The Good Witness

A Saturday Morning found the three of us sitting in a tony coffee shop in the neighborhood...Olivia and Beverly were going to the gym and then going to do some shopping.....I usually didn't go with them when they did these things....They usually hooked up with Celeste, Josie and now Kayla...but in light of the recent revelations that Olivia might have a stalker and the fact that she and Bev were in the middle of a big case...I wasn't letting either of them out of my sight...I even drove Beverly to Nelson's place and he drove her back...

"Donnie Ray I really appreciate you being so attentive and watching over me....but isn't this taking away from your time?" asked my wife,Olivia..

"Don't worry about me Livy...You have a stalker...A stalker that is really good...She can hack into your systems, she knows where you're going to be and she knows things about you that she shouldn't know..Anybody that is this good is toying with you,playing with you...Setting you up for something."I said.

I didn't want to upset her too much, but I secretly thought that my wife's life might be in danger..

''She's got me with her Donnie Ray...I'm not gonna let any strange person get within inches of my Auntay.."joked Beverly...

Shortcake was so cute...I knew she would die before she let anything happen to Olivia...Who was like a second mother, big sister and best girlfriend all rolled up in one to her...

But whoever this stalker was...She was far above their pay grade...Neither one of them had ever dealt with anyone like this...For that matter...Neither had I...but I knew how to deal with this situation...

"Nothing we say is going to change your mind is it?" said Olivia ,smiling...

"NOPE!" I said.

Beverly smiled....

''Well that settles it....After the Gym, We are going lingerie shopping..."said Beverly....Then she did a double take...Ohhhh, he wouldn't mind that would he?" she laughed...

"Noooo. he'd love that?" laughed Olivia.....

II-

I had known FBI Deputy Special Agent in charge Sharon Hopkins since my days as a Homicide Detective in New Orleans.....She was briefly assigned to the New Orleans FBI office..We became good friends. ...How ironic that she had been in law school with my future wife, Olivia and she like Olivia was a Philadelphia native and now all of us were living here in Philadelphia...

"Donnie Ray...I'm hurt that you didn't come to me when you discovered you had a hacker..."said Sharon...

"I didn't know if this was in your jurisdiction..."I said.

"It's Cyber Crime...It usually is....You did a very good investigation and getting that photo of her was very good..."said Sharon..

"Did you uh get a hit?" I asked..

"Several.....She's Wilma Vanderbuilt, Yvette Smalls, Thelma Lathan, Penelope Swope and Ciara Lyons.

"Any time somebody has that many alias's that says one thing...She's CIA...."said Sharon.

"CIA?? What interest would they have in my Livy?" I asked.

"None,according to them...They never even heard of your wife...and they disavowed any knowledge of any of this girl's alias's... Which is what I expected....But I have some friends in government....I may need to call in some favors...I'll keep you posted...Where is my girl Liv anyway?" asked Sharon...

"They're in court...Got a big case....That's where I'm headed now." I said.

"Keep your eyes on her Donnie Ray....We had our sweep teams sweep your house and check your cars like you asked...We didn't find anything..And we are monitoring all of you guy's accounts until further notice...If this girl really is a spook..She probably knows that...But if I know right..She won't stop...So be careful...."said Sharon..

"Thanks Sharon..."I said.

"Always Donnie Ray...Tell my girls Livy and Bev  I said Hey." she said.

"I will." I said.

III-

 I headed back to the courthouse..

Olivia and Bev were just finishing up another day in court....They both looked exhausted...

There was still the matter of this case... I had been doing double duty recently ,doing my investigation of the facts of this case and trying to find out who this hacker/stalker was...

I think the three of us were beyond stressed...but we had to go on living...We couldn't let this nuisance keep us from living our lives...

On June 1, 2000, Drug Kingpin, "Cold Face" Harry Jenkins was shot six times outside a mid town diner and killed... "Cold Face"Harry had himself been implicated in close to twelve unsolved homicides....Unknown to the public until recently...He was also a confidential informant for the DEA...who claimed up and down that they had no knowledge that one...he was still in the business and two that he was still killing people..

Olivia got several former DEA agents close to the case to admit that he indeed had given them a wealth of information that had helped them arrest and prosecute a number of area crime figures...

I located the former Homicide Detective, Ray Stark, himself in prison on an unrelated charge who arrested Oren Zada and charged him with murder....His whole case was made on the testimony of one witness...Henry Methelin....

Henry Methelin was a three time loser...Meaning he had three convictions and all were for perjury...He had perjured himself in a 1993 Robbery case, finally admitting that he fingered the wrong man...He paid a fine and got a suspended sentence...He perjured himself in a 1997 civil suit...He wasn't charged or fined and he perjured himself in a 1999 Assault case...This time he was jailed in County lock up for six months....

Which brings us to 2000....He claimed that he was coming out of the restroom in the same diner and saw Oren Zada walk up to Cold Face Harry Jenkins car and pump six bullets into him...

A subsequent police investigation determined that there had been in fact two shooters...Yet no one ever mentioned another man and no one else could positively say that Oren Zada had been the shooter...He had been at the scene and he and Cold Face Harry Jenkins did have beef...It was known that they didn't like each other...They were rival drug dealers at the time..Olivia believed that Evell Younger purposely hid that information...

Zada always maintained that he had been coming from a woman's apartment at the time...He hadn't wanted that to come out in the original trial because he didn't want his wife to know..

Now that woman was long dead....

Ray Stark admitted to Beverly during cross examination that  he knew Methelin wasn't a credible witness...but he was all he had...He also grudgingly admitted that he knew about a second shooter...but only after Zada had been convicted..

Former ADA Evel Younger was an old white man ,tall,thin,balding...Who dressed in seer sucker suits...He looked like a poor man's version of Matlock...He didn't crack a smile and he made no secret of his disdain of both my wife,Olivia and her niece, Beverly..

For the next three days they both grilled him on how much he knew...He denied knowing that there was a second shooter until after Zada was convicted...

He was asked why he didn't use this new information to re-open Zada's case...He brought up Zada's past record of drug offenses and said he did the public a favor in getting Zada off the streets...

"If he didn't do this...He was certainly guilty of something else or would do something else..."he barked...

At the end of the day....Olivia was certain she and Bev had made some headway...There was now considerable doubt that Oren Zada had been anything more than in the wrong place at the wrong time...

Both Olivia and Beverly were sure that as this trial winded down that they were going to be successful in overturning Oren Zada's conviction and getting him released...

The Judge, a former trial attorney couldn't keep his eyes off of Olivia...He smiled every time she spoke or made a point and  his eyes followed her every move...

I wasn't mad at him...I understood perfectly...

IV-

At the end of the day..we once again found ourselves in the Green room....This time Olivia's cards were good and the three of us had a fabulous meal....

Olivia and I sat talking quietly...She reached in her purse and peeled off several hundreds and passed them to me..

 "Here take this...I told you I was going to pay you back in full for having my back at dinner a few weeks ago."she said softly...

"Babes...keep your money....We are married...We are partners in this thing...that's what partners do...but uh ahh if you are interested in uh paying me back,I can think of another way..."I said smiling at her sheepishly...

"Ohhhhhhh,I just bet you can....well if you uh insist...We've paid the bill...Let's uh head home....."said Olivia,looking at me slyly....She looked around...

"Where is my niece?" she asked..

''She went to the ladies room."I said.

"That was twenty five minutes ago..." said Olivia....

Just then...her phone rang.....

"It's a blocked number." said Olivia....

A photo of Beverly with a .45 to her temple appeared....It was what I'd feared...Our mysterious nuisance had just upped the ante... A cryptic text message followed-

"YOU TOOK SOMETHING PRECIOUS FROM ME A LONG TIME AGO BITCH!!  NOW I'M TAKING SOMETHING PRECIOUS FROM YOU!"

"What is she talking about? I don't know this woman Donnie Ray...I swear...I've never seen her in my life...Who did I take from her?" asked Olivia...


"One of Elwood's women?" I asked..

Olivia looked at me like I was crazy...

"Elwood?? None of his bimbos had this kind of skill.."said Olivia dryly...

If it wasn't for the weight of the situation,I might have laughed.

The waiter...The same waiter who kept coming back telling Olivia her credit cards were declined a few weeks before ran up to us...

"Mrs. Alexander....Your niece!!! Some woman, A light skinned Black woman with her hair in a pony tail and wearing black spandex tights put a gun to her head just as she came out of the ladies room and took her out the back door...just a minute ago..." he said...

"OH MY GOD!" said Olivia...

The waiter passed me Beverly's smartphone...

"She dropped this ,just as they were leaving..."he said.

I showed him a photo of our would be assailant...

"That her?" I asked..

"Yeah...That's her!!!!" he said.

I looked at Olivia...

"If we have her phone that means we can't track her." said Olivia...

I whispered in Olivia's ear....

"Bev has a micro tracking unit in her bra...I can track her...Come on." I said.

We got in my car and pulled off...In hot pursuit.....

Beverly was quiet as the mysterious woman floored it in her SUV down the Philadelphia streets secure that she couldn't be followed...

"Why are you doing this? What did my Auntay do to you?" asked Beverly...

"She took my man that's what she did...Years ago....He was obsessed with her..Caused our marriage to end...Now she's got to pay." said the woman...

"Look,my Auntay is happily married now...I'm sure this is a mis-understanding...If you guys could just talk this over I'm sure.."said Beverly before she was hit with the butt of the pistol..

"SHUTTTTTTTTTT UP!!!!! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY TRICK!" she yelled...

Beverly was now hurt and angry...She waited until the SUV stopped at the light....She had to make her move and make it fast...She pulled some pepper spray out of her small purse and sprayed the woman in the face...

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!  YOU BITCH! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! MY EYES!....MY EYES!!!" she screamed in agony!!!....

Beverly then unlocked the door and ran for all she was worth....

The woman leaped out of the SUV and took chase....stumbling and running...

"COME BACK!!....COME BACK!!!....IT'S A GOOD THING I CAN'T SEE....I'D SHOOT YOU  DEAD!" she said.

Wrong thing to say!

Beverly spun around and kicked the woman in her shin...

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, AWWWW LAWD JESUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ,I'M GONNA KILL YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!  OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!" she screamed in pain..

Then Beverly took an empty bottle and smashed it over her head...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOD LAWDDDDDD..."the woman screamed and fell to the pavement, where Beverly kicked her pistol away from her and preceded to stomp the woman...

"OWWWWWWWWWWWWW, OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..OHHHHHHHHHHHH! AWWWW LAWD JESUSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ..OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...OWWWW!" screamed the woman in pain..

Olivia and I drove up just then.....

Olivia ran to Beverly...and pulled her off of the woman....

"Bev...it's okay...It's okay...That's enough baby." she said hugging her niece and kissing her cheek...

"Baby,I'm so glad you're alright!!" she said hugging her niece....

In all the excitement....The woman had left her SUV in drive....The car sailed away down the street, struck three cars and ran up on the pavement and crashed...Olivia, Beverly, the mysterious woman and I all stared in horror at the accident...People began filling the streets now, gawking...

The woman got to her feet ,got herself together ,turned and ran as fast as she could...Leaving her pistol behind, her smartphone and a banged up SUV....vanishing into the crowd of people.....

I looked at Beverly and smiled...

"Remind me never ever to get on your bad side..."I said hugging her....She returned my hug and nestled her head inside my chest...

"You could never" she said..

"She got away.." said Beverly...

"That's okay baby...She left that car behind and her smartphone and this pistol....and I'm sure she's pretty embarrassed...She got her butt kicked tonight....This didn't go down at all the way she planned it."said Olivia...

"It sure didn't...The police will be here soon.....I think she left enough behind to finally trip her up or at best ,slow her down for a long while...One thing is for sure..She'll never try to kidnap you again." I said continuing to hug Beverly......

"That's for sure." said Olivia ,hugging her niece as the three of us stood on the corner and laughed...

(TO BE CONTINUED)