Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The One Way Ride


Kool Kat ,Big Al and I drove up to Pop Tooley's bar the next night....It was packed...Riff Raff and good citizen alike was drinking, talking loud and having a great time...The juke box was jumping and some people were two stepping, some were bopping and others were just flat out drunk...Just like Josies in Philly on any given night...In the crowd...Nobody noticed the three of us.....

"That's where it happened." said Big Al pointing to the middle stool where Snookie got shot in the head point blank.

''Right here? In a crowded bar?? And there were only three eyewitnesses?" I said.

"It was on a Sunday Morning....Nobody was in here....Pop and Snookie were probably counting the money from the Saturday night take..." said Big Al.

"Then how did Sonny Stein see it?" asked Kool Kat.

We walked outside...and across the street and catty cornered from the bar sat Sonny Stein's storefront... We could see him inside waiting on customers. I walked inside his store and looked around...I bought a Coke and some gum....From where I was standing...There was no way Sonny Stein or anybody else could have seen anything from his store...Assuming he was even in his store at 9:00 am on a Sunday Morning.

Earlier that day, Kool Kat and I had went door to door talking to the neighbors and people on the street...They all told the same story.. Sonny Stein didn't open on Sunday until 12:00 noon...and on the Sunday that Snookie got shot ...nobody heard anything. He was obviously lying...There was no way he could have witnessed anything from where his storefront stood and he had no good reason to be up or in that bar at 9:00 am in the morning.

I walked over to him after the last customer left his storefront and smiled...Then I shook his hand and did not let it go.

''Mr. Stein...Mr. Stein...Could I have a moment of your time?" I laughed...still smiling. The thought of a Black man with the last name Stein amused me to no end. He tried to wrench his hand free, but I held on tighter..

"Hey man, do I know you?" he said.

I squeezed his hand tighter...

"Owwww..that hurts.." he said.

"I'd like to have a word with you...Are you closed?" I asked.

"Nah, not for an hour..." he said.

"You're closing early tonight." I said.

"What? No I'm not and I aint got nothin to say to you."he said.

"Oh I INSIST!" I said and I stuck my .38 smokeless in his ribs.

"Aww man you makin a mistake...apparently you don't know that I'm connected...Little Anthony will kill you man for stickin up this store." he laughed.

"I don't care about Little Anthony and I'm not stickin up your store...Now I'm asking you one last time...Close up and let's go." I said.

He did as he was told and he walked out into the street and got into the car.. Sitting next to him was a frightened Pop Tooley...Apparently Big Al and Kool Kat had had the same "talk" with him.
Big Al was driving and I was riding shotgun...Kool Kat sat in the back with the both of them ,silent and without an expression on his face.

"Big Al....man, you in a world of trouble....Little Anthony is already lookin for you." said Pop Tooley.

"Shut up..Do I look like I give a merry damn? You better be worried about yo self you lyin sack of crap." he spat...

"Aww, man, you gon get it....you just don't know how much trouble you is in." retorted Sonny Stein.

I looked at him and smiled.....

"Consider how much trouble you two are going to be in when Tulip gets out of jail...."

They both got silent.

We drove to an isolated shack out near the Airport...We hearded both men in and made them sit down.

"Okay gentlemen...I'm not going to waste anytime.....You both lied about Tulip killing Snookie..I know it, you know it and my two friends here know it...So let's cut the crap...Here's the deal...You both are going to go to the Assistant District Attorney tomorrow and change your story...You might even try telling the truth....That the hitman known as "Hell" and his partner "Angel" killed
Snookie and told you to say that it was Tulip...I don't care...but you're going to change your story and we are going to be watching you...We are going to be watching your house...Try to get cute and the consequences are not going to be so nice for you." I said....I couldn't believe that I was talking like this to them...I sounded like a criminal....Maybe I was...

Their eyes got wide...They looked at Kool Kat who was pulling out gardening tools , electrical wires and a huge battery as well as a shotgun , a .345 magnum and a Glock and throwing them on the table with a large thump.. and Big Al , who was slamming his fist against the plaster and knocking it loose and then me, who kept smiling and it wasn't hard for them to get the message.

"Okay...what about us? Little Anthony will kill us?" said Sonny Stein.

"You got any people out of town?" I asked.

"I got some folks in Patterson and some in Brooklyn" said Sonny.

"I got some folks in Philly." said Pop Tooley.

"Cool beans...I'll have train tickets for the both of you tomorrow...Pack some bags and spend a little time with your folks elsewhere...Read the newspapers...When the coast is clear...and it will be, you can come on back." I said.

"What About Little Anthony?" said Pop.

"He won't be around much longer to bother you." I said.

"Huh?" asked Sonny.

"I'd bet money on it." said Kool Kat patting his shotgun and laughing.

They clearly feared him more than they did Little Anthony at the moment. The next day, like clockwork...both men appeared at the ADA's office and changed their statements...They said that they had been intimidated by one Little Anthony Williams to say that it was Tulip who had killed
Snookie when it was clearly two men who they had never seen before.. As promised, I gave them
one way train tickets to Brooklyn and Philadelphia respectively!

The third eye witness unfortunately was a man named Jupiter Davis...A drug addict that had a list of arrests that dated back to 1976....He was so frightened when he heard that Sonny Stein and Pop Tooley had changed their stories and then vanished that he hung himself!!!

When Kool Kat, Big Al and I got to his apartment.... We found him hanging....

"Well....we don't have to worry about him testifying." said Kool Kat as the three of us left. Also that day, the police arrested Little Anthony Williams for witness intimidation and obstruction of justice and released Tulip from the detention center.

We all celebrated at one of Tulip's bars....

"Kevin...I don't know how to thank you...I don't know what you did...but it sure feels good to be out of the slams..." said the little gangster..

"You're quite welcome.....but you still got a problem." I said.

"What problem?" laughed Tulip..

"Little Anthony has probably made bail already....His little frame up has fallen apart...so my guess is...he's going to come at you more direct....." I said.

"Oh yeah....His boy, "Hell" is probably on the move as we speak." said Tulip.

"So you guys had better lay low." said Kool Kat.

"You're right man...thanks....Has anybody seen Big Al?" asked Tulip.

"He said he was going to the seafood store to get some fried fish." said one of Tulip's boys.

EPILOUGE:

That night, as Big Al was coming out of the Fish store....A tall dark skinned man got out of a car....
Big Al heard him walking behind him....He dropped his bag and pulled out his glock and spun around...He didn't get one shot off... "Hell" fired six shots...Three hit him in the chest ,one hit him in the forehead and the other hit him in his knee cap....Big Al fell to the ground, dead as could be... The tall dark skinned man laughed a deep ugly laugh...

"Heh...heh...Heh....Tell your boss, HELL is coming!...Oh..guess you can't tell him nothin....Well, he'll find out soon enough...heh heh, heh..."

(Definitely To Be Continued........)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice cliff hanger....

Grover Tha Playboy said...

Damnnnn,I didn't see that coming...

Anonymous said...

I liked that dude.

SLC

from phone