One Last Swim

Mingo Robinson, was holding court at a local pool...This was usually where he could be found...He didn't appear to work anywhere...Yet he always had a  loaded money clip on him...He wore his swimming trunks and a little  blue sweat shirt that said OLD NAVY on the front... He sat on the diving board and talked endlessly on his Android or His Iphone most of the day...Several young guys with envelopes came to the pool and passed them to another young man...He appeared to be a life guard...He would escort them to his office..
This was where they were paid I suppose.  Another car, a BMW would pull up and two guys would come, get a brief case and quietly leave.  My guess was that the stash house was somewhere else and that payments and drop offs were handled here at the pool...

Clerow, Kool Kat and I sat in a car observing the pool...Several nubile young ladies entered and dove into the water...

''Hi Mingo!!" they said.

Mingo was on the phone...He laughed and waved....The little guy never once approached or acknowledged any of the gentlemen who came into his pool...but it was clear to any and everybody in the neighborhood that he was the boss.

We noticed Ralph Butler entering the Pool area...He was wearing a suit and dark glasses...For him!! Mingo moved..He got off of his phone and climbed down off of the Diving Board...Kool Kat and I walked in also..
We left Clerow at the car...We overheard this much-

"So was it you?" asked Ralph Butler.

"Was it me? No....I didn't have nothin against Short Dawg..." said Mingo...

''Then it had to be Two Guns....What is it...You guys don't trust each other?" said Butler.

"Look..I don't know nothin from nothing." said Mingo..

"Yeah, well my man down at the coroner's office said that it wasn't food poisoning." said Butler...

"What?" asked Mingo.

"Nah...it was poison...but it wasn't in the food.." he said.

''Well where was it?"asked Mingo.

''Maybe you should ask your only living partner." said Butler.

"Two Guns? Man, he talk tough, but he aint have the guts to take out Short Dawg...He was scared of him." said Mingo...

"Then it was you...." said Butler.

"Nah man, I swear ..It wasn't me...How you even know it was a hit..Uh...it...it....it..it coulda been a reaction to something he ate before he even got there." said Mingo.

Ralph Butler just laughed...He shook Mingo's hand and embraced him....

"Good Bye Mingo...Heh heh heh...you got it alllllllllllllllllllll figured out." he said and laughed and walked away.

He walked right past Me and Kool Kat...Before we could make a move...Mingo put his Android and Iphone
on a small table...He took a swig of his Corona and then dove into the pool...I wondered if he ever swam or did he just promenade all day and pretend that he wasn't a major drug trafficker!

Five minutes hadn't gone by when we heard a scream!  It was a woman's scream!!! Then we heard several people screaming....

''What the hell?" said Kool Kat... We both ran over to the pool...Mingo was face up...floating and very, very dead....

''What's going on here?" I exclaimed...

''He's dead...He's dead, he's dead.." screamed a hysterical young woman...

" Man, he was swimmin..Just swimmin...then he looked like he was drownin or somethin and then...nothing."
said a young man who was swimming near him...

I looked at Kool Kat..

''Come on...Let's get out of here." I said...We both left.

''Damn Kev...We didn't even get a chance to talk to him." said Kool Kat.

"I know...somebody, possibly Two Guns ,possibly someone else made sure of that." I said.

II-

"Kev...I swear...None of us had nothing to do with any murders...We think too highly of you to ever involve you in our business like that." said Roscoe...Kool Kat, Clerow and I were at Fathead's safehouse with Fathead Newton himself and Ralph Mole...

"Kev...if we just wanted to hit that crew ,we wouldn't have involved you at all...And we could have easily have knocked them off...but we didn't have any cause to as of yet..We simply wanted information..Which you gave us...That's all we needed from you..I swear to you man...It wasn't any of us." said Fathead Newton.

I believed him...He didn't have to hide from me something like that...I had established enough of a friendship with both Roscoe and Ralph Mole over the years to know that they wouldn't deceive me like that.

"My Guess Kevin is that our boys don't trust each other." said Roscoe.

"Yeah that's what it looks like to me." said Kool Kat.

''What about this Butler fellow?" I asked,

'"Ralph Butler?? He's an old head, Used to be somewhat of a Major Player.....He goes back to the days when Gus and your Father were young men...He did a ten year bid , got out and was active for a little while, then retired...I don't know what he's doing hanging around." said Fathead Newton.

"He's sort of like their advisor." said Ralph Mole..."A facilitator if you will." he added.

"Kind of like you." said Clerow...

We all busted out in laughter!

III-

We dropped Clerow off and then Kool Kat drove me to my door...Roscoe had paid me and I had given Kool Kat and Clerow their end....

"Thanks man....give Sean, Tom and Lockpick their end...This was easy work." I said.

"You think Two Guns is behind this Kev?  He don't seem to have the brains or the heart for this type of job."
said Kool Kat.

"He wouldn't have to..All he'd need to do is hire a good hitman who works with poisons." I said.

"Man that sounds like a CIA...Day of the jackel type cat...A rusty dusty guy Like Two Guns would use a gun....He just isn't that sophisticated." said Kool Kat.

He was right! But somebody was....And somebody had just made Two Guns..The king of a large amount of real estate in our area...I didn't have a clue, but I was going to find one....


(Conclusion Next)