Chapter 1

Billy Bob Baxter looked just about as normal as any human being could possibly look.

Well, that is to say, for folks down in Needles, California, anyways.

Most of the old-timers around these parts hardly remember what Billy Bob looked like even though he went through the elementary school and the high school along with most of the other young ones that lived here with their parents in the mid-nineties. Of course, there is an entire new crop of young ones making trouble all over the county now and the ones from that time have moved away to one of the big cities like Los Angeles, San Diego or even up in Sin City, Las Vegas, Nevada.

My name is Doris Night and I am the resident funeral director up in the north side of Needles. I deal mostly in taking care of the Caucasian population of this side of Needles, the south side is done either by the Martinez brothers or that crazy old man Pancho Diaz with his two weird daughters that do all the body fixing and even help with the visiting friends and relatives.

In my capacity as the head of the undertaking facility for deceased white folks in Needles, I got real familiar with the supposed victims of the serial killer known as Senor Shoe Thief who was a notorious for stealing kisses along with unhappy women’s high heels. Considering how expensive women’s shoes had gotten lately, it was easy to understand why the females were excessively irritated at the theft of their foot-gear.

In the early years of his run as criminal, Senor Shoe Thief was more of a subject for amusement because all he seemed interested in was relieving the females of their leather footwear and kissing them flush on the lips, using tongue and all, after he blindfolded them so they couldn’t see his face when he took his pleasure in their mouth. Most folks thought it was funny rather than wicked because there never was any mentioning of anything of a sexual nature other than kissing even if it was without the victim’s consent. Of course, it was all considered a felony assault according to the laws of the State and he would be treated as a full blown sexual abuser if we ever caught him. In fact, it could also be considered kidnaping and illegal imprisonment just by not letting the young ladies go about their business instead of being used like some plaything for the unknown Shoe Thief’s fun and games. When I caught onto the fact that almost everyone assumed it was one of the bad boys from south Needles with total lack of manners living in a lawless environment south of the border, I put forward the idea that it was just as likely to be one of the north Needles male populace because we had our own share of crazies with unusual thoughts about making females bend to their will just because they were men and deserved to be treated with respect by females educated to be obedient above all else.

Since I was the only female member of the town council, you can easily understand why I was the only vote that we should expand our investigation to the entire city limits and part of the suburbs. Of course, we didn’t call it the suburbs back then, it was called the “unincorporated part of the county”. I personally remembered Billy Bob Baxter real well because I was acting as a school monitor and caught him hoarding a backpack crammed with female footgear inside his smelly locker. That dreadful locker was so ripe that it that brought frowns to the faces of anyone that opened it for inspection. In fact, he was my first real interrogation subject on an actual case and I remember with great clarity how he looked me straight in the eye and told me,