Authors note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Tracking Evil, A Podcast: Part 9
Prologue:
After Izzak, a roommate and friend to Terrance, had been arrested for the murder of the married white woman he was having an affair with, it was Terrance who broke the news to his friends and Erica at a frat party they were attending at Rutwell College.
Erica's facial expression, when Terrance brought them up to speed angered the young black man and he tried to foist the blame for the killing on Erica. Distraught that Sondra's brother would think this about her, she excused herself from the group and eventually found a secluded bedroom in the house where she could think over what had been said.
Her solitude was interrupted by the arrival of Elvin, a friend of Terrance's who had followed her. He didn't make any apologies for Terrance's reaction, that sort of thing wasn't in his nature, he did tell Erica that her face on hearing the news of the murder had lit up in anticipation, the act of which brought on Terrance's angry words.
And now. . .
Erica turned away from him, looking out the window once more. She kept silent, hoping Elvin would take the hint and go away. A minute passed, a second one then stretched by in uncomfortable silence. Finally, she heard the creak of floorboards, Elvin moving. Erica exhaled slowly through her nose.
Was he right? Erica wasn't considering Elvin's interpretation of Terrance's unfortunate response to her unthinking actions. She assumed the odiously cerebral young man was spot on in his assumptions. She had already gleaned that he wasn't the sort who made mistakes. No, it wasn't Elvin's words that had her staring out into the night, it was Butterman's.
Had the serial killer been correct when he had made his observation about her? Was she like him? Not a killer, but was she attracted to death, murder, mayhem? Was that the reason behind her increased sexuality, her rampant needs that carried her away at times beyond the limits of good sense? Was she becoming some sort of junkie to danger and violence? Was she getting her fix through rough sex with virtual strangers?
The sound of a throat being cleared brought her back to the now.
"He likes you. That's the real explanation behind his emotional state." Elvin's voice came, it was closer. The floorboard had creaked on his approach, not as a signal of him leaving.
"I know." Erica replied simply.
"I like you to." Elvin continued, the words coming out like he was reluctant to say them. Erica was glad there and then that she wasn't facing her as he said it, obviously she needed to learn how to school her face, to mask her emotions better.
The right response would be to thank him, to act flattered but to let him down gently, almost as if loath to do so. The wrong response would be to laugh openly, to crush him with indifference.
'Stop it now' she thought to herself, 'Turn around, excuse yourself and leave before things go to far.'
Then there was the really wrong response.
"I thought he was your friend?" Erica said. Silence on her part would have been better, responding like this could only encourage him. She heard him behind her, leather shoes squeaking as he shifted his feet in consternation at her response.
"Perhaps there are some things worth losing a friend over." This time there was no reluctance to speak evident in Elvin's voice. Erica felt goosebumps rise on her flesh on hearing his words. She had lost a new friend in the hunt for the killer, Amos paying the price for her opening the can of worms that had led them to the killer's hometown. Arlene had come close to death twice and she had become as close to Erica as a sister. Would she risk Arlene again in the future? Sondra? Tiny? Terrance? What lengths would she go to in order to track the evil she had uncovered?
Was Butterman as shrewd a judge of her as he'd made out? No, she wouldn't let that be, she and Arlene had been in this together from almost the beginning, but Terrance had only begun to be drawn into her life. Better to cut that cord now before it was cut by his death.
"Close the door." Erica said softly, Elvin's squeaking shoes once more communicating his surprise and shock. Her words quite literally rocking him back on his heels.
Still facing the window Erica heard his rapid short strides as he crossed the floor to close the bedroom door. Instead of the sound of wood on wood and a key turning, she heard a low thump. Erica turned to look back behind her. Elvin stood at the door, both hands flat against the wood panelling as he tried to shut it. At the base of the doorway, firmly wedged between frame and the door itself was a large sneaker, on no doubt an equally large foot, blocking Elvin's efforts to shut the door off to the rest of the house.
Elvin admitted defeat and ceased trying to drive the foot back by force. He stepped back and the door opened inwards.
Episode 1: "May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies."
The foot grew, a leg appearing, a torso and finally a head. A large figure of a man stepped around the door and into the room proper.