The Baby In The Basket

I had been working hard lately...I had closed the deal at the job to purchase the Satellite Television station...and Sean Jackson and I had interviewed and decided on a programming director to start setting up what was going to be a 24 hour non-stop music video station that broadcasted R&B, Jazz, Neo Soul, Hip Hop and Smooth Jazz ,along with fashion...It was going to run just like our radio station, the same kind of music....and hopefully, I could see local bars and businesses having us set up flat screen televisions and running our tv station in their businesses...Me? My name is Kevin Morris..By day, an enterprising businessman,by night..Private Investigator.

We had hired Producer,Meek Rollins as a consultant....He produced Downtown Rob Brown, Reed Nelson and the Liquid Love Band and Co-owned the recording studio with Bone Hampton that they all recorded in...Sean and I, Kevin Morris figured he knew a thing or two about music and video programming..

Sheila, Sean Jackson and Harry Charles were all very excited about my new venture...In addition to our two new magazines, a ladies magazine called SEPIA and a Sports magazine called COURTSIDE.. Money was flowing...I couldn't be happier...and my silent partners..Jill and Conrad Nelson..My Attorneys and Chris Thompson, Chess, my wife Sepia, her partner,Bonita and my main man, Clerow who had given me the cash I needed to buy this company from the Harris Group were happy too...It meant that they were getting a solid return for their investment and their trust...I had taken this company farther than it's former owners ever dreamed....

In fact ,the Harris Group had made me an offer to buy the company back....I told them politely...No thank you....

I took off from work early and went home and took a nap.....Sepia and Bonita were out showing houses to a few people....It would be awhile before she was home... so I showered and lie across my bed in just my boxers and a t-shirt....

II-

I thought that maybe I was dreaming...I heard crying.....A baby!   But Nah, that couldn't be...I had no children and no siblings..So I was nobody's uncle....Josie Boyd, the gangster's daughter, who I had promised her dying father I would watch over...wasn't pregnant....At least not the last time I saw her ,just before Christmas..

So why would I be hearing a baby crying? I had to be dreaming I reasoned....

I definitely heard a baby crying...I put on some trousers and a shirt and my slippers and I walked down the steps and opened my door and sitting in a basket at my front door was a baby...a very young baby, I would reason about five to six months...

Who's Baby was this? And why did they leave it at my door?

It was a cute little baby boy just wailing away...There was an envelope in the basket....I opened it and counted out one thousand dollars... There was an envelope...

"Dear Kev...I'm sorry to drop this on you on such short notice...but you're the only one I could think of that would do right by my baby....I hope I left enough money for you to get the baby what it needs...Will explain  later when I can..I'm in a little bit of trouble.."

That was the extent of the letter...I didn't recognize the handwriting and there was no name...I thought about all of my friends....Who had just had a baby?  It wasn't Dutch Van Buren...His baby was part white,part Latina...This was an African-American Baby...Clerow??? Chess??? No...Their children were slightly older..Toddlers..  I couldn't put my fingers on who I knew who had just had a child...

The baby was wailing pretty loud...I had some money...so I decided to go and buy a few things....I looked at my watch...It was a little after two in the after noon..I put the baby in my car and drove to the shopping center co-op....

I bought a car seat first of all, then diapers, then baby food and some formula...While I was doing this, I looked up and I saw Detectives Carlotta Rodriguez and Sirena Pile and FBI Agent, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins.

"Ohhhh look at the baby!" gushed Carlotta...

"Kevin, he is adorable." said Sirena as they both crowded around me...

"Did you and Sepia have a baby?" asked Sharon....

If I was light enough to blush...I would have been as red as a beet..

"No, Noo..Somebody left him on my doorstep with a thousand dollars and a note saying that they were in trouble...

''Whatttt?" said Carlotta...

Sharon and Sirena wrinkled their noses..

"From the smell of things...Little cutie needs to be changed...You want us to do that for you?" asked Sharon...

''Nah...I can do it...Just clear the restroom out and  go get me some wipes and lotion." I said.

Carlotta opened the women's restroom door and made sure no one was in the restroom and Sirena,Sharon and I entered the restroom...

I took the smelly diaper off and discarded it in the waste basket...I cleaned the baby with the wipes and applied lotion and then applied a huggy.

Carlotta,Sirena and Sharon nodded their approval and smiled...

"Wow , you handled that well...It's not often I meet a man who can handle a baby so well." said Carlotta.

''I used to babysit for money when I was a teenager."I said sheepishly.

"And you had more than one girlfriend who was somebody's baby momma." said Sirena, smiling...

I smiled at her...

"Yeah....you know the deal."I said.

"I know." she said.

Carlotta and Sharon cracked up laughing...

"You look like you'll make a good father when the time comes."said Sharon.

''I certainly hope so." I said.

I thanked them for their help and then me and the little guy headed back to my house.

III-

Sepia arrived home a little after 4:00 pm.  I kissed her before she came in the house and spun her around...

"I have a surprise for you inside babes." I said..

''Ohhhh and what is that?" she said smiling..

''Come inside and see." I said.

The baby had awakened when she walked inside...It took one look at my wife and giggled...She smiled and picked him up...


''Awwwww look at you cutie...look at youuuu."she said.  Then she looked at me...

"Kevin honey, who's baby is this?" she asked.

"I haven't the foggiest...I came home early and took a nap and I heard him crying...I came downstairs and he was in this basket on the steps...with this note and one thousand dollars.."I said.  "I spent some of the money buying diapers, wipes, milk, food and a car seat...Do you know how much a car seat costs, wow?" I exclaimed..

''So this is your case right...To find out where this little cutie belongs?" she said.

''He belongs to somebody that's in trouble...That's all I know...Maybe I should turn him into the police."I said.

"Noooo, don't you dare...They'll turn him over to child services...We'll keep him until you find his parents or next of kin."she said.

Sepia laid him on the bed and smiled at him....I looked at her and just smiled...I had to find out who this baby belonged to...I mean....I've had tougher more dangerous cases haven't I?


TO BE CONTINUED