The Corpse in The Shower

 

Today was a rare day!  I was not at work....Not that that was rare...Often, when I had a case to solve as a private investigator, my other job! I was absent from work as CEO of Morris Communications...Which published the magazine I used to write and edit...HYPE magazine...a music and lifestyles publication...It's sister magazine, HYPE 2.0 , a newspaper, The Philly Times and a sattelite radio station that was the most popular in the area and that had feeds in Mabel Jenkins's Soul Food Joint, Sam Mother's Deli, Bottom of The C, The Mermaid Club and recently, Mulberry Street and recently a few of the stores and shops in Chris and Chess's shopping center...I was making good money now that I owned the company....I even had plans to launch a woman's online magazine called, get this..SEPIA, after my wife...

When I wasn't there, My good friends, Sheila Jackson, Deputy CAO ,her husband and my good friend,Sean Jackson and Harry Charles, my administrative assistant held the fort down for me... Their loyalty wasn't lost on me...I more than tripled their salaries in the year since the investment group I put together comprised of my wife, Sepia and her business partner, Bonita Foxworth, My main man, Clerow and his business and Chris and Chess,known in our neighborhood as THE BUSINESS! bought my company from the Harris Group and made me the CEO aka HNIC!!! I also upped the salary of our company's Attorney, Conrad Nelson, who helped make it all happen too!  My name is Kevin Morris...and yes...when I'm not running my company...I'm a private investigator!Why? I don't know...Snooping is in my blood...I'm a natural hunter!

I wasn't investigating anything today!  I was at home being my wife Sepia's husband... I had put out the trash, washed clothes, washed sheets and pillow cases, dried them, folded them and put them away...I had mopped and waxed the kitchen floor and the bathroom floor and was now outside...Washing my car....

My friend, Clerow drove up....

''What's up boss?  You look like you put in a day of hard labor...You sweatin like a pig... He laughed... He popped open his trunk and tossed me a cold Carona...I smiled at him! Clerow rented houses ,apartments and small condos..His wife Corrie and her sisters,Mabel,Victoria and Anita ran a successful soul food bistro...They were my wife's cousins...Between us..we all did quite well.

He opened one up and sat on my steps and we both drank the cold brew....He had come to Philly from Louisiana about 6 years ago...He lived around the corner..He was one of my closest friends..

''Damn thanks man...I was just finishing up my housework." I said.

"You too? Corrie is running the restaurant this week....Mabel and "88" went on vacation...They're in Los Angelas..He put together a little group and they're playin a few dates out West, So he took her with him..Corrie,Anita and Victoria are doubling up running both places...So I'm watching the kids and doing the housework... Owen Todd is going around doin my collections.." he said.

''Where are the kids?" I asked.

"They're both at daycare.." he said.

"Oh." I said.

''Where is Sepia?" he asked.

"She is buying a Duplex off of this guy...Bonita swung the deal before her and Robert Foxworth left town on their vacation...They're in Miami for some Lawyers convention...Sepia is over at the Duplex making sure everything is up to snuff." I said.


''Damn Kev, so you're house husband eh?" he said, quaffing another beer and laughing that toothy grin of his.

"Today I am...Tomorrow,I'm going back to work." I laughed. Clerow laughed too!

"Want another brew?" he said...

"Nah man...I'm good." I said.

''Alright Kev..I'm gonna stop by my office and lay low until it's time to pick up my kids." he said.

''You mean sleep don't you?" I laughed.

"You got it!" he laughed.

"Alright man...I'll check you later..Be easy Clerow!'' I said.

"Always baby." he said and got in his car and pulled off..

Just then my smartphone went off!


It was Sepia!

"Kevin!!! Baby...you gotta come over here and quick!" she said.

"What's going on babes?" I asked...She sounded as if she'd seen a ghost.

"D-D-Dead body....There's a dead body in the shower!!" she said.

"WHAT?? A dead body??" I said.

"Yes....please come over soon,please!!!" she said.

''Are you serious?" I said.

"YESSSS!!" she said.

''Who is it?" I asked.

"If I knew who...I'd of told you." she said...and I realized how stupid my question was.

"Okay...don't touch anything...I'm on my way!" I said.

II-

I got in my car and sped halfway across town to the Duplex that Sepia and Bonita were attempting to buy and refurbish...

When I got to the Duplex ,it was eerily quiet.....I tried the door...It was open...Now I was suspicious!! I pulled my .38 smokeless...I charged up the stairs to the second floor...I saw no one...I saw a door ajar...I charged down the hall and kicked the door open...There was a man in the room laying carpet...He was startled.... He stood up and threw both hands up!

''Who the hell are you?" he said.

''Who the hell are you?" I asked...

"Who am I? I'm Floyd Peterson...I'm layin carpet." he said. He was about five foot ,seven, muscular build...brown skinned...average looking...looked about my age.

I ran past him and opened the bathroom door...There was no one in the shower...It was bone dry...

"You lookin for the shapely woman with the brown eyes and the lovely ta tas?" he asked.

"That's my wife!!!!" I said.

"Oh no disrespect...But you are one hell of a lucky man mack..She fine as hell!! She's in the other apartment downstairs...Says there is a dead guy in the shower!! ,Imagine that?" he said.

"And you didn't go down to help her or check it out?" I asked.

"Nah...I don't dig dead bodies man.I took her word for it." he said.

"Thank you! You've been a great help" I said sarcastically.

"Oh don't mention it...Hey..your wife got a sister?" he asked.

I ignored him and ran down the steps into the other apartment and there was my wife,Sepia standing outside the bathroom...

''Kevin...I'm so glad you're here...He's in there!!!" she said.

I found a modern shower...with a black male, about 64 or 65 years old, slumped over in it...He was wearing a black pin striped suit...He was about six feet ,one inches tall, 200 pounds...looked to be in fairly decent shape...except for the neat little bullet hole in his left temple...

From the lack of blood in the shower...I guessed that he hadn't been killed here, but somewhere else and dragged over here...His body was stiff...Rigor had set in...He had been dead for awhile...He was as wet as a fish...Somebody had run the shower water on top of the body and had washed any clues off of it...but they were kind of  sloppy just the same...I checked his pockets and found a wallet! A wallet with a drivers license..

A license that read  "John Stevens" ...I was right...He was 65 years old...and he didn't live too far from me..Funny ,I had never seen this man on the street before...That doesn't mean anything of course...I wrote down his number and information off of his drivers license  on a piece of paper and put it in my pocket....I rifled his pockets for anything else...I found a smartphone...The water hadn't destroyed it... Sepia came in the bathroom...I took down all ten of the phone numbers in his phone on another piece of paper and wrote down the names and numbers of the last five calls he made..then I placed his phone back where it was...

"He was here when I got here this morning." said Sepia...I looked in the background...I could see where Sepia had dropped her pocketbook and it's contents had fallen on the floor...I picked them up...

"You're always there for me Kevin...always picking up behind me." she said softly...

"That's what a husband and a friend is supposed to do babes." I said.

Sepia smiled at me and hugged me.. I kissed her gently..

I called Homicide...

III-

I saw Sissy's car within 30 minutes and a cop car...but no sign of her...I figured that she had done the same thing I did...I was right...She had come here, found the front door opened and she, another detective and two uniformed officers stormed up the stairs and into the second floor unit...

They flung the door open and startled the guy working in the other unit...

"What the hell is this , old homes week?" said Floyd Peterson....

''Who the hell are you?" said Sissy.

''Who the hell are you and are you single?...Damnnn  baby, you are a fox...and so is your friend..Lawd jesus there's some fine women up in here today.." said Floyd Peterson..looking at Dr. Hazel Hunter ,who was with Sissy and grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm Lt. Sissy Van Buren..Homicide...This is Detective Tony Hopkins and Forensic Investigator Hazel Hunter....Now who are you?" said Sissy.

"Who am I? I'm Floyd Peterson...I'm layin carpet. You want the unit downstairs...That's where the other fella and the dead guy is." he said.

Sissy, Detective Hopkins and the lovely Dr. Hazel Hunter and two uniformed officers finally ran down the stairs to the second unit...where they found Sepia and I standing outside the shower and a dead man , slumped in the shower....

"Hey Sissy." I said.

"Hey Kevin...Heyy Sepia...What's going on here?" said Sissy...

"Bonita and I bought this duplex about a month ago...We are having it refurbished and I came over here this morning and found this man slumped over in the shower....dead." said Sepia.

"You know him?" asked Sepia...

"No..Never seen him before in my life.." said Sepia...

"She called me and I called you." I said.

"Thanks for coming Sissy." I said.

"We are friends Kevin, Sepia...That's why I came personally...As much as you've helped me over the years...How could I do any less?" she said.

 "Thanks just the same." I said.

"Don't mention it Kevin, Sepia..We're all family....Now what do you know so far.?" she asked.

I smiled...

''Nothin really?"I said.

Sissy looked at me side eyed..

''This is so unlike you Kevin..You mean you aren't going to try and crack this yourself?" she asked.

"I'm not getting paid for this...but I must admit...I am kind of curious.." I said.

Sissy looked at me and smiled...

"Curiosity will get you every time." she said.

Sissy knew me too well...I was already about to go and shake things up...It's what I do.

(TO BE CONTINUED..)