Aint Who She Used To Be

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County. The 42nd largest city proper in the United States, with a population of 419,777, it is the principal, central, and most populous city of the Miami metropolitan area, and the most populous metropolis in the Southeastern United States after Washington, D.C.  According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Miami's metro area is the eighth most populous and fourth-largest urban area in the United States, with a population of around 5.5 million.

Miami is a major center and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade.

 In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha- World City in the World Cities Study Group’s inventory. In 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked thirty-third among global cities.

 In 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami "America's Cleanest City", for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs.^[  According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, and the world's fifth-richest city in terms of purchasing power. Miami is nicknamed the "Capital of Latin America", is the second largest U.S. city with a Spanish-speaking majority, and the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality.

Miami was also hot as hell when Olivia and I got off of the plane there the next morning..

"Wow Donnie Ray...it's 99 degrees according to my phone." she said..

"Yeah? It feels like over one hundred to me.." I said.

"So you want to tell me why we are here again?" she asked..as we boarded a taxi at the airport... I gave the man instructions as to where our hotel was..

"This is where Juanita Townsend is from." I said.

"Juanita Townsend?? Who is that?? I thought we were tracing Lucy Luckette?" said Olivia...

"One in the same person Livy!...Lucy Luckette is a phony name..The real Lucy Luckette died 20 years ago in a nursing home...The person we know and love in Philly is Juanita Townsend...who vanished from Miami around 1997...and was reborn, "Lucy Luckette "in Philadelphia..with a new social security number, new name ,the works.."I said.

"Wow! You are a good investigator..."said Olivia..

"The cop in me...I kept seeing patterns in everything she was involved in and the way she did things and everything about her said "Grifter"  I suspected her as far back as when we went to her condo and interviewed her and she agreed to kill those links..."I said.

"So what is our next move Sherlock?" asked Olivia smiling seductively..

"We are going to our hotel room and check in...Then we are going to get some lunch and then..we have to rent a car and do a little visiting." I said.

She leaned over and kissed me..I grabbed her and kissed her....I'm sure cabbies in Miami are used to seeing this type of thing in the backseat of their cabs...

II-

Our hotel room was beautiful...Olivia took her sandals off and sat on the bed...She looked out the window at the ocean...

"This is beautiful...isn't it?" she said.

"Maybe we'll come back for a vacation..Just the two of us.." I said.

"You ever been here before?" she asked..

"Yeah, several times..how bout you?" I asked..

"Yes..I've been here...I love Miami.." she said.

"Did you tell Josie not to divulge to anybody where we are?" I asked.

"Yes...She won't tell...She feels awful about having to testify...I mean she has an axe to grind with Soloman Foster, but she didn't want her personal business to be aired out in court..." said Olivia..

"She's just been so quiet lately...I've worried about her.." I said.

"She'll be just fine...and so will we.." said Olivia with a smile...

I took my wife's face in my hands and kissed her long and softly.....

She smiled at me....

"Okay..We'd better get ready to go eat and then look these people up...We keep this up and we'll wind up in bed and a whole day will be wasted." she cautioned..

"Yeah, you're right...Come on..You like Cuban food?"I said.

"I don't know.." said Olivia..

"Come on...I know a place...Great food....You'll love it babes...I hope it's still where I remember." I said.

Olivia giggled as I took her hand and led her out the door ..

There was a car rental place down the street..I rented a car...a 2013 Nissan Sentra...and we were off.

III-

"Oh My God Donnie Ray, this food is incredible." said Olivia as we ate in the Cuban Bistro I'd told her about..

"Glad you like it..Maybe we'll come back here for Dinner." I said.

We ate our meal and then I pulled out my phone...

"This is the first stop of our journey." I said.

IV-

Liberty City-Miami...What you would call the 'bad" part of town was where we found ourselves next...In the project home of Johnnie Townsend..Juanita Evans-Townsend's husband...Yes husband....She hadn't bothered to do a little thing like get divorced back in 1995 when they seperated...It was all in the public record...

Surprisingly...His little apartment was neat and tidy...He had a 46 inch flat screen TV with cable on a table and a nice couch in his living room...He smiled when we arrived and offered us a seat...

"You guys want a beer?" he asked..

"No thanks" I said.

He smiled at Olivia...She smiled back...

"So you guys are from Philly huh?" he said.

"Yes...You guys lawyers?  Cause you carry yourself like a cop." he said. He ought to know...He had been upstate two times since 1995 and had just been released from his last stint in the slams two years ago.

"I used to be a Homicide Cop in New Orleans." I said.

He laughed...

"I can tell...So how you wind up in Philly, workin as a P.I.?" he asked...then he looked at Olivia and smiled..

"I see...She's enough to make me move to Alaska." he said...

Olivia cracked up laughing...

I showed him a photo...

"She look familliar?" I said...

"Well I'll be damned..That's Juanita...I thought she was dead." he said.

''No...She's in Philly,using the name Lucy Luckette." I said.

''Lucy Luckette?/ That's an old woman that she used to take care of in the nursing home...she been dead."he said.

"Oh I know..She took her social security number and identity...She's a high stakes grifter..she took a preacher and his church for his money, and at least two other businessmen and she presently is suing our client for sexual harrassment...She's been getting great paydays...Look where she lives?" I said showing him a photo of her condo..

"Whoaaaaaa..Look at Nita...She's big time now huh?" he said.

"You thought she was dead?" asked Olivia.

"Well yeah...In 1995 we were legally separated and I saw her off and on up until about 1997 and then she vanished without a trace...She was declared legally dead by the state of Florida in 2004.."he said.

''Well she's alive and well" said Olivia.

"I see" he said laughing and slapping his thigh...

I recorded his statement on my tablet and I gave him $150.00 for his troubles and we took off for the next destination...

Our Next Destination was nicer...South Beach and the home of a Black-Cuban Businessman named Lionel Cohiba...

He served us some sweet wine which we did drink...I showed Lionel the photo of "Lucy"

''That's Betty" he said.

"Betty?" asked Olivia..

"When I knew her, her name was Betty Townsend..She and I were together for a year and a half...she worked for me and she was my lover...Then one day she was gone along with close to 70K of my cash...She beat my safe while I was asleep...The police put out a large net for her, but they never caught her...So you know where she is...huh?" he said.

"She's in Philadelphia , using the name, Lucy Luckette and still in the grifting business.." said Olivia...

"Well...I hope you guys put her behind bars...where she belongs.." he said...''More wine?"

''Don't mind if I do." I said.

Like Johnnie, I video taped his statement on my tablet.

Our next stop , the next day was a Hialeah Strip mall...

Here we had coffee and doughnuts and talked with the chipper and gregarious Barry Dickerson...a busted out gambler and player who always had a few angles workin.. I had met so many guys like him when I was a cop.

''So Donnie Ray right?..You used to be a cop in the Big Easy huh?" he said.

"I was a Homicide Detective..."I said.

"Yeah ,you walk and carry yourself just like a cop...You're a P.I. now huh?" he asked..

"Yeah and this is my wife...She's an Attorney." I said.

''You know..I know a lot a ex-cops that wind up being P.I.'s...It's in your blood...So you from New Orleans too honey?" he asked..

"No I'm a Philly girl..I'm from up North." she said.

"And you two married huh and live in Philly ?" he asked..

"Yes" I said...I showed him a photo and the smile immediately left his face...

"That's that thievin bitch  that I married in 96 named Brenda...Brenda Townsend.." he said.

''You probably didn't know that she was already married did you? And that, that's not her real name." I asked.

''She told me she was divorced..When I met her she was livin with some Cuban guy out in South Beach..She told me about a safe he had with a lot of dough...We hit the safe..I uh ,used to be a Box man..Took down 70K, Went to Vegas and got married...I wake up the next morning and all of the dough is gone and so is she!! I never saw her again..I heard she was dead..." he said.

"Nope...She's very much alive in Philly and still at it....She's running a real mean shell game in Philly far more sophisticated and she's earned close to one million dollars to date." I said.

''You don't say!" he said.

"I do say." I said and video taped a statement from him...

On our way to our next stop Olivia asked me...

''Donnie Ray, what is a box man?" she asked..

''Slang for Safe cracker..."I said...

"I'm learning soo much from you." she laughed....

"You've taught me a few things too." I said looking at her salaciously...

Our last stop was the Miami Police department...where we talked to some detectives about her....

"Juanita Townsend alias Betty Townsend AKA Brenda Townsend has quite a history...a dozen arrests for soliticiting, one arrest for burglary, another for theft....We never could make anything stick..." said a detective...

"The statute of limitations has run out on all of those things though." said Olivia..

"Yeah...but we want to talk to her about a murder...There is no statute of limitations on that."he said.

''A Murder?"I said.

"Yes...she was working at a nursing home...and we found an old lady..a Lucy Luckette dead...At first we thought it was natural causes...But we looked back into it in 1998 and we found that she could have been smothered with a pillow...Her daughter said that she had an old lockbox that she kept money in..Close to one thousand dollars..The money and the lockbox were never recovered and we never saw hide nor hair of Juanita Townsend again...It was rumored that she was dead.."he said.

I showed him a photo of her condo...

"She's alive and well in Philadelphia now and a high priced grifter." I said.

"Hmmm,We might be paying a visit to your fair city in a few days....I've waited a long time to nab that broad.." he said.

V-

Back in our room ,Olivia took her sandals off and sat by the window...

"This place is lovely...I hate to go..I wish we could stay longer." she said.

''We've got a trial to prepare for." I said.

"Dallas has gotten so good at this that he's gotten sloppy...He's so used to scaring people into not going to court..." she said...

Just then, her phone rang...It was Beverly...

''Hi Auntay" she said.

''Heyy Bev,How's it going?" said Olivia..

"This guy Dallas Houston is a trip...He talked and talked and damn near threatened me yesterday,trying to get me to settle out of court...He was real upset that you weren't there and he kept asking me where you were...I told him that you had another trial, another client you were repping in Jersey..." she said.

"Good Thinking.." said Olivia...

"He seemed almost desperate...but I wouldn't budge...Then he told the Judge that since I wasn't lead counsel I couldn't make a decision to go to court, but the judge said that I could ...Guess who the judge is?" she said giggling..

Olivia's mouth opened up wide...

''Not the cross dressing Judge Turner Freeman?" She gasped...

"Yupper...the same...You know, he dresses pretty nice in court...Nice suits...You would never know that he probably has panties and a bra on under his suit...He saw me and he ruled in my favor.. Dallas just stomped his foot and barged out of there..He stopped by the office looking for you..I told him you were in Newark and he stormed out..So today...I appeared again and we voted on the jurors...He got seven guys...but they are young guys ,they might identify with Soloman and we got five women...Three of them are mothers ,with sons...and two are young...It was the best I could do..."she said.

''I'd say you did well Bev..We've dug up so much dirt on Ms. Lucy Luckette that Dallas might not want to go to court...For one she's married...two she was living with a guy and cheating on him with another guy and her and the other guy hit the second guy's safe and went to Vegas and got married again and she vanished with all of the money..left him high and dry.." said Olivia..

''Get out of here."said Bev.

''There's more...She is a suspect in an 18 year old homicide!!!...An old lady named ,get this..Lucy Luckette ..Her real name is Juanita Townsend."said Olivia..

''Oh My God...I'm bettin that Dallas Houston doesn't know who she really is and that he could be her next mark."said Beverly...

''Exactly...Hey,How is Josie?" asked Olivia..

''She's good Auntay..Soloman sent her a huge bouquet of Roses in all different colors and he wrote her a long letter apologizing to her and saying that he hopes one day she'll forgive him and give him another chance... Then he saw Me,Nelson and Josie out at Aqua bar last night and he paid our whole tab...and left..." she said..

''Well, good for him..We are taking the red eye back..." said Olivia..

"I figured...I have to be at the last prelim and Josie is watching the office So I called Nelson and he's going to pick you up and bring you right to the courthouse...after he drops me off."said Bev..

"Staying with Nelson tonight?" asked Olivia...

"It's lonely with you guys not around...I hear noises in the night..."said Beverly...

"Oh....Well Tell Nelson we said hi and uh not to make too much noise."Laughed Olivia.

"You got jokes.....Well anyway...Everything is set...I'll see you guys in court tomorrow." said Beverly.

"Great."said Olivia..

''Oh and one more thing.."said Beverly.

"What is that?" asked Olivia..

"Judge Freeman said that he saw you at Copeland's church a few weeks ago and he loved the pantyhose you were wearing...and he'd like to speak to you about where you bought it." she said.

"You're kidding right?" said Olivia..

"No....I'm serious..."laughed Bev...

Olivia cracked up laughing...

''Sure...I'll show him where I purchased them..The freak!" she said.

''Well baby, you've got it all covered...I'm very proud of you...How you handled yourself.." said Olivia..

"Like a boss right Auntay?" she said.

"Like a Boss ...Good night Bev..." said Olivia.

"Good Night Auntay...Tell D.R. Good night too." she said.

''I will" said Olivia.....

She looked at me and kissed me softly....and slowly for a few minutes....

"That was from my niece...She said good night." whispered Olivia softly....

"She didn't say it like that." I said.

"No...That was from me." she said smiling...

I pulled her to me slowly and began kissing her softly as the full moon shone brightly outside our window...

(TO BE CONTINUED)