A beautiful morning in the city of Philadelphia....I awoke late to find my wife gone!!! She and her business partner, Bonita Foxworth had two houses to show today...She had gotten up, showered and dressed without waking me and had left early...
She left me a pot of steaming hot coffee and some Hot crossed buns in the microwave...I smiled and ate the pastries and drank a tumbler of hot coffee...I wasn't going to work today...I had a few things to attend to.
First, I got on my computer and paid our bills...my half of the bills anyway....I loved paying bills online.. Then I looked over some stories I and a few of my associates at the magazine had written for the upcoming issue..I edited them and sent them to the office for approval.
I made a few calls..To Sean Jackson, His wife Sheila and my assistant Harry Charles....all who were at work today to see how things were going and then satisfied with that...I showered and dressed and headed outside to catch a nice mid spring breeze...It was too early for Josie's to be open and so I headed to Chris and Chess's shopping center...
On this day, they were talking to construction workers...Construction workers who were breaking ground for their second shopping center...which was going to be located across the street from their first one... Chess was talking to the construction guys...Chris Thompson and Donald Smooth were standing across the street watching..
''What's up guys?" I said as I walked up on them..
"Heyyy Kev...We about to break ground on our new shoppin center."said Chris...
"I see...wow, more money for you huh?" I said ,playfully ribbin Chris...
"Man, we got a McDonald's , a Burger King, , A Wendy's, an IHOP, two banks and two clothing stores already signed up to rent out space." he said.
"So after they come out of your gym...they can walk across the street and eat all of that fast food." I joked..
"I know right?" laughed Chris Thompson and Donald Smooth...Chess saw me and waved..I waved back and walked towards my car...I really could have gone to work today...I really had nothing to do...or so I thought....
My Android "smartphone" went off! It was Homicide Lt. Sissy van Buren!!! I was amazed that she was calling me... It was I that was usually calling her!
"Hello Sissy, how are you?" I said.
"Good Morning Kevin...Working hard?" she asked playfully.
"Always...what's shaking?" I asked.
"Can you meet me at this address? " she said , giving me an address that was across town.
"Okay...I can be there in about thirty minutes..What's going on?" I asked.
"I caught a homicide." she said.
"Yeahhhh, that's what homicide detectives usually do." I joked...
''One you oughta check out." she said.
"And why is that?" I asked..
"Just meet me...I'll show you when you get here." she said.
''Okay" I said.
II-
"How have you been?" she asked..
"I've been good Ang....Nice to see you again." I said.
"Yeah...I wish under different circumstances.." she said.
"I know right?" I said.
The window on the door had been busted and the lock jimmied so bad that it was close to falling off...and in the living room lied the dead body of a man I hadn't seen in a few years...
Sissy Van Buren and six of her detectives and three uniform policemen were standing over him.....
"I know this guy." I said.
"I was hoping you did.." she said.
"He's a sleazy private investigator...He's from East Orange ,New Jersey....His name is Richard "Dick" Watkins..." I said.
"How do you know him?" she asked.
"In my very first caper, the one where I first met my wife to be ,Sepia...Dick Watkins was the private investigator used to find out that my friend, Cock Robbins was sleeping with a woman, now deceased named Opal Gardener...Because Cock had also been sleeping with my now incarcerated Mother in law.
He and the now deceased Brett Jano and the also deceased Leon Cantrell set a videotaping blackmail scheme to blackmail ,Cock Robbins then estranged wife... He was arrested for his part in the scam." I said.
"Yeah, I remember that case." said a detective named Edwin "Duke" Baylor.
"Well he got out of jail and somehow got his P.I. license re-instated." said Sissy Van Buren."
"Yeah? How did he manage that?" I asked.
"Are you kidding Kev...This is Philadelphia....Everybody has a price..He paid to play." she said.
"And now he's dead....but what's he got to do with me...I haven't seen this guy in four years." I said.
"Well..he's seen you...check these out" she said and passed me some glossies...
There was two photos of me, Sepia, Robert Foxworth, Bonita , Sean Jackson, Sheila, Clerow and Corabeth at that Oyster Bar.....
There was a photo of my car....a photo of the back and front of my house...A photo of my office, a photo of Me and Harry Charles taken in front of my office... A photo of me and Kool Kat at Josies....A photo of me at the Mermaid Club, Me at the Aqua Bar with Kool Kat...Me and Sepia in the park...Me and Sepia outside washing our cars...Me and Sepia and Deacon Basil Robinson at church and Me sitting on my front steps...
''Wow...this guy has been following me." I said.
"You have any idea why?" she asked.
"I can't imagine." I said.
"These are copies...We found these in his car...Someone has the originals." she said.
"Huh?" I asked.
"Someone hired this guy to follow you....We found this too, look." she said.
It was a ledger...with a day to day detail of my every move...From the time I walked out the door , until the time I came in for the night. This too looked like it was a photo copy.
"Somebody wanted to know your every move Kevin..." she said.
"It's been my experience that when someone is keepin this much detail on you...You're being set up for a hit." said Detective Duke Baylor.
Sissy Van Buren nodded in agreement....
"Yes Kevin...Somebody wants you dead...You should watch your back until we can figure out who killed him." she said.
He had been beaten badly...every finger on both of his hands had been broken and his jaw had been broken..He had died from blunt force trauma....
"But if he was doing his job...why would somebody kill him?" I asked.
''That Kevin...is the mystery here." she said. "Just watch your back." she said.
"Thanks...Thanks for the heads up." I said.
That night in Josies, I was talking to Kool Kat....
"Damn Kev...We have made quite a few enemies you know...It could be anybody....What about your crazy mother in law...doin all that time in stir?" he asked.
"She doesn't have the kind of dough it would take to hire Watkins. He was sleazy, but not cheap..." I said.
"It could be any number of playas we put away..." said Kool Kat.
"That's the problem...but who, Who amongst them and why now?" I asked.
Ralph Mole walked in at just that moment...He was Fathead Newton's main man ....His eyes and ears...I had called him and asked him to join Kool Kat and me...If anybody knew something...He did.
"Hey Kev...Walter" he said as he sat down with us....A barmaid came over and I ordered him his drink of choice... A shooter of Jack Daniels on the rocks with a little Coke in it...
"Kev...Do you remember that Johnny Porter fella from New York?" he said.
"Sure do." I said.
"He moved here in Philly and all of a sudden, big time playas like Cakeman Raven, Kornbread Evans, Fly Tyrone , Beautiful Bobby Hunter, Tone Capone, Big Goat and Manny Rodriguez all vanished without a trace? Yeah..Sure you do....Next thing you know...He's runnin a large part of Philly....Only...you took care of that...You took down him and his entire street organization here in Philly, which was bad enough....but because of that, people in Atlanta and the Bahamas also got knocked...A lot of heavyweights bought it..It crippled the New York Boys....A lot of people in New York who backed Johnny boy started getting whacked as retribution for such a huge mess up...." he said.
"What's this gotta do with me?" I asked.
''Well blame started going around...Naturally they blamed Johnny....He's on death row and they can't get to him...They blamed his remaining crew... Kwame "Malik Patterson was found hung to death in his cell...Calvin "Cheesesteak" Wexler was shanked to death on the prison yard and Christopher 'Mellow Man" White was found hung to death in his cell." said Ralph Mole.
"Let me guess...another apparent suicide." I said.
"Yeah....then they found out that it wasn't just a police investigation that nabbed Johnny Boy...it was a certain private investigator, a very good private investigator that put the kibosh on Johnny's operation.
It was then that we heard that somebody in New York wanted you dead like nobody's business." said Ralph Mole.
"Somebody like who?" I asked.
"You ever hear of Jack Ambrose?" he asked.
Kool Kat and I shook our heads.
"Well..he was next in line to the late Mikey Snow, who if you heard...Met his demise here last month in an uh unrelated matter....He's a real psychopath Kev...He put out some long dollars and reached out... That's how he got Johnny's boys hit in prison....I suspect...If anybody has a contract out on you...It's him!" said Ralph Mole.
"New Yorker huh?" I said.
"Don't even think about going to New York to get him...He's well protected...you'll never get to him." said Ralph....
"Who does he have workin for him here in Philly?" I asked.
"I don't know....The streets are quiet...but if he hired a private investigator to shadow you , chances are , there is a heavyweight either here on his way...If I were you..I'd watch my back." he said.
"Yeah, that's what the cops told me." I said.
I was worried...Not just about me...This clown had photos of my friends...People I knew and loved...I had to make moves to protect them and to get whoever this hitter was.
"Ralph...Somebody murdered the private eye." I said.
"That's Ambrose cleaning up..." he said.
"Sounds like a real mean season is beginning Kev." said Kool Kat.
"Yeah, don't it?" I said.
(To Be Continued...)
2 comments:
Just what I like...agood ole gangsta story!
When I first read that Johnny Porter Story, I wondered if Kev would get any retribution aimed his way for getting so many people taken down...Seems like you was thinkin the same way.
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