Devil at Dusk - Installment Thirty One.

Welcome Folks to Devil at Dusk installment number thirty one.

The next day I put on a pair of overalls with a button down shirt, I braided my hair in two pig tails with a big straw hat and then I put on my old cowboy boots. I went out to the stable and grabbed a piece of straw and placed it between my two back teeth. Then I got into the old pickup truck and drove over to the pharmacy in Bay Springs. I parked the truck and walked in. I told the gal behind the counter that I needed something for a tooth ache, she smiled at me and said all right; let me go get our pharmacist Alan. Next thing I know I am standing face to face with the killer! The hair stood up on the back of my neck because he looked just like the drawing that Charlotte did. With a smile on his face he asked me, how can I help you today? I told him that I had a tooth ache and asked him what he recommended, he told me to rub a little bit of clove oil on the gums surrounding the area and that it would help tide me over until I was able to see the dentist. I thanked him and took my bottle of clove oil to the cashier, paid and then left.

I got into my truck and drove to the Sherriff’s Office, I spoke to Jerry, and I told him I saw Mr. Baker at the Pharmacy. I asked him to do a vehicle registration search on him to see what we could come up with. He found Mr. Alan Marcus Baker at 4292 Willow Springs Road Laurel MS 39440 and a 1950 Pontiac Chieftain was registered to him. Now we know his middle name which we did know before (also matches the cuff link AMB), the address matches the address that was on the mail box so now we do know we have the right place and we now know that the 1950 Pontiac is a Chieftain. I asked Jerry to please research Mr. Baker’s info for me to see what else he could come up with, he told me will do. Then I asked him if he wanted to come with me tomorrow to do a stakeout in front of Mr. Baker’s house (it was Sunday and the pharmacy was closed every Sunday), Jerry said yes he would like that. I told him I would bring the picnic basket. He told me he would let me know tomorrow if he was able to dig up any more dirt on Baker.

Sunday morning rolls around, Jerry meets me at my house at 7 a.m. and we get into one of my cars and drive over to Mr. Baker’s place. I drove the sage green car so it would blend into the scenery better than some the other cars, once I got there; I drove the car so it was tucked away into the wooded area and parked it. This way we could be concealed for the most part where we could watch and wait. I asked Jerry what he found out about Baker, he said he inherited the farmhouse from his mother 9 years ago, one year ago he got a parking ticket, then 6 months ago (in December) a guy driving by the farmhouse had a flat tire, he stopped alongside the road in front of the house to change out his tire. It was about 45 minutes after sunset and he reported to the Sheriff’s Office that he had heard a lady screaming, he said it sounded like it was coming from the basement of the house. 

One of the deputies went out to the house and spoke to Baker, he said there had been a report called in that somebody had heard a woman screaming and it sounded like it was coming from his house. He told the Sheriff that there was not a woman at his house, the screaming sound was the mystery radio show he had been listening to, he said he liked to record the episodes and listen to them at a later date. He told the Sheriff his name and that he was the pharmacist over in Bay Springs. December was when the first murder had happened so Baker must not have taken into consideration that a car could break down, right in front of his house (especially since it was not a very well traveled road though there, but there was a few other houses peppered along the road) however either he thinks fast on his feet (to come up with the murder mystery radio show) or he figured he better make sure to have all bases covered and came up with it in advanced. I am sure he had been very careful in the future that nobody would be hearing a female screaming at his house. Also since the female screaming had been reported back in December prior to when the first body had been found, so there was no reason for the Deputy to not believe what Baker had told him, the deputy never looked any further into the case and closed it.

We talked about the case together a little more in depth, we talked about how it looked like he had been kidnapping the girls at dusk and killing them in the night shortly after that and then dumping the bodies off later in the night. I nick named our killer the Devil at Dusk and started referring to him as that most of the time after that. A couple hours after we got to the farmhouse we saw him pull his car out into the driveway and so he could wash his car. He washed it, dried it and polished it, then drove it back into the garage. I pulled out my camera and took pictures of him washing his car. After that we stuck around for a few more hours but nothing else happened so we drove back home. We had decided that we had enough information collected to finally get a search warrant, so on Monday Jerry and I went to court to get a search warrant.

To be continued…..