In The Devil's Lair

Another Day went by and still no sighting of Trumpet Player, Reed Nelson...People were beginning to ask about him and worry... "88" and the guys in the band were particularly worried...They had a tour coming up in about a week. Deborah was distraught...It was as if she already believed him to be dead.

I started re-creating his last known moments. He had stayed with Deborah and had left her house in the morning..Several neighbors had seen him getting in his car and driving away. He probably was tired ,which was why he didn't stop at Sam Mother's spot to eat ,like he usually would have..
Two of his neighbors said that they saw two men in a Black Jeep Cherokee pull up behind his car that morning.. One neighbor said that he heard a loud , yelling and screaming type argument and then silence...Nobody remembered seeing or hearing the car pull off or seeing Reed leave his place and yet...He was gone and his place looked as though he had just left suddenly.

Then I remembered that a player named Eddie Manga had been looking for him...There was a phone call from him delivered after midnight....He probably didn't pick up...He wasn't home..and then either Sam Mother or Joe Neptune had said that Eddie Manga had come around looking for Reed... Had to go pay this Manga fellow a visit. Had to find out either where he laid his head at night or where he hung out....One person for sure would know!

"Ohhh Kevin, you know how to find the most dangerous guys to ask after don't you?" said Gus, the bartender at Josie's.

"Oh so this is a rough charactor huh?" I laughed.

"Indeed...Eddie Manga has been around awhile...He's a juice man...He's got money on the streets and a crew of leg breakers to enforce his "laws"....He's what I call a very nasty piece of business..
I told Reed not to fool with him when he come in here...but Reed love them damn horses and was
always puttin down bets....I tried to warn him?" said Gus.

"So Manga was in here?" I asked..

"Yeah..the night before Reed went missin....They had a big argument about somethin....Eddie got up and left though...." said Gus.

"I need his address Gus.." I said.

"Okay..but take some back up with you Kevin...I'm serious." he said.

"I will" I lied.

I didn't have time to find Clerow and Sean was probably out with Sheila.....and time being of the essence, I got in my car and drove to the ratty little gymnasium, with an office on top of it, where
Eddie Manga was known to be during the day.

The place smelled like sweat and generations of urine...and it looked even worse..like something out of the movies....Either this guy was using this as a front to throw off suspicion or he wasn't yet the player he aspired to be.

I walked into his "office", which wasn't much of anything and saw him sitting down behind a desk. A skinny little guy with a pencil thin mustache and brown skin the color of a paper bag. he was nattily dressed and was smoking a smelly cigar.

"Who the hell are you?" he said.

'Who I am is not important...who I'm looking for is more important....Reed Nelson!! The name ring a bell?" I said.

"Rock, Muhammad, Ralph....take this jamolk out of here and teach him some damn manners." snapped Eddie Manga without giving me a second glance.... Three guys seemingly appeared out of nowhere and rushed towards me... I had been taking kickboxing lessons for a few months now at one of Chess and Chris's gyms....Time to see if the lessons were any good.

I landed a nice well placed kick in the first guy's solar plexus and then spun around and threw a side kick to his jaw which sent him flying....The second guy grabbed me and threw me up against the wall...I kneed him in his groin and landed a left to his jaw and a roundhouse right to his temple which sent him to the floor...The third guy didn't get a punch off...I hit him in his stomach
and then countered with another well placed kick which sent him into the wall and then to the floor.

Eddie Manga went to go in a drawer, probably to grab a gun, but I slammed the drawer on his hand which made him groan with pain and put my .45 to his nose, which made him sit down and
pipe down...

"Now...As I was saying....Reed Nelson??" I said.

"Uggggghhhhh....I aint tellin you nothin and if you was gonna kill me, you woulda done it already.. you apparently don't know who you dealin wit nigga.." He groaned... I hit him over the head with the butt of my pistol...

"You don't either and if I find out you hurt my friend or had anything to do with him missing..I'm coming back ...Feel me?" I said.

"Screw you...You're a dead man...whoever you are...wait til I find out who you are...And I will nigga, I got ways...uhhhhhh..." he groaned...

"Nice meetin ya...Hope we can meet under , uh more auspicious terms next time.....I'll let myself
out." I said as I left his gym with my gun drawn as his goons began to get up off the floor.

I sat in my car, a block away from his gym and watched as two of the guys I had just beaten
up came running out....They looked around and then got in their car and pulled off...I followed them...I knew where they were going....The Mermaid Club.

I stood outside and heard Joe Neptune yelling-

"Heyy, don't tear up my joint....cut it out...He's over there...come on guys....cool it."

I walked in behind them to see them roughing up Symphony Sam...

"I didn't say nothin....ouuuu....I swear, I didn't tell nobody nothin ummmmmph......ouch...."


"That's right guys...he didn't say nothing.." I said....

They spun around with guns drawn.....I fired and one guy grabbed his shoulder and let out a yell,
before hitting the ground...The other guy just stood there.....

"Drop your heater....Drop it or you're next...." I said....

When he failed to move quick enough,I shot him in the foot....He fell down and tossed his gun.

I grabbed Symphony Sam and pulled him out of the bar with me...The Police would clean these two thugs up...I'm sure they had records and with the guns they had on them...It didn't take a genius to know that they would have a lot of explaining to do. Joe Neptune would be too afraid to implicate me as their shooter...He would "know nothing"

I took Symphony Sam out to my car and cocked my gun and put it to his temple....I hated doing this to him....I had nothing against him, but time was of the essence.

"REED NELSON...IS HE DEAD?" I asked.

"No...not yet..." said Symphony Sam...

"What is this about?" I asked.

"Man, Eddie Manga was in Josie's and he tried to put the moves on Deborah..Well you know how Reed is about what's his....Even though Debbie had already rebuffed Eddie..Reed Stepped to him.
I told Reed to just let it go..that he didn't want to be goin chest up with Manga, but Reed stepped to him anyway,,He said that Eddie had seen him with Debbie all night and that he was being dis respectful." said Symphony Sam.

"So this is about Reed disrespecting him, right?" I asked.

"Yeah...Eddie didn't like being challenged , especially in front of some women... He came in Josie's and demanded that Reed apologize to him and Reed told him that he should be apologizing to him for dis resecting him. He didn't like that so I guess he had his guys snatch Reed." said Symphony Sam.

"Where they got him?" I said.

"That,I don't know...but he's as good as gone man....I'm sorry,I didn't mean for it to come to this." he said, almost crying... I took the gun off of him....I opened my car door and let him go.

"Sam, lay low man...stay out of sight until this is over.."

"Kevin, what you gonna do? " he asked.

"I'm going to try and find Reed....." I said.

(To Be Continued....)