The waiter came back with more micro brews....That seemed to be the trend now of days...I was in the tony new establishment , a few blocks from where my office was that served not only international beers , but some of the best burgers in Philadelphia...I was with my good friend, Attorney, Robert Foxworth and my buddies...Clerow and Sean Jackson...
"Robert this is for you...congratulations man...You're going to be a daddy!!" I said.
"Here,Here..Welcome to the club." said Clerow ,who had two children of his own, with his wife,Cora-Beth...
"Hey man, don't jinx me....I aint ready for no kids yet." joked Sean Jackson...
We all laughed....Robert Foxworth's wife...Bonita Turner-Foxworth...My wife's business partner in a very successful Real Estate Business was pregnant!!
"This is your fault Kevin!" joked Robert Foxworth...
"My fault?? How is this my fault??" I asked innocently...
"You and Sepia had a baby last year and the next thing I know..Bonita turns up pregnant!!!" he laughed...
"What's amazing my man is all the women you've been with and finally, Bonita is the one...The one who you marry, the one you've been with the longest and the one who is having your baby!" I said.
"Yeah man, you right Kev...I been burning the candles at both ends for a long time..but Bonita is the one who hooked me..I been good now for years." he said..
"And this is your reward!" I joked...
"Reward?? I happened to like being able to have sex two and three times a day." said Robert, who was not joking...
"Pregnant sex is some of the best sex you ever want to have....Me and Sepia had it up to about the 7th or eight month...."I said.
"I can co-sign on that...Lawddd today.." said Clerow...
We all laughed heartedly and drank our beers...
As Robert,Clerow ,Sean Jackson and I continued to laugh and drink our beers...I got the feeling I was being stared at....
My smartphone vibrated.....It was Harry Charles...My Assistant....
"Hey man..what's up?" I said.
""Big Cheese...A lady came by here looking for you....Said her name was Anita...Anita Jackson...I told her that you were down the street having beers with some friends.....She said it was urgent that she see
you...I hope that was alright." he said.
"Yeah man..that was cool..."I said.
Now I knew where I had seen this woman...The one drinking the glass of wine and enjoying the burger...It had been a long time ago... A very long time ago...So long ,I had blotted it out of my mind....
"Damn....That was Mr. Holland's Wife." said my dad...
"Yeah...Cops said she killed herself....Can't say I blame her ,having to put up with his jealous,insecure ass...I told her a joke in the bar one time and she laughed and he belted her ,right in front of me for laughing a little too much at my joke...Accused me of tryin to put the moves on his wife...Me and him almost got into it but..."said Gus..
"But he pulled a gun on you, right Gus?" laughed my father...
"Yeah...and lucky for him ,I couldn't get to my shotgun or they'd be taken him out of my bar in a body bag."laughed Gus..
"Well I'm glad you didn't..You're my favorite bartender.."laughed my dad...
A young woman was there..She was distraught , crying and carrying on...
"I'm telling you...My sister didn't commit suicide...She wouldn't do that....He killed her..Bobby Holland killed my sister.."she kept yelling, tears flowing down her face...
"There is no evidence of that...and plus your sister left a suicide note...several of them to be exact and your brother in law has an alibi...He was at Josie's drinkin with friends when it went down.."said the Detective...
She saw me and she walked over to me...
"You know...You were house sitting for them...YOU KNOW MY SISTER WASN'T DEPRESSED..YOU KNOW WHAT AN ASSHOLE BOBBY HOLLAND IS...TELL EM!" she screamed...crying profusely...
"Come on miss...My boy is 14 years old....Don't drag him into this..."said my dad...
I'll never forget the look on that woman's face that night...
''Don't let them get away with this...I don't have the money to hire a private investigator...I don't...Please...check the evidence...please..." she screamed...
All I could do is stand there and feel guilt...
I didn't do anything that night..and I felt like I should have...and what happened next made me sure I should have done something...
I was walking down the street with my then girlfriend...15 year old Angela Belton a few days later...
I had bought her a milk shake...
"Nah..I can't imagine that..."I said and we stopped and kissed.....
"Ummmmm, we keep this up and uh ,you know what happened last time?" laughed Angie..
"I know..and it was good tooo." I said in between kisses..
It was my first time ever actually having sex...It was Angie's too...I had done everything my buddy, Walter "Kool Kat" Jones had told me to do..including the right kind of condom to have...
It had been surprisingly smooth.....And both Angie and I had enjoyed a delightful afternoon together at my mom and dad's house...My dad was on a fishing trip with his friends...Angie had washed and ironed the sheets and made sure we got rid of any signs that we had made love in my house...
"I was so scared we were gonna get caught." she said...
"Me too.."I said...
Just then Bobby Holland walked up on us...
"Oh Hi Mr. Holland..."I said..."So sorry for your loss." I said.
"What loss? That bitch was cheatin on me... I came in there and found my sheets and pillow cases washed and dried and ironed just right...Now why would my sheets,which we slept on all week be clean unless she was cheating on me with another MAN???" he bellowed...
I'm glad my dad didn't notice and didn't react like that .
Angie and I looked at each other...
"Forget that I said anything to you kid...Ya hear? Forget it!!!..both of you...She killed herself and that's all you know."he said and walked off...
I looked at Angie...
"Angie...He killed his wife..She didn't commit suicide!!!!.."I said.
"I know right? He thought his wife was cheating on him because he checked the sheets and pillow cases and they were clean..."she said in horror..
"Who does that? He's a jealous insecure nut,Just like Gus and my dad says."I said.
"How we gonna prove it?" asked Angie...
"WE aint going to prove nothin...You go home..I don't want you mixed up in this...I'm gonna nose around a little.."I said..
"Ugh..Ugh....I'm your girlfriend Kevin.....You mixed up in this...I'm mixed up in this.."she said...Then she smiled..
"Plus....I'm older than you...I'm 15...You're only 14...You're over ruled.."she said smiling..
I smiled...I couldn't argue with her...
"He didn't leave at anytime? Just for a half an hour??" I remember asking..
"He might have...I wasn't watching him all night...Hey why are you askin so many questions kid? You two tryin to play Junior Detective or something..?? Let the police handle that...Run along and don't let me hear of you two nosin around in Mr. Holland's business...He's a violent dangerous man...and me and your father don't want to have to kill him cause he was messin with either of you..Now run along..you too Angie." said Gus...
And we did..From those small beginnings both Angie and I would move to bigger and better things...Who knew that one day she'd be a Detective on the Philadelphia Police Department and I'd be a Private Investigator with my own agency??
We didn't investigate the matter any further...but the guilt we felt drove us crazy....
I put my arms around her...
"We didn't pull that trigger Angie...he did....His own insecurity and jealousy is what killed her..Not us..Don't you even feel guilty about that...I don't...It was the best time I've ever had in my life .."I said and I pulled Angie to me and kissed her passionately.....I hadn't been able to think of anything but Angie since that afternoon and I was looking forward to doing it with her again....
"Really Kevin??"she asked...
"Yes....really...."I said.
"Woww! Nobody has ever made me feel so nice." said Angie....
"I love you Angie.."I said.
Kool Kat had told me that when you tell a girl that after sex,it doubled your chances of getting a return date...
"I love you too Kevin.." she said and we held each other tight...
That was many years ago...We were kids....Now we are both married to other people..and the memory of the days leading up to that murder/suicide long gone...
It has haunted me all these years....I tried to forget about it..but every now and then I remember it...I remember the guilt that I felt...I became an NCIS investigator and later a Private Investigator to help people like her...I wondered if that was why Angie became a Homicide Detective and now an Internal Affairs Detective....I wondered if the guilt of what we did that weekend forced her to take the same path I took...Law Enforcement.....
II-
"Whoaaaa..you know that woman boss?" asked Clerow...
"And I'm the reformed womanizer..." joked Robert Foxworth...
Sean Jackson laughed...
I smiled and walked over to where the woman was sitting and sat down...
"Anita Jackson...It's been a long time."I said.
"Kevin....Kevin Morris....Yes it has...I see you run a big company...Morris Communications.....I know you're also a Private Investigator..."she said.
"And that's why you're here isn't it?" I asked.
"Yes....I saw Bobby Holland the other day....In Aqua Bar..He was with a white woman...He slapped her..I don't know what she did or said...but he slapped her...He hasn't changed a bit." she said.
"Yeah, well he's not your problem anymore..."I said..
"Oh but he is...He hasn't paid for killing my sister...I know he did and YOU know he did..."she said..
"Anita...that was a long time ago...I was 14....There was nothing I could do.."I said.
"I know...But now you can do something..You've been in the NAVY..You were a boxer, and a NCIS guy and you finished college..Now you're married yourself, got a little baby girl...a nice business and a reputation as one of the finest private investigators in the city of Philadelphia."she said.
"Wow...You got the book on me.."I said smiling...
"Your little girlfriend,Angie Belton is a detective with the Philly PD....Married to a white boy about your age...She likes em young don't she? She was 15 when she was going with you...I thought that was odd then, but you were way more mature than the average 14 year old.. Was Angie your first?" she asked.
"Wow..You aren't subtle are you Anita?" I said.
"She was...I was crazy in love with her back then..."I said.
"I know...She had your nose wide open...You used to whistle and skip after coming from her house..You were house sitting for my sister and brother in law....He didn't like you..Do you know ,he thought you and my sister had something going on??.." said Anita..
"What? Your sister was about 10 or 11 years older than me.."I said..
"My former brother in law was jealous of a male dog that showed Juanita too much attention....He was a crazy insensitive ,insecure asshole...Anyway...My sister told him that you were madly in love with little Angela Belton and he saw the two of you together...Which was the only reason you were allowed to house sit...You had Angie over there that weekend...Didn't you?" she asked..
''Anita...I was 14..She was 15, we were young horny teenagers..I-I-I'm so sorry.."I said.
"Kevin...Relax...I never blamed you two...I place the blame on Bobby Holland...He didn't need an excuse...He had a two hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy on my sister....He was deep in debt..After she died...He cashed that policy in,paid off his debt,sold his house and moved along...He was going to kill her anyway...and I want him to pay."she said.
"Are you hiring me to look into that age old closed case...?" I asked.
"Yes...and I'll pay you of course ."she said handing me an envelope with 5G's in it...
"I can't take your money Anita...I owe you.."I said.
"Take it...buy your wife and your baby girl something...and look into it?" she asked..refusing to take the money back.
"I'll do what I can...I have a few cases I'm involved with now."I said.
"Please do it soon.."she said..
"What's the rush?" I asked.
"I have stage four Ovarian Cancer.....I don't have much longer to live..."she said.
III-
TODAY!
I got mixed up in four seperate cases ..One involving a loan shark ,who hired me to find a missing associate who vanished after meeting with him....Another involving my mother in law's lover ,who wanted me to find his child...and another involving a lawyer who wanted me to look into my former client, his present love interest's shady love interest....a case that wound up involving the Police,The FBI and The DEA....And still another case that got me involved in the shadowy world of the CIA...I had been busy.....
I did look into the case on my spare time......The detective who handled the original case was dead.....I was allowed to go down into the Police Archives,courtesy of my friend,Lt.Sissy Van Buren and look at the case files..
this time it wouldn't be easy.. I told her...
She thanked me and said that every little bit helped.....
"Hey Kevin....No murder today...This one is natural causes..."he said..."You notice your playmates aren't here...Sissy,Carlotta,Duke,Rico,Jimmy, Sirena and Hop..." he laughed...
"Can I see the body?" I asked..
He unzippered the bodybag....
It was Anita Jackson!!!
"She was in home hospice care....Her cancer was advanced....The nurse told me she died peacefully early this morning..."said one of the Medical Assistants...
I looked at Anita Jackson's lifeless body....She had now joined her sister in death.....and I hadn't gotten gotten justice for her dead sister while she was alive...I was going to get it now,no matter what I had to do...I was going to right a long ago wrong.
TO BE CONTINUED
12 comments:
OMG! This looks good...Can't wait until tomorrow!
Kevin and Angie Belton??? I seem to remember it being mentioned that they knew each other as young people...So she was his first huh? Not bad!
Another good one...You know how to catch your attention don't you?
Oh wow! This is gonna be quite a ride..I can already sense it!
A Look into Kevin's past...before he met Sepia..before he became the finest P.I. in Philly! Nice!
Kevin and Angie...Wow!!! Didn't know they were an item ....but this seems like a good story..a blast from his past!
Looks like this is going to be very revealing before it's over!
Nice!
This is going to be both a fun ride and a good story..Love it!
Nice to see Kevin again..He is the only link to Escapades past...I miss Mabel, Chris and Chess, Ralph Scallion and Robert Foxworth...
I remember a story in which Angie told Sissy that she knew Kevin from their childhood and that he gave her ,her very first kiss..Turns out he gave her a lot more than a kiss...LOL!
She (Angie) gave him more than his first kiss too..LOL!
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