Woman of Many Names

Philadelphia is a big city....It's easy to hide in a city this large....but then on the other hand...it isn't! I easily found Marlie Phillips Investigations...I looked , where else? In the yellow pages...I drove around to a small storefront located at the bottom of even seedier apartment buildings...I wasn't too surprised to find the storefront completely empty! Nothing..No desks, no chairs...no computers...no cubicles...just empty wall sockets and outlines where things used to be..

I looked up the storefront's owner and showed him a photo of Marlie Phillips....

"Yeah, I knew her, She called herself a private investigator...but I never seen no certificate or license like you have...Most of her so called "clients " were women who thought their husbands were cheating on them...I don't know if she ever solved a case...I personally think she was just a slick con artist...Taking their money." he said.

"When's the last time you saw her?" I asked.

"Ohh, just before Thanksgiving...she paid her rent and then she packed up everything." he said.

''She have any staff?" I asked.

"Uhhhh...One guy...a Elmer Lawson...He took pictures, was good at bugging apartments supposedly...He didn't come around too much....She didn't even have a secretary...and most months, she couldn't make her rent...I'd cut her a little slack...but my patience was growing thin...Then around November...She got flush..paid all of her back rent and then called it a day." he said.

I showed him a photo of Dwayne Reed..  "You ever see this guy?" I asked.

He looked at the photo, then shook his head...

"Nah..Never seen him..." he said.

"She say where she was going or what she was going to do?" I asked.

"Nope...Just said she was getting out of the private eye business." he said. "Last time I seen her...A Uhaul truck was moving her stuff out of the office and she was pulling off behind it." he said.

''What kind of car did she drive?"I asked.

"A 2003 Jetta..White...Thas all I remember." he said.

"Thanks a lot boss." I said.

"She in some kind of trouble?" he asked.

"Not that I know of...and not with me." I said and smiled and got in my car and drove off.

II-

Cindy Waters would kill me if she knew I was going to Robert Foxworth's office...but I needed the help of his friend...his contact in public records....As luck would have it...Robert and Chance were in court...but his new lawyer, Cole was there...Cole put me in contact with his friend and I got him to see if anyone named Marlie Phillips had a P.I.  license in the tri state area.

She did not!  No one by that name had a P.I. License or a Pennsylvania, Deleware or New Jersey Driver's License!!!! Slowly but surely ,I was beginning to think that Marlie Phillips was a con artist and that that wasn't her real name...Cindy Waters had been snookered!!!!

I thanked Cole and checked out several Uhaul agencies in the square mile area....The only photo I had of Marlie Phillips was one snapped of her the one time she came to Cindy Water's office... Unknown to her , Cindy Waters, who was friends with Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson...Long before Robert and I started using them had them install micro-cameras in her office so that any visitor was photographed when they came in..  I had a good photo...

It took a couple of hours, but I found the Uhaul place that hauled Marlie Phillips stuff away from that place...
There was a guy there who remembered hauling it and storing it and remembered the car...

"Yeah..I remember her...she had a fat ass man...whooo and tits...tits fo days....I remember her...She had a white 2001 or 2002 Jetta...But her name wasn't Marlie Phillips...Her name was Kim something....Kim Johnson..yeah...she even gave me her phone number...but I called it a couple of times..and it was disconnected!" he said.

''You still got it?" I asked.

"Yeah..but like I said...It don't work." he said.

"It may still help me.." I said.

So back to Robert Foxworth's office I went...I was lucky again...He was still in court..So was Chance Howard..So once again...Cole put me in contact with Robert's contact in Telephone security...I matched the number to a Jennifer West.....and I matched a Driver's License to the same Jennifer West...No P.I. license though...but a rap sheet...

She had been pinched about ten years ago for prostitution, fraud, check forgery, bunco and petty theft...Had been known by the aliases of ''Kim Johnson" and surprise, surprise..."Marlie Phillips" I was right...She was nothing but a con artist.

I owed it to Cindy Waters to at least find her and get some of her money back!  I had an address..I might as well follow it up!

In the meanwhile...I looked up Dwayne Reed...I found out where he was working...A few ladies at his old job were more than willing to talk to me.. I found his new job...But they told me he was terminated!  He hadn't shown up since the last week of November!!!  That was odd..

His phone still worked...and was indeed registered to him...but nobody answered...His voicemail appeared to be full...Robert's friend in Telephone Security traced it to his new location...An apartment complex in East Oak Lane..  His phone was located in his car, which was sitting there , looking unattended.  I talked to the people in his apartment...He hadn't been seen...By anyone since late November!!!  This case was getting stranger by the minute!

III-

On my way to Jennifer West's house...I saw Police Cars and detectives all over the streets..I saw my friend, Homicide Lt.Sissy Van Buren on the corner...I pulled over and said hello to her.

''Hey Sissy what's up?" I said.

"Same ole ,same ole...One of my detectives caught a murder....A Reverend..Cecil J. Holmes..." she said.

'Hey...I've heard of him...He preached at my church when Pastor Struthers was away on vacation." I said.

''Yeah, well he won't be preaching anymore...We found him in one of these vacant houses...Had his pants down to his ankles.... and a woman was in there with him too....She's a prostitute...She caught two in the head too." she said.

''WOW...a double huh?" I said.

"Yeah...You're not at work today...What kind of case are you on?" she asked me..

"Nothing like that...I'm just lookin for a con artist." I said.

"A con artist? That's light for you, isn't it?" she said.

"I think she fleeced a friend of mine...She paid what she thought was a private investigator to see if her old man was cheating on her and she asconded with the woman's dough....possibly the boyfriend too." I laughed.

Sissy laughed and then she grew solemn..

"Really?" she said.

''Yeah...Like you said .lightweight stuff."

"The Pastor's wife filed a missing person report on him last month.....She told us that she paid a private investigator named Marlie Phillips to find out if he was seeing other women...paid her 10G's.." she said.

"WHAT?" I said.

"We haven't been able to locate Phillips...but we put out an points bulletin on the good reverend here...Some
transients were squatting in that building today and they found him and the girl...They'd been dead for about a week!" she said.

"Sissy..We are looking for the same person...Only her name isn't Phillips...It's Jennifer West and she has about two other alias's." I said.

"Clayton...Jackson....Secure this crime scene...I'm taking a ride with Kevin." she said.

We drove to the address on the drivers license I had....And once again, the elusive Jennifer West had been just one step ahead of us...Her landlord said that "Kim Johnson " as he knew her had moved out a week ago.

"Damn..we missed her." said Sissy..

"Maybe not...I at least know the storage bin where she moved her phony office stuff." I said.

IV-

Sissy made two calls...I suspect they were to judges that she knew and she got a warrant signed and faxed to her office..  A uniformed policeman drove it over to us...We both opened up the storage unit, which was rented to a "Yvette Jackson" We found office equipment and desks and lamp shades and the mouldering body of one...Dwayne Reed!!!!....He had been dead for close to two months...but his clothes were the same clothes he was wearing in a photo, I had of him and his empty wallet had his drivers license in it...He had been shot twice in the head!!!

''Kevin...We've got to find that girl...she's got a lot of explaining to do."said Sissy Van Buren.

"Hey listen...Sissy..do me a favor...Keep a lid on this as long as you can....I'm going to do a little nosing around on the streets...Maybe I'll shake somebody up and they'll tell me something." I said.

"Okay Kevin...but I can only keep this quiet for a day or two.." she said...

"Okay...fair enough." I said.

Well, my job for Cindy Waters was done...I had found her boyfriend....I'd never know if he was a cheater or not!   I had also found out that Marlie Phillips or Kim Johnson or Yvette Jackson or Jennifer West, whoever the hell she really was ...was a con-artist and possibly, a murderer...I had earned my money...but now, I had to get her or whoever was killing her clients off the streets.

(To Be Continued....)