It was still light out when I knocked on Bert Mooney's door... He answered the door and looked me up and down...
''Who the hell are you?"he asked.
I smiled...
''A man with a business proposition for you." I said smiling.
"You aint got no business with me..." he said and went to close the door...I put my foot in the door so that it wouldn't close and pushed him away from the door and walked in...Leaving the door wide open...
"Heyyyyyyyyyyy." he said and went for his gun...but I was the faster draw...I had my .38 smokeless right next to his nose...
"Don't do that Bert...I'll splash your brains all over your nice clean walls and none of us will get what the other came for..."I said.
"What do you want? Are you a cop?" he said.
I could tell that he was the muscle and not the leader of this crew....He didn't appear to be too smart.
"Come on...If I was a cop I'd have handcuffs on you right now and I would have come with more." I said.
"What do you want?" he asked.
I smiled..
"I hear you and your partner are in the porn business." I said.
"Porn? What are you some kind of nut?" he asked.
"You have some pretty nasty photos and a video or two of a very naughty young lady and not just any young lady...The lady happens to be the wife of a State Senator...." I said.
''How do you know that?" he said looking around...
"I hear things...I'm out on the street....Look...I work for a man who will double whatever it is you've been offered to get those photos...." I said.
"Oh yeah?" he said.
"Name your price." I said.
"You gotta talk to my partner..." he said.
"That would be Mr. Dash right?" I said.
He looked puzzled..
"You sure know a lot..." he said.
"Like I said...I'm on the street.." I said.
I wrote my name on the card and gave him my cell phone number...
"I'll be at this address, Tonight...Tell him to meet me there at 9:00....If he's not there at 9:00...I'm out...But I'll be seeing you both again. Just think...If I found you this fast...Maybe ,just maybe...The cops find you both a little faster and drop a murder rap on you to boot." I said.
He looked frightened to death.....I had definitely found the weak link of the two...
"Alright...I'll tell him." said Mooney.
II-
''So..How can I help you Kevin?" she said and smiled as she sipped her coffee..
''Well first off, congratulations...Eddie C. is finally going to make an honest woman out of you huh?" I said.
"Yes...at long last...I didn't think I'd ever get married again...but now.....I'm ready..."she said , smiling like a shy school girl...
''The Larry Geter murder!" I said.
"Carlotta, Tyriq and Jimmy found his smartphone in the dumpster ,around the corner from his apartment...Stripped...
Duke found his laptop too, pulverized....couldn't pull a thing from it and we found his tablet...same thing, stripped and pulverized...Bleached down too, No fingerprints or DNA...All we know is he was shot twice in the chest and once in the head with a .22...which probably had a silencer, since nobody recalls hearing anything." said Sissy.
"I know this guy Siss...he was a photographer..."I said.
"I know...Sirena andHop went through all of the photos that were left behind and we interviewed all of the models and people in his photos..They didn't know anything and I don't like any of them for this murder." she said.
"I should tell you that this guy was a blackmailer....He tried to blackmail an old client of mine ,which is how I know him...I uh persuaded him however not to do that...That was a year ago...I think he either was setting someone up to be blackmailed or somebody found out what he was doing and silenced him and took the evidence." I said.
"You know a lot more than what you're telling me and one hundred percent more than me and my guys. Hazel couldn't find any DNA or prints"she said.
"Look ,I wasn't going to say anything to you just yet...but I'm in a race against time..My client was in one of his videos...and in some film footage, footage you and your guys didn't find....The reason why I know is because if you had found it...I wouldn't need to be here right now."I said.
"Make this plain for me Kevin." she said.
"Elise O'Neil is my client Sissy!" I said.
"Elise O'Neil as in the young wife of State Senator Barry O'Neil??? OH MY GOD!!"said Sissy putting her hands over her mouth...
"Sissy please, you can't repeat any of this...Not even to Carlotta ,Rico,Duke and the guys...I think I can give you two suspects...Bert Mooney and Chucky Dash..."I said.
"Those two low level hoods...They're thieves mostly...Burglary, Safe cracking...." said Sissy..
"They elevated it to murder....I got a meet with these two knuckleheads in a few hours...I'm settin em up...I'll send you a recording of the meet...They don't know who I am...I'll try to get them talking about murder if I can...but I have to get that zip drive back....They've already made contact with my client..."I said.
"Okay Kevin...but I can't sit on this but so long...You got 48 hours...After that..We are going to have to move.." she said.
''Fair enough." I said.
"Oh and Kevin?" she said.
''Yeah sis?" I said.
"Thanks" she said and hugged me tight and laid her head on my shoulder....
"Anytime Sissy." I said and kissed her forehead...
III-
I picked a booth that gave me a good view of the back exit and the front entrance...I didn't come alone..Owen Todd had checked out the restrooms and was sitting at the bar having a drink...Clerow sat in a booth alone by the back exit...Enjoying a drink and some hot wings...He was dressed immacculately...So Was Owen Todd...
Sean Jackson sat down the street in his car with Lockpick Johnson and Peeping Tom who had wired me pretty good and had been in hours earlier and had set up micro cameras that could catch the entire meet..
At 9:01 pm.. Like clockwork...Bert Mooney and Chuck Dash walked in the bar...They sat down in the booth with me...
I ordered them both drinks....
''It's on me guys." I said.
"I like a man who is punctual Mr. Dash...Thanks for not making me wait." I said.
Chuck Dash was a tough customer and he was smart...He sized me up before he spoke.
''Alright Morris,What do you want?" he asked.
''I want the video footage from the laptop you took out of the late Larry Geter's studio apartment." I said.
"What if I tell you that I don't know what you're talkin about ?" said Charlie Dash.
''If that were true, you wouldn't be here...I was at the crime scene ....I found his smartphone in the trash...Stripped...I found his tablet in a dumpster down the street, also stripped...So I figured you have everything on a nice zip drive that you used on his laptop ,which the police have and which was pulverized..."I said.
"You sure know a lot about collectin evidence...You sure you aint a cop?" he asked.
"I'm here by myself...I was watchin the place and then you two knuckleheads went in and got what I was looking for....I'm a private investigator...I work for Senator O'Neil....His campaign.." I lied..He knows nothing of this..but the man I work for does...and we want that zip drive."I said.
He smiled...
"Yeah? Well a man I know made me a generous offer to get it also..." he said.
"And you're blackmailing the Senator's girl...come on."I said.
"How much will you pay to get the zip drive?" he asked.
"Name your price." I said.
"200G's." he said.
"I'll pay you 300G's.." I said.
His eyes bulged...
"Yeah? Okay...Well...I don't have it on me of course....But I'll be in touch with you...I got your number from
Bert here.." he said.
"Just tell me one thing....Why'd you have to kill him? He's a punk, you could have beat him up and just took the crap from him....I'm bettin he wouldn't have even reported it.."I said.
Chuck Dash looked at me..
"What's it to you? Was he a relative?" he asked..
"No...but murder messes things up, puts too many eyes on things if you know what I mean? You guys are hot." I said.
"Who knows we did it but you? You plannin on tellin the cops?" he asked.
"No, I can't afford to...We just want that zip drive and very little publicity..."I said.
"The man who hired us wanted him dead...So he's dead...It aint your concern....Just meet me when I call you and have the dough...Then we'll talk about a possible exchange." he said."Come on Burt...Let's boogie." he said and they got up and left...
I watched them drive off... I left by myself and headed back to the office....Clerow, Owen Todd , Sean Jackson ,Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson all left seperately and met me in the basement of Morris Communications at my other ,secret office ,known only to them and a few others...Morris Investigations...
We viewed the film footage while eating Hoagies and drinking cokes...
IV-
"Kev, you have them practically admitting to murder for hire.." said Peeping Tom
"Yeah and you know that they have this zip drive with the incriminating footage or your girl and Geter and another guy..." said Sean Jackson...
"Yes...This other guy might be the key to this whole thing...This is much too big for these two yokels..Somebody else...Somebody powerful hired them to get the footage and kill Geter....This is more than just blackmail...This is something wayyy bigger..."I said.
'But what Boss?" asked Clerow..
"I don't know...but I'm gonna find out...I'm definitely gonna find out." I said.
They left and headed home...
I got in my car and drove for a long time... I decided to double back and drive past Mooney's apartment...
They got in one car and went the opposite direction...They were covering up...Hiding something for sure...
This little case had just got complex!
(TO BE CONTINUED!)
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