Remains Of The Day

I was sitting in Robert Foxworth's office , with attorney Foxworth and his young protoge' Chance Howard..We were all drinking coffee and talking about the great jazz concert of the week before....

"Kev, Reed Nelson and Rob Brown always bring it....but that last cat..uh...Sammy...Sammy Hideaway..he was the bomb." said Robert Foxworth...

I laughed and I looked over at Chance Howard...a young attorney with good instincts , who I predicted would make as good an investigator as me one day laughing at his boss, Robert Foxworth trying to sound hip...We shared a little private laugh that just went right by Robert...

"You guys want to break and get some lunch? I know a cool little sandwich shop .." I said.

"Yeah..I'm a bit hungry.." said Robert Foxworth...."How bout you Chance?" asked Robert.

"Yeah...I'm down..." he said.

As we were getting ready to leave ,Slim Giddings....one of Robert's clients and a neighborhood fixture walked into the lobby of the office.

''Hey Slim..What's shaking baby?" asked Robert...

Chance and I looked at each other and smiled .....

"I'm so glad I caught the three of you here..." he said.  Robert had recently helped him out in his divorce case and had settled a civil case he had been involved in....He trusted Robert for all kinds of things.

"You guys were at that Jazz concert Friday Night right?" he asked.

"Yeah" we all said in unison...

"Well so was my grand-daughter and she hasn't been seen since....Her name is Maysa Giddings" he said.

"You call the police?" I asked.

"Yeah and they gave me the same old bull about she's a grown woman and she can vanish if she wanna and all and I aint got time for their do nothin bull...If it was the mayor's daughter or some big wig..they'd already be on it." said Slim...

"You gotta photo?" I asked.

"Sure" he said.

She was indeed a looker...Both Robert and Chance were spellbound by her photo.....

"I can't believe ,I've never met your grand-daughter before." said Robert....

''She'd be a bit young for you counselor, wouldn't she?" snapped Slim staring at Robert unaprovingly....Chance and I looked at each other and laughed again.......

"What can you tell me about her last night?" I asked Slim...

''Well, she went to Josies with some friends...Two girls and a guy....They said that she got very drunk and left
before the show was even over.....They called her on her cell, but it went to voicemail....Her girlfriends said that she didn't show up at church Sunday and that they dropped by her apartment and the door was open and there was no sign of her..Thas all I know." said Slim...

"You got an address for her and a cell phone number?' I asked.

"Yeah...I can give you all of that.." said Slim....

"How about the names of her friends? The ones who were out with her?" I asked...

"Yeah..I got all of that." said Slim....

"Okay...I'll start from there, see what I can dig up." I said.

"Thanks Kev....I'll pay you..." he said.

"Don't worry about that...Let's see if I can find her first." I said.


II-

Robert, Chance and I went to the sandwich shop I told them about and had Hoagies ,Chips and Cokes....After we ate,,,We Went to the Parking lot of Josies... It didn't take us long to find a woman's pocket book!!!!

"It's got credit cards and a debit card in it Kev...a make up kit....lipstick and lottery tickets....This is Maysa's alright...Here is a drivers licensce.." said Robert Foxworth...

I looked in the pocket book , found her car keys too!

"Hey look what I found?" said Chance....

It was a cell phone!!!  I checked it and found out easily that it was Maysa's phone....I checked the last calls and sure enough they were all from her girlfriends....They started at around 11:00 pm Friday night and were made steadily into the next day and the day after that..Apparently , they weren't answered!!!!

We walked just three blocks from Josies and there was her car, a 2010 Ford Fusion....It had a flat tire!

We opened the car...Nothing was amiss...Everything was in order...This was odd....And so within the next few hours Robert ,Chance and I began asking people in the neighborhood, People who attended the concert,of which there was many and local vendors if they had seen Maysa Giddings...

To my surprise...Many had seen her..She had been visibly drunk and then had gone to her car and found that she didn't have her keys or her purse, which we of course found blocks away...Two or three people recalled seeing her with a tall well dressed man walking towards the corner of the very block we were on!!!!

I went to Josies and to a couple of other businesses and asked if I could check their parking lot cameras....Chance helped me out...We went through hours and hours of survielience footage and we found Maysa!!! Maysa and a young lady were fishing around the parking lot..Probably looking for her purse and cell phone...but it was dark and they both looked drunk.

At a 7-Eleven , we saw her buying a sandwich and a coke...This was 4:54 am Sunday Morning....You can see a man at the door, but just barely....and that represented the last time Maysa Giddings was seen alive!!!
We went by her apartment...There was no sign that she had been there recently...I talked to both girls and the guy who she came with..Their stories were all consistant...They had been partying...She had gotten really drunk ,had said she was going to the restroom and had not been seen since...All three confirmed that they had been calling her and calling her into the next day...It matched her last phone calls.

III-

Peeping Tom was good at taking photos and video and expanding them and making them clearer...A visit to him with the 7 Eleven videotape gave me a clear photo of the man who was with Maysa....I didn't know him..but Robert Foxworth did...

"That's Colin Huxley.....a real high roller.." said Robert Foxworth...

''Playa?" I asked.

"No...No...No.. Not like that...He's loaded..He's a day trader...Supposedly a financial whiz kid...Big Jazz music fan...and a big fan of Black women...." said Chance Howard...

"I never heard of him." I said.

''Yeah, well you wouldn't...None of us travel in his circles...but your boy Rollie Rollerson would know him." said Chance Howard...

"Hmmm, well maybe I should get to know him." I said.

"If he's still here...He travels from Philly to New York, to Miami, to Los Angelas, To London,Paris,Amsterdam..." said Robert Foxworth...

"What's the odds he's still in Philly now?" I asked.

"50-50" said Chance.

"You should check with Rollie Rollerson first." said Robert Foxworth.


My Android went off....It was Homicide Lt.Sissy Van Buren.....

"Hello Sissy...To what do I owe this honor?" I asked.

"Kev...I'm gonna give you some directions.....I want you to meet me there...I think we've found something, someone of interest to you...." she said.

"Oh really?" I said.

''Yeah..take these directions down." she said.

I did and then I looked at Chance and Robert Foxworth.....

"That was Homicide...They said they found something of interest." I said.

"You didn't tell the police that we were searching for this missing girl did you?" asked Robert.

''No...No...This must be something else.....I'll get back to you tomorrow.." I said as I headed to my car...

I was right off the interstate.... I had been here a couple of months before ,searching for another missing person....Mr. Bruce Harvey....I brought his killers to justice....but we had never found him...The Police had searched this area from top to bottom  and could find nothing.....As I drove up...I found a slew of police...State Police, Philadelphia Police, County Morgue officials and Lt. Sissy Van Buren....I had never seen so many people in an area like this...

"A guy was driving by here today and he stumbled across a girl's body...a young black girl!!... We had a missing person's report filed yesterday that nobody was acting on....and I heard this report and come out here...take a look....you know her?" she asked.

She pulled the cover up and there was the nude body of Maysa Giddings!!!!!   Where was her clothing???

"Her Grandfather had me looking for her, Her name is Maysa Giddings....He had just hired me....She vanished Friday from Josie's bar and grill....after a big concert...I found her car, a pocket book, and her cell phone right outside Josie's...and I talked to plenty of people who saw her that night and early the next morning.." I said.

"Wow...Well Kevin...you found her....but she's not who I called you out here for." she said.

"She's not?" I asked...

"No... a guy was also out here jogging and tripped over some human remains...further back....Look at this one.." she said....

These remains were skelatal...but the clothing remained on it....the Leather jacket, the pants....the beret...and the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity pin.....These clothes belonged to only one man...The man I had been searching for and had never found....Bruce Harvey, investigative journalist!!!!!  His remains had been located at last!!!

"This was the guy you were hunting for all that time....wasn't it?" she said solemnly....

"Yeah...it was..." I said.

"He died quick...two slugs to the back of the head...I'm amazed that we couldn't find him..We took apart every inch of this area....I guess the recent rain and winds unearthed him...just a few feet from where somebody dumped this girl..... This girl has been dead about 48 hours....Whoever dumped her out here took all of her clothes off of her...So they couldn't be identified..." she said.

"Wow...this is something..." I said.

"I just thought you'd like to know.....I'll keep you posted." she said.

"Thanks Sissy." I said...

IV-

A little while later, I went to Slim Giddings house....

"Slim...We found Maysa." I said.

"Damn...I heard you was good...." he laughed, but I wasn't laughing or smiling.

"She dead aint she?" he asked as he hung his head down.

"Pretty much" I said.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)