My Informant

This morning...Carlotta, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace and I, ADA Keith Wallace took my  SUV to work...We drove over a block and picked up Detectives,Tyriq and Sirena Pile and then drove over and picked up Detective Antonio Hopkins and his wife,FBI Special Agent in Charge, Sharon Ferrell -Hopkins...

"Heyy everybody.." said Sharon...."I was out in New Mexico on a case for two weeks...I sure missed you guys...This is all the more reason that I am so glad I live in Philadelphia and am principally assigned to work with you guys...I tell you, the macho attitudes of some of the local police departments I have had to work with and not to mention the subtle racism at times drives me up the wall...But thankfully we cracked the case and I'm back with my favorite coppers." she said...

I smiled as I drove...She was energetic and perky....Hop on the other hand was knocked out...He had on his sunglasses and was nodding off...Tyriq looked at him and smiled-

"You alright there young fella?" he said...I looked at him and laughed....He smiled and waved us off..

"What's the matter with him? He didn't get enough sleep last night?" joked Carlotta....

Sirena gave her the side eye....

"I know you of all people aren't teasing my partner ,Lotta, the many times you have come to work with sunglasses on, exhausted..."she laughed...It was true..Carlotta and I would have sex five,six times a night sometimes...Though a little less lately since we were working a big case..Both of us would be exhausted some mornings...I was wearing my little sweetie out...

Tyriq busted out laughing...So did my wife, Carlotta..."Yea...Yea.." she said in spanish...

"Heyyy,I haven't seen my boo boo in two weeks...Just a lot of phone sex...He was jonesin for me somethin
terrible." joked Sharon..."We got our loud on last night....I know the neighbors are talking." she said.

"I know they are...all that hollerin you did." said Hop...

"You was doin your share too." said Sharon.

"Remind us to fill you in on something later." joked Tyriq.

II-

It was early enough that we all decided to stop at Sam Mother's Diner...We all filed in and to our surprise...
Lt, Sissy Van Buren and her boy friend,Eddie C. and Detective Jimmy Barlow and his girlfriend, Detective Angie Belton were in a booth right behind ours...

"Heyy guys...Looks like we all had the same idea..."I said... From the looks of everybody, looks like we all went home and did the same thing the night before...Everybody looked exhausted, was wearing sunglasess and drinking steaming tumblers of hot coffee...Sissy and Eddie C. looked like two high school kids who had just made love for the first time...I noticed that they were playing footsie under the table and smiling at each other..She did seem happier now that he lived with her and he took her to lunch at least three times a week..
Good for her...I mused..

"Sissy,Carlotta, Angie,Sirena...I bought you all some souveniers from New Mexico...I'll bring em in tomorrow,I completely forgot." said Sharon...

''Awww thanks girl."they said in unison...

"Nothin for the fellas?" said Tyriq and I almost in unison...

"I didn't see anything I thought you guys would like." she said...

"That's cold baby." said Tyriq....

Sharon leaned in...She looked around to make sure no one else was around....

"While we are waiting for our food ,let me bring you all to speed on a case you guys are working...I heard that one Mr.Bobby Lonigan got himself killed while I was gone..If I was here ,I would have told you, but I got snatched away on that case on short notice....but the late Mr.Bobby Lonigan was my informant...You probably tracked 15 calls he made to the FBI right?  They were made to me." she said.

"He was informing on the Ant Hill Gang right?  Jimmy,Sirena,Hop and I rousted them a few days ago."said Carlotta..."We got a whole lot of nothing." she said.

"He wasn't exactly informing on them...You see, We have undercovers saturating that area where they do business and we've got their phones tapped too...Narcotics has plains clothes guys all around that bar ,Bustys where you guys rousted them...We've been hip to the Ant Hill Gang for awhile now...But Bobby Lonigan didn't come to me about them...They were getting their product from a guy named William Bonnie...He sells low grade Heroin to all of the local drug crews around here...Lately though...everybody had been buying a new higher grade of Heroin that was on the streets and they were cutting into Bonnie's sales...Lonigan told me when we last talked that he had been hired..By Bonnie to find out who was putting this new high grade of Heroin on the streets and to eliminate him." said Sharon.

"So who was this guy?  " asked Sissy...

"I don't know...He never told me..But I think he did find him...I think he found him and didn't have the heart to kill this person for some reason." said Sharon.

"So rather than kill him...He was going to give him up to the Feds." said Tyriq...

"Right...He was going to give me a name...But I got pulled on this case...I told him to sit tight and I'd meet him when I came back....He had rented a house...Right next door to Lt. Cantrell, which I thought was hillarious."she said.

"Wait! You Knew he was living there?" I asked.

"I sure did...I told him...A Philadelphia Police Lieutenant lives next door to you and he laughed...He said, well I'm pretty safe here...Nobody would dare try anything with a cop next door...He'd hear anything." said Sharon...

Sissy busted out laughing...She laughed so hard that Eddie C. had to slap her on the back...Tears were running down her face....Tyriq ,Jimmy and Carlotta all busted out laughing...

Sirena ,Angie,Hop and Sharon all seemed confused...but I knew what they were laughing about...

"Remind me to fill you guys in on something later....I know why they are laughing." I said as I began to laugh too...

III-

Some Hours Later, Sissy ,Carlotta and I met Hazel at the Medical Examiner's office....

"I'm glad you guys came..The victim's brother is here to pick up the body." said Hazel...

A very handsome, well dressed Black man walked into the morgue as morgue attendents wrapped the body in plastic and placed it in a makeshift casket to be transferred to the funeral home..

"Hi...I'm Lt. Sissy Van Buren, Homicide...This is the primary Detective ,Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace and her husband, Assistant District Attornet,Keith Wallace."said Sissy as she greeted him...

"Hello...I'm Donald Lonigan...Bobby's brother ,I'm his younger brother...I got the news when I was in Afghanistan...and I have to say..I'm not surprised...I figured...With the life my brother led...Sooner or later this would happen." he said.

"We are sorry for your loss and we are doing everything possible to find your brothers killer...Do you know if he had any enemies?" asked Carlotta.

"He probably did...I didn't talk to him about his life...Not uh, that life..." he said.

"You say that you were in Afghanistan...You're military?" asked Carlotta.

"Uh No...I am an attorney actually...I work for a multi-national corporation that does business with the U.S.
Military in Afghanistan...We are also based in Hong Kong...I'm very rarely in Philadelphia...But I grew up here...I went to Central....Your last name is Rodriguez right?" he asked Carlotta.

"Yes." she said.

"You have an older sister named Carmen?" he asked.

"Yes." said Carlotta smiling...

"I knew Carmen...we dated for a minute..Lovely girl..." he said.

"She is an attorney too..She works for my father in Puerto Rico." said Carlotta.

"Wow!! Never figured her to be an Attorney...And look at you!!!...A Homicide detective and married to the Assistant District Attorney...You girls did alright.." he said...

"Like you say...It is a small world."said Carlotta...

"Yeah...My brother,Bobby, you know..He ran with a bad crowd...but his money....I never asked where it came from ,put me through Howard University first and later Harvard Law School and from there, I soared....I didn't like what he did...but he was always good to me...He wasn't all bad." he said ..He tipped his hat,eyed Sissy up and down and smiled...

"Are you married Lieutenant?" he asked.

"No, but I live with someone..." she said.

"Lucky guy......Well, let me be going..Here is my card if you have any additional questions." he said and passed her his card.

"You still got it Boss Lady....You are just a man magnet."joked Carlotta.

Sissy smiled..."Perhaps...but it's easier being just one man's attraction." she said.

I smiled...Just then, Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor walked in...

He looked at Carlotta...

"That the brother or something?" he said.

"Yes..he came all the way from Afghanistan to pick up the body." said Carlotta.

"Hmmm..I went back over your crime scene Top...You gotta ask yourself..Why did this guy move so far away from the Ant Hill Boys and right next door to Cantrell.?" said Duke.

"He was talking to the FBI...He definitely didn't want to chance anybody he knew seeing him do that...Cantrell said that he kept his shades down all the time and that he didn't know he was there...He was hiding from somebody." said Carlotta.

"Not the Ant Hill boys...They knew he lived there..They had stopped by a few times...No..It had to be somebody else.."said Duke.

"This William Bonnie person...He's a supplier...He hired him to kill whoever was putting a high grade of Heroin on the streets.But he didn't do it...He had to have known who it was at some point."said Carlotta..

"Top..let's you and me give this guy William Bonnie a look." said Duke..

Carlotta smiled..."Yea..Yea..."

IV-

A few hours later,I got a call and drove to a familiar sight...A crime scene, particularly, a murder!!!!!

Sissy was the first one I saw on the scene...

"Hey Sissy what is it?" I asked...as I passed her a cup of coffee....

"A double...Come inside.."she said..

Inside...Jimmy,Duke,Carlotta and Tyriq had on latex gloves and were looking over the body of a man in his 50's ,lying face down...

"His name is William Bonnie...A major Drug trafficker...Most of the Hoppers around here bought their stash off of him...He brought it out of New York City...."said Tyriq..


"This is the guy Sharon told us hired Lonigan to kill the competition.."said Carlotta.

"Yeah, well the competition just cornered the market." said Jimmy...

"Wow!  He was hit with a .45 in the side ,in the back and in the face...Blood everywhere!" said Duke..

Sirena ,Hop and Sharon had on gloves and were looking at the second man...

"His name is Gary Lockwood..He's muscle...Apparently he was William Bonnie's Bodyguard." said Sharon.

''Well he didn't do a very good job."joked Hop...

"No...and he got hit with a .45..Three shots to the chest, one in the back and one in the back of the head.." said Sirena..

"Wait....45 shells?  That's what Lonigan got hit with...And I'm sure it was loud...This isn't what professional hitmen use to whack guys...Something about these killings are very amatuerish.."I said.

Hazel arrived and looked at the blood splatter and at the bodies..

"You might be looking at the same killer in Carlotta's case...I'll know for sure when I get a ballistics check."she said.

Carlotta walked up to me and said... "Jimmy and Rico have uniforms doing a house to house search...This was loud...and it's early enough that somebody saw something...Walk me across the street." she said..

"Huh?" I said.

"Just come." she said.

We walked across the street and around the corner...Carlotta looked to make sure no one was looking and kissed me...It was long and soft ... I pulled her to me and kissed her passionately, nearly grinding her into the wall....

"Wow..what was that for?" I asked. She looked at me and smiled...

"It's going to be a long night papi..and that's as close to sex as we are going to get." she said.

I looked at her and laughed...We both laughed...and then kissed some more.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)