Long Arms

Linda Branson was obviously uncomfortable sitting there exposed with two men...two men she didn't know sitting there with her. She excused herself and went into the bedroom. She came back with some Jeans and
T-shirt on. Then she told me her story. She said that she and Walter had known each other breifly in High School...He had played Football at Central and she had gone to Girl's High...She had gone to Hampton University largely because he was there and she wanted to be with him. At Hampton...Walter was a stand out Football player....and it was conventional wisdom that he would go high in the NFL draft. He didn't...In fact he didn't get drafted at all and he returned to Hampton and earned his Masters degree in Business Administration. Out of college, He entered the NFL draft again...he was now 24 years old. Again he was not taken in the draft. He walked on to the Carolina Panthers and
rode the bench for a year and was cut.

Horribly depressed...He walked on to the Baltimore Ravens...got cut before training camp was over. He then walked on to the Washington Redskins. They kept him for three years, but he saw very little playing time and wound up on their practice team.

They returned to Philadelphia, where he tried out for the Eagles, The Giants and the Jets but didn't quite make muster. He began playing on several Semi-Pro teams just to get a paycheck and just to feel like a real Pro football player....Cock Robbins knew exactly how he must have felt, for this had been his life too. Walter met Olivia Rockland...Yes,( Linda knew all about her ) but he didn't love her....claimed Linda..He was just using her..for sex and for her money...but Olivia had fallen in love with him...had helped him buy a house...(She gave him $20K to make a downpayment) and had bought him a car...

What Olivia couldn't know was that Walter was still carrying a torch for
Linda and when he broke off their little clandestine romance and married
Linda...Olivia was livid...The house ,which Walter thought he had made a
downpayment on ..had actually been in Olivia's name and she had had him evicted before he ever got a chance to move in and demanded her money back...She took the car back too..

Walter said that he didn't care....that he would be happy with Linda...and now he was dead...apparently a suicide.

"You don't believe that your husband killed himself Linda ,do you?"I asked.

"That's what the cops say." she shrugged.

"Your husband was left handed right? The bullet hole is on the right side
of his head." I said.

"Yeah ,I know and I thought that that was odd...You know ,I told that
Lady Detective ...Miss Van Burn that, when I went to see the body and she
said that that didn't mean nothin because Walter had long arms." said
Linda.

"What? She said the same thing to me...and that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard." I said.

"Well..that's what she said." said Linda.

I thanked her for her time and as I was getting up to leave she said to me-

"You think someone killed Walter don't you?"

"I don't really know...but something doesn't sound right or look right."
I said...

"Well, I hope you get to the bottom of it....regardless of what you saw here
or heard...I did love Walt....I miss him so...Pastor Struthers came over here to help me through my time of grieving and one thing led to another,
we both got to crying and the next thing you know...we were both in bed...
He recently got divorced and he misses his wife too.." she said.

"Yeah...I can tell..." I said dryly....Cock Robbins hung his head low...he continued to laugh silently as we walked down the steps.

Olivia Rockland was nowhere to be seen and neither was the car!!!!!!!!

I looked at Cock, he shrugged his shoulders....

"That was her car man...she just let me drive it!"

(To be Continued.......)