The Devil Is In The Details

The next day, I went back to the shopping center and questioned everybody who had a business in there and everybody who I thought I saw in there during the time I was there with Sepia. I went to Josies and the Mermaid Club and talked to a number of people about Beverly and Velma and Willie Parmenter....

Like Gus told me...No matter what happens, there is always somebody who knows something or saw something and is willing to talk about it. First off....That Bel Air belonged to Willie Parmenter, a local guy who was a regular in Josie's. He was married...So if he was in that car with Velma...He was probably on his lunch break from his job at Phil's Lumber and was just having a "nooner" with Velma , Who he had been hitting on at Josie's for months.

I went to his job and not to my surprise, Willie had not been seen or heard from since lunchtime the day before. Willie's wife told me that he didn't come home that night.... I didn't tell her that I had seen him at lunch in a car with another woman...I simply gave her my card and told her to tell him to call me when or if he appeared. By now...I was certain that he wasn't going to appear.
Whoever had snatched Velma had probably done away with him too! Thing was...Velma had been found in the river...Where was Willie?

Beverly had had several gentleman callers, according to her neighbors... She didn't appear to be employed anywhere, yet her small apartment had modern and expensive furniture...She had a closet full of nice clothes and from what I looked up at city records with Robert Foxworth's help...She wasn't behind in any bills.. My guess is...While Beverly was not a prostitute...She was being helped out financially by her many suitors for a price of course....That price being...some good loving. A Plumber, A Carpenter, The guy from the Supermarket, an Electrican and Dollar Bill had all visited with her in the past month...I talked to all of them...All of their stories checked out. They all reported seeing a Black Hearse pulling off, just as they were leaving her place. They all said that the windows were tinted and that they never got a look at the driver.

There was a 7/11 , a few blocks from where Beverly lived...It was open 24 hours....On a hunch, I walked in and talked to the clerk. I showed him a photograph of Beverly.

"Yeah...I know her....Sheeeet, who didn't? Shame somebody offed her...baddest body in six states man...ummmph, ummmph, ummph..She was just in here the day they say she vanished."
he said.

"What? She was in here?" I asked.

"Yeah...It was like 4:30 in the mornin...She bought a pack of cigarettes." he said.

"Oh really....I imagine...that time of morning...there isn't a whole lot of people in here or out on the streets is there?" I asked.

"Nahh...but there was something weird though..somethin I just thought about." he said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"There was an undertaker ...a car, you know...a hearse...sittin out in the parking lot." he said.

"A hearse?" I asked.

"Yeah......but the windows were tinted...I couldn't see who was inside...they just sat there...and when Bev left...The hearse pulled off ....." said the clerk.

"Thanks a lot pal." I said and I left. As I was driving home...I saw Deacon Larry Weatherford
walking down the street...His pants were wet up to the knees...

"Hey Deac, want a lift?" I asked.

"Oh hey Kev....Man ,I'm about to cuss....I'll sure be glad when Pastor Struthers gets back here. That Pastor John Collins and Deacon Cecil is about to make me resign from this church..." he spat.

"Why, what's up with them?" I asked.

''Every night they want me to fill up that Baptismal pool.....I told em we only baptize people on fourth sunday...and he said that we gone be baptizing people every week possibly and to keep fresh water in the tank...I do....but he aint baptized nobody yet...I come in this mornin and the water was still runnin..." he said.

"Deacon...Are they at the church now?" I asked.

"Nah...they out somewhere..." He said.

"Listen....I need your permission to do something.....I've got a suspicion about the good reverend and his deacon...If my suspicion is correct...I might be able to get them both out of your hair."
I said.

"Kevin...If you can do that,I'd be eternally grateful...what you need?" he asked.

I smiled!

II-

That night, Lockpick Johnson and Peeping Tom did their thing, they wired the church for video and sound.Sean Jackson sat across from the church in their van snapping photos...Clerow, Kool Kat and I sat down the street from the Church...Hours went by and finally the black hearse pulled up...John Collins and Cecil Williams got out of the hearse...They didn't have anything in the hearse or their hands.

"Deacon go down in the basement and prepare the baptismal pool" he snapped.

''Yes sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." he snapped.

"I am planning to baptize myself for purity tonight." he said.

" Should I join ya sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....in the baptismal pool?" laughed Cecil.

''Certainly not!!!! .....What do you think I am....some sissy boy?" said John Collins.

"No sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, certainly not! I'll run the water sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" said Cecil.

"We have much work to do and not a lot of weeks before Struthers comes back." said Collins.

"Yes sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...We must finish the lords work." said Cecil....

"I am completely nude now Deacon....Come and gather my clothing Cecil and remember, don't look at me...I must not be seen until I am pure." said John Collins.

"Yes sirrrr, sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." responded Cecil.

"Kev, What are these two into?" asked Kool Kat..as we sat in my car listening to this weird conversation.

"I don't know man...I don't know...but these two scare the hell out of me... More than anybody we've ever been up against" I said.

(To be continued.....)