Sprung

I spent the night in a jail cell down at what they call -"The Round House " in Philadelphia...It's where the recently arrested are booked , fingerprinted and processed before they go off to one or two main facilities...I hadn't been fingerprinted or booked yet....I just sat in a cell that smelled like generations of urine and sweat with a huge white man with  way too many tattoos on him..

"Hey fella...what you in here for?" he asked me.

"Something I didn't do." I said and left it at that.  I had seen too many times on the television where somebody had been arrested and locked up with somebody they didn't know, only to find out that it was a plant and they had spilled their whole case out to the law..

I had been falsely arrested for assault with into to kill one Lewis Berger....Louis Berger was heavily muscled and about two inches taller than me...His employer had ordered him to attack me...I had defended myself against bodily injury.....and now his boss, who I strongly suspected of murder had slyly put me on the defensive...A nice move!

"I killed my wife , her boyfriend and his daughter...that's what I done." said the tattooed white man.

"Oh yeah?  Well you should keep that to yourself...You don't know me...I could be an undercover cop." I said.

"HAhahahahahahahaahahahaha...They wouldn't need one... I done confessed." he said and laughed maniacally... Now he was giving me the creeps...Why was I in a cell with this mad killer? I thought...

Just then, a guard walked by our cell...

"Which one of you is Kevin Morris?" He barked.

"I am." I said.

" Get your stuff....you've been bailed out...your lawyer and your wife are upstairs." he said.

I got up......I looked at my "cell mate" and nodded my head...

"Well...good luck" I said...I felt as if I should say something.."

"You the one with the luck pally..." he said and smiled in a deranged kind of way....

Once upstairs..I was given my coat, my wallet, my car keys and my android....I walked out into the lobby and into the arms of my loving wife, Sepia and my friend, Attorney, Robert Foxworth....

"Guess you just aint with me for my money afterall.." I joked to Sepia as she hugged me and kissed me..

''Silly...I missed a day of work for you." she said...

"Wow, Kev...Never thought I'd be coming down here to bail you out.." he said.

"Look..let's just get out of here and find a diner...I'm sure we all could use some breakfast.." I said.

II-

We found a diner in Midtown Philadelphia and the three of us had orders of Eggs and Bacon, Tumblers of Coffee, Toast and Hash Browns... It felt good not being locked up...even though it was only for a few hours.

"Kev, who is this Lewis Berger??? I saw photos of his face...and I got a hospital report...You really did a number on him." said Robert Foxworth.

''He tried to kill me." I said.  "Colin Huxley ordered him to do it...after I caught him in two lies...First ,he said that he wasn't even at Josies that night." I explained.

"Oh well that's a lie...I saw him there myself." said Robert Foxworth.

"You saw him there?" I asked.

"Yeah...and Gus served him and a couple of people saw him..He was drunk, tried to hit on a couple of people...He's crazy about Black and Latino women...Asian women too...Man just loves women." said Robert Foxworth.

Sepia gave him the side eye and then she looked at me...I smiled...

"Yeah, well I have photos of him there...two or three." I said.  "Then he said that he didn't know the dead girl ,Maysa...I have a photo of the two of them in the 7 Eleven...It was the last known sighting of her alive.." I said.

"Oh...and that's when he sicked Big Lou on you?" asked Robert.

"Yeah...but that's his word against mine." I said.

"There was a woman there too..and she's backing his story." said Robert.

"Colin was screwing her when I got there...of course she's backing his story." I said.

"WHATTTTT? What kind of party was this?" asked Robert , his eyes lighting up...

"They were off in a room...I waited with uh Big Lou." I said dryly....Sepia began laughing then, almost spit her coffee out...

"Well , I'll use the self defense excuse....You don't have any priors and everybody that knows you on the Police force will vouch for your charactor." said Robert.

"Thanks counselor, but a murderer is out there and he might just get away with it...and I can't go near him until after this trial." I said.

"Well, just because you saw them in a 7 Eleven, doesn't prove anything." said Robert...

"Yeah, but then why lie?" I asked.

III-

After we finished eating....Sepia and I went home...We showered , together of course ,made sweet love into the mid-afternoon and just chilled in bed......It had been a rough 24 hours.....

Slim had asked me to find his grand-daughter...I had done that!  It wasn't my job to bring her murderer to justice...I could just let the police do that....Then I thought to myself...They weren't going to do anything..They didn't even want to look for the girl when she was first reported missing...And the thought of that smug bastard getting away with it and setting me up and costing me legal fees to get out of a manufactured charge just made my blood boil...No..I was going to find a way to bring him down if it was the last thing I did...This was personal now!

As Sepia and I lay in the bed....The doorbell rang!

"Kev...who could be at the door? Who knows we are here?" she asked...

"Anybody." I answered as I got up and put on my bathrobe....

It was Kool Kat and Owen Todd!! Hmmm, wonder what they wanted?...

 

"What's goin on guys?" I said as I opened the door and let them in...

"We won't take up much of your time Kev...We just stopped by to tell you that uh, er..that Lewis Berger guy dropped all of the charges against you." said Kool Kat...

"What? Huh?" I said.

"Yeah Kev....Me and Kools had a ...a...er ugh , you might say, lengthy discussion with him and that broad about things and after we uh er, ruh talked...They saw things our way and they kind of agreed that it was all a
mis-understanding....They called up the Police and said as much...so ..You're off the hook." said Owen Todd.

"Off the hook? What did you guys do?" I asked....I could see me being arrested all over again!

''Relax Kev...You worry too much and you have no faith in my ability to handle things..Look at us, do we look like we been fightin or engaged in any violence?" asked Kool Kat with a maniacal smile.

Both he and Owen Todd were dressed to the nines in beautifully and expensive European  tailored suits , with shoes that might have been worn by a banker.. They had on some wonderfully smelling cologne also...If I didn't know them...I would have sworn that they were the lions of finance or commerce.

"We simply impressed upon Mr. Berger and his blond friend, Ms. Hearst  that a lot of things could happen in the course of a day." said Kool Kat.

"Yes.. a lot of things." said Owen Todd.

"We impressed upon them both that the most important thing in life is not money, but simply health...and that making phony claims and putting an innocent person like yourself behind bars would definitely not be worth their health and good standing... and guess what Kev?   Why those two nice people understood right away what I was talking about and they called the Deputy District Attorney and the Police , right while we were there, isn't that something?" asked Kool Kat...with a mischievous ,yet deadly grin that sent chills down my spine.

"Oh Really?" I asked.

"Yeah...they were only too glad to do it." said Owen Todd.

I laughed and just shook my head.....

"Where was Mr. Huxley, during all of this?" I asked.

"Long Gone Kev...He took a plane to Miami late last night...He won't be back for awhile." said Owen Todd.

I smiled-

"You know...I don't know what you two did...and I don't want to know...In fact, we never had this conversation." I said.

"Oh, that goes without saying." said Owen Todd..

"But I'm grateful to you...I really am." I said ,patting Kool Kat on the back..

"Hey Kev...don't mention it man...You're my ace...Who am I gonna run the streets with if you in the slams?" the big man said.

The three of us laughed...........but now....I was going after that snake, Colin Huxley....The hunt was back on! It was my move now!

( CONCLUSION NEXT )