Okay, I bite!

We followed the man to a nice row home in a typical African-American neighborhood in Philly...We watched. It appeared that he had a wife and two children...a girl and a boy....He didn't look like a criminal....I wondered why he had broken in the house.

I took a photo of him going in the house and coming out...Took a photo of his car and the license plate...And then told Clerow to pull off..

"Kev We aint going to at least talk to him, rattle his cage?" asked Kool Kat.

"We know he broke in that house Kev" said Clerow.

"Yeah ,I know....He doesn't look like he's going anywhere....We've got the Address and the license plate of the car....Let's find out who he is first guys."I said as we pulled off..

Finding out who he was , wasn't a problem at all....The next day I took the license plate number, the photo of him and the house address info to Robert Foxworth's man in public records....He ran down the information for me...

The man was Joshua Mabry...Mary's estranged ex-Husband...Her second Husband to be exact...  They had been married a little over three years and had had a tempestuous relationship at best....He was a cop...A narcotics plain clothes Detective....He had busted a huge player and had seized a lot of good dope and coke that little by little began to vanish from evidence...He and a partner were stealing the dope and re-selling it...or so they thought to undercover DEA agents....

Busted.....he turned state's evidence against the main players, which caused them all to go to prison....He did two years in a Federal Prison at an undisclosed location and was released....He was booted off the force in disgrace and was now the head of security for some warehouse....It cost him his wife, A beautiful attorney who worked in the Public Defender's office.  He lost the house and custody of their son...Who was just born when he went to prison and was now six or seven years old.

He had remarried and had a newborn.....For all intents and purposes he seemed to be on the straight and narrow.

Armed with this information...I called him and asked him to meet me at Josies...I told him that I was a private detective investigating the disapearence of his ex-wife and that it would be best if we spoke in private...He agreed and so the next night...He met me in Josies... We sat in a small booth for privacy and had two Coronas and some of Gus's famous Barbecued Hot Wings...

"This is a nice joint...I've always meant to come here, but I never made it ...A couple of my friends have told me about this joint." He said.   He was about my height and build, brown skinned with a close haircut and an ear ring in his right ear , clean shaven and pretty well dressed...Definitely not a player though.

"Mr. Mabry...you broke into your ex-wife's home a few days ago and was looking for a ledger.." I said.

"Hey now wait a minute.." he said.

"You wait a minute...I took a photo of you coming out and a photo of your car and your license plate...I even followed you to your house..." I said.

"Man, you are good." he said with a sheepish grin...

"Look man, I don't want no trouble....I can't go back to jail." he said.

''Who said anything about jail?" I asked.

"Well why were you following me?" he asked.

"I wasn't following you...I've been hired to find her." I said.

He looked perplexed....then he sighed..

''Get in line...Everybody is lookin for her. The gas company, the cable company, the electric company, you name it...She hasn't paid a bill in a month....My name is still on those bills and the credit bureaus were callin me...I called and called and called and she never answered and when I went over there, the children were there , Hungry and dirty and damn near starving....I called her other husband, William Powell and he came and got his daughter and I got my boy and we called Child welfare....Aint nobody seen her." he said.

"When is the last time you saw her?" I asked.

''About a month ago when I went to visit my boy." He said.

"I heard you rumaging around in the house going on and on about some ledger." I said.

"Yeah...I need that ledger...It could prove her an unfit mother, like I been sayin and get me custody of my boy, that all I want." he said.

"What's in this so called ledger you're looking for if I may ask?" I said.

He was silent for awhile....Then he smiled slyly...

"You don't know do ya?" he said...

"Know what?" I asked...

"Why do you think we got divorced?" he asked.

"Because you went to jail, you stuck up drug dealers and resold the dope.." I said.

"Well...I admit....I did my dirt...but that aint all of it...She was cheatin on me while I was in jail." he said.

"Cheating on you?" I said.

"I guess whoever hired you to try and find her doesn't know or they didn't bother to tell you." he said.

"Okay ,I bite! What didn't they bother to tell me?" I said.

"Mary had a side thing goin on....I didn't know it at first...but it became crystal clear eventually....My wife was a lawyer by day in the Public Defender's office and by night, she made her livin, staring at the ceiling...She was a hooker, Kev...A hooker! A high price one at that.....When I found that out, I hit the ceiling." he said.

''And you killed her!!!" I said....Though I didn't know why I said that...I didn't know if she was dead or not, but I was starting to suspect that she might be.

"Noooo...Noooo...I just got a divorce....I was paying her alimony, I lost my house, I lost my boy....Yeah...I felt like killing her...but I didn't...I went over there to have it out with her...When I realized she wasn't there I searched for that ledger." he said.

''How did you know about the ledger?"I asked.

"I found it by accident, while we were still married...It had names, payoffs, amounts,dates....That and other things that proved what she was doing...But during our divorce hearings , that ledger mysteriously vanished...I could never find it...but I knew it was there somewhere....It would've helped me out a great deal...It would've proven that she was unfit." he said.

I believed him...

"You have any idea where she is?" I asked.

"No...not a clue....but if you come across that ledger....One of those guys in it might hold the clue...Maybe they don't want that book being made public." he said.

II-

The next day, in Robert Foxworth's office, Robert ,Chance and I looked at the ledger and all of the names on it...Surprisingly, he knew a lot of the people on the ledger and was surprised...

"Oh My God Kevin, this here is a Doctor....This is another Lawyer....This guy was on City Council...and this guy, he's a major businessman...one of my clients...Dirty negro...I knew he was trying to get in her panties even back when I was with her, always laughin and grinnin..." he mused...

"Mr. Kevin, even I know some of these guys....That guy there owns a record label or he used to...This guy here is an actor....This guy here is a singer, this is the bass player in Reed Nelson's band....oh my God, Pastor Struthers name is on here....This goes back a few years though, Councilmen Drinkwater...and Deputy Mayor,
Parsons....Holy mackrell...She was really gettin her freak on.." laughed Chance..

"I notice your name is surprisingly NOT in this ledger counselor " I said giving Robert Foxworth , the side eye. Chance Howard looked at his boss and giggled. Robert didn't show any emotion...

''Kev....you've known me long enough to know that I don't pay for lovin...... I had that gal and I never paid a dime...I can't vouch for these other guys..." he said... Chance and I looked at each other and just laughed.

"Look Kev...there is your boy, Rollie Rollerson....He's on here three times...Looks like he really enjoyed himself..." sneered Robert Foxworth....

I was afraid to look any further...I was hoping I didn't see any of my friends like Gus or Kool Kat on that ledger..I didn't.

"You realize that if this got out...If these guys even suspected they were on some ledger....This could be very, very explosive don't you?" asked Robert.

''Yeah...that's why I've got to go about this very discreetly." I said.

III-

When I got home, I told Sepia all about this latest case I was on and what I had found out...I showed her the ledger and the strongbox with the 600K in it.

"Wow...I can't believe all of the guys on this list...Rollie Rollerson, Pastor Struthers....Oh my God...You guys are just dogs....."she said as she guffawed with laughter...

''I'd be pleased if you not talk about this to anybody." I said.

"Oh Kevin,you know  I won't...At least not until you crack the case" she said and went running...I chased her around the living room and into our bedroom where I tackled her and tossed her down on the bed....We began kissing passionately and laughing for a few minutes and then we stopped to catch our breath...

"You know Kevin...it's funny...Nobody mentioned the money.." she laughed...

I rolled over and then I thought....

"You know... You're right Sepia. He knew about the ledger...but I don't think he knew about the money....but what I don't understand is...They were getting ready to shut everything off in that house...I saw the shutoff notices...With this kind of dough, she could have more than paid it off....It makes me wonder.." I said.

''Yeah...that and the fact that you still don't know what happened to her." said Sepia...She giggled when she said that...I rolled over on top of her....in between kisses I said...

"I can always depend on you to keep me looking at the big picture...."

"That's what a good wife does.." she cooed.

(To Be Continued...)