Bidding War

I got an ominous text......

"If You're still serious about that offer....Meet Me at this address, which is forthcoming.. Don't bring anybody!"

It was the message I was waiting for...  I had Peeping Tom wire me up good...Then I had Clerow and Kool Kat follow my car, which had a GPS tracking device hidden in the glove compartment...

I parked my car in front of the Warehouse and waited....Within five minutes... Bert Mooney drove up in a 2014 Black Lincoln Continental...He was alone...

I admired the car...

"Nice...I'm impressed..."I said.

He got out of the car with his gun drawn...

"Get out! Show me your hands!" he said.

"You sound like a cop!" I said smiling...

He patted me down and took my .38 smokeless and my back up piece...My .40...I wasn't wearing my .22 today of all days...

He made me spread my leg and patted me down for a wire...but he wouldn't find this one...That was still my ace in the hole...

"Okay, get in" he said...

I got in the car..There was a man in the back seat...He shoved a .38 in my ribs...

"Make a sound and I'll gut you." he said.

"Can I at least get my briefcase out the trunk?   That's got the money in it." I said.

"Yeah,Yeah.." said Bert,

I got back in the car and we pulled off...

The game was beginning.

II-

They drove me to what looked like a brand new building on the corner of a block in the Fishtown section of town...

We got out of the car and walked up to the door...There was a small micro -camera that was activated when the bell was rang...This let the person inisde see who was at the door.

Nice! I mused...

Chuck Dash answered the door....He was smiling...

"Mr. Morris....So glad you could join us... Uh I got a little surprise for you?" he said,laughing..

"I don't like surprises." I said.

"Neither do I..So imagine my surprise when I find out that two people are offering us money for that zip drive..." he said.

"Two people?" I asked..

"Well ,I should say three ..There's the man who hired us and paid us....you and yet another man...." he laughed as we all walked into the small office......

Inside I saw ,Guy Proctor , sitting and sweating and looking more nervous than a prostitute at communion service.....And then I saw a well dressed charactor with a briefcase sitting in the corner...Senator Barry O'Neil....

Now this was a surprise....For them too!

"Guy Proctor, Senator O'Neil ...How do you do?" I said.

"Who the hell are you, another black mailer??" said Senator O'Neil...A brown skinned Black man with just a pinch of grey hair on his sideburns...

"Actually,I was hired to keep you from being blackmailed." I said.

Bert Mooney cracked up, so did the gun man with him and Chuck Dash....

''Who hired you?" asked Guy Proctor....

"I can't tell you that." I said...

''Gentleman, Gentleman...While I would love to hear how this all went down...My time is short...We were hired by Mr. Proctor here, who paid us 25G's up front and is offering 75 G's in addition..." laughed Chuck Dash...

"I offered you 300G's and I have the money right here."I said.

Chuck Dash laughed....He looked at Bert Mooney and his other henchman....

"This is wonderful...Look at you three...At least two of you have a personal stake in this...Look at you big wigs sweating...This is rich....Check it out Mr.Morris, I was all ready to deal, but Senator O'Neil offered us 350G's...." he said.

"Hell, I don't have that kind of money, he can have it." I said.

"No...No..Nooooo..We had a deal..I hired you...I hired you....Give me that zip drive!!!" yelled Guy Proctor...

"What's the matter Proctor, Afraid of being seen on that video?? I know all about you and my wife!!!! Yeah..Didn't think I knew huh? I had you followed... I know she gave you a blow job in the bathroom at Mulberry Street...You wanted to get that zip drive before you showed up on it and lost your contract...Well too late..I already signed with your competitor...You're done." said Senator O'Neil...

Chuck Dash looked at me...

"Well, the deal is done...I was supposed to keep him from finding out...and keep it from getting in the papers...He knows and he's the highest bidder...Nothing I can do." I said and gave him a Kanye Shrug....

"Who hired you ?" snapped Proctor, looking at me...

"Someone who called themselves doing your cousin a favor...Isn't that what you told them?? ....That you didn't want your cousin's name ran through the coals?" I said.

Chuck Dash slapped his thigh...He was bent over laughing....

"Cousin?" said Senator O'Neil....

Guy Proctor stood up...His hands were shaking...

"O'NEIL...You cancelled my contract and then you came here to make a deal with these chislers that I hired....gottttdamn itttt!" he yelled and pulled out a pistol...

"Bert, I thought you frisked him?" said Chuck Dash.....

"Gee...Did I forget something?" said Bert who smiled sheepishly and pulled out a gun and aimed it at Chuck..

"What are ya doin..?" said Chuck...

"He made me a counter offer, a bigger cut than what I would have gotten with you Chucky!......It's just business ..Nothin personal...But I want to get ahead in the world...Open that drawer, toss us that zip drive." he said.

''WHYYYYY YOU BACK STABBIN SON OF A.." screamed Chuck who pulled out a gun of his own and shot Bert Mooney three times in his chest and his side...

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!  I 'VE BEEN SHOT! YOU SHOT ME!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHH!!" yelled Bert, who fired at Chuck Dash, hitting him in the side, the back and the leg and then one fatal time in the head...both men fell to the floor, ... Senator O'Neil and I dove to the floor...

 "ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!  I 'VE BEEN SHOT! YOU SHOT ME!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHH!! YOU SHOT ME IN THE ASS..ARGHHHHHH!!!!!"screamed Chuck....

Within minutes both Chuck Dash and Bert Mooney were dead from their wounds!

Guy Proctor shot the third man three times...Once in the head and twice in the back before he could do anything...He  also fell to the floor dead!

Guy fired at me and Senator ONeil who ran and ducked behind a counter...Guy ignored us, figuring that since we were both unarmed ...We couldn't hurt him.. He  then popped open the drawer and snatched the zip drive and went running out the door, only he slipped and fell down the steps...I heard a shot!!!

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!  Awwwwwwww crap...I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!! I'VE BEEN SHOT!!!" he mumbled and then I heard nothing.

By the time I came running down the steps...Guy Proctor was lying in a pool of his own blood...He had fell on his gun and it had discharged and he had shot himself...I felt his pulse...He was dead...

So was everybody else!!!!

I called Kool Kat and Clerow who were blocks away and told them to turn around and go back that everything was under control...

Senator O'Neil walked down the steps....He was visibly shaken...

He looked at me...

"I suppose I can't make a deal with you for that zip drive can I?" he said.

I tossed it to him....

"It's yours boss...Do with it what you want..." I said.

He looked at me and smiled..

"Are you serious?" he said...

"Yup" I said.

"If I may ask...Who were you working for?" he said.

"No...you may not ask...and if I were you...I'd get out of here....You don't want to be around when the police come do you?" I said.

He looked around....

"Yes...I uh guess you're right...Thank you." he said and ran off...

III-

It was a bloody and messy scene...Police photographers and Crime Scene Investigators were everywhere... Lt.Sissy Van Buren was laughing so hard ,she was shaking...So was Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace...

"Oh My God...Oh My God Kevin...You mean to tell me....You mean to tell me...Oh My God...That all of these guys shot each other?" laughed Sissy...

"Aye Mios Dios..." laughed Carlotta...

"Yeah.. and the guy there at the bottom of the stairs ,tripped and accidentally shot himself! We were trying to work out a deal and the next thing I know, everybody is shooting at each other... Ballistics and my tape recording will bare me out." I said.

"Ohhh my God!" laughed both Sissy and Carlotta...

Detectives Tyriq Pile and Edwin "Duke" Baylor walked up..

"Messy scene in there Lou." said Tyriq..

"Ballistics bears Kevin's story out...These goofballs shot each other to death."said Duke..

"Oh yeah...Mooney and Dash killed Larry Geter on orders from Guy Proctor...One or two of those guns they used will prove to be your murder weapon..."I said...

''Well that's good to know."said Detective Sirena Pile..

"Yeah, Geter was our case...Nice to have a closed case and not have to work too hard for it." laughed Hop..

"You know it partner." said Sirena and they both high fived each other.

"What about the zip drive?" asked Sissy...

"It had graphic evidence of Senator O'Neil's wife cheating on him if you know what I mean and I know you do...They were blackmailing him....Proctor made a side deal,because he realized he was on the tape...It would have killed some kind of bid for a state construction contract...Only the Senator knew about it and wanted to kill it to keep the scandal from hurting his re-election bid." I said.

"So he in turn made an offer for it...What about your client? Weren't you paid to get it back?" asked Carlotta..

"It doesn't matter now...She thought she was helping Guy's cousin....Turns out it was all a lie...At any rate...The truth will never see the light of day...At least not that truth!" I said.

"I hope you got paid Kev." said Duke..

"Oh I did." I said.

"My man Kev" laughed Tyriq.

Hazel and Detective Jimmy Barlow walked up to us...

"What a mess...These idiots shot each other...Blood everywhere" said Jimmy...

"Nothing more to do here...Can we release the bodies?" said Hazel...

I watched as one body was brought out of the house...

"Yeah....release the bodies..."said Sissy, still trying to hold back her laughter...She passed me my .38 and my .40

"I believe these are yours...We recovered them from the car out here...You gotta stop losing these." she said and winked at me...

I kissed her on the cheek...She giggled like a school girl...

"Point taken." I said.

We watched as all four bodies were loaded into the M.E.'s van......What a mess ,I thought!
IV-

I sat with Big Nasty in a tony little coffee shop later on that afternoon....

"I'm sorry about all of this...I never expected it to go down this way...I was going to give them the money and pick up the zip drive...I didn't expect all of those guys to be there."I said.

"You didn't expect them to shoot each other either." she said with a hint of a smile..

She passed me an envelope..

"That's the rest of your money.." she said.

"Thank you Patricia.."I said.

"Ahh forget that Patricia stuff...I'm Big Nasty baby...." she said.

"Sorry about Guy." I said.

"His loss.....All this and he risked his job and ultimately his life ,for what? That little inexperienced young girl?" she said.

"Yeah right!" I said and looked at Big Nasty....

We both busted out laughing...

EPILOUGE:

Senator O'Neil was livid when he returned to his house...He showed Elise the video of her and Larry Geter and Guy Proctor....He put her out of his house and began divorce proceedings immediately....

Elise is now staying with one of her girlfriends....She is presently unemployed...
Can't help everybody....

The contents of that zip drive have never been made public.

 Sepia was wearing a blue and white striped skirt, with a hint of a red bra strap showing...It hugged every curve...

"You like this ,lover?" she said as she modeled it...

"I love it..."I said.

"Stop looking at me like you want to rip it off." she said.

"You read my mind." I said.

"I want to go out to dinner tonight...We haven't seen Ralph Scallion in awhile..You got money now..." she smiled..

"I do dear...I do.." I smiled...

She put her arm in my arm and we walked outside towards my car!

FOR SLC