Hole in The Head

ART: "Defender" By Laurie Cooper

He sat up by the alley wall with a nice neat hole in the middle of his forehead.....a small puddle of blood had poured down his shoulder and had settled in a puddle right next to him. If you took the blood out of the picture..he looked like he was just sleeping on the street. "He" was 34 year old "Sloppy" Joe Prescott, a noted Drug Trafficer......He apparently challenged the supremacy of Philadelphia's resident kingpin ,Fathead Newton and he paid the price...Lucky for me...He paid MY price before Fathead Newton's hitter gave him an appointment with Satan. Me?, I'm Robert Foxworth, Attorney at Law....Sloppy Joe was my client.

I had just set up my office in West Philadelphia with a loan from my landlord, Chess and Joe was one of my first clients. Chess and his buddy, the former kingpin, Chris Thompson had advised me against representing clients like "Sloppy " Joe..but he had the kind of cash that would help me repay my loan to them a little quicker. Chess seems like a nice enough guy..but that Chris Thompson, reformed drug dealer or not scares the hell out of me...I wanted to make sure that I
repaid my loan to Chess.

The cops drew a chalk line around "Sloppy"Joe's body and detectives crowded around the scene
taking photos and looking for spent shells...He had been shot seven times..I guess they wanted to make sure he was dead. I looked at a distance and there she was...my first wife....I should've figured she would be on the scene..This was her thing..Homicide...She is a Lieutenant of the Homicide division of the Philadelphia Police Department. Sissy Van Buren. She went back to her
maiden name. She was Sissy Foxworth for 17 years of marriage.

'Hello Sissy...How long has it been?" I said as I walked over to her. She was light brown skinned with long pretty hair and a killer body still after all of this time...and legs to die for..

"Robert...How are you doing ?" she said with a half smile.

"I'm doing ...well...I'm just doing." I said.

"What brings you to this part of town? Slumming? " she asked, still with a smile and a gleam in those Hazel eyes of hers.

"Your dead guy is my client and I call this part of town home now." I said.

"West Philly? I thought you were living high on the hog with some young girl in Chestnut Hill."
she said.

"That young girl was my second wife, Corrine.........We are uh...ruh...divorced." I said.

"Divorced....Still can't keep it in your pants huh Robert? Don't tell me..let me guess...You couldn't keep it out of Cindy Waters right?" she said.

"It was a different one this time...Sissy..It was one of my clients.....I lost my job, Corrine left me,
took damn near everything. I live in some nice apartments here and I have a small practice
with two other lawyers here in West Philly." I said.

"Wow, you fell hard Robby.....How did Corrine find out ?" she asked.

"You'll love this Sissy, Cindy bugged my office and sent her a DVD. Sent one to my partners too.
It was a slam dunk." I laughed.

Sissy Laughed until her sides hurt....I suppose she deserved some of that...for what I had done to her. I knew that she didn't like Cindy much either.

"I'm sorry Robert....I know it's not funny, it's just that I never in a million years imagined something like that happening to you....hahahahahahahaha.." she said.

"Well guess what? I still aint with Cindy...She thought I was just gonna jump in her arms
after she did all of that..I told her to hit the bricks." I said with false pride.

"Well good for you Robby." she said.

"Sissy?" I asked.

"What Robby."

"It's been a long time..Would you have lunch with me?" I asked...

"I'm working a murder here." she said.

"Oh come on....you know Fathead Newton's people done this and you know that they aint gonna
talk to you and aint nobody around here gonna tell you nothin ,cause aint nobody seen nothin."
I said.

"Don't be so sure...I'm tired of this crap...I'm going to work this case and I'm going to catch this killer." she snapped.

"Okay Sissy...it was nice seeing you again." I said.

"Wait a minute Robert...You asked me to have lunch with you...I didn't say that I wouldn't."
she said.

My eyes lit up.........

Poor Sloppy Joe's body still laid there by the corner, with the neat hole in his head.......


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