Julie's Blues

Attorney Olivia Bennett gave me an address...It was an apartment complex in another part of the city...I was surprised... I expected the meet to be in a Bar or a Restaraunt..
The usual places I met clients..Instead I was at an apartment complex...

I wondered whose apartment this was...Most of the people I encountered in this area were white and looked like they had money...

I arrived a little early, but to my surprise....Attorney Olivia Bennett and her client, Julie
Hunt were on time...I really liked that!

Her client, Julie Hunt looked too young to be in the kind of trouble she was in...She was very attractive...Dressed very nicely...Very polite...She was wearing some thick glasses...The glasses made her look a lot younger than her stated age of 33.

"Julie Hunt, this is Kevin Morris...This is the investigator that is going to help us.." said Attorney Bennett..

"Pleased to meet you Mr. Morris." she said and offered me her hand.

I shook it lightly..

"Let's go inside..." said Olivia..

''Is this your place?" I asked.

"It is for the moment...I'll be moving out soon." said Olivia.

We took the elevator to the 12th floor and entered Olivia's apartment...Several boxes were packed neatly and in the corners...Despite the fact that she was moving out, her apartment was very neat and her bed was made...

She pulled out three chairs and we all sat down...

"Sorry about this...but I'm moving soon..." she said.

"That's okay.." I said.

Olivia took a deep breath then looked at Julie....

"Okayyyy, let's get down to cases...Julie you need to tell Mr. Kevin what happened." she said.

''Well..I uh don't know where to begin.." she said nervously..

"Let's start from the beginning." I said.

II-

"Well Mr. Kevin...My story starts in the bar...I went to the bar to meet with him...I was dressed to the nines, smelling good...and it wasn't lost on Mr. Delack...He had seen me before...Had been over my house...but he clearly didn't remember me...See..He was engaged to my older sister, Jude...." she said.

"He was engaged to your sister?" I asked.

"He had been....then he broke it off....suddenly...He was like that....Women were his play toys...He'd say anything to get what he wanted...He took photos of her...He helped her get a few modeling jobs...He courted her hard for close to a year....She was madly in love with him....He proposed to her...But I think that was just so he could finally sleep with her...After he'd slept with her a few times...he casually broke the engagement off!!"

"My sister was devestated...She wouldn't eat, wouldn't sleep....Lost weight...Stopped modeling, stopped going to school and quit her job...My girlfriend and I did all we could to nourish her back to health....For awhile...It looked like she was coming around...Then she just went and ....and took a header off the bridge into the river....That was two years ago..." she said.

"Oh My God...Your sister committed suicide!" I said.

"Yes....and this crumb...This crumb was still snapping photos and waltzing around town with other women...like nothing happened, like it wasn't his fault...Had the nerve to try and put the moves on me back in January....It was then that I realized that he didn't remember me, that he didn't know who I was and it was then that I decided I was going to make him pay for what he did to my sister." she said.

''So what did you do?" I asked.

"I made him think I was interested in modeling...I let him snap a few photo shoots of me and I hung around him and strung him along...But I didn't sleep with him...Didn't even kiss him...I strung him along so hard and so good that he was practically begging me for it...It all came to a head one night in a bar called Minks..." she said.

"I know that place...real high end!"I said.


III-

"He came up to me at the bar and he squeezed my buttocks lightly....I said to him... "Those aren't yours to handle playa"...And he just laughed..."Damn you smell good girl and your skin is sooo soft...You drinkin tonight?" he asked.

I smiled and showed him my glass..."I already have a drink." I said.

He then said-"Would you like another?"...I told him..."This is my fourth" I was lying of course...I wanted him to think that he was getting me drunk...So I let him order me two more drinks...He got up close to me and began to whisper in my ear...His breath was hot and he began to softly feel my legs....He tried to run his hands up my dress..I softly moved his hands....

"Come on baby...what did you say your name is?" he asked.

"Julie...Julie Hunt...You did a photoshoot with me." I said.

"Yeah,Yeah...Something about you seems so familliar...Don't know what it is...Why don't you take off your glasses...You look so pretty." he said.

"I need my glasses...I can't see a thing without them." which is probably the only true thing I said that night."

"At Any rate...the night went on and we wound up back at his apartment...His apartment door swung open and we were kissing as though we had known each other for years...just tonguing each other down.....he had his hands up my dress and he already had his pants down and had my hands massaging his massive erection....I must admit...I was impressed.."

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....mmmmmmmph.... Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." he moaned...I laughed to myself...

''Lawwdd jesus girl, you feel so good...You don't know how long I've waited to get some of this..." he moaned as we continued kissing...I wondered if he had told my sister the same thing the first time he'd slept with her.

"His pants  and his boxers were down and he had slipped my panties down and  off and he was completely gone...He was trembling...His eyes were practically rolling into the back of his head.That's when I pulled my .22 out of my pocketbook on the counter and aimed it at him ,Caught him completely off guard!!"

"You don't remember me do you?  But I know you...This is for my sister, Jude ,you bastard ." I said...

"Heyyyy, whoa...Put that gun away shorty.....Jude??...Jude Hunt!! You're her sister?? Ohhhhhhh,I remember now...Hey look...Let's talk this over baby...Don't do me like this...Let me pull my pants up at least..." he pleaded...

He backed up ,tripped and fell down...He struggled to get up...Then I heard a sound...a ruffling sound...We weren't alone...

He did too!...Somebody else was in his apartment...but I didn't have my glasses on...All I could see was a shadow..

''Somebody's in here...Listen.." I said.

"Yeah....but who..Who else is in here?" he said.

"You mean you don't know?" I said.

"Nah..Nah...it's not like that...Aint nobody got the key to my apartment...I don't have nobody stayin over here with me like that." he whispered...

I saw a figure...It looked like a man in a gray suit...He aimed his gun at the back of Delack's head and fired one time...!! The gunshot was loud...like an explosion...

Vinnie Delack fell to the ground, quite dead...blood just running , brain mater all over the wall...It was a gruesome sight...It was dark... I stumbled...I grabbed my pocketbook and I hid....The killer rooted around for awhile looking for me...Then he or she thought better of it and ran for all they were worth.

Whoever shot Delack high tailed it out of there and so did I. I left down the back steps...They had a video camera, but someone had broken it..I only hope there wasn't one on the street." she said.

Olivia Bennett looked as stunned as I was...She said nothing..She looked at me...I suppose ,for a reaction...

''Wow Julie, that is some story...So somebody else shot and killed Delack huh?" I said.

''Yes...but I left my fingerprints in there." she said.

"If he's the ladies man I heard he was...I'm sure there are a lot of fingerprints in that apartment." I said.

"Uh...I left something else in there." she said looking at the floor sheepishly.

"What?" I said.

"My panties!" she said.

"What?" I said...Olivia just hung her head down and shook it...She was just as flabberghasted at what Julie said as I was.

" My panties!!!!...He had them down..I had stepped out of them...I wanted to make him think he was going to enter me..I wanted him soo horny and crazed that his guard was completely down.." she said.

"Oh Mann,His guard wasn't the only thing down... He's found with his head blown off...his trousers and boxers down around his ankles and a pair of your panties not too far from him...Oh my God, that does look bad." I said. I saw Olivia trying to hide a smile out of the corner of my eye.

"And thus you understand her problem...It doesn't look good that she was there...Plus the killer doesn't know that she didn't get a good look at him or her." said Olivia...

"I see...So I've got to find out who else might want to kill this guy." I said.

Olivia picked up a phone book...

"The list might be as thick as this phone book...Look...you might want to talk to a guy named.. Harry Jordan...He's a reporter, used to be a big deal...Now he's a free lance writer...He wrote extensively about it in the paper." said Olivia...

"Yeah...I'm going to talk to him and see what he knows for starters. Know where I can find him?" I asked.

"No...but Gus, the bartender at Josies knows him...He could tell you." said Olivia.

"Yeah, I'm bettin he could." I said smiling..

"You know your way around the landscape don't you?" I said smiling at Olivia...

"That's my job to know it." she said.

"Thank You so much for taking this case.." said Julie..

"Thank me when it's over...I hope I can help you." I said.

"I hear you work miracles...I could use a Miracle in this case." said Olivia...

"Is that what you hear Olivia ? I'll see what I can turn up...I'll be in touch." I said.

"Thank you so much Kevin." said Olivia.

I bid both women goodbye and I left...I'd had some bizzarre cases before...But this one took the case...A client who was going to commit a murder, only she was beat to the punch by someone and then she leaves behind a pair of panties...Unbelievable...

Her underwear was no doubt in the police evidence  locker by now...I thought of visiting Sissy and the guys and then thought better of it...For now... I was going home.

IV-

Sepia and I were glad to see each other...I had been gone most of the day....

"How was your case lover?" she asked in between kisses..

"It's one of the more, let's say colorful ones." I said and passed her the envelope from the night before..

''Two thousand...Nice...What do you want me to do with it?" she asked.

"Bank my half in my account...The other half is yours to do whatever." I said.

"Lunch money right?" she smiled..

"Pretty expensive lunch..."I mused..."I have a client who lured a guy to his apartment with the promise of sex...only, she was going to kill him as payback for her beleif that he drove her older sister to suicide right?  Only..someone else is already in the apartment hiding and that mystery person shoots and kills this guy...My client high tails it out of there, only...she left her underwear behind." I said.

"WHATTTTTTTTTTTTT?" exclaimed Sepia busting out into laughter....

"Yeah and check this out...she didn't have her glasses on and without them she can't see a damn thing...All she saw was a blur of the real killer before he ran...But whoever the killer is...He thinks that she saw him...So she's running from the killer and from a possible indictment by the police." I said.

"Wowwwww...you've got a real crazy one this time...How are you going to find out who did this? I mean where do you start?" asked Sepia..

"Well...There's this reporter who covered the case pretty thoroughly...Tomorrow I'm going to meet with him and pick his brain...He might give me a few leads.." I said.

Sepia laughed...

"Heyyy..I know you don't feel like cooking...Let's go over to Mabel Jenkins's Soul Food Joint and get a couple of platters." I said.

"Lover...You read my mind..." said Sepia as she planted a nice sloppy wet kiss on my lips.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)