Employee Of The Month

Harry Charles brought in sandwiches and Cokes and chips for everybody...Everybody was
my working crew...a loose band of individuals who from time to time helped me with these cases...There was Sean Jackson...Not only my partner at work, but along with Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson...part of my surveilience team...These three wiretapped, photographed and videotaped most of the guys I followed and investigated..They got me the hard evidence!!

Then there was Clerow and Kool Kat...basically, my muscle..They had my back in a gunfight or a fistfight and were good with handling cars...These were my most trusted assistants...

"I'm glad all of you guys could come here today.." I said.

"Yeah, and we glad you got these great cold cuts and chips" laughed Kool Kat, which brought everybody in the room to laughter...

"Well I figure if we are gonna barnstorm, I might as well feed you." I said.

"Here, here" said Clerow...

Just then, Robert Foxworth, the attorney and his protoge' , Chance Howard arrived....

"Hey guys...sorry I'm late...but , you know how it is.." he said.

"It's cool Robert...just glad you guys could make it." I said.

I had Attorneys, an ex-CIA man, thugs and working stiffs all in one room for a "conference" Isn't that something?  I told Harry to hold all of my calls and to keep the door of this room closed....You would have thought we were heads of states or something!

"Okay Robert, what have you got?" I said.

"Your boy, Lee Spann...He's a private detective...just like you..." said Robert Foxworth...Chance Howard pulled out some photos of the man and laid them on the table...He was a young white guy...He resembled the singer, Justin Timberlake a bit...just a wee bit.. Robert had a copy of his P.I. License and his Drivers License .

"Okay...so we know that he moonlights as a pimp." I said to many snickers...

"He works for a very powerful insurance company...Central Insurance...You've seen their commercials on television...Central Insurance wraps their arms around you.." said Robert..

"Yeah ,I've seen em..." I said...Then I pulled out some video and listening devices....I showed them to Peeping Tom..

"Tom...Lockpick,Clerow and I fished these out of the hotel that my now deceased client said he was in with the dead girl... what do you make of them?" I said.

Peeping Tom looked them over, smiled and said..."This is good stuff....It rivals some of my stuff...This Lee Spann have a military background?" he asked.

"Actually he does." said Robert Foxworth..."He was in the Army ...Military police.."

"Wow...He really knows his stuff." said Peeping Tom.

"Okay..Let's look at what we have..." I said.  "We have two men...Conwell Tinley, 42...an up and coming young businessman, married , two children, a churchgoer.....and James Booker, 37...also married, three children, the aide to the President of City council and some say..on the fast track to either being a city councilmen himself or running for mayor....both of these men were seeing this girl.." I continued and a I put a photo of Heather Gentry on the table...

"Both of them were being blackmailed!!!  My late client, Conwell Tinely had several photos of him and the now late Ms. Gentry in let's say some uncompromising positions in the bed...Now it was said that James Booker was also being blackmailed and there were photos of him and Ms. Gentry in the bed..." I said.

''And now you got a dead hooker." said Kool Kat.

''Yeah man, but why?She set up some pretty heavy hitters. Tinley himself told me that he had paid them three large a month for some time and I'm certain both men had overlapped each other." I said.

"Okay Kev, but after Booker killed himself....I'm sure the cops found those photos of the girl on him...so she had to go." said Clerow.

"But why kill the girl?" asked Robert Foxworth...

"It doesn't make sense.... After Booker died...Spann or whoever would have just told the girl to take a powder...you know, get ghost." said Sean Jackson...

"Well..the way I see it Kev...after the second guy killed himself...they probably figured that she was now more a liability than an asset and she had to go...Whoever is doin this probably has a flock of Heather Gentry's." said Locksmith Johnson...

"You know something?  That makes a lot of sense." I said...

Just then...Chance Howard spoke up...

"Hey look Kev....I knew James Booker...He don't even live in Philly...He lives in Deleware....He killed himself in Baer, Deleware....Aint it funny that whoever hired this girl knew about it real quick?? and as for your guy...Wasn't that a few weeks later , not in Philly but over in Atlantic City?" he asked...

We all looked at him....

"I read the papers." he said with a sheepish grin... Clerow, Kool Kat ,Robert Foxworth,Peeping Tom and I all smiled at the kid.

"The point I'm making is...Who gets information that fast?  Not an insurance company...but, a credit card company might!..." he said.

"Central Insurance has a credit card division...They have a Visa and a Mastercard that they give out...They have an office just a few blocks from here." I said.

''Yeah..and they got one in Wilmington,Deleware too." said Robert Foxworth...

"They would have all of these guys personal information....and a Private detective would be able to ascertain all of their habits...their psychological make up...the works...It makes perfect sense.. I looked into both of these guys and what they have in common...the ONLY thing they have in common is at least one credit card issued by , you guessed it, Central Insurance....It was staring me right in the face all the time..Can't believe I missed that. We've got to find Spann, Find out who he's working for in that company." I said.

"Who he's working for?" asked Peeping Tom...

"Yes...He's not pulling the strings. This operation is way over a guy like him's head..They got him to either look up information and  or get the girls..but somebody else...Somebody else  in that companyis pulling the strings.." I said.

"But who? Who is They?" asked Clerow....

"I don't know....Lee Spann is just the uh employee of the month..He's definitely working for somebody..." I said.

"That company is your connection." said Kool Kat.

"Yup" said Lockpick Johnson.

"Something is going on here gentlemen, something evil...something sinister and I've got to get to the bottom of it...This evil is the cause of two weak men being dead and a misguided young lady ending up at the bottom of the ocean." I said.

(To Be Continued...)