The Ripper Strikes Again!

It was Friday Night...Instead of being at Josie's... I was hanging out with my wife, Sepia, Sean Jackson and his wife, Sheila, Bernadette and Harry Charles ,Robert Foxworth and Bonita and Clerow and Corabeth at the Oyster Bar that Robert had turned us all on to.. We were drinking beer, sucking down Oysters and eating Crab Legs...

Most of us had garages and had taken our cars off the streets and were keeping them in our garages...but the "Ripper" as he was now being called was busy...Whoever this person or persons was...They hit every car in Josie's garage for several nights straight...Gus's business was down...A similar attack occurred in the parking lot of Chris and Chess's shopping mall.... and as a result , their business was down... Chris and Chess formally hired me to get to the bottom of this...So now I at least had a financial motivation...

I had already been on the case, three days before they hired me.  Kool Kat, Owen and I ran down some of the teenagers who hung out on the corners and in the malls...We questioned them, leaned hard on some and were satisfied that it was none of the locals...

Clerow and I checked the video cameras in the lots of Josies and Chris and Chess's Shopping Center as well as the apartment complexes where Ralph Scallion, Reed and Debbie, Rob and Delores and folks like Cole, Nicole, Paris,Blake, Cherish and some of our other friends lived...Nothing!  Whoever was doing this knew the neighborhood well and worked very stealth like....It was almost as if a ghost was behind this.

"So Kev...You got any leads on who is behind these tire slashings?? I know Chris and Chess hired you to look into it." said Robert Foxworth.

"No, not a thing and I was looking into it a few days before they actually hired me...It's up to 100 cars now."
I said.

''100 cars?? Damn, this cat or these cats are busy." said Sean Jackson.

"Man, people around my way work on shifts, sitting up til four in the mornin on they porches tryin to look out for whoever is doin this." said Clerow...

"That's such a shame...People gotta go to work..They don't have time for this non-sense." said Bonita.

"I know right? That was $200.00 a tire." said Sepia...

I wished I had a clue , but I was truly at a loss.

II-

I took my tires, Sepia's tires and three of my neighbors tires and sent them to the FBI Regional Forensic crime lab...Yes...I had called in a favor from my good friend, Special Agent in Charge Frank Cotton..
He summoned me the next day.

'You know Kevin, neighborhood vandalism isn't exactly the FBI's jurisdiction.." he joked.

"Yeah I know....man, but this is a public nuisance..." I said.

"It annoys me that I have to get up at this time on Saturday morning for some slashed tires , but I do have something for you.." he said.

"What you got?" I asked.

''All of these tires as well as the ones the Philadelphia Police sent us...Yeah, they are actually workin this case hard..."He added..."Have the same size slit in them....They were slashed with a fish scaling knife..It's the same size, same size tear in all of the tires." he said.

"A fish scaling knife?" I asked.

"Yeah...the type a fisherman would use or a seafood chef or a guy that worked in the seafood produce section of a supermarket." he said.

"You pull any prints off of the tires?? Any DNA??" I asked.

"Kevin, come on....It aint Christmas!" he said.

"Okay...Okay...Just askin." I said.

III-

Sepia and I had our Sunday Dinner at Bottom of the C' ...While there, I talked to Ralph Scallion, Jacques and Ralph's daughter...They allowed me to inventory all of their cooking tools...and let me see what a fish scaling knife looked like.  I didn't suspect any of them of having anything to do with this....but I needed to know what type of knife I was looking for.

"That town watch guy sure is gettin a lot of play from this Kev." said Ralph Scallion.

'You mean Eric Coley? Yeah..I saw him on Television last night." I said.

"Last night.?..He been on every night...He got his town watch guys dressed up in Black hoodies with Red Berets and they marchin military style...Got sunglasses on em too and they aint caught nobody... I see em marchin around, drillin all hours of the mornin... "said Dollar Bill.

"He is scaring the ripper away!" laughed Jacques.

I had to have a talk with him...

IV-

As I was walking towards my house a couple of days later...I saw Eric Coley listening intently to one of my neighbors, An attractive young woman named Elaine Mosley....

"Oh Eric...They got my car last night...Slashed all four of my tires...I 'm gonna call 'Shawn's Towing service and see if Sweeney will give me a break on the cost." she said.

"Don't worry baby...I'm gonna get to the bottom of this....I've got a few clues..." He said.

"Looks like I'm stuck for the weekend...I can't go nowhere without my ride." she said.

"Look here..I'm gon spot you $200.00 for your tires..." he said.

"Would you?   Ohh thank you Eric....You are soo sweet." she laughed...

"Since you uh can't go out anywhere...Uhhh why don't you uh go out with me?" he slyly asked her.

"I knew there was a catch....Eric, you know that I'm uh kind of seeing Manny." she said.

''Manny from the supermarket??" he asked.

"Yeah, you know him?" she asked.

"I used to work in the seafood produce department with him when I worked there." he said.

"Yeah..me and Manny been kind of kickin it" she said.

"Damn girl...well I been likin you a long time...a long time.." he said.

"You have?" she said.

"Yeah...you sure need to like give me your number....So that maybe..maybe if you get tired of a guy who smells like fish....You'll give me a try." he said.

"Welllllll...Eric I don't know.." she said.

I tapped him on the shoulder....

"Hey lover boy...Why don't you come here a minute." I said.

"Huh?  Oh Hi Kevin..what's up? " he said.

"That your car over there?" I asked.

"Yeah." he said.

"Take a closer look." I said.

Sure enough ,all four of his tires were flat!


"WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT??" he screamed!

"They got you too pal.." I said.

"Awww nahh, nahhhhh....I'm gonna get this joker...Awwww mannn, Not this weekend..I was makin a date with baby girl over there." he said,looking like he wanted to cry...

" Over where?" I asked.

Elaine was gone!

""Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww damnn mannnnnnnnnnnnnn...Awww, I'm gonna get this punk..THIS TIME IT's PERSONAL!!!!" he screamed...

I didn't have the heart to say anything else to him.....I don't know how long his attention had been diverted, but this ripper had apparently struck again....an embarrassing blow on top of that...I walked away..didn't want him to see me laughing...

(Definitely To Be Continued...)