Dog Fight!

A few days later,I went to City Hall....I had heard that Mr. Barrington Covington had gotten married. Such a record is public and therefore could be found in City Hall in the records department. I had checked out his last three known addresses and had come up empty...He was no longer at any of them. I found the record of the marriage of Mr. Barrington Covington and a Freda Jackson Covington. It was dated June 30, 2006. There was a Fresh address that was different from the three that the FBI and the Police had in their files.

I rented a car from Enterprise and sat across the street from this address, drinking coffee and listening to the best of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles on CD for close to 90 minutes before I saw somebody emerge...It was a woman...a beautiful woman...brown skinned...perfect skin...voluptuous, nice legs, hips, breasts...perfect teeth...and beautiful locks......I didn't know this man, this Barrington Covington, but I dug his taste in women.

She got in a car, a 2010, Silver BMW with a sunroof top and drove off. I followed. She drove for what seemed like an hour and finnally pulled up at 'Smellys"...a dive of a bar. She had an envelope in her hand. I got out of my car and walked in the bar behind her.

They didn't call it "Smelly's " for nothing..It smelled like a combonation of sweat, urine and cigarettes...with a faint distant smell of marijuana peircing the air...I was wearing jeans, Nikes,
a leather jacket and a grey sweatshirt. I had on aviator shades to boot as well as my fully loaded
pistol inside my jacket.

I sat at the bar and ordered a corona. Most of the guys in here were ex-cons..most of the women were on break from the local strip club....just relaxing before they returned to giving guys lap dances and swinging on poles. The bartender...a rough and tumble guy named Nick smiled when he saw Mrs. Covington. I don't blame him...I was smiling myself.

"Here Nick..Barry says to put this away with the rest...after you take your cut." she said to the Bartender.

'Where is Barry? Haven't seen him around.." said Nick.

"He's around...He just took down a score...said he's going to take the Fatman down again tonight." she laughed..

"Again? He's robbed Fathead how many times now....three, four...pretty soon his luck is going
to run out and Fathead is going to set a trap for him." laughed Nick.

"A trap? Fathead is too stupid to set a trap for him..he's too busy getting lap dances and trying to take one of the girls home with him." she laughed.

"Okay, but Barry can only press his luck so many times." laughed Nick.

I wanted to warn Fathead...but I couldn't... didn't want to see this guy, Covington dead, not before I could get a good scope on him!

I got in my car and drove to the "Gentlemen's Club " that Fathead Newton liked to hang out in.
I sat and waited patiently as Jay-Z's 'Blueprint three played on my CD player...At around 1:00am, Fathead emerged from the club with a young lady....and like clockwork...A Tall light skinned man, with dreads and a toothy grin put a .45 to the back of his head......He had a British
accent!

"Give it up love...you know what time it is guvnor." It was Barrington Covington, the junkyard doggie. The young woman screamed and ran away from the two men...Barrington Covington just smiled..He had no interest in the woman...Fathead rasied both of his hands up in the air and sighed...He wasn't surprised at all...

"You again huh?" said Fathead...

"Sorry guvnor...but my cash flow was low and I needed the kind of cash that you normally party with..now let's get on with it love." he said.

"You know...robbin me aint the smartest thing for a guy like you to keep doing"
said Fathead.

"I don't see why not...it's been working for me pretty good guvnor..." laughed Barrington Covington.

Fathead laughed himself at that...then he seemed to look away, across the street.
I saw a figure in the shadows emerge...a hulking figure and at that point..I knew that this wasn't going to be good. I pulled my gun and readied myself..but something told me to sit tight...wait!

"Roscoe" said Fathead , who ducked between the cars....A tall ,well built Black man named Roscoe fired two shots at Barrington that just missed his head....Barrington pulled out a sawed off shotgun and let fly with a blast that took the windshield out of a parked car... Roscoe ducked
and came up shooting two silver plated .45's ...in sucession...Barrington let fly with another blast from his shotgun but he missed again...It was Roscoe's turn..He fired at Barrington and nearly hit him... For the first time, I saw fear in the stick up man's face...The Junkyard Dog thought better of continuing this gunfight, so he turned and ran...

Fathead got up from behind the cars and looked at Roscoe...

"Good job man....that slimy bastard will think twice before runnin up on me again." he said.

"You want me to go after him?" said Roscoe.

"Nah..he's gone and the cops are probably on their way...let's get the hell outta here." said Fathead as he and Roscoe hustled off down the streets. People began coming out and lights began coming on... A small crowd of people emerged on the streets...I used this time to pull off. I didn't want anyone to see me around there.

Knowing the code of the streets, I knew that a guy like Barrington sets up on a guy and parks his car two blocks away from the job he's going to do. I was right...He jumped in the waiting Silver BMW and took off....I followed them ,never letting them get more than three cars in front of me..They drove fast and weaved in and out of every little neighborhood they could, making sure that they didn't get followed...

They finnally pulled up in front of their house. The same one I had been in front of earlier in the day. They got out of the car and stood in front of their house...all the time, unaware that I was right across the street and a few houses down from them.

"What happened baby..I heard gunfire?" she said.

"Yeah..Ole Fathead had one of his henchmen laying for me...almost like he knew I was coming." said Barrington.

"He couldn't have known...Only Nick and I knew and we wouldn't have told him...You have robbed him at least three other times....How long you gonna keep doing this Barry? Until they kill you? " she said. I could see the love and the concern in her face.

"All I need is one big score love and you and I both can leave here..retire!"he said.

"You promise?" she said

"I promise love" he said and kissed her forehead... He grabbed her hand and the two went inside their house.

I could tell from the car ,the house and the neighborhood they lived in..that over the years, Mr. Covington had made quite a bit of money taking down scores and sticking up criminals...This tony neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia was a world away from the grimy streets of West ,North and South Philly where he plied his trade...He had no chance of ever being spotted by the people he robbed. They didn't come in this part of the city. Nobody had any idea that he
was married and that he lived like this... BUt even he had to know that all it took was one slip up, being seen by one person he didn't expect to see and it was all over. Just like I had found him..Someone else ,either lucky or determined could find him too. He had to know that!I had found them...All I had to do was call Eddie Gold and tell him where he was and my job was done!

So how come I couldn't make that call just yet?

(To be continued....)