Mister Gone

Garvin was in surgery until 3:00 am in the morning. The good news ( for him) was that he pulled through. He was going to live and in about three weeks, he'd be out and about and free to squeeze some other woman's behind or have sex with another woman in his car, in a back alley ,in a sleaze bag hotel or where-ever!

We left the hospital at around four in the morning. Carlotta stayed by Garvin's bed side in recovery, stroking his hand gently while he slept. Meek Rollins and I dropped Yolanda and Debbie off at the Villas. Meek suspected that I wanted to go and find Chet...I think he did too! We went to several bars and several cafes and several late night spots...but there was no sign of him. We even went back to the recording studio..but it was locked tight...No sign of him there. Finally we went to his house.

Chet rented a small place on the other side of the township....When we arrived we saw a police car and a brown sedan. There was a Detective and two policemen coming out of his house.
I parked my car across from them and walked over to where the Detective was standing, taking notes.

"I guess Chet isn't there huh?" I asked.

"Not only is he not there...It doesn't look like anybody has been here for days." he said.

"What?" asked Meek Rollins.

"You guys friends of his?" asked the Detective.

"We are business associates...I was producing a record that he was supposed to be on." said Meek Rollins.

"Oh yeah? Well your friend is in a lot of trouble..He shot a man earlier tonight ,almost killed him." said the Detective.

"We know, we were trying to find him, talk him into giving himself up....I was there sir..The man was taunting him...He caught this man with his woman...in...in bed....He was in an extremely emotional state at the time." I said.

"I understand...but that doesn't justify attempted murder." said the Detective.

"You said the place is bone dry?" I asked ,trying to change the subject...I didn't like the thought of such a talented musician locked up for any amount of time.

"Yes...as if nobody has ever lived here..Completely empty." he said.

"He couldn't have gotten far..he wrecked his car" I said.

"Wrecked his car? When?" asked the detective.

"He told me that he wrecked his car and he asked me to drive him to that sleazy apartment complex....but I had no idea he was going to do something like what he did." I said.

"There was no car wreck reported yesterday...In a township this small...I would have gotten a report." he said.

I believed him...This wasn't Philly or New York....This township could fit within the three block radius of the section of West Oak Lane that I lived in....So Chet had lied about his car. He had known about Carlotta's indescretions longer than he had let on and was probably waiting to get proof!

"Ya know what I think?" Meek Rollins whispered to me out of the earshot of the Detective.

"What Meek?" I asked.

''I think Chet knew ole girl was steppin out with Garvin..I think he knew and he planned this all along....Think about it Reed...He knew exactly where they were and the exact floor and room in a
place like that where you could hear the bed springs bouncing and moaning and groaning in every other room...He singled their room out." said Meek.

He was right....Chet was playing everybody, just like he had been played by Carlotta.

"You're right Meek...but where is he now?" I asked.

"Mann, he could be anywhere...He's had several hours head start...If he planned this right..He's off this island by now." said Meek.

"Damn.....if my boy Kevin Morris was here, this would be right up his alley." I laughed.

"Yeah...it would be." laughed Meek.

Meek drove me back to the villa and he went back to his place....Debbie was still up, waiting for me.

"You find him?" she asked.

"Nah....His place is empty...He's in the wind." I said.

"Shame...such a nice polite guy....That hussy he was so sprung over gives good women a bad name." said Debbie.

I looked at her and smiled. I picked up my trumpet and began playing his haunting melody...I played it with an intenseness that I had never played it before...Just then...I heard Debbie scream!

I put my horn down and ran to where she was...

"What's wrong Deb?" I asked.

"It was him!!! I saw Chet!! He peered in the window." she said.

"You sure?" I asked.

"I know it was him..I know what I saw!!!" she said.

I dashed out the door and went running .....but there was nothing and nobody....I looked around the back of the house...I saw two old drunks stumbling around and a few women walking...but not a sign of Chet....No footprints, no nothing....I went back in the villa...

"Deb...you sure it was him? There was about five or six people out there walking around...but not a sign of him." I said.

"Reed, it was him...he peered right in the window and when he saw that I saw him...He ducked away!!!" she said.

We both walked outside and looked around.....Not a sign of Chet anywhere.

EPILOUGE:

The four of us spent the remainder of the Christmas Holidays on Blue Island...We exchanged small gifts on Christmas Day and had a huge feast at a local restaraunt that night..We met and played cards and went to bars the rest of our time there, returning to Philadelphia on New Years
Eve!

I scrapped the idea of recording Chet's songs and I never played that composition again.Hearing it just gave me the creeps...I never saw or heard from Chet Cook ever again....Nobody has! If Debbie did see him outside of our window...Then she was the last person to knowingly see him.
A fugitive warrant for his arrest on charges of Interstate Flight to avoid prosecution for attempted murder was issued by the FBI....To date , he has alluded capture.

Carlotta and Garvin got married, if you can believe that...They had twins a year later and she was pregnant again before the twins were a year old...Will wonders never cease?

Yolanda Prentis and Meek Rollins had a baby girl about nine months after we left Blue Island!!....They are not together as a couple anymore from what I've heard.

Some nights I stand on the rooftop of my condo and play my Trumpet....I play everything except Carlotta's song....Like I said...Hearing it and playing it...gives me the creeps! I wrote a new composition the other day..it's called Blue Island...I'm playing it now. If you're out there Chet...This one's for you kid!

(For SLC)