Kick In The Head

My name is Kevin Morris....Among other things...I am a licensed Private Investigator..People hire me to look into things they can't ask the police to look into..Sometimes...the the things I look into are of interest to the police.. and in that case...We help each other out..

Unlike Television and the world of novels and Pulp Fiction...I have a very good working relationship with the Philadelphia Police and the local FBI...I've assisted them in taking down some major criminals over the years... They in turn have kept a lot of my help a secret....I'm listed as a confidential informant in their files...

This allows me to work on the streets...You see, people talk to me that won't be caught dead talking to the cops...In fact...talking to the cops and being seen might eventually wind some of the people who talk to me ...dead!  This is about one such person...

II-

I got a call at my home from my good friend, Ralph Mole...

Ralph Mole was now an independently wealthy businessman of sorts....but prior to that ...He was the personal assistant of Arthur "Fathead " Newton...The ex-reputed crime kingpin of West and Southwest Philadelphia..

"Fathead", a childhood friend of mine had "retired" from the business..He'd sold his connects and supposedly had left Philadelphia and was supposedly living in Paris..
He had hid me and numerous of my clients out in his safehouse many times and I felt as though I owed him a favor..

Ralph Mole called me and said simply that "Someone" wanted to talk to me. I knew who that someone was!

Ralph Mole had never called me at home before...So I knew two things...One..Fathead Newton wanted to talk to me and two it was important...I grabbed my .38 smokeless and my back up piece....a .40...My good friend, Walter "Kool Kat" Jones had convinced me to carry a larger back up piece..

Ralph drove up to my house and I got in his car....

"Hi ya Kev...Long time huh?" he said as we pulled off..

"Indeed...The Big Man is in town huh?" I said with a smile..

"That's why you're the best Kev...Nothin gets by you..." he said.

Ralph was a short man, with a slightly muscular built...He was a good ten years older than me...He always dressed immacculately and had a fresh hair cut...He was brown skinned with a bald head...and a diamond stud in the left ear...He resembled the singer, Cee Lo Green a little. He served as Fathead's driver, his valet and his couselor all in one...Had done so for years...

"I thought he was in Paris." I said.

"He was..Until last week...He's back here now...He kind of wants it to be a secret...Nobody knows...Not even Chris ,Chess,Donald Smooth or Roscoe..." he said.

"Really? This must be big!" I said.

"It is...To Him anyway." said Ralph Mole, who looked at me and laughed...

I noticed that he wasn't driving near any of Fathead's usual spots...His condos or even his safe house...

"Relax Kev...I know this looks different...He sold all but one of his condos...Roscoe lives in that one and the only property he has here now is the safe house..."said Ralph.

We stopped in front of an apartment complex....

"He's staying here...Nobody knows him here...."said Ralph.

"Ralph is he in some kind of trouble? Somebody after him?" I asked.

"I'll let him tell you." was all Ralph would say.

III-

Ralph and I entered the apartment and there sitting on the couch was the big man himself...Arthur "Fathead" Newton...once the most feared and respected man in West and Southwest Philadelphia...Philadelphia period..

He saw me and he smiled...

"What it look like Kev?" he said and rose and hugged me...

"Heyy big man...That's what you're going to tell me..."I said smiling and sitting down..

''Awww Kev..Kev..Kev...What can I say?" he said.

"How is retirement ? You look good...Fit." I joked.

"It's great. I've been workin out...Eatin healthy...Look at me..I lost sixty pounds.." he laughed...

I must admit...I thought that the game was going to claim Fathead in the same way it had claimed so many others...He seemed to revel in being the big time gangster...But Fathead fooled us all...He walked away from it...I never thought he would...Nobody did!!  He had loved having power,having respect..Running things.....

Ralph brought us drinks.....and sat down across from us...Fathead passed me an envelope..

I looked at it's contents as I enjoyed the drinks..

"Several hundred dollar bills...Wow Big man...I usually get an envelope like this after I complete a job...You haven't even told me what it is you want me to do." I said..

"That's 25G's Kev....There's more if you're successful." he said.

"Okay...Now you fill in the blank spaces.."I said.

Fathead laughed...

"Two years ago....I began to start having second thoughts about my lifestyle...Major guys were getting arrested , whole operations were falling...ADA Keith Wallace, your friend, Lt. Sissy Van Buren and this new unit of detectives they put together , the FBI and The DEA weren't playing....and I could see the writing on the wall..So I got to thinkin...How bout if I quit while I was ahead?  I mean..I made more money than I'll ever spend...And I had been lucky not to get arrested in the short time I was runnin things.....I had lunch with Chris Thompson,Chess,Donald Smooth,Basil and Eddie C. and we talked about a lot of things...All them guys quit and walked away...to a normal life...No lookin over their shoulders..No cops or Federalis trackin em...I envied them..."

"Look at Chris and Chess... legitimate businessmen...Making all kind of dough...Chess married,got two kids...Chris living with his woman...Basil, married, a deacon in the church....imagine that? He was once one of the biggest drug dealers around...Now he's married and they're expecting their first child...Only Eddie C. got knocked...Did three years in the box and came home and living a new life...Hell,living with Lt.Sissy Van Buren of Homicide...That's heaven on Earth right there!!! Fine as her ass is...I'd trade places with him in a heartbeat!

So I looked at myself...Kev, bein this gangster has already cost me more than it should have....I screwed up my marriage...
I had a good girl, Cherry Johnson..I screwed that up...and I was moving from place to place every day , worried that my own lieutenants were plotting my downfall...which they was..the dirty bastards...So I made my mind up....It was time for a change...a new life."

"I sold my connects and I put my enforcer...My main man Roscoe in business for himself...and my man Ralph here was already running a legitimate business...I made sure they was cool and then I boogied on out of here...Paris was great baby...I could walk around free, without a worry...For the first time in years..I felt free,like a regular human being." he said..

Fathead paused and took a sip of his drink...

I took a sip of my drink...

Ralph Mole smiled...

"You said your lieutenants were plotting against you?" I asked.

"Yeah...Like I wasn't gonna find out about it...Big Cheese...My street boss was asking around for a hitman...In New York and in D.C.  I got out at just the right time....He had found a hitter from D.C... A Psycho... China White, my other Lieutenant had always hated Big Cheese and one by one...His men began to fall...Then check this out Kev..
China White hired the same damn hitman and took Big Cheese and his faction out...Only....His number two, Pete Moss hired the same guy to take him out...Aint that a kick in the head?..."laughed Fathead and Ralph Mole..

"No honor amongst thieves eh?" I said....We all busted out laughing again..

I remembered reading about the bloody gangwar for Fathead's turf last summer and how ADA Keith Wallace, Sissy and her detectives and the FBI interceded and killed the hitman and put China White behind bars... Later on, I helped them take down Pete Moss and Charles "Bread" Basket  myself..

Fathead continued his story...

"I sat back and laughed as all of those fools went to jail or died...Then Malik Clarke took over... I was planning to have that psychopath hit...He was too blood thirsty, too loud, too flamboyant....Liked having his picture in the papers too much..Sure enough...He attracted the attention of ADA Keith Wallace and his detectives and the FBI and they took him down...He's on death row now...Like I said..I saw the writing on the wall....Lin Chou retired and left...and The Diaz Brothers are all but gone...Minolo Sentterro is in jail ,Joey Never is dead and Angel Ortega ,Mikey Train , Eddie Coker and Cat Daddy are all locked up..All the old guys are gone!"said Fathead..

"You were smarter than them all Fathead..You walked away clean" I said.  "You're not under indictment and all of your lieutenants that plotted against you are gone..."I said.

''Wellll..maybe not...And this is why I called you...A cat named Tornado Jones rose up and took over the entire city for a minute...That was made easy because none of the old guys were around to challenge him...We had all had a gentleman's agreement amongst ourselves..This guy ignored all of that and walked in when we were all weak and took over the entire city...."said Fathead...

"Tornado Jones is dead and most of his associates are dead or locked up."I said.

"Yeah, which brings me to the present..An old adversary of yours is back in town...
Remember Ike "Cold Hearted" Stewart?" he said.

"Yeah....I remember him...We ran him out of town years ago..."I said.

"He's back and looking to take over my territory....He's got a ruthless enforcer named Richard "Ice" Waters with him...a stone cold killer...I believe he's dropped about five guys already here in Philly...He's good at what he does..He and Cold Hearted Stewart found me in Paris and asked for my "blessing to run his territory...My old territory....I told them both to get lost...That I was done....."said Fathead...

"I take it...Cold Hearted Stewart wasn't pleased?" I said laughing...

"No he wasn't...See he needs me to give him an eye on all of the independents now operating in my former territory....He figures if I returned and declared him the boss..They would all kowtow like they did under Tornado Jones...He doesn't have the juice or the street rep or the soldiers to do it...I told him again to take a hike...and that's when my girl went missing..." said Fathead....

"Your girl?" I said...

Fathead pulled out a photo.....She was a beautiful and pretty young thing...

"Her name is Contessa....I met her here...She is beautiful....I began taking violin lessons again..."said Fathead..

"Violin lessons? You play??" I said.

Ralph Mole slapped his thigh and nearly spit his drink out...He was laughing...

Fathead ignored us and looked at me...

For some...To laugh at Fathead Newton would have meant death...But Not Me, Not Ralph...He loved us...

"Yeah...Me and your girlfriend...Sissy Van Buren...We used to play the violin in the all Philadelphia Orchestra...When we were in High School...I wasn't always a gangster..Ask her....Just don't ask her until after all of this is over."he said.

Ralph and I stopped laughing....You never know a person....I never figured Sissy for a musician...and the violin at that...Had no idea that she knew Fathead Newton personally....

"I want you to find her Kev...Her name is Contessa...Contessa Harris...I met her here in Philly...She liked me for who I was...Arthur Newton..She didn't know about my past...For once I felt like a good man...I wasn't going to the strip clubs anymore...Wasn't having girls sent to my condo anymore...Stopped smoking weed,stopped over-eating...Look,I lost 60 pounds...I been workin out Kev...She made me a better man when I was with her..."he said.

"You think she's with Ike " Cold Hearted Stewart and this Richard "Ice" Waters fellow?"I said.

"Yeah...I don't think they would kill her...but they figured she makes me soft...and they need me to be hard, to be back in the game, but I got no need for that...I'm done with that Gangster crap.." he said.

"Alright Fathead....but where do I begin? Where did this girl live? She got any relatives here...and Where is Cold Hearted Stewart laying his head now of days?" I asked.

"I'll give you the book on Contessa...As for Cold Hearted Stewart?? Leave him to me..I may have to enter the gangster world one last time..."said Fathead..

"Fathead...No....You're doing good buddy ,don't walk back on the dark side...Let me take care of it....That's what you're paying me for right?" I said smiling..

Fathead smiled and looked at Ralph Mole...

"Aint Kev something??  My man Kev....Aint this a kick in the head...Me and you,working together?" he said.

"Yeah...God does seem to have a sense of humor."I said...

The three of us busted out laughing again...

TO BE CONTINUED