Devil at Dusk - Installment Thirty

Welcome back everybody to Devil at Dusk Installment Thirty!

I was up at 6 am the next day, I pulled out my typewriter and I typed up a synopsis of the information I had gotten from Marguerite. Soon, I would go to my office and I would use the parts of the synopsis that were important and after that it would all go into the file. When I was done I started making some breakfast for Marguerite and I. Marguerite woke up she said she smelled bacon cooking and got up to join me for breakfast. When done we cleared the table and did the dishes. Then we made ourselves presentable for the day. After that Marguerite put all of her things in her overnight bag, she came out to join me in the living room just before we headed out for the bayou. I thanked her again so much for all of her help and I paid her for her services. She took the money and said wow, thank you! From the looks of it I imagined that was probably the most money she had seen at one time in her entire life.

 I said to her alright kid lets hit the road, we drove on and before too long we finally made it to the bayou. We saw the swamps, bridges, dilapidated house boats, mosses, the weeping willows, magnolias and mangrove trees. I pulled up to her little pink shack and she asked me in, I told her I would come in for a moment to say hi to her papa and her grandmere. Marguerite’s grandmere asked me if I wanted a glass of sweet tea and I said that would be wonderful. In the mean time Marguerite’s papa asked me how the investigation was going and he also inquired whether or not his daughter was able to help. I told him yes that she has been a very big help. I thanked him and Marguerite’s grandmere again so much for letting me take Marguerite away from them for a few days. Soon I was done with my tea and had to be on my way, I thanked them all again and said goodbye.

I drove home, a few hours later I arrived. I called up Jerry to see if he wanted to go grab a burger, fries and chocolate malt at the diner down the street. He said sure thing doll, I will be over in an hour to pick you up. Exactly an hour later he picked me up and we drove down to the diner. After eating we went to see what was playing over at the theater, there was a comedy that was about to start in 20 minutes. So we bought our tickets and picked out our seats for the show. When the show ended we came back over to my cottage and I invited him in for glass of Port. We talked about the information we got from Marguerite, the investigation and what our next strategy was going to be with the new info we had gotten. Our next step was to try to locate the farmhouse that Mr. Baker lived in just off of HWY 15, then to have a stakeout so we could see who lived there and to take note of the comings and goings of our person of interest. My plan was to start trying to find the farmhouse tomorrow.

The next day I drove from Laurel to Bay Springs on HWY 15, along the way I saw lots of small houses and tiny shacks. At about the 7 mile mark I found a network of small roads of off a small main road in a semi wooded area. On the small main road was a big old light grey farm house, I drove in front of it and noticed a mail box out front. I made a u turn at the end of the road and drove in front of the house slowly to see if there was a name on the mail box, there was a name and address. The name was A. Baker, so I drove back over to one of the other small side streets where my vehicle would be camouflaged by the wooded area, this way I was able to park alongside the road and see the house with my binoculars. I stayed for a couple of hours and since I did not notice anything I took off. My surveillance was mostly for fact finding rather than anything else. I would came back over the course of the next few days or week, to wait and watch to see what else I could find. After that I went in to Bay Springs and found where the pharmacy was located. I was going to come back tomorrow to visit the pharmacy with a costume on because I did not want our person of interest recognizing me at a later date.

To be continued…..

Devil at Dusk - Installment Twenty Nine

Welcome all to Installment Twenty Nine of Devil at Dusk!

After Marguerite was done looking at all of the evidence, Jerry and I took her around to all of the places where the murder victims had been found. Marguerite told us she would collect all the information she could from these things and places, then while we were at dinner she said she would discuss her findings with us. She said it would be better that way instead of bit by bit because by the end of the day she would have more of a complete picture rather than just fragments to share with us.

Half way through the day we needed a break, so we all came back to my cottage and I made us sandwiches, sweet tea and some fruit for lunch. When we were done with lunch we all got back into Jerry’s car and hit the road again. By the end of the day we had managed to go to all of the sites where our victims had been found. Jerry drove Marguerite and I over to Ling’s for some Chinese food for dinner. During dinner Marguerite shared with us the information that she had picked up; she told us she believed that the killer’s last name is Baker, she said she believed that the cuff links I had found by the railroad tracks did indeed belong to him (the cuff links I found had the letters AMB on them, so I was correct they were initials).

Marguerite said that he is only about 5 ft 4 in tall, with a stocky build; he has medium brown hair with a crew cut, blue eyes, light skin and a round face. She told us he drives a white or cream colored 1950 Pontiac, he works as a pharmacist over at the pharmacy in Bay Springs  MS, which is right on HWY 15 and is about 15 miles away from the town of Laurel. She also said he lives in a big old farmhouse in a semi secluded area about 7 miles from Laurel and that his house is also just off of HWY 15.

Marguerite said that our killer kills because he had been molested by the lady that was his care taker when he was a child; she was from the town of Laurel. His mother had a nervous breakdown when Baker was 8 years old and she was put in a mental institution. His dad hired a lady who was 29 years old and had a 10 month old baby to come to take care of him while his dad was at work, his dad worked 10 hours a day, five days a week. This lady took care of him for almost a year. Marguerite says that Baker never got help or counseling so now he is getting his revenge on the young women in the town of Laurel.

The description that Marguerite gave matched what Rose the gal that almost was kidnapped, gave us right on down to his physical description and his car. Also after Charlotte came up with her sketch and we showed it around to people, some people thought he looked vaguely familiar because he just lived down the road but he did look so familiar that people knew directly who he was. I was guessing that was because he worked in Bay Springs so he probably did mostly all of his shopping, errands etc… in Bay Springs and probably only came into Laurel to stalk and kidnap then kill his victims. The whole time Marguerite was talking I was taking notes. After dinner Jerry dropped off Marguerite and I at my cottage. I told Marguerite to go in and make herself comfortable and that I would be in shortly. Jerry stood on my front porch and whispered in my ear to have a good night. He gave me a hug and a kiss and then he went off into the night.

I went into my cottage and sat on the couch to listen to the music on the radio, while I processed all of the information from the day. Marguerite came out of the bathroom where she had been getting ready to go to bed. She came over to tell me good night, she was such a tiny waif of a girl, I had to keep reminding myself she was in her 20’s and not a teenager. I stood up and gave her a big huge hug and thanked her so much because she was the key really for me to be able to finally track down and get the “monster”.  Marguerite said she was so glad she was able to come and help out. I told her to be ready to leave the cottage to go home by 9 am. She said very good and goodnight.

To be continued….

Devil at Dusk - Installment Twenty Eight!

Welcome back to Devil at Dusk installment twenty eight.

Marguerite and I traveled all the through the bayou, crossing the bridges that went over the swamps, we drove through the groups of small trees and we saw moss covered cottages. Everything looked like it was dripping with green. Halfway home we stopped off at a small diner for a cup of coffee so we would not be tempted to drift off to sleep on the way back. Just before we finally made it to my cottage in Laurel Mississippi it was almost 11 pm, we were getting off the main highway and driving onto the main street we both noticed something very strange looking in the night sky, it was a large circular object all lit up with a ton of lights! Oh my goodness I exclaimed! This is the UFO several of the people around town have seen! Marguerite’s violet eyes were as big as saucers, she said wow! I have never seen one of those before! We could not believe our eyes!

We finally pulled into my gravel driveway and went into the cottage. I showed Marguerite around the cottage and where the guest room was so she could put her things down, I told her to make herself at home that my cottage was hers for the next few days. Since we were both very tired after a long and exciting day we had decided it would be a good idea to turn in for the night.

The next morning I made us breakfast with bacon, eggs, toast, fresh fruit and a pot of coffee. Just as we were finishing up and getting started on the dishes we heard a knock at the door. I told her that must be Jerry; I had told Marguerite that Jerry (the man I was dating) worked for the Sheriff’s Office and that he is a Deputy Sheriff. I also mentioned to her that he would be joining us for the day and that he had been assisting me on the serial killer case. Today we would be riding around in his sheriff’s car on official business. I introduce Jerry and Marguerite to one another and we all get into the car. Jerry starts to head over to the Sheriff’s Office and on the way over we tell him about the UFO sighting we had, we were both very excited about it and both of us were talking a mile a minute. We finally got to the Sheriff’s Office and we all go in. Jerry and I take her on the tour of the office and introduce her to everybody. Then we take her to where we store the evidence and we sign for each piece so she can have a look at it and to touch all of the pieces.

To be continued….

Devil at Dusk - Installment Twenty Seven

Welcome everybody to installment twenty seven of Devil at Dusk!

After speaking with Ilya I was convinced that I had to try to track down Marguerite and to have her use her psychic abilities to help me out with trying to find out who our serial killer was. Since I pretty much did not have anyone else to call on about this matter I decided to just get in the car and drive on down to the bayou and ask around to try to find her.

So the next day I did just that, I got into my car and drove to Larose Louisiana. Larose was a very old and small town. I finally made it there and I stopped off at the first coffee shop I found. I walked in and took a seat at the lunch counter. The waitress came over to me; she wore a starched pink and white uniform with a name tag that said Marge on it. She was chewing on a piece of gum and had a pencil behind her ear. She pulled out her note pad and pencil and took my order. I was only there for a piece of pie, coffee and to get some information. I started to make some small talk with her and I noticed she was quite friendly. I had told her I was passing through on business but I had heard of a young gal by the name of Margarite that was a healer out in these parts. I told the waitress that I had been suffering from some horrible migraines for most of my life (I thought I had better use a pretext here instead of saying I needed a psychic to help me catch a serial killer). Marge says to me…ah yes, you are talking about the white witch’s granddaughter! She lives here in Larose out in the bayou just on the outskirts of town! I said oh I did not realize that was her moniker but I do believe we are referring to the same person. I asked Marge where does she live, how can I find her? I told her I was desperate to find something to help me with these horrible migraines! She said for me to follow this here main road west until I end up in the swap lands. She said that I will find a few shacks out there and a very small general store of sorts, Marge said Marguerite lived in a tiny shack that had been painted pink (her grandmere’s favorite color) many moons ago however now the paint had been pretty washed out looking after all these years. Marguerite and her grandmere’s house was located behind the general store.

I finished eating my pie and drinking my coffee, soon after that I settled my tab and thanked Marge very kindly for all of her help and information. I got back into my car and drove out to Marguerite’s house, sure enough there was the strange looking washed out pink shack. There was a young girl sitting on the front stoop, in a little patch of shade reading a book. She looked to be only just a mere teenager and she was very thin. She was wearing a clean but very thin cotton house dress that looked like it was from the 1930’s and she was barefoot with her feet in the dirt. Her skin was very pale white, her scalp was pink and her hair was also very light. Her hair was down to her waist and she had locks of matted coils of hair all over her head. She looked up at me as I was pulling into her driveway, she had pale violet colored eyes and that was when I realized she was an albino. Now I knew why people said she looked different than most people.

I got out of the car and said hello. I introduced myself and asked the girl if she was Marguerite, she said yes. I explained why I was there, that I was in dire need of her help. I needed her to use her psychic abilities to try to help me catch the serial killer that had been terrorizing the small town of Laurel Mississippi. I asked her if I could come inside to speak to both her and her grandmere. She said yes, I followed her inside the tiny house. Her grandmere was sitting in a rocking chair doing some knitting. Marguerite offered me a nice cool glass of sweet tea, I told her that would be lovely. She came back with three glasses, one for each of us. We sat and talked for hours, I learned that Marguerite was actually 23 years old even though she looked like a school girl. She was very tiny and thin, she got her stature from her grandmere. Her and her grandmere looked just alike, except her grandmere was much older and not an albino.

Marguerite told me she had been home schooled and had been in training to become a healer ever since she was a small child. She realized she had psychic abilities when she was about 14 years old. When I first approached Marguerite and her grandmere they were both very quiet and reserved because I was a stranger from another town. They were not really open to strangers for the most part. However I think they could see the fear and desperation in my eyes and how much I needed to capture the killer before he struck again! The clincher was when I explained how Bet my dearest friend in the whole wide world ended up at the mercy of this cruel savage beast! I felt so much guilt over not being able to protect her or to save her. I also had so much guilt because the serial killer was on the loose still and I had not been able to capture him yet. I did not express a single word of my guilt to Marguerite but she sat down close to me, took my both of my hands into her two tiny hands, then she looked me straight in the eyes and she said to me, you can let go all of your guilt now. She told me to let it wash away and to be healed. She told me to let go of my burdens that I had been carrying on my back all of these months and that it was not my fault, not a single bit of it.

I started to cry because she saw into my heart and knew my feelings. Those were the feelings that I had to hide every day from all other people. I had to hide them because I was supposed to be invincible, I was the investigator and I always had to be strong. However there I was sitting here crumbling in front of this tiny young gal who was so wise beyond her years. Marguerite tells me she will do whatever it takes to help me find the killer, even if that meant that she had to leave the bayou and her grandmere for a few days (she told me she needed to come to Laurel to see the evidence we had collected and to also see the places where the victim’s bodies had been found). Marguerite leaving the bayou for even just a few days was an incredible thing in itself because Marguerite had never left the bayou in her entire life except to go into town a couple times a year. She said she would get hold of her papa to come out and to take care of grandmere for a few days. So off we went to get her papa, he was not too far away.

Her papa followed us in a big old farm truck all the way back to the pink shack. When we came back grandmere Katherine Marie had made a giant pot of Etoufee’ with fresh vegetables, big juicy prawns and flavorful crawdad tails over rice for dinner. We sat down to eat the wonderful feast that Katherine Marie had prepared for us, during dinner I had explained to Marguerite’s papa how I needed Marguerite's help. He and Katherine Marie were both fine with me borrowing Marguerite for a few days because they could see it in my eyes how urgent and important it was. So that night Marguerite packed a small overnight bag and we traveled back to my cottage in Mississippi.

To be continued…..