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.....)