Sad Girl

This was the rare night that Sepia and I were not in Josies listening to music...Instead we were the Little Norway section of Philadelphia in a club called "The Sad Lady"

The last time I was in this joint,There was only three customers in here. Two were asleep at the bar, the other one was in the restroom moaning and groaning. The bar tender was busy watching television and there was no sign of anybody playing any music...

That's when I was in Private Investigator mode....My name is Kevin Morris...Tonight I wasn't being a private investigator..I was just a husband, doing something nice for my wife,Sepia...Reuniting her with an old friend...

Tonight was different.....The place was crowded...and there was a band playing...and a beautiful black woman on stage singing...  I didn't recognize the guitarist, the bass player, the drummer or the percussionist....Didn't recognize the guy on the vibes either...but I did recognize the D.J. on stage with them..It was Symphony Sam's cousin...He usually gigged at Josies... Of course I knew the guy on Keyboards...It was Blind Pianist...Chazz Gillison...my friend and on Saxophone...Dutch Van Buren...Sissy's father and the reason I was up here the first time...

I had been looking for him... On Trumpet was my old friend, Downtown Rob Brown...  I had heard that Dutch had toured with Rob in Puerto Rico recently and as a favor, Downtown Brown was setting in with him for this gig tonight...

I was surprised because...Downtown Rob Brown is what they call a jazz purist..and here he was playing with an acid jazz band...A mixture of hip hop and jazz...Wonder what had come over him?? I was going to have his girlfriend write a story on him for my magazine...

"Lover...Lynnette is about to come on next." said my wife ,Sepia...

She was very excited...Her girlfriend, Lynette Dubois , a singer from Brooklyn was performing here in Philadelphia at the "Sad lady"  Sepia had lived and worked in Brooklyn for awhile before I met her and she had roomed with Lynette...They hadn't seen each other in years, but were Facebook friends and followed each other on Twitter.

When Sepia heard Lynette was going to be performing in Philly  she naturally thought that it was going to be at Josies... We asked Gus and Honey Brown about it and they didn't know anything about her or about any bookings... It was Chazz ,who overheard us asking that told us she was going to be singing here at the Sad Lady...

''Really? At that bust out joint?" I said.

"It's different man...Under new management...A real high roller bought it..His name is Coker...Eddie Coker!! He had it renovated from top to bottom, had a new bar put in..and started booking acts...He's turned the place around...It's actually making money now." said Chazz.

The name Eddie Coker was familliar to me... I didn't know the man, but I'd heard of him..He was rumored to be a gangster...Loan sharking, extortion, gambling and a few drug corners was how he made his money...He was rarely seen on the street....But at any rate...He was bad news...

I ignored that...I was after all not on a case and whatever the owner was into was not my business...I was here with my wife enjoying a great concert... The food was good too...A table of crab legs, chicken wings....and half hoagies didn't last too long...the crowd that was made up of African-Americans, Latinos,Asians and young hip upscale whites devoured the food...

We were having a good time!

II-

Lynette Dubois was beautiful... great to look at and with an angelic voice to boot.. I think I understood why Downtown Rob Brown had agreed to take this gig...Had nothing to do with repaying a favor to Dutch Van Buren...He must have seen advance photos of this bootylicious and fine woman and wanted to be on stage with her... I noticed that his girlfriend....Delores, who worked for me as a staff writer at my magazine was visibly absent tonight...As was Chazz Gillison's new girlfriend, Bridget Jones...I guess you don't bring sand to the beach!  I smiled at the thought of what these two guys were up to...

Chazz who was thought to be blind by everyone except me, who knew he could see,stared at Lynette's ample breast and nice shapely rear end so hard that he almost missed his cue for his piano solo....

The same was true for Rob Brown....Who did miss his cue on the trumpet, but covered it up well...Both of these guys were all teeth, all night, just grinning and smiling everytime Lynette uttered a phrase of her songs...

Sepia looked at me and smiled...

"Your friends are something else." she said.

"Huh?, What do you mean?" I asked innocently, although I knew exactly what she meant."

"If Delores and Bridget were here ,I'm bettin they wouldn't be grinning so much." said Sepia..."And why is Chazz grinning? He can't even see." she asked. I ignored that part of her question.

"Oh that eh? ,Well you know how that goes... I'm grinnin myself everytime you get up to walk over to that table." I said....It was true...She was wearing a tight skirt that was blowing my mind and turning the heads of some of the other men in the crowd..

"Awww,you always know the right thing to say....but I know if I wasn't here, you'd be all teeth too." she laughed...

I felt her leg under the table and ran my hands up her legs...almost under her skirt...She blushed and gently moved my hand...

"But you're here right now." I said softly...

"Y-Yess...okay...I-I get it...ouuuuu." she said...

By the way Sepia was blushing,I could tell that I had gotten her a little hot and bothered....A good sign for the rest of my night...or so I thought.

III-

I looked out the window and saw three police cars go zooming down the street....I saw a black Altima following behind them...I knew whose car that was....Something was up.....

I excused myself....I was a little curious...

"What's up lover?" said Sepia...

"Oh nothing...Sit tight...I just want to check something out." I said.."I'll be back." I said.

I walked two blocks down the street...I saw the police congregated outside of some high rise apartments....I saw a body being removed and two familiar figures...

Detective Edwin ''Duke" Baylor and his Lieutenant...Sissy Van Buren....along with a crowd of uniformed policemen....

"Hey guys...what's going on?"I said.

Duke tapped Sissy on the shoulder and smiled as he saw me coming...

"Kevin ,I'm beginning to think you might be behind these killings...Seems like we always see you here of late when something goes down." joked Duke..

"Yeah Duke..I'm inclined to agree with you." laughed Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Homicide..

"I was down the street at the Sad Lady with my wife...Ironically enough,Sissy, Your father is in there performing tonight." I said.

"For real?" said Sissy, those pretty expressive eyes of hers just widening...

"Yeah...you ought to catch his act sometimes...He's really good." I said.

"I will one of these days...When bodies stop dropping." she said sighing.

''What have you got here?" I asked.

"His name is Dwyer...Tyrone "Buddy"Dwyer....He was on the elevator...Somebody shot him three times...Twice in the Chest and once in the head." said Duke...

For the second time...I was meeting their foxy new forensic investigator, Dr. Hazel Hunter...Boyy, Duke was a lucky man to be dating her I mused...and he got to work with her too!

''Hello Dr. Hunter." I said.

"Oh Hello Kevin.....I was just inside...The killer was on top of the elevator..He opened the panel and he shot downward...The trajectory of the bullets in the body bares all that out." she said.

"You get any prints?" asked Sissy...

"None at all...My guess is he wore latex gloves and used a silencer.." she said.

''Yeah Lou...I had uniforms talking to all of the tenants here, and  nobody heard anything or saw anything.." said Duke.

"Damn ,it can never be easy can it? What about cameras?"asked Sissy.

"None...They've been out of order for two days...They weren't on tonight." said Duke..

"Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."said Sissy.

"Who is the dead guy?" I asked.

"Nobody...He's not a player or anything...He was visiting his girlfriend...She's a singer who lives here...her name is Lynette Dubois.. .but she wasn't in...Apparently she was working somewhere tonight...but he didn't know it."said Duke.

"Lynette Dubois?? That's my wife's friend....That's who we are watching down the street at the Sad Lady.She's performing down there right now!" I said.

Sissy and Duke's eyes lit up!!!

"Kevin....You're like a good luck charm." she said and hugged me...

IV-

I walked back to the bar and sat down next to my wife...Sepia and the whole crowd was rocking to the beats as Lynette launched into her final number...She really was good..

Then the show was over...The crowd went wild....Sepia and I left our seats and was headed towards her when I grabbed Sepia's arm...

"What up lover?" she asked me.

"A bit of bad news." I said.

''Huh?"said Sepia.

"Remember when I stepped out a few minutes ago?" I said.

"Yeah" she said.


"Well...that was because I saw a throng of police cars go flying by....and I saw my friends, Sissy and Duke..."I said.

"Yeah?" asked Sepia...

"Apparently there has been a murder down the street from here...in the apartment complex your friend,Lynette is staying at." I said...

''Oh My God!!!"said Sepia.

"The murder victim was coming to see her.I think the victim is her boyfriend!! The cops will be down here in a few minutes to talk to her" I said.

"Oh my God. Lynette was engaged...That must be her fiancé..I can't believe this." said Sepia...

And just like that...My night had become something altogether different.

(TO BE CONTINUED)