Buy Or Die

I drove up just as the Philadelphia Police crime scene unit was removing the body from the house... I just shook my head...another morning, another murder...Philadelphia was on par this year to top last year's rate...We were clearing a lot of them, but just as many as we were clearing, it seemed as though that many more were occurring...

I'm not a cop...My name is Keith Wallace..I'm the Assistant District Attorney...I prosecute Homicides.... This one was particularly troubling...But then, Aren't they all?

The victim was a well dressed White male....Didn't look like he belonged in the neighborhood he was found in... He still had his wallet, which had about 2 grand in cash and credit cards intact....

...I'd be lying if I said that that was the only reason I was at this particular scene....The pretty lead detective had given me a call.. That pretty lead detective was my wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace...and the only reason she called me was because she could sense ,like me that this was a big case...Not your run of the mill murder...And not because the victim was white, but because of who he was!!!!

When I drove up with Lt. Sissy Van Buren....

 All of her detectives were already on the scene, along with forenscic investigator, Dr. Hazel Hunter-Baylor...

Carlotta walked over to me and gave me a big kiss...as I passed her a coffee...

''Heyy Honey Bunny."she said. I kissed her again..

"Hey yourself.. What'cha got?"I said, smiling at her..

"His name is Breland Bobbit, He's a financial analyst from D.C."said Carlotta..

"What's he doin in Philly and in this neighborhood?" asked Sissy."

"That's a good question boss lady and nobody that we've questioned seems to
know."said Carlotta..

                                   
Hazel and Detectives Tyriq Pile and Antonio Hopkins were checking the body out..They had on Latex gloves...

"He wasn't killed here.... He was killed somewhere else and dropped here."said Tyriq..

"I put the time of death at about 6:30 am, which would make that about six hours ago...multiple gunshot wounds..."said Hazel...

"Nobody around here said they heard any gunshots..." said Hop....

Detectives James "Jimmy Barlow and Edwin "Duke" Baylor walked up..

"Hey Keith, Lou...We got uniforms canvassing a two block radius , trying to see if anybody saw or heard anything...." said Duke..

"And I got the lab guys taking a plaster cast of these tire tracks.." said Jimmy...

Detective Sirena Pile, Tyriq's wife walked up just then...

"Hey..I just checked the crime stopper cams and traffic cams...We got a hit...A 2014 Black Lincoln Continental leaving here at top speed about an hour ago...Tinted windows...We can't see the driver...but maybe we can  take this back and get a work up and get a visual of our suspect." said Sirena..

"You guys might want to check those cameras for a five block radius.." came the familiar voice of DEA Agent Carol Redding.

We all spun around...

"Heyyy girl.."said Sissy...

"Heyyyy" we all said.

"Haven't seen you in awhile." I said.

"Your suspect's name is Breland Bobbit..."she said.

                                            

"You know him?" asked Sissy and Carlotta...

"I do...I've been following him for awhile....Let's go back to the station...I may need you guys help."said Carol.

Carlotta looked at Hazel....

"There's nothing more we can do here...Release the body" she said...The CSI guys and crime scene photographers had finished their work...They lifted the body up on  a stretcher and loaded it into the M.E.'s van..

II-

Back at CID , we all gathered in our new conference room and Carol gave us the run down on our victim...

Sissy and I sat with FBI Special Agent Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins , Carlotta, Sirena, Hop, Tyriq  Duke and Jimmy in our conference room as we discussed this new case..

"I'm glad you're all here.... Your victim as you know is one Breland Bobbit... He's a big time Financial Analyst from Washington D.C.   Now your big mystery is what is he doing dead in Philadelphia? ,What does this have to do with DEA ?? and why have I been on him?"said Carol..

"Yes, Those are our concerns" said Sissy smiling....Carol, her good friend, smiled back at her...They had bantered like this as long as they had known each other...

"Before about a month ago...He meant nothing to me....Then D.C. homicide had ten mysterious deaths....All of the deaths were major playas...Drug Kingpins that we were looking at...Not street dealers...but bosses....and all of the deaths looked like they were by natural causes...but after a tox screen and an exam..We realized that they had all been poisoned with the same lethal combonation that had been used to execute death row inmates...They were all found in their homes or in their cars...Because they weren't shot down in the streets...the murders looked pretty tame...Not much stink was raised ,because ,look who they were?"said Carol.

"Anyway...I found a common thread in all of the deaths...All of these guys had a financial advisor who was putting loads of their money into some kind of offshore account and then to a political action fund... We tried to follow the account, but just that fast, the accounts closed down and switched to yet another account... I kept digging and one common name kept coming up...Breland Bobbit..Your murder victim...These weren't the types of folks you'd figure he'd be socializing with..He lives in Georgetown in a tony townhouse...These were Black drug dealers from the inner city of D.C. and Baltimore...Yet there he is in survielience photo after photo with them..and there is all of the money he was laundering for them being invested in some mysterious ,murky fund!"Carol continued..

"Working with some very sharp D.C.  and Baltimore Homicide  and Narcotics Detectives, we traced the drugs used to kill these guys  and five kingpins from Baltimore to a factory in Alexandria ,Virginia...We raided it, but found nothing and no one who knew much....We tracked the owner of the factory, an Albert Collins...also seen in photos with Breland and these guys and found him hung in his living room and a phony suicide note next to him....Guess whose company had the papers on this factory??" said Carol...

"Breland Bobbit" said Tyriq..

"Yes sir Rico...One of his companies bought this company recently and was bleeding it dry with not much protest from Mr. Collins. He's into something deep...This guy had no criminal record whatsoever.. Bachelors from Georgetown, MBA and J.D. from Columbia....Straight shooter until now...He's leveraging all this cash to these accounts and I am pretty sure..He's not the boss...He's working for somebody..Somebody big..."said Carol..

"So you followed him Here?" I said..


"What's the Philly connection asked my wife ,Carlotta.

"I'm getting to that...We wiretapped his phone at his townhouse and cloned his cell phone...We picked up a conversation with a Philadelphia Drug figure...John "Tornado" Jones..." she said...

At the mention of that name...Carlotta ,Tyriq and Hop looked at Duke and Sharon....

"That's your boy Duke."said Tyriq...

"The guy you've had eyes on for a minute."added Hop.

"You know this Tornado Jones?" asked Carol...

Duke and Sharon and Sirena smiled..

"We sure do...The three of us have been profiling him for two months..He's a suspect in seven open murders." said Sirena...

"I've got undercover FBI agents around some of his people and we've wire tapped his phones at his loft and at his office and his country club..."said FBI Special Agent, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins...

"I've got a detail of plain clothes cops on him too, they report just to me...and Hop and Jimmy have been looking into his financials....

We've located his warehouses and we are trying to catch his shipments...But he's very cagey...He changes up as soon as we get up on him and he never deals with the same guys more than once...He doesn't talk on the phones either..Not business...Everything is face to face with him...but we are making a little headway."said Duke.

Sissy and I looked at Carol Redding and said-

"We know that this guy seemingly came from out of nowhere and did what none of these local gangsters ever could do...He seized all of the cities real estate...Our intelligence tells us that every drug dealer in the city buys from him..."I said.

"Word on the street is you either Buy or Die."said Sissy... "Fathead Newton used to own all of the real estate in West and Southwest Philly...He "retired" and they had a big gangwar, which gave us an opportunity to clean that whole area out...We did and now there are a lot of independents operating..
The Diaz Brothers are non-existant now...and with Joey Never dead and Minolo Sentterro and his crew gone...that area is now just independents too...Lin Chow has gone back to the Orient and has gotten out of the drug business...There are no longer any big figures..Just a lot of indys and this guy just swept in and put the best product on the streets...Heroin, Cocaine, Meth, you name it...He's got it and he's got no competition...They don't buy from New York anymore..They buy from him..He is alleged to be supplying the entire tri-state area..."said Sissy.

"What about violence? You said he is a suspect in seven open murders.." asked Carol..

"We've had about seven unsolved homicides ,just like yours, Major Drug guys ....Guys found dead in their homes...seemingly of natural causes...only to find out they were poisoned...Rico,Jimmy and I caught a few of them....Sirena and Hop caught some too...We thought we were looking for a serial killer.. A closer look and we found out that these guys may have bucked the system...Refused to play ball with his new arrangement...We were looking into Albert Collins too, then we found out that he had killed himself."said Carlotta.

"Or that's the way someone wanted us to think he died. I don't know what this is...But it's big...and I don't think Tornado Jones is the big boss either...He might be the next victim.This is much bigger than Philly, D.C. or Baltimore." said Carol..

Just then..Detective James "Jimmy" Barlow walked in...He had a glossy photo..

"That tip you gave us was a hell of a tip...We studied the traffic cams from a six block radius and we got a hit!!...We got the 2014 Lincoln and we got a visual of the driver...Duke, Rico,Sharon,Sirena..You might want to see this..."he said.

The Three detectives  and FBI agent gathered around Jimmy...

"Oh My God...That's Tornado Jones!!!and our victim, Breland Bobbit...."They said.

Those photos were taken about twenty minutes after I saw him get in that car....That means he was killed instantly and brought to the neighborhood you found him in.."said Carol...

Dr. Hazel Hunter -Baylor walked into the room at this moment...

"Our victim was killed with two shots to the chest and one shot to the head...Close range...about 6 to 7 hours ago...and the tire tracks are a match to that Lincoln town car....The plates belong to a Dustin Ripperton" she said.

"Me and Jimmy looked into that....No such person exists....Whoever these people are..They are very good at covering up..." said Hop.

"Looks like your case just hit a dead end.."said Carlotta..

"Not at all...Tornado Jones just implicated himself in a major murder...If we catch him....Maybe I can flip him and get to the bottom of this.."said Carol....."I can't be there for the pick up...I don't want to tip my hand.."she said.

"I'm the primary on this case...I'll go get him."said Carlotta..

Sissy put her arm around her protoge'....

"Kevlar Vest honey and trauma plate and take some uniforms...Have them do the same."she said and smiled at Carlotta.. She loved my wife like a little sister..It was quite obvious...

"Of course Boss lady." she said.

"That goes for all of you." said Sissy.

III-

John"Tornado" Jones was flanked by three bodyguards...He was leaving his pricey Condo..He looked like any other businessman going out for the afternoon...

"I got any appointments tomorrow? He asked...

Before his bodyguard could answer...Carlotta answered for him...

"If you do, you should cancel them papi, you're under arrest." said Carlotta...She was holding a riot pump shotgun...

He and his bodyguards went to turn the opposite direction...but Tyriq and Jimmy were there with glocks drawn...

"Don't even think about it...Let me see your hands...All of you."said Tyriq..

"You heard him...Get em up ace!" said Jimmy.

Five Uniformed cops, all armed with shotguns converged on them and handcuffed them....

He smiled at Carlotta...

"What is this about?" he said.

"Murder!"said Carlotta...

"You do have a warrant?" he asked ,smiling...

Duke and I walked up....Duke put the warrant in his hand...and smiled at him....

"We sure do." I said. "I'm Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace, please to make your acquaintance." I said smiling at him...

He smiled back...

"Well at last we meet...I'm kinda flattered...I believe I was a class ahead of you..at Penn Law School...I remember seeing you on campus."he said laughing..

"Tank time Tornado..."said Duke.

Sissy ,Sharon and Carol sat in a car across the street..They watched as Carlotta, Rico,Jimmy,Duke and the uniforms brought Tornado and his three bodyguards out...

"Well Carol...We got him!!!" said Sissy...

"Something doesn't feel right...This was too easy."said Sharon..

"Girl, you aint never lied...Somebody made a mistake...Something is about to happen...Mark my words." said Carol...

I didn't...None of us knew it then...but she was definitely right.

(DEFINITELY TO BE CONTINUED!!)