Hunter gave him a sympathetic nod. ‘Can you run me through what happened when you got here?’
‘Oh man, I already told the cops everything.’
‘I understand, and I know it’s a pain in the ass. But it has to be done, Keon.’
The police officer returned with a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches and handed them to Keon. He quickly tapped one out, lit it up and took a drag so long the officer thought he would smoke the whole thing in one breath.
Hunter waited for him to exhale. ‘You can keep the pack.’
Keon wasted no time in placing it inside his right coat pocket.
‘So, can you tell me how you came across the body?’
Keon shrugged. ‘Sure.’
‘Do you know what time it was when you got here?’
Another shrug. Keon pulled back his left sleeve and showed Hunter his naked wrist. ‘My Rolex is in the shop.’
The corner of Hunter’s mouth curled up slightly. ‘Could you take a guess? Were all the shops already closed?’
‘Oh yeah, y’all. It was late, man. Long past midnight. I walked all the way from Panorama City, and it took me a while ’cos I’ve got a bad foot, you know what I mean?’ Keon pointed down to his left foot. He was wearing a dirty old leather Nike sneaker. There was a large hole on the left side where Hunter could see two of his toes. The shoe on the right foot was a black Converse All Stars.
‘Cops don’t never come down here, you know what I mean?’ Keon continued. ‘So you never get poked or kicked while you’re sleeping and told to move on. You can get a good few hours of sleep back here, and don’t nobody bother you, you dig?’
Hunter nodded. ‘So what happened?’
Keon took another drag, let the smoke out through his nose and nervously watched it dance in front of his face for a while. ‘I never saw him until I got real close. The alley was dark, you dig? I came up to the first dumpster and checked inside. It’s usually the one with the best food because the bakery dumps their scraps in there. I got me a nice piece of cornbread.’ As he said that, a thunderous rumble came from Keon’s stomach. He ignored it and took another drag of his cigarette. ‘But before I could have a bite of any of it, I saw this pair of legs sticking out from behind one of the dumpsters. I thought it was just another brother crashing out, you know what I mean? There’s enough space here for more than one, you dig?’
Hunter was attentively observing Keon’s movements and expressions. His hands had begun shaking again once he started telling his story. The croak in his voice had worsened a touch. His eyes had trouble focusing anywhere for too long – a symptom of drug dependency – but the jitter in them was genuine fear.
‘I thought maybe it was Tobby or Tyrek,’ Keon continued. ‘They crash here every once in a while too. But when I got close—’ Keon scratched his beard as if it were burning his face. ‘Holy shit, man, what happened to him?’ His scared eyes met Hunter’s. ‘He’s got no face. He’s got no skin.’ He finished his cigarette in one massive drag and stubbed it out under his shoe. ‘I’ve seen a lot of crazy shit in my life, y’all. I’ve seen a few dead bodies too, but that—’ his head jerked toward the dumpsters ‘—that’s the devil’s work, man.’
‘Was he covered?’ Hunter asked. ‘By newspapers, or a piece of cloth, or something?’
‘Nah, y’all. He was just lying there like a big piece of gooey meat, you know what I’m sayin’? Scared the shit out of me, man. Even the rats were half scared of it.’
‘Did you see anybody else around?’ Hunter asked.
‘Hell no. The alley was empty.’
‘Any cars parked close by, maybe around the entrance to the alleyway?’
Keon paused, his brow furrowed a little and he ran his tongue over his cracked bottom lip.
‘Was there a car around?’
‘Well, when I came around the corner, a truck was backing up from the alley.’
‘A truck?’
‘Yep, more like a pickup truck, you know the type? But it wasn’t open-back. It had a hardtop over the back box.’
‘Did you notice what type of truck it was?’
‘Nah, man. I wasn’t that close. As I said, I had just turned the corner when I saw the truck backing up and taking off.’
‘How about color?’
Keon thought back for a second. ‘It was a dark truck. Maybe black or blue. Hard to say from a distance. The lighting around here ain’t that good, you know what I’m sayin’? But there was a big dent on the back fender. I remember that.’
‘A dent? Are you sure?’
‘Um-huh. I saw it as the truck backed up from the alley, on the driver’s side.’
‘How big a dent?’
‘Big enough for me to see it from that far.’
Hunter took some notes. ‘Did you get to see the driver at all?’
‘Nah, y’all. Dark windows.’
‘Could you tell if the truck was old or new?’
Keon shook his head. ‘I can’t really say, but I don’t think it was an old truck.’
Hunter nodded. ‘OK, let’s move on. So what did you do when you saw the body on the ground? Did you touch it at all?’
‘Touch it?’ Keon’s eyes went wide. ‘Are you high, man? Can I have some? Keon ain’t no fool, y’all. I didn’t know what was wrong with the stiff. It could be a sickness or somin’. Some weird shit like “AIDS of the skin” or some new disease created by the government, you know what I mean? Like an experiment or somin’. Either that or the devil really is walking the streets, skinning motherfuckers, erasing their faces and dumping them in back alleys.’ Keon reached for another cigarette. ‘No, man, I didn’t touch no dead body. I just dropped everything and got the fuck out of here, grabbed a payphone out in the streets and dialed 911.’
‘You dialed 911 as soon as you saw the body?’
‘That’s right, y’all.’
Keon’s stomach roared again. He lit up his cigarette, took another long drag and paused, looking a little hesitant. Hunter noticed it.
‘Something else, Keon?’
‘Well, I thought that maybe . . . you know . . . there was some sort of reward, or somin’. I did good, didn’t I? Calling y’all down here? Remembering the truck and all.’
‘Yes, Keon, you did good, but there’s no reward. I’m sorry.’
‘Oh, c’mon, man. Nothin’?’
Hunter gave him a slight headshake.
‘Shiiit, man. That ain’t fair. Couldn’t you help a brother out with somin’? I could do with a little help, you know what I’m sayin’?’
Another loud, longer rumbling of his stomach.
‘When was the last time you had a proper meal, Keon?’
‘You mean a full meal?’
Hunter nodded.
Keon chewed his lips for a moment. ‘Not for some time, man.’
‘OK, look. I’m not going to give you any money, but if you’re hungry—’ Hunter nodded at Keon’s stomach ‘—and I can hear you are, breakfast is on me. How about that?’
Keon scratched both sides of his beard while chewing his lips again. ‘C’mon, y’all. Just twenty bucks, man. Twenty bucks is nothing for y’all.’
‘No money, Keon, sorry.’
‘Ten, then. You can spare a brother ten bucks, can’t you?’
‘Breakfast, Keon. That’s the best I can do.’
Keon looked down at his hands, considering. ‘Can I have hot pancakes?’
Hunter smiled. ‘Yes, you can have hot pancakes.’
Keon nodded. ‘Yeah, breakfast sounds good, y’all.’
Thirteen
Despite having the body, Hunter and Garcia were no closer to finding the victim’s identity. His entire skin had dissolved in the alkaline solution, and that meant no fingerprints, no identifying tattoos or birthmarks, if there were any, and absolutely no facial features. DNA analyses would take a few days, but even then they would only have a match if the victim’s DNA had been archived into CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, and for that to have happened the victim would’ve had to have been previously convicted of a felony offense such as sexual assault or homicide – a very long shot. They were also still waiting for any news from the Missing Persons Unit.