" Hey look, we were just looking around....Checkin out potential homes for purchase...I work for a realtor." I lied...
"Don't lay that crap on me ....."said the man with the gun... "I know exactly who you are...You're from Philly and you been askin around about Lois Collins for the past few hours...Once you came in that diner askin questions...We saw you...and we followed you...Then you went to city hall and was lookin up records and all that...." said the man with the gun. "We had been lookin for Lois for six months...You practically helped us find her." he added.
''Looks like whoever hired you two numbnuts should have hired me." I smirked.
"Pretty smart mouth" said the gunman.
"Yeah..I've been told that." I said.
"It could get you a bullet." said the other man who had been laughing so much.
"Okay...so you know all about me...So who in the hell are you?" I asked.
''Someone who you gonna wish you never run into."said the fellow with the gun.
''Nice suit." I mused...The suit looked as if it had been in the dryer too long and had shrunk..I could see he was self conscious about it.
"Shut up."he said.
"I already wished I never ran into you...Look man, we don't know nothin from nothin...Lois and I had a baby together and we was just tryin to find her...I just wanted to see my son that's all...I don't know nothin else man..That's the truth." Ralph blurted out...I sure wish he had not said everything...We didn't know who these men were or their business..The less they knew about us..the better.
"Had a baby huh? She did just have a baby..." said the man with the gun.
"Yeah and I was just helpin him find her...So now that we've got that cleared up...We can just bounce." I said trying to bluff. Knowing what I knew about the streets and hoods...this wasn't going to work.
"Uh-Uh..You aint goin nowhere." said the man with the gun...His partner was still laughing uncontrollably.
''Something Wrong with him?" I asked.
"Hey Homer, Dummy up." said the guy with the gun.
His partner stopped laughing , but only for a second... The gunmen looked at me-
"You packin heat ,ace?" he asked.
"I'm not telling you, but when you find out if I am or not...There will be no need for you to question."I said.
"Ohhhh, a tough guy eh?" he smirked.
"One way to find out right?" I said prepared to pull on him, but still worried that I might endanger Ralph...I knew I had to keep cool, and look around and think of someway to get an advantage....It was times like this that I wished I had brought Clerow and Kool Kat along!
"Where's the girl?" asked the guy who had been laughing so much...
''Huh? What girl?" I asked.
"Come on, stop the crap ace...There was three of you...You two knuckleheads and a babe...She was in the car, now where is she?" he asked again...
He was talking about Sepia....If she wasn't in the car...I didn't know where she was...
''Girl? I don't know what you're talking about?" I bluffed..
"Okay ace, you gonna make me shoot you right now." he barked and he cocked his gun...Just then...I heard another gun cock at the same time... The man with the gun on Ralph's eyes got as large as saucers...
"Heard you was lookin for me daddy." said Sepia, who had a .38 smokeless stuck in his ear....I pulled my .38 smokeless out and aimed it at laughing boy....He was no longer laughing!
"You wanted to know if I was packing...Now you know." I said.
Ralph spun around and cracked the man who had formerly been holding the gun on him right in the jaw..He then hit him in the stomach and knocked him to the ground....The other guy looked like he was about to lunge at Ralph, but I cocked my pistol so he could hear it...
"Uh- Uh -uh ,I wouldn't do that if I was you ACE..."I said. I walked over to him....
"Anything funny now son?" I asked...He didn't say a word... I punched him in his jaw and knocked him down
also....
"Good Lookin out baby." I said to Sepia...
"I saw them creepin behind here and I remembered that you carry an extra pistol sometimes...Glad I found this." she said.
"I'm glad you found it too." I laughed...
I looked at the two thugs and now it was my turn to ask questions-
"Okay gents....Now it's my turn to play twenty questions...Who are you and what is your business with Mrs. Collins..." I asked...
"Look man...we from Wrigley Park...A man asked us to find her...he paid us a couple of bucks...We couldn't find her...and we was still lookin...Only we saw you guys in the diner askin questions and showin photos and all. We called the man who hired us and told him about you guys..He said he didn't know you or why you was lookin for her. He then told us to follow you and to get rid of you..." blurted the man who had been laughing previously.
I couldn't believe that these two knuckleheads had been searching for Lois for six months and I had found her in close to two days...They must have been taking this guy's money.....Then again...They didn't have a P.I.'s licensce and certainly couldn't talk to people from agencies that I could talk to...They were going on word of mouth and people on the street...That works sometimes but not all the time.
"Oh yeah...Who is this man?" asked Ralph, now emboldened by having the upper hand...They said nothing.
"He asked you a question." I said.
"We aint gotta tell you nothin.." said the one who had been holding the gun...
''Who's the man?" I snapped...."You got me mistaken for someone who likes to repeat himself." I cocked my pistol and put it next to the gunmen's chin...
"His name is Arthur Beck...." said the other guy.....Sepia took his gun and some brass knuckles off of the the man who had been laughing...
"Who is he?, A Drug dealer??, Gangster, what?" I asked again...
"Yeah,somethin like that....He lives over in Clifton....He comes over here from time to time...He's got a little bit of money to throw around.." he said.
"He obviously wasted it on you two." I said. Now it was Ralph's turn to laugh.
"Sepia , go to the car and get me some rope." I said. "Ralph, call the cops...I'm sure they'd love to see these two losers." I added.
Ralph and I tied both men up and gagged them... Just as we were finishing...a car drove up.... a 2011 Ford Taurus...a rather modest car for a woman Ralph said had close to three million dollars..or more....
"Ralph??? Is that you?? " she asked...Then she looked around at the two hoods and Sepia and me ...Naturally she was confused...
"Who are these people?" she asked..
"That's my friends...Kevin Morris...He's a private detective and his wife, Sepia...and these two guys here were apparently looking for you...They were hired by some cat named Arthur Beck.You wanna tell me what's going on and why I haven't heard from you , about our son?" said Ralph?
''Arthur Beck??" exclaimed Lois.
"Yeah...you know him?" asked Ralph.
"Unfortunately, I do...I wish I didn't....It's been six months...I thought I was safe, but he's found me." she said.
"Baby, what's goin on?" asked Ralph.
"A lot of things Ralph..." said Lois as she held her head down...She told her son and daughter to take the baby and the groceries in the house. We watched as they did.
Sepia grimaced and looked at me... I felt like grimacing too...Again, Ralph was talking a little too much...Her children were standing there, looking confused...They didn't know Ralph from Adam and now he was saying that their mom had had their baby brother by this stranger???And to top that off here was a driveway full of strange people that they didn't know!
''Uhhh Ralph...there's something I think you should know.." She said looking kind of uneasy....
Oh Boy...This didn't sound too good.
(Conclusion Next)
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