As If He Were Never Here

A day went by and still no word came from Bruce Harvey...I called both of his numbers again and got no answer from either...I drove by the house once again....No signs of life...In fact there was two days worth of mail on the porch...I talked to the neighbors on both sides of the street...No one had seen or heard from Bruce in two days...

Later on that night...I came back with Clerow, Lockpick Johnson and Kool Kat...Lockpick Johnson got us inside and Owen Todd, a new associate of Chris and Chess waited outside in the car , ready to warn us and aide us if we should suddenly have any house guests.

I insisted that everyone wear latex gloves...If this was to be a crime scene ,I didn't want mine or my friends fingerprints or DNA on anything.

"Doesn't look like anybody has been here in days Kev." said Clerow..

''Yeah , this is strange, since dude was at my job and was supposed to hook up with me today." I said.

Kool Kat turned on some lights and we walked through the house...There was no sign of forced entry...The place was clean and immaculate....At least, downstairs...Upstairs was another story....The bed was unmade and the shower was dripping as though someone had just taken a shower... There was socks on the floor and clothes in a hamper...It looked as if someone had gotten dressed in a hurry and left..but why and where?

I checked his phone messages...There was several from me and a couple with strange breathing on it...nothing more.

We checked his basement....A very nice wide flat screen Television, a Waterbed, a couch and two speaker towers as well as an ipod set up... A closet full of liquor and wine that hadn't been opened...but nothing else.

"That's it guys...Nothing Here....Let's go Home." I said.

"It looks like the cat was just here and then went out." said Lockpick Johnson.

"Yeah Boss...Like he was just here." said Clerow.

"He was.  Two days ago." I said as we turned the lights out, and departed his house. This was very strange!

II-

The next day, I checked his credit cards for any activity....There was none past three days before and there was none on his debit cards either....I had a friend that worked in Telephone security..We checked his telephone activity....All of the calls on his phone made in the past three days were from me....prior to that, there were calls to the office, calls to Rollie Rollerson's office, calls to five women who he had identified as the women who were pressing charges against Westly East and one call from Westly East. The other calls were routine calls, Bill collectors, wrong numbers, utilities , food orders et al.  Nothing mysterious or out of the order.

His cell phone was another matter...After I weeded out the calls I made, and other routine things..There was a series of calls being made from one number to his cell phone.  These calls weren't from me and they were made after his disapearence!!!  Several of the calls were made today!!!!

My friend at Telephone security told me that the calls seemed to be checking voicemail on his cell phone..He pinpointed the pay phone from which the call came from....I picked up Clerow and we drove out to the pay phone...

"Hard to believe there is a workin payphone now of days." said Clerow...

"Yeah, well cell phone batteries run down all the times and sometimes you need a pay phone." I said as we approached the busy corner where the phone was..

It was a busy street corner....Several people were using the phone as we pulled up.

"Man, you won't get no prints off that phone....All these people usin it..Whoever called his phone from that payphone is long gone by now boss." said Clerow.

''Yeah man..This is all kinds of dead ends." I said.

We pulled off.

III-

I remembered something Peeping Tom had told me about Cell Phones and cell phone towers..  I drove over to the Telephone Security office and found my friend there, who shall remain anonymous for now..He took the wireless number I gave him and traced it for activity....He was able to pinpoint where the last bit of activity came from and tell me exactly where the last ping from Bruce Harvey's cell phone originated from...I now had a location...It was off the interstate , right outside of the city limits...

When Sepia went missing that time she had the car accident, that was how I had found her, by tracing the cell phone and the GPS unit...It was a long shot...but it was all I had.  I got Clerow and Kool Kat and we drove out to where the last ping on Bruce Harvey's cell phone had been transmitted.

"I appreciate you guys coming out here with me." I said as I drove towards the area where the last ping had been heard.

''Don't mention it Kev..hanging with you is the only excitement in my otherwise dull daily existence." joked Kool Kat from the back seat... Clerow who was riding shotgun just grinned.

The Car, a 2011 Pathfinder wasn't hard to spot...It was parked right off of the interstate......For the first time in two days...My search had yielded something concrete...I recognized the car..It was Bruce Harvey's alright.
It had his Alpha Phi Alpha-1906 Fraternity license plate on the front and back of it...It had a black air freshener hanging on the inside.

We got out of our car...I was afraid I was going to find Bruce Harvey inside the car, shot to death!  Not so..He was nowhere to be found... The door was open...Inside was his driver's license, his cell phone and his car keys....This was very,very odd!

'This makes no sense...A brand new ride like this, just left here...In the open...Drivers License, Car keys, and smartphone here on the front seat...." I mused.

"It don't seem right boss...and look..it's his wallet." said Clerow...

It certainly was...The wallet had all of his credit cards and debit cards in it as well as close to $300.00 in twenties....Bruce had to be somewhere around...Somewhere near by....Nobody would leave all of this stuff out in the open like this....

Kool Kat stood guard while Clerow and I fanned out and attempted to look for him... but, it was wide open spaces...No trees, no woods, no underbrush..and no sign of Bruce Harvey!!!

"Kev...this dude is dead." said Kool Kat solemnly...

"Nobody leaves a new ride , credit cards, car keys, cell phone,dough and what not out here in the open like this....  He either wants to be missing or he dead man..straight up." said Kool Kat.

Neither Clerow ,nor I could argue with him.... I picked up my cell phone and called Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Philadelphia Homicide...I filled her in with all that I knew and within 90 minutes, She, three homicide detectives and several uniformed  cops were scouring the area , along with a tow truck... There was no sign of Bruce Harvey at all....

IV-

A few hours later, I was at home....I was in my living room staring out the window...Sepia was in the kitchen cooking dinner and talking to Bonita Foxworth, who had dropped by...My mind was far away from their conversation...How could someone just vanish into thin air like that?  I had just talked to this man the day before..and now he was gone as if he was never here...I didn't like it...and I didn't accept it..Somebody was responsible and someone was going to pay!

(To Be Continued...)