A Girl To Find!

Like most places in Stephen Bristol's world....This lounge was very tony, very sophisticated and very expensive... I dressed for the occassion...I had on one of my newer suits....Tailored to perfection...Picked out for me by Kool Kat's tailor.....Speaking of Which...The Big man was sitting outside in an unmarked car with Clerow at the wheel....Owen Todd...the only other African -American in the lounge was seated rows away from me, drinking , but keeping an eye on me....

I sat alone and waited patiently for Eddie "Eddie Spaghetti"  Collins...a low level playa who sold his skills to the highest bidder at the time...Now he was working for the gambler, Stephen Bristol...

He was a tall ,slender, brown skinned man, about my age, who dressed immaculately and had a freshly cut haircut and smelled great...He arrived on time with a briefcase that made him appear to be an attorney....

"Ahhh ,Kevin Morris? Mr. Bristol speaks highly of you...." he said.

"And you are Eddie Collins?" I said.

"That would be me?  You drinkin?" he asked...

"A mint mojito for me." I said.

"Fine...I'll have the same." he said to the shapely young waitress who took our order...

"This is the information you'll be needing...Photographs, credit card numbers, debit card number, home address, home phone number....Make of car, car's vin number and drivers license number.  I do hope she's okay...I'd just die if something were to happen to her...I mean...I'd feel bad for Mr. Bristol" he said.

I smiled....I gave him the side eye...

''Wow, you are thorough Mr. Collins....Usually, I have to dig this kind of information up myself and it takes awhile." I laughed...

"Mr. Bristol is thorough, not I....I guess it's a habit....He likes information...He met Ruby Fowler at a horse race....She was sitting alone at a bar....He began a conversation with her...She seemed to perk up and enjoy his conversation...He had no idea that Cal Townsend had attempted to talk to her just an hour before and had been rebuffed..." said Eddie.

"So wait a minute...This whole thing is a pissing contest between two men over a woman?" I asked incredulous!

"Look Kev...Can I call you Kev?" he said as our drinks arrived.

"Sure..." I said.

"I'm like you, I don't understand it...but these two men bet on everything....Neither man likes to lose at anything...and yet ,neither man really has her...If only they knew." he said.

''They're black....We are born losing. What did you mean  by ,if they only knew?" I said.

Eddie smiled and shrugged his shoulders....

"Oh....uh nothing. They began competing for Ms. Fowler's affections in the coming weeks...Calling, sending flowers, dinner, dancing, horse racing....It appears Mr. Bristol won out...She explained to Cal that she thought she'd like to pursue a relationship with Mr. Bristol....and well, that didn't set right with Cal Townsend....In the weeks leading up to her disapearence she told us that she felt she was being followed and that she got threatening calls from someone unknown who kept breathing hard..." he said.

"Bottom line, you don't think she's dead do you?" I asked.

"No..Nooooooo...I think Cal is keeping her somewhere....It's just finding out where and getting her to safety that's all..." he said.

"Well, I'll do what I can." I said.

"Thanks..." he said...and we sat there and continued to drink for another half hour.

II-

First thing I did was have Sean Jackson and Owen Todd watch Cal Townsend...They followed him, they found where he lived and where his office of operations was and they also found out where he liked to eat and hold court....

Quietly, Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson, Sean Jackson and myself broke into his condo...both of them and wired them for sound and video.....Then we got his office and we got his bistro of choice...I wanted to hear everything this man said and know everybody who came his way....

With Clerow by my side, I questioned up to 62 people who knew or was acquainted with Ruby Fowler to try and paint a picture of her last two weeks....Most of these people seemed afraid and did not want to say much....I visited them a second time with Kool Kat and at least some of them were a little more co-operative!

I managed to get videotape of her going in stores and gas stations during that last week she was seen....In one film, I pulled up a shadowy vision of two men just sitting in a car staring at her...I took the video to Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson...He said he might be able to enlarge the video and get a clear vision of the two mystery men...I had a hunch who they might be...

Next, I checked her bank, debit card and credit card records...All activity seemed to stop on the night she went missing...No activity after that! I checked her phone....Same thing, both landline and cell phone...But I did pull a mysterious number from her phone that kept coming up several times in the past month that didn't seem to belong to any of the players in this drama.... I found out that it came from a rare payphone just a block from where Cal Townsend ate and drank....and held court...

I called ADA Keith Wallace and Homicide Lt. Sissy Van Buren....I needed a favor...a king sized favor...

Of course I told them that I was looking for a missing woman and that Cal Townsend might be a suspect and that he might have thrown that fight which was why "He Man" Jefferson and his associate had been shot...

"We are on the same page Kevin...We have one witness who claims she saw two men walk by that car and pump bullets into it...but she's scared to death right now...." said Sissy Van Buren...

"Yeah....same guys might be my kidnappers....I need a fingerprint unit to dust this phone booth for me." I said.

"Okay....but Cal Townsend has never even been arrested...we don't have his prints." said Keith Wallace...

"No problem....I can get those for you...and I may have something else soon." I said.

"Okay Kevin...but be careful and listen.....Knowing your quasi legal methods as I do...We can't talk in an official capacity on this one too often..." said Sissy...

"Yeah ,I know...this is real high profile....but I know you want your killers as bad as I want to find my client's missing woman...anyway we can help each other can't be bad." I said.

"No never." said Sissy.

''You think He man Jefferson will recover from his wounds?" I asked.

"The doctor says that if he does recover, he'll be paralyzed from the neck down and wont be able to talk." said Sissy.

"Man....He's the only witness to the shooting that might talk." I said.

"Kev...I'm sending some guys down there to dust your phone booth....Detective Rodriguez will be in contact." said ADA Keith Wallace...

"Thanks guys." I said.

III-

Later on , at home with Sepia.....We were in the living room laughing and talking..relaxing, talking about our day...

"Seems like when you do take time off from the job, you're out saving the world." she laughed.

"Yeah don't it? Just be careful....keep your purse with you and keep a good watch on your car....be observant of everybody around you." I said...

"I know, I know...I always am." she said....sounding a bit like a child.

I constantly checked the alarm system that Lockpick Johnson installed and the micro-video cameras installed through out the house...and the monitors....I wanted no chance of anyone sneaking up on us..That had happened once before...Two creeps had actually gotten inside of the house and surprised us...That was not going to ever happen again...

The phone rang.....Sepia got up and went to get it...I watched her as she walked to get it and smiled..She looked back and smiled slyly at me...

The expression on her face changed dramatically !!!! I knew the call was bad!!

"What?" I said.

"That was Robert Foxworth...."He Man Jefferson just died!" she said.

(TO BE CONTINUED......)