A Night In The Bel Air

The next morning Sepia, Robert Foxworth and I stopped by Kool Kat's house. I figured he might need a lawyer present when talking to the police. He did have a somewhat unsavory past and he was the last known person to be seen with a possible murder victim...It only made sense. When we got to Kool Kat's house...there was no answer! I walked across the street to Chelsea's house...He sometimes spent the night with her.

"Sorry Kevin...I haven't seen Walter." she said.

"What? I can't believe he'd lam it...after I told him I'd hook him up." I said , exasperated.

Just then ,I heard whistling and saw the hulking figure of my friend, Kool Kat come walking down the street...

"Relax Kev...I went to get us some coffee...bet you thought I lammed it huh?" he laughed.

"Yeah...the thought did cross my mind." I said.

We met with Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Philadelphia Homicide and to my surprise, FBI special agent in charge of the Philadelphia office, Frank Cotton and the Medical Examiner...Robert Foxworth sat with Kool Kat as he gave his statement and told about his hours with Beverly Peters, the last
victim.

"So when you left her, she was alive?" asked Sissy Van Buren.

"Yeah...she was drifting off to sleep...We had really gotten it in....I'm tellin you." said Kool Kat. My wife, Sepia looked at him with disgust and shook her head...Robert Foxworth had a hint of a wry smile across his face.

"Her time of death was about 5:00 am...That's two hours after you say you left her place...Can anybody verify where you were after you left her house?" asked Sissy.

"Yeah....my neighbor, Chelsea...She lives across the street from me...I went to her house and went to sleep...I was there the rest of the morning." said Kool Kat. Sepia's eyes got wide, then she just shook her head...Robert Foxworth smiled....He knew the deal, no doubt he himself had done the same thing, many times himself... I stood stone faced.

"Kevin...I suppose you're wondering why I'm here?" said Special Agent Frank Cotton.

''Well uh yeah." I said.

"These three murder victims were drugged first.....then they were drowned..but not in the river...somewhere else...They had tap water in their lungs...with a trace of chlorine...like they had been in a pool or a bathtub or something...then they were dropped in the nearby river...I got involved because there were three unsolved murders exactly like these in Atlantic City a few months back...all prostitutes, all but one an African-American woman, all had tap water with traces of chlorine in their lungs and all had this chemical in them...." he said.

"Kevin, we've seen this chemical before...Remember the guy who was found dead in your friend's pool a month or so ago....The Eddie Chin case?" asked Lt. Sissy Van Buren.

"Yeah, I remember" I said.

"These girls were drugged with that same chemical." she said.

"Yeah, but that stuff is off the market...it's banned." said Robert Foxworth...

"When has that stopped anything from being sold on the street?" asked Agent Cotton.

"Kevin, we think whoever is killing these girls is someone who is street savy,someone who can blend in the community and someone these girls would have trusted....You know a lot of people on the streets who will talk to you, who won't talk to law enforcement....I'd appreciate any help you could give us." said Sissy Van Buren.

"I'll do what I can." I said.

"Oh and Kevin...we'd like to keep what was discussed in here as discreet as possible...We haven't told the press or anybody what we've discovered about the nature of these girls deaths." said Special Agent Cotton.

"That goes without saying." I said.

"So can I go now?" asked Kool Kat , who so far hadn't been in the conversation at all.

"Yes Mr. Jones....you can go.....We will be checking out your neighbor...just to confirm your story...You should get some rest!" said Agent Cotton ,giving Kool Kat the side eye...I smiled and held my head down low...

Robert, Sepia, Kool Kat and I left police headquarters.. I dropped Kool Kat and Robert off. We then drove to Chess and Chris's shopping center....I stopped in Dick's Sporting Goods and Sepia walked into Victoria's Secret...From the corner of my eye...I noticed a black hearse sitting in the
parking lot...I looked in the hearse and there was Deacon Cecil Williams sitting at the wheel.
I paid for my purchase and I walked over to Victoria's Secret...

Pastor John Collins was standing there talking to Cherry Johnson, the manager...

"You are the manager of a store that sells bawdy and scandalous undergarmets and you recently
spent the night with a man you are not married to......"he bellowed.

"So what are you doing? Spying on me, stalking me?" snapped Cherry.

"I am looking out for the decent women in this community who don't carry on like you." he yelled.

I walked in...Sepia had already paid for her order. She pointed at the Pastor...He was still bellowing...

"Did you know that there is a 1975 Bel Air in the parking lot and that at this very moment , a man and a woman are engaging in lewd sexual behavior???" he screamed.

"Then go talk to them about it.....and get off my back man." snapped Cherry.

"I'll be back to deal with you." he bellowed.

"Get lost." snapped Cherry.

He turned and saw Sepia and I.....

"Mr. and Mrs. Morris....it is indeed a pleasure to run into you again." He smiled as he walked out.

"He's nuts...I'm not going back to church until Pastor Struthers returns..." said Sepia.

"You go to that guys church?" snapped Cherry.

I just smiled.....When we walked out into the parking lot...there was indeed a 1975 Bel Air that was bouncing up and down furiously...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Willie....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

"Ohhhhhh Velma...it's sooooooo gooood...ummmmmph..."

"Ohhhhhh baby...I love you so muchhhhhhhhhhhh,ouuuuuuu..."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

Indeed, a man and a woman were making love in the backseat in mid afternoon! Incredible, some people's hormones in this city I thought! At least one of them I knew...Velma Lewis. She wasn't a prostitute, but she was ,let's say...very generous with her affection. Every single man
and a few married men in Josies had a Velma story.

"Geeee, it's a wonder she don't have herpes or something...she'll get in the backseat of anybody's car." said Sepia.

"Now , Now...it aint cool to gossip." I said.

"Yeah, but she's a stone cold ho...You know it...Everybody in the neighborhood knows it." said Sepia.

"It's even less cool to judge.....You don't want to sound like those two over there in the hearse?"
I laughed.


Sepia and I turned our heads and got in our car and pulled off.....The Hearse was still sitting there with Pastor John Collins and Deacon Cecil Williams sitting there. Why were they sitting there watching that? What an odd pair of socks those two were.

"Kevin those two scare me." said Sepia.

We went home, but something, I don't know what was really bothering me....I got my .38 smokeless and my shoulder holster and strapped them on underneath my blazer....I drove back to the shopping center a few hours later. Cherry Johnson only lived a few blocks from where she worked, but I was worried about her.

"Gee thanks Kevin for giving me a ride home...but I'm okay....Everybody knows me around here, I don't worry about anything." she said.

"Just be careful Cherry." I said as I dropped her off at her door.

"Sepia sure is lucky to have a guy like you..Maybe one day I'll marry again and my husband will protect me." she said as she went into her apartment.

I drove back by the shopping center.....The Bel Air was still there...All of the other cars were gone. They couldn't still be in that car making love? I thought....I walked over to the car....The window on the passenger side had been busted....There was no sign of anybody in the car at all.
A closer look revealed the car keys still in the ignition!!!! This looked strange!

So strange, I called Lockpick Johnson and told him to meet me in the parking lot...He did and he popped open the trunk of the car...Still nothing!!! We closed the car door and we left. I drove by the Church....The Hearse that the Pastor and His deacon drove around in was parked in the back. The church looked empty.....a quiet night!!! Too eerily quiet.

I drove home....Sepia was in bed fiddling with her laptop....

"What's going on babe?" I said.

''Kevin, they've found another woman's body in the river" she said.

"What?" I asked....

"A few hours ago...look...it's that girl from the bar...." she said.

She showed me the MSN homepage and a photo of the dead woman...I took a look....It was Velma Lewis, the woman who had been making love to Willie in the Bel Air...I got a good look at her face...I knew that was her...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Willie....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

"Ohhhhhh Velma...it's sooooooo gooood...ummmmmph..."

"Ohhhhhh baby...I love you so muchhhhhhhhhhhh,ouuuuuuu..."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

It came back to me now......

"Kevin...what's going on? We saw her and some guy just a few hours ago!" said Sepia.

I had a nasty feeling that who ever was doing this was closer than we thought!

(To Be Continued...)