Arsenic And Ola Lacey

Another Night in Josies...I was sitting at the counter alone tonight , having a beer and talking with Gus, the bartender and owner when a well dressed Black man walked in. He looked about my age.
He was clean shaven and had a short,but neat and fresh haircut and a platinum earring in his left
ear. As he got closer...I could smell the very expensive cologne he was wearing.

"You are Kevin Morris I presume?" he said to me and extended his hand for a shake.

I didn't know him and I turned and looked at him kind of strangely and then replied-

"Yes I am, who wants to know?" -I had always wanted to say that..Gus winked at me and just laughed and turned away..Walked in the opposite direction of us.

''Allow me to introduce myself..I am Mike..Michael White..I was told that you hang out here and that I might find you here...I need a favor... I can pay you handsomely for that favor." he said.

"Oh Really?" I said.

"Oh yes...." he said and he pulled out a portfolio. He spread some glossies across the bar. Not only did I look, but several of the men sitting around me looked...I kept hearing them gasp and one after another go- "Dayummmm..." "Damnnnnnnn." ,''Whoooo lawdddd." They were gasping over the photos of a very attractive woman. They were photos of this woman in a bikini bathing suit, in a thong, in bikini panties and a bra...in a teddy, in a babydoll and a few completely nude..
She was honey brown...my complexion and had long black hair. Her face almost looked asian.

"Do you know who that is?" said Mike White.

"No I don't...but I'm sure you're going to tell me and all of the wolves here." I remarked.

"That there is Ola Lacey...Ms. Black Philadelphia 1989." he remarked.

"Okayyyy..and you want me to locate her for you right? I don't blame you...Anybody that fine, I'd of never let out of my sight." I laughed.

"No Mr. Morris...I know where she is...She's been in the same place for the past 17 years. She's in the Pennsylvania Correctional Institution for Women at Muncy." he said.

"What? she's in prison?" I said , astonished. How could someone that fine be locked up? I thought.

"Let me explain." he said.

"Yeah man, I'm all ears ." I said....Now my curiosity had been tweaked.

"In the 1980's...My partner , Lance Lacey and I started a pretty profitable roofing company in North Philly..We were contracters...Business was booming...and when I say booming..I mean that we were rolling in dough...Lance and I both had homes built from the ground over in Jersey with a swimmin pool , the whole nine yards....Ola Brown was a model and a dancer. Lance met her and she had his nose wide open....She was fine....No doubt, but I could see from the very beginning that she was a high maintenance type chick...a user... I couldn't get my partner to see that. He wined her and dined her and just fell totally in love with her..."

" In 1987 he married her. Big Mistake. He bought a bigger house in Deleware and sold the one he had in Jersey...He bought her a car....He financed her little modeling business and he made his biggest mistake...He started letting her handle our books....our finances...Well, in 1989 she won Ms. Black Philadelphia and was in all the papers and everything and I get a visit from the Feds....The IRS....They tell me that we haven't been paying taxes for the past two years...I say that's impossible...and I'll call my partner in to show them the books...."

"Guess what? Lance aint around... Ola tells them Feds and me that Lance has left her for another woman and she hasn't seen him...There is no sign of Lance. For a month, he is the subject of a manhunt by the FBI, The IRS and the Philly coppers.... They find him eventually...
What's left of him.....His decomposed body is buried outside of the city...Some kids were making out in a field and they discovered a hand or somethin stickin up."

"He's identified by DNA.....Get this...His body is riddled with arsenic..He's been murdered....An investigation follows and Ola Brown Lacey is arrested and charged with his murder...After a sensational trial..She's convicted and sentenced to 60 years in Prison for 2nd degree Murder.
She had a good lawyer....A cat named Robert Foxworth!"

"Wow...that's some story ." I said.

"Aint it though?" said Mike White.

"Okay, so she murdered your pal and she's in prison....What do you want with me?" I asked.

"That's just it Mr. Morris....She went to prison and she never revealed to anyone just what she did with the 2.5 million dollars of back taxes that she stole from my company...money that shoulda been paid to the feds that she squirelled away." said Mike White.

"You want me to find that money." I said.

"Exactly....and get this...She made parole...She's getting out of prison after serving 18 years..My bet is that she's going to make a b-line for that money." he said.

"Got'cha...and you just want what is yours right? Nothing more?" I asked.

''That's right Mr.Morris...After she went to jail...The Feds took that money from my end...and we went belly up..I lost my home, three of my four cars, my shirt... I got in a little trouble myself in 1998 and I did three years in the Federal joint upstate.I got out in 2001. I'm broke because of that broad...I want what I'm owed....Lance would want me to have it." said Mike White.

"Okay...I'll do what I can...I need an address, where I can find you and a phone number." I said.

"I'm stayin in the Aloquinn Hotel and this is my cell phone....I'm a claims adjuster now...this is where I work." he said and wrote all of his information down on a piece of paper and passed it to me.

He didn't look, dress or smell like a guy that down on his luck.. He was hardly broke.Something about Mike White stunk to high heaven.....but I'd worry about him later....I'd find his money for him...and I'd find out just who it was I was working for too. I shook his hand.

"Mr. White..I'll be in touch." I said.

"Thank you Kevin, May I call you Kevin?" he said.

"All my friends do." I laughed and I watched him walk out of the bar.

"Another caper huh?" asked Gus.

"Yeah...This should be easy...No gangsters or playas involved..All I have to do is follow a woman." I said.

"Ahh, we should all have it so easy." laughed Gus.

I peeled a few dollars out of my wallet and paid my tab and went home.

"Anything interesting happen tonight?" asked Sepia.

"Nah...the usual." I said as I slid into bed next to her and began to fondle her breasts...We kissed
a few times and then she climbed on top of me...

"Let's make something interesting happen in here tonight." I laughed...

''Don't we always?" she laughed as we slowly began to make love with her on top....Tomorrow was another day.

(To Be Continued)