Little Ms. Cry Baby

Carlotta and Tyriq were hunting Lucy Graves-Diamond as was I....but I had a slight advantage...I had found her first and had slipped a GPS tracker on her car and on the car of boyfriend, Gambler, Lance Fontaine...

I knew where she would most likely go... Sean Jackson was in Spain...but he had left me one of his incredible cameras with a super lense that could shoot good photos at night and in the day...I had shot several good photos of Lucy and had been tailing her around the city....

By now, I'm sure she knew that not only were the Police inquiring about her, but a certain private investigator also....Which was why she decided to drop out of sight.
Or so she thought!~

She avoided the usual bars like Josies, The Mermaid Club, Ciros ,The Aqua Bar and Mulberry Street....She had no doubt had heard that I was around asking people questions about her....as well as the cops!

Now of days...She was visiting a watering hole called Roxys....They had a nice little crowd...No live music...no DJ...You went here to drink, talk and watch sports or videos.. The crowd was much younger...

For once, She wasn't with Lance Fontaine......So I cozied up next to her and ordered a beer...

"Hello Lucy...It is Lucy isn't it?" I said.

She looked at me with fake dis-interest.....

"Is it?" she said.

"Yeah...It is...You're from North Jersey right?  My wife is from there ....She knows you." I said.

"Yeah? Who is your wife?" she asked.

"Jo-Anne...Jo-Anne Coakley back then...Her friends call her Sepia." I said.

"Oh yeah...I remember her...Was a swimmer and a swim suit model at one time...So, you're here for small talk or you tryin to holla? Can't see the need for either one...She's
a pretty girl....I can't see a man who's married to her being interested in another woman unless either she got fat or you're just a dog." she said.

"Neither one...She's still fine and I most certainly am not a dog...What I am is a private investigator and the man I work for would like to know what happened with Moses "Flaming Moe" Green." I said.

"What happened to him? Somebody plunged a pig sticker in his back...That's what happened. Tell whoever hired you that it would be safer for both you and him to mind your business and leave catching whoever killed him to the cops." she said with a laugh.

"You knew him though right?" I asked.

"I knew a lot of people." she remarked...

"You two have beef?" I asked.

"If we did, we don't now..." she said with a laugh...

"You called "Trolley Car" Jones just before Moe was murdered...A guy you knew definitely had beef with him." I said.

"I don't recall." she said.

"I do recall!I checked your phone records...You did call him about an hour before Moe was stabbed to death and he caught up with Moe in Josie's parking lot." I said.

"Yeah...Cops picked him up...So apparently , Story over!" she said.

" Yes they did...but you and I both know that he didn't kill Moe...He had no reason to..Moe paid him his money...Some of it. Why would he kill him??" I said.

"I don't know...Ask him." she said.

"I did." I said.

"This conversation is over." she said and tossed a few dollars down to pay her bill and got up abruptly....

"Don't follow me and don't ever try to talk to me again. My boyfriend won't like that and believe me, when he doesn't like something...People know it!" she said.

"I'll make  a note of that." I said.

"It would be good if you did." she said.

I smiled and I watched her as she walked out of the bar...A very attractive woman...with a bad attitude...I didn't have to follow her...I knew where she'd more than likely go.

II-

It was starting to get dark...I paid my bill and walked out of the bar...There was no sign of her... My car was parked three blocks away....So I headed towards it... I noticed two men following me.... One was tall, slender....The other one was big, muscular...carried himself like a boxer...I recognized him...He was the same guy who had tried to feel up on Bridget Jones in Josies a few nights before.

I also noticed a car with tinted windows driving along slowly right beside me... Rather than walk towards my car, I turned down a side street about a block before I got to my car..

The two men were still following me and the car with the tinted windows was too..Perhaps I should walk back to a street that was more populated...Perhaps I should have brought Clerow, Owen Todd or Kool Kat with me...but I hadn't...

Like the big man often told me..."One day you'll learn.." The price of being addicted to living dangerously...

The two men got closer to me... The big one..The one who carried himself like a boxer said....

"Nice Evening isn't it ace?"

I turned toward them...

"Yes it is." I said.

"You from around here?" asked the other man.

"No...Not really....Just wanted to try a new bar for a change ." I said.

"Yeah? How did you like it?" asked the big one smiling gingerly at the other man..

"Hey don't I know you from somewhere?" I asked smiling...knowing that he indeed remembered me from a few nights before.

"You might...it's a small world...an even smaller city." he said.

"You didn't tell us how you liked the bar?" asked his friend, laughing slightly.

I knew what was about to happen and I had no desire to continue with the charade...Might as well get it over with..

"Fellas, do you really care about how well I liked that bar?" I asked.

The big one snarled..

"Told you we'd dance again tough guy.You been askin too many questions.My boss aint feelin you at all..After I break your nose and your jaw...I doubt you'll ask any more questions about my boss or his lady friend." he said and lunged toward me...

I ducked his blow and hit him with an upper cut that backed him up....I landed a perfect kick to the solar plexus of the second man and then did a sweep which knocked him down...

Then I faced the big man, the one who carried himself like a boxer...

''Good punch....but I used to box. I can take a punch." he snarled.

"That supposed to mean something to me?" I asked.

"You gotta smart mouth punko...Let's see how good you are with your hands..." he snarled..

He charged at me..I crouched and I landed about 12 good lefts and rights to his face.....I caught him with an uppercut that damn near ripped his head off and then clocked him in his jaw and sent him to the sidewalk....

"You obviously had a short ring career" I sneered...

''I'll show you." he snorted in anger..

He quickly got to his feet and charged me again...throwing haymakers...I dodged them all and ripped his midsection with well placed lefts and rights and then cold cocked him in his jaw, sending him spinning around...I attempted a swift kick to his solar plexus , but he caught my foot , twisted my leg and sent me hurling to the ground...I quickly regained my footing..

He attempted to  put his massive hands around my neck and choke me..I kicked him as hard as I could in his privates and he let me go...I again punished his midsection with 10-12 lefts and rights and then planted more lefts and rights to his face...He fell to the ground gasping for air and in obvious pain......I thought I had time to catch my breath....but he was up again and charging at me...

''Ummmph...you fight pretty good...but like I said...I used to box.." he said.

"You could've fooled me." I said practically laughing in his face....This sent him into a murderous fury!

I clocked him in his jaw twice and then punished his stomach with more lefts and rights...He groaned and grunted like a pig and huffed and puffed.. He had just about had enough...So my left right combonation dropped him for the count...

"I used to box too." I said as I stood over his unconscious body.

The second man rushed me, but I side stepped him and landed some nice lefts and rights to his face...He swung and missed  and swung and missed again...I ducked and punched him in his stomach...He groaned in agony..and my next blow was right on his jaw...His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped to the ground and rolled over...Out for the night!!.

"Pretty sure you didn't used to box." I said as he groaned and rolled over.

Just then...before I could catch my breath...The car that had been following me stopped.....A short mousey little man got out...He had on sunglasses and a .38 smokeless...

''Okay laughing boy....this card game is over...you just crapped out." he snarled.

I backed up and was about to pull my gun out when I heard a much welcome voice...

"I'll bet my Glock nine beats your .38 anyday Papi." came the unmistakably beautiful  voice of Detective Carlotta Rodriguez...She had the muzzle of her glock right on his temple.

The man in the sunglasses sighed, dropped his gun and put his hands up without uttering a word!!...I smiled...

"I knew you weren't too far behind me...Glad as ever to see you chica." I said.

Carlotta smiled..

"You fight pretty good...You handled those two leg breakers like nothing at all." she said.

"Ahhh...I did alright." I said.

"You know these are Lance Fontaine's boys?" she said.

"I figured as much....I talked to baby girl about an hour ago and like a little cry baby, she got all offended and probably called Lance and he called up the troops."I said.

"Guess the conversation didn't go too well huh?" laughed Carlotta.

"Not well at all. Little Ms. Cry baby has one hell of an attitude." I said.

She giggled.

A patrol car  and a paddy wagon drove up... Three uniformed officers helped the two unconscious men up off of the pavement , read the trio their rights, handcuffed them and took them away....I stood on the corner talking to Carlotta as the police cars carrying Fontaine's stooges pulled off!

"I knew the minute "Trolley Car "Jones mentioned Lucy Diamond...You'd be on it. I tailed her for days , then I lost her...but I figured you might be on her so I followed you." she said.

"Glad you did" I said kissing her forehead....

"I'd say it was time for us to compare notes." said Carlotta...

"It certainly is...Let's go to Jake's ...I'm Hungry." I said.

"You read my mind Kevin." she said with that sweet smile of hers.

III-

Carlotta and I enjoyed one of Jake's Fabulous hot dogs and a coke.

"We cut Vincent "Trolley Car" Jones loose yesterday." she said.

"Oh Yeah?  I didn't think it was him." I said.

''He passed a polygraph...Willingly gave us DNA and fingerprints....None of which we found at the scene."she said.

''What about the video cams?" I asked.

"They've got Green talking and exchanging money with Jones and they have what looks like a heated argument with Lucy....but nothing else." she said.

"That's odd...A butcher knife in the back is a personal crime...A crime where someone would have to get up close and plunge it in...Seems like whoever did this would have been caught on tape." I said.

"It's baffling to me too...Jimmy, Tyriq and I have looked at tape from Josies and from the parking lot...The guys who operate the parking lot are enlarging and re-editing the footage...We are waiting for them to get us another print...We may get our killer eventually from that." She said.

"You know of course that Lucy Diamond was Lucy Graves from ..." I said before Carlotta cut me off..

"Yeah from West Orange , who married a gangster named Bruce Diamond out of Jersey City..." she said.

I smiled...

''Damn girl, You are sharp.." I said laughing.

Carlotta smiled like an innocent school girl.

"I did my homework that's all...just like you obviously did." she laughed.

"Bruce Diamond was murdered, she was a suspect, but then ,the charges were dropped for lack of evidence." said Carlotta , who pulled some photos out of her pocket book and spread them across the table we were sitting at.

"Hope this doesn't take you away from your food." she said.

It was a death scene photo of Bruce Diamond with a huge butcher knife protruding from his chest, lying in a pool of blood in what looked like a wash room.

"Oh my God..." I said.

"Look familiar?" she said.

"Yeah... just like the knife found in Flaming Moe Green's back." I said.

"And guess what else is interesting?" said Carlotta.

"What?" I said.

"Flaming Moe was also a tenant of that same apartment complex at the same time our girl was living there." said Carlotta.

''He was??  That explains everything!!" I said.

"Like what?"

"Think about it Carlotta...This guy owes everybody and his grandmother money...Then all of a sudden...He's flush and paying all his debts.....But he's barely working....Now how could that be?" I asked.

"Or why would that be?" laughed Carlotta..

We both looked at each other and smiled sheepishly...

"Tell those photo lab guys to hurry up and get those prints back." I said.

Carlotta laughed...

(CONCLUSION NEXT)