Have You Seen Her?

We arrived in Patterson , early the next morning...Patterson New Jersey is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was about 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area. Paterson is known as the "Silk City" for its dominant role in silk production during the latter half of the 19th century.

I learned all of this from my wife, Sepia who grew up in West Orange, East Orange and at a time in Newark, New Jesrey...She knew this area...For her it was like a homecoming.

"Didn't know you knew so much about this area Sepia." I said as we pulled into a diner and went in for some breakfast.

''You know I'm from this area." she said.

"You are?  I didn't know that." said Ralph.

"Yeah, I'm from West Orange.....I always liked History and Geography when I was in school." she said.

"I thought you was from Philly." he said.

Sepia playfully took her hand and slapped her butt...She cut me a knowing look and smiled-

"Philly aint got nothin like this!" she said.

I smiled wryly....So did Ralph....It was good having her on this trip...She was way funnier than either Kool Kat or Clerow and she looked better too.!

Sepia and I ordered Pancakes and Sausage and two tumblers of coffee....Ralph had Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns with coffee... We sat and ate and for the first time during the whole trip...Nobody said much..We just ate.

Ralph had only two photos of Lois Collins...One I couldn't show to anybody...(She was nude) and the other, taken in Bottom of The C, when she was several months pregnant would have to do..She was an extremely attractive woman...I could certainly see his attraction to her...and I could see how a gangster like the now deceased Tom Collins would have married her ,rather than leave her out on the market..and have a family with her..Ralph had told me that she had a son and a daughter by Tom.  I wondered if they had had any inkling of what their father actually did for a living....At the time of his death, he was rumored to be a suspect in close to 100 murders in Philly, D.C., New York City, Baltimore and Detroit...All done for hire...He was about to make me number 101...He had been paid handsomely for his services...He didn't come cheap..I'm certain he had left his family a lot of money when he died...and yet, They were living in some pretty ,well normal residences.


Lois certainly had to know what her husband did, even if she told Ralph that she didn't. He supposedly had told her that he was in the "Waste Management "business and that he had to go out of town for "regional business meetings" at time.  Cute....But I reminded myself that I was looking for his widow..Not him.

I showed her photo to several of the people in the diner...The first surprise was that everybody and I mean ,everybody knew of her or knew her personally...I'm used to nobody knowing nothing....No one said anything bad about her (Especially not the men) but no one could say they had seen her or her children in awhile.

Two or three people even told me where she might be living...The address matched the address Ralph had for her...This seemed all too simple...Too simple! I got directions and the three of us drove to where she was allegedly living.

She was said to be living in a house in the Lakeview section of the city...Lakeview is situated in the southern part of the city, the Lakeview Section is a middle-class neighborhood. Interstate 80 runs north of this district. Lakeview is home to the Paterson Farmers Market, where people from all across North Jersey come to buy fresh produce. The neighborhood consists primarily of Hispanics and African-Americans, although this neighborhood also has a sizable white population too, Middle-Eastern and Asian s, including a significant Filipino presence could also be found in this section. Lakeview also shares some of the same characteristics as neighboring Clifton as they both share the neighborhood bearing the same name. The Lakeview section of Paterson is located in the city's 6th Ward.

We found the address after some driving around...There was a big for sale sign on the house...There was no curtains or blinds...nothing...You could look straight through the house from the outside window.  I had been around Lockpick Johnson enough to know how to get into most normal structures...So in no time..I was inside the house...Sepia waited in the car....Ralph and I walked through the empty house...We could hear an echo..but little else...Wasn't a piece of furniture in the place...Nothing, zilch...Whoever had lived here had long gone.

Ralph and I went from door to door showing people Lois's photo.... Yeah, they knew her...and yes..She and the children had moved about six months ago...right after she gave birth to a baby boy!!!Few if any had a return address for her..But one man told us that she might be living in the Hilcrest section or possibly Clifton!

"Well Ralph...We know that you have a little boy." I said.

"Yeah...I wonder what she named him." he said with no trace of a smile.

II-

I decided to work this case backwards...I checked with her phone company and her provider...She had canceled both accounts six months ago...and was no longer with either company...I next went to City Hall and checked a few things....The DMV gave me a new address for her and through some thorough searching and schmoozing, I found out her new cell phone number and provider. I next did a quick check through records and found a record of live birth for one Thomas Raphael Collins, born to a Lois Collins just six months ago at
Passaic County Hospital.

"Wow Kev...you did all of this in one day!!! Wow...I got a son...a son!!!! and now I know where she lives." he said.

"Yup..this was too easy.." I said with a laugh...

"Yeah...Let's get over there." Ralph said.

" Don't you want to call her first?" asked my wife, Sepia.

"Uh yeah..I guess I should." he said.

"You might roll up there and she have another man or somethin." said Sepia.

"Nah....in six months?" said Ralph.

"Honey, I've heard from various friends of mine like Bonita, Like Bernadette and even Debbie that you uh, are pretty good at what you do....but uh...you aint the only gun in town you know sugar?" said Sepia....

I laughed to myself and shook my head...I had never seen this side of her before...The jokester..I must say it was refreshing and quite a turn on...

"Yeah Sepia,I guess you're right." said Ralph reluctantly...

"Of course I'm right." laughed Sepia....again, I chuckled without saying much.

Ralph called Lois's cell phone...It rang about eight times and went into voicemail....

"Don't look like she's home." said Ralph.

"She could be at work." I said.

"Did she ever tell you what she did for a living?" I asked.

"No...I don't recall that she did." said Ralph.

"Well, let's just stop by there anyway." I said.

The three of us got in the car and pulled off.!

III-

Something about this case was bugging me...It all seemed to be too easy....Too easy...something wasn't right.
We drove up to the house...It was in the Hilcrest section...a tony middle class area to the west of the downtown area. Its borders' limits are Preakness Avenue to the east, Cumberland Avenue to the west and Totowa Avenue along with West Side Park and the Passaic River to the south. Hillcrest is one of Paterson's most desirable neighborhoods. The Hillcrest section of Paterson is located in the city's 2nd Ward.

Yeah...I'm talkin like I've lived here all my life...My wife was once again proving to be a great wealth of information... We left Sepia in the car and walked over to the house...There was no car in front of the house and it looked as empty as the first house we staked out!  Now this was odd... We walked around the back of the house...

"Kevin?" said Ralph..

My back was turned to him...

"Huh, what Ralph? This is strange...Now it's obvious that somebody lives here...but the house seems so quiet." I mused.

"Kevin?" said Ralph...

''Huh? What?" I said and turned around ,only to see a man about six foot two, wearing a cheap suit, holding a
.45 to Ralph's temple...He had another guy with him who didn't appear to have a gun, but was laughing....

"I don't know who you guys are...but you sho done come to the wrong place and definitely at the wrong time ."  He said, still laughing uncontrollably....I wanted to knock that laugh off of his face.I knew this case was too easy...I knew the other shoe was going to drop soon....

I didn't know just what I had walked into...but I had a feeling I was about to find out..

(To Be Continued..)