Seat 24

We summoned the Captain and her entire crew down into the lower bay where we found the body of the Air Marshall, Clint McCool...

"Yeah that's him!!" they said...

"He's got a head bruise... Whoever killed him hit him from behind..." I said...looking at the body...

I searched it...I couldn't find his gun, but I found a smartphone... I checked his last few calls...Two were to the agency and one was to an Alexander King in Philadelphia...Nothing seemed out of the ordinary...

"It's a shame that Sissy and the guys aren't here." said Sepia..

"Hmmm...Maybe they can be. Go upstairs..Get your Ipad mini and my smartphone."I said.

"Okay.."she said...

Sepia promptly bought me what I asked for...and I went about the task of calling my friends..The best detectives I knew..

II-

I took our Ipad mini tablet and called Sissy in Philadelphia...I hoped she was somewhere nearby and would pick up my call..Hopefully she wasn't on a big case...

 "Heyyy Kevin...What are you doing calling me? I thought you were in Vegas with your wifey?" she said.

"I am on route there now...on the plane...I need your help." I said.

"My Help? What's going on?" she asked.

"The Air Marshall on this flight has been found murdered!!" I said..

"Oh My God...Really?  What happened??" she asked..

"My wife and I found his body in the lower bay...where the luggage is kept...Somebody whacked him in the head with a blunt object.."I said.

"I'm going to send you a photo of his body with my smartphone." I said.

"So Kevin,I have to ask you..What were you and Sepia doing in the lower bay? Trying to become members of that mile high club?" she asked laughing..

I laughed...

"Believe it or not...We weren't...but the thought did grab me before we stumbled upon his body!"I said.

"Killed the mood huh?" she said.   I loved Sissy's humor...

"Yeah..."I said..

"Hazel is here...Show her the body with your phone.."said Sissy...

"Hi Kevin...I would ask you how you're doing...but under the circumstances...I can imagine."said Dr. Hazel Baylor as I showed her the live video of the dead Air Marshall's body...

"Oh My..that's quite a head wound...Ouuuuu..judging from the angle of the blow ...my guess is that your killer hit him from behind...is shorter than him and is left handed..." she said.

"Wow Hazel...you're good."I said.

"My husband says the same thing."she said laughing...Hazel, who had been quiet and kind of mousey when I first met her had come out a bit and was quite humorous at times...Hanging with Sissy and the guys had done that to her..

"I'll just bet he does.."I countered and we both laughed...

"Thanks for your help doll." I said.

"Be well Kevin."she said.

"I will certainly try." I said.

 "Kevin, your plane has only been in the air an hour and thirty minutes...so your victim was killed somewhere within this time frame..See if you can narrow it down...I need you to get me a manifest of everyone on that flight...The Captain or the flight crew has it...Your killer is no doubt ,still on that plane...Get me that manifest and I'll have the guys run a make on everyone..Maybe we can narrow down your suspect pool."said Sissy..

"Thanks Sis..." I said..

"Someone wants to talk to you." she said..

"You just can't stay out of trouble can you fella?" said Deputy FBI Special Agent in Charge,Sharon Ferrell -Hopkins..

"Heyy Girl." I said..

"I'm going to Help Siss and they guys with your manifest...Be careful..Try not to alert the rest of the passengers..We don't want a panic...Stay calm and we'll see what we can do.." she said.

"Thanks guys..."I said.

"Don't mention it...As much as you've helped us...How can we say no..Besides...It's been quiet around here for a few days..We are all kind of bored...."she said and laughed..

Sepia smiled...

"I already have the manifest....I figured they might want that." she said.

I smiled...

"My sexy little partner in crime." I said..I showed the manifest to Sissy...

"Chica, Rico, Jimmy, Duke...come here...I need your help." she said.

"You've got a murder boss lady?" asked Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace...

"Yeah, but it's not here...It's on Kevin's plane...Here's a photo of the back of the victim's head...The Air Marshall."said Sissy.

"Aye Mios Dios...he really took a whack on the noggin...Did you do that Kevin?" asked Carlotta jokingly...

I smiled..

"Yeah..I confess..it was me." I joked..

"You just can't stay out of trouble...What are we going to do with you?" joked Carlotta..

"What's going on Siss?" asked Detective Edwin"Duke" Baylor....

"The Air Marshall on Kevin's plane has been murdered....He just sent us a manifest of every passenger on the plane...You guys split up the names amongst you and run makes on these people."said Sissy..

"Cool, some actual police work...It's been so quiet around here...I was almost wishing for a murder or something...Thanks Kev." said Detective Tyriq Pile...

"Don't mention it guys.."I said.

"Wow...We got 25 names a piece...and you're on a four hour flight...You don't have a lot of time...Maybe we need to shorten this list.."said Detective James"Jimmy" Barlow..

"What are we chopped liver? Give me and Hop some of those names.." said Detective Sirena Pile..

"Yeah..we'll get on this and get back to you Kev, as soon as possible..."said Detective Hopkins...

"Wow! You guys must really be bored..."I said.

"We just closed about five major cases...So it's been slow Kev...This was a nice little project for my adreneline junkies here..." she said.

"Thank you Siss and tell the guys and gals...I said Thank you too."I said.

''Don't mention it Kevin, how long we been doin this?...."she asked..

"I know right?" I said.

"Keep the passengers calm...don't let on that anything is wrong...We don't want to tip the killer off."she said.

"Got'cha." I said.

III-

 I spoke to the Captain and her crew...

"Keep everybody calm...Don't let on that there is a body down below." I said.

"Man..that body is going to start stinking..."said one of the male servers...

"Not this quick...We'll be in Vegas in two to three hours....Hopefully we'll catch our murderer before then...We've got to develop a timeline....Now the last time you saw him alive was at 11:00 o'clock...We were in the air just a half hour at that time...It's 12:30 now..He was killed in between 11:00 and when he was just found...Where did you say you saw him?" I asked..

"He was standing by the restroom in first class...He couldn't get in because there was a couple in there uh...uh..." said the male server..

"Joining the mile high club..Yeah..I get it..."I said..

Everyone smiled sheepishly.....

I looked out amongst the passengers...I saw a young black couple kissing passionately and taking selfies....

"Ohhhhh my god Marsha, you are driving me out of my mind..." said the man...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Richard...you've got me sooo hot..." she moaned...

"Come on baby, let's go in the restroom....I'm all backed up..ouuuu...I need a release....You don't want me to get blueballs do ya?" moaned Richard...

"I'm not doing that...We'll be in Vegas in two hours and we can go straight to our room..Just hold on a little longer baby..,"she cooed..

"Oh Lord,I don't know if I can...." he moaned..

My wife Sepia walked over to them...

"You guys are so cute...Did you just get married?" she asked..

"We did!" said the woman...

"Let me take some photos of you for your collection...It must be very hard for you to take them yourselves if you're kissin."she said and smiled sweetly...

"Oh thank you.."they said....

"So tell me...How did you two meet?" she asked and she began to take photographs of them.

IV-

Sepia sat down beside me...

"What was that about?" I asked..

"Those two were kissing and snapping photos from the time we got on the plane until now...I emailed all of their photos to my phone...as well as the ones they took...and I endured the long story about how those two met...Oh My God...Hopefully they caught our guy in their photos.." She said.

I leaned over and kissed Sepia passionately...

"That was good thinking..."I said..

"You think so or were you just trying to sneak a kiss?" she asked..

I smiled..

I scanned through the photos.....and I saw him...Clint McCool....He was standing near the restroom in the back and he kept looking at someone...Someone in the aisle beside us...

It was time stamped 11:00 am...Then 11:15, he went down to the lower level...Now I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt...He was killed in between 11:15 and 12:00...right around the time he was discovered missing...

''Kevin..you're being Face timed."said Sepia.

I turned on my IPad mini....It was Carlotta,Rico and Jimmy...

"Ola Kevin...we did workups on your passengers and we got something."said Carlotta...

"Yeah, your passenger in Seat 24 is not who he says he is..."said Jimmy...

"Seat 24?" I said and scanned the photos on my wife's phone...It was the guy who had been trying to make time with Sepia when we got on...He had lied..He wasn't in first class..He was in Coach with us..

"He's on your flight listed as Bennie Gillespie... But Bennie Gillespie is here with us...His wallet and his airline ticket was stolen..." said Tyriq...

"I'll shoot you a photo of him Rico." I said.

"Cool..We'll get back to you after we run his face through facial recognition." said Tyriq.

"Thanks Rico." I said.

Within ten minutes... I had a reply...It was from Duke and Sharon...

"Hey Kev..We got an ID on your passenger...His name is Bernard "Mickey" Stevens...A low level hood...He lifted Mr. Gillespie's wallet ,containing his credit cards and his airline ticket...just about an hour before you guys lifted off.."said Duke..

"Thing is..This guy is a pickpocket..and a petty thief...Nothin heavy on his sheet..Mostly misdemeanors..and a lot of them were suspended...No violence and certainly not murder..."said Sharon...

"Maybe the Air Marshall found him out and he killed him in desperation."I said.

"Maybe Kevin...but I know this guy...I've busted him a number of times...He's not violent."said Carlotta.

"Maybe not..but I gotta question him.." I said.

"Kev is right...He's the only known criminal on that flight Top..you never know." said Rico..

"Maybe he saw something." said Jimmy...

"I'll call you back when I know for sure." I said..."Thanks guys." I said.

I told the Captain and her crew what I had found out and they quietly walked down the aisle...and there was our guy talking to a woman in the seat next to him...

"So Baby..look...after we get to Vegas...You might want to uh hook up with me and perhaps we'll go have a nice steak dinner, do a little bit of lightweight gambling and then you know take it from there.." he said smiling..

The woman looked at him and didn't say a word...

The Captain and the crew walked up to him...

"Mr Gillespie can we speak to you in private please?" said the Captain.

"Huh? What? Me? What's goin on?" he asked..

Stewardess Betty Mousely looked at him with disdain....

"Let's just say that the jig is up loverboy." she said..

"The jig...What Jig? What are you talking about?" he said.

"Oh knock it off...you know good and damn well what we are talking about."said Stewardess Betty Mousely.

He saw me standing with them..

"Hey look buddy...I didn't know she was your wife...Or else I wouldn't have said nothing to her.."

The woman he had been talking to sucked her teeth....So did Stewardess Betty Mousely..

"Now look this is all a big misunderstanding." he said as he got up and we hustled him to the lower deck..

"Help us to understand."I said dryly....

(TO BE CONTINUED)