"he's very irritatng lissell; i've given you enough stuff today for you to go tooth and nail against him tomorrow though."

"listen, i've got to go somewhere, can i come back?" she asked.

"only if you return with a fifth of jack daniels lissell."

she smiled. "i'll be back." and she kissed me on the forehead. the rain fell before the thunder started. it was slightly more vigorous than the gentle rains from heaven, and it was cooling and nice. i saw the people leaving central park through my balcony window. what a shame, i looked for leroy, but he wasn't in sight. i opened a beer and then the window of the balcony, a wet, gentle breeze rushed in. it was raining too hard to go out, so i pulled up a chair and inhaled the nectar. i thought of poor hazel as i lit a cigarette, it was raining that morning also. laying there under a police blanket behind snell hall, gosh. it was difficult for me to picture leroy as the culprit, he was annoying and obnoxious but weakly, and i couldn't go after him tooth and nail like lissell probably would. of course she's a cop, and i'm....unemployed. thunder followed the lightening, how i loved it. i really need to get a profession.

hazel needed me, perhaps more that anyone i had ever met, she was so vulnerable. if she had ever touched another human being, it sure didn't show. she was shy, but i liked that; she was named for her eye color, lived isolated on a farm in a house her father had built himself. she was one of the few whom i knew that was working her way through college, three jobs. i forgot what she was studying. i finished my beer and opened another, lit a small candle and another cigarette.

after the ordeal at the restaurant, and my getting slapped, i went to hazel's rooming house. i tossed pebbles toward her second story window until i woke her. she opened her window, and asked what i wanted. i told her to come on down and she did. i met her, she was wearing panties and a tee shirt. i told her about what eddie did, and she put her arms around me and gentle rubbed my face. i messed with her butt and put my hand under her shirt and rubbed the warm flesh of her back. she was shorter than me and had very long fingers, short nails, kept up very well, smooth. i told her that i was lonely and ask her to spend the night with me. she thought briefly, said ok, and went upstairs and came back down in shorts and house shoes, she carried her key.

"can i hold your hand carlee?" she gently asked. her hand was warm and soothing, it fet well in mine. my house was about a block and a half away on chestnut, the old lady who owned it allowed no booze, only one friend (and that was occassionally). both girls and guys rented from her, girls on the first floor, guys on the second. i occupied the very back room, had my own entrance, the room to my immediate north was vacant. we entered very quietly, it was after midnight, probably about the time of the high speed chase.

i let the bed down, hazel took off her shorts and shoes, lay down and asked if she could undress me. i was quite surprised, and said yes.......i turned a light on, which wasn't much brighter than a night light. i could see hazel well though, her eyes were enchanting. i had taken off my shoes, she removed my socks, and carressed my feet. it was soothing. she helped me out my top and unhooked my b and a half bra. it fell to the floor. she cupped one in each of her warm hands, as if they were baby birds. my nipples hardened. then she kissed me, i was aroused. i put my arm around hazel, she was naked, and oh so warm. she had the nicest butt, ever so soft, bigger than mine, as were her thighs. she moved forward, and took my shorts down, along with my panties. she lay straddled over me and explored my groin. she did this so perfectly. a finger went into my vagina, deep into it, until it hit a spot never felt before. i flinched.

"did i hurt you darling?" she asked.

"no hazel, no you didn't, go on." she found my clit very hard, i was very wet. she moved in lazy circles for a while, the the circles were shorter and shorter, harder and harder. bang, fireworks, i shuttered, the circles became longer and longer, less and less pressure. if hazel had not been with another person in her life, then she had surely been with herself, she manipulated me as if i were her, quite professional. then, i felt her lips. god, i put my hands on her butt, my nails dug in; she kneaded me with her lips and tongue, until my second orgasm happened. better than the first and longer lasting. she knew exactly when i was done.

"touch me carlee, please touch me!" i put my hand between her legs, she was so hot and she came as i touched her. i couldn't but notice the very large size of her vagina. four of my fingers went in easily. "little girl, all pussy" i remembered mr. leisure. i believe the first line was big girl, big pussy. mr. leisure could really turn a phrase, and had thousands.

i sipped my beer and took a long drag from my cigarette. the night relived in my mind with hazel was haunting. she told me that she was in love with me, and that she had never loved anyone in her life, even her parents. i was equally impressed and saddened. she lay on her back with her arm around my neck, she told me that her older brother had caught her mastrubating when she was 13. told me that he made her suck him off lest he exposed her to their parents. she tearfully told me that it choked her, and when he shot off it made her vomit. they had outside plumbing, so she vomited in a wash basin. had to go outside and dump it, then clean it up. i really didn't want to hear this, but i listened out of respect. this went on several times a week for a period of three years. he had captured her virginity when she was 15. she hated men, all men.

gosh, the tales lovers tell. the storm continued, but lessened. i remember being very upset when hazel first told me about her brother. she was so loving, she had engulfed me with lips and tongue, and relished every moment, she said that i was a religious experience. as time passed though, i began to doubt that she had oral sex with her brother that many time a week and didn't try to stop it, if she hated him that much. maybe she in fact enjoyed it, who knows, and what difference does it make now. goose bumps broke out all over me, i shuttered. "someone steped on your grave carlee." mr. leisure said that when anyone shuttered. i thought of her again out behind snell hall. oh my god, how awful.

the police could never turn anything, it was like lissell said, if it doesn't advance anyone, who gives a damn. big leo's face came into my mind suddenly, he was in my third period shakespeare class, what the hell was his last name..... plumly, no, prinerode--that's close, something like a flower, an unlikely handle for the likes of leo. i wondered where carie was, storms usually brought her up here. i hoped she was alright.

at one oclock there was a knock at the door. i was in my night clothes, drinking a light gin ricky from a plastic cup. lissell entered as i opened the door, she was lovely to look at, dressed in a light brown shorts outfit, her lovely light red hair draped around her shoulders.

"any luck?" i asked.

"plenty, can i make a drink?"

"sure," i smiled. lissell made a big drink, no mixer, just ice. good luck, i thought. she sat in the mayflower chair.

"does the name leonard primrode ring a bell carlee?" god, how stupid of me, of course, if i had only of thought leonard, his last name would have come easy.

"yes lissell, that was big leo."

"and our friend leroy as well." she added. this was hard for me to digest, but i had no doubt that lissell had done her homework correctly. she looked so serious, sitting there so prettily, drinking her drink. she slipped off her tan sneakers. "leonard was under investigation for your friend hazel's death, and there was at least a link to him concerning the policeman's death. the girls that you told me he hung with provided an alibi, it wasn't solid, but apprantly no one was that interested. the case is now listed as unsolved."

"that's not a lot of help lissell."

"maybe it is carlee. we just have to snoop around his place a little, try to find some evidence, then notify bowling green. they will reopen the case. they have to, it's the law."

interesting, i thought, i guess that i'd feel better if i knew that leo was the killer, i certainly had some doubts. "wouldn't we have to get a warrant to search his place?" i asked lissell.

"it might be hard carlee, without probable cause they don't like to issue them. after all, hazel and gray are entirely different cases, as far as the courts are concerned."

"then what should we do?" i was confused.

"they don't teach this in law school carlee, nor the academy, but breaking in his apartment would be the best bet." i had to think about this one. "oh, come on carlee, it will be fun, aren't you game?"

"i don't know lissell, seems like a warrant would be safer."

"and time consuming, he would certainly get wind of it and may leave town, it might be years before he was found again. he just lives a couple of blocks over on st. james."

i really wanted to get this thing with leroy over with. i was also sure that lissell and i could get ourselves in a lot of trouble. the police certainly wouldn't back us up if we were caught, they would arrest us and declare how much safer the city is now with those two under lock and key. i was catching on rapidly to politics. on the other hand, if leroy kept things, like pictures or old newspaper clippings, as most serial killers do, then maybe the idea wasn't so bad.

lissell got up and reached for my hand, she slipped her shoes on. "lets go, pardner." she smiled. i quickly changed to dark jeans and a black shirt. lissell watch me as i undressed, and she smiled.

we walked along the deserted streets, central park was totally dark. there were a few cars parked around, persumally occupied by late night lovers. they didn't pay any attention to us. the streets were wet and slippery, lissell held my hand. i had lost track of time, but it must have been after two am.

st. james court was foggy. the old houses stood omniously gray, there were probably four dozen. most were four stories, all were rental, are were homosexual pods. a tribute to louisville's glorious past, a sanctuary to the unplesant present.

"905, this is it." she said. the building was a five story, or a four with an attic. there were no lights on. we walked toward it. i was trembling. "he lives alone in number 17, it's on the second story carlee." suddenly a car screetched around the corner. st. james court was a semicircle of old buildings with a median running up and down the street.

"wake up you muthafuckin' queers!!!!!" a boy hollared, and the car speeded around the horseshoe, tires squeeling, as beer cans were thrown out the windows by maybe three passengers. they barreled past us still shouting their hatred. i was scared, felt for my life, and was holding lissell's hand very tightly.

"the children of the evening." she quietly said. "what music they make."