The Death Letter

It was a rare night for me...a rare night that I was in Josies and not out with Carlotta....Since we had started dating, I spent every waking free moment I had with her...Tonight...I had no idea where she might be...I think she and Sissy and a few others were having a girl's night out or something...

I , Assistant District Attorney Keith Porterhouse Wallace was hanging out with my boy, Assistant District Attorney, Soloman Foster and Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor....Detective Baylor had first been in the investigative unit I had put together for Lt. Sissy Van Buren which included Detective Carlotta Rodriguez, Detective Tyriq Pile and Detective Jimmy Barlow...but Soloman had requested his services over in Special Investigations..Which is how we got Jimmy Barlow...Duke had indicated that he wanted to come back to Homicide, but Soloman was holding up his paperwork.

"Man Keith...you got it good ....You got Homicide, Major Crimes and Special Victims Unit....you get all of the high profile cases..." laughed Soloman...

"That aint all he gets...He gets some high profile booty too!" laughed Detective Baylor...

"Aww come on guys...it's not about that." I said.

"Aww come on Keith....You snagged Carlotta .....no mean feat...From the time she was a patrolmen, she turned down so many guys..I was beginning to wonder if she wasn't a lesbian." said Soloman.

"Well I can assure you that she's not." I said, not liking the way this conversation was going...I didn't like to discuss Carlotta with other guys, especially cops and lawyers...

"She was involved with some latin guy from her neighborhood for a hot minute.." said Duke Baylor..

"Yeah, Carlotta is one hot mommy, but that damn Lieutenant, Sissy Van Buren...WOWW!  I been wantin to sample that!" laughed Soloman...

"She's seeing somebody...A neighborhood guy." said Detective Duke Baylor.

"Mannn, for a guy who is so busy cracking cases....You sure keep up on the news." I laughed looking at him sideways...

"This guy is good Keith...That's why I had to have him...He does good work." said Soloman..

"I know...Duke and I have worked together on cases before." I said.

"You can have him back....Let me have Sissy and Carlotta." laughed Soloman.

"Not on your life." I laughed..

"Yeah, you holdin on to Carlotta like gold in Fort Knox." said Soloman.

To change the subject...I motioned to Gus for another round....

"Hey when is Honey and B. coming back from their honeymoon?" I asked him.

"They'll be back next week." said Gus..

"There's another one I let get away...Honey Brown....I took her out a couple of times a few years back, but didn't follow up on it...Now she married." said Soloman...

"That's your problem playa...you don't follow up....Keith followed up on Carlotta..and you see how he rollin."said Detective Baylor...

Soloman was a trip.. He couldn't keep a woman...But had thousands of stories of the one who got away.

II-

Tonight, the city looked beautiful...almost magical...I walked around the city streets for awhile and then I headed home....

When I opened my door, to my surprise...There, lying across my bed was Carlotta!!!!

"Heyyy papi!" she said and smiled.

I smiled....

"Wow! I'm glad to see you...Didn't think I'd see you tonight." I said...

"Sissy, Bonita, My sister, Kevin's wife,Sepia and Bridget Jones all went to a bar up in my hood.. We did shots, had a good time ...Then I took em to a little eatery around the way...and then everybody went to their men, except Bridget....She hasn't got a man yet." said Carlotta.

"She owns two lingerie stores and she's very attractive....I'm sure she won't be alone long in this town." I said..."Hey what's that?" I asked...Noticing that Carlotta had a letter in her hands..

"Oh I stopped by my house to pack an overnight bag and I found this letter in my door...It's the only one that is not a bill and doesn't have a return address." she said.

"Ohhhhh..a love letter eh?" I asked.

"From who? You??" she asked.

"Nah...Not my style.....I want to make love to you...but I'm not a letter writer." I said.

She patted a place on the bed and motioned for me to come and sit next to her...

"Come here, get acquainted with your girlfriend." she said....I loved when she said that...I took off my shoes and socks and my shirt and sat next to her on the bed...We read the letter together....

"Dearest Carlotta...If you are reading this letter...Then this means I am already dead...I was supposed to have a lunch meeting with Minolo Sentterro today at 1:00 pm...I suspect he may try to hit me...My associate was told that if I did not return at the time I specified to deliver this to you...

I am probably dead now...but it is my great desire to have that backstabbing bastard Minolo Sentterro join me either in death or suffer the rest of his natural life in a jail cell... I have evidence that can put him behind bars and possibly earn him the needle he so richly deserves...

In my wall safe is a .45 pistol..... A pistol he used when he shot Saul Paulo to death in June of 2008 on orders from the late Valdez Diaz who he was working for at the time..I was present when he shot him to death..He told me to get rid of the gun...but I kept it behind for insurance in case a day like this ever came..The gun has his fingerprints all over it....It's in my wall safe...The combonation is 45Left, 37 Right, spin twice, 85 left...

There is more... Jill Hightower, an exotic dancer ...one of Big Chicken's girls witnessed the entire thing...Her address is on the second piece of paper....She is a crack addict unfortunately...but if you get her high, she'll spill her guts.

And third, I have a safehouse in Fishtown....At this house you'll find a ledger with the names of every crooked politician, every crooked judge, every cooked cop we ever paid off and how much we paid them going back to 1999.  This should be enought to put that backstabbing rat away for a longgg time..

I'm sorry things ended like this Carlotta...I always liked you, you were a tough cop, but you were always honest and fair and straight with me....I thought of going straight ,getting out of this game and trying to convince you to marry me....Unfortunately the game, being the game has caught up to me...

Take this letter and get my revenge for me....Love you always , 

Mickey Lolo

"Who's Mickey Lolo?" I asked.

"Jealous?" she said laughing playfully.

"A little!" I laughed.

"He was up until this letter, a high ranking member of the Sentterro crime family....Before that he and Minolo worked for the Diaz Brothers....But before all of that, before I was even a cop..He was my boyfriend...High School, a few years afterwords..." she said.

"Wow! I can't imagine you and a gangster"I said.

"Mickey wasn't a gangster then...He was ....He was different...Just like Emma was different with you at one time..." she said reminding me that I used to date a woman who became one of the most notorious serial killers in the city's history!

"He was also my informant!" she said.

"Huh? What??" I said.

"He and I were drifting along two different paths....He chose to sell drugs and work for the The Diaz Brothers and I went to community college and eventually the police academy...We quietly broke up, but Mickey always carried a torch for me...He began giving me information on low level players and a few big deals years ago when I was in Narcotics....Even after I became a Homicide detective...If there was a local murder that didn't involve the Sentterro family...He gave me information...good information." she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Guess he still loved me, guess he was just trying to win points with me." she said.

"Well did he?" I asked.

"What do you think?  I'm here in bed with you." she said.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"Don't be...I'm glad that you care.." she said.


"Carlotta!!! If this is true...If this isn't a joke...We've got to take this to Sissy....I've been trying to put Manolo Sennterro away for years... He's responsible for at least 12 contract killings and he runs a sizable number of drug corners in his part of town." I said.

"I know....I'd like nothing better than to put him away....I've tried before...but to no avail....Everytime I got close to him....A witness vanished or changed their mind... A warehouse turned up empty...Dealers vanish from corners... He's gotten good information....." she said.

"This is the chance of a lifetime " I said.

"Keith ?" said Carlotta quietly...

"Huh?" I said.

''We are off duty baby."she said.

"Uhhh yeah we are...I said.

Carlotta leaned over and kissed me long and softly.....

"Crime fighting can wait." I said...

Carlotta pulled me over to her and then straddled me and kissed me again...a long ,soft,sensual kiss....

"Ohhhh my God.." I moaned...

She laughed...

"You were saying?" she asked...

"Turn the lights out..." I said.

(TO BE CONTINUED....)