The Face Of Evil

You would think that "The Bottom of The C.", Dollar Bill's Seafood Bar and Grill would be the last place that Sepia and I would go for dinner considering all of the mess we had just been in with the Ralph Scallion poisoning case...but here we were one night in the middle of the week that neither of us felt like cooking...Dressed like two African-American professionals that we were ,sitting at a table in the back with our laptops plugged in to the side of the wall.. We were both paying our bills on line and checking our accounts.... We were both drinking Long Island Ice teas and waiting for our meal to come...

I didn't notice him at first....He was brown skinned and tall, slender with a grey pinstriped suit on, white shirt and a very nice tie and very expensive shoes...Very immaculately dressed. Clean faced...Not a trace of hair anywhere on this man's face...and a short neatly cropped haircut. He had a big thick necked guy with him who was dark skinned and had a bald head.. They looked around for a few minutes, then like radar..They zeroed in on our table and just boldly walked over and sat down at the table with Sepia and I.



''Well Guys if I had known we were going to a party , I would have certainly dressed better." I said. I thought of Gus and how he used to look at me and go -"Always the smart alec!" and I smiled to myself. My wife Sepia looked a bit confused.




"Are you Kevin? Kevin Morris?" the tall slender man asked.


"Who wants to know?" I asked.

"Hey don't get smart ...the man asked you a question." said his thick necked associate. I turned and looked at him and smiled.

"Excuse me...I hear noise....but I don't see nothing." I said.

The big guy lunged at me...but I moved faster...I pulled his arm towards me and punched him hard two times in his rib cage...then I clocked him so hard that he fell into the next table and knocked over two chairs before he hit the ground with a splat...He attempted to get up...but fell back down...out for the night.... Dollar Bill and Ralph Scallion and another guy came running over to the table....The customers were all looking at us...The tall thin man looked at his unconscious partner and had a frown of disgust!


"Heyyy...Kevin...is everything alright...you want me to call the police?" asked Dollar Bil

"Nah...Nooo...it's cool...the big fella over there's food didn't agree with him...He was choking..I uh just helped him out...He'll be alright ..." I said with a wink.


"Listen....I have a business proposition for you...I'm sorry about uh Nigel over there....You know how it is with young people...sometimes they uh don't act with the greatest discretion." the thin man said.

"I'm sure you'll explain that to Nigel when he wakes up." I said.

"Well uh..ruh..before we can uh discuss this business...you're gonna have to lose the skirt." he said motioning at Sepia.

"Say What??" said my wife now totally annoyed.


"You know what man? First off...that "skirt" is my wife...and she's staying..second..you were just leaving weren't you?" I said.

"Hold up..Hold up...My sincere apologies to your missus....we got off on the wrong foot here..Listen.....My name is Arthur ..Arthur Conley...I'm from out of New York City...I'm an Attorney...The man I represent is looking for two guys..Two guys from Philly....I'm willing to pay you 60 G's a peice for their location..." he said.

"120G's for the location of two guys? You just want me to find them?" I asked.


"That's it..tell me where they are...and I'll pay you.." he said. He passed me a business card that had his photo on it and an address in Mid-Mahattan.


"Say I find these guys..then what?" I said.


"Then you pick up your money and you mind your business that's what...It's no longer your concern..The man I represent has been looking for these guys for a longgg time." he said


"You got photos of these guys? Names?? " I said.


"That's all I have...." he said and he passed me two photos of two Black men who looked to be around my age. "This one is Fred Parker....The other one is Alvin Hunter." he said.

"How did you find me?" I asked.

"I asked around about people who were good at finding people and doing favors....favors that the cops can't do...Your name came up quite a few times..." he said.

He pulled out $200.00 and put it in Sepia's hands....

"This is for you pretty lady, sorry about the trouble we caused...This should cover your meal." he said..Then he pulled out two peices of paper...


"This is my cell phone number....and this is where we are staying in Philadelphia....I need a number I can reach you at." he said.


I gave him my Blackberry number...By now , Nigel was waking up and getting up off of the floor. The tall thin man was straightening out his clothes....His lip was swollen and bleeding a little bit..He frowned and looked at me -


"Hard to find good help now of days......Keep the photos...Find those two mopes and give me a call..It'll definitely be worth your while." He said , and just like that..the two of them were gone.

"You gonna take this case Kevin?" asked Sepia with some concern.

"Yeah...it's easy money...12o grand and all I have to do is locate some people." I said.
"Well Kevin..He said he was a lawyer...but he didn't look, talk or have the demeaner of a lawyer. I'm from West Orange ,New Jersey....but I know a gangster when I see one." said Sepia.


She was right...I had made the same observation....Since when did lawyers run around with muscle like Nigel? Nigel was a stone cold gangster...no doubt about that.

"Damn Kevin...you laid that cat out...I didn't know you could fight like that." said Dollar Bill who had walked up to us.


"I used to box when I was in the service." I said, Which was true....I boxed for four years and a little bit when I got out of the service...but I gave it up....College sounded better and felt better.

"Who was them guys?" asked Dollar Bill.

"Trouble" said my wife.


She was right...Mr. Arthur Conley was as evil a man as I'd ever met!

(To Be Continued...)