The HoneyTrap

It was a beautiful, warm Spring afternoon at Philadelphia's Penn's Landing...I arrived first and had a hot dog and a lemonade... I waited...ten, twenty minutes past and finally a half hour...My time was valuable...I hated people who were late...Just as I was getting ready to leave, she appeared....

Cindy Waters, Attorney...A sexy Black woman who had (according to him anyway) been the reason both of Robert Foxworth's marriages had broken up...He just "couldn't stay away from her."  I could certainly see why any man would have that problem...She was extremely attractive, well dressed and smelled great...

She had called me at my job , saying she needed to meet with me about something very important...Something she couldn't talk to me about on the phone...

"Hi Kevin...I'm so sorry I'm late..but it's a long story." she said.

"That's okay..What's up?" I said.

"Kevin...I may need to hire you...and if I do...Please..you can not tell this story to Robert Foxworth or anybody friendly with him." she said.

"Okay....That goes without saying...I'm working for you." I said.

"Okay...What I'm going to tell you is kind of embarrassing...but I need to know what's going on." she said.

"What's going on with whom?" I asked...

"Okay..Let me get myself together...I'll tell you." she said.

II-

The story Cindy was about to tell me was ,I'll admit one of the wilder ones I'd heard and I'd heard a lot over a lifetime-

"Well Kevin..where do I begin?" She said..."About a year ago..I met a guy... Dwayne Reed...We met at Josie's of all places...He was handsome, dressed nice..seemed to not mind throwing around a lot of money...He bought me a drink...A couple of drinks...We got to talking that night and I thought my run of bad luck with guys had finally come to an end..
I've had my share of losers...Cheaters like your friend, Robert Foxworth...an abusive guy who slapped me after our first argument..and one guy who brought his mother along on two of our dates...There wasn't a third date...


"So when Dwayne asked me out, a week after we met..I said yes...I finally thought at last I’d found someone decent and six weeks and four dates later, I slept with him...The sex was off the chain...but you don't need to hear all of that..


"Things were great at the start. It was a real buzz. I used to count down the minutes at work to when I get off and could see him. We had a fantastic relationship.”


"But after a year or so, things started to go wrong and I suspected Dwaynee might be cheating on me."


“His Iphone broke so I got it fixed only for a message to come up from some chick, a very blunt message, saying how she loved him and calling him sexy. Kevin...We made love six or seven times a week, sometimes twice a day..I couldn't imagine him having the time or energy to step out with someone else.."

"I was shocked and thought "Here I go again, this is where it all goes wrong". The message couldn’t have made it clearer. Something was going on.”


But when I finally confronted Dwayne, he looked at it and told me he had no idea who it was from – it was obviously from someone who’d sent it to the wrong number.


"Baby Let me call her then to check it out, I told him."


“I could see his fingers fiddling with the phone: ‘You can’t because I’ve deleted it’, he said. He told me it was a wrong number and that whatever I was thinking was wrong.


“He was quite cool about it and I so desperately wanted to believe him, but I just had this nagging doubt and it was affecting my relationship with him.


"But what could I do? I confided in friends and one simply said ‘so test him’.


“She suggested I set it up for a woman to talk to him and see if he fell for it. If he was true to his word, he’d tell her he was already spoken for and if not, I’d know he was a cheat.


“Later that night, I went on the web and found a girl who caught out love cheats by trying to seduce them.


"So I phoned her up – she asked to be called The Honeytrap, and we discussed what she could do. Her name is Marlie Phillips and I paid her a retainer and she agreed to engineer a situation where Dwayne would be in a bar or club, I'd sit in the background so she could make her approach.She would set him up, invite him to buy her a drink and even take things as far as kissing him, Then she’d arrange to meet him again at a hotel – that was her job done. I could then turn up and confront him.”


I forked out $2000.00 for her services last November. “I thought that was a bit excessive but she told me that the price included her drinks and travel to and from wherever the meet would be,” she says.


“I emailed her a photo of Dwayne and arranged for her to see him in Josie's. He was always there on a Thursday night with a couple of his boys..to see Downtown Rob Brown and his quintet perform."


"I was on pins and needles when he went out. All night long I worried as to whether I was doing the right thing, that maybe the set-up message was sent to the wrong number. But I had to get rid of the doubt. He came back to my spot close to midnight, made himself a drink and a sandwich and came and joined me on the sofa and we watched a bit of TV.”


The next day I called Marlie Phillips to find out what had happened. “She was quiet at first and then explained she had a moment alone with him and told him he was very good looking.”


“He bought her some drinks and half an hour later they went outside and kissed a little, They even arranged to meet again on Tuesday night at the Aqua Bar.She gave me all the details of where they’d be meeting, the hotel and what time and asked if I wanted to go. I was heartbroken. He’d fallen for her so easily, but of course I said yes.
“Dwayne went out at midday on the Saturday before they met and said he was going into town to get some things he needed. I spent the whole day depressed, wanting to find a solution.
“I didn’t want to believe it but this woman specialised in this sort of thing and he’d fallen for it hook, line, and sinker. The funny thing was I wasn’t bothered about the other woman any more or whether she existed or not. What bothered me was the fact that he would cheat on me if the opportunity arose. That was just as bad and that effectively killed our relationship. But things were about to go from bad to worse. “He didn’t come home that day..I kept ringing him but he simply didn’t show. The next day he still didn’t turn up. I was constantly phoning his cell phone but there was no answer."


“By Monday, I was worried. He wasn’t at work when I rang. The receptionist told me he’d booked the week off at short notice.


"What was going on? I sent him a text begging him to reply.I got no reply. On the Tuesday of the meet, I still expected him to keep the date at the hotel. I turned up because I wanted to see him, I wanted to know why he was behaving like he was, but he wasn’t there...Neither was she. “I waited for over an hour but there was no sign of him. I phoned the honeytrap: ‘He’s not turned up. I haven’t seen him since Saturday morning. Did it look like he suspected anything on Thursday?' she asked.

''And that's my problem Kevin...I haven't seen or heard from either of them since November..." she said.


"Wow" was all I could say. "You want me to locate both of them?" I said.

"Yes...She's ran off with my money..She won't answer my calls and he has apparently quit his job, changed his number and also vanished."she said.
"I get some crazy cases, but this is the craziest." I said trying hard not to laugh at the irony of the whole situation..

"Find them both for me Kevin, determine if they're in a relationship...I just need to know." said Cindy.

"Okay...I'm on it." I said. "Tell me Cindy....You say you last saw them both in November..Why did you wait so long to call me?" I asked.

"You've been busy Kevin..It's been very hard to catch up with you." She Said.

She wasn't lying!  She wrote me a check for $3000.00  I looked at it, smiled ,then looked at her...

"You don't mind spending money for love huh?" I asked.

"I have to know Kevin." she said.

I shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

"Please don't tell Robert." she said.

"I promise you I won't.." I said.. but I might need his resources to track down at least one of these two people I thought....I could swing that without letting on what I was working on..I'd done it before.

III-

I went home , put my check on my dresser drawer and sat on the bed..My wife Sepia was getting home from work and was undressing...It was a pleasure to watch her undress...

"What did you do today?" she asked.

"Well..I was at the office for awhile...Then a client called and asked for my services." I said with a smile..

"Wow..you haven't worked on a case in awhile..." she said as she sat next to me on the bed...

''Nope...That check on the dresser is my upfront pay." I said.

''Who you workin for? Rollie?"she asked.

"No..a lawyer." I said.

"No gangsters, No gunplay?/" she asked.

"Nah...somethin simple." I said.

I had no idea at the time, how wrong I was!

(To Be Continued...)