The Tracks Of My Fears

I guess I should be happy...I was now doing investigative work for Two Lawyers, Robert Foxworth and Conrad Nelson...searching for three missing gangsters who I could care less about...but who had all vanished in the past month seemingly without a trace...

One night, Chance Howard, Clerow, Sean Jackson and I retread all of the places that Cakeman Raven had been known to go, Josie's, The Mermaid Club, Bottom of the C, Mulberry Street and Rollo Jones's Strip club....No one had seen him in weeks...Kornbread Earl and Fly Tyrone Wallace had not been seen in any of these joints either and that was strange indeed..They were always around at one or more of these places..We must have talked to close to 100 people and we came up with nothing.

The next day, Clerow and I visited the barber shop that all of the neighborhood players went to to get their fresh haircuts and we got a little something.

"Yeah...Kornbread Earl Evans was in here...waitin to get a haircut about two Fridays ago...Then he seen a man outside...The guy just kept walking up and down the street...He lit a cigarette, walked away...Then walked back..Stared in the window....Kornbread asked me to let him out the back exit....I did and that's the last I seen of him....In fact, I went out there a few minutes later to let him know that the man was gone, but he was gone...Just like that!!" said Willie Otis...The Barber.

"This man...that kept walkin up and down the street...you ever see him before?" I asked.

"Yeah once...I don't know him...but he drives Johnny Porter around town a lot." said Willie Otis.

"Who is Johnny Porter?" I asked.

"You don't know?  He's the new playa in town..He's from New York.....In just a few months, he's taken over this whole area...Took Eldorado Mack's corners when he went to jail and then some..." said Willie Otis.

"Was Kornbread beefin with him?" I asked..

"Aww man, I don't get into that stuff...I just cut hair." said Willie Otis.

"Okay man...thanks...What about Fly Tyrone Wallace?" I asked.

"Damn Kev...you askin about all of the major guys....He was my main customer...I aint seen him in about a month....He in jail?" asked Willie Otis...

"No....he hasn't been seen either." I said.

"Wow.What's goin on?" asked Willie Otis.

"That's what we tryin to find out bossman." said Clerow....I just smiled.

"Thanks Willie O." I said as we left.

"Feel like a doughnut and some coffee Clerow?" I said.

II-

We next went to Cakeman Raven's Bakery, which was still being operated by his associates.....Clerow and I ordered a half dozen doughnuts and two steaming hot tumblers of coffee...We sat down at one of the tables..

''Everybody know that Cakeman Raven is one of the biggest drug dealers in the city Kev, but his bakery makes the best pastries and serves the best coffee around, you can't argue with that." said Clerow.

"Yeah, that's true....Corrie and Sepia will love these doughnuts....I tell Sepia not to come down here, but she does anyway." I laughed.

"That's that North Jersey girl in her." laughed Clerow.

The manager, Sam Stone came and sat down with us...

"Kev...I was talkin to Attorney Foxworth and his young protoge' Chance Howard and they tole me that you'd be coming by here at sometime." he said.

''Oh they did?" I said.

"Yeah....Look, the last time I saw Cakeman was a week ago...Two guys come in here...They was Johnny Porters boys...They sat over there in that booth and they talked for about an hour...It got pretty loud...and Cakeman had his two security guards toss them both out.... Then he got a phone call and he left in a huff...and when he came back...he looked like he'd seen a ghost...He went in the back and took some money out of the safe and then he went upstairs to his office and he packed a bag....He tole me that he was goin out of town for a couple of days and to mind the store and that was the last I seen of him." he said.

"Okay...So Cakeman left town?" I said.

''No...I don't think he did..I went out in the back alley the next day and I found the bag he emptied the safe with...Full of money...about 50 large Kev....and his grip with his clothes in it....All in the back alley...He wouldn't have taken the time to gather his clothes and some money and just drop em in the back alley..That's when I called Attorney Foxworth." said Sam Stone.

"Hmmmmm.....Where can I find this Johnny Porter?" I asked.

''It's hard to say...He stays with several young ladies....He don't stay the same place two nights in a row...He's all over the map." said Sam.

"Okay Sam....Thanks...I'll be in touch if I find out anything about Cakeman." I said.

"Thanks Kev.'' he said.

III-

Clerow drove me home , on the drive home I talked aloud.

"There's a nasty pattern here Clerow...Do you see it?" I asked.

"This New Yorker, Johnny Porter moves here right after Eldorado Mack goes to jail...He takes over all of his action and then starts cutting into Kornbread Earl Evans action, Fly Tyrone Wallace's action and now it seems Cakeman Raven's action....Now all of these guys are heavy hitters...Not ones to idly sit by and let some outsider come in and take what's theres...These guys had muscle and influence...Now ....they have all just vanished and Johnny Porter is sitting pretty." I said.

''Usually Kev, when a new guy moves in...There's bloodshed, You know, shootouts, bodies fallin...But it's been relatively quiet all summer long...Not a drug related or gangland murder all summer...I must say,it's been damn enjoyable." laughed Clerow..

"Damn enjoyable and damn unrealistic." I said.

"Oh here we are...." said Clerow.

"Thanks for the lift....Don't eat anymore of those doughnuts...Corrie and the kids won't have none." I joked.

Clerow smiled and winked and pulled off.

I met Kool Kat at Mulberry Street, the rooftop bar ,restaurant and jazz club the next night and talked to him about my latest case ...

"So you workin for two lawyers huh Kev?  You done moved up in the world." laughed the big man.

"Yeah...I've been all over town lookin for Cakeman Raven, Kornbread Earl Evans and Fly Tyrone Wallace...three of the biggest Drug Kingpins this side of Fathead Newton and they are all missing."I said.

"They dead Kev." he said just as matter of factly as if he was saying it was a cloudy night.

"Look Kev...I hear things on the street that even you don't hear....They dead, you might as well stop lookin for em." he said.

"Johnny Porter?" I said.

"I'm impressed...That means you hear a little somethin somethin too at times." he said.

"Okay...what do you hear Kool Kat?" I asked.

Porter told them he wanted fifty percent of their action.....You know Fly Ty...He told him to go take a jump in the lake...and Fly Ty aint been seen or heard from since...Kornbread Evans called in a squad of hitters from
New Jersey to take Johnny out....Aint seen hide nor hair of none of em or Kornbread Earl Evans...and Cakeman Raven just vanished..pffft....Before him, Beautiful Bobby Hunter, who originally took over from Eldorado Mack disapeared in broad daylight!! That was two months ago....Tone Capone Muhammad?? Him too Kev...One Minute he was at Jake's havin a hot dog...and the next minute...He was gone...Just like that!!and Big Goat?? Remember him? We was investigating him for the Lance Rodriguez hit remember Kev?" said Kool Kat.

"Yeah...and then he vanished a few months ago...never came back to his house...never was seen again..I had Tom and Lockpick take all of the devices out of his house...I figured he'd left town...." I said.

"All of em...gone baby gone...Big Goat, Tone Capone, Beautiful Bobby, Fly Tyrone Wallace, Kornbread Earl Evans and now Cakeman Ravens..." said Kool Kat.

"How does he do it?" I asked.

''Damn if I know..." said Kool Kat.

"You mean there is something you don't know?" I laughed.

"Man, nobody knows nothin...they just up and vanished...Nobody seen nothin, nobody heard a damn thing...but one thing is for sure... Johnny Porter runs enough territory now to challenge Fathead Newton, The Diaz Brothers and Lin Chou...and all three of em are shaking in their boots...The only independent operater around here is Manny Rodriguez....." said Kool Kat.

"Yeah and how long will that be?" I asked.

"The way things is going...Not long?" said Kool Kat.

"Guess I should just bow out of this huh?" I asked.

"I was hopin you'd want to take Johnny Porter on...just out of civic pride." said Kool Kat.

"You down if I do?" I asked.

"We ride or die baby...you know that." said Kool Kat.

"Good...then starting tomorrow, we start finding out about Johnny Porter and how to take him down." I said.

"I'm all in baby." said Kool Kat.

(To Be Continued....)