ERMANTOWN, Md., Oct. 14 — With no physical description available of the elusive sniper, who the police say may have struck again tonight, some spooky questions are rippling through the minds of many here: Are you the sniper? Are you or you or you?
With each new shooting, there are deeper and more unpleasant suspicions, more double takes to size up a passer-by, a delivery man, a stranger or even a neighbor.
"I met a guy from Russia at the bar last night and he asks me what I think of the sniper and why I think they can't catch him," said Debbie Fisher, a preschool teacher. "Then I start thinking that this guy's really creeping me out. I was thinking he might be the sniper."
Thus far, the police have released descriptions of a white van and a white box truck seen leaving the scene of several shootings, but none of a possible suspect or suspects. That leaves a void of information and lets imaginations run wild, a situation that is almost as nerve-racking as the news of the killings, many here say.
On Sunday, Chief Charles A. Moose of the Montgomery County Police Department, the agency leading the investigation into the case, appealed to the public to report suspicious characters, who among other things might be acting irrationally.
This does not exactly narrow it down.
"They can't even tell you his hair color or his eye color," said Rashida Means, 21, a bartender at Ruby Tuesday's here, who was sipping on a beer this afternoon at another Germantown bar and restaurant, Pelican Pete's.
There are 22 televisions perched around the restaurant, including a big-screen set, and all have been tuned to the news for the past 10 days.
"It's frightening not having a description," Ms. Means said, glancing toward the televisions to see if there was an update on the shooter. "You have so many people thinking about who it could be."
Pointing to a reporter and then to a white-haired man in a baseball cap at the other end of the bar, she said: "It could be you. Or he could be the guy. You don't know. I mean, I have friends who seem strung out, or there's something weird about the way they are talking. It could be them."
Chief Moose in his daily press briefing this afternoon said he was keenly aware of the deep anxiety choking up the region.
"We admit that everyone is edgy," Chief Moose said. "People are hearing things. Things are occurring. Things that may normally be overlooked or routine are certainly getting a higher response from people in their anxiety."
Fifteen minutes listening to a police scanner that crackled furiously this afternoon in Montgomery County, before the latest shooting, provided a sharp view of just how edgy edgy can be.
At 1:48 p.m. a dispatcher said: "Possible sound of shot fired. Cecil Street, shot fired, single shot."
Less than a minute later: "Report of a white van at the Exxon on Tuckerman Lane. Caller says van has been painted over."
Three minutes later, another report of a white van comes in and another dispatcher says: "Do you have a specific location of where the suspicious vehicle is supposed to be?"
Two minutes later: "Can you check the suspicious — actually two suspicious white vans near the Apollo Restaurant?"
Six minutes later: "A reporter that's at headquarters just called in a suspicious white box truck that pulled into the parking lot to the right of headquarters. Driver appeared to be looking around. There's no further description."
Most everyone seems to believe the sniper is not finished.
At Perfection Salon, a hair and nail salon off Route 118 in Germantown, hairdressers, customers and manicurists speculated today about where else the killer might strike. A prevailing view around this town of 41,000 people, 25 miles northwest of Washington, is that the sniper — or snipers — lives or works in Montgomery County, the place that was hit first and hardest.
"I'm wondering when he's going to get up my way," said Pat Hannon, a hairdresser who lives several miles from here. "I'm a little antsy. I'm watching out there. I'm looking for whatever is out there. I'm not looking for one specific person; it could be anybody."
A customer, Robin Shea, who was getting her hair frosted, nodded and said: "I've never felt like I couldn't just walk out of my house and feel comfortable. It's like you are never going to know. Today, I saw someone in a white box truck and I wondered. Last night I went to the movies with my son — we saw "Tuxedo" — and I was looking around the theater. I was looking at everybody."
She added: "I keep thinking it could be the person right next to me. Everyone is looking at everyone else differently."