Nowhere Dangerous

Clerow and I sat in Josies a few nights later drinking beers and listening to Reed Nelson ,88 and the band play a few sets..

"Bonita came home today." I said.

"Yeah? that's great..I know Robert Foxworth is happy." said Clerow.

"Oh I'm sure he is....He's happier still that Ralph Scallion is in the cooler." I said.

"You still don't think he is the killer huh Kev?" said Clerow.

''No...I don't... Say Clerow....You were there that night, in the restaraunt...Tell me what happened...where you and Corrie were sitting..What you saw.." I asked.

"Well Kev, it was like this..Corrie and I were out all day...in all of the commotion, I guess I forgot to tell you that she's pregnant again..." said Clerow.

"WHAT??? You're going to be a dad again....Oh man...this is great !!" I said.

"Yeah, hopefully this is a boy..." laughed Clerow.

"Wow...Imagine that!" I said, happy for him, sorry to have him running the streets with me almost getting him killed.

"Anyway, we had been out all day, celebratin you know? And we rolled up in Bottom of the C kind of late....But after I told Dollar Bill my good news he said...okay, yall are my absolute last customers.....Bonita was sitting two tables away from us by herself....I guess she was waiting for

Ralph Scallion to get off.....That uh other cook...The cat from Guyanna...Domingo..Domingus, yeah him..He come over to the table and he said something to Bonita...I guess he was making small talk...He looked like he was trying to make time... She laughed and kind of blew him off and he stormed into the kitchen...About a half hour later, Robert came out with a bowl of that Lobster Bisque that everybody be talkin about is so good..He had Crabcakes for himself...I guess he was tired of it....That guy, Jack Gable was at the table on the side of us and he remarked that the Bisque sure smelled good.....Well Ralph asked him if he wanted to try some...That he had a little left and he went in the kitchen and brought Jack Gable another bowl of it.....Jack and Bonita ate the soup and the next thing I know...Jacks eyes looked like they were rolling into the back of his head..He grabbed his chest and he fell over.....Bonita did the same thing...Only she through up all over the place and then passed out....That's when I called you!." said Clerow.

"Okay.....That's all I wanted to know." I said. I tossed twenty dollars down on the counter and got up...

''Hey boss, where we off to?"said Clerow.

"Nowhere dangerous...You can sit this one out Clerow...I'm just going to see Bonita and then I'm callin it a night. You should go home...Be with Corrie.." I said and patted my good friend on the back.

"Be Easy Boss." said Clerow as I left the bar.

I called Bonita and she said that it was alright for me to come over..She and Robert had just come back from the movies.. Lucky for me..She was at Robert's place and not at her home in New Jersey.

Robert was a lot more his old self than he had been the past few weeks..He was happier....He offered me a beer and the three of us sat down in his living room.

"Bonita..I wanted to ask you some questions....Not about that night but before...Had anything unusual happened before that night? Anything?" I asked.

"Well, I got a couple of calls....nobody would say anything , they'd just breathe..I'd say who is it , but they would just breathe and hang up...I tried to star sixty nine the calls..but I couldn't do it.

I think they called from a phone booth...I didn't recognize the number... I actually thought it was Robert.." she said with a devilish laugh...Robert laughed too.

"How about the other cook there...Domingus..He's from Guyanna right?" I asked.

"I think he has a crush on me...He was very flirty....even though he saw me with Ralph...He would ask me to go out with him....I told him I was seeing Ralph..He told me that Ralph was a playboy....He told me that Ralph was sleeping with that Chinese girl, Suzie Wong...And he told me that Ralph and Dollar Bill's wife had something going on too...I told him that he shouldn't gossip and he kind of got mad and stormed off. You know what's funny?" said Bonita.

"What?" I asked.

"I was actually there that night to break it off with Ralph....I was at the Hair dressers and I overheard Reed Nelson's girlfriend, Debbie telling her sister that Ralph calls her , begging her to come over and have sex with him and that she wasn't going to do it...She said she was sorry she did it that one time...because he called her at least once a week...Well, that was it...I decided that I didn't want to be wasting my time with him anymore...and then I got sick...Now he's in jail...."

she said.

"Yes..About that cook, Domingus....He ever ask you for your phone number?" I asked.

"Yeah...a couple of times...I always refused him....He asked me to go out that very night...I told him that I wasn't interested in dating anymore cooks...He got kind of steamed then and stormed into the kitchen...He 's too hot tempered for me." she said.

"Okay...well that's all I wanted to know..I'm not going to take up any more of your time...Robert, Bonita...Take care.. and get well Bonita." I said.

"Thank You Kevin...Thanks for everything..Tell Sepia I'll see her soon." said Bonita.

''Take it easy Kev."said Robert as I walked out the door and got in my car.

I drove by Dr. Farber's house next-

"Yes Kevin....That poison is made from a leaf that grows specifically in Guyanna....Nowhere else.

This chemical is banned by the U.N. It's considered a weapon of mass destruction..." he said.

"But someone from there could get it on the Black Market easily right?" I asked.

"Oh yes...I suppose that's possible." he said.

'Thanks Doc." I said.

I drove to 'Bottom of the C' and sat outside with my tinted windows up and the lights low...I watched Dollar Bill and his wife standing in an alley way ,making out like two teenagers...

"Ohhhhhh..Ohhhhhhhh..ouuuuuuuuuu.....oh Dollar Bill let's take this home, you've got me all charged up...ohhhhhhhhhhh..." she moaned....

He had his hand up her dress and she had her hands in his pants...

"Ohhhhhhhh, I won't make it home woman...ouuuuuuuuuu..." he moaned.

Then I saw Domingus leaving ..He heard the two of them...He looked even more disgusted...He stomped his foot and walked over to his car....

"SOM OVA Beetch" he muttered.....and there it was!!!!! The voice from the night before...It was him!!!!! Now I knew who my killer was....The only thing was ...How do I catch him?

(Conclusion Next!)