Smart Will Get You Killed

The more you think you know about something, the more you find you really don't know.. The day started like so many days...It was Monday....I got up, shaved and showered...and got dressed...I watched Sepia dress, sad look on her face and I peered outside at the Lexus SUV...It was due back at the rental place this afternoon...There had been no sign of Collette...it had now been forty eight hours since she had vanished. The last time I had dealt with a missing person,there had been more to go on and some clues that the person I was looking on might be alive..This time, there was nothing... Sepia and I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and had some orange juice. Neither of us spoke...there was a somberness in our kitchen that had not been there since we began living together. We both had a horrific feeling of pending news...pending news that wasn't good.

Unlike Television..We lived in the real world..A World where we had to stop playing detective and go to work at real jobs. True,I only actually went into the office three days a week...(I wrote my columns and feature stories as well as my two blogs from my computer at home, but today,
I had to be at work..actually in the office....I would look for Collette later.

"What are we going to do about Collette?" asked Sepia.

"I don't know what we can do Sepia..I plan on contacting the
police...there is nothing more I can do.." I said.

"What about all of the evidence we bagged up from that car?" she asked.

"It's nothing..we know that the boxer shorts and the semen in the condom
and all over the panty hose and seat belong to Jordy, he admitted as much..
He had sex with Collette, he left and she was still alive."I said.

"Jordy...I told her that that fool was no good for her." spat Sepia.

"What? Wait a minute..you mean that she knew Jordy? That that wasn't a first time
meeting?" I said.

"He's been her boyfriend off and on for two years." said Sepia.

"Why didn't you tell me this??...This puts a whole new spin on things." I said.

"You think Collette was some kind of skeezer, just give it up to some stranger the
first night she meets him in the club, what kind of girl do you think she is?" said Sepia.

I wasn't going to answer that...I just let it drop...Sepia got in her car and drove off to work...I went to the office, checked my messages and attended three meetings...by noon, I was done.
I got in my car and drove back to my house. I had picked up Clerow and Gus the Bartender from Josie's..(Gus was off today.) I got in the backseat of Clerow's mini-Cooper and told him
where to drive..

"Clerow, when are you gonna get a bigger car...you're making good
money with those home and apartment rentals." I said.

"I know man, but this car is good on gas." laughed Clerow.

"Stop the car here.." I said.

"At this dive....man, I'm holdin on to my wallet just sitting in the car in front of this
place...what we stoppin here for?" Said Clerow.....Gus was fast asleep, having become bored and just enjoying the ride.

"I know man, this is a rat hole, I'm here to snag a rat. you got your peice?"

"Yeah brother, but is this caper that heavy?" Said Clerow.

"Yeah, it is..just sit tight....if you see anything funny, be ready to have my back." I said.

"I'm with ya man." said Clerow.

I walked into the dive...It was a seedy and dark bar...In it sat broken men and broken women
and it had the smell of unwashed bodies, stale beer, cigarette smoke and fresh urine....definitely
not my kind of place....but I knew he'd be here....

"How'd you find me Kevin?" came the voice....

"It wasn't hard...I was in the Military too...I used to come here when this place was a decent establishment...I figured an ex-Marine like yourself with a broken heart would come here..a place where he could drink alone..." I said.

"You're good and you're smart...too smart" said Alton Redding.

"Yeah,that's what they tell me." I said.

"Smart will get you killed" said Alton.

"I'll take my chances...now tell me about Collette." I asked.

" I met Collette about five years ago...I knew that she used be a stripper at Coldhouse,
but she told me she was going to stop. I used to come to her house in New York and bring
her all kinds of gifts, from around the world...I was still a Marine then..I was crazy about
her and I saw in her a softness, a vulernability that I had never seen in anyone else before...
She tried to play all hard like the typical stripper...but it was all an act..I knew that she was
a nice decent person,deep down...." he said...almost in tears.

"You loved her?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"I did, very much...I wanted to marry her...I wanted her to get out of that bar scene...She
finnally quit Coldhouse and moved to Philly and got a straight job at the hospital. She did a little
modeling on the side..was trying to build up a portfolio. I followed her here, I would have followed her anywhere....but she changed.. she changed man...she stayed in the clubs, stayed with that fast crowd...started doing coke, drinking....and that damn Jordy didn't help matters
none." said Alton..

"Yeah, Jordy...what is his deal?" I asked.

"He had a nicer car than mine..he lives in a condo...wears nice suits, spits a lot of game..a bullshitter...women like that, like that kind of guy...He took her places I couldn't afford..bought her things...nice things...She fell for him hard and for two years...the two of us competed for her.
She would call me over on the nights she couldn't find him...or she thought he might be out with another woman....but then he'd return, tell her he loved her and I'd be out of the picture again..
Then there was that damn Cock Robbins...the football player..he was another one of her loves..
and I know you know that he was runnin plenty of women...She got involved with him and he broke her heart. Of course she called me to the rescue and of course like a fool ,I came back and
soothed her and told her she was better than guys like him and Jordy. We were so close last year. Spent all of Christmas together...Then Cock Robbins got married...I felt like I could finnally have Collette to myself...then that damn Jordy returned and she left me for him....stopped takin
my calls, said I was too damn possesive...and I just couldn't take it...I couldn't take it anymore..."
said Alton, now lost in his own hurt and heartbreak...

I got up and left him there....I had heard all I needed to hear...I walked out to the car.

"Everything cool?" asked Clerow.

"Yeah, yeah...let's go....I'm going to pay Jordy a visit." I said...

"That pimp....hahahahahahaha...what you want with him?" asked a now awake Gus.

"You'll see." I said.

When I got to Jordy's Condo...the door was open...I peered in and the living room seemed strangely very quiet....and it looked in disaray....definitely not his style...this guy was meticulous...I called him..

"JORDY......JORDY?.....JORRRRR DEYYYYYYY...."

Nothing...

As I walked into his condo further,I saw a stream a blood, running down the floor and to the kitchen ....I pulled my pistol out and called Clerow and Gus...We crept around and then Clerow called us-

"Kevin, Gus...get in here" he said...

Laying on the floor in a pool of blood was Jordy.....He had been shot..two times at close range...
He was staring straight at me...not saying anything...just looking at me...He was still alive...

"Jordy man, who shot you?" I asked.... Just then ,my cell phone vibrated...It was Sepia.....

"Hey girl.....you'll never believe where I am..." I said.

"Kevin, they found Collette.....she's dead....Her body was found in a field on the interstate...she'd
been strangled...they say she's been dead for two days..." she cried in anguish...

I was stunned....Just as I thought the mystery was about solved...it had deepened...The cops were going to be all over this...but I had to have some answers for myself and fast.

(To be continued........)