Curly

Sitting in her office with a tumbler of coffee , looking at case files and looking as sexy as ever was my good friend, Lt. Sissy Van Buren...She had cleared her desk and had made clearing her good friend, Detective Angela Belton of murder, top priority....

I sat with her....

''What do we know so far Sissy..it's been two days?" I asked.

''Hop spent the last two days going over her cases in Internal Affairs and re-interviewing all of the cops she had been looking at and one stands out specifically....Detective Timothy Delorca, Narcotics and one time Special Investigation... He has a high clearence record and is a good detective, but he has several complaints against him for abusive force and insubordination reports in his jacket...He's been known to bend the rules more than a little bit..Recently he was accused of coercing a phony confession out of a suspect....That's what Angie was looking at...He was very testy with her...But here is where it get's interesting...There is rumor on the streets that he was shaking down a major playa.. That playa being , our dead guy, Deandre "Turk" Gentry. Hop is still on it."said Sissy.

"Sounds like he did good work." I said.

''Oh he did..He reminds me of Kevin Morris a little bit."she said and chuckled.

High Praise indeed!

"Where is Duke and Tyriq?" I asked.

"Batman and Robin are in New York." laughed Sissy.

"New York?" I asked...

"Yes...They rattled their C.I.'s , they hauled all of his known associates here in the city down here....They interviewed some 50 people between the two of them ,tracking this guys last day of life...He was doing business with several drug organizations in the tri-state area and he has several off shore accounts..and guess where the money trail leads?? To a certain Detective Timothy Delorca...This is what Angie was investigating..See ,She had a hunch that he was shaking down a big playa...Taking money from him and leaving him on the street...But all she had was hearsay at the time. She didn't have a name." said Sissy..

"Now we have a name.. Delorca was on this guy's payroll?" I asked.

"No the opposite....Gentry was paying Delorca out of fear....Delorca was shaking him and a few others down..These guys are afraid of him, more afraid of him than they are of each other...Duke and Tyriq heard that Delorca was not only taking money off of Gentry and others, but Dope and Coke too and re-selling it." she said.

''Ohhhhhh man...we've got a real doozy of a guy here" I said.

"It's all talk.....Nothing we can prove just yet....Angie was close, maybe too close to this guy." said Sissy.

"Where's Jimmy?" I asked.

"I gave him some days off...I told him to watch over Angie...He's at her house..." said Sissy.

"So this guy was being leaned on by Angie, who was getting too close to his corruption and he cut his losses by setting her up for murder, to take the shine off of him." I said.

"It sounds good, but we can't prove any of it." said Sissy...

"We need Sally Conroy and we need that Bartender......We also need that video from the night before..which they conveniently couldn't find.." said Sissy... "Which brings me to your wife...She and Sirena.. are something else.."chuckled Sissy.

II-

I hadn't really seen my wife much in the past two days...She had been getting up, dressing and leaving before I awoke...She still left a sweet little letter with a lipstick kiss on it...I'd go home alone and She'd come in late, dog tired...She'd kiss me for a few minutes. We had a quickie last night...and a quickie this morning...but other than that...She and Sirena were working this case hard...

She and Jimmy had a rhythm....She and Tyriq had a rhythm...but she and  Sirena were something to behold the way they worked...They never got in each others way and each complimented the other in a way I had never seen before...Not that she didn't have cohesion with Jimmy and Tyriq,it was just different...Jimmy tended to follow her lead...On the other hand, she tended to follow Tyriq's lead...With Sirena..they were equal partners...Either way..They got the job done.

They systematically found close to twenty patrons that remembered seeing Angie , Sally Conroy and the mysterious man she danced with...They gave statements...

Then they found the Assistant Bartender.....A man named Curly...He had no idea that Carlotta and Sirena were detectives.

Curly was smitten with both Carlotta and Sirena and didn't know which one he was more taken with...They sat and had a couple of beers with him and complimented him and soon he was telling them his life story...While Curly and Sirena, who he finally settled on talked and drank...He confided to Sirena that he was moving a little dope and coke and that he had money...and that if she wanted a fancy dinner or a shopping trip or a night out on the town...He was the man to do it.

A barmaid who witnessed the events of two nights ago,got in contact with Carlotta and handed her the hidden videotape of that night.

Curly on the other hand, unaware that Sirena was a detective was still calling her cell phone, smitten with her...She was like-

''Ewwwwwwwwwwwww."

Carlotta laughed and then sighed with relief....

"Phew...So glad it was you he chose Sirena...I was afraid he'd choose me...His breath was horrible." she laughed.

"Oh gee...I feel so lucky." joked Sirena as she and Carlotta high fived each other.

They were both in the video room watching the footage as Sissy and I spoke.

III-

Sissy and I joined Carlotta and Sirena in the video room.. Carlotta looked at me...She felt as if she'd been neglecting me for a few days...She walked over to me and gave me a long,slow,sensuous kiss....

"It won't be long now Honey Bunny, Mami is going to take care of you." she whispered...

"I look forward to that." I said smiling and Blushing as Sissy and Sirena looked on and giggled..

"There it is..There is Angie..and There is Detective Sally Conroy....now look...in this frame..Freeze right there...That's the guy!!!...That's the guy Angie said ,asked her to dance and bought her a drink..

"And look....It's the bartender....Vinnie Culligan ...He's pouring something in her drink...There it is right there...No wonder they hid the film footage." said Carlotta...

"We were able to get video footage from the parking lot too...Now look at this,." said Sirena... "Same guy, walking Angie to her car...That's our boy Curly helping him...They are putting her in the passenger side and look..Handsome guy is adjusting the seat...He's backing the car out of the lot and over towards the back of the bar...and look...There is Vinnie ,Curly and Handsome guy  loading something into the back of the car...but it's grainy..can't make out who or what it is." said Sirena.

"You don't have to...This verifys Angie's story...She was drugged...She was unconscious in that car...Someone else drove it." I said.

"There is more..."said Carlotta... "We ran Angie's credit card....She only bought one drink...just like she said..six hours before she was found semi-conscious...and Hazel said that she was given a ruthie..And Sirena ran Curly's credit card...He purchased the two drugs used in the lethal cocktail that killed Turk...Wonder if it was him or Vince Culligan who administered it?" mused Carlotta.

IV-

"You know I'm hurt that my girl Angie is in trouble and none of yall asked me for my help."said FBI Special Agent Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins who entered the room just then..

"Heyyyy, congratulations NEWLYWED!!" we all said...It was the first time Carlotta,Sirena and I had seen her since she and Hop had come back from their honeymoon... They both hugged her...and marveled over her wedding ring...

"First,look at the traffic cam over here", She said pointing to a huge video monitor in the back.

"We can trace most of the highways and major routes in and around the city...I ran the video back to the night you found Angie and the routes our boy could have went and the exact time and look..There is her car
driving along that route...It's a little after eleven....There's her car and there is another car behind it.." said Sharon.

''That's a police cruiser."said Sirena.

''Look, there is your boy...he's parking it and he's getting out....Look,same guy..."said Sharon.

"And look who's behind him in the police cruiser ...That's Detective Sally Conroy....Angie's friend" said Sissy.

"They appear to be arguing about something...Look..she slapped him...He's grabbing her...pushing her back into the car."" said Sharon.

"I just ran his photo through our facial recognition data bank and I got a hit." said Carlotta.

His name is Dance...Charles Dance...He's got a sheet a mile long , He deals in Narcotics and he's a known associate of  one, DeAndre "Turk" Gentry..." said Carlotta..

"We got an address on him?" I asked.

"Yupper!"..said Carlotta.

''Chica, Sirena...Pick him up, Suspicion of Murder...And find that Bartender too...Vince Culligan ,oh and bring "Curly" in also." said Sissy laughing and giving Sirena the side eye..Both Sissy and Carlotta laughed....

"That's cold Boss Lady....Lotta, I owe you one." laughed Sirena.

"We're on it Boss Lady" said Carlotta , who walked over to me and pulled me to her and kissed me again..

"I owe you something good baby, when this is over." she said..

"I can't wait.." I said.

"I'll be glad when my boo gets back from New York tonight." said Sirena as she and Carlotta left...

Sissy smiled and hugged Sharon...

"I was only too glad to help." she said.

Just then Hop returned to the office...

"I got a scope on Delorca....You want me to pick him up?" he asked Sissy who looked at me..

"No..we don't have enough to charge him with anything...I'm going to call my friend, Judge Freeman...I'm going to authorize a wiretap on his residence and the phone on his desk..." I said.

Sharon walked over to Hop and kissed him passionately, then she pulled him into her empty office and closed the door...

''I've been missin you, husband of mine......Coming home all late after I'm asleep..." she cooed.

Hop kissed her...

"Daddy will be home at a decent hour soon." he replied..

"That's what I'm talkin about " she said.

I smiled..

"Newlyweds huh?" I said.

Sissy smiled...She picked up Angie's gun and her badge off of her desk...

"I've got to give these back to a deserving detective." she said..smiling wryly.

(TO BE CONTINUED)