Such A Pinch

 

DEA Agent Carol Redding didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when she pulled up and parked across the street from Lt. Ed Cantrell's house...

His Car was there...Same place it had been last night and this morning when she had left...and the lights were on in the living room...

She put her key in the lock and walked into the living room and there he was , sitting in a chair, bound and gagged with a wild look in his eyes...

She didn't have time to take in what was happening ,before the muzzle of a gun was put to her head..

"Don't even twitch or I'll split your wig baby." came the voice of a big black man, about six foot four and muscular with sun glasses on and a .44 magnum...He took her side arm off of her and frisked her..making sure she didn't have a back up piece...Then he yelled..

"Lionel...Clear!"

A white man, with a beard and a ponytail, about six feet ,two inches with a .38 smokeless walked out of the kitchen...He had another chair....

"Sit down Baby." he said...He had a black eye and a swollen jaw...His lip looked like it was busted...Carol looked at the Black man...He had a busted lip too and a black eye as well...They had both been fighting...Ed Cantrell was no joke...They didn't take him down easy!

She did as she was told....

"Your boyfriend here put up quite a fight...I must say..he's good with his hands...but not that good!"said the black man.."

Carol looked at Ed...His shirt was ripped, but other than that...he didn't look as bad as they did...

Carol looked at the two men...

"McCracken sent you didn't he?   He's not good to work for...He doesn't have a retirement plan...Ask Tornado Jones, Breland Bobbit and Albert Collins.." she said...

They looked at each other...and laughed...

"Oh we know about them...We killed two of them...." said The Black man...

The white man laughed....and slapped his thigh...

"So you're going to kill us next? How long before McCracken gets tired of one of you or both and kills you??He has no loyalty.." she said.

" Save that baby..that psychological jive aint gonna work with us...We gonna kill you with your boyfriend's gun,make it look like you two were having a domestic spat...A murder suicide...Heh Heh heh..."said the Black man...

"You think anybody will believe that?"  said Carol Redding.

"It doesn't matter...what they believe...Point is...they won't be able to prove nothin....They aint proved nothin on us so far..."said the white man...

"Did you kill all of those drug dealers?.."asked Carol...

"Nah...Albert Collins did that....Then you started looking into him....and we had to shut him down...Same thing with Breland....Tornado whacked him...but then he got seen on that camera and arrested...It was only a matter of time before the cops popped him again...He had too many eyes on him...Philly coppers,FBI, You!..We didn't want to..but we had to kill him.." said the white man...

"Before we get this party started..somebody wants to talk to you..." said the white man...

Carol saw a shadow at the door..she looked over at Ed Cantrell...tears ran down her eyes..."I'm so sorry baby...for getting you into this." she said. "I love you and if we somehow get out of this...I swear...I'll make it up to you.."she said.

II-

A  Fat,balding White man with a bright yellow shirt and a bow tie walked into the house......He looked at Carol and just shook his head...

"I am sooo disapointed in youuuuuuu." he said.

"Well, well,well, Senator Owen McCracken, formerly U.S. Attorney Owen McCracken , Formerly Assistant District Attorney, Owen McCracken...."said Carol sarcastically....

"Ouuuuuuuuuu...I could give you such a pinch...."he said..."I didn't want to hurt you....I've always liked you Agent Redding..I've followed your career...You were a Decorated Detective on the Philadelphia Police force, good honest and upright DEA Special Agent....I thought you'd go far....Why couldn't you leave this alone?? They were just drug dealers...Drug dealers you guys were targeting...I took them off the streets...and I even solved your little murders for you...I gave you everything...Why did you have to keep following my money?" he said.

"Your money? That's dirty money, money you stole from them...money you got with murder and mayhem and betrayal....You're no better than they were...At least we knew what they were..who they were...At least they don't pretend to be anything other than what they were...Criminals...You, you walk around like a saint..When really, you're the worst kind of monster...You're worse than any of them."said Carol...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuu...I could give you such a pinch.... The end justifies the means...I will be President of the United States....I have the biggest war chest in Washington....And nobody will know or care how I got there...and I won't owe any special interest a thing,not a thing! And all of your , your moral certainty, You're belief in how just your cause is won't mean a damn thing...Not a damn thing..."he said...

"The truth will come out..." said Carol...

"What truth?  There is no truth...It will die here with you. News flash Agent..We all make our own truths...Stop being naive..This is how it's always been...The world is run by crooks.." he said...

In all this time...None of these guys had bothered to tie Carol up...She was just sitting in her chair....She looked at Ed Cantrell...He looked at her...He nodded, She smiled..

He began coughing uncontrollably and moving from side to side as if he was having a seizure...

"Ohhh dear..He's having some kind of seizure..."said Owen McCracken...Both hitmen were momentarily distracted...That's all Carol needed...She kicked the Black Hitman in his privates...He let out a wild yell-

"WOAOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..." he screamed and bent over in pain...

Owen McCracken backed up.....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...What did she dooooo?Ouuuuuuu...I could give her such a pinch,that girl!!!" he exclaimed...

With that, Carol leaped up, she grabbed the white man with the ponytail and spun him around...His gun fired wildly...She grabbed his wrist and aimed his gun at the black man and fired three times!!!...All three shots hit him in the chest....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH lawd....I don't believe it......I've been shottt!!!" he screamed like a woman and tossed his gun up in the air...

''Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" he screamed which caused Lt. Ed Cantrell and Senator Owen McCracken to give him the side eye...

Blood ran like a gusher from his chest and out of his mouth and he fell to the floor with a thud..He was dead!

Owen McCracken cowered in the doorway-

"Oh Dear!" he exclaimed...

Ed Cantrell fell to the floor and smashed the chair he was in to bits... He rolled and grabbed the dead black hitman's .44 magnum and fired at the white man who was wrestling with Carol...He hit him in the leg,in the side ,in the arm and two times in his head...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LAWD JESUS...JESUSSSS CHRIST....I DON'T BELIEVE IT...I'VE BEEN SHOT!!ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"  screamed the white hitman in agony and he too fell to the floor ,dead as a doorknob!!Blood just running from his wounds like a gusher....His body twitched for a minute...Then there was no more movemant!

"He must be a Baptist" mused Ed Cantrell as he stood over him...

"In the words of Snagglepuss...Exit, stage left."said Owen McCracken...

Owen Mccracken ran for the door, but Carol shot him in both buttocks and his side....

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...I'M LOSIN MY MINDDD...OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,
I'M LOSIN MY MIND!! OHHHHHHHHHHH,LAWDDDD! I don't believe it...I'VE BEEN SHOTTT, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed as he fell down the steps and rolled out into the street.. A crowd gathered outside....Mostly teenagers and they were laughing...

"You little bastards...Call the police...I've been shot...Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh! lawdddddd, I've been shot in the assssssssssssssss..ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh goood night nurse..lawdddd...I've been shottt.." he screamed...as blood ran from the back of his pants down his legs and in the street..

In the living room...Ed Cantrell high fived Carol Redding...

"We make a great team babes." he said, kissing her passionately...

"We do indeed!  You taught me everything I know Ed.." she said.

"You taught me a few things too." he said...

III-

The bodies of both hitmen were removed from Ed Cantrell's house...

Uniformed Police officers picked up shell casings and took photos..

Carol sat across the street with her good friends, ADA Keith Wallace, Lt. Sissy Van Buren, FBI SAC,Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins and Detectives, Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace, Tyriq and Sirena Pile, Duke Baylor, Jimmy Barlow ,Tony Hopkins and Forensic Investigator, Hazel Hunter-Baylor...

They were laughing uncontrollably as were some of the police officers who had to load Senator McCracken on to a gurney....They had to lay him on his stomach ,because both of his buttocks and his side had bullets in them ...He was alive, but in excrutiating pain...

Reporters were everywhere..and the bizzare story of how he funded his Political fund with money taken from murdered drug dealers was just starting to get out...

His political career was for all purposes ,ruined...plus the fact that he was facing several murder charges, conspiracy charges ,fraud and other offenses...he could be in court forever....he could be in jail the rest of his life when it was all over...

"I swear Carol...I was just telling Sis and my wife that when you come around we always get the fun cases.."said ADA Keith Wallace..

"You call this fun? " laughed Carol...

They brought Senator McCracken by on the stretcher...He looked up at Carol with pure disgust....

"Ouuuuuuuuuu youuuuuuuu....I could give you such a pinch!" he said as he was put in the M.E's van and sped to the hospital...

Sissy and Carlotta spit their coffee out and held each other to keep from falling down...Sirena held on to Tyriq ,she and he both were laughing hysterically...

Duke ,Hazel,Jimmy,Sharon and Hop all laughed and stomped their feet....

"I can't believe that a guy that looked and sounds like that was the mastermind behind this."said Lt. Ed Cantrell...

Everyone continued laughing....

It was a good night...They had cleared murder cases...and the mastermind behind it all in custody and out of office..

EPILOUGE:

Owen McCracken received a Life Sentence in Federal Prison for his many crimes...He was tried in the state of Virginia for the murder of Albert Collins, convicted and sentenced to die by lethal injection...The Feds in an unprecedented move turned him over to the state of Virginia ,where he sits on Virginia's Death Row....

A week later, DEA Agent Carol Redding and Lt. Ed Cantrell sat at Penns Landing, drinking tumblers of Coffee and talking...

"I got great news baby." he said as he put his arm around her...

"Ed...I-uh..I have some news too....But uh, you go first.."she said.

"My promotion came through...You are looking at Captain Edward Louis Cantrell..."he said...

"Ohhhh My God...That's Great Baby.."she said and kissed him..

"What's your news?" he asked...

"I put in papers for a transfer here...but I got a once in a lifetime offer...To be the special agent in charge of one of our regional offices.....and it's uh...not in Philly!"she said.

"Oh...That's great news girl...Still...And you need to take it...I-I would never stand in the way of your advancement...Where is the office?" he asked.

"Wilmington,Deleware!" she said.

He looked at her and smiled...

"That's closer....You know you could commute..."he said.

"I could find an apartment near you-"she said.

"Apartment?? You could live at Big Daddy's house!!" he said.

"Really?? You want me to move in with you?" she said...

He hugged her and kissed her...

"What did I just say?" he said.

"Ohhh Ed...I don't know...I might not be able to make it to work..."she said looking at him sheepishly...

"Hell,I couldn't make it to work after a night with you...That's why I was home when those goons came in, You wore me out woman...but I don't care.....I want to be wore out like that everyday of my life..." he said.

"Then let's get married...!!" she said.

"Seriously??" he asked..

"Yes!" she said...."That's pretty heavy...You don't have to decide  on that just yet..."she said.

He took her hand in his...

"Nah....Let's do this...I aint gettin no younger....."he said.

"When?" she said...

"We got time to think on it...I got to get you a ring and all and make it formal.."he said.

He kissed her and slyly opened her blouse and rubbed her breasts..She whispered in his ear..

"Ed....We are outside!!...In public!!!...My goodness...You are always ready!!..."she laughed..
moving his hands and fixing her blouse...

"That's my nickname...Ready Eddie." he said...

They kissed again and took sips of coffee and laughed again..

He pinched her side...

"Ouuuu." she cooed..

"I could give you such a pinch!" he said...

They both busted out laughing!