End Of Her Rope

I sat in my massive conference room with my Deputy CAO of Morris Communications, Sheila Jackson, my buddy, Sean Jackson's wife...Sheila and I had known each other a long time..

She was working at Hype Magazine when I started working here..Shortly after I got out of the service...I was a Blogger and a budding journalist.. I thought of myself as an "Investigative Reporter"...

My blogs and my stories made me good money and made my star rise in the company...Soon I was The Editor of the magazine and she was my second in command..

Sheila was loyal as well as beautiful..She covered for me as my so called investigative reporting became more like a Private Investigator...cum vigilante...a guy who got justice for people who couldn't go to the police...

She covered for me when I secretly paid her husband, Sean Jackson and others who didn't work for the magazine, Clerow, Owen Todd, Kool Kat, Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson , my associates...for helping me with my investigations...

Flash Forward....I pooled my money and put together an investment team of my successful friends, Chris Thompson and Chess, who own everything but the neon lights in the neighborhood and surrounding community, my wife Sepia and her business partner ,Bonita Foxworth ,who own a successful real estate company and my good friend Clerow, who rents several apartments and condos and was himself a successful businessman...

We bought Hype Magazine from the parent company..The Harris Group and I renamed it Morris Communications after myself...Kevin Morris and added two more magazines, a neighborhood weekly newspaper, a radio station, a cable TV station , A Website and digitalized all of our publications...In a year ,I had turned a profit five times what the magazine had made when the Harris Group owned it...

Chris and Chess gave us one of their rehabbed buildings and I included Morris Communications Inc. and it's 99 employees and put my Private Investigation Agency in the basement..equipped with computers and high tech investiagtory equipment that would rival any police department as well as Kevlar vests and guns...The location of my agency was a secret..known only to my associates and Sheila....

I had come a long way and Sheila Jackson had been with me all the way..She was my Deputy CAO.. She actually ran this company since I was so rarely around...

"So..Kevin..What did you call this meeting with me for?" she asked..

I smiled..

"Sheila sweetie...I like the proposals you made for how we can help our employees..Your idea of profit sharing....your idea of paying for our employees and their immediate family's tuition if they want to pursue higher education and even offering courses here on how they can increase their skill sets if they want it..I'm going to implement all of it..."I said.

She smiled...

"Wow...I thought we might have to fight over at least one of my proposals..." she said.

"No..I want happy employees...I'm even going to give them a discount ticket to shop at the Co-Op in Chris and Chess's shopping center...Chris and Chess said they're cool with it.."I said.  "But that's not why I called you here.."I said.

"Oh?  Why did you call me here?" she said.

I smiled..

"You're a very talented  administrator...Any number of companies could have you and pay you more than what I have....So to keep you...I've offered you a sizable raise...I wrote it here on this piece of paper...I hope it's to your liking.."I said.

Her eyes got as wide as saucers....

"Oh My God....If I wasn't married, I'd give you some right on this table.." she said...

I blushed...She busted out laughing...

"OHHHH MY GODD...THANK YOU KEVIN...BUT I LOVE WORKING HERE...I WASN'T THINKING OF LEAVING.."she said...

"Well that's so you don't have to worry...I bumped your husband up too.."I said.

She hugged me...

I felt good making her happy...

Like I said...I like keeping my employees happy,Especially since my company was turning a profit...

II-

After spreading such good news you would think that I could find someone to have lunch with...Sean and Sheila Jackson had left together....No doubt having a nooner..
Clerow and Owen Todd were out making collections...and even Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson were unavailable...

Chris,Chess,Donald Smooth and Kool Kat weren't around either...and my wife, Sepia and Bonita were showing a house to someone...Even Robert Foxworth, my attorney friend was unavailable...Chance and Cole told me he was in court...

So I ate lunch alone today..At Sam Mother's Diner... I noticed a young lady who appeared to be watching me...She didn't say anything..She ate quietly...I got up and she followed me to the door...She was Puerto Rican ,very,very pretty....I hadn't seen her around these parts before.

"Are you Kevin Morris?" she asked..

''Who wants to know?" I asked.

"I do...I hear that you help people....and I need your help."she said.

"I'm a businessman..I own Morris Communications." I said.

She frowned...

"You're a Private Investigator..."she said.

"No foolin you." I laughed..

"Meet me at this address in about Thirty minutes" she said and gave me a piece of paper with the address of a bar on it...

I looked at her as she walked away...She was in big trouble I wagered.

III-

Rector's Bar was a nice looking bar as bars go...Not a place I would hang out...But at least it wasn't a dump.

I ordered a draft beer...The bartender looked at me funny....I didn't blame him...I wasn't a regular...Finally the young girl walked over to me..

"I am Eva Corona.." she said and passed me an envelope full of twenties and fifties....I counted the money..It was one thousand dollars...

"You paying me and I don't even know what you want me to do.....Not only that...I haven't decided if I will do it yet." I said.

She had very pretty brown eyes...Very expressive...She said to me.. "If you don't help me....then I'm at the end of my rope..I've got nowhere else to go...No one to turn to." she said...tears welling up in her eyes...

I hated a woman's tears...Most men do...

"Alright...Alright..Don't cry....What's goin on baby, What do you need?" I asked.

"I need you to find someone for me...My Fiance...Shawn Washington" she said.

"Your fiance?" I asked, arching my eyebrow...

"Yes...He's been missing since Christmas Eve....And that's not like him at all...Not a trace.."she said.

"Did you call any of his relatives?" I asked.

"Yes...His Mother, his sister and his brother...None of them have heard from him...They are worried sick."she said.

"You call the cops?" I asked.

"They did...They filed a missing persons report...They said they'd look into it..but you know how the cops are...I need something, someone more direct." she said.

"You talk to any of his friends?" I asked.

"Yes...None of them have seen or heard from him." she said.

"He got a job?" I asked.

"Yes...Hasn't been to work since December 23rd....I can give you the address....I gave all this information to the cops." she said.

"It's been about three weeks now....So listen Eva...I have to ask you this...You uh think this guy of yours got cold feet about the wedding??" I asked.

"Nooooo..He said he couldn't wait to marry me." she said.

''How about his family?  You get along with them alright?" I asked.

"Yes...His older brother told me about you.....Or he put me in touch with someone who knew about you...You know a guy named Marco Gervay?" she asked..

I smiled...

"Yeah ,I know him..." Marco Gervay was what I called a fringe charactor...On the fringes of the underworld and on the fringes of the world of decent people...At any rate...He was a wealth of information on anything going down in the neighborhood...

"You got a photo of your fiance?" I asked.

She showed me a huge glossy of a nice looking brown skinned African-American male with curly hair..

"Nice lookin kid.. You two look like you'd of made a nice couple." I said.

"Thank You." she said.

"So Marco Gervay told you about me huh?" I said.

"Yes...He told me where you work....I stopped by your job, they told me I had just missed you...It was too early for you to be in Josie's...So I figured you'd be in Sam Mother's Diner." she said.

I smiled.. I liked her..I admired her spunk...I hoped I could help her..

"Where do you live?" I asked..

" A few blocks from here...but I brought you here for a reason." she said.

"I figured." I said.

"This is where he disappeared from!!!" she said.

I looked around....

The crowd didn't look to welcoming...

"Come on baby...Let's take a ride..." I said.

We left the bar..

IV-

I drove her to my office....

She was star struck...

''Wow! This is where you work?" she asked..

"No Eva...This is my company...I own this...Newspapers,Magazines, Blogs, TV Station, Radio Station..the works...This is me..."I said.

"Wow! How did you swing this? Not by being a Private Detective?" she asked..

I laughed..

"Nah darlin..it's a long story...Maybe I'll tell you one day..."I said.

I called my Assistant, Harry Charles into the room.....

"Harry, this is Ms. Eva Corona...She's a client...Make her comfortable."I said.

"You hungry?" he asked..

"Sit tight Eva..I'll be back...Give me that Photo of your fiance..." I asked..

I was gone about twenty minutes...

When I came back I showed her what I'd done...

I made close to 2000 duplicates of her photo with the caption- "Have you seen this man?? SHAWN WASHINGTON...Last seen on December 24,2014...at Rectors Bar...Please call this number if you have any information...$10,000.00 reward for  any information that helps us locate him.

"I don't have 10G's Mr. Kevin..." she said.

"I'm offering it...Don't worry about it..I'm going to have my staffers and friends put these flyers all over the city and I'm making more as we speak...

I had others printed...That showed his photo and said "IF YOU WERE IN RECTORS ON DECEMBER 24th 2014 and used your phone to take any pictures that this man might be in please contact me at this number...Very Important!

"This photo will soon be everywhere...West Philly, North Philly,South Philly,Germantown,Mt. Airy, Fox Chase,Mayfair, Southwest Philly, Northern Liberties,Little Norway,Chinatown,Fishtown...Kensington...Northeast Philly...I plan to run a story in my media outlets and get everybody else talking about Shawn....Believe me Eva...Somebody out there knows something...And somebody will be bound to say something.." I said.

"Oh Thank you Mr. Kevin..." she said and hugged me...

''Don't thank me yet..Thank me when we find your fella." I said.  "Come on....I'll take you home." I said.

She got in my car and I drove her home..

V-

After the day I had..I headed home....I missed my wife and our baby daughter....Kimberly was sleeping soundly in her playpen when I got home...

My Wife Sepia was wearing one of my shirts....Underneath I could see had on matching white bikini panties...I was more than aroused...I put my arms around her and kissed her neck..

"Shhhh..not in here...the baby is sleeping.." she said.

We walked to our bedroom...

"You caught a case today didn't you?" she asked..

"Yeah..Some girl wants me to find her fiance..He vanished on Christmas Eve." I said.

"Oh my God...She must be worried sick.." said Sepia.

"She is..."I said.

''You suspect foul play?"asked Sepia...

"Well uh not yet..."I said.

Just then the phone rang...

"Ohhh who is it?" I wondered....

I picked the phone up...I heard an unfamiliar raspy voice..

"Hey,You Need to give that girl her money back and leave this case alone." said the voice.

''Who are you and how did you get my number?" I asked.

"Beat up the right person, you get the number...Now leave this alone or you'll get worse...Don't dig around where you don't belong." said the voice..

"Who are you?" I asked.

(Click!)

Sepia looked at me...

"Who was that?" she asked.

''Foul Play." I said.

(TO BE CONTINUED)