Last Holdout

"That's Him" said Kool Kat and Chance Howard almost in unison as the strutting, swaggering Johnny Porter walked out of one of the many young lady's homes that he was known to stay in...He was about my height, brown skinned, no facial hair, slim build.  Nothing fancy about him...He wore a blue Polo shirt, some nice pressed jeans and some brand new white Nike Sneakers....Except for an expensive Movado watch and a pinky ring...He wore no other jewelry and there was nothing about him that would draw attention to him...he looked like any other guy walking the street.  Who would imagine that this guy owned all of the "real estate" in my section of the city almost...

A 2012 Lincoln Navigator sat outside the woman's home...A tall bald headed , dark skinned man in jeans, white polo shirt and dark shades stood with his arms folded as Johnny Porter walked towards the car..He handed him a bottled water and they both got in the car and pulled off...Sean Jackson took two photos of the car and several of Johnny Porter and his driver. The Baldheaded man was Theodore "Lights Out" Hayer, a cold blooded killer who had worked for Eldorado Mack and a number of other major playas before winding up with Johnny Porter.

In the coming days....Peeping Tom and Locksmith Johnson broke into and wired the homes of about six girls , whom Johnny was known to spend the night with....Those two and Sean Jackson snapped photos of and followed all of the young corner drug dealers who plied their trade on the corners of the absent players who had suddenly just vanished...We followed them and took more photos of them without them knowing....
From our surveillance we saw that all of his close to 55 drug dealers turned in their take and was paid by one of three people....Kwame "Monk" Peterson....a cold blooded killer if ever there was one....Calvin "Cheesesteak" Waller, who owned a steak and hoagie shop that like Cakeman Raven's bakery was a front for laundering money, picking up new "product" (drugs) and discussing business. and Christopher "Mellow Man" White, who appeared to be Johnny's second in command..We wired the steak and hoagie shop and picked up a lot of interesting conversation from there.

Chance Howard got us license plate numbers from all of their cars , which led to addresses and even more semi -legal wiretaps... Because this operation had now grown so big...I had to have more people listening to them...So my wife, Sepia, Corabeth, Sheila,Chelsea,  Chance ,Anita ,Bernadette, Harry Charles ,Robert Foxworth  and Bonita all got recruited to listen into the many conversations from phones and cell phones that we were monitoring...Women ,being inquisitive and newsy anyway enjoyed this...

Our intelligence gleaned information on drop sites and on a supplier from Atlanta and one from the Bahamas that was supplying Johnny his stash, and little else... Johnny Porter was not on any of our video or audio taped surveillance. In fact, his name was never spoken... All we had of  him was his sexual escapades with the various ladies...He never talked shop. He didn't even carry a gun....There was no mention of the missing players, Cakeman Raven, Kornbread Earl evans, Fly Tyrone Wallace, Beautiful Bobby Hunter, Tone Capone Muhammad or Big Goat ...All six men and some rumored others had just vanished off the face of the earth...But we had the book on his top Lieutenants and his organization...In time...I could use what we had gathered to put them all away...but it wasn't really them I wanted...I wanted the location of all of the now legion of missing young men and if they were indeed dead,for the man responsible, one Johnny Porter to pay....Right now, I had absolutely nothing that could make Johnny Porter personally pay for anything.

II-

And then we got the break we were looking for....Well kind of....A few nights later, Peeping Tom, Locksmith Johnson, Clerow,Sean Jackson and I were at his house listening to Manny Rodriguez and his girl, Laura Aponte having sex..

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....do it Mannny..oHHHHHHHHHHHH, slap me, beat me...just doo me.....ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."


"Ohhhhhh girl....it is soooo goood ,arggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh..."


"Go papi goooooooooooooo....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

The bed was squeaking and the headboards were slamming up against the wall......Clerow ,Lockpick Johnson and Sean Jackson were laughing and clapping as though they were seeing a porn movie...I was disgusted...All of this surveillance had turned up little or nothing on the missing men and then we heard a phone ring....

"Who the hell is that?" snapped Manny...

"Ohhhh Manny don't stop, don't stopppppppppppppppp...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."


"Hold up....Hold up...it's my cell phone...wait..."


"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....." he wailed as he continued to pound into her with reckless abandon.


"Oiuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu......"she cooed and moaned


"Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." he wailed

"Oh God, that was so good Manny...soooo intense." she said


"Wait....the damn phone is still ringing.....Hello...WHO IS THIS?" snapped Manny.


"Mannnyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...it's me...Johnny.!" came a voice.


"What do you want?" snapped Manny...


"You know what I talked about yesterday .....You're the last hold out." said Johnny Porter..


"No...I aint holdin out...I aint givin you 50 percent or nothin else...You offered Cakeman Raven 25 percent." snapped Manny.


"Yes and he refused me...By the way...You seen Cakeman lately?  How's he doin?" laughed Johnny.


"Is that some kind of threat?You don't scare me Johnny...I will bury you and anyone you try to send against me." asked Manny.

"Oh? Is that so?" said Johnny.

"Yeah that's so...and I can get the Diaz Brothers to back me." said Manny.


"Think so huh?" laughed Johnny.


"You just make a move and you'll find out." said Manny.


"Tough talk little man..." laughed Johnny.


"I'm done talkin to you." said Manny defiantly.


"Goodbye Manny, have a nice life...Tell that fine girlfriend of yours I said What's uppppppppp!." said Johnny laughing maniacally..


''Screw you." said Manny and he hung up.


"Who was that, Johnny Porter again?" asked Luara.


"Yeah...tryin to threaten me....Tomorrow...I'm callin the boys...We gonna find that cockroach and exterminate him." said Manny..


"Good for you Johnny." she cooed.

(Click)


Peeping Tom , Lockpick Johnson, Sean Jackson and Clerow looked at me......

"Guys...we got him....we got him good....First time we got his voice on tape....." I said.

''Yeah, but you don't have him making a direct threat, you don't have him sayin much of nothing...It's all implied." said Peeping Tom.

''I know...maybe if we follow Manny, we can catch Johnny or Johnny's guys in the act...Flip one of em and put an end to that swaggering bastard." I reasoned.

"Sounds Personal Kev." mused Tom.

"He's just so cocky...I'd like to wipe that smirk off of his face." I said.

"We better find Manny Rodriguez pretty soon Kev...or he'll become victim number seven." said Clerow.

"You're right...We'll catch his goons in the act or whoever he has taking out his contracts and we got Johnny in a box for sure....Plus we got enough stuff gleaned from our surveillance to take down his entire organization." I said as we all toasted.

III-

The next morning, I was in Robert Foxworth's offices having coffee with him and his young protoge', Chance Howard.

"Kev do you think all of the legwork you've been doing and all the data you got on Johnny Porter..can prove he's responsible for Cakeman and the other's disapearences?" asked Robert...

"Nah...Can't prove it...I'm pretty sure that Cakeman and the others are dead...but today I'm going to stop him from snatching someone else and catch him in the act..." I said.

"Yeah, but how much good will that do ?" asked Robert....It was a good question...a question I couldn't answer.

''Hey Kev...I meant to tell you....I did some research on our boy, Johnny Porter....He bought a Funeral Home and crematorium last year..." said Chance.

"A Funeral Home and a Creamatorium??" I asked.

"Yeah...He bought old Zack Heffington's place....." said Chance.

"Whatever happened to old Zack?" I asked...

"Man, nobody's seen or heard from him since last year.....I think he left town." said Robert Foxworth....

"Left town?" I asked...

"Yeah....His place sat empty for close to a year...Then Johnny Porter bought it and restaffed it." said Chance.

"Why would he buy a Funeral Home and a Creamatorium?" I asked.

"It's a legitimate business...They all buy legitimate businesses to launder money through, Steak shop, Barbershop, Bakery, Strip joint...You know that Kev." said Robert Foxworth...

"Yeah, I know.....I'll look into that later...Gotta go find Manny Rodriguez." I said.

IV-

Manny Rodriguez always stopped by Jakes to have a Hot Dog , a cup of coffee and read his paper every morning...But today...No Manny!!!

''Jake, Did Manny Rod stop in this morning?" I asked.

"Nah...and I'm surprised...because his Yankees won last night and he never misses a chance to rib me about it." laughed Jake.

I looked at Kool Kat....He shrugged.

"He was up all night screwing his girl...He's probably still sleeping it off." I said.

We drove over to her house....Manny's car was gone!!!  We drove to Manny's House....No car, no sign of Manny!!!!

Kool Kat looked at me somberly....

"Kev , we blew it..." he said.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"That was our last chance to get at him....Manny's gone man...He's dead by now." said Kool Kat.

"What?" I said.

"Manny Rodriguez was the last hold out, the last playa who had any territory...He's gone , Game set match...Johnny Porter is the new Kingpin of Northwest Philadelphia....He rules the world now!  There is nobody left." said Kool Kat.

He was right.....I had failed in a big way , What was there to be done about Johnny?

(To Be Continued....)