Better Dance Partners

I continued my investigation of "Flaming Moe'' by finding out about the man....His real name was Moses S. Green.....He was born and raised in Charleston ,South Carolina...
Had come up north and settled in Newark, New Jersey after he graduated from High School...

Talented....He played the Vibes, The Piano and the Drums quite well and he was skilled at arranging  music also....Had once attended the Julliard school of music in New York City...He didn't graduate...

Moe Green began playing sessions in New York ,Philadelphia and Los Angelas, while living in Jersey City, West Orange and Patterson, New Jersey....It was said that his hands were so fast that it was a wonder his instruments didn't catch on fire...Thus the name...Flaming Moe. He was married for three years to a young Harlem woman and divorced.  The woman in question had remarried. We spoke on the phone, briefly, but she hadn't seen or heard from him in seven years...Wasn't much she could tell me.

He and Charlie "Dutch" Van Buren met and began playing in several Jazz and Funk and R &B bands in the New York City, North Jersey area..a decade ago and developed a friendship...a friendship that continued once Dutch returned to Philadelphia....

I interviewed every one I knew who was in Josie's that night...No one had a bad thing to say about Flaming Moe...Nobody saw anything either....

I went to Chinatown where he lived and Little Norway ,where he previously lived and talked to everybody he knew...Also talked to his family and close friends.....

Detectives Carlotta Rodriguez and Tyriq Pile had interviewed and talked to practically everybody I had talked to, at least a day before me... They were both good investigators...easily my equal... They were my friends too and I certainly didn't want to get in the way or hinder their murder investigation.

II-

I read in the paper a few days later, that Detectives Carlotta Rodriguez and Tyriq Pile arrested Vinnie "Trolley Car" Jones for the murder of Moses"Flaming Moe" Green...

This was based on videotape from Josies and a Crime Stoppers Video cam that showed
Flaming Moe and Vincent "Trolley Car" Jones talking in the parking lot of Josies that night.  I had seen it, but it didn't show him actually killing Moe...

Of course, everybody in the bar and the neighborhood knew that Flaming Moe had owed Trolley Car Jones 5G's and had been ducking him for weeks...They also knew that Trolley Car wasn't too happy about it and had said he'd "kill Moe" when he caught up with him...

It wasn't much...but it was enough.....I suppose... There was also a young woman in that parking lot on the video too....A nice looking young woman...A woman I had never seen before... She had been seen talking to Moe right before Vincent "Trolley Car" Jones showed up...

I asked Gus about her...

"Aww she's nobody....Her name is Lucy...Lucy Diamond...She's not from around here...Her and Flaming Moe knew each other in Patterson and Newark...Funny how everybody winds up here in Philly aint it?" he said.

"Yeah..sure is...You know where she lives?" I asked.

Gus wrote down an address on a piece of paper. He never ceased to amaze me..The things and people he knew!

"You might want to try there..but be careful....She dates a  guy named Lance Fontaine...he's a gambler and rumored to be a juice man.Tread lightly kid, he's a real nasty piece of business." said Gus.

"Yeah ,So I've heard. I saw him last night at Mabel's place...and that goon that was trying to feel up Bridget Jones the other day here in the bar is one of his boys. "I said.

''Just be easy Kev and watch your back...If he's mixed up in this, there is bound to be some serious trouble." said Gus.

"Yeah...Seems to be a habit of mine...Dancin with guys who are serious trouble." I said.

"Then you need to find some better dance partners." said Gus who looked at me and winked...

I laughed and he laughed too.

"Indeed." I said.

III-

I figured now was as good a time as any to visit C.I.D., before they transferred "Trolley Car" Jones to the city jail.

Most Private Investigators would have been told to take a hike if they went over to homicide wanting to talk to one of their suspects...but Sissy and now her detectives, Carlotta, Tyriq, Jimmy and Duke usually always gave me a sort of carte blanche...

When I arrived at C.I.D. Tyriq was standing outside of the interrogation room which they had nicknamed the fishbowl watching Carlotta conduct the interview..

"Hey Kev...We had a feeling you'd show up eventually." said  Detective Tyriq Pile.

"Yeah...I got a client who asked me to look into this...but believe me, I don't want to step on you and Carlotta's toes...Do you mind if I just watch?" I asked.

"Kev? Come on...It's you babe...you know we don't mind." said Tyriq.

"Where is the Boss Lady?" I asked...

"She'll be here soon..." he said.

Carlotta passed Trolley Car Jones a tumbler of hot coffee.. He was grateful.....

"Thank You so much." he said...Not your typical bad ass killer at all.

"You alright?" she asked.

"Well, as you can imagine...I've been better." he said.

She smiled so sweetly that if I was a suspect I would have told her anything she wanted to know and then some.

"Did you kill Moses Green?" she asked softly...

"Detective Rodriguez..I swear I did not....He owed me money....and he had been ducking me and I was mad,mad as hell, I admit that...I probably said some things that I shouldn't have about killing him...but that was just talk just Talk...I don't have a violent bone in my body..." he said.

"So you caught up with him?" she said.

"Yeah...This babe named Lucy , Lucy Diamond that he runs with...She told me where I could find him." he said.

"His girlfriend?" she asked.

"Nah...not hardly....They knew each other from North Jersey...That's where he's from....They had had a falling out  recently." he said.

"Lovers Spat?" she asked.

"Nah...Not even close...She hated his guts..." he said.

"You know why?" asked Carlotta.

"Probably owed her some money like he owed me... He ducked people....Then he'd get flush and start paying everybody he knew...Then start borrowing money all over again. He had three or four large on him when I came up on him in that parking lot...Don't know how he got so flush...all of a sudden..He was missing gigs...Dutch Van Buren and Chazz was mad at him for showin up late and they had docked his pay." said Trolley Car Jones..

"You got any idea where his good fortune came from?" asked Carlotta..

"Couldn't tell you...I was just glad he had my money." said Trolley Car Jones..

Lucy Diamond!! This was the second time I heard this name! Definitely had to check her out.

"So that's why you were in the parking lot?" said Carlotta.

"Yes...but we didn't argue....In fact, he gave me three g's....You found three thousand dollars on me when you guys arrested me..That was from him...Why would I kill him?
I  just wanted my money....He said he was gonna pay me the rest next week." said Jones.

"Now you're out  two grand?" said Carlotta.

"Exactly." he said.

"You see anybody else in that parking lot that night?" she asked.

"Not while I was there." he said.

"What happened to this Lucy person?" asked Carlotta.

"She pointed him out to me and then I don't know what happened to her, she kind of just left." he said.

Carlotta got up and left the interview room...

"Heyyy Kevin...Tyriq said that you'd be around eventually...You want to ask him some
questions?" she said.

"Nope...You asked him all the questions I would have asked him." I said.

"You like him for this?" asked Tyriq.

"No...I don't. He doesn't seem the type." I said.

"I don't think so either..I'm going to cut him loose...but put Duke Baylor on him." said Carlotta.

"Good idea...Always a pleasure seeing you people." I said...

Carlotta and Tyriq smiled wryly at me...

"I know you weren't going to come up here and not say hello to your sister?" came the unmistakable voice of Lt. Sissy Van Buren...

I smiled...She hugged me warmly....

"Hi Kevin,You gonna help us with this murder?" she asked.

"Of Course....But right now...I got nothing...but you know your phone will ring when or if I do." I said.

I smiled and bid them all good day.

III-

Lucy! Lucy Diamond...Her name had come up a little too much...I was going to have to pay her a visit...

Carlotta was too good a detective to let that name slide...I knew she'd be on my trail soon to talk to Lucy...And I knew that she knew I was going to pay Lucy a visit...
I had to get to her first....

It wasn't hard...I had an address...It checked out....I sat outside and watched her house...It was a rental property...She'd only been in Philadelphia about six months...
I saw the gambler, Lance Fontaine go in and out, saw them leave together...
Despite his reputation...I wasn't worried about him....But why walk into a problem if I didn't have to? Like Sissy used to tell me..."Try and duck a few punches." No.. I would wait until she was alone to approach her.

If Carlotta got to her first...so be it...There was no competition...but I did have a need to question her.

IV-

Sepia and I lie across our bed a few hours later just talking for a change....

"How's your case going?" she asked..

I kind of got the feeling  a long time ago that Sepia lived vicariously through my adventures...

"Eliminated one suspect....got to talk to another suspect tomorrow..Her name is Lucy...Lucy Diamonds.." I said.

Upon hearing that name...Sepia sat up!

"Lucy Diamond?? Is she from North Jersey by any chance?" she said.

"Yeah...You know her?" I asked.

"All my life...She's not one of my friends...She lived in West Orange for a time...She and I attended middle school and high school for a minute.." she said.

"Small world isn't it? She knew Moses Green, my deceased musician."I said.

"I don't know him...but Lucy Diamond was Lucy Graves....When I knew her....She married a guy named Bruce Diamond....a playa out of Jersey City..." said Sepia..

"No kidding?" I said ,now sitting up myself...

"So she's married and running around with a local player here named Lance Fontaine." I said.

"Bruce Diamond is dead...He was stabbed to death in Patterson, the year before I met you...Lucy was accused of it at first, but they dropped the charges... Lack of evidence...They arrested some other guy for it...But he went to trial and beat the rap.." said Sepia.

"What happened to Lucy?" I asked.

"She moved to New York City for a season, then somehow wound up in Patterson again and Jersey City... I haven't seen her in like six or seven years." said Sepia.

"Hmmmm...now all of a sudden she's here in Philly." I said.

"Make sure your wedding band is showing when you go to see her." said Sepia..

"Huh?" I said.

"She's very flirtatious...Good at stealing other women's men...I don't want to have to cut nobody." said Sepia...

"Aww Sepia....I don't believe anybody could steal anybody from you...."I said and gently slapped her behind...

"All this good lovin you got?" I joked.....

"Ohhh shut up Kevin.." she giggled...

I rolled her over and began kissing her....

She slipped my pajama bottoms down...

''Oh my God....Kevin." she said...rubbing her soft hands along my now huge erection...

I smiled gingerly and kissed her up her neck, her chin and finally her nice full lips...

"Ummmmmmm" she moaned as I slowly entered her...

"You always know the right thing to say to get some." she moaned as we began to make sweet love that night.

IV-

The next morning I drove by Lucy's house again....I saw her getting in a car with Lance Fontaine....

I saw Carlotta and Tyriq across the street in an unmarked car watching her property also....

Good old Carlotta, I knew that she'd be on to Lucy....

I followed Lucy and Lance a few blocks... They parked and walked into a jewelry store...While they were inside...I slipped a GPS tracking device on the car..I believed it was Lance Fontaine's car... I pulled off...

I drove back to Lucy's house... Carlotta and Tyriq had left.... I had the make and model of Lucy's car...I looked around and slipped a GPS tracking device on her car... This way I could follow her and or Mr. Lance Fontaine without them knowing it.

I asked around about Lance Fontaine...He was indeed a bad apple...A high stakes gambler and a loan shark... He had major juice on the streets and generally had a lot of people afraid of him  and shooken up...This was the type of guy who walked in a barber shop and guys got up and let him have their place! Just the type of guy I enjoy taking down a peg!

Maybe our paths wouldn't have to cross?  Who was I fooling? He and I were on a collision course in this case...His name was coming up too much also.

Gus was right...I did need to find better dance partners.

(To Be Continued.....)