Laura's Vendetta

"You know he did it...You know he did it!!!  What are you gonna do about it? screamed Laura Aponte, who was crying hysterically as Kool Kat and I attempted to comfort her...It had been 48 hours...Two days and there had been no sign of Manny Rodriguez...Her boyfriend and the last Drug Kingpin in the area...Six other playas had all vanished without a trace over the summer, Big Goat, Tone Capone Muhammad, Beautiful Bobby Hunter, Fly Tyrone Wallace, Kornbread Earl Evans , Cakeman Raven and now, Manny Rodriguez...In each case...Nobody saw a thing, nobody heard a thing...not a gunshot fired!!!, Not a sign of a struggle and not a raised voice!!  Nothing!! All of the men vanished into thin air!!!!

None of them were the type of guys that anybody would care about or miss, except maybe girlfriends!  The people who worked for them, quietly accepted the leadership of Johnny Porter, a New York playa who had moved to Philly and in one quiet summer, had taken over an entire area of the city...with Manny Rodriguez's territory, he now was more powerful than Fathead Newton, The Diaz Brothers and Lin Chou. He was rich behind his wildest desires and he was indeed the King.  The cops had nothing on him....He had no prior police record, and since the streets were quiet, they could care less if he was running things...

"Look Baby, Me and Kev here are working on Johnny Porter, we been following him around for awhile now..If Johnny made the snatch...We are gonna get him." said Kool Kat.

''What you gonna do? Johnny has guys all over this area...It's just two of you....You'll be dead just like Manny
if you try anything...You aint gonna do nothin." she said.

"Have you talked to the Police?"I asked ,knowing how lame that sounded. Even Kool Kat looked at me and gave me a side eye...

"The police?   The police?  They don't give a damn about Manny, a latino drug dealer...Hell, they glad they don't have to worry about him...I can't prove that Johnny Porter did this...but everybody knows...everybody on the streets know and they are all afraid...." she said as she continued sobbing.

She was right of course...The more and more Kool Kat or I asked around about Cakeman Raven or Kornbread Evens or Fly Tyrone Wallace or any of the others, the more and more people began to clam up, to talk less....You could feel the fear on the streets...Nobody wanted to be the next person to vanish...

And Laura was right....I went to Homicide and tried to talk to Lt.Sissy Van Buren, but even she didn't seem to care.

''Kevin these are grown men...You haven't given me one witness, not one person who can say that they saw them abducted or even roughed up...Just because they aren't around...doesn't mean they are dead...You want me to open up an investigation based on hearsay on the street? With no body?? No murder weapon, no suspects and no witnesses..Come onnnnn...we try to duck some punches around here...." she said.  I thanked her for her time and quietly left. She was right though!

II-

Kool Kat and Clerow and I sat in my car drinking coffee and talking...

"What are we going to do boss? Looks like Johnny Porter holds all the cards." said Clerow.

"Not all.....Clerow ,Call Chance , and call Sean Jackson...I want to take a closer look at that Funeral Home that he owns.." I said.

"He owns a funeral home and a creamatorium?" asked Kool Kat

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

"Whatever happened to old Zack?" asked Clerow.

"Good Question....He hasn't been seen either in close to a year...Right around the time Johnny bought it." I said.

"Wait a minute....He comes to town a year ago...buys a Funeral Home and a Creamatorium just like that..he sits back and waits until the powerful Eldorado Mack takes a fall, because at the time, he doesn't have enough muscle to take that guy on...Naturally, when the big man takes a fall, all of the smaller players carve up his empire....but by now..a year has passed and our boy Johnny has a crew now...and one by one..he wipes out the competition...and takes even more than Eldorado Mack had..." said Kool Kat....

"Kools...you're right....Nine will get you ten that that is how he gets rid of the bodies...Somebody does the snatch....and they get cremated.....No evidence...no fuss...no muss...Quiet...no attention on him...It's beautiful.I don't know why I didn't see this yesterday." I said.

III-

Chance ,Sean Jackson and I found the funeral home and creamatorium that Johnny Porter owned...We sat across the street from it in a rented car with tinted windows...We watched Johnny Porter himself and his driver ,Theo "Lights Out" Hayer drive up and enter through the front...His main man...Kwame "Monk" Peterson arrived with two associates carrying two breifcases...Calvin "Cheese Steak''  Waller and Christopher "Mellow Man" White also drove up and entered...Two armed hoods stood guard outside.

"Man, it's a shame we can't get in there and bug that place." I said.

"I came out here Kev and watched the place....There is somebody in there at all times..." said Chance Howard.

"That's where the money comes and is counted and stored and distributed." I said...

''That's where they have their meetings.." said Sean Jackson...

"And this is where the bodies come.....They are snatched and killed and brought here and disposed of...Nice and easy, Nice and Clean.....If you start with old man Heffington and then Big Goat, Tone Capone, Beautiful Bobby, Fly Tyrone, Kornbread, Cakeman and now Manny....that's where your bodies are...or now...ashes..." I said.

''Porter's a mass murderer!" said Chance.

"Yeah and we can't prove it...but we can start shaking things up...Make his world turn upside down." I said.

"Yeah...we got enough to start the ball rollin, start gettin his people arrested...Maybe one of em will cut a deal." said Sean Jackson.

"That's what I'm hoping...but it'll have to be somebody big like Mellow Man or Cheese Steak ,Monk or Hayer...They're the ones who know anything that can put Johnny away."I said.  Chance Howard and Sean Jackson nodded in agreement.

After I took Sean Jackson and Chance Howard home....I headed home.....Sepia was waiting for me when I got home...

We kissed and she sat on my lap in the living room..

"You got a letter in the mail today." she said and handed me a letter written with very good  but distinct penmanship.  It read-

"Dear Kevin...I know you and Kool Kat meant well...but you are naive if you think the police will do anything to a guy like Johnny Porter or for a guy like Manny Rodriguez....I'm going to just have to take justice in my own hands....I've got a gun and I'm going after Johnny...He eats at Bottom of the C with one of his broads tonight...If I vanish like the others...you'll know who was behind it...take care of yourself...Laura."

I showed the letter to Sepia....

"Is she crazy?" asked Sepia...

"Crazy or dead....I gotta find Kool Kat....I'll be back" I said.

"Be careful." said Sepia.

Kool Kat and I went to Bottom of the C.   I asked Dollar Bill if Johnny Porter had come in.....

''Yeah, he was here...with some broad.. I need to keep a scorecard with that guy, different broad everytime.." he laughed...

''Nobody else was here to see him?" I asked.

"Nope....He left about an hour ago.." said Dollar Bill...

"The video cameras you have in the parking lot and in the back alley...They still work?" I asked.

"Yeah...sure...." said Dollar Bill...

"I need to see them...." I said.

"Okay Kev...." he said.

Dollar Bill walked me past the kitchen to a room that held his safe and several television monitors...He ran the film back one hour and there it was...What I had been waiting to see...

As Johnny and his girl appeared to be waiting for his driver to pick them up...Laura Aponte approached them in the parking lot...

"Hello Johnny....Long time no see you creep." she said as she aimed the gun at him..


"Heyyyyyyyyyyy sayyyyy...what's up with you...put that heater down girl...you don't want it with me like that." he said.


"You killed Manny you cockroach and I'm gonna do the city of Philadelphia a favor and eliminate you." she snarled and cocked her weapon...


Johnny's girl screamed....Johnny stood in front of her...he raised his hands up as if in surrender...


'' Hey...Hey...heyyyyy look...look...you aint gotta do this....I didn't kill Manny...Manny is fine...He's in New York on some business for me...Really! Come on Laura, me and you, we both from Brooklyn baby..We should n't be gettin down like this" he said..


"LIAR!"she shouted...Just then...she dropped to the ground....Johnny's driver, Theo "Light's Out" Hayer, the tall bald man with the menacing shades had shot her with a silencer....Killed her....


"What took you so long?" snapped Johnny, angrilly...


"That Lincoln Drive traffic is a killer." he said.


''Get the body in the car." said Johnny...


''Wait...I'm not riding in no car with a dead body." said Johnny's date...Johnny frowned and nodded to his driver...To our horror..Theo aimed the gun at his date and fired two times...Killing her instantly!!!!


"Man, it's gonna be a hot time at the creamatorium tonight boss." said Theo.


"She was good in bed...but a pain in the ass otherwise...I won't miss her too much. Call the crew up, tell em to fire up the oven...we got two." said Johnny Porter as he looked around.

''Oh my God. That was an hour ago...I'm surprised wasn't nobody in the parking lot."said Dollar Bill as we turned the Television off...

''Yeah, Johnny's been lucky like that...About seven times...but everybody 's luck run out on em eventually." said Kool Kat.

"Bill ,Print that tape and give it to me. This is what I've been waiting for...I finally know how he's been making people disappear and what has been happening to them" I said...Just then, I heard a gun click.....

"I'm afraid I'm gonna need that video tape." came the voice...It was the voice of Theo "Light's Out" Hayer....He didn't miss much...Johnny tied up all loose ends...He probably figured that there might be a camera and he sent Theo Hayer back here to get it. I wasn't about to play games with him...I quietly slipped my.38 smokeless out ...I gave Kool Kat the eye...The big man nodded and we both spun around and aimed our guns at his head.. His 357 Magnum and my .38 smokeless...He wasn't expecting any resistance, He was astounded...

"Heyyyyy, what is this?" he said.

"I think my .38 and my man Kool Kat's .357 mag beats your little pop gun with a silencer ,don't you Kools?"I said.   Kool Kat smiled and nodded.

"Mannn, you don't know who you messin wit." said Hayer.

"Drop your heater son...We given the orders now...DROP IT..I AINT ASKIN YOU AGAIN!" said Kool Kat loudly as I disarmed him. He was now clearly frightened to death...Hard to believe this stone cold killer was afraid...but I think I'd be afraid of Kool Kat myself if I were in his shoes.

"You're in a lot of trouble pal." I said.

"What are you guys, cops?" he said.

"You'd be better off with the cops." said Kool Kat.... Hayer believed him, he was shaking like a leaf.

His face dropped....

Dollar Bill helped us tie him up and we blind folded him....

We walked him out the back of the restaraunt and put him in the trunk of my car....We drove him out to Fathead's safehouse in Southwest Philly....and hoarded him into the backroom...Roscoe and Ralph Mole were already there...

"Who is this clown Kevin?" asked Ralph Mole.

"This is the killer who has been taking out some of your top competition out our way..Meet Mr. Lights out!" I said.

"Oh really.?" laughed Roscoe...

"Sit on him Roscoe...We'll be back for him tomorrow." I said.

Roscoe just laughed.

"Man..When Johnny finds out...you guys is dead...." whimpered Hayer.

''When Johnny finds out?  , When Johnny finds out??? Man, I want Johnny to find out....Aint nobody scared of Johnny, but you? You think I'm worried about jOhnny?" I said to him...

Roscoe was beside himself with laughter now....Ralph Mole smiled a little bit...  Fathead Newton himself was sitting in the living room eating an Italian Hoagie..He smirked...and shook his head and smiled.

Kool Kat tapped me on the shoulder..

"Come on Kev...We got a long day tomorrow ." he said. I smiled and closed the door to the room, Theo Hayer was sitting in tied up.

.

IV-

Kool Kat and I sat on my steps drinking beer and talking...

"So do we put the kibosh on this clown Kevin or what?" he asked.

"Oh we are going to have fun....By this time tomorrow night..Johnny Porter's world is not going to be the same at all." I said.

The Big  man smiled.

(Conclusion Next-)