The Miami Connection

There is something to be said about the calm before the eventual storm.....My wife Carlotta, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace sat on my lap in my living room....She was wearing a white night shirt that came to her hips.... I ,Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace had on only my boxer shorts....

Carlotta was sitting on my lap chatting away on her I-phone in Spanish and English with her older sister, Carmen , who was in Puerto Rico...

Carlotta had taught me enough Spanish that I could follow parts of the conversation they were having....Her father and his girlfriend had given birth to a 7 pound, three ounce girl they had named...Carmelita....Which in effect meant that Carlotta was no longer the baby girl of their family...

Carlotta was telling her sister that she was going to see if she could take some time off and fly to Puerto Rico to meet her new sister...

"By the way Carlotta....Where is your husband?" she asked...

"He is right here...I am sitting on his lap." she said.

"Why didn't you tell me? Let me get off of this phone..."said Carmen....

"It's alright...He's quite content....believe me." said Carlotta...

The two sisters laughed a conspiratorial laugh....

"HI HANDSOME!!!" yelled Carmen through the phone...

I laughed..

"Hi Carmen.." I said...

They hung up.....Carlotta put her phone on vibrate....and placed it on the end table...Then she looked at me...

''Sooooooo? Where were we?" she said smiling...

I pulled her to me and kissed her for a long time....

It was a beautiful night.....We had made love at least three times since we had been home and were in the middle of a little break when her sister had called... I was ready for more...Which my wife knew very well...She smiled at me between kisses...

"I can't believe it's been just a year since you put our unit together and we started working together..." she said.

"Yeah...we started with you, Tyriq and Duke...and then we added Jimmy, Hazel, Hop,Sirena and became friends with Sharon...It worked out better than I could have imagined..." I said.

"The very best thing is that it brought me and you together.." she said.

I smiled at her and hugged her...

"Yes....that is the best thing..."I said and began kissing her again...

II-

Hours passed by...Carlotta and I were in bed sound asleep when our landline phone rang....This was a rare occurrence...So I figured it had to be something important...
It was!!!!...Like I said...The calm before the storm! It was Sissy...Lt. Sissy Van Buren..
She never called us in the middle of the night...So I knew that this was major... I sat up in the bed... Carlotta woke up....I looked at her...
"It's Boss Lady." I said.

''Hey Keith, Chica..I hate to bother you... I am sooo sorry, but Jimmy has caught a weird case ...One I think you all better look at...Don't worry about getting your car...Duke, Hazel and I have the SUV...Call me when you two are ready." she said.

"Will Do." I said.

'What is it?" asked Carlotta.

"It's Jimmy...He caught a weird case...We gotta go check it out.."I said.

I doubt if any other Assistant District Attorney would be called by any police official, regardless of rank to go to a crime scene...But Sissy and her cops knew that I was a hands on type guy who could be depended on...

Within thirty minutes , Sissy drove up with Detective "Edwin "Duke" Baylor and Forensic Investigator, Hazel Hunter-Baylor, his new wife... Carlotta and I got in the SUV and headed towards the sight of the homicide....

Penns Landing!!!

II-

As we approached the very end of the docks at Penns Landing...We saw what appeared to be a woman hanging just inches off of the ground...From a distance, it appeared that she was standing there...With her long blond hair, covering her face...But upon getting closer...You could see that she was hanging....from the type of fine, but incredibly strong wire used on most expensive fishing rods...

Jimmy was there with about seven uniformed policemen, keeping the small crowd back and questioning people...Tyriq waved us over and led us to the grisly scene...

Carlotta and Hazel put on their latex gloves and walked over to the body...Sissy followed them..

Carlotta moved the hair from in front of the girl's face....revealing that the woman had on no blouse and no bra and the largest breasts I had ever seen...

It was almost a knee jerk reaction....

"WOW! " I said...

"Goood Lawd" said Duke..

"Yowza!" said Jimmy...

"My goodness!" said Tyriq...

Sissy cracked up laughing....

"Simmer down guys.." she said.

"These are phony you know.." added Carlotta, who was shaking her head and laughing at us....

Hazel squeezed them.....

''Definitely! and from the feel of them...a recent job...Which means the silicone has serial numbers...numbers which can be traced to somebody."

"Who found the body?" asked Carlotta.

Jimmy pointed to a guy who was talking to a uniformed police officer...

"Him...He's a plain clothes cop assigned to this area...He found it a little after2:00 am."said Jimmy...

"Lou is he one of ours?  I've never seen that guy before in my life...I know most of the unis and plain clothes guys." said Duke.

"He's Officer, Claude Hopper...He said he's one of Cantrell's men." said Tyriq.

"She was definitely strangled...Manually and from the body temperature...She was dead a lot longer than when she was found....This hanging was staged..She was killed somewhere else and brought here." said Hazel...

"The body is cold...She feels like maybe she was in a refrigeration truck...Ask Officer Hopper if he saw anything like that out here." said Carlotta...

We turned around and Officer Hopper was gone!!!!  So was the uniformed officer that was talking to him!!! That was strange...All cops, uniformed, plain clothes or whatever
knew that they couldn't leave a crime scene without giving a report to the homicide detectives on duty.. What was going on here I wondered?

III-

Jimmy called some other uniformed policemen over...

"The M.E.'s van is here...cut her down....release the body." he said.

Just then...a car drove up....Detective Sirena Pile, Tyriq's wife and her partner, Detective Tony Hopkins and his wife, FBI Special Agent, Sharon Hopkins got out...They had multiple tumblers of coffee...

Sirena walked over and gave her husband, Detective Tyriq Pile a wet juicy kiss in the lips...

"I couldn't sleep babes...and besides...Why should you have all of the fun?" she said and smiled..

Hop passed tumblers of coffee to Jimmy, Carlotta, Sissy, Tyriq, Duke and Me..

Sharon walked over and observed the body and the crime scene...

She walked over to us...

"I've seen this before...this same type of murder..." she said.

"You have?" said Sissy..

"Yeah, fish wire...strangulation...staged scene....In Miami...Last year, the Miami PD had two hookers found on different days just like this woman...Was never solved...They worked it hard and we came in to help...Nothing!!!" she said.

"I don't like the sound of that mami."said Carlotta to her friend...

"Me neither...but you guys are much smarter than those guys and a lot less macho...No offense guys...but at least you have some estrogen mixed in with all that testosterone...Perhaps we'll get this guy this time." she said.

"You think this is your Miami guy?" asked Jimmy...

''I don't know...but this is too much like that case for it to be a co-incidence..I'm going to call Miami PD and get them to email me their case files.." she said.

"Just what we need, another serial killer on the loose...We just put one down a few weeks ago." said Sissy... "Jimmy...you're the primary.. Carlotta and Tyriq will assist and the rest of us will give you whatever help you need." she continued.

"Duke...let's me and you go over to Cantrell's precinct and get a statement from that officer who found the body."said Tyriq.

"Yeah...I want to talk to him and that other cop...They know better than to leave a crime scene without giving a statement to the Homicide Detectives on duty." He said.

Jimmy looked at the other officers...

"Hey who were those two guys?" he said.

"We don't know...We never saw either of them before." said one cop...

"He said he was from Cantrell's precinct." said Jimmy...

"I know most of those guys over there...I never seen either of them... Maybe they are rookies." said another cop.

"They wouldn't be working plain clothes if they were just rooks."said Tyriq.

"Well you and Duke definitely check them out..."said Sissy.

"Boss Lady, I have our plain clothes guys, some uniforms and Bike Police patrolling this area and taking statements." said Carlotta...

"Me and Hop will check out the crime stopper cameras and see if the camera caught anything." said Sirena..

Sharon stood by herself looking very grim...I walked over to her....

"What's the matter Sharon?" I asked.

''Something about this scares me counselor....Something about this seems evil...Like what I saw in Miami was just a dress rehearsal for this..."she said.

''You know why? You think this is aimed at you?" I asked.

"No,not me...I was just an FBI agent who was observing...I can't say if it's aimed at anybody...but it does seem organized and evil....just plain mean." she said...

Her words sent a chill through my spine like I had never felt before...

Carlotta walked over to us...The M.E.'s van had taken the body and Jimmy had cut the policemen loose...

We were all getting ready to head over to C.I.D.

"You guys alright?" she asked...

"Babes...I don't know....I just don't know.." I said.

For some reason...I was afraid....and as we would find out...for good reason too!

(TO BE CONTINUED...)