Where No Grass Grows

I usually am one or two steps ahead of my adversaries..Which is how I stay afloat....In this case...my adversaries were three giant steps ahead of me...I felt like a fool...chasing false leads...interviewing half the Philadelphia underworld, interviewing the victims , when the keys to this entire mystery were right there in front of me all the time.

Valerie Price was the first person I went to see... It was mid afternoon and she was in her bedroom dressed "comfortably" you might say....

"Oh...It's you...If I'd of known you were coming..I would've put on some more clothes " she said obviously embarrassed that I was seeing a lot more of her goodies than I had a right to.

''Valerie....I'm here because you told me that you unknowingly moved a lot of those accounts for Mr. Jones right?" I said.

''Am I in trouble?" she asked.

"No...No..No.. The police don't know about you and they won't...I give you my word...but I need to know if you can access those accounts?  Not access...but tell me where you moved them to." I said.

She looked at me funny, then said....

"It began a little over three years ago...but I moved a lot of that stuff to a bank in Guatamala...I knew something was shady then....but I also knew better than to ask questions if I wanted to keep my job and possibly my life." she said.

"I know that your former firm is being investigated and that you no longer work there...but do you think you can get me inside and get me the numbers of those accounts?" I asked.

"You're asking a lot." she said.

I tossed an envelope on her bed.   It had $1000.00 in twenties in it...

"It means a lot to me doll." I said..

She smiled -"I see." she said."Let me put on some clothes" she continued.

II-

"Nice spot....Kinda spot I oughta be drinkin at." mused Kool Kat as He and I walked into the tony little bar and up to the counter to talk to the bartender...

"Yeah, you could...You loaded...But believe me...these aint your kind of people." I said.  He laughed.

The bartender pointed us to a small booth in the back where the gambler, Steven Bristol was sitting.... Kool Kat walked over and sat down next to him and I sat across from him....

He looked at me and smiled a bit...Kool Kat cracked his knuckles and smiled in that menacing way of his and I looked at Bristol and smiled.

''You know...the fact that you did give me a tip that saved my life once is the only reason I'm not going to turn you in." I said.

"Aww come on Kevin...We are friends aren't we?" he laughed.

"It was you...You put Macaroni Tony on to Jones...You had to already know about his scam....Jones paid you in advance for information on perspective clients right?" I asked.

"Yeah...Yeah...but I told Macaroni Tony not to get those other gangsters involved ...I told him....By the time he realized that he was being ripped off too..It was too late." he said. "He had to pay them back all of their money or they would've hit him...He lost a lot of face...He was embarrassed." said Bristol.

"And You don't embarrass a man like Macaroni Tony do you? You had told him this was a sure thing and it turned out to be a big mess. He blamed you didn't he? He was going to kill Jones and you too wasn't he?   You hired Billy Bangs to take him out first didn't you?" I said.

He said nothing. He didn't have to....I knew how Steven Bristol thought and how he operated...and he knew that I knew too.

"It's cool...I'm not wired....and I don't care....I just need to know one thing...Where is he?" I asked.

''Awww come on Kevin." said Steven Bristol.

"WHERE IS HE BRISTOL?  The man asked you a question." said Kool Kat...

"Okay...Okay...if I tell you, we are all square right?" he said.

"Still playing all the angles...Man youse a trip..." laughed Kool Kat.

"Yup...I won't tell the cops about your involvement in the murders and we can call the game even. Billy Bangs is dead...Cops don't even care who killed him...They've already arrested a number of guys who hired him to do jobs...It's quite evident by the fact that we are having this conversation with you that there was nothing  in his house implicating you in anything. He's a bad guy." I said.

"Was a bad guy." added Kool Kat with a smile.

"Fair exchange" he said still smiling.

"What was the girl's name?" I asked.

"Girl? What girl?" he asked.

"The babe stayin in Northern Liberties...Your name is on the lease...She was masquerading as Alden's wife, I suspect she was his mistress and yours too." I said.

Bristol smiled....

"Damn, no grass grows under your feet.....Her name is Debra Brown, she's probably with Alden in Guatalmala..."

"Yeah..I figured as much....I gave his account information to the Feds...They froze his accounts...Right about now those two are finding out that they can't buy a damn thing....and if they have any rent due...they can't pay for it..Can't even buy gas for their cars....That money is being returned to the investors as we speak.." I said.

Steven Bristol laughed....

"You are good...I'll never cross you, that's for sure. Waitress, give both of these guys a drink! On me!" he said.

Kool Kat just laughed and slapped his thigh.

EPILOUGE:

The Guatamalan Authorities arrested Alden Jones and turned him over to the FBI...

Debra Brown was also arrested by FBI agents shortly after in Miami, Florida......

Both were extradited to Pennsylvania and tried for Wire Fraud.... Alden Jones was convicted and given 25-50 years in Federal Prison....

There wasn't much to hold Debra Brown on accept aiding and abetting and harboring a fugitive, namely Alden Jones..She was convicted and sentenced to 3 years in State Prison...She was paroled in seven months and promptly left town.

I arrived home tired and satisfied that I had cracked one of my most baffling cases....Sepia called me from upstairs...

"Kevin come up here will you?" she said.

''I'm exhausted babe...you come down here." I said.

"Okayyyyyy but if I do, I'll have to put my clothes on." she said.

I was silent for a minute, then raced upstairs to my room to find her in some black and grey stilletto heels, black fishnet stockings with garters...a black sheer bustier and a white rose in her hair..

"WOW!" was all I could say...

"You like?" she asked.

"Y-Y-YES........YES LAWD!! and you lied..you have clothes on." I said..

"Wellll...for now...I don't expect these to be on much longer." she said with a seductive grin.....

"No...I don't either." I said.