Fedora In The Water

A beautiful morning in late summer...I could be home in bed making sweet love to my wife Sepia or I could be in Mabel Jenkins soul food joint eating some Chicken and Waffles ,again with my wife Sepia or I could be in Sam Mother's Diner enjoying some of the finest coffee in Philadelphia...Instead...I'm at Penns Landing alone meeting a client...William "Fish" Bates...a well heeled and well connected aide to the President of City Council.....

My name is Kevin Morris....Sometimes....Days like today...I'm a Private Investigator.....

II-

It's all Gus's fault...Gus is the bartender at Josies...Where everybody I know and am close to hangs out...
The week before...Me, My wife, Sepia and her business partner, Bonita and her husband, my good friend, Attorney Robert Foxworth had a booth in Josies...

We were celebrating the 100th home sale of my wife and Bonita's Real Estate business..Robert and I had taken the girls out for a night of celebrating...All their drinks were on the house... We had some Hot wings and some french fries and some beer and were listening to Downtown Rob Brown and his new quintet perform..

Gus brought our drinks over....Which was kind of unusual because either Honey Brown, his manager did or one of the bar maids did that....Gus tapped me on the shoulder...

"Can I uh have a word with you in private kid?" he asked.

"Sure Gus." I said and excused myself...

"I hate to disturb you and the missus and your party and all...but an old friend of mine is over at that table over there and he has a problem...a problem that is right up your alley." said Gus pointing to a well dressed
man, sitting alone.

"What kind of problem?"" I asked.

"I don't know...Just go talk to him." said Gus.

"Okay." I said..

Gus walked me over to his table...

"Fish...This is Kevin Morris...He's a private detective..He's the kid I told you about." said Gus.

"Thank you...Sit down Mr. Morris...I'm sorry to bother you....Is one of those women you're with your wife?" he asked.

"Yes it is." I said.

He smiled...

"My lord...You got a beautiful woman there." he said.

"Yeah I know...I was enjoying looking at her." I said.

"Oh uh...I'm sorry..." he said.

He was a well dressed man  wearing a nice tailor made suit with a matching Fedora and he looked like he had money...He passed me an envelope...I didn't look ,but I could tell it was filled with money.

"For your time and trouble Mr. Morris." he said.

"Just how can I help you sir?" I asked.

"My name is Bates...William Bates...My friends call me "Fish"...I'm the aide to the President of City Council.....He's not a very nice man and he's been trying to have me removed for months...I started looking into his affairs and I discovered some things.." he said.

"What kind of things?" I asked.

"Things that if brought out would put a few people in jail..." he said.

''You have this information?" I asked.

"Yeah...I have documents in a file with records of payoffs and kick backs going back five years....I left them with someone I trust." he said.

"If you don't mind me asking you sir...What do you need me for?" I asked.

"I think my life is in danger... Things I know ,certain people would kill to keep from coming to light." he said.

"Why don't you go to the police?" I asked.

"I can't ...I can't prove it and I don't want to make any of this public...Not yet....What I want to do is to meet with you next week...At Penns Landing...Early in the morning..Like 6:00 AM...I'll put you in touch with my contact...She has the file and she has some photos...See...I figure...These are better in your hands than hers..I don't want to put this woman in any danger...Just in case I was compromised." he said.

''So you're going to tell me who this woman is and I'm to get this file from her and keep it in my possession until you say so right?" I asked.

"Yes...I'm going to point you in the direction of this guys's people and with your help ,make a case that I can present to ADA Keith Wallace." he said.

"Okay...I'll meet with you...but I think you're going around the barn and back sir...You could just go to the Criminal Investigation Division...They have great investigators there who could help you."I said.

"Not yet...This whole thing is about timing young brother." he said.

"Well why don't you tell me where I can find this woman at now, so I can get this file?" I said.

"I have to make the arrangements with her first...Meet me next week at Penns Landing...I'll have everything you need...This is my card. Don't lose this number." he said and passed me a card...

''And this is a down payment right?" I asked.

''Yes."he said.

"Okay..I'll meet you next Thursday Morning." I said.

"Good...Thank you Kevin...Now go on over there and enjoy that gorgeous wife of yours." he said.

I smiled and shook his hand.

III-

So here I am, Alone at Penns Landing...It's 6:45 am and no sign of William "Fish" Bates.. I watched some Kayakers out on the water Kayaking...and I saw a few couples walking, holding hands and drinking tumblers of coffee....Even saw a few people riding bikes...But no sign of William "Fish" Bates...

By 7:00 am , I wondered if he was coming at all... I called his cell phone and it went straight to voicemail...I called his home number...Same thing...It was too early for anybody to be at City Hall....I wondered what the deal was here...He seemed pretty anxious to meet me here...

I walked down the pier a little longer and saw the most peculiar thing...It was a Grey Fedora...

One like the one Mr. Bates had been wearing...floating in the water... Just floating...I looked at it closely....This was exactly the same Fedora  Mr. Bates had been wearing...


Now I was worried...I wondered if what he had told me was right and that someone had helped him out of this existence!!! He had said that "I think my life is in danger...Things I know ,certain people would kill to keep from coming to light."

I now wondered if that was exactly what had happened....I now wondered just what I had once again gotten myself into.

IV-

I decided to go to his Condo....He had given me an extra pass key....At the time I didn't know why...But it would certainly come in handy today.

I used his pass key to get in...To my surprise...The place had been tossed...Somebody was looking for something...Something that they didn't find!!! Or had they??  I rumaged around his things looking for something..anything.I couldn't find anything of substance.

A heard a door creak and then I realized that I wasn't alone..Somebody was still in here!!!

I spun around and saw a man...a man about my height with a switchblade heading toward me... He lunged and I ducked...He swung wild and  I ducked again... I didn't like knives...

I picked up a chair and he lunged again...His knife was sharp...it plunged into the chair and stuck there....I pulled the chair and his knife away from him and slung it across the room....

He crouched and then charged me...

I landed several lefts and rights to his face...He countered with several lefts and rights to mine..He then grabbed me and rammed me into the wall...I kneed him in his groin and then hit him with a right cross..I followed up with a left hook and then an uppercut which sent him flying.. 

He got himself together and charged me again...I landed a swift kick to his jaw and then did a sweep which dropped him to the ground...He pulled his knife out of the chair and then got ready to charge me again, when I heard footsteps...Someone else was in here?

I didn't see the second man...Only saw his nickel plated gun...He fired once!..The shot hit my knife wielding assailant in the back of the head ,killing him instantly...Then the gunman fled and ran down the hall...

V-

The police removed the body from the room....I stood outside the condo giving my statement to Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace..,who was there with about seven uniformed policemen...

"Wow Carlotta...Seems like everytime I see you ,I'm handing you a fresh murder case." I said.

She smiled..

"That's okay...At least you're not the victim." she said.

"I was supposed to meet my client...Mr. William "Fish" Bates at Penns Landing...at 6:00 am...He never showed up...So I came back here to check on him and somebody had tossed the place...Laughing boy on the stretcher tried to stitch me a new suit and somebody shot him and killed him." I said.

"You didn't get a look at the shooter?" she asked.

"No...but he had a nickel plated .45..I did see that?" I said.

''What are you into Kevin?..Why were you meeting your client so early in the morning and at Penns Landing?" she asked.

''He told me that he had some information on certain people...information he was going to give me or at least point me in the direction of...Information that according to him, some people would kill to keep from coming to the light." I said,

"And what was this information?" she asked.

"He never showed up...I never got it...and somebody tore this place up trying to find something..What? I don't know.." I said.

"Well...Looks like he was right...Somebody has apparently killed to keep something from getting out." she said.

"You think my client is dead?" I asked.

"Yes...and whoever had him killed is cleaning up." she said.

Just then, I heard a familliar voice...

"Can't Stay out of trouble Kevin?" came he voice of Lt. Sissy Van Buren..

"It's the boss lady!!!" I said ,smiling....

"No..I suppose I can't..I'm into something Deep Sissy." I said.

"When aren't you?" she said laughing.

"Yeah ,how about that?" I smiled. So Did Carlotta.

(TO BE CONTINUED)