Tracking Evil, a Podcast Pt. 01

"As I said, he was a good man, a great father. He did not deserve this." Elena said, firmly closing the door on Erica.

Erica was a lot more sombre when she got back to her hotel. It was one thing to read of a murder, going through the facts clinically, scanning images as an observer. Actually meeting someone impacted by the crime, witnessing their pain first hand... whatever elation she had felt in finally getting background information, it was tempered by her new outlook on the crime.

She spent the rest of the day working on her notes, typing up her interviews and then rereading it all again, looking for something, some clue. There was nothing though, she needed more data. She needed to talk to more people. Erica switched on her laptop and typed a quick email to Tiny. She was going to travel to New Jersey the next day, visit the site in Camden where Lisa Bryerson had met her end. She asked Tiny if he thought his contact who had seen the graffiti would be willing to talk to her. To Erica's mind there was nothing to be lost in confirming the timeline Tiny had provided her with. She thought perhaps some local knowledge would help her as well.

Erica went downstairs to the hotel restaurant and had a light dinner. By the time she made it upstairs Tiny had replied, offering a time and place his friend Lemarcus would meet with her. She went online, rented a car and booked herself into a hotel in Philadelphia, Camden being just a short drive from the city. That done, she tried to relax, lying in bed watching TV.

Every so often however, Elena's last words kept coming back to her, 'he was a good man, a great father. He did not deserve this.'

It took just three hours to make the trip to Philadelphia. Once she'd arrived, checked in and unpacked Erica still had plenty of time before going to meet Lemarcus. She decided to leave the car at the hotel, she didn't know the streets well, wasn't all that used to driving in cities and reasoned that she'd get more feel from the area by bus or on foot than if she was attempting to navigate and drive at the same time. That decision made she headed down to as at the front desk where she could catch a bus to Camden.

Thirty minutes later she was standing at the corner of Atlantic Ave. and Broadway waiting on Lemarcus. Erica had ditched the pantsuit in favour of a more casual look, beige stretched cotton skinny trousers with a dark green hoodie over them, sneakers on her feet. She kept her hair tied back in a ponytail though. Over her shoulder she'd slung a small backpack with her camera, notepad and some pertinent notes on the Lisa Bryerson killing.

A faded blue Ford 1990's Ford Taurus pulled up alongside her. There were two black youths in the front, maybe a year older than herself. The man in the passenger seat rolled down his window, he had a narrow face, not unhandsome, his hair cut short with waves running through it. Through the windscreen she could make out the driver, in contrast to the passenger his face was blockier, a brutish cast to it, the thick beard only accenting it. His hair was in short dreads and he appeared to be smoking a joint.

"You Erica?" The passenger's voice dragged Erica's attention back to him.

"Yes. Lemarcus, is it?"

"That's right girl", he waved towards the rear passenger side door, "get in, your ride has arrived."

As soon as her ass had hit the backseat the car pulled away from the kerb and back into traffic.

"This here's David, call him D." Lemarcus said to Erica by way of introducing her to the driver. D didn't add anything, he seemed completely focused on the road.

"Umm hi D." Erica said, "So where are we going? I mean exactly where?"

Lemarcus shifted around in his seat so he was able to look back at Erica. She wasn't exactly regretting getting into the car, but she was surprised at herself for having done it so readily. Her growing obsession with the case, the podcast was flirting on the cliff edge of danger. She needed to take a breath and use her head more.

"Well Tiny, he said you wanted to see where that girl died and also where I seen that weird message on the wall, right? So that's where we are going. It's maybe three minutes from here."

"It's the same spot, isn't it?" Erica asked. "Both things happened at the same place."

"More or less, the message was just round the corner." Lemarcus said turning back to face the road, "So I guess technically they are on different streets but only twenty feet between them."

Erica settled back for the short trip, she took the camera out from her back pack and hung it around her neck on its strap so she could use it easier once they arrived. Lemarcus had been spot on with their journey time. Three minutes later D was squeezing the car into a parking spot on the street and the three of them got out.

"Follow me." Lemarcus said, he glanced either side and then scuttled across the street between oncoming cars. His thin face was a matched pair to his slender from, the t shirt and jeans seeming to flap around his torso and limbs as he dodged traffic. D took a more direct approach. While Lemarcus was of average height and skinny, D was tall and brawny and he simply seemed to pick a direct route, charging across heedless of the horns sounding at him. Erica was in no mood to replicate their approaches. She calmly headed to the crosswalk and caught up with the two men a minute later.

They passed some small stores before drawing to a halt beside a derelict looking corner store.

"Guess she died just about here." Lemarcus said indicating where Erica now stood. "What I know, it was late, dark, stores were all closed. She was walkin' or something and someone passing by just started slashing and stabbin' at her. Couple of people saw but nobody got there fast enough to save her or stop him. That about it D?"

D grunted in affirmation while Erica took some pictures of the area. Neither man seemed keen to be caught in her lens, sidestepping like crabs as she slowly pivoted around snapping off shots. Once she was done Erica asked to be shown the graffiti.

Again, Lemarcus took the lead walking round the corner.

D walked over to the wall, strong fingers began stripping off old handbills and posters that were papering a section of the brickwork. He worked quickly and silently, handing torn lumps of parchment to Lemarcus who looked at his friend in confusion. D jerked his chin towards a nearby trashcan and the thin black youth obediently dropped his burden inside it. All in all, it took just over a minute for D to clear enough space for Erica to see 'BILLIII' painted on the wall in small erratic yellow lettering.

This was her first time in the presence of one of the messages, seeing it in real life, not just through a picture. A shiver ran through her, a message from a killer. Erica snapped of a few more pictures, stepping back to get more of the surroundings in. She asked Lemarcus to clarify the dates he'd noticed the message for the first time and when he was sure it hadn't been there. His answer tallied perfectly with what Tiny had passed onto her.

Episode 4: With Friends like these

Finally, she was done.

"Thanks guys. You probably think it was a bit of a waste of your time, me dragging you out here. But honestly it was a huge help to me, I really appreciate it." Erica dug a hand into her pants pocket, pulling out some twenty-dollar bills. "I'd like to buy you guys a few drinks as a way of saying thanks."

The two men glanced at each other for a moment, D indicating with his head for Lemarcus to do the talking. Lemarcus held out his hand, palm raised to fend off her offered reward.

"See Tiny, well he did mention you might offer payment, and well he kinda already told us what the going rate with you for help is." his words had an apologetic tone as if he was implying that this wasn't his idea, but the grin on his face told another story.

Erica shook her head vehemently. "I don't know what Tiny told you, well actually I have a pretty good idea what he told you but that's not happening. I don't need to explain myself to you but what happened with Tiny, that was a one off. He had information worth the price. You guys were just tour guides. Look, take the money, have a few drinks and tell Tiny... tell him whatever you like."

D looked ready to finally speak, his face a mask of disappointment but Lemarcus patted him reassuringly on the shoulder and looked at Erica calculatingly.

"Well suppose Tiny already told me that it wasn't a simple deal. Suppose I brought more to the table than a tour?" He waited for Erica to reply.

"Okay, I'll bite. What's the big sell?" Erica stuffed the money back into her pocket, she wasn't paying them anything now.

"Well, he told me you were like a reporter or something. Like trying to figure out a mystery. And he said yesterday you were talking to people who knew a guy that got killed in DC. So, I got a person that knew Lisa." With that he jerked his thumb towards D. "What, you think I invited him along just for his conversation?"

Erica focused on D. "You knew Lisa?"

He nodded once.

"Prove it." Erica said combatively.

D reached into his back pocket and drew out a wallet. Inside from it he pulled a picture. It showed D, in bar or club, smiling at the camera, two girls stood either side of him, his arms draped over their shoulders. One of them was unmistakably Lisa Bryerson.

Erica thought furiously, her whole investigation hinged on finding a link between the victims. That meant knowing something about their lives. There was no guarantee anyone else in Camden would speak to her. If she approached the girl's family then they'd surely enquire as to her credentials. This wasn't exactly the path she'd imagined she'd be walking when she tried to get her break in journalism but right now it seemed the only choice she had.

"Fine!" she finally spat, "Wait in the car, I'll be there in a minute."

When she did join the two openly grinning men, sliding onto the backseat, Erica simply said, "You better have somewhere to go, it's not happening in the back of a car."

D started up the engine, pulling into traffic with a screech in his enthusiasm.

They pulled into the carpark of a Motel 6 soon after. Erica wasn't surprised at the location choice. If anything the shabby looking building suited the whole seedy scenario. Lemarcus ran in to get a room, Erica point-blank refusing to do so. D sat in the car with her waiting, silent. Lemarcus jogged into view shortly after, he held up six fingers to indicate the room number, passing ahead to open it up. D put the Taurus into reverse, moving the car into the space opposite the door that Lemarcus was now opening. Erica gave herself a final mental slap for digging herself this particular hole and then she got out of the car, following Lemarcus inside. Behind her, D locked up the car, walked inside and shut the room door firmly.

Lemarcus was acting like a kid in a candy store. He hopped onto the bed, jumping up and down on the mattress as he stripped off his top which he flung with a flourish across the room. Erica decided she needed to reappraise his age, she'd guessed twenty-six going by his face but he might have been closer to eighteen or nineteen with his immaturity. Shirtless his narrow frame was even more pronounced, his ribs clearly visible but there seemed a ropey strength to his body despite this.

"Me first, me first." he chanted, continuing to jump on the bed. Definitely eighteen or nineteen Erica decided.

D seemed to have no issue with this. The room was pretty sparse, a bed, a half table bolted to the wall above which a tv hung. Two metal framed wooden chairs that made the floor look comfortable, a small set of drawers with a filthy looking microwave perched on it. He picked up one of the chairs, retreated to the far corner of the room and proceeded to light up joint.

"Sooner started, sooner finished." Erica muttered. She put her bag on the table and began to strip as the two men looked on. She hadn't bothered with anything beneath the hoodie apart from a black bra. The beige trousers also came off quickly so that she was soon in her underwear. Lemarcus had torn his jeans and boxers off as well. His skinny legs might have made her burst out laughing if it wasn't for the fact that at the top of those spindly limbs, a large black cock jutted out proudly.

He wasn't as long or as thick as Tiny had been and as Erica unclasped her bra and pulled off her panties, Lemarcus was frantically stroking his already hard cock. 'If he keeps that up, I'll be done with him in no time' Erica thought smugly.

She opened her bag, removing the pack of condoms she'd bought in the store while the two men had been waiting in the car. She tore one off and tossed it to Lemarcus. He hopped off the bed, ripping the packaging free. Erica moved to lie down on the bed but from behind her she heard him say, 'Nah, on all fours.

Erica got on her hands and knees in the center of the bed, lowering her head down to the covers. She could smell cigarettes and mould from them. Lemarcus had fouled up the first condom and was now opening a second one. She sighed quietly and waited patiently, slowly stroking a finger against her pussy, trying to coax some excitement into her body. Finally, she felt him move onto the bed and take up position behind her. Erica was glad she'd begun preparing herself in advance because there was no foreplay or fondling with Lemarcus. Instead, he pushed his cock against her pussy entrance and with a shove entered her.

She'd never have believed that she'd be taking another stranger to bed, her second in three days. But then she also never believed she'd be wishing that the man entering her was Tiny. Lemarcus had enthusiasm, energy and a big cock. Sadly, he believed that was all it took. He started banging away at her pussy like he was inflating a beach ball, long strokes at a tiresome task. Erica braced herself against his assault, trying to guide him by pushing back, grinding her hips to vary his strokes.

It was starting to work as well, at least it was starting to work for her. Slowly, she felt her pussy grow wetter, his cock no longer stuttering up into her but gliding in and out of her oiled sheath. As her pussy became moist, her pleasure began to grow. A seed, just a small seed deep inside her crotch but it began to expand, the orgasm taking shape and building gradually.

"Ah hell yeah!" Lemarcus crowed behind her, his open hand slapping her butt cheek.

"Slow down." Erica panted, trying to curb his speed, an awful thought in her head that he was going to reach the finish line before she did.

"That's it, that's it girl, fuck yeah that's it!" Lemarcus prattled behind her, his fingers digging into her flesh as he grabbed hold of her hips. Erica knew he was about to cum.

"Aaaaahhh." she groaned in disappointment.

"I know baby, I is too fuckin' good." he panted from behind her. Casually he pushed her forward, his cock springing free as she slumped onto the mattress. Lemarcus clambered off the bed, a shit eating grin splashed across his face. Erica sat up in time to see him pull the filled condom free of his softening cock before he walked into the bathroom to dispose of it. He re-emerged moments later, the smile still in place. Erica glanced over at D who had remained quietly in the corner the whole time. The larger black man took a slow drag off his joint, Erica could see it flaring to life as he sucked the last dregs from it. The he calmly stubbed it out on the sole of his boot.

"Get dressed and wait in the car." the deep voice said. It was the first words D had spoken since she'd met him.

"Ah D, lemme watch, anyways I'll be good to go again in a minute." Lemarcus protested.

Erica had completely misread the dynamic between the two men. She had assumed Lemarcus to be the leader, the driving force, but when she saw him looking at D now, she saw which one was the alpha.

"She paid; you're done. Outside. Car. Now." There was no room for argument, not with the tone he used. Erica guessed and it seemed that Lemarcus knew that any further protests would only lead to violence. He picked up his clothes, dressing himself with as much dignity as he could. Lemarcus gave D a final pleading glance but the only answer he got back was the car keys tossed toward him.

The reverberation in the air as the door to the room closed was the only sound. Erica didn't know what to say so wisely she said nothing, waiting on D to make the next move.

"Are you full of shit or are you really looking for who killed Lisa?" It was a no bullshit question and it deserved a no bullshit answer.

"Yes I am. I think whoever killed her may have killed other people. So yes, I'm investigating and I hope to find the killer or at least convince the police to look harder at the evidence I found." Erica explained.

"The message, you think it's connected?"

"Yes, I don't know how, don't know what it means but yes I think it's connected. That's why I'm trying to find a link, something about the victims that might have set the killer off."

D had kept his gaze on Erica while they'd spoken, thoughtfully running his fingers through his beard. Now though he dropped his head into his hands, his eyes on his feet, then he began to speak again.

"I liked Lisa. She was a bit younger than me, maybe five years? Anyway, I liked her. She was fun, always laughing, always wanting to have fun. No complaining, no hassle. Sometimes we'd hook up and spend the entire weekend together. Sometimes a couple of weeks would go by then we'd meet up for just a couple of hours and pass on by again. She was cool. Didn't press me for a relationship, didn't bug me for favours or cash. She just, just liked being with me. And I liked being with her." Erica could hear the emotion in his voice even after he cleared his throat.

"Can you think of any reason anybody would want her dead?" Erica had to ask the question.

"She was nineteen, a kid. What could she have done to anyone? Me, yeah I can see someone coming after me but not her." there was anger in D's voice now. "And before you ask, no. Nobody who had a grudge against me would have killed her because they'd know what the retribution would be. So, it wasn't my life that got her killed. That much I do know."

They stayed like that for a good five minutes. Erica sitting quietly on the bed, D sitting on the chair, his head in his hands. Finally, he got up, going to the bathroom. Erica heard the splash of water as he cleaned his face. He came back into the room, he'd reverted back to his previous self, the vulnerability he'd shown buried once more. He picked up her clothes, holding them out towards her.

"You catch the bastard who killed my girl. That's all you need to do to pay me."

It took a few seconds but as realisation gradually dawned for D, his hand holding Erica's clothes lowered. It might have been her silence, the catch in her breath as he said no debt was owed, her body's responses to the sight of him, hardening nipples, dilated pupils. Maybe it was a combination of all of these or just good old fashioned animal instinct.

"Unless you feelin' the need to pay me..." D let it hang out there for a moment before he put her clothes back onto the half table. Erica kept her eyes on him as he peeled his top off. He was beautifully toned, ripped in fact. What she had earlier taken for a blocky build, maybe a power lifters heavy slabs of muscle, was in fact more akin to a swimmer's body, each muscle defined and beautifully in balance with the others. Erica felt a small squirt at her crotch as it instantly became aroused.

He pushed his jeans down slowly, he wasn't wearing any underwear and it was a delicious moment for Erica as, transfixed, she watched him reveal his black cock. And what a cock! It was close to ten inches and still hardening as it sprang free above the descending waistline of his jeans. D stepped clear of his clothing, idly stroking a hand along his length, flexing his fingers around the shaft till it became fully erect, a shade under twelves inches long. To Erica's eyes it appeared as defined as the rest of his body, thick throbbing veins criss-crossing its length, no give in its ironlike rigidity.