What Are You Doing Here?

The next day, my partner , Detective Gloria Diaz and I interviewed practically everyone who knew the late Norma Santiago...and we found out a few things...Not so nice things...She was the neighborhood gossip..If something was going on..She knew about it and didn't mind telling it...She lived with a roomer...an elderly man who had a room on the second floor of her small flat...

He told us that just two days before her untimely death she had witnessed two people at her job having sex in the office...Gloria and I talked to at least two other people who confirmed this story...It didn't seem like much, but it was all we had to go on for now...


She returned to the island a few years back and became an administrative assistant at several local companies...She was working for an insurance company now...

Gloria and I interviewed several employees there..Several females and several males...The females all liked her...a number of the males did not...They called her a fat busy body and worse! None could give us much if anything and then we found one woman willing to talk to us...but not at the job!

I told her, I knew a great  Restaurant where the three of us could meet and she agreed to talk with us on her lunch break.

"Well chica...I had another place in mind...but since we are soo close...Do you mind?" I said.

"Nooo...I hope you don't treat all your girls like this."said Gloria....

We both cracked up.

The woman's name was Conchita...She was about 19 or 20, very attractive....And very professional...She was on time...I liked that!

She met Gloria and I inside the small bodega...We were eating tacos and drinking Cokes...

"Heyyy..How you guys doing?" she said.

"We are doing good...Thank you for meeting us here." I said.

"Norma and I weren't tight...But she and I would talk sometimes...Especially when there was some juicy gossip...Two weeks before she died..She told me and two other women that she came in on a Saturday...
, a day when the office was closed...She came in to finish up some extra work...you know, get ahead of the game and that when she was walking down the hall, she saw the door ajar..to one of the offices...She kept walking, but then she heard something funny...She walked back and there in the office with the door open was the assistant manager of our company and the manager's wife making love in his office..

She said the desk was rocking and she was moaning...She filmed it on her smartphone....Here...take this and keep it...They don't know she gave this to me." she said.

She turned the smartphone on and what I saw was incredible..

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."

"Ohhh mami, give it to meeeeee....ummmmmmph..."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....ouuuuuuuuuu, more, more... ohhhhhh..."

"Sock it to me papi...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Aye Mios Dios it's soooo goood...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

"Morrre...Morreee....morrre...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. Papi.."

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...I love you soooooooooooooo much...ouuuuuuuuuuuu.. mami.."

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh papi...put it on me....Ohhhhhhhhhhhh.."

At one point he had undressed her and she had undressed him and both were totally naked on his desk going to town...their clothes and papers strown everywhere...

"Papi...Someone is in here!!!" said the woman..

''What? Nooo..We are closed today!!"

(Click!)

"So what happened next?" I asked.

"She ran and tried to hide...She was afraid...This was bigger than just any old employees...This guy...This assistant manager is the bosses nephew...He's been trying to become Manager for a long time...If the Manager ,who hates him ever found out he was sleeping with his wife...Well there would be his job...His everything..."said Conchita.

"So how did he know that she was the one who saw them?" I asked...

"Someone she knew must have told him.." she said.

"Anyone  know that she gave you that smartphone with footage of those two on it?" asked Gloria.

"No...No..Norma swore me to secrecy and unlike her...I know how to keep a secret." she said.

"Good...Now do you think you were followed here?" I asked..

"I don't think so." she said.

"Okay then go back to work...Take a different way and don't tell anyone you talked to us...."said Gloria.

"Oh ,Alright." she said.

"What is this assistant manager's name?" I asked..

"His name is Larry, Larry Fratangelo..." she said.

''And the bosses wife?"she asked.

''Angela..Angela Diaz." she said.

I smiled and looked at Gloria...

"Hmmmm...A relative?"

"Oh Shut up." she laughed.

III-

After lunch we traveled back to the office building where Norma worked...We met with the Assistant Manager, Larry Fratangelo...

"Hello,I'm Detective Nick Munez and this is my partner , Gloria Diaz...We are investigating the murder of Norma Santiago a few nights ago.."I said.

"Yes..Yes..a tragic thing...A young woman can't walk the streets at night without being acosted and robbed." he said.

"I didn't say she was robbed..She was just shot.  It did look like someone rumaged through her pocketbook, but they didn't take cash or credit cards or the smartphone she had...It did look like they went through her phone...."I said.

''Really?" he said.

"We've heard that she was quite the gossip." said Gloria..

"Oh really? Well, Uh I didn't know her that well..." he said.

"Well how about the Boss, Mr. Diaz and his wife..Angela...Do you think if I talk to them they'll say they knew her well?" I asked.

He got as red as a beet...

"Ummm, Uh...Ahhhh...Uh, really...I-I-I-I don't ...I don't know...Look..I'm pretty busy here and uh..I'm,I'm ,I'm sorry about what happened to that poor girl..but Uhhhh..I have to go right now..." he said..

Gloria laughed....

I saw her go in his waste basket and quietly put an empty can of Coke in her pocketbook...

"Okay Mr. Fratangelo...That's all for now..If we have anything else...We'll call you."I said.

IV-

Once outside I looked at Gloria...

"What did you take out of the trash can?" I asked.

''Ahhhh, you saw that?"she laughed.

"Yeah..I did." I said.

"An empty can of Coke...We can get DNA from the saliva on the can or the straw..Might need it for future reference." she said.

"As they say in Philly, Good Pull." I said.

"It is a good pull and I have something else for you too." came the voice of Detective Mercedes Rodriguez..

''Mercedes..What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I was just in the area and I saw your car...They got prints off of that smartphone in your victim's pocketbook and some DNA and a partial off of the spent shells...If the soda can your partner has in her possession has DNA that matches...You have your perp right there. Oh yeah...I found a potential witness...A guy says he saw a man running from the scene, shortly after the shots was fired...He's down at the station giving a description to a police artist." she said.

"Wow!  Thank you Detective Rodriguez." said Gloria...

"Don't mention it...Just trying to help you guys out."said Mercedes.

I looked at Mercedes and smiled.

"Wow, Still looking out for me..huh?  I'm grateful." I said.

"Well, you'd do the same thing for me." she said.

"I sure would...You know that." I said.

"Yes...I know that." she said softly.

"Wow!"I found myself saying.

''What?"she said.

''You are so cute.." I said...I didn't know why I had said that...

"Thank you." she said, blushing a little bit!

We stood there and stared at each other for a long while....It was almost like we both wanted to say more...Something meaningful....but neither of us did.

"Gotta go Mercedes." I finally said.

"Okay..well..good luck with your case." she said.

"Thanks" I said.

Then Gloria and I got in our car and Mercedes got in hers and we both pulled off.

"I thought you two were going to kiss there  for a few minutes." she said.

"Sorry to disappoint you." I said dryly...

"When are you two going to stop playing games with each other and get together?" asked Gloria.

"That's totally up to her." I said.

"You're both just alike...So stubborn...Probably why you're attracted to each other." she laughed.

Finally,I laughed too..

"Yeah, you might be right." I said.

"You going to see your friend ,Reed Nelson play tonight?" she asked.

"They're off tonight...They got two more nights here..." I said.

''What are you gonna do?" she asked.

"I'm going home...Watch some TV, get some sleep." I said.

"Alone right?" she said.

"Yup...You want me to drop you off somewhere?" I asked.

"Yeah, my car is back at the station.....So Stubborn....Soooo Stubborn." she said.

"That I am." I said and we both laughed..

I was tempted to call Mercedes...but I couldn't... I was hella turned on...I wanted to jump her bones like nobody's business, but I had to be strong...

That was how Mercedes had controlled me in the past..with sex...She was wearing that tight mini-skirt and that hairstyle that I liked and a new fragrance....I was certain that was no mere co-incidence that she stopped by to give us that information...She probably expected me to call her and beg her to come over or for me to beg to come by her place...As horny as I was and as bad as I wanted Mercedes....That wasn't going to happen tonight.

I did about 150 push ups in my apartment....Exhausted afterwords...I collapsed on my bed and drifted off to sleep.

(CONCLUSION NEXT)