Clothilde

She didn't look at all like what I would have expected. Clothilde Childs was about 49 or 50 and was a very nice looking woman. There was no way to my mind that she was the "girlfriend" of crazy Dr. Seward Fox.

She came to the door and she saw Lieutenant Sissy Van Buren, Detective Kyle Rollis, two uniformed Philadelphia Policemen, Sepia and myself and she just sighed in resignation of her fate.

"You've found me....I figured you would sooner or later." She said.

"Excuse of mam, we are here to ask your uh ah boyfriend a few questions." said Detective Rollins.

"He's not my boyfriend...He's my father and he can't talk to you....I'm the one you want." she said.

"The one we want for what?" asked Sissy Van Buren.

"I killed Ray Fox...He's my half brother.....Isn't that why you're here?" she asked.

"Mam...I'd strongly advise you not to say another word until a lawyer is present...you have that right." said Sissy Van Buren.

"Sissy, What are you doing? She just confessed to a murder, she just cleared one of your cases" said Kyle Rollins.

"Yes and if she isn't told of her rights...everything she just said can be tossed out the window." I added.

Sissy Van Buren smiled and looked at Kyle wryly....

"You know...Kevin is right....and he's not a cop nor a lawyer....How come you didn't know that Kyle...How long you been on the force?"

Clothilde looked at us and waved her hand......

"I know my rights....and I'm tired of all of this....we've held it back for far too long..this ugliness..
Ray lived in the room over my Father's chamber....It was a little room off to the side in his basement...When we were children, we were never allowed to go in that room...He kept it locked.
He used to come to Philly and pick up Prostitutes and do all kinds of horrible things to them...experiments...he called them...Ray used to hear the screams of the women...We never knew just what was going on...but we could never forget the screams...Then one day Ray told me he found a wallet with photos of that girl......Betty Long..whose murder was never solved and then we knew..We knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Papa had kidnapped her or lured her to East Orange and murdered her...then brought her back here and left her in a ditch...." she said as she began to weep.

"Clothilde...Did Ray tell you this?" asked Sissy.

"Yes...he showed me the room...One day Papa left the lock off and he showed me the surgical tools..The S&M devices...the sinks where he washed the blood...everything....That's why Ray flunked out of medical school, why he was a drunk...He just couldn't deal with finding out who Papa really was and what he did..." She said.

"Clothilde...Why did you kill Ray?" I asked.

"I've been taking care of my father for the past two years...He has dementia..He doesn't even talk....Ray called me and told me that he couldn't keep this thing, this ugliness that Papa did a secret...that he was going to the newspapers and the police. I told him that I needed to talk to him first. I went to his apartment twice and both times I spiked his liquor with cyanide....I hated to do it...but I couldn't allow Ray to put this out in the street...Papa couldn't survive in prison...
not in the state he's in..." she said crying.

"That's enough for me......Okay guys, cuff her." said Sissy Van Buren as the two policemen handcuffed her.

As she walked out, I asked her one last question...

"Clothilde..Where is your father?"

She looked at me and then pointed to a room in the back...

"He's in there..." she said.

"Clothilde, do you have any idea where the remains of the other two girls are?" asked Kyle Rollins.

"No, that was a long time ago.." she said.

We walked to the back room hoping to see an emaciated old man ,instead we saw nothing...I heard a car ignition starting....and looked out the window...I saw the shadow of a man in an old
1973 Rambler pulling off .......It was Dr. Seward Fox!!!! He wasn't in a state of Dementia after all,
This was some trick.

I ran back to the front...

"Heyyy...He's on the move...there's nothing wrong with him...She's been playing us...He just pulled off..." I screamed..

'What?" said Sissy Van Buren...

We looked at Clothilde....She looked at us and burst into a maniacal laugh.....

"You may have me...but you'll never take my daddy...ah hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..."


(Conclusion Next!!!!!!!!!)

The House of Horrors

We hadn't been in East Orange that long...Long enough to grab some lunch, long enough to find that house and long enough for Sissy Van Buren to find a friend on the East Orange PD named Kyle Rollins who "allowed " us access to that house. Kyle was a Detective who had met Sissy at some kind of Police benefit two years ago...According to her ,they had become good "friends" and had stayed in contact over the years. Kyle was about my age....so I found it interesting that Lieutenant Van Buren dated men both 3 years her junior and 3 years her senior like Rollie Rollerson.

The House in question wasn't a crime scene...just a house that had sat empty for about ten years without a buyer. Pretty strange, even in times like these. The three of entered the house and found it to be just what a house like this would be...completely empty...No furniture on any floors. Just the soft echo of your own voice and breathing..Empty bedroom after bedroom. Then I found a bedroom near the end of the hallway...It looked like it might have been a little boys room judging by the size of it. There was an air vent in the middle of the room. I pointed to Sissy and Kyle and we walked the stairs until we got to the basement. There was nothing in the
basement....or was there.....Then I saw it...A door...a door seemingly hidden with a padlock on it!!

Kyle went to his car and came back with the jaws of life. He cut the padlock and we opened the door. What we saw next was astounding!!!!!!!! A Room filled with Sado-Masochistic devices..a
room where torture was king....A room filled with surgical equipment...and two sinks...a room with an air vent......

I looked at the vent and I could imagine the things ,the screams, the sounds that Ray must have heard when he was living here.. There was no good reason for this room to even exist, except for torture... There was an old dusty book...long forgotten, with photos of two young women, one
African -American and One Asian...both on one of the tables...The type of table you see in a morgue . Both women looked as if they were dead...Both were nude. There were several other photos of nude women, all being tortured , and all seemingly in pain...On one of the photos was the initials -S.F. Seward Fox.

We were glad to get out of that house. The next day, a Crime scene investigation unit took that room and that house apart..peice by peice....They found nothing....No blood, no DNA ..Nothing...
All we had were some pretty revealing photos. Nothing really incriminating. With that concluded
we returned to Philadelphia.

A week later..The Homicide Detectives from East Orange contacted Sissy Van Buren..The two girls in the photos...One African -American and the other Asian were prostitutes who went missing more than 15 years before. No one there had a clue as to where they had gone to. No one bothered to look....Now they were more than a little interested in finding Good Dr. Seward.

I did a little nosing around, but there was nothing in Philadelphia listed under his name.. Nothing in the surrounding counties either. He wasn't a player so Gus was no help. We called Farber and asked the name of his girlfriend.... Nambula told us he believed her name was Clothilde Childs.
Clothilde Childs...now there was a name that wasn't run of the mill. I did some more nosing around and I found her address. It was in West Oak Lane. I called Sissy Van Buren.

"Way ahead of you Kevin...I'll come around and get you , we are on our way there now." She said.

"We?? I asked.

"Detective Rollins from East Orange is here...He wants to talk to Dr. Seward." she said.

"Well that's okay...My wife and I are on route, we'll meet you there " I said.

"Your wife is coming?" she asked.

" I haven't seen her in nearly three days..we are inseperable when it's like that." I said.

"Oh....uh....well, alright then..I'll see you there." she said and hung up.

"Kevin, I really don't want to go...I'm tired...you never ask me to go any other time." said Sepia.

"We haven't seen each other in three days." I said.

"Well ,you certainly made up for that last night and again this morning...that's why I'm so worn out ." said Sepia.

"Would you ride with me..please?" I asked.

"Okay, Okay....tee hee..I guess I should be glad my man wants me to ride with him." she said as she got in the car.

"Besides...you're prettier than Clerow on any day." I laughed. She looked at me and she laughed too and we pulled off.

(To be continued....)

Doc Out The Box

As she drove towards Patterson, my mind semed to drift back to another time I was in a car with a shapely and sexy woman driving to North Jersey...Sepia...We had just met and a series of murders had caused us to take flight from Philly to East Orange...I was driving then...and ever so often looking over at those shapely brown thighs of hers.. I missed her..I wondered what she was doing as we sped towards Patterson or actually it's outskirts.

"Kevin. Kevin why do you do this?" asked Sissy Van Buren.

"Why do I do what?" I said, knowing full well what she was asking me.

"Why do you solve murders, get yourself all involved in what is really police business?" she asked.

"I don't know.....I mean..I'm a writer Sissy..I've got two blogs that I keep up and I write stories for a Hip Hop lifestyles magazine for a living. I go on assignments occassionally and cover people in the business..but it wasn't until I started investigating stuff that I really felt alive...you know." I said.

"You ever consider getting a P.I.'s licensce? You're good..You've got a quick mind...You would have made an excellent Homicide Investigator." she said.

"Well, coming from you...that's a compliment." I said. She smiled.....We had had such an adversarial relationship in the beginning...but now, I was starting to warm to her.

"You know..he was like you." she said.

"He? He who?" I asked.

"Dr. Seward Fox. He was an excellent and brilliant surgeon they say....but before he was a surgeon, he had been a crime reporter....He worked for several of the local papers. That's how he partially put himself through med school. He followed the cops around, listened to their stories..drank coffee and ate sandwiches with the Homicide cops and sucked up every gory detail of their cases. I think he really wanted to be a cop. He became a Surgeon..and I'm sure..if he took one life he saved untold lives in his profession. HE had weird demons though...He ran Ray's
Mother off...He raised Ray himself and it was his dream that Ray follow him into Med School...but Ray flunked out. Ray went back to school, but became a journalism major and when he did go to work...He covered sports." She said.

"He was a damn good sports writer too...I loved his columns...So you have to understand..When he contacted me and told me that I was the only one he could talk to..I was more than flattered "I explained.

"He didn't tell you who he believed committed this crime?" she asked.

"Nah, he would tell me bits and peices...that he was awakened by the sounds of screaming...that
he was in a basement and saw something horrible...etc. He would never get to the point. I thought he was pulling my chain after awhile...especially after my wife told me that she knew him and that he was a horrible drunk and a liar. The night I was supposed to meet him that he died...He told me that he was going to lay the whole story out for me...He also told me that he thought he was being followed....but I didn't believe him..Looks like he might have been telling the truth." I said.

We pulled into the Farber Adult Community....about twenty miles from Patterson ,New Jersey
a little while after that. It was an old white building. Inside the building were the same dull white walls and a sqeaky clean hospital like enviroment that looked like something out of the 1930's.

A creepy Man who looked like Lurch from the Adams Family greeted us-

"Can I Help you...I am Superintendant, Nambula." He said in a deep voice. He couldn't help me do anything. I reasoned.

"I'm Lieutenant Sissy Van Buren , Philadelphia Homicide...We'd like to speak to one of your patients...Seward Fox." she said.

"Seward Fox???I'm afraid you just wasted your time and your gas mam." He said.

"What are you talking about? " I said.

"Seward Fox hasn't lived here since 2007.....He's living with his girlfriend in Philadelphia." said Nambula. (What kind of name was Nambula???)

"Wow, Lieutenant...All this time and he was right under our noses." I said.

"Yeah....Looks like we gotta head back home." said Sissy.

"Not just yet..let me make a call." I said. I called Sepia....I asked her about the Doctor's Office in East Orange...She told me that he worked out of his home...That he had a room in the basement of his house. I asked her if she thought the house was still in East Orange. She told me that it was and that it was empty....that no one had bought it. She gave me directions on how to get there.

"Lieutenant...Since we are here...Let's go to East Orange." I said.

"East Orange ??What's there?? she asked.

"The Fox Home and Office....It's been empty for years...Let's check it out...what have we got to lose?" I asked.

"I don't have a warrant to search that house." she said.

"Me neither." I said and winked....

"You're bad Kevin...but...since we are in the area......." she said with a sly sexy laugh.


(To Be Continued.....)

The One That Got Away

Lieutenant Sissy Van Buren sat across from me in the booth at the diner. I had never noticed how attractive she was prior to this. A "redbone" as my pops would say...The daughter of a Black Mother and a White father. She inherited her mother's black girl body. She was older than me , but still very shapely and still capable of turning the heads of men younger and older. She didn't have her hair in the charactoristic bun...it was out and flowing..the way men like, but women don't seem to understand....She was smoking a cigarette and drinking coffee while looking at the photos I gave her from the billfold.

I was enjoying some French Toast and some sausages and hash browns while drinking a tumbler of Orange juice and looking out at the street. It was early Saturday morning and the streets were quiet...The sun was gently rising in the horizon..

"Kevin, you have no idea who this is in these photos do you?" she said.

"No..I don't. You DO? " I said.

She laughed ruefully.

"You know, I could bust you for breaking and entering and disrupting my crime scene. I probably should write up my detectives for not finding this when they swept the area for evidence...but I don't have the time for either. This is Betty Long."

The name meant nothing to me..I shrugged and looked at Sissy Van Buren who
smiled and then continued...

"In 1990, Betty Long was the Black "It girl" She was a model, mostly in videos for local hip hop stars and a few local magazines...She was courted by all of the men who were either in the music business here in town or on the fringes of it..
Including my ex- Rollie Rollerson..She was a party girl...She was at major events ,usually with some up and coming would be Hip Hop mogul or fashionista....Then one morning...we found her body out on 95 on the side of the road....not far from the airport....cut in half....with all of her organs removed.."

I was startled ......all I could do was gasp and say "Oh My God.."

Sissy continued-

"See I know because this was my first Homicide case. I had just been promoted to Homicide and my partner was Bobby Henderson."

"Bobby Henderson??? Now Him, I've heard of.." I said..

Bobby Henderson was a legend in the Black Community in Philadelphia. he was one of the first and most decorated Homicide Detectives of African-American
descent in modern times..My dad always talked about him. When there was a big murder case in North or West Philly..They called in Bobby Henderson.. But in 1990, he had to be close to retirement.

"Yes, Bobby Henderson...He was a tough old detective..a brilliant man and a male chauvinist pig to boot. He didn't want a female partner and he made no bones about it...We spent more time butting heads than we did investigating. I wasted too much time trying to one up him and it got in the way of this case.
I gradually won his respect though and we worked this case hard...We interviewed close to 100 people...never got a thing....We swept the area, did the little bit of DNA testing we could but didn't get a thing. Then the killer started sending us letters taunting us...I still have them..The killer sent us three letters and I believe he or someone called us..then just like that...the trail went cold.
It remains the only case I was ever involved with that was never solved..." she said.

I was stunned.. It was the only case Bobby henderson was involved with that was unsolved. He always got his man. Bobby Henderson had been dead for close to 17 years..I'm sure he would love for this case to be solved.

'So Kevin...I know you didn't know this man Ray Fox...I know because we tried to interview him during the case...Him and his father...We couldn't prove anything..but I always thought that the two of them acted strange.." she said.

"Yeah..He told me that he knew about a murder and that he wanted to clear something up." I said.

"Oh did he?" she said.

"You think he did it? Or his Father?" I asked.

"Well, we can't ask either one of them now Kevin....Ray is dead and Seward is in
an Old folks home in Patterson ,New Jersey , stone out of his mind." she said.

"So this was the case that got away, huh Lieutenant? " I said.

"Yeah...the one I never solved." she said.

"Well, I think we should take a trip to Patterson, New Jersey." I said.

"Wow..great minds think alike don't they? You know Kevin, you're in the wrong
profession...you should have been a cop." she said.

I smiled....She continued to sit there and drink her coffee and puff on her cigarette..

(To be Continued.....)

Photos, Lies & Cyanide

I watched as Lt.Sissy Van Buren and her team of homicide detectives examined the room, bagged and tagged everything and dusted for fingerprints...Sepia stood by me as I explained to the Detectives that I had been waiting for Ray Fox at the bar and that he never showed up...I stopped by his apartment and found him sitting in the chair dead. It was after all the truth. What I didn't tell them was the nature of my business with Ray Fox.

"So we meet again Kevin." said Sissy Van Buren.

"Yeah, we've really gotta stop meeting like this...people are gonna talk." I joked.

"Kevin...why were you waiting for him?" she asked.

"You get right to it don't you?" I said.

"We were going to have drinks." I added.

"Drinks?, You and Him? I don't think you even knew this man..He was from East Orange."
she said.

"My wife knows him..She's from there..We met casually." I lied again...I had met Ray Fox on three other occassions. Sepia was with me on one of them and she remarked that she knew him.
He barely remembered her, but he knew her mother. Jean Cokely. We were at Josies when we
met...He was drinking heavily and sweating...like he had something on his mind.. Then he began to talk.... Of course I had no intention of telling Lt. Van Buren any of this , not yet

"Okay Kevin...You can go now...Don't plan on taking any vacation anytime soon." she said. I knew that she didn't believe me..but I didn't care...I needed to get back to this apartment, presumably when the police were gone.

Sepia and I left and we drove to a local diner, where we had coffee and donuts.

"Kevin....what did Ray tell you?" asked Sepia.

"He told me that he witnessed a murder about several years ago and that it was the most horrific thing he'd ever seen...he'd tried to put it out of his mind but it kept eating at him.

It was the murder of a woman and it was pretty horific." I said.

"You know Kevin...Ray was a drunk and he was a liar , back in East Orange. His Father was so disapointed in him. You know...him being a surgeon and all." said Sepia.

"I know, but Ray had been a damn good writer at one time...I used to read his sports column all the time when he wrote for the Chronicle." I said.

"Yeah Kevin, but his dad spent a fortune putting him through medical school. He dropped out and wound up writing for a number of little small independent newspapers. He drank and drank and you never could believe a thing he was telling you." said Sepia.

"I believe this story though...Sepia..he was scared..scared of something..scared of someone..He told me it wasn't the murder that spooked him, but the person he believed committed the murder that really through him for a loop." I said.

"Well who did he say committed this murder?" asked Sepia.

"That's what he was going to tell me tonight..only he didn't make it." I said.

A few days later, I ran into Lt.Sissy Van Buren on Broad Street...She smirked when she saw me.

"What's the good word Lieutenant ?" I asked.

"Well Kevin, you always say that I always make everything a suicide right?" she said.

"I never implied that." I laughed.

"Well your boy was definitely helped out of this world. That Jack Daniels was laced with cyanide and he had enough cyanide in his system to drop half a city block." she said.

"What?" I exclaimed in shock.

"Kevin, He knew who his killer was...There was no forced entry....There was two glasses on the table...so that means that two people were drinking the Jack Daniels...though only Ray Fox's DNA is on both glasses.. And there were no prints anywhere in that apartment other than his.
He definitely had a guest...Somebody who knew what they were doing...He drank a quarter of that bottle..yet we found way more cyanide in his body than that. He must have eaten something too that was laced with it." she said.

"Wow , you've got you one hell of a case there Lieutenant" I said.

" Yes, I do. You have nothing to add Kevin?" she said and she gave me a look.

I looked at her as dead pan as I could and lied again-

"Nope." I said.

She gave me an exasperated look and then said simply-

"I'll see ya around Kevin."

"Good luck on your case" I said, smiling....

That night...I got Clerow and Sean Jackson and we went back to that apartment...I had Sean sit in my car with his cell phone..ready to call me if he saw anybody. Clerow was packing and had my back...I quietly picked the cheap lock and broke in... I turned on the lights and began rumaging through Ray's things... I was amazed that the police overlooked this...It was right there for them to see..Why was it not bagged and tagged? It was a wallet...an old fashioned billfold. There was no ID in this wallet, but there were several photos of a nude woman..The woman appeared to be sleep, but she could be dead...There was an inscription of the back of one
of the photos..." Dr. Seward Fox"

We quietly left the apartment and got in the wind... That night I showed the photos of the nude woman to Sepia.

"So Ray was a perve, so what?" she said.

"This isn't Ray's wallet, it belongs to Seward Fox. Who is he?" I asked..

"Oh..That's Ray's Father ,the surgeon...Guess he's a perve." laughed Sepia.

"Why,because he has a photo of a naked woman in his wallet?? I'd have some of you if you'd let
me take em.."I joked.

"Not cause she's naked silly, cause she's dead....look closer at the photo..can't you see that woman is dead...she looks like she's already had embalming fluid in her." said Sepia.

The woman never ceased to amaze me...A closer look at the photos in the light and it appeared that she was indeed dead...

I walked over to the phone....It was time to stop playing games and to call the Lieutenant.

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

Better Late Than Dead!!!

ART: "New York Jazz" By Unknown Artist

"So how's Married Life treatin ya son?" asked Gus the bartender as I quaffed down my second Corona of the night.

"Not bad at all Gus..It's all good." I laughed.

"I'll tell ya Kevin..you got some woman there...I didn't think that you and her would last too long at first ,but you fooled me...To tell you the truth,I thought she was a little out of your leauge."
said Gus.

That's what I loved about Gus..He didn't mince words..He gave it to you straight.

"Yeah man...I thought she was out of my leauge." I laughed.

"So ,with a fine ass wife like that...what are you doin in here tonight?" asked Gus.

"I come to hear my boy "88". I hear he's sittin in with that cool Trumpet player from New Jersey, Reed Nelson." I lied. I was really there to meet a guy who told me that he had information about a murder. I was covering a story for Hype magazine and he got in contact with me and told me he'd meet me here at Josie's and we'd talk. He said his name was Ray Fox.

I had been here through two of Reed Nelson's sets and I hadn't seen hide nor hair of Ray Fox.
I nodded at "88'' who was sitting at a Booth with Mabel Jenkins sitting directly on his lap. When
did this develop? A whole lot of guys wanted to be in 88's shoes. I nodded at both of them and then smiled.

I walked outside...took a look at my new car, my beautiful new car that Rollie Rollerson had given me as a "peace offering " for my silence in another case and what did I see but a Boot on my car.. A big yellow boot. I had three unpaid traffic tickets and all of them had been from waiting for the perennially late Mr. Ray Fox for the past few weeks. He was late..but never this late.

I got on my cell phone and called the Philadelphia Parking Authority...I owed a whopping $250.00 dollars. I gave them my credit card number and they took down my information and told me that they'd come in the morning to take my boot off. IN THE MORNING????

Pissed, I called Sepia, told her she had to come get me...She drove down to the club to pick me up. Another hour had went by and still no sign of Ray Fox.

"Will you stop laughing girl..it aint that funny." I said as I got in the car and we pulled off.

"Oh but it is...all the time you have lectured me about paying my ticket and
you get a boot....oh this is hillarious.." she said.

"Go ahead...get your laughs....I can't wait for you to get your boot...and it is coming."I laughed.

"I take it Mr. Fox was late again huh?" she asked.

"No..He never showed up at all." I said.

"He's late..but he always shows up eventually." said Sepia , who had known Ray back in East Orange.

"He staying in those apartments over there..stop the car a minute Sepia." I said.

I got out and walked up the narrow stairs of the Apartment building. The hallway was dimly lit
and it was very quiet...I walked to his apartment and tapped on the door.

"Hey Ray..Where you at man?" I asked. The door swung open. There was no sign of a struggle.
The apartment was neatly arranged... Ray was sitting in the corner in a chair by the window.
He was holding a shot glass. A bottle of Jack Daniels was sitting on the table.

Can you believe this? I got a boot on my car , had to call my wife to pick me up waiting for this
knucklehead and he's sitting here drunk. I walked over to Ray and shook him...

"Hey man, wake up...wake up...." I said...Ray fell out of the chair and on to the floor..He wasn't drunk....He was dead!

To be continued.........

(Thank you to everyone who stopped by on Tuesday to wish me a "Happy Birthday!")

I'm On Vacation Today Because...

I'll be back tomorrow!

Mabel's Blues

ART: "Sax Appeal" By Wak

My name is "88", I play the Piano for a living. Music is really an obsession with me..been around it all my life. I was in Josie's Bar one lazy Saturday afternoon, tinkling the ivories...playing a jazz peice that my Uncle Charlie would have loved if he were still alive.

"Sounds Good 88" said Gus.

"Thanks man...I wrote this while I was on tour with that Trumpet player that was here last
month." I said.

I had sat in with Reed Nelson, an up and coming young Trumpet Player from North Jersey..I believe he said he was from Patterson. He had a nice little trio..A Guitarist, A Bassist and a Drummer. I sat in on Piano when he played here last month and he liked me so much , he asked me to play a few dates with him.. I did. We went to Hampton, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago
and finnally, three nights in New York City. He paid me good money too. I came back to Philly and paid Chess all of my back rent and paid him in advance for the next three months. I paid Gus my bar tab in full and still had enough money to put in both my savings and checking accounts.

Reed called me back to do some recording dates with him in New York and in Philly...I accepted and again, had a nice payday or two. Paid off both of my credit cards and bought some much needed groceries for my fridge. It felt good to have some steady money other than what I was gettin playing at Josies.

I had noticed Mabel Jenkins for close to a year now...She was a southern girl...from Lousiana..Had the sexiest body in six states, you hear? and always wore those tight dresses that showed off all of her assets. I always spoke and maybe I conversed with her a little...but never too much. She had a boyfriend...a nice enough fella who worked at the Post Office, plus I knew that Clerow, my good friend still had a crazy kind of thing for her. Clerow is married to her younger sister who is equally as bodacious....so I couldn't understand his obsession with Mabel...Then again, I could...He was man wasn't he? I heard that Mabel was originally Clerow's girl but that she caught him with Corabeth back in Louisiana and that she was so hurt she left him, come up here to Philly. he followed her here ,but it was too late...for him. Mabel had a boyfriend and Clerow had a bun in the oven....Corabeth was pregnant!! Clerow married her and
everything seemed to be good between all involved..but every now and then..I would see Clerow
give Mabel a longing glance when he saw her..Can't say I blame him.

I was surprised to see Mabel in Josie's this early. She came up to my Piano and sat on a little stool facing me and watched me play.

"You play good 88" she said.

"Thank you Mabel" I returned with a sly smile...Her big shapely legs in that skirt were causing
me to lose my focus. She saw what she was doing to me and tried to sit in a different way. She smiled at me sheepishly...I suppose she was used to men losing their focus over her.

"So what's new with you Mabel?" I said.

"88..my personal life is in shambles.." she said.

"Oh yeah? How so?" I asked....not really caring to know, but wanting her to stay and talk while
I played the Piano.

"I broke up with my boyfriend three weeks ago. He moved out. I guess it was for the best but
I've been so lonely. I miss him, but I don't want to call him...I've got to get past him." she said.

"A fine woman like yourself should have men knocking down the door for someone like you." I
said.

" I have men after me 88, but not the kind of men I like.....I get all of the crazies...They don't have a job, they don't have a car..they want me to drive them everywhere, want me to pay for all of the dates we go on and worse...when they find out that I have a house of my own..they want to move in....I aint havin it...I can do bad all by myself." she said.

" Aint that the truth ruth." I added.

" 88, Pastor Struthers , who used to be married to my other sister calls me every night at around 2:00 am wanting to know what I have on and asking if he can come over to "minister" to me. I know what he's about...He's unbelievable..." she laughed.

"Sometimes it be that way Mabel...You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your Prince Charming." I added with a laugh.

"I know that's right...and to make it worse...every man I'm attracted to is married or hooked up..
Kevin...He's not only married to Sepia, but he's my boss..so that would never work.. Cock Robbins, the football player..He's married and that friend of yours that beat that guy up in here last month...what's his name??" she asked.

"Oh, you talkin bout Chess...he's living with his baby's mother, who is my cousin" I said throwing
an emphasis on that fact.

I don't know why I said it...Don't know where it came from...but all I know is ..my father always said that you make your own breaks in this world and when an opportunity comes , you gotta jump to it..

"What about me Mabel?? You ever think about , uh, well you know, givin me a try?"I said, stunned at myself for being so bold...I had never been this forward with a woman before ,which probably explained why I didn't have one and this was the most conversation I had ever had with Mabel in the entire time I knew her.

"You? 88? You like me like that?" she said and then laughed....She saw the puzzled look on my face and then said-

"I never imagined ..I mean ,I often wondered why you didn't have a woman....but I just thought
you had women on the side or-"

"Or I was gay right?" I said.

"No...I never thought that..." she said.

"Well? What do you think? Maybe we could go out...maybe we could get to know each other or....." I said.

"Maybe ,you could keep me company tonight and we take it from there...I'm so lonely 88." she said.

"You serious? Really?? " I said.

"I know you can keep it secret and it won't be all over the bar or on the streets 88." she said.

Here was my chance...I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming. At midnight, I walked out to my car....Mabel gave me directions to her house and then got in her car and drove off. Nobody that was there that night saw anything that would make them believe that we were
together.

Almost as soon as I got to Mabel's house I saw just how hurt and lonely she truly was. It was as if her passion exploded... We kissed passionately for minutes and I began to kiss her up and down her neck..she was breathing deeply and saying in between short breaths...

"Oh 88, if you kiss this good, I wonder what else you can do with that mouth of yours?"

We slowly undressed each other and I lifted her up and carried her up the stairs to her bedroom... it was dark and she began giving me head almost as soon as we were behind closed doors.. I found it hard to believe that this was happening....

I made her stop and began kissing her and tried reciprocating as I layed her on the bed...She began breathing heavy and moaning....

"Oh don't stop...don't stop.... do you have a condom?" she asked.

"What?" I asked.

"It's okay if you don't...I keep some in my top dresser drawer." she said.

I ran to the dresser drawer and copped one. I love a woman who is prepared.

Still not saying a word...I mounted her and entered her and tried to savor every moment. It was as though I were eating a great New York Strip Steak...I wanted the experience to last...I felt as if I had died and gone to heaven.....

"Oh 88, let me get on top." she said after awhile...I didn't want to stop..but I did. We continued kissing as she got on top of me, tossed her hair and her neck back and really began to ride...Now I was about to scream as she moved slowly and softly and unbelievably smooth for a big girl.

We came nearly simultaneously...and we lie there in bed sweaty and holding on to each other.

"88...were you serious when you said you liked me?" she asked.

"You're asking me that now? Of course I was serious...but why should you believe me now? Of course now I would say that....you have no way of knowing if I am sincere...but for the record ,I
am...I've had my eyes on you for a year now." I said.

"Your honesty is appreciated...I think you've passed my test." she said.

"You sure...This is kind of sudden..I didn't expect this." I said.

"Me neither and I've never done this before..but tonight I was heartbroken and lonely and if it
hadn't of been you, then somebody was going to take me home with them tonight. Haven't you ever been lonely ,heartbroken and horny?" she asked.

"That's the story of my life...story of every man's life." I said.

"Well 88...I'm glad it was you that took me home and not some loser or some stranger." she said with the sweetest smile I had ever seen.

"I'm glad it was me too." I said.

The next night when I played the Piano...Mabel sat with me..Kissed me a couple of times while I
was playing...Heads turned and tongues wagged...but we didn't care...we were a couple. My friend Chess looked over at me and smiled, and winked..he was with my cousin Rell..she smiled too and pointed. Kevin, Cock Robbins and Clerow sat at the bar and looked at us too...I was worried about what Clerow would think..but he didn't look like it bothered him..I suppose he had moved on...

My name is "88" I play the Piano....Mabel Jenkins is my woman.....and I love what and who I do.

88

My name is Kerry...Kerry Moore. For as long as I can remember I have been known by my nickname-"88". People call me "88" because I can play the Piano. MyGrandmother had a beautiful Piano in the living room of her row house in West Philadelphia. Everytime my sister and I went over to Mom-Mom's house, I would bang on the keyboard...totally enthralled by the keys and the sounds they made. I started out at three years old banging....but by the time I was five, I was picking out songs I heard on the radio and duplicating the sounds I heard. Mom and Grandmom figured that I should take lessons and so I was enrolled at Settlement Music School in Wynnefield and taught how to play the classics.

My Uncle Charlie lived in the room at the end of the Hallway in my Grandmother's house. He had been married to my mother's older sister. he had fought in the Vietnam War and had come home to find out that she had run off with his closest friend. My Grandparents apparently liked him better than they did their own daughter and so they allowed him to live in a room on the second floor of their house. He had an incredible Jazz collection. He introduced me to Charles Mingus and Herbie Hancock and Miles and Dizzy. I introduced him to Sly , James Brown ,Hendrix, Motown, Stax and Philly International. He encouraged my Piano playing and helped me expand my musical vision a lot.

In the Early 80's ,I played my first gigs with a lot of Funk bands and a lot of Hot singers who came to twon and I sat in with the band in a lot of clubs when they needed a Piano player or a keyboardist. Even did some studio work when a gig was available. Today, I play the Organ for
Pastor Struther's Church in Oak Lane and when I'm not there..I play the Piano in the house band at Josie's Bar. I live in an Apartment owned by my childhood friend, Chess. He and Chris
Thompson and I grew up together. Chess's baby's mother, Rell is my first cousin. Chess doesn't
charge me for utilities ...and if I'm late with my rent...He never says anything. I'm lucky to have a friend like Chess.

Gus pays me to play five nights a week at Josie's. I'm pretty friendly with most of the patrons of
Josie's...Kevin, Cock Robbins, Conrad the Attorney,Sean Jackson, Honey Brown, Mabel Jenkins
and Clerow...So it was pretty funny that nearly all of them were in church this particular Saturday dressed to the nines....as was I, awaiting the beginning of the wedding between Larry
Brown and Felicia Porter...

The Bride looked stunning in her gown as did her bridesmaids....We were all standing and laughing as all of the people began coming in and sitting down... There was close to 500 people at this wedding...I was sitting at the Organ , waiting to play the wedding march... It was going on
an hour since the wedding was supposed to start and no sign of the groom. After about another
thirty minutes, I got tired of sitting , so I got up and walked outside...I saw Clerow and his wife Cora Beth and their daughter standing around.....Kevin and his new wife Sepia were quietly talking in the hallway...Cock Robbins and his wife Vanessa were just arriving and Paris ,Blake,
Sean Jackson and his girlfriend Sheila were drinking bottled waters and looking at their watches.

Conrad and his wife, Jill walked over to me...

"Hey 88 have you seen Larry?"

"No Conrad, I haven't....it's going on 90 minutes now.." I said.

"Here he comes now " said Clerow....

"It's about time " said Mabel Jenkins..

"Where's the Pastor?" asked Deacon Weatherford...

It didn't matter , Larry Brown wasn't dressed for a wedding... He had on a Brown silk shirt and
white linin slacks and brown sandals... He was wearing his sunglasses on top of his bald head.
I followed him as he approached his bride...

"Larry, where have you been?" said Felicia.

" Heyyy baby, let me just say first off that you look beautiful...I have never seen anyone look as
beautiful as you do." he said smoothly.

"Larry, where is your tux??? You're ninety minutes late??" she said.

"That's what I come to tell you...I was gonna just drive on to AC and lay low til everything blew over, but I just couldn't do that. I said to myself...Larry? Yo What man? Larry you got to be a man...you just can't run out of town and not tell that girl.." he said.

"Tell me what?" she said...tears running down her face..

"Ah can't do this.....I can't marry you...something you ought to know .." he said.

"Oh my God....you're Gay!!!" she said.

'Whoa..slow down the train there baby...not in a million years..." he protested..

"Then what Larry, what?" she said.

"I been seeing this other girl...Renee Richardson the whole seven years you and I been kickin
it and I can't keep livin this double life...it's just not right...I can't marry you..I thought I could, but I'd just cheat on you....so, look...have a good life and all, I gotta go pick up Renee...She uh waitin on me..we going to Ocean City this weekend."

He didn't get out another word...She kicked him where it hurts a man the most and then jumped on him and began beating him in the hallway....I stood there motionless and stunned as the crowd in the church heard, then saw the fighting and everyone rushed into the hallway...

"At least I was honest aBOUT IT..what you kick me for..owwww...owww. ouuu...." he screamed as he ran for his life to his car...

"My sunglasses...you broke my sunglasses...owwww." he yelled...

I ran down the hallway looking for Pastor Struthers...I knocked on the door to his study......

'Ohhhhhhhh.....ohhhhhhh Pastorrrrr...OHHHHHHHH......more....more...."

"You want more baby.....eh..heh..heh...heh.....ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu girl, you done overloved me."
came the syrupy voice that could belong to only Pastor John Struthers...Who never saw a woman in his church that he could turn away...

The fact that the door was locked told me that even the Pastor got tired of waiting for the groom to show up. I grabbed a bottled water and some peanuts and walked out of the church and walked over to my car....There wasn't going to be a wedding today, but I was still getting paid.

A few hours later, I sat in Josie's Bar with Gus, Honey Brown and Chess....

"I heard they cut up at that wedding over there 88." said Gus.

"Yeah man...the bride and groom got to fightin....they had to call the cops..." I said.

"Yo people is somethin else." laughed Chess.

"Aint they though? Hey Gus...Can I work tonight?" I asked.

"Sure 88...There's a hot Trumpet player comin in from out of town and he probably will need a good Piano player to sit in with his quartet..He got a Guitarist, A bass player and a drummer."
said Gus.

"Cool.." I said. I went and sat at the Piano.....took another sip of my water and played a little tune while Chess silently tapped his fingers on the table in his booth and Honey Brown talked to
Gus, while he set up the bar....

My name is 88...I love what I do.

I Know '09

ART: "Sunflower Dreams" By Wak

Softer than a rose petal
and warmer than the sunshine that makes it grow..
These are the thoughts that come to mind
whenever I see you..
and girl that's how I know../

I know
that even though you don't know my name
that you've been what I've been trying so hard to find
just the same..
I know..
that I have nothing to lose and everything to gain..
and one day I'm going to make you mine../

Cooler than a tropical breeze
that blows across Carribean seas..
watching you smile brings these visions
of you to me....
and re-inforces the reasons I've come to want you so..
and maybe that's why...
I know../

I know-
I'm going to do whatever I have to do...
(Although I just met you girl)
to get next to you..
I know
that I'm going to say whatever I have to say...
and hope and pray you see things my way../

I know
even though you don't know my name
you're what my heart has needed to find..
I know
even though you don't know it yet
one day you're going to be mine..
I know,
baby I know...
it's just the swagger in me..

Lady girl

ART: "Survivor" By Michael Bailey

When someone gives you
thier heart,
you don't have the right
to turn your nose up to them/

When a man with his heart
in his hands ,
shows you love
That love that you feel isn't good
enough for you,
could actually be a gem../

But oh, lady girl
you've got so much to learn...
about the ways of the world...
oh, lady girl
you who have no love ,have no right to
throw it away, toss it away, throw it away../

Who told you
that you were rich?
and what gives you the right
to act like a perfect bitch/

Yet you say
you say
that your heart is always begging for love
at least that's what you always say...
so why when love is offered to you
do you throw it away?/

Oh Lady girl
you've got so much to learn about the
ways of the world..
Poor Lady girl
you who have no love, have no right to
throw it away...toss it away..just waste it away../

When A Woman's Fed Up!

ART: "Reaching Higher" By Laurie Cooper

"Alright Willie Turner..You're under arrest for First Degree Murder...You have the right to remain silent..if you refuse to honor your right, any and everything said by you can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney...if you can't afford an attorney, one will be gotten for you..do you understand your rights? Of course you do, you've been arrested several times before Willie." said Lt. Sissy Van Buren of Philadelphia Homicide as
one of her Detectives handcuffed the suspect.

"Book Him Dan Ho..." she said. Detective Danny Ho of Chinatown made the collar and he was the Primary on this case...The Lt. Had just come along to watch him work.. They had collared Willie in a sleazy rooming house....Lt. Van Buren heard the sound of a bed squeaking and heard sounds of lovemaking coming from an adjoining room...

"Ohhhh...Ohhh Rollie...Rollie...sock it to me daddy...ouuuuuuuu.." came a female voice...

"Who's ya daddy now? ouuu...ouuuuuu.ummppppph...." came a familiar voice.. but it couldn't be
him...It just couldn't be....What would he being doing in this part of town and in a place like this...
a man with his money?? But there was no mistaking it...that was his voice... and she would know.. How many times had he said the exact same thing to her when they had been making love??

"Who is yo dadddddy? ummmmmmmmphhh...ohhhhhhhhhh...I'm about to blow...ouuuuuuu..."

"No daddy, not yet..not yet..hang on a little longer..please..ohhhhhhhhh..."

"Ahhh caint hold back....ohhhhhhhhhh..ow...ouuuuuuuuu......."

"Awww, my god...just a little longer and I could've come to..."

THAT was definitely him!! She now knew that her lover of nearly four years , Rollie Rollerson,
one of the richest men, Black or white in Philadelphia was in fact cheating on her with some two dollar tramp in one of North Philadelphia's seediest neighborhoods..She couldn't believe it.

"Hey Lou..can we take this mope downtown now?" said Detective Danny Ho."

"Yeah...take him downtown Danny...Good work." Said Sissy Van Buren.

She was a very attractive woman....Sissy Van Buren was nearing her 40th birthday, yet she still
had a figure that made men half her age turn their heads when she walked by. Especially when she was dressed up and not wearing the garb of a seasoned Detective..Which she was. She was the child of a White Father and a Black mother. She had at one time boasted movie star good looks. When she went to the academy, she strived to prove that she was as good as any man. She played the game right at first and rose through the ranks from patrolman to Detective , from
Narcotics, to Major Crimes and finnally to Homicide and the ranks of Lt.

A Very storied career. Then she met Rollie Rollerson at a fund raiser. He was charming and nice looking and very married. She knew when she met him that she shouldn't have ever gotten involved with him...but he swept her off of her feet...A forced kiss here, finnally a surrendered kiss there..groping in his car and finnally hot and wild lovemaking every chance she and he got a chance to sneak away. She never meant to get this involved with him. He told her that his wife was crazy..That she had split personalities and that he was going to leave her...yet he never did.

She broke it off with him....Then he came to her house late one night...Telling her that his wife was cheating on him...He was in tears..She took him inside...They made love all night long and he left her bed that next morning. Soon the news came that his wife or one of her personalities had
murdered her lover. She covered that up for him. Wrote it up as a suicide...she stopped a do gooder blogger/Private Detective named Kevin from writing the story after he figured out just what had really happened.

His wife and her split personality is in a state mental facility now instead of prison where she belongs and if word of what she had done for Rollie ever saw the light of day....She could lose her
badge and go to prison herself for obstruction of justice. She had put herself on the line for this
man and he had the nerve to cheat on her???

Lt.Sissy Van Buren sat across the street from the rooming house and watched as Rollie Rollerson
walked out of the rooming house..looking around making sure that no one saw him, slipping his sunglasses on and walking two blocks to his carefully concealed car. What a bum she thought.

She followed the girl the next night and waited until the girl left her apartment. Dressed in all
black, she entered the rooming house from the side and jimmied the lock of her apartment. She placed some illegal micro-video cameras in the bedroom and the living room where they wouldn't be seen and quietly slipped out.

Like clockwork..Rollie Rollerson stopped by the girl's room the next night..and a few nights after
that. After about a week...Sissy Van Buren broke back into the apartment and removed the video cameras. She then went to the cyber cafe and downloaded the video and audio portions
on a youtube account...Then anonymously sent the video portion to several local newspapers and Television stations.

The next day, the entire city was buzzing about video taped versions of Rollie Rollerson having
illicit sex with a "known prostitute"....There were scenes of him being handcuffed to the bed, of him being whipped..of him spraying whipped cream all over the young woman and licking it all off and of the two of them having wild sex in the bed, up against the wall, you name it...and of him yelling..."Who's yo daddy now??"

Needless to say, it was all very embarrasing. Rollie Rollerson nearly had a heart attack upon seeing his photo with whipped cream all over his face on the cover of the Philadelphia Daily News
the next morning and the caption - "WHO'S YOUR DADDY NOW?" in big bold letters. The more
lurid stuff was of course not featured in the main stream papers , but it was all over the internet.

His publicist promptly turned in his resignation..No way to clean this up! Several Church and civic groups cancelled his speaking engagements... Hype Magazine ,of which he served on it's Board of Directors asked him to step down as did several other organizations... The public disgrace was too much for him to bare. He was said to be in his home on the Main Line in seclusion

Lt.Sissy Van Buren sat in Josie's Bar drinking a Corona...She had broken every law she had sworn to uphold for the love of a married man...She had much to attone for.. She thought of Rollie Rollerson's public disgrace and embarrassment and for some reason...she smiled...then she began to laugh..and for some reason....she felt very good for the first time in a long time!

A Fatal Undertaking

I was with Lt. Sissy Van Buren when they pulled the Escalade out of the garage....It had been there for months and you could see how somebody had tried to scrub it and had even done a bad job of trying to repaint it.. The Detectives used luminol and discovered huge amounts of blood splatter evidence....They began DNA tests immediately....They determined that Tanginika Jones
had indeed died in the car...but not one fingerprint was found belonging to Lennie Hughes. The
Escalade however was in a garage owned by him.

The Crowbar on the other hand had Tanginika's blood and brain matter and several of Lennie's latent fingerprints..This was enough for a warrant to go out for his arrest. I asked Lt. Van Buren for a favor.

"Look...he snookered me and really laughed in my face...Could I go up to his door or wherever he is and holler at him before you guys put the cuffs on him?" I laughed.

"You're asking a lot and we really want to get him in custody....but, I owe you a favor Kevin...so
here it is.. This will make us even won't it?" She said.

"Well, sorta kinda ." I said with a shrug.

Lennie it turned out was in front of Josie's and was really in no mood to talk to me...He was doing what he did best....getting rough with a young lady...As I walked up on him he had just smacked the hell out a young woman who couldn't have been any more than twenty years old...She was crying and holding her face.

"Look Trick, don't be goin in mah phone and don't you dare question me about who I
see...do you understand me...??" said Lennie.

"Well,Well,Well...you know...they always said that you was the soul of romance..and here
I see you are at it again...being romantic huh?" I said.

"Ohhhh,it's you...the would be crime bustin blogger and reporter......I see you took my
advice and married that girl huh? I aint mad at you playa..but me!! I aint the marryin
type myself." he grinned.

"Oh well, you aren't going to have to worry about marriage anyway, not where you're going?"
I laughed.

"What you talkin bout , where I'm going? I aint goin nowhere? " he snarled.

"You're going to jail for what you did to that young girl." I said.

"Prove it...you got nothin.." he laughed.

Just then....Three Detectives began walking towards him...startled he attempted to run...but two
more Detectives grabbed him and read him his rights while handcuffing him...

I looked at him and smiled... He looked at me with a white hot anger....

"You got nothin....nothin...I'll be out of jail before you can write about this on your blackberry
you chump...just watch and see." he snarled.

I looked at him and smiled....then I made a phone call.

Of course Lennie was right....As soon as he was booked, he made bail...and without anyone willing to testify, it didn't look like they had much of a case against him...His fingerprints weren't on the Escalade and his Lawyer was going to argue that jealous unidentified women had set him up and that they had every reason to try and frame him.. Of course this was crap, but as long as
they didn't testify...he could possibly beat the charge.

Cock Robbins, Sean Jackson, Conrad, Paris, Blake, Gus, Clerow , Deacon Larry Weatherford and I all stood in the courtroom as he made bail and walked out...He strolled out arrogantly and stopped by me. He looked me in the eye and said-

"When I beat this case...and I will..I'm gone come and see you nigga..believe that!"

"No, Lennie...You're done...so I'm gonna say goodbye to you now." I said.

He looked at me like I was crazy and walked out of the courtroom..

A Man about six feet three walked over to him, while another man who was even larger grabbed
him in the collar and slung him into a big black hearse. I saw a rope being administered to Lennie's neck and I saw him struggling...yelling and screaming ,while the big man squeezed the
rope tighter....Within the crowd and the noise..nobody saw or heard what I was witnessing..because I was the only one who knew who these men were. One was Ernest Jones...
Tanginika's Father and the other man, the bigger man with the rope who was choking Lennie in the car was Tanginika's older brother...Terrence Jones.. I noticed that Lennie was no longer moving. The Father got in the car on the passenger side with another man who I did not know who was driving. They pulled off.

That was the last that anybody ever saw of Lennie Hughes....The Police are still looking for him to this day...I doubt that they'll ever find him.. Today, at the bottom of the Scyhukill River, Lennie Hughes's bones gently shift with the moving waters and the stirring of the silt..

I remember how badly Tangi's Father and her brother grieved at the funeral and how they begged for just five minutes with her killer. I called them and told them that the killer was in custody...Now whatever they did after Lennie got out...is well, up for conjecture...I didn't feel the
least bit guilty about it and in fact..I have never slept so peaceful in my life...Knowing that that peice of human excrement is off the streets and will never beat or kill another young girl.

Oh...and did I mention....Tangi's Father and Brother are undertakers! Imagine that, huh?


For SLC

I Got What You Need

For awhile, I didn't worry about Lennie, though I never totally forgot him...and what he did to Tanginika...Days turned to weeks and weeks became months and my attention turned to my wedding. It was a nice wedding...Clerow was my best man. Sean, Paris, Blake and Conrad were
my groomsmen, while Mabel, Cora Beth, Victoria and Sheila were the maids of honor. Since her father was deceased and her mother was presently a guest of the state of Pennsylvania for life, Gus of Josie's bar walked her down the aisle.. Deacon Larry Weathford was there, so was Big Nasty...Missing was Cock Robbins and his wife Vanessa. They had been invited and they sent us a nice present, but apparently there was too much bitterness still existing between Sepia and Cock for him to feel comfortable at her wedding, even though he was now married and a reformed player. I wasn't mad, I understood. Reverend Brother Dr. Pastor John Struthers married us. He was two hours late. I would later learn that Deacon Larry Weatherford had to
go to one of the choir member's house to awaken him after a night of "laying of the hands" if you know what I mean and I know you do.

There was one woman in the church who I didn't recognize. She was about twenty five, very attractive and very very pregnant...Nobody in the church seemed to know who she was...
After the wedding , when Sepia and I were standing in the receiving line she walked past and whispered in my ear... "I got what you need..." I looked at her stunned and then said-"What?"
"You want Lennie, come see me after you come back from your honeymoon..I got what you need." Then she slipped into the crowd and vanished. I was preplexed....but I must say..the smell of blood was back in my nostrils...The hunt was on!!!

Sepia and I honeymooned in Atlantic City....and returned to Philadelphia two weeks later.. I had forgotten the mysterious pregnant woman, but she hadn't forgotten me...She came to my office on one of the rare days that I actually went to the office and place a towell on my desk.

"What? No Hello...No Intro?" I said.

"Who I am is not important, since I aint never gonna testify in no court..but what I brought you
might help you get Lennie for what he did to that girl." she said.

Under her towell was a bloody crowbar inside a plastic bag. I looked at it in amazement!

"That's the crowbar he beat that girl Tangi on the head with....It's got her blood and brain matter and his fingerprints." she said.

"What? Is this some trick or something...and how do you know this?" I asked.

"Because I was there when he did it...He had her up in his apartment giving him a blowjob that day and I walked in on them...I was furious..Here I was having this fool's baby, engaged to be married to him and he was still fooling around with Tangi...I threatened to leave him and he got up out of the bed and told me to stay, told that trick Tangi to get dressed and get out....Well, she didn't take too kindly to that and she cussed him out pretty bad...told him he wasn't even all that good in bed in the first place. Lennie didn't take too kindly to that ,so he slapped her and then he punched her...She hit him in the head with a vase...and before you know it..Lennie choked her...
I kept telling him to stop before he killed her, but he was in a rage. It looked like she was dead..
But after awhile, she started coughing...Then he took the crowbar and bashed her head in for good measure... He made me help him load the body into his Escalade and he had my brother take it up to the roof of your building and drop it.....so it would look like she jumped..You saw my
brother on that roof." she said.

" This is a wild story, but for the sake of an argument...say I believe you and I give this to the police...Why are you doing this? You're pregnant with his child...what is in this for you? "I asked.

"Me? Revenge...He done got some other girl pregnant....Tangi's girlfriend, can you believe this
guy? And he broke our engagement off...He told me that if I go to the police or say anything about this..He'll kill me and my brother. He doesn't know that I kept this crowbar for insurance, just in case he tried to hurt someone in my family or break our engagement off.

I was supposed to have discarded this crowbar. I didn't like Tangi...She was with my man and she knew he was my man, but I aint want her to die." she said.

"Alright...I'm gonna turn this into the police. What happens to you now?" I said.

"Me and my brother are going to leave Philly..We aint comin back here until Lennie is safe behind bars...That ought to be enough to put the kibosh on him." she said.

"Well, I guess I should thank you....but who are you? What's you name?" I asked.

"I'm not tellin you that...I gave you what you need...Now I'm out...Good luck Mr. Kevin." she said and she left.

I didn't try to follow her...this was too good to be true..After all these months..I had Lennie...He had been incredibly careless....A smart guy like that..I couldn't believe it.. Just then...my cell phone went off.

"Kevin Morris?" came the familiar voice of Lt. Sissy Van Buren of Philadelphia Homicide.

"Yes...that's me....I got something for you that may help you with an old investigation." I said.

"Really, because we got a break in the Tanginka Jones Murder....An anonymous tip just told us where the garage is that houses a 2008 ,Black Escalade that has blood,DNA and fingerprint evidence linking one Lennie Hughes to the murder....We just got a warrant for the garage and we
are going down there now..What did you have?" she said.

"I might just have the murder weapon." I said.

"Let me guess....a pregnant woman gave you this stuff right?" she said.

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Apparently, Mr. Hughes should have invested in some condoms...Our confidential informant is
telling us..that he has two women pregnant and they aren't too happy about it and even though they are afraid to testify , they apparently have enough knowledge of what he did to start talking." she laughed.

"You have got to be kidding me." I laughed..

"What did your pregnant girl look like? Tall, light skinned like a model?" she asked.

"No, this one was brown skinned, kind of thick." I said.

"Hmmm Mr. Lennie is quite the ladies man I suppose." she said.

"He's a cold blooded murderer, that's what he is..." I retorted.

"He's Trash...It's time to take out the trash, wouldn't you say Kevin" she said.

"Indeed it is...high time." I said.

(Conclusion Next- )

Nice Try

The police picked up Lennie on suspicion of Homicide. They grilled him for close to eight hours. They got nothing. He told them that he was "a self employed salesmen.(hair and grooming products)", that yes he indeed did know
Tanginka Jones and that he and she had a sexual relationship, but that it didn't go past that. He admitted to picking her up, but said he returned her to her house an hour after he picked her up and that he didn't see her after that. He stuck to that story and didn't change it. I sent a cash payment of his bail to a
Bail Bondsman and allowed him to be released.

Clerow and I sat in a rented car with tinted windows, so not to be seen and watched him as he was released from jail. He called someone on his cell phone and after about 45 minutes...somebody showed up in a Black Escalade and picked him up.

"What now boss man?" asked Clerow...

"We wait...We wait and we listen...We let Sepia do her thing." I said..not really feeling good about this at all.

A few nights later, Sepia and Lennie sat in a booth at Josie's Bar...She was wearing the tight, low cut dress and was attracting more male attention than she would have wanted.

"Girl, you causing traffic accidents with that dress...." said Lennie.

"What are you doin out of jail?" asked Sepia dryly...purely not impressed.

"Can't keep an innocent man in jail can you?" laughed Lennie.

"You? Innocent?? Hmmmph,that's a laugh?" said Sepia.

"How come you keep sweatin me like that? I tole you, I aint done nothin to
Tangi..."

"When you drove by my house the other day, what did you want with her?"
asked Sepia.

"Look...let's not bullshit each other...you know what I really do for a living??
Tangi worked for me...You think she could afford them fly clothes and that car she had by just doin hair and taking pictures for your boyfriend's magazine??
She had a package that I gave her that she was supposed to deliver, that's all.
My client called and tole me that he never got delivery...That could cost me future business...so I came and got Tangi...Then I took her to my spot and uh you know..exploited her a lil bit...Then I told her dumbass to get out and I went to sleep...and that's it..I aint never see her again." said Lennie.

"That what you told the cops?" asked Sepia.

"What you care what I tole the cops?" asked Lennie.

"I care about what happens to me if I decide to take you up on your offer." said
Sepia.

"heh-heh-heh...so you been thinkin bout it huh? Look, I know you just stay with that nigga Kevin, cause he let you stay in his crib...but I'll put you in a
condo baby...and I'll give you a car better than the one he sportin now. You'll be my number one." laughed Lennie.

"Your number one huh?" laughed Sepia.

Then Lennie smiled, he looked at Sepia funny, then he stuck his left hand over the table and grabbed her breast....she tried to slap his hand away..but he slapped her hard....

"Excuse YOU!!!" said Sepia, but Lennie reached over the table and pulled the carefully placed mini mike out from under Sepia's clothes......

"Heheheheheheheh...a mike ,huh? Tell your nigga Kevin, I said- Nice Try...
but he aint fixin to jam me up like that...tell him to come again.." said Lennie.

"Why don't you tell me yourself!" I said...

Lennie turned around , startled....before he could do anything , I grabbed him in his collar and slammed him against the wall....

"You ever put your hands on her again and I'll rip your little body in shreds" I said amazed at my sudden fury...

"You really sprung over this trick aint you playa?? It's kool..I aint gonna mess with her no more...you aint gotta worry bout that..being she was just playin me all along....We straight kool...You need to do like uh Beyonce said in that song and put a ring on that finger...cause YOU aint never gonna do no better
than what you got right there and that's the truth ruth." he said.

I put him down and I watched as he strutted out of the bar..Clerow and Gus walked over to me.

"Everything alright Kevin?" asked Gus.

"Yeah..it's all good." I said.

Sepia looked at me and managed a weak smile...

"I guess I messed up huh Kevin? I pressed him too hard too soon." she said.

"Ahh,don't worry about it..more than one way to skin a cat..we'll get him on
the comeback..You know he was right about one thing he said." I said.

"What's that?" asked Sepia...

"He said that I'm not going to do any better than you." I said.

"Awwww Kevin...that's so sweet, but considering it came from a rat like him
I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or not." she laughed.

"How long we been living together?" I asked her.

"I don't know...about a year or so..why?"

"It would be a lot easier on both our minds...if there was a Mrs. Morris living
in that house." I said.

"What are you saying Kevin?" asked Sepia...

"Marry me." I said.

(Yeah, you know this is To Be Continued.....)

The Pigeon

The phone rang at 1:30 am , Sepia motioned for me to turn on my recording equipment..It was him....

"Hello."

"Hey baby, it's me."

"What? , Who is this?" asked Sepia, pretending to be waking up.

"It's me, Lennie....is your man there?"

"Yes he is...so I can't talk to you right now...He's asleep."

"Why don't you slip outside ...I'm at the corner of your block, I want to holla at ya
for a minute."

"You crazy...I'm not dressed..I'm not coming outside...I gotta go...before Kevin wakes
up." she said.

"The hell with Kevin, why don't you drop that lame and come be wit me.?"

"Aint gonna happen playa." she said.

"Come on, drop that zero, get wit this hero...I like a woman like you, you got spunk."

"Oh really? How come you always call me at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning? , What do you think
I am a booty call?" she asked.

"hahahaha..I'd like some of that booty, I aint gon front..heh, heh,heh, but no love, this aint
no booty call...I just wanna holla at you..come on now..I'm at the corner of your block, put on somethin tight and sexy and come on down to the corner..Kevin aint gon wake up..nigga prolly snore don't he?"

"Tangi aint cold in the ground and you tryin to push up on me...you really somethin." said Sepia.

"Why you keep bringin her up? I told you that she wasn't nothin to me but somethin to do..
but you!!! a honey like you, I 'd make you my wifey ...gurllll..."

"Keep dreamin playa, I'll talk to you tomorrow." she said.

"Heyy , don't hang up love!!"

"Good night Lennie, gotta go." she said and she hung up.

I recorded the entire thing. Ever since we'd located Lennie, Sepia had been playing him. Letting him buy her dinner, drinks, etc. and even call her...I had about twenty recordings of their conversations and so far he hadn't said one thing to incriminate himself. He didn't even discuss on tape what he did for a living. He was a known drug dealor...but he always reffered to himself
as a "salesman" I was ready to junk these tapes and go down the street and beat Lennie to a pulp, not only for killing Tangi, which I was sure he did , but for trying to beat my time with my girlfriend.

Sepia could see that I was perturbed.

"Kevin...just a little while longer...I got this guy where I want him and I think I can get him to tell
me what he did with Tangi..but I can't appear to fall for him too easy...it's gotta be real."
she said.

"Yeah, well I could walk down the street right now and beat the crap out of him and that would be justice enough for Tangi...All the justice...she's gonna get..The Police have already ruled her
death a suicide." I said.

Sepia took my face into her hands and kissed me...

"We are gonna get him Kevin...I hate him as much as you do...we are gonna reel this pigeon in."
She said.

"Listen at you, trying to talk like a cop." I laughed...

She walked over to her closet and showed me a new dress...It was low cut and extra, extra tight.
,she had matching shoes and very sexy fishnet pantyhose to go with it. She showed me a matching, lace bra..that she also planned to wear the nexxt time she saw him.

"Just settin this pigeon up Kevin...I'm going to get him drunk, get him horny and get him to talking." laughed Sepia.

"Wow, in that dress, I'd confess to Tangi's murder if you asked me" I said.

Just then my cell phone rang...

I answered it.

"Kevin, this is Lt. Sissy Van Buren, Philly Homicide..I've got good news for you." she said.

"Oh yeah? So good that you call me at 1:45 am , this I gotta hear."

"We took another look at the autopsy findings and we've discovered that Tanginika Jones was
dead, hours before we found that body on the roof...and her injuries are consistant with blunt
force trauma...not associated with her fall...Her suicide has been upgraded to murder..You wanna tell me where this Lennie person is now..?" she said.

I smiled....

"I sure do..." I said.

(To Be Continued.....)

I Never Heard Her Scream

We stood somberly on the street outside of my job as they put Tangi's body into a green body
bag and then loaded it into the Coroner's van. Sepia was in tears...So was Sheila and Mabel Jenkins.. Mabel's sister, Cora-beth, Clerow's wife held her tightly as the tears streamed down her eyes..They all knew and loved Tangi. Sean, Clerow, Conrad and I stood there on the street, motionless and blank...We couldn't believe it...Nobody in the crowd could believe that Tangi ,who always had so much life was dead.

My old "friend" , Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Philadelphia Homicide and two homicide detectives was on the scene ,along with the Crime scene investigation team, surveying the area. I decided to walk over to her and tell her what I saw and heard.

"So you're saying you saw the body fly past your window?" said one of the Detectives.

"I did and I heard it crash....I looked in the direction it came and I saw , like a shadow...like somebody was definitely up there and they ducked away." I said.

"Are you sure Kevin?? Are you sure you saw somebody on the roof?" said Sissy Van-Buren.

"Yes ,I'm sure." I said.

"Male or female?" she asked.

"I couldn't tell from where my window was." I said.

"We are dusting for prints and we are checking all of the exits and we can't find any evidence
that anyone else was up there but her." said Sissy.

"So...This is another suicide right? She jumped." I said.

"All I'm saying is that we can't find any evidence of anyone else up there." said Sissy.

"You should talk to her boyfriend. His name is Lennie....He drove by my house and picked her
up earlier this afternoon...He seemed a little rough with her." I said.

"This Lennie, he got a last name? an address??" She said.

"I don't know his last name , nor do I know where he lives." I shrugged.

" Well Kevin....you've been a lot of help." said Sissy sarcastically.

"Look Ms. Van Buren....Give me a couple of hours...I'll find something for you,okay." I said.

"That's my job Kevin, don't take this "Crime solving Blogger" thing too serious..You aint even
a private dick...Let the Police handle this...They why they pay us the big bucks."She said and she and her detectives got in their cars and drove off... Slowly, everybody began to wander back into the building...Sepia and Clerow stood around me....

"What's on yo mind Kev?" asked Clerow...

"You know something Clerow?? I just remembered something....Most people scream when they
take a jump like that or even if they are pushed....I never heard her scream...I just heard a thump and saw that body go sailing past my window. I think this whole thing was staged..I think she was dead before she got to the roof." I said.

"You can't prove that Kevin and you don't know that." said Sepia.

"Tell me somethin Sepia...You knew her, you saw her, just like I did..hours ago...you think
she was the type to commit suicide??" I said.

"No..of course not..." said Sepia.

"What you sayin mane?" asked Clerow.

"Suppose that boyfriend of hers got a little too rough and he had an accident.. Well, if he
dropped her off our roof..It suddenly looks like a suicide ,doesn't it???"I said.

"Yeah mane, but how you gon prove that?"asked Clerow.

"I don't know...but I sure am gonna find that Lennie and ask him.....if it's the last thing I do."
I said.

"What you got planned boy?" laughed Clerow.

"Feel Like going for a ride Clerow??"

"You know I'm down wit'cha boy." he said.

"We are gonna look for this Lennie charactor." I said.

"Hold up Kevin...I think I know who can find him and I think if you let me tag along,
I can get the information you need out of him." said Sepia.

"You?? What makes you think you can get through to him?" I asked in wonderment.

"He thinks he's somewhat of a lover...He used to come into the hairdressers trying to flirt
with me...I never gave him the time of day...but perhaps I can use my feminine whiles and
get the information you need." she said.

I pondered it over for a minute...then I said-

"Okay....let's play it your way Sepia...get in the car..." I said.

"But we don't know where he is Kevin." said Clerow...

"Don't worry, I know someone who knows where we might find him." said Sepia.

I again pointed to my car....

"Lead the way babe." I said.

(To Be Continued.....)

The Girl On The Roof

ART: "Flight" By Suzie Hart Black

"Come on Kevin Tell meeee." she said.

"There's nothing to tell" I laughed as I finished washing and waxing my new BMW.

"Come on , what did you have on Rollie Rollerson that made him give you this nice
ride?" asked Tanginika Jones. Tanginika was a very young, but quite shapely model who was doing a photo shoot for the magazine I worked for..She was also, Sepia's hairdresser. She made

money, hand over foot doing hair in the community...and when she wasn't doing hair, she was modeling...nothing big yet..but you could look at her and see that she was a hustler...that she had

promise. She was so energetic and talkative that I liked her , even though initially I didn't want to. You couldn't help it..she just kind of grew on you. Not a day over 23, Dark brown skinned, with shapely hips and well developed legs. She had perfect teeth and a pretty smile that usually won you over before (if you were a guy) that body did.

"Who said Rollie Rollerson gave me this car?" I laughed, playfully tossing the suds at her.

" Stop it Kevin, you'll get my hair wet, you know I just had it done for the photo shoot tomorrow,
Sean Jackson will have a fit.......now come on...Everybody at Hype knows that he had you fired,
then the next thing you know..You workin again and now you got a brand new car that you couldn't have afforded otherwise." she laughed.

"Hollld up, slow up girl...get out of my pockets..how you know what I can afford?" I said.

"Come on Kevin...You're a writer...not a rapper or a Basketball player..I've seen your
little Hooptie..What is it...a 1996 Volvo?" she smirked.

"It's a 1998 Volvo, thank you." I said.

"Yeah, uh huh..Now you sportin a 2009 Aqua BMW, just like that...BAMMM!" she said.

I was about to spar with her some more , when Sepia came out of my house...

"Come on Tangi...stop bendin Kevin's ear and come on..we gotta get your dress fitted for
Sean's photo shoot... and we are going in my car..not Kevin's." she said.

"Nah Sepia..I wanna ride in Kevin's car." she teased.

Just as the playful banter continued, a Black Escalade pulled up in front of my house...The tinted
window lowered and the driver, A Short brown skinned guy, with a slight build and a bald head,
with a platinum stud in his ear looked at Tangi.

"Yo, wasn't you supposed to be doing something?" he snapped, not even acknowledging me or
Sepia. Tanginika looked like she'd seen a ghost.. Her playful nature shifted and all at once she seemed like a small child.

"Okay Lennie, I forgot.." she wimpered.

"You FORGOT, you always forgettin stuff that gotta do with me..get yo ass in the car." he
yelled.

"Lennie, I gotta get my dress for the photo shoot." she protested.

"What? Oh, so you gonna disrespect me in the street right?? Uhh huhh." he said.

"No, Lennie no..I..I.."she stammered.

"Get yo ass in this car." he said.

She looked at Sepia and said meekly- "I'm sorry girl, I'll hit you up later." She then got in the car with Lennie and they pulled off.

Sepia looked at me and said-

"Kevin, I don't like that guy...and I got a bad feelin about him."

"Yeah, me too." I said.

A few hours later, I was in my office at Hype Magazine, when my friend ,Sean Jackson dropped
in...

"You seen Tanginika Kevin?" he asked.

"A few hours ago." I said.

"She's late for the photo shoot." he said.

"Did you call her?" I asked.

"Yeah, I hit her cell phone and her Blackberry, nothing." said Sean.

Just then, I heard a loud thump....then I looked out my window and I saw to my astonishment
a huge figure go flying by and then I heard another loud thump on the adjoining roof right below
my office window. Everybody heard it...I heard a woman scream...

"OH MY GOD, there's a body on the roof below!!!OH MY GOD....DID SOMEBODY JUMP???"

I looked out my window and there did appear to be a body on the roof below...Then I looked up
and I could swear I saw a shadow or a figure move away from the roof above.

"Come on Sean, let's head up to the roof" I said.

"The roof? The body is down there man." Sean said.

"Can't do nothing for a dead person....I saw somebody on that roof...let's go." I said.

Sean and I ran upstairs to the roof only to see - Nothing!!

"You sure you saw somebody Kevin?" he asked.

"I know I did." I said. "Let's go downstairs, check on that body."

We made our way to the adjoining roof, several stories down and there , very,very dead was
Tanginika Jones!!!!!!

(To Be Continued......)