If This Ocean Was Mine! (Part I))

We got an early start....We left at 5:30 in the morning...Me, Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace and my one time law school buddy, Attorney Robert Foxworth...We were headed upstate to Stanga, Pennsylvania...Home of the Pennsylvania Men's Correctional Colony at Stanga...Which was outside of Angel City....

Robert drove fast and we made it in three hours...Which was good...We'd be getting there just as the inmates were waking up...

The Prison...The State's newest ,was built in 2003.If not for the barbed wire and re-inforced steel on the outside of it, The Pennsylvania Men's  Correctional Colony at Stanga looked like a college campus with high rise dormitories. The men were not locked up in cells...They were locked up in rooms. The rooms had two beds...A sink, A toilet and two dresser drawers. There was one Flat screenTelevison in each room...Depending on how much money one had on their books..The television had cable or it did not.

There was a swimming pool here, both an outdoor and in indoor pool....There was a huge golf course and a basketball court and a baseball field. The inmates took classes in modern classrooms that rivaled my college classrooms...Some played baseball, some played basketball, others lifted weights....There was a couple of trailers for conjugal visits. This was only for married inmates....Though I suspected that some of the rules concerning that was loosened for some inmates....I didn't care.

Practically all of the inmates here were guys with little or no violence in their past. First time offenders or honor inmates...Most of the hard luck cases I had put behind bars were doing hard time in other prisons..

"Man, I haven't been up here in awhile.." said Robert Foxworth...

"That's why I asked you to drive...I knew you knew the way." I said.

"Keith...you're the only one I'd do this for....You had me getting out of my bed at 4:00 in the morning to drive you to a prison filled with men....HAVE YOU SEEN MY WIFE???? YOU GOT ME LEAVIN SOMEONE THAT FINE IN THE BED,ALONE???" Robert joked...

His wife, Bonita, like his past two wives before was fine as wine...Bonita snapped necks when she walked down the streets..I know that for Robert to leave his bed, I had to be a very good friend..  He looked at me and smiled...

"And that fine ass Latina YOU got....Why are you coming up here to see Soloman Foster, leavin that babe in Philly all alone?" he asked.

"Because...I need Soloman to tell me something...Something that in a way will help her." I said.

Soloman Foster had been like me, an Assistant District Attorney...He wasn't even a lawyer anymore...He had been caught giving sensitive information to a major crime syndicate boss and as a result...He was serving a five to ten year stretch in the prison.

None of the Sentterro crime family members that we sent to prison were here,I made sure of that...And Minolo Sentterro himself was in Texas in a Federal Prison for the rest of his natural life....

Soloman Foster, Robert Foxworth and I had been known as the three Muskateers in college...We met at Howard University as Freshmen and were inseperable...We even dated the same women,sometimes at the same time....After Howard, we all wound up at Penn Law school and all graduated together... Robert went to work for a major law firm...Today,he has his own practice....Soloman and I went to work for the D.A.'s office..We were both Assistant District Attorneys....It pained me to have to send Soloman to jail..

"I just gotta do this Robert." I said.

Robert Foxworth looked at me...

"Okay...I understand." said Robert Foxworth...He was a good friend.

II-

The first surprise was that the warden was a very attractive and shapely black woman named Sulima Chase. She wore a grey pin striped skirt that hugged her curvaceous body in every way possible, white sheer pantyhose and matching grey pumps, A white see through blouse that didn't hide her beautiful laced bra and not a hair out of place...This wasn't lost on Robert Foxworth, who couldn't take his eyes off of her. She was quite impressed with him and me also!

Warden Chase....My name is Keith Wallace, I'm An Assistant District Attorney from Philadelphia...I'm here to see inmate, Soloman Foster." I said.

"Yes...I remember your call from the other day...." she said , talking to me and looking Robert and me up and down and smiling from ear to ear..

"Excuse my manners...This is my friend, Attorney Robert Foxworth." I said.

"My...My..My... Two fine attorneys...I see he's married...but you aint..." she said.

"Nah..but I live with somebody." I lied...I didn't live with Carlotta and we weren't married...but we were in a committed relationship...Though I had to admit...This woman was fine, too fine to be tucked up here in this prison...Had Robert and I of been single, we both would have been fighting for her attention.

"Ummmmmph, Ummmph ,Ummmph, you two got some lucky women...I hope they know it...Anyway...The inmate will be coming in that room to talk to you shortly" she said, still smiling from ear to ear.

In the waiting area...Several inmates were talking to their wives, girlfriends, children...I sat and waited for 15 minutes...Finally, a guard brought Soloman Foster into the room.. He saw me, pointed and smiled and sat down behind the glass... He pointed at Robert Foxworth and busted out laughing. He motioned for the phone receiver..I picked it up and we began to talk...

"Wow this is the second visit I've had...I thought I'd be forgotten, You don't know how much I appreciate this." said Soloman Foster..."Hey Robert." he said.

"Hey man, How you holdin up?" asked Robert Foxworth...

"Pretty Good man, considering...I swim twice a day...I work in the kitchen...At night,I play chess, listen to my Ipod...and watch the moon from my dorm room." he said.

''Who else came to visit you?" I asked, curious..

''Detective Angie Belton....Don't say anything to her Keith...I don't think she'd want anybody to know..." he said...Soloman hadn't been in prison that long , but he seemed different, contrite...humble.

"Really? She came to see you?" I said.

"We've talked and corresponded since I've been here." he said.

"Wow...Imagine that!" I said.

"I have a confession to make Keith....I didn't screw her that night we went out...I lied...I was a jerk..I tried to kiss her, ran my hands up her skirt, was dry humpin her up against the car and I got nowhere...She sent me home frustrated that night." he said.

I knew this...Unknown to him, I was sitting across the street watching the whole thing, but no need to tell him that..I'm sure he felt bad enough as it was..

"I wrote her a letter before they shipped me off apologizing and telling her how bad I felt..I figured she'd ignore it...But she wrote me back, a month later....I asked if I could call her sometimes and to my surprise...She wrote me another letter with her phone number....We talk a lot now...At least once a week...She's a nice girl....She deserved a lot better than a dog like me. I should have evolved like you guys.."he said.

"There's still time man...You sound like you're on the right track." said Robert Foxworth..

Soloman smiled....Then he looked at me...

"So...now that we've had our touchy feely Hallmark moment...Why are you here Keith??  " he asked...This was the Soloman I knew and loved...

"Thought you'd never ask....I need a favor...You do me this favor...and I will put in a word for you at your first parole hearing...Which is why I brought Robert along...To represent you....If all goes well...I promise I will do everything I can to see that this time next year, You're home....back in Philadelphia on the street!" I said.

"WHATTTTT?" he said.

"It's a good deal Soloman, you ought to take it."said Robert Foxworth..."This is your first and only conviction...You have no violence in your past...Your chances look good to get paroled." he added..

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Mickey Lolo!  What happened to him?? Where can I find his remains??  I promise you, you will never have to testify and nobody knows we are here or that this deal is being proffered...." I said.

"Man, do you know what happens if I get out too early..Everyone will say that I snitched." he said.

''Who? All of his people are serving long jail sentences up state...And he is gone forever..Buried deep in Texas for the rest of his life....There is nobody to say anything...Besides....I'm not looking to attach anymore charges to anybody....I just want to find his body..."I said.

"Why do you care man?  He's dead!!...He was no angel himself man...He was Minolo's number two man...his enforcer...He's killed as many guys as Minolo...They both were contract killers when they were young men you know?" he said.

"Yes...I know." I said and hung my head...

"This is for Carlotta isn't it? She and Mickey Lolo used to be an uhh item...Did you know that they were once engaged to be married??  He broke it off when she told him she was going to the police academy.....Then he was sorry...By the time she came back and was on the street, it was too late...He had said some pretty mean things to her...She kind of forgave him...But once she knew he was in the game...she wouldn't touch him with a ten foot pole...." said Soloman.."Carlotta was good like that." he said.

"He was giving her information you know...Lightweight stuff. An unrelated murder here, an independent drug crew there, yada yad yada." I said.

"Yeah, one of Minolo's people saw him talking to her  on more than one occassion...That's why he's dead...Minolo was worried that it was more than just pillow talk...He feared it was more...Minolo was very paranoid about cops and people who talked to them, even casually." said Soloman..

"What exactly happened?" I asked.

"Look,I wasn't there...I never witnessed Minolo order any murder...I would ask about somebody and he would say..."They took a bath", Which meant..they were dead...In the water....I'll give you an address..It's a self storage facility he owns....In it are hundreds of those steel drum cans...and body bags...When a guy was murdered...His body was put in one of the bags and stuffed in the drums...Then the body was taken out on a boat and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean..." said Soloman...

"Wow!" I said.

"Man...there might be 28 to 30 of those cans in the ocean...dating back to 2008....That's when Minolo and Mickey took over and that's when people started just vanishing off the streets in Fishtown, Port Richmond and Kensington...Real quiet like...No murders for you guys to investigate...No controversay."said Soloman...

III-

"On The Last Day of his life....Minolo called Mickey Lolo for a special meeting at Bottom of The C...Mike Light and Julio Rivera were there...I was there too...Not with them..I had met this fine little honey and I was having a lunch with her...They ate a big meal...Minolo paid for everything....They had the best wine...Steaks, Baked Potatos..Lobster...House Salad...Those guys could eat...I don't believe they left anything on the plates...Minolo always fed you well ,before you were about to get hit. Didn't look like a meeting to me...Anyway...The four of them left together...And that was the last time anybody saw Mickey Lolo!!!

"I suspect that Mike Light and Julio Rivera dropped Minolo off and they delivered Mickey Lolo to a man named Albert "Sully" Sullerson....He did a lot of Minolo's contracts...Minolo liked him because he worked clean...He used a garotte, snapped your neck...Clean..No blood...Sullerson did the hit, Light and Rivera put the body in the body bag and the can..and they took the can out on the high seas sometime that weekend and dumped it.." said Soloman...

"Well we can't ask Mike Light or Juan Rivera..They're both dead....They were killed by the police in that shootout at Bailey's ...They went there thinking they were going to off three witneses." I said.

"Yeah and if you can find Sully Sullerson, you'll be lucky.....I doubt if there are any witnesses...He never left any behind or much other physical evidence." said Soloman.

"Guess you didn't hear." said Robert Foxworth...

"Hear what?" asked Soloman...

"Sully Sullerson is dead!!...They found him floating face down in the river last week, nude...shot ten times and beat to a pulp..." I said.

"Oh my God.....I'd hate to know who took him out....That guy was one scary dude...I thought death was afraid of him." said Soloman...

We all laughed....

"Yeah, well somebody living wasn't...He stayed in the game too long...Dude was close to 70 wasn't he?" asked Robert Foxworth..`

"Nah...I don't think he was that old...just lived hard, that's all." I said.

"Police say it may have been at least three people who took him out...All leads point to New York gangsters..." I said.

"Had to be... Nobody in Philly had the heart to deal with Sully Sullerson." said Soloman.

"Soloman....How long were you in bed with Minolo?" I asked.

"Two years Keith...I swear...I mean I knew the guy...Me, him, Carlotta, Natividad Diaz.. Mickey Lolo, We all went to Central High School...We all graduated together... I've known Carlotta longer than you have..I know her older Sister too...We all grew up together...I knew he was a playa....It wasn't until I got deep in debt to him in that crap game that I started giving him information....But I swear to you...I never took part in any of his crimes...I was never around when somebody got clipped...What little I know is pillow talk I gleamed from women I slept with that was in his inner circle or talk I heard from some of his guys...I swear." said Soloman..

"You know...I gave him 75 years...I sure wished I could give him a needle." I said.

"You buried him Keith....Why do you need to find the remains of Mickey Lolo??? You doin this for her aren't you??  You really love her don't you??  I've never loved a woman that much...Which is probably why I'm single and sitting here in Prison....I envy you Keith...I wish I could love somebody that much...." he said.

Robert stood stoic and silent...

"Thank you Soloman." I said.

"Is our deal good?" he asked.

"It is...Robert will rep you and I will testify in your behalf at your parole hearing..and hopefully, you'll be home this time next year." I said.

"Thank you man....I'm sorry...I'm sorry for everything...I don't expect any forgiveness from all of the people I betrayed and let down...I just hope I can somehow make amends... for what I did..." said Soloman..

"This goes along way." I said..We stood, shook hands...And Robert and I left.

IV-

I was silent on the drive back to Philadelphia....Robert drove....Finally he turned to me.....

"Do you love Carlotta?" he asked.

"Yes." I said ,thinking about her and wondering what she was doing, what she was wearing.

"You tell her?" he asked.

"Yes." I said.

"What she say about that?" he asked.

"She said she loves me too!" I said.

"Good....That's good..You're both on the same page...She ask you to do this?" he asked. "I've met her once or twice...She's a very nice girl...Love her spanish accent." he said and smiled.

"She doesn't know anything about it....I just want her to have closure..So we can move on." I said.

"Well... Good Luck to you." He said.

"You're a good friend Robert" I said. He said nothing, he just nodded.

(CONCLUSION NEXT)