Stormi

I walked into Mabel Jenkins Soul Food joint early one morning...I had my laptop with me and my Blackberry....Her restaraunt had just recently become wi-fi compatible. I looked around and I saw a lot of people waiting for their food and plugging in their laptops, as well as charging their cell phones... I smiled.. I sat down in the corner and plugged my Laptop in....I went to my Facebook page first, then switched to my twitter page... I checked on my blog and on some stories I was working on for the magazine...Then I checked my bank account....I had a few bills to pay that I had over looked, like my credit card and my car insurance... Anita and Cora-Beth, Clerow's wife and sister in law walked over to me...

"Hey Cousin Kevin." they laughed....

"Cousin? Nah...my wife is your cousin..." I laughed...remembering that my wife ,Sepia had just recently found out that her father was the half brother of their father, Willie "Sweet Dick" Jenkins.

"You're her husband, so that makes you family too...and as far as we are concerned...Your money is no good in here...You can have whatever you want on the house Kev." said Cora-beth.

"Oh yall don't have to do that...but uhhhhh, well if you insist" I said laughing...

"What are you havin Cousin in Law?" laughed Mabel......Their older sister and owner of the spot.

"I'll start with some coffee and some of your famous Blueberry Waffles Mabel." I laughed.

"Coming right up." she laughed...

I looked out of the window.....It had the feeling of this being a strange day...You see...the Sun was up...but a light rain was pouring....My father used to tell me that that meant the devil was beating his wife..

I ate, drank three cups of coffee and continued tapping on my laptop, when Ingrid Rhodes, the singer walked in. She looked a bit distraught and then she walked over to my table..

"Hi Kevin, How are you doing?" she asked me.....Judging by the way she asked me, I knew that something else was coming.

"I'm doing fine...How are you doing?" I said.

"I don't know....I don't know.....but I need you to do something for me.." she said. There it was, What I knew was coming and why I knew that this wasn't a normal day.

"Okay Ingrid." I said.

"I know that we don't reallyknow each other that well...but I've heard that you're the type of guy that can do people favors....favors the Police can't." she said.

"What kind of favor Ingrid?" I asked.

''My neice....My neice Stormi Jasper is missing."she said.

"Missing?" I asked.

"Well...She works at Victoria's Secret in the mall...by day....by night she's uh...ahhh..well, an exotic dancer over at Dirty Franks." she said rather embarrassed.

"You mean she's a stripper." I said.

"Okay,okay, she strips....but it's just temporary...She's really trying to be a model." she said.

I had heard this before....but I let her continue...

"She usually calls me two or three times a week...just to talk or to ask for money...I hadn't heard from her in over a month." she said.

"Yeah Ingrid, but you've been out of town doing gigs." I said.

"True...but she calls me even when I'm on the road." she said.

"Maybe she met somebody." I said.

"No Kevin..I think she's met with foul play." she said.

"How can you be sure? Why didn't you call the police?" I asked.

"I called her job and they said that they fired her for "abandonment of her job" , that she hasn't come in for two weeks....That's not like her....She wouldn't do that...I went by Dirty Franks and nobody there has seen her for a month. I called her land phone and both of her cell phones and I got nothing." she said.

"You been by her house?" I asked.

"Yes...It's all locked up...But her car is out front...." she said.

"Hmmmm....Okay, I'll look into it." I said.

"Oh thank you Kev...I can pay you.." she said.

''Well hold off on that...We'll see what we can find first." I said.

She showed me photographs of her neice. My goodness..She was only about 19 or 20, but was definitely built like a woman.....She was what Lionel Richie and the Commadores called a "Brickhouse", a very attractive young lady...I certainly hoped that she was alive and just with some guy.

I got Clerow and Lockpick Johnson and the three of us stopped by the Victoria's Secret where she had been working. I showed her co-workers photos of her. They all knew her and said she was a very good worker, but that she had gone to lunch on the last day they saw her and never returned..

I asked if she was with anyone....Nobody seemed to remember anyone being with her, but one lady told me that there was a creepy guy that came by asking about her about two days before she was last seen. They described him as being African American, tall, skinny, brown skinned and wearing a hoodie and jeans.. Great, that could be about 5000 guys in Philly at any given time.

Next up...We went to the strip club, Dirty Franks.....A dive if ever there was one...Sitting at a table in the back and trying to look inconspicuous was West Philly Kingpin, Fathead Newton....I walked over to his table..

"Fancy meeting you here." I smiled.

" Come on Kevin...What's goin on?" he said...

"I'm trying to find a girl." I said.

"Well there's plenty here....Aint you married? and to a stone cold fox at that? " he said.

"It's not like that Fathead...Here's a photo of her...you seen her?" I asked.

"Ohhh yeah...That's Stormi...Haven't seen her in here though in a minute." he said.

Fathead then called one of his boys over and said -"Get Dirty Frankie out here...."

"Thanks Fathead." I said.

"Don't mention it Kev." he said.

Dirty Frank came out...Despite his nickname...He was quite immaculate in his dress, quite dapper.. I showed him the photo and he sighed..

"One of my best girls...She just stopped comin...I aint seen her in a month..." he said.

"Anybody hasslin her? Givin her a hard time?" I asked.

"Nah..not in here...everybody loved her." he said.

With that..The three of us left.

"Where to now boss?" said Clerow , who was driving..

"That's why I brought Lockpick Johnson along...We are going to her house..here's the address." I said.

Within an hour...We were at the house. It took Lockpick Johnson no time at all to get us inside...and once inside....the odor knocked us out...

"Whoaaaaa....man it smells like death in heah." said Clerow....

"That's just what it smells like." I said...

"Good lord." said Lockpick Johnson...

"Cover your noses and come on ." I said.

Her car had been parked outside the house...Her car keys were on the couch...Her wallet was on the kitchen table...I put on a pair of latex gloves...I instructed Lockpick Johnson and Clerow not to touch anything...I opened up her wallet..All of her credit cards were there as well as $500.00 in cash.

We walked up the stairs into her hallway and the smell was even sronger...and dried blood was running down the hall....Her bedroom door was cracked...I pushed the door open and there lying on the floor in some white sheer bikini panties and a matching white sheer bra was Stormi Jasper..She had a nice neat bullet hole in her forehead......there was an unused condom lying next to her...Just what had we stumbled into???

We immediately left the house and locked it back up....I made an anonymous call to the police and then after cutting Clerow and Lockpick loose having the very sad job of having to tell Ingrid that her neice was dead!

"Dead? Oh my god....and murdered?? Who would do that Kevin and why?" she asked in between sobbing.

"That's what I plan on finding out." I said.

(To Be Continued....)