Tears of a Clown

"Dang Kev, Did you have to put this ridiculous Ronald Reagon halloween mask on me, couldn't you have at least found a black person's mask to put on me and did you have to involve Daisy in this?"
complained Floyd Dishwater as he and the church organist, Daisy Miller got into the car Kool Kat had gotten for us with the tinted windows.

"I'm sorry...but I don't want any chance of your identity being compromised." I said.

Daisy Miller was wearing a Halle Berry halloween mask, which looked equally ridiculous, considering the fact that they were in a car that nobody would recognize and that the windows were indeed tinted. I just didn't want to take any chances. Gordon didn't know Kool Kat and I was sitting in the back with them, so that there wouldn't be a chance that I would be seen either. Clerow was sitting up front with Kool Kat, who was trying his best to hide the fact that he was laughing.

We had picked them both up and had driven around hoping to catch Gordon Chesley walking around the streets..We didn't have to wait long...We saw him and a young lady walking down the street together...He looked like he was carrying groceries for her. He helped her load them into her car...Then he waved as she smiled at him and pulled off....He was good like that..A real nice guy most of the time...I really hoped that I was wrong about him. I desperately needed to eliminate him as a suspect...But then if I did...Where would I turn? It had been three weeks now and no sign of Freda!

"That's him!!!That's the big guy that slapped the girl and tossed her into his ride." said Floyd.

"Are you sure?" I said.

"Positive." said Floyd.

"Oh that's him alright...I saw him too.....He's tall, muscular....Yeah that's definitely him..we looked him right in the face...but he was so busy wrestling with that girl that he didn't notice us driving by...Ummmmmmph..He's cute!" said Daisy Miller.

''Daisy?" screamed Floyd.

"Well...He is cute...ummmph...ummmph..ummmph...lawdd jesus, big muscular arms, broad shoulders...whoooeeeeee...he could get it!" she exclaimed.

"Daisy!" screamed Floyd.

"Oh...ummmm...I'm sorry...I momentarily lost my composure there for a minute....Ouuuu.." she said as an exasperated Floyd glared at her.

Kool Kat and Clerow both were trying their best not to laugh or at least not to let these two see them laughing. I smiled lightly. We thanked them both and we dropped them both off at home.
Then we sat there on the corner of their block in the car...The three of us.

"Well Boss...He's the one...What are you gonna do?" asked Clerow.

"I wanted to wait a day and see if the FBI crime lab got a match on the Fingerprint and DNA evidence I turned in...It's not like he's going anywhere..He has no idea that we are on to him." I said.

"You had Peeping Tom wire you up for sound...It would be a shame to waste a good wire." joked Kool Kat.

"Yeah ,I know...Let's go get him....Clerow..Call Lt. Van Buren... Tell her to be ready." I said.

"I'm on it boss." he said.

We drove up in front of his house. I told Clerow and Kool Kat to stay outside...I didn't want to arouse his suspicion. I had them park across the street.

"Man, you goin in there by yourself with no back up, that's crazy?" said Kool Kat.

"If he sees either one of you he'll get suspicious and clam up...I'm going to talk to him...You'll be able to hear the entire conversation... If it gets rough..Take the door down and come in blazin." I said.

I looked at Kool Kat and smiled- "You'd like nothing better would you?"

"You know it Kev!" said the big man.

"Be careful boss." said Clerow.

"Always" I said.

I walked up to his porch and rang the doorbell..I hoped he was alone and not entertaining some sweet young thing, as he had been the night before. It took a few minutes , but he came to the front door..He had that same gregarious smile he always had when you saw him...

"Heyyyy Kev..what's up? Where's that pretty little wife of yours?" he asked.

"She's Home." I said.

"What brings you by?" he asked.

"I just wanna holla at you a minute...can I come in?" I asked.

"Oh sure...sure...I aint doin nothin....Sittin here watchin the Sixers lose again..." he laughed.

"Who are they playing?" I asked..

"Does it matter? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha." he laughed...I laughed too.

We sat down in his kitchen at the table. He pulled out two glasses and proceeded to pour us both
some Hennesey on ice....

"Say Kev..Any news on that there gal you been lookin for?" he asked.

"Well see Gordy, that's what I come here for." I said as I gulped my drink....It burned my throat as it went down.

"Yeah? What?" He asked.

"Look....I don't want to play any games....so I'm just gonna get right to it...I think you did this...No, I know you did this.....That night in Josie's after she embarrassed you by slapping you in the face...you tampered with her car, didn't you? You left long before we did..You had the time and the opportunity...You went home and came back in your other Nissan Xterra..The silver one that you rarely drive.....You followed her, you probably put a GPS tracking device on her car...You knew she'd break down eventually... You got out, offered to help..Only things got out of hand and you slapped her...then you cold cocked her!..Hell, a guy with your size and strength probably killed her, but it was an accident...I know you didn't do it on purpose..You aint no killer..It was an accident...you were drunk..you were angry...it was an accident right?" I said.

His face fell....then he smiled...

"You got it all figured out huh Kev? That's a nice story...but it's just a story....you can't prove none of it." he said, no longer smiling.

"Gordy, you left a fingerprint on the inside of her car..in a place where it's got no business being..
The cops got a beer bottle you drank off of with your fingerprints and DNA all over it...If it matches they got you and Gordy, worst of all...Two people saw you...they were down there too that night..They drove by..They thought it was just a lovers spat...That's why they didn't say anything until they saw photos of the missing girl....So ,oh yes...I got proof....It's all over." I said.

His face fell again and to my horror..He pulled out a gun and aimed it at me!

"Heyyy Gordon..Don't....The police are on their way here man...don't do it...Don't put another murder on you...You're already in enough trouble...Come on Man...." I pleaded.

"I aint goin to jail Kev...I caint..I just caint....She shouldn't have slapped me like that...She aint have to embarrass me in front of all those people...She didn't have to talk to me, like I was nothin...NOTHIN! DON'T NO WOMAN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT! ..Little High maintenance
,stuck up tramp...I seen her kind...I was married to two women like that....She went too far man, too far...I aint goin to jail." he said.

"Killin me isn't going to help you Gordy." I said.

"I aint killin you...." He said.

"Gordy..Where did you bury her? Where is she?" I asked...

Just then Kool Kat took the door off the hinges and he and Clerow came in with guns drawn! I ducked and Gordon fired at both of them...They ducked and returned his fire! They missed...So did he! He ran to his basement door and locked it! We pulled at the door furiously..Then we heard one last explosive shot!

Clerow shot the lock off of the door and the three of us...guns drawn rushed into his basement/garage....There we found the body of Gordon Alexander Chesley...dead from a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head! He took whatever secrets he held to the grave with him.

EPILOUGE:

The fingerprints and DNA did match him, thus leaving no doubt that Gordon indeed was the kidnapper and possibly killer of Freda Jordan. He died without telling us what he had done with her. That mystery however was solved a week later...A decomposing body of an African American female was found partially buried behind the Cat house at the Philadelphia Zoo, along with a broken Blackberry....Through dental records and DNA , the remains were positively identified as Freda Jordon...

Sepia and I sat in Josies at the bar talking to Gus a week later-

"Well Junior, looks like I was right, huh?" said Gus.

"Yeah man, you were right...although I wish you weren't." I said.

"The way she slapped him and the way all of us laughed at him had to be humiliating...We should
have eased up a bit...We didn't give him any room to save face...no pun intended." said Gus.

"Yeah...but it wasn't like he didn't warrant that slap...His hands were kind of wandering." said Sepia.

"True..True...I thought he was alright with it...He was laughing." said Gus.

"He had a lot of pain ...Pain we didn't know about...Two failed marriages, a failed relationship, three children, child support drama...That's why he moved here.....Yet you would never know it..
He never let on.....He was always the life of the party....." I said.

Someone went to the jukebox.....They played "Tears of A Clown" by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.. Sepia and Gus looked at Me...I smiled and I looked towards the door and I could swear I saw Gordy standing there, with that gregarious smile of his..waving and walking away....but I guess it was just my imagination.....running away with me!

(For Carlene)