Phantoms

I called the Police!  Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Homicide and Detective Carlotta Rodriguez of Special Victims unit came with six uniformed policemen.. A rape kit was administered to poor Frenchette and her office was dusted for prints...Whoever he was...He had taken her panties with him...Probably to keep any evidence from being found...A smart man.

Two cops looked at all of the survielience videotape from Twelve midnight up until the present....To see who came in and went out of our suite...

To be safe,I ordered all 93 of my employees ,male and female to submit to a DNA swab....I myself submitted to one just to be safe...

Frenchette said that a man wearing a black sweatsuit with a black ski mask and black leather gloves gabbed her and  pulled her into her office and raped her....
Because her assailant was wearing gloves...There was no prints....He was wearing a condom too...So there was no semen....and the tapes showed nobody entering the suite or the building dressed  like that! It could've been someone who changed their clothes once they got in...Someone carrying a suitbag or gymbag...That could be anybody...A number of people came and went through these buildings on any given day that fit that
description.
"All I know is that he had a strong cologne on....Like nothing I had ever smelled before!" she said.
I gave Frenchette the rest of the week off...

"This fits the pattern of three simular rapes that have occurred in this general area in the past month...This is the fourth rape." said Detective Carlotta Rodriguez! A very attractive Latina detective.  Seeing her and Lt. Sissy Van Buren together was almost taking my mind off the fact that I had just moved into my new office and here one of my employees had been assaulted.

''Yeah..in all four cases..There was no semen...and the underwear was taken after the rapes...We are dealing with a very clever guy." said Detective Carlotta Rodriguez.

Three other rapes in the area...All fitting the same M.O. Hmmm...That seemed like something I should be investigating, but this time...I was going to let the police handle that...I had a case of my own that I hadn't even started working on.

''Sissy, Ms. Rodriguez ,thanks for all of your help...Please keep me posted on anything you guys find out!" I said.

''Wow Kevin...It's usually me that is saying that to you...What happened, you retired?" she asked.

"You would think so...I've been busy just being a workaday guy." I said.

"I've heard of you Mr. Morris..Heard you're a pretty damn good investigator...You'd make a great detective." said Detective Carlotta Rodriguez..

''Don't bother Carlotta, I've been begging him to join the force for years...He prefers to be a lone wolf." said Sissy Van Buren.

We all laughed and the two detectives and six policemen left after finishing their investigation.

Sean Jackson and Harry Charles watched as they left.

"Damn Kevin...I didn't know they made cops that fine." said Sean Jackson.

''Handcuff me baby...woooooo lawd!" added Harry Charles...

I laughed....After Harry Charles walked away....I turned to Sean Jackson....

"We set for tomorrow night?" I asked.

"Yeah...Me and Lockpick Johnson checked the spot out...We rented one of Rollo Jones's girls and had her case the place...It looks clean... Tomorrow night..We are in and out!" said Sean Jackson...

"Good deal. These rapes have me un-nerved." I said.

Just then....Snuffy the janitor walked over to me with a bag of trash....

"Mr. Kevin...You said a girl was raped in here today?" He said.

''Yeah...everybody is talkin about it." I said,

''Well look what I found...two condoms...and they loaded...Somebody deposited them in the men's restroom." he said.

"Hmmmm..Good catch Snuffy." I said.
I went in my office and got a zip lock bag and put both of the condoms in the two bags....The police ought to be interested in this I thought...Maybe it'll match somebody's DNA.

II-

I didn't go to work the next day...I had other work to do... I dropped off the two condoms to Special Victims Unit and then I got with my operatives as I now jokingly referred to them.....
With Clerow driving..We parked the Van two streets down....Owen Todd and Kool Kat were stationed on opposite sides of the street..Blending in with the crowd to make sure we didn't have any unexpected guests...
Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson, Sean Jackson and myself went inside the office using the passkey that was given to me...Clerow guarded the back door!

Lockpick Johnson disarmed all of their surveilience devices and placed a few of our own in key places...along with Peeping Tom and Sean Jackson.... I got inside the office and grabbed every file pertaining to Mr. Cornfield ,I could get my hands on and made xerox copies of them....It took a little over thirty minutes and I was out! Clerow called my cell phone to tell me how much time had passed as planned and we quickly met him at the door!

The seven of us were off  after that and on our way to the Attorney's office....This was a little easier to do...
Lockpick Johnson easily got inside...And Peeping Tom, Sean Jackson and I bugged the office and I again got all of the files pertaining to Cornfield and copied them...Again...Thirty minutes of work and we were out....

In little over 90 minutes, I had completed my task and was back at home. It was done quietly with no fuss, no muss and no fingerprints or other clues to indict us...I thought about this rapist...He was as stealth as we were...Leaving not a clue...Not on tape and no fingerprints or known DNA...And yet inside....!!

Something Frenchette had said...About a strong cologne....I smelled a strong cologne smell ,like none I'd ever smelled before in the attorney's office...Hmmm, wonder if one of this guy's clients was our serial rapist? Just a thought in the back of my mind.

III-

The Next day, I worked a half day and then left to have lunch with Attorney Robert Foxworth. Using his friend in records , I did more research on the Harris Group...
They were a group of wealthy hedge fund managers who formed a partnership and began buying things, Magazines like mine, which was struggling under it's original owners.

They bought it right around the time I started working there..They bought a couple of semi-pro sports teams and other things...Some of the businesses were bled dry and discarded, some were kept and maintained...They were planning to move me out of position and possibly bleed my company dry,except that I made a lucrative break from them...Other businesses they owned hadn't been so lucky.

The Harris Group had offshore accounts in Switzerland, The Caymen Islands and St.Croix and a number of companies I suspected were non-existant...just pockets to store money. I had dealt with a set up like theirs before.

I was finishing up my research just as Robert was coming into the conference room.

"Damn Kevin, you got this much evidence in one night? You guys are good..Semi or quasi legal, but good." he laughed.

"We didn't steal a thing counselor..We copied files." I laughed.

''Breaking and entering is still a crime in most states." He laughed.

"I won't tell if you won't." I laughed. "By the way...I saw your ex-wife." I said.

"Sissy?" he asked.

"Yeah...Man, you have had some fine babes in your life counselor." I said.

"She is a dime piece aint she? She used to let me hit that occasionally, after we divorced....I used to look forward to her visits...Then eventually she stopped...Lawd today,one of my biggest regrets is cheatingon and losing that woman." said Robert Foxworth...

"But hell, Bonita is no slouch either...and neither was your second wife." I said.

"Yeaah you right about that...." laughed Robert.

We looked through the files On Richard Cornfield...They had records upon records of him "cooking the books" as you might say...embezzling money for up to a year!

"Hmmm, they could have fired this guy and  or made a case against him awhile ago." said Robert Foxworth.

"Yes they could have unless..." I said and let it linger..

''Unless what?" said Robert.

''Unless he had something on whoever was investigating him or had him investigated." I said.

''And you say that my clients are sleazy!" said Robert Foxworth.

We both laughed as we shared a burger and fries.

''This attorney you checked out, Ronald Amundsen...He's a heavy hitter...You don't want to mess with him...Just some advice. He likes to sue his adversaries.And he's good at it...He usually wins!" said Robert Foxworth.

We checked out those files....These were altogether different....These files dealt with his upcoming divorce, Claims of numerous infidelities..and photos taken by a private investigator named Lee Spann,(an old friend of mine) of him and various women in compromising positions.

"He seems to have a thing for sisters." mused Robert Foxworth.

"Yeah ,he told me that.But these photos, they seem to be a bit ameturish,fuzzy...Not the kind of work I associate with Lee Spann." I said.

"Wow, this guy is embezzling money and cheatin on his wife..A real solid citizen." said Robert Foxworth..

"Yeah..but who is doing this investigation on him...His personal life and his business dealings?" I asked.

''That would be a good question to ask him the next time you see him." said Robert Foxworth.

"Yeah really." I said.

IV-

As I headed home that afternoon, I thought about this phantom rapist that was on the loose...How did he get inside my building , all of the buildings for that matter....and rape girls without being seen?  Not only that...How did he get out without being detected??

Who was this guy I was working for? An embezzler and serial adulterer......Not exactly an innocent bystander.....

I kept thinking...Richard Cornfield was as much a phantom as my serial rapist....


(To Be Continued...)