Dumping Ground

He ripped Sepia's blouse completely off! We hadn't planned on this....We had placed the wire in her black lace underwire bra...We didn't want our suspect, Gerald Brown to discover the wire just yet..
Not before we got a confession out of him...

I hated to use my wife, Sepia as bait in these cases...but Gerald Brown had taken an unnatural interest in her and she was playing along with him to tell us the whereabouts of one Collette Nelson, a young lady I had been hired to locate who had vanished without a trace....Four other young women had vanished recently and all of them had one thing in common...Gerald Brown!!! He either worked with or lived somewhere near at least four of the five missing women....He had been seen in their company also, well at least three of the five anyway.

Lockpick Johnson and I had broken into his house and found panties, bras and pantyhose of all types... We turned them into an independent DNA lab and got positive hits for Collette and two of the missing five women.....I had been a part time private investigator long enough to know that that wouldn't be good enough and not be admissable in court without more...

Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson, Sean Jackson and I sat in our van listening and watching everything.... Up the street from Gerald's house...Kool Kat and Clerow sat armed and ready to go.. They were waiting for my signal!

"Kev, I don't like this...I think we should move." said Sean Jackson...

"Hold on man...let's see how Sepia plays this...If we move too soon, he'll know we are on to him and it will blow everything." I said.

My wife Sepia, was and is as cool a player as any guy on the street I had run into....Probably one of many things that I love about her...she didn't flinch...

"Hold up playa...you kinda rough....You just ripped an $80.00 blouse...Foreplay aint one of your strongholds is it?" she said.

"Foreplay?? Come on....I aint in no mood for no foreplay....I'm ready for some bed action...Come on over here." said Gerald....

"Uh uh....somethin about you aint right...I think I'm gone go home." said Sepia...

"Go home?? Awww no...You aint gone get me all worked up like this and jus leave me hanging.." he said.

"You better take a cold shower then playa....because aint nothin jumpin off in here tonight." said
Sepia...

"Girl you crazy....you aint leavin here....." he said.

"Is that what you told Collette?" snapped Sepia.

"Collette?? What you know about Collette?? You a cop?" he snapped.

"Collette is my cousin.....I been lookin for her for weeks now...Everybody tole me she was with you playa." said Sepia.

"Yeah, she was....She dead now.....like you gone be if you don't get them clothes off and get in this here bed." he snapped..

"Dead? What you mean dead? How do you know she dead?" asked Sepia.

"Cause she pissed me off like you're doin...and I strangled her that's why....Two others pissed me off too and they got the same and you about to join them." he screamed in rage.

"That's it" I screamed..."Everybody move." I said as I pulled out my gun and rushed down the street...Kool Kat and Clerow were ahead of me.... Kool Kat took the door off the hinges and Clerow and I rushed into the room with guns drawn....Gerald was so shocked , He turned to run and ran smack into the wall with a force so hard...he knocked himself out cold!!!!

"Wow....Good job baby...good job...We got it all on tape...All of it." I said as I grabbed my wife and kissed her passionately. Kool Kat tied Gerald Up and Clerow helped him put his pants on....Within a few minutes, Homicide Lt. Sissy Van Buren, two detectives and three uniformed Philadelphia Policemen showed up and formerly arrested Gerald Brown....

Also with them was Deputy Commissioner, Haywood Stevens....a dashing and handsome guy who loved to be on Television....Naturally, the part that me and my team played in capturing Gerald Brown wasn't made known to the public...but Haywood Stevens made it sound like HE'D personally captured him himself-

"Hi there Chet...Mike....I'm here to announce a break in this case...All of Philadelphia can rest easy now....I have personally supervised a team of crack investigators and we have arrested the
Mt. Airy Strangler....Gerald Brown...." he said... Kool Kat looked at him in disgust...Clerow looked at me...

"Guess we didn't have nothin to do with this huh boss?" he laughed.

"I guess not." I said.

Even the cops and the detectives looked at him a little disgusted...Sissy Van Buren walked over to Sepia and I and just shook her head-

"I'm sorry about him....He was at one time a detective under me.....He was useless, couldn't crack a case if the perp came in and confessed right in front of him...What he was good at was chasing skirts.....His poor wife!!!! Anyhow...He knew how to play the game of politics and there he is...Deputy Commish!" she said.

"I understand...it's cool" I said with a laugh......

"You're goin down you freak...for all five murders." said a Detective as he hustled Gerald Brown into the paddy wagon...

"Five? What you talkin bout? I didn't kill five women...only three." said Gerald Brown as he looked at me and laughed...then he winked....A chill went through my spine at that moment!

II-
Sepia,Kool Kat, Lockpick Johnson, Peeping Tom, Sean Jackson, Clerow and I all wound up at Josies...I treated them to drinks and some of Gus's Barbecued Hot wings.....Gus came over to me
and smiled-

"Cracked another one eh Kev?" he laughed.

"Yeah man....this was a tough one." I said.

"I'm glad that freak is off the streets....Shame five women had to lose their lives behind it...and we still don't know what he done with their bodies." he laughed.

"That's the thing Gus...Something he said tonight....He looked right in my face and said-"I only killed three women." I said.

Kool Kat had walked over by then and heard what I said-

"Aw Kev...He just tryin to get out of it." he said.

"Yeah, you can't put much into what he said...I think he was just messin wit you kid." said Gus.

"Get out of what? He's not going to get one less needle prick for three murders as opposed to five." I said, responding to Kool Kat.

The Big man shrugged. "Well...I wouldn't worry about it now Kev...Important thing is...We got him off the streets..."

''Yeah Kev...Don't go thinkin too much." laughed Gus as he patted me on the back. Sepia came over put her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek....

"I'm tired lover...let's go home." she said.

Corabeth had met Clerow there....They were in the corner ,slow dragging like two high school kids.. Sean Jackson and his wife Sheila had already left....I paid the bill and left a tip..Waved goodbye to everybody and left Josie's with my wife!

As we drove home, Sepia looked at me-

"What's bothering you Kevin?" she asked.

"He said that he only killed three women.....When he was in his room talking to you..He only mentioned killing Collette and two others...He said nothing about the two who vanished a week ago..." I said.

"Yeah,so what?" said Sepia...

''Something doesn't fit." I said.

"Forget about it Kevin...The case is over babe." she said.

"Yeah,I guess you're right." I said and we drove home.

III-

Weeks went by and in time I forgot all about Serial Killer, Gerald Brown until one day I got a phone call from Homicide Lt. Sissy Van Buren.

"Hello" I said.

"Kevin...This is Sissy...Sissy Van Buren....That freak, Gerald Brown has confessed to murdering
Collette Nelson, Alvainia Simpson and Natika Freemon and he wants to show us where he buried
the bodies...He asked specifically that you come along." she said.

"I wouldn't miss this." I said.

Within an hour, I was at an old abandoned air strip outside of the city limits....The Philadelphia Police and The Pennsylvania State Police had several guys digging up the grassy marshland outside of the strip.....

''We found one Lieutenant" said one policeman........

It was the mummified remains of Alvainia Simpson...aged 23, the first young woman to go missing...Gerald Brown laughed maniacally as the body was excavated.....I looked at him as if he was crazy, which he was..

"Hey Lou...We got another one over here." said another cop....

It was the body of Collette Nelson, also 23....The girl, who's well to do parents had hired me to find...Gerald was beside himself with laughter now...

"Hey boss....We got one over here..." came another voice....

That was the body of Natika Freemon, 27.... another missing girl who had vanished during the summer...All three of these women not only lived in Gerald Brown's Apartment complex, but they all worked at the same company he had worked for.. He had unsuccessfully tried to date all of them....He had broke into all of their apartments and stolen their underwear and other personal items before kidnapping, raping and killing them....I was going to make sure I was at his execution, I thought!

"Hey Lieutenant..we got two more over here!" came the voice of another cop. Gerald's laugh and smile left his face...

''Hey...those aint mine....I didn't kill them....I swear..I only killed these three." he said.

One was the body of Jennifer Taylor, 36.....She lived a few blocks from Gerald Brown, but did not work with him...like the other three.. The other body was of Stacy Lord....The last girl to go missing...She not only lived no where near Gerald...but didn't work with him... There was one other thing...Their apartments had not been broken into and none of their underwear or personal affects had been found in his apartment!!!

"That's it...We found all five." said Lt.Sissy Van Buren , who cut Gerald a cold look..

"Hey...I'm tellin you..I only did them three girls...I don't know the other two......" he said.

"Get this dreck out of my face." said Sissy Van Buren.

Two big beefy policemen took the manacled serial killer and dragged him toward a police car...As he was dragged off he looked at me-

"I only killed three Kevin...Only three...I didn't kill them other two...come see me." he said and smiled.

I stood there looking blankly at him....

Lt. Sissy Van Buren walked by me and patted me on the back-

''Don't worry about him...We got enough to make sure he goes straight to hell." she said.

The next day, I visited Gerald Brown at the Correctional Center where he was being held....He was a slight man, about five foot, six inches....He didn't look like a killer...He was glib and charming...That kind of ghetto charm that a young black woman might find attractive..a young white woman too...

I brought him a Coke and a Hot Dog like he had asked....He slowly ate his Hot Dog and took a swig of his Coke... I said nothing....Then He finally spoke-

"You're somethin else...Used your wife as bait to trap me......Shame on you man...Got a pretty wife like that and you out trappin cats like me." he laughed.

"Look man this aint about me or my wife...What you call me up here for?" I asked.

"I killed three women man....I done confessed....I'm done....I'll either get three life sentences with no chance of parole if I'm lucky or I'll get a needle in the arm....either way...two more makes no difference to me one way or another....but I want to set the record straight....I did not kill those last two...Someone else did them." he said.

"Oh yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah man....The night I dumped the last body...There was someone else out there dumping bodies...He saw me and I saw him...I don't know who he is...but I heard his voice recently..I'd definitely know him if I heard his voice again." said Gerald.

"Ok man...sure.. Guard...I'm ready to go." I said as I stood up.

"Ok Kevin...but know this....Somebody is out there that is getting away with two murders...think about that.....I only killed three girls man." he said.

I stopped dead in my tracks when he said that...What if he was telling the truth?


(TO BE CONTINUED......)