''Look Kev...This guy...He's on there at least four times...Never buys anything...Just talks to the girl." said Peeping Tom..
"That could be his girlfriend." I said.
"Could be...but I'm bettin it's his pipeline." said Kool Kat ,who had just come into the room with a tumbler of coffee.
"You know this guy?" I asked.
''Sure do....and I don't like him.....That's Ray...Ray Kind." he said.
"Who is he?" I asked.
" A Southside Playa...Used to be a big time heist man and a box man.....Then he got bigger in the game..He graduated...He cases the joint, sets up the score and hires people to actually put down the score....He takes a percentage....He did three years as a guest of the state for one heist...but that's the only thing he has on his record." said Kool Kat.
"Hmmm interesting...So it's a good guess that he's putting down these scores....There have been six and now seven jewelry stores hit in the past month." I said.
"Yup, that's him....Look...You said that the two gunmen seemed to know the whole layout of the place right? They knew about the timelock and they knew where the rocks were stored....They didn't just come upon this spot....They had good inside information...." said Kool Kat.
"Hmmm....I want to find out more about that girl." I said.
With Chance Howard, Clerow and Owen Todd, I visited the six other jewelry stores that got hit and reviewed their store videos...In all of the cases....There was always the one guy...well dressed and wearing ray bans...Just standing around...Looking and always talking to a girl!!!! A further look at the video showed the same girl! This was too much of a co-incidence...
I asked for a list of employees of all of the stores.....In the first store...There were three female employees...One was white, the other was hispanic and the black girl was named" Barbara Hutton", ......This was strange because the same black girl , who was simultaneously employed at the other jewelry store was named "Barbara Look" at the third store, She was listed as "Barbara Watts." .
She worked at all three stores up to two months and then quit...Just one week before they got robbed....At the fourth store, She was listed as "Barbara Massy" ...at the fifth store , she was "Barbara Young" and at the sixth store she was "Barbara Falk" Incredible!!! She was the pipeline....She gave this Ray Kind the inside information...He set up the score and his three underlings pulled off the robbery. Nice little racket!
I also a remembered a" Barbara Wilson" , who was listed as the cell phone owner to the number that Owney Maclin had given me...I wondered if it was the same person...
We drove up to the cell phone company and I showed them a photo of "Barbara Wilson"....It matched! They gave me a mailing address...A post office box!! Chance, Clerow, Owen Todd and I cross checked all of the other addresses used...They were all phony addresses....Just as I was certain that this was a phony name.
I went to Robert's Friend in public records....Thanks to modern technology..I figured they might be able to match the photo with a DMV record of some type....They did!! It took damn near a week...but it turned out that "Barbara" was actually Barbara Ann Miller and they had an actual address and a phone number...The number that matched Owney Maclin's... It was time for me to give him a call.
I called the number and got a message that the number had been disconnected! This was really strange... Time for me to do a little more digging.
II-
It wasn't hard to find Raymond Alexander Kind...He owned a very prosperous bike shop. It was said that he enjoyed riding bikes, surfing, skin diving and even ski-ing. I got the "book " on him before I approached his Bike Shop. I asked around about him...Naturally, a lot of unsavory types that I couldn't trust...but you had to get your information where you could get it! I also went to public records and checked him out too!
He and I were born on the same day, same year here in Philly..We were both the same height and weight basically, brown skinned and atheltic build...Like me, he has served a stint in the Military and had used the G.I. Bill to go to college. He studied chemistry for some reason. Then his history gets murky...This was when he was putting down huge scores...Breaking and entering, Jewelry heists, Safe cracking, et al.. Kool Kat had said that he was an expert box man and heist man...Apparently he had used his ill gotten money well. He had started a business, had bought himself a house and a nice car..even had a boat out at the marina!!!
He had done his three years in prison and had apparently appeared to be going straight...Until about six months ago when a rash of jewelry store heists began happening....Most of them had gone off without a hitch until this last one ended in the deaths of four people ,including two of his henchmen.
I walked into his establishment and not really to my surprise... There was Barbara!!!! Dressed to the nines and looking at a Bike... Kool Kat was with me...I walked up behind her and I smiled.
"Lovely day isn't it Babs?" I said.
"Babs? Only my friends and my man call me Babs..and you aint either." she snapped..."How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Hmmm, now let's see..Which name is that? Hutton? ,Look? , Watts? ,Massey, Falk, Young or your real name??Miller I believe?? Or are you someone else here, Smith?? Jones??" I quipped...Kool Kat laughed...
"You a cop?" she asked.
Her eyes got as large as saucers......Lucky for her...the man of the hour appeared just then....Ray Kind...the mastermind behind this whole caper...
"No...He's no cop...just a nosy would be writer who fancies himself as a private detective.....Isn't that right Mr. Kevin Morris?" he said. "Hello Walter...Long time no see!" he said to Kool Kat.
"Not long enough." snapped Kool Kat....Not trying to hide his disdain. "Maybe we should add to your resume- "Wanna Be Playa." Kool Kat snapped.
''Whatever.....I heard that your boy here has been around town askin about me...So I did some askin too... Oh and by the way...Your wife is fine as hell.." he added.
''Thank you." I said.
"Hey...we both born the same day..we got the same good tastes." he remarked.
I didn't want this to turn into a mutual admiration society conversation, so I decided to cut with the crap.
Thing was...I did admire the man's style and swagger...If we weren't on opposite sides of the law...We might have even of been friends of some sort.
''So Ray...We might as well get right to it! You put down a score...In fact , several with your little friend here that resulted in the deaths of two friends of mine." I said.
"Ahhhh, let's not make accusations you can't prove Kevin....I don't believe I was at the scene of any of those robberies and I understand that the guilty parties were killed on the spot!" he said with a cocky laugh.
"Not all of em. Your little lady friend here, just happened to work at all 7 of the jewelry stores and you happened to be seen on all of the films." I said.
"It's not against the law to walk into a jewelry store and it's not against the law for someone to have multiple jobs." he laughed.
"Under assumed and phony names?" I said.
"Hmmmm." he said.
"Yeah, hmmmm." I remarked...He paused and not breaking a sweat at all, turned and looked at Kool Kat and I and nodded his head...Then he smiled broadly.
"You're pulling at straws....but if you want to make a case against me, go call the cops, try to file a charge." he said still laughing. "I have a good lawyer I keep on retainer for such things." he continued.
He was of course right...I had nothing to really tie him or Barbara to the actual jewelry store heists...
"Okay Ray...You win for now....But a word of caution for you...That ice is as hot as hell, going to be real hard to find someone to fence it." I said. "But you know that right?" I said with a smile.
"I don't know WHAT you're talking about...but it was nice meeting you Kevin." he smirked...
"Same here...Sure wish it was under different circumstances....You got style..I'll give you that." I said.
"You do too...I rather like it....Who knows..maybe some other time." he said.
"I doubt that at this point." I said. He shrugged his shoulders.
Kool Kat and I walked out as we headed towards the door, Ray said to me-
''If you're interested , I can give you a deal on some bikes for you and your pretty wife." he laughed.
I stared at him long and hard.....Kool Kat tugged on my arm lightly....
"Ignore him Kev...Well get our shot at him." said Kool Kat as we walked out.
''See you around Babs" I said. She gave us the finger... Kool Kat and I both laughed as we left.
III-
I called Owny Again...Again I got a message saying that the number had been disconnected! I didn't like this...So the next night, Kool Kat, Clerow and I hit the Mermaid Club...Asking around about Owny Maclin...What we found out from players and others we talked to was eye opening.
Owny's law license had been suspended a year ago and he was deep in debt to the IRS...He was suspected of a major heist of jewelry worth 300 G's....Only it wasn't known where he had stashed them...He had been asking around trying to find a broker (fence).
Owny didn't hire me because he couldn't trust Jake...He hired me to make sure no one was putting the make on Jake...He and Jake had to be partners in this ...Only Barbara had found out and tipped Ray off or was Barbara playing two ends of the same street?
That was what I had to find out!
(To Be Continued....)
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