Prelude To Dread

A normal day in the office...My wife Sepia and I were in my office, kissing passionately for a few minutes....Finally we broke our embrace...

"We need to stop and uh, straighten up..it's almost time for our meeting." she said.

"Yeah..I know..." I said smiling and began kissing her some more..

"Come on Kevin...We have all afternoon for this and tonight." she said with a smile as she wiped her lipstick off of me and straightened my shirt and tie and I helped her straighten her hair...

There came a knock on the door...It was my assistant..Harry Charles..

"They're here boss." said Harry..

"Okay, we are out..." I said.

Sepia and I enetered the conference room where my partners in this business, Clerow and Owen Todd, Chris Thompson and Chess and my wife Sepia and her business partner, Bonita Foxworth, wife of my good friend, Robert Foxworth, the attorney was at the table...

Along with my company's attorneys..Conrad and Jill Nelson...  These were the people who had pooled their money with mine and helped me buy the company from the Harris Group...it's previous owners ,who were planning to fire me at the time...

Since I had taken over the company and renamed it Morris Communications and Investigations Inc. Profits had increased and we had acquired in addition to two more magazines, a Television station and a Radio station and Websites as well as more advertisers...My employees and I were a lot wealthier...Especially with my profit sharing plan....We had upgraded our publications to digital and even had a music and video sharing website where people could order and download music and movies..

I had moved the company into the 21st Century..

We had monthly meetings like this all the time...To discuss profits which were through the ceiling right now...and new projects...This was about a new project...

My Deputy CEO-Sheila Jackson, who had been with me since I began working here..and her husband..My ace boon coon, Sean Jackson, the chief of staff and chief photographer sat down....

Harry Charles served us all Hoagies ,Cheese-steaks, Chips and Soda..with Cole Slaw...Courtesy of Sam Mothers Diner...

"That's funny...I called my husband just now and Chance Howard said that he hasn't come to work yet..." said Bonita..

"You know how Robert is....Probably got distracted by something." I laughed...

Clerow, Sean Jackson and Owen Todd all laughed too...

"Sure he's not in court today?" asked My wife Sepia..

"I'm positive...He just wrapped up a case last week...Him and Cole...He gave Cole the day off...and Cole called me because he said that Robert was supposed to drop something off at his apartment this morning and he said Robert never showed up."said Bonita..

"Hmmm, that doesn't sound like Robert..."I said.

Harry Charles appeared at the door...

"Hey Kev...Meek Rollins and the boys are here." He said.

III-

Producer Meek Rollins entered along with a virtual whos who of the area music scene..
Downtown Rob Brown, Reed Nelson, Lt. Sissy Van Buren's Father, Dutch Van Buren,Bone Hampton, His girlfriend, Singer, Ella Baker ,Keyboardist "88" and "Blind" Keyboardist, Chazz...

''Whoaaa,Look at this.." said Chris Thompson, smiling and slapping his thigh...

"Wow Kev..You didn't tell us we was gettin a free concert today."laughed Chris ,slapping Clerow on the back...

"Not today Chess...Meek? Tell em what's up" I said and yielded the floor to Meek Rollins..

"As you know..We had a week long outdoor Jazz festival a few years back..That raked in a lot of money...Well...We doin it again this year....Chris and Chess didn't have two Shopping Centers back then like they do now.. I was thinking of setting the whole thing up as a promotion for your new shopping center that just opened up a few blocks away...Kevin and I've hired a film crew and we were going to film highlights of the concert...Perhaps both Mabel Jenkins and her sisters as well as Ralph Scallion could cater the event..." he said.

"All this for free?" asked Chris...

"Nah, the food and drink they'd pay for..but the concert would be free..Kevin is producing the film along with me and it'll run on his TV station some time later...but it would be great publicity for your new shopping center and the present one..We could even run a live feed over his radio station that would play in the area businesses..Kev got the barber shops, the beauty parlors and most of the area businesses on lock around here."said Meek.

"Sounds good....We made a crap load of money the last time.."said Chess..

"We got robbed too, remember?" said Chris..

"True, but Kev helped us get the money back...and plus we got our own security team now..Something we didn't have before...and I'm sure the cops will help out too...Things are better now."said Chess..

Chris smiled..."Hell I'm down if all you guys are gonna be there." he laughed..

"Then it's a go...We'll have several more meetings to set up the particulars..."said Meek Rollins..

I smiled...I liked the idea of my folks coming together...I thought about Gus...A week long celebration would be beneficial to him too because all of these thirsty people would pour into Josie's afterwords to drink and hang out....I know he'd have D.J.'s lined up and Symphony Sam's All Star band prepared to further entertain the crowds...It sounded like a win for everybody involved...

As everyone poured out of the office,I saw Bonita over by the corner on her phone...She looked worried.

"What's up Neets?" I asked..

"Still can't get in contact with Robert...I called the office again...and Chance said that he still hadn't shown up and that he wasn't answering his phone...This isn't like Robert."she said.

Now I was a bit concerned..It wasn't like him.

"Honey let's drive by your house...Maybe Robert wasn't feeling well and went home."said Sepia..

"Okay, maybe you're right...He could be home sleep.." she said.

"Call me when you find him." I said as they left.

IV-

We had had a very good meeting...I told Harry Charles he could leave early ..Sheila too...

Sean Jackson walked me downstairs to the garage...He admired the vintage 1957 Ford Thunderbird Roadster that I had driven to work...

"This is yours Kevin?" he asked..

"Yeah man...My uncle left it to me in his will last year, along with a cool million dollars..remember?" I said.

"Oh Yeah...Yeah, Clerow told me about that...This car is tight Kev...How does it run?"asked Sean...

"Pretty good...I'm going over to uh the garage where I picked the car up...There was an old guy over there...a mechanic, who was my uncle's friend...His name was Otis..Otis Teller..I just want him to take a look at it...Inspect it you know?" I said.

"So uh,I guess you aint drivin the Lexus huh?" he joked...

"Hahahahahahahahahaha..Good One Sean...I'm still pushin it...Just drivin my classic ride today." I said...

"Heyyyy, I had to try.." He said laughing as I pulled off.

I pulled up at Otis Teller's garage a few minutes later and found it open, but empty...No one was at the cash register and the door was wide open...There were three familliar people inside...

Robert's newest attorney, Nelson East, his girlfriend, the sexy niece of my good friend, Olivia Bennett-Alexander, Beverly West and my adopted "daughter" as I called her, Josie Boyd...

"Hey Kev...What's goin on?" said Nelson...

"Heyy Nelson, what are you doing here?" I asked
.
"Mr. Teller has been inspecting my ride since I've been driving...I left my car here and he called me a few days ago and told me I could pick it up today...My car is here, but he aint." said Nelson..

"That's odd...Maybe he's out to lunch."I said.

"Hi Mister Kevin" said Beverly and Josie in unison...

"Heyy girls, how are you doing?" I said.

"We're fine.." they said.

"Looks like I'm going to have to come back tomorrow for my car...Hey Bev..Since I don't have a ride...I'm going to have to stay with you tonight, You know...so I can uh get a ride to court..." he said ,smiling sheepishly...

Both Beverly and Josie smiled sheepishly...

"Nelson...You just want to spend the night with me...You'll use any excuse..."said Beverly....She then added-"Good thing I'm in love with you....Come on, We'll go over your place and pack a bag."

I looked at Nelson...

"Lucky guy." I said..

He smiled..

"Hey Mr. Kevin, Did my boss man stop by your job today?" asked Nelson.

"No...he didn't..."I said.

"Yeah...he didn't come to work today either or call or email..That aint like him." said Nelson..

"Hmmmm...No..I haven't seen him..."I said.

"Well alright..I'll see you ."said Nelson...

"Bye Mr. Kevin."said Beverly and Josie as they got in Beverly's car and pulled off..

I sat around Otis's garage for another hour and he never showed up...I walked up the street to the deli...None of them had seen him....I walked in the other direction and questioned several people...A couple of people said they saw him in the morning, but hadn't seen him since ten o'clock....

Another hour passed and still no sign of him...

Just then my phone rang...It was Sepia...

"Hey babes, what's up?" I asked.

"Kev, Bonita and I are worried...Robert is not at home..We've called his doctor, We called all of the local hospitals, even the morgue..Nothing...We drove over to the courthouse..They said they hadn't seen him since last week..We went to Josies and that Black Scuba Diver's Association...No sign of him..." she said.

"Yeah,I just saw Nelson East, an attorney at his firm and he said that he never showed up either...Now I'm concerned." I said.

Something was afoot here... Attorney Robert Foxworth had seemingly vanished into thin air and so had my mechanic, Otis Teller....Was these two disapearences related?
Was it a co-incidence?  To my knowledge...Robert and Otis didn't know each other..how could their disapearences have anything in common?

I had a feeling of dread right now that I hadn't had in a long time...I had to get to the bottom of this...

(TO BE CONTINUED)