Just Like You Said

First things First...I checked out Mr. Mike White. He did indeed work as a claims adjuster. I drove to the address he gave me and I saw him drive up and go into his office. When he went to lunch..I entered his place of business, Asked a few questions and found out that he did indeed work there. Still..He dressed to expensive for a claims adjuster's salary.

I hooked up with Robert Foxworth, My attorney friend. I hadn't told Mike that I knew Ola Lacey's original trial attorney. I looked up the records of the plumbing business he and the late Lance Lacey had run. It checked out...These two were making millions back in the 80's...and as he said..In the mid 90's, it went into receivership for non-payment of back taxes.

He had told me that he had been in federal prison...He hadn't told me what for. Apparently, he was selling Ecstacy in the mid and late 90's...He and a partner...They were moving a lot of this stuff on the party circuit at Penns Landing and the Main Line....He got popped by the DEA and did a three year bid in Lewisburg....When he got out...He went straight...straight to where-ever he had his ill gotten gains stashed...My guess is that his money is running low and that in order to live the life he had gotten acustomed to , he needed this two million that baby girl stole from his dead partner and his business.

"I remember Ola Lacey...Lawdd jesussss that was a fine woman....I defended her, kept her from gettin a death sentence and a life sentence." said Robert Foxworth.

''You think she was guilty?" I asked.

"Guilty? Oh hell yeah!...She's a psychopath, but she was hell in the bed..." he said.

"So that's how she paid you?" I laughed.

''Naw..Naw..she paid me in cash...but she gave me a little in return for saving her from a needle."
he laughed.

"You never cease to amaze me Robert." I laughed.

"That was a longggg time ago Kev." laughed Robert.

"Yeah, well she's getting out soon.. I heard she made parole." I said.

"Hmmmmm...I haven't heard from her in years...I wonder if she still looks as good as she did twenty years ago?" he laughed.

"Twenty years is a long time." I said.

"Yeah man..it is." He said.

I thanked Robert and was on my way. I looked up Ola's last known address. It was the house that she and Lance had lived in...The house he had been murdered in, no doubt. There was now someone else living there..A man named Noble Clayton.. His name didn't ring a bell..he was of no concern to me.

I located and scoped out Ola's sister and her younger brother and an aunt...They all lived in West and southwest Philadelphia. They appeared to be her only relatives in the area. As far as I knew,
She hadn't been released yet..So I had no trail to follow. I went back to City and State records and did some more digging into the plumbing company's public financial records. As Mike White had told me..They had started missing money around 1988 and from 1989 -1991, no taxes had been paid. According to the IRS case worker who originally worked the case.. Calls to Lance Lace were never answered by him...Always by a woman who told them she'd tell Mr. lace when he got in...Then the calls just stopped being answered at all. Calls were made to a "Mr. White" who appeared oblivious to the situation...

Soon it was discovered that Mr. Lace never got the calls and that he was missing...After the trial and conviction of Mrs. Lace..There was still the matter of a bill that had to be paid...Not just the tax money, but the payroll money, which was also short...Guess who was handling the finances of the company at this time? One Noble Clayton...The man living in the house that Ola and Lance once lived in.

The company went belly up in the mid nineties...but Mr. Clayton seems to have made out well for himself..I was going to have to have a talk with him. That would be later...I happened to walk into Josies and my friends, Chris Thompson and Chess and Donald Smooth were sitting in a booth...Chris was once a playa..A big time player..I decided to pick his brain a minute, just on a hunch.

"What's happenin Chess? Donald, Chris?" I said as I joined them and ordered a round of drinks.

''Hey Kev, what's shakin?"said Chess.

"Chris, I really come to see you...I gotta question for ya." I said.

Chris Thompson raised his hands in mock surrender and laughed- "It wasn't me Kev..I swear."

"It was him Kev...call the cops" laughed Donald Smooth...

Chess and I both busted out in laughter....

"Nah seriously....this is a question about the old days..When you were a major playa." I said.

''What? I aint major no more?" laughed Chris. We all laughed at that.

"You ever hear of a cat named Noble...Noble Clayton?" I asked.

"Yeah....I knew him...Him and a guy named Mikey...Mike White used to sell x to the white boys on the main line and up Penns Landing... I moved some stuff for them for awhile. They wasn't street dudes...They had had a legit business and had fell on some hard times.... Well Mikey did..Noble seemed like he had landed on his feet...He bought the house that babe murdered her husband in...You remember her smooth, the beauty queen....Ola somethin or other." said Chris.

"Ola Lacey...yeah...fine as hell.....she in jail now...for life." said Donald Smooth.

"You know somethin Kev.....I always liked Mikey....He was a straight up guy...but his partner, Noble Clayton...I didn't trust him man....When Mikey took a fall, I always thought that someone dropped a dime on him. He got knocked and straight up guy that he was...He didn't give up his partner...but I always thought that Noble gave him up.' said Chris.

"Interesting....I met Mr. White yesterday." I said.

"Yeah? He's back in town eh?" said Chris.

"Back in town? he's been gone?" I asked.

"Yeah....when he got out of prison..he moved to Atlanta." said Chess.

"He's working as a claims adjuster....I stopped by his job today." I said.

''Claims Adjuster? "said Chris... At that , Chris, Chess and Donald Smooth all burst into laughter.

"That damn Mikey....If he is...that's just his front... a straight job....He's married to the game man.. That's his front...He's definitely doing something else...believe that." said Chris.

"He's stayin at the Alonquinn Hotel." I said.

"Yeah, that's about right...." said Chess.

I said no more..We drank our beers and laughed and talked and eventually they left. I went home too.

"Well Kevin...He didn't lie to you....Everything he has told you was on the up...He just left a few things out." said my wife ,Sepia ,after I explained to her everything that had transpired.

Yeah..but it was the things people leave out that could get you killed.

(To Be Continued.....)