Parallel Plays

To look at the building that houses the "Aqua Bar", you'd frown and walk right by it...It was a little non-descript building on a side street...but walk up three flights of steps and you'd find an ultra -modern establishment with hardwood floors and a huge bar that stretched the length of the large room with a huge aquarium beneath it and all kinds of exotic fish and sea life within....and soft blue lights......

The bar maids were all busty and shapely young women of all races who knew how to make a drink or two....The drinks here were kind of high for my tastes..but that was to be understood...You were paying for the bar and the huge aquarium underneath..

The bar stools were shaped like starfish and clams....The Club D.J. spun a mixture of Hip-Hop, Neo-Soul and Acid Jazz music....When he wasn't spinning...Good music came through the ultra modern bose speakers from a satelite feed....Meek Rollins told me that you could get a really good Burger here.

Most of the clientele was young hipster types or musicians...Not Cops...Which is why I was surprised that a cop would hang out here....My good friend, Pakastani Sam and Clerow sat in the bar....Kool Kat,Owen Todd and I sat in a car about three blocks away in an empty lot...

A half hour went by and both Clerow and Pakastani Sam walked up to the car....

"Walk away from this Kev." said the old hustler, Pakastani Sam.....I had put him inside the bar because I knew that nobody knew him....A lot of cops knew me, so I couldn't go inside.

"What's up Sam?" I said.

"Kev, they got about five undercover -plain clothes cops inside the bar....and they got three unmarked cars outside..." said Clerow.

"That's right.....it smells like a trap." said Sam.

"Okay..." I said.

"So what do we do now?" asked Kool Kat.

"We give up the bar....there's enough on there to indict him...If he goes to ground...We flush him out another way ." I said... "Get in..Let's go home." I continued...

Ray Stanton was no dummy..He had brought his troops and you best believe..He would've gunned me or my associates down and made it look like we tried to kill him....Nice plan...but I wasn't going for it.

II-

The DEA and members of the Philadelphia Police Anti-Drug Task Force arrested Peter"Petey Boy" Rodriguez and charged him with multiple counts of conspiracy to transport and distribute a controlled substance...namely Heroin and Cocaine....as well as conspiracy to committ murder...two counts.

Also arrested was Stanley "Slackjaw"Thompson and Robert ''Bert"Cooper , both on mutiple drug charges...Their bar was declared a public nuisance...something it should have been declared years ago and shut down.

Meanwhile ,I wondered about Ray Stanton...Why hadn't he been indicted? It was time to pay a visit to Lt. Sissy Van Buren...

III-

Sissy Smiled when she saw me coming....She closed the door to her office.

''Sit down Kevin" she said.

"What's this about?" I said.

''I know why you're here...Ray Stanton right?" she said.

"Yeah." I said.

"We've been investigating him for months..Ever since he was involved in that scandal over in Narcotics when the evidence in several drug busts just walked out of here...We never could prove anything...Then he transferred to Homicide a few months ago...Finally we got some taped evidence of him being involved in two murders and a drug conspiracy.  You uh wouldn't happen to know how we got this uh er evidence would you? "she asked, giving me the side eye.


"Who me ? Nah?" I said.

Sissy looked so sexy when she laughed...I don't know how Robert Foxworth could resist her,let alone cheat on her when he had been married to her.

"Well anyway...He should be coming in soon..His shift is ending...We are going to present him with the evidence we have on him." she said.

Ray Stanton came in an hour later, took his shoulder holster off, checked his weapon and put his suit jacket back on....He was a handsome man, six foot four, built..Brown skin, moustache...Curly Hair....

"Uh Ray..Could you step into my office please?" said Sissy Van Buren..

"Sure Lou" he said.

"What's up?"  he asked innocently....

"This is Detective John Smith, and Detective Ron Fair from Internal Affairs and this is a private investigator named Kevin Morris." she said....Then she played a tape....


''Yeah Ray...Ray...This is Petey Boy.."


''What's up?"

''What's Up? What's up is you gotta major problem son...Some punk kid...calls himself Daz....Says he saw you whack Ray-Ray.....and knows you whacked the other one, Ricky Rectum or Rector...He's comin for ya at that old Aqua Bar..You know? The one upstairs??? I told you that you shoulda lured them two somewhere and then have done em?"

"Look, how was I gonna do that...Those two moved around...I had been in those projects waitin on them all day...I lucked up and run across this one dartin through the courtyard and I snuffed him....I took the other one out on the boat and popped his ass...No witnesses..Heyy ,is this a clean phone?"


"Now you ask? Of course...It's my phone in the back room...Nobody but me and Slack spend anytime back there..."





"Good ...Thanks for lookin out....I'll be waitin for this punk kid when he gets here... "


"Tommy took a photo of him and another guy that was with him from his phone...I'll have him send the photos to your phone."


"Good ..I'll be waiting..."




''And Ray..No witnesses. Do it clean this time."





'Won't even be a body...I'm a cop remember? I know how to take care of these things.."

Click!

Ray Stanton's face dropped.....

"Oh lord..." he sighed....


"Oh and Ray...Your three partners, Petey Boy, Slackjaw and Bert gave you up in a heartbeat..as soon as we played them the tape...and we didn't have to offer them a deal either." said Sissy Van Buren.

He looked around...then he picked up a chair and tossed it at me and one of the detectives...he then tried to push the big desk between us and him so that he could run...but once out of the office he stared into the muzzles of three policemen with glocks aimed at his head...He raised his arms in defeat...

"Give me your badge Ray..it's all over." said Sissy Van Buren...

"Twenty years..Twenty damn years....I bust guys who back on the street before the ink dries on the warrant...I bust guys who spend my monthly take home pay for lunch...So what if a few of them died?? So what if I made some money, some extra money?? I was owed it...I WAS OWED IT!!! DAMN IT I WAS OWED IT!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME???I WAS OWEDDDDDDD ITTTT!!!!!!" he screamed as the police handcuffed him and dragged him down the hallway yelling and screaming....

Sissy looked at me and smiled that sexy smile of hers...

"My offer is still open Kevin." she said...

"Huh? Offer??" I said.

"To be a cop!!!....You're a damn good investigator....better than any detective I have right now ,I hate to say." she said.

"Nah....I operate better without rules and regulations." I said."But thanks anyway."

"Okay...Maybe one day you'll reconsider..but thanks to you...We've taken two dirty cops off the street and busted a drug operation..." she said.

"Anything can happen." I said as I walked out of the station and to my car....

It was daybreak... I was on my way home to Sepia....and this time....sleep!

EPILOUGE-

Peter "Peter Boy" Rodriguez was convicted of the drug charges..he turned in state's evidence against Ray Stanton and received a 15 year sentence...

Stanley ''SlackJaw" Thompson and Robert "Bert" Cooper received 10 years each...

Ray Stanton was convicted on two charges of 2nd degree Murder and sentenced to 40 years..Far lighter than what he deserved...

A week later, my wife Sepia and I were in Victoria's Secret....Sepia was looking at a few peices...

"You like this Kevin?" she asked..

"Ummmm yes...You know I like anything on you baby." I said.

"You usually have it off within minutes." she joked...

"Well ,it's the anticipation..."I said.

"Here...Hold this...I'm going to walk over here and talk to Cherry Johnson a minute." she said as she handed me a few peices she was planning to buy.

Cheryl , the cashier and unwilling witness I had talked to a few weeks ago walked over to me..

"That your wife?" she asked.

"Yeah." I said.

''She's very pretty...you're a lucky man." she said.

"Thank you." I said.

"I read that you got your man....That that slimy ass cop was busted and they got Petey Boy and his crew to boot." she said.

"I like a woman that reads....Yup...We got em all." I said.

"Thank you...You don't know how glad everyone is that that damn hole in the wall bar is gone and that crew is gone too." she said.

"Somebody else will take their place...They always do."I said.

"You sound like me." she said.

I smiled.....I watched her as she walked away...Then I looked over at my wife ,talking to Cherry Johnson and smiled again...