Last Call

I talked to Homicide Lt. Sissy Van Buren about this case...She like I was a bit concerned about this case herself..  We drank coffee and ate Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in her office and looked at the autopsy reports...
The suspect, Alan Artis, age 28 died of a "self inflicted gunshot wound" , yet there was no powder burns on the body...The man was left handed...yet the shot was on the right side of his head.....

"Strange Kevin...Strange indeed...but I've got nothing else... His prints are the only prints on the gun." she said.

''What about the serial number?" I asked.

"It was filed off....you know the drill Kevin...This is a throwdown gun...the kind sold illegally on the streets." she said.

"Hmmmm...." I mused... "he didn't have much of a jacket...just three arrests...two for possession of drugs and one for soliticiting a prostitute...Doesn't sound like a mad dog killer to me!" I said.

"No..it doesn't...He had just did a stint in rehab and had been out for six months..had been clean too...even had a job!" she said.

"I know...I went by his job..I talked to everybody that knew him...They said that he was a hard worker and that he came to work everyday..Never missed a day." I said.

''Maybe he fell off the wagon..I don't know...Drugs can scramble your brains." said Sissy.

"Come on Sissy...This aint him!" I said.

"Well who is it then Kev?" she asked...

"I don't know." I said

"You gotta do better than that." she said.

"Yeah, I know." I said as I walked out of her office.

II-

I drove around and I rousted every hood, every low level playa  and every illegal gun dealer in the neighborhood for the next few days and not one person could say that they had seen or dealt with Alan Artis or even knew who he was.

I went to the church and talked extensively with Pastor Struthers and Deacons Larry Weatherford and Basil Robinson... They knew him..He had been a regular at their young men's outreach and as far as they knew  had been doing good , had been clean and had been off the drugs...

Robert Foxworth and Chance Howard had a contact in Telephone security....I visited him next...I often wondered why Attorney Robert Foxworth had so many "contacts" in so many places, The DMV, Telephone Security and Records....He told me that he paid good money for good information...

"Kevin...Information is the most valuable commodity...It's why I win most of my cases.." he said.  The gambler, Stephen Bristol had told me the same thing once....I suppose that's why he seldom lost a bet or a wager.

The guy in Telephone security tracked all of Alan Artis's phone calls leading up to the night of his death...Most of them ,I could easily eliminate....To the job, to the grocery store, girlfriends, family, even one to Atlantic City....but there was one made at 2:15 am on the early Saturday morning he died.  It was made from a cell phone...an unlisted cell phone...

"Hmmm...This call was made from an unlisted cell phone to his cell phone...Can you trace the owner?" I asked.

''Yeah..it'll take some time." he said.

"Okay..here's my number..get back to me..." I said.

"I'm on it Kev." he said.

A call was made to him at 2:15 am....Less than 45 minutes later, He's dead and a cop is dead.....That was indeed strange...  I drove to his mother's house... Louise Redding Artis, the older sister of Eric Redding was a pleasure to meet...A very shapely and attractive woman....She looked too young to be the mother of a 28 year old...

We sat in her foyer and talked...

"That yellow hoodie that Alan had on when he died...wasn't his.... I never seen it before in my life...He lived here Mr. Kev... I did his laundry, so I know all of his clothes..The damn thing was a little too big for him...He didn't buy ill fitting clothes...and those shades....I can tell you right now that those wasn't his shades...Those shades are like $500.00 a pop...Alan couldn't afford those things...and he didn't have no gun either...Not that gun...He wasn't violent at all...I'm tellin you..I'm his mother..I know that." she said.

"I believe you...I think he was set up." I said.  "Problem is..I can't prove it or why just yet." I said.

"Well...he wasn't violent and he wasn't using...I woulda kicked him out of here if he had of been." she said.

"Well what would have made him run out of here at two in the morning?" I asked.

"Only thing I can think of is some woman.... He loved the ladies...I think that was one addiction he had yet to kick." she said with a smile...

"Any woman friend? He seein anybody?" I asked.

"Nobody serious...In the past few weeks there was one girl that called and came around here once...Some trick named Charlotte ..Charlotte Phillips...lives up in the projects." she said.

"You got an address?" I asked.

" Yeah....let me go to his room..I think he had it and her phone number written down." she said.

She returned with a phone number and an address ...I thanked her and left.... I called Clerow and told him to hook up with me in about an hour... My guy from Telephone security called me back.

"Kev...I got a name and an address for the phone call.....It came out of the projects and the owner of that phone is a Ms. Charlotte Phillips...." He said.

We compared numbers....It was the same number that Mrs. Redding -Artis had given me.  I picked up Clerow and Owen Todd and we went to my contact in Records....Ms. Charlotte Phillips , age 28 was currently on parole.. She had a lengthy arrest record that included Prostitution, Possession of Drugs, Assault ,among other things....She had only recently gotten out of jail.

Now that I knew who I was dealing with...I proceeded to her residence.....  Clerow and I got out of the car..We left Owen in the car as a lookout.... I rang the bell...but there was no need...The door was open....

Clerow cocked his pistol and opened the door..We walked inside...The smell immediately knocked us for a loop...


''Whoa!" I said.

'This don't look good boss." said Clerow.

"It doesn't smell good either." I said. Clerow gave me the side eye for a minute...Then he just smiled. Gallows Humor!

We walked into the next room and my suspicion was correct....Charlotte Phillips wasn't going to be able to help us at all..She was dead.!!!!..With a needle sticking out of her arm, a super shapely young woman lie on the floor beside her sink....Dead as a doorknob and looking and smelling like she'd been dead for close to a week!

I had hit a dead end....I was used to that!

(To Be Continued...)