The Agony of The Feet

Robert Foxworth filed another motion a few days later and found a judge who he convinced that Skillet Jackson was not a flight risk or a danger to society...The judge granted Skillet bail...Gus took up a collection at Josies and raised enough money to make his bail.

At the end of the week Skillet Jackson walked out of jail a free man.

"Ah sho wanna thank you for gettin me outta there, the bed was hard and the food sucked." said Skillet as Gus and I helped him get into my car.

"Yeah, well jail aint supposed to be pleasent." laughed Gus as he patted his good friend on the back.

"Kevin...Any luck on my case?" asked Skillet.

"Robert and I are working on a few angles...Let's all go and get some breakfast." I said. "Good idea Kev" said Gus.

We stopped in Mabel Jenkins Soul Food Joint. I ordered both men, some Grits, with Scrambled Eggs , Country Maple Ham steaks and some steaming hot tumblers of coffee..

"Damn Kev...This is the best grub I've had in days." said Skillet as we wolfed down the good food.

II-

The next day, Robert and I talked to Lt. Sissy Van Buren and her lead Detective. I told them to examine Skillet's feet...He was a size seven...The bloody footprints were a size 12 or 13, possibly larger....There was one fingerprint smudge on the bloody pipe...It didn't match Skillet...or anybody on file for that matter... They had sent the print and the palm smudge to the FBI and they didn't get a hit either.

The killer was someone who had never been in trouble with the law before. The blood and DNA all belonged to Bobby Crachet. There wasn't one witness who could place Skillet at the scene of the murder either!!! Slowly but surely, the case they had against Skillet was falling apart.

He had passed a lie detector test while he had been in jail....Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace decided to drop all charges against him for the time being. The question remained...Who had killed Bobby? He owed money to Skillet and to Gus...Neither of them had killed him...The question then was who else did he owe money to? Who else who might not take so kindly to not being broke off?

I called Kool Kat and Clerow and Lockpick Johnson...The four of us drove over to the Mermaid Club, Joe Neptune's joint.. We questioned a number of players there...Bobby didn't owe any of the high rollers any money.

Next we talked to Chris Thompson and Chess...They ran a floating card game that attracted a lot of players...but nobody there had even heard of Bobby. The next day, Kool Kat and I drove over to where Bobby worked....Scully's....We talked to his plant foreman, Burt Snyder...

"Yeah...Bobby was a chisler....He bet everybody on the basketball games...If he lost and he often did.. then he'd disappear ...Always welched on his bets....He was a chisler.....And then that injury of his...He was full of it...Nobody here believed that Bobby was really hurt....but they paid him his disability anyway." said Snyder.

"What? You paid him already?" I asked.

"Yeah ,the company paid him...He got a mint....He didn't deserve a penny of it...Had that man and his wife drivin him around...buying his groceries...takin him to games, takin him to the doctors offive.......and never paid them a red cent...what a louse." said Snyder.

Kool Kat and I drove back to the apartment complex.... "Kev...you told me that that guy Ray and his wife fixed his meals and took him to the games right?? " he asked.

"Yeah and I understand that the wife was cleaning his apartment." I said.

"Well...you think they was doing that for free? He was tellin everybody that he was about to get a big check...He told Skillet that he'd pay him when he got paid...Told Gus the same thing...Neither of them knew that he'd already been paid...but that married couple knew ...Cause they brought him down there to get the check..." said Kool Kat.

"Yeah...they knew.....and you're right...I mean, I know that they were his friends....but I'm sure they expected something for cooking his meals and cleaning his apartment and driving him around..I see where you're going with this Kool Kat...but we can't prove any of it." I said.

"Well...Do what you do...Wire his spot up." said Kool Kat.

"He's not going to talk about this....He doesn't have to...He's pretty shifty...He's already seen me..and he won't talk to a stranger...There's got to be another way to get him." I said.

"Well ,do you know anything about him or her?" asked Kool Kat...

"Yeah, he's got a fine wife that he bangs a lot and he's got big ass feet..." I laughed and then it came to me...."

"His feet!!!!! That's it Kool Kat.. He wears a size 15!! The bloody footprints were huge... He lives three doors down from Skillet.....He dropped that bloody pipe in front of his door and took his shoes off....That's why the footprints stop right at Skillet's door and don't go any further."

"Yeah man...but you can't prove it." said Kool Kat....

"I could if I could get into that apartment and look around." I said. Just as we were walking into the apartment complex....We heard glass shattering...and the sound of a loud argument...



"You lousy bastard....I can't believe you Ray...I can't believe you....I give you all the lovin you want, when you want it...how you want it and as MUCH as you want and you go and sleep with my SISTER??? MY SISTER Ray....I don't believe you.." came Thelma's voice.

"Thelma ,I can explain....I went over there to take her those groceries and she's walkin around wearin next to nothin....She came on to me....It wasn't the way she told it...Not at all.." said Ray.

"Ohhhh,I don't want to hear it...You said the same thing about my cousin..." screamed Thelma. "Well all of you gals is fine as hell." said Ray... "Get out...Just get out.."

she screamed and tossed shoes at him and clothes!!!! "And I told you to stop leaving these damn shoes all over the house..you got red paint all over them." she screamed.

I'm betting that it wasn't red paint....but rather blood. Why hadn't he gotten rid of those shoes? I wondered. Ray ran down the hall past Kool Kat and I and charged towards his car...He got in and pulled off.....

''Walter...Did you see what I just saw?" I asked. "Way ahead of you son." laughed Kool Kat.

(Conclusion Next)