HE?" 
She blurted.  She snatched a notepad from her rear pocket and fixed the stem of the umbrella between her neck and shoulder. 

"His name is Albert.  He lives on Senate Drive.  Narcos just raided his building."

"You have an apartment?"

"4B." 

"This couldn't come at a better time.  He just killed another prostitute.  A homeless guy found her body in the basement of an abandoned apartment building." 
The detective uttered while jotting down the information.  She stopped writing then handed me an evidence bag with a note inside of it.
  

"Hello Chief Burke, The Harlot Murderer Strikes Again!  I didn't think we would've had this meeting so soon.  Everyone thinks I'm crazy.  They cast me into the gutter and made me into a monster.  Now everyone is aghast at the creation they made.  See you soon."

The note was written in the same red bold and jagged scribble as the entries in his journal and the writing on the walls and ceiling inside his apartment.

After the detective noted the tip in her pad, she got on her
cellphone and called her sergeant. 
"...Yes sarge, my confidential informant is very credible.  I think we should look into it..." 
She slapped her flip phone shut, collapsed her umbrella then darted to the driver's side of her police cruiser. 
"You know, the reward for information leading to this guy's arrest is twenty five thousand dollars!" 
Detective Wu hollered before slamming her door shut.  The Crown Victoria then raced towards the street with its red dashboard strobe light illuminating the alley.

The following afternoon Detective Wu was given the
"Go ahead"
from her sergeant to look into the lead I presented.  For days she staked out Albert's apartment hoping he'd return.  Unfortunately, he hasn't.  Detective Wu is convinced the narcotics unit might've scared him off during their raid.  Without enough probable cause she is unable to get a search warrant for the apartment.

Fortunately, the narcotics unit was able to unravel a complex drug distribution ring involving the landlord and several tenants.  Along with the atrocious conditions, Capitol
City’s District Attorneys and a housing inspector managed to get the city to condemn the building.  Tenants had thirty days to move out.  When Albert failed to return within the time period, the city deemed his apartment and belongings abandoned.  Detective Wu now had the authority to enter it.

The crime scene
technicians seized substantial evidence from his apartment: his graphic journal entries, DNA samples, a box of .38 special cartridges that was half full, all the Queen of Hearts playing cards and photos of the vile inscriptions on his walls and ceilings.  Detective Wu now had enough PC to get an arrest warrant signed by the Superior Court Judge for Albert.  A photograph of him, a brief biography and his 1982 Ford Country Squire station wagon with simulated wood panels were broadcasted on the late night news and printed in the morning paper.

"...Serial killers usually start off committ
ing petty crimes at an early age..." 
Detective Wu informed me. 
"Albert, however, didn't pick up that trait.  He's has no criminal history.  So the DNA recovered from the victims didn't match anyone in our criminal database.  But the DNA found on the victims did match the DNA samples we collected from Albert's apartment."
 

In order to be more proficient at capturing Albert, Detective Wu came up with the idea of piecing together a profile of him.  For the next several weeks, Detective Wu gathered information on Albert by obtaining copies of his school records, military records, interviewing his childhood classmates and
studying his journal entries.  She spent weeks arranging it in chronological order and analyzing them.  In two months’ time, Detective Wu was knowledgeable enough to rewrite his biography.    

In Albert's journal, he recalls carrying a lot of animosity for his mother's cats at a young age. 
"..She always put her cats before me..." 
Ultimately, he decided to get rid of his mother's pets by mixing the cat food with rodent poison pellets.  He found great pleasure in watching them agonize for days before they finally died. 

At the age of eleven, Albert became fond of a middle school classmate named Lauren. 
"...I stare at her all the time.  She's the prettiest girl in the world..." 
He depicted her in his journal as timid and pristine. 
"...She never talked to anyone and would run into her parent's arms after school..."  
Lauren and Albert wound up attending the same high school.  In their sophomore year, a biology teacher paired the two to be lab partners.  Albert was ecstatic.  Lauren, however, like the rest of Albert's classmates, thought he was bizarre.  She wasn't thrilled by the partnership.  Lauren reluctantly traded phone numbers with Albert.  Instead of using it to work on their project, Albert seized the opportunity to badger her. 
"He used to call my house during the late hours of the night.  When my parents answered, he'd hang up immediately.  If I answered, I'd hear nothing but heavy breathing.  It got to the point that my parents had to go to the school and have a meeting with the biology teacher, Albert and his mother." 
Lauren explained to Detective Wu one afternoon after agreeing to confer with her over lunch.

In their senior year, Lauren joined the cheerleading team.  Albert developed animosity for the skimpy uniform she wore around school.  It wasn't long before she hooked up with the captain
of the football team.  One afternoon, while feeding the pigeons on the football field during lunch, Albert caught Lauren surrendering her virginity to her boyfriend underneath the bleachers.   He recounted it as watching
"An apple rot before my eyes."

After high school, Albert enlisted in the Army where he
became a proficient marksman.  He was shipped to Vietnam.  While overseas he made efforts to persuade a local prostitute to become his girlfriend.  However, on numerous occasions, he caught her sleeping with members in his platoon.  It didn't sit well with him.  Documented cases states Albert ignited fires throughout the camp.  Ultimately, his antics caused his disciplinary discharge. 

Since his discharge, Albert has been working odd jobs in different cities.  However, just like his love life, he's unable to keep anything steady.  He writes about getting fired or laid off in a months’ time.  He's developed a heavy alcohol and heroin addiction that he is unable to curb.  Often he arrives to work late and intoxicated.  He also writes about being abusive to women.

Using his journal entries, Detective Wu was able to locate a female that Albert assaulted a few years ago.  At first she didn't want to relive the account and made attempts to deny it.  Detective Wu pleaded with her:
"That man that raped you is now killing teenage girls.  You're a key to helping me catch him." 
The female eventually conceded.

She told Detective Wu Albert used to hang around local high schools offering girls a ride home
in his wood paneled station wagon.  Her parents warned her to stay away from him.  One Friday evening, after an exhausting three hours of cheerleading practice, she reluctantly took him up on his offer.  She recalled
"Before closing the door to his car, he sped off." 
Minutes into the drive, he adjusted the rearview mirror so he could gaze at her in the passenger seat.  She kept noticing Albert's eerie blue eyes peering at her. 
"It's like his eyes are burned into my memory.  That's all I kept seeing.  Those... dark... blue eyes." 
She started reconsidering the offer for the ride home. 

"You can drop me off here.  I need to run to the store." 
She directed. 

"I'll take you to the store,
"
Albert responded.

Albert suddenly became bold, reached over and fondled her exposed thigh from her skimpy cheerleading uniform.  She screamed and smacked his wrist away.  Albert felt disrespected. 
"You thought this ride was gonna be for free?" 
Albert barked then clenched onto her inner thigh while still navigating through traffic.  She struggled to pull away from him but his hold was too firm.  She began jabbing him in the mouth.  Albert caught her wrist and held onto it as he drove into the alley behind his apartment building. 
"Then it just happened so fast.  I tried to open the door and run but he wrapped his arms around my neck and stomach and carried me over the front seat into the back.  He got on top of me and he... He... He ripped my shorts and underwear off and he... He kept calling me 'Lauren' the entire time..." 
 

When it was over, Albert released her and she fled home.  In Albert's journal he said it was the first time he has ever raped a female.  He was nervous and regretted not killing her.  He thought she was going to notify the police.  However, officers never came to his door.   She disclosed to Detective Wu that she was too
embarrassed to tell anyone she was assaulted by him. 
"My parents warned me not to get into his car.  I couldn't tell them what he did to me."

It's closing in on a year since Albert's last homicide.  Although he still hasn't been captured, it seems the citizens have begun to put Albert behind them.  Steadily the nailed wooden panels are coming off the boarded up nightclubs.  Diners are staying open into the late night hours once again.  Police patrols are lessening and the ladies of the evening have re-taken their posts in the back alleys and motel fronts.  There are no more talks about the
"Harlot Murderer"
in the bars, barbershops or street corners.  Downtown is returning to its old ways.

A couple of weeks ago, while scouring the city for Albert's whereabouts, I was able to get a lead on another hom
icide.  A mother, who lost her only daughter to the
"Harlot Murderer,"
was about to lose her husband as well.  His name's Ludlow and he was accused of a homicide.  However, word on the street is he didn't commit the crime.  It was a set up.  It's my fault her daughter was killed.  If I had just called the police that night, Albert wouldn't have gotten this far.  I can't bring her daughter back but I could at least try to prove her husband's innocence.

The apartment where the homicide
occurred was still taped off with crime scene tape.  Tampering with the locked door would draw too much attention from the prying eyes that live on this floor.  However, after scaling down the fire escape I noticed a rear window was left slightly open.  It didn't take much to hoist it up and gain entry to the railroad-style apartment. 

The killer was callous and cold-blooded.  Detective Wu informed me the victim was killed from blunt force trauma.  A metal baseball bat and a soapy rag
were found in the living room where the body was.  I can't even find a square foot on the walls, ceiling or carpet that doesn't have blood splatter on it.  Even her furniture was stained with it.  The glass coffee table was shattered and her sofas were flipped onto its back.  Her bookshelves, television and house plants were knocked over.  Several people have told me Ludlow didn't have the
"Balls"
to pull off something like this.