I drove Sepia and baby Kimberly up to the woman's prison to see her mother...We took a lot of food...and we had dinner with Mrs. Coakley...She appreciated the good home cooked food ,Fried Chicken, Fried Fish, Ham, Greens, Potato Salad and yams...and Ox Tails...She appreciated seeing her grand-daughter...
And she said to me...
"For many years I hated you because you put me here..But you have given my daughter a home, put a ring on her finger and given me a grand-daughter...and you two seem to be doing well for yourselves..."she said...
Not to mention I kept money on her books ,so she could have things she needed....Including cable television...and internet.
"I suppose you're alright Kevin." she said.
"Just alright?" I said..
"Don't push it." she said and then laughed...
"Mommy stop it!..." laughed Sepia...Who had forgiven her mother for masterninding one of the city's greatest mass murders in an attempt to get revenge on an ex-lover, Cock Robbins...who ironically enough was now married and living in Philadelphia ,just a few blocks from Sepia and me..
Sepia had never forgiven him for sleeping with both her and her mother ....The singular event that started her mother's rampage...
Christmas Day at home in Philly, We had nothing less than a feast/
Mabel and 88, Clerow and Corrie, Victoria and her husband, Deacon Larry Weatherford, Anita and Chance Howard, who'd recently gotten married, Gus, B-Flat and Honey Brown ,Sean and Sheila Jackson and Kool Kat and Chelsea,Owen Todd and his lady were our guests this year....Oh yes and Robert and Bonita Foxworth all had Christmas Dinner with us...We had a great time...
II-
FOUR DAYS AFTER CHRISTMAS-
I was in Josies ,having some Holiday cheer with Kool Kat and the man known as "Pink."
"Kev,I shoulda known it was you that raised all that hell in Beck's Whore House."laughed Pink..
"Wasn't me....It was some rouge cop I know, who was looking for his daughter...All I was doing was looking for a guy..." I said.
"Did you find him?" asked Pink...
"Boy did we...Shot to death in his car some days later.."said Kool Kat...
"That would be that square dude who set the whole thing up....Harkey right? That's who you were lookin for? Becker was sick of him....for a lot of reasons... He had some under aged girls workin in there and Becker didn't like that...Said It might attract heat!...Anyway...When the cops raided the place and shut it down...That was the last straw..." said Pink..
''So Becker had him killed?" I asked.
"More than likely...That place was major income for him and plus he was laundering his money from his package through there...This was a major set back for him." said Pink.
"My question was...How did that guy Harkey get the money to buy that place anyway? His wife had all the money...Her dad is loaded...Some kind of real Estate Tycoon!" laughed Pink...
Kool Kat looked at me...
I sipped my beer and smiled wryly..... III-
The next day I stopped by the office of Detective Bobby Diamond...I had checked out Elwood's alibi and it held...He and Mrs. Harkey had indeed been to Mulberry Street and had a Steak Dinner and then had finished the night at Stoleys....His keycard at his condo proved that they checked in around 3:00 in the morning and were there all night into the morning...So it wasn't him...
Detective Diamond offered me some coffee..
"Happy Holidays Kevin...I hope you had a good one." he said.
"I did...I did.." I said.
"Guess What? I located my daughter....The day after I saw you and I took her back to her home in West Chester....I wound up spending the entire holiday and week there.." he said ,very excited and happy.
"So you were in West Chester the entire week?" I asked.
"Yeah, why?" he asked.
"Harkey is dead! They found him with a gunshot wound to the temple in his car...the day after I saw you last." I said.
"Really? Then that was Becker...I imagine he was pissed after we busted up his whore house..." said Bobby D.
"Yeah...I imagine so." I said.
Just because it's my nature....I checked out Detective Bobby Diamond's alibi....I was pleased to find out that he indeed had returned his daughter to West Chester and had been there the entire week leading up to Christmas...He like Elwood Barnes had not killed Stephen Harkey.....Which left only one person with reason to do it...
Walter Becker..Or was it?
Becker fronted them the money, his own money after their faulty deal went through......Harkey's wife didn't give him any money, From what I had learned..She was sick of his get rich quick deals and had cut him off...Which is why Cyclops Insurance floated him the loan against their stock... From what I had seen ,she knew nothing about this...And Becker wouldn't kill his front man....That property was all in Harkey's name.....Becker would be too smart to attach his name to that house...He'd be an invisible partner...No..
The killer had to be someone else...but who?
I decided to stop by Elwood's Loft to see how he was doing.....When I saw Walter Becker and one of his goons with a gun trained on Elwood Barnes and Kathy Harkey...The four of them were walking out and getting into a car and pulling off....
This didn't look good at all...Becker must really be steamed about losing that house....Of course he would be...He had fronted Harkey and Elwood close to 12 million, to pay their debt off in exchange for a buisness that was raking in by rough estimate...Three times that much, not to mention, allowing him to launder money from his package.....
A lot of money was involved in this....Becker didn't care about the faulty properties...He only wanted that hotel and he was willing to pay the price to get it...
I called Kool Kat and told him where I was going and to meet me there...
IV-
Most Gangsters like Walter Becker have someplace they like to take people so that they can "Talk to them" in private.
Becker was no different....He and his goon took Elwood and Kathy Harkey to an old abandoned warehouse near the riverfront.....
"Look, Mr. Becker...There's been a big misunderstanding....I had nothing to do with what happened the other day at that house...I was no where near there..." said Elwood..
"Shut up Barnes....I floated you and Harkey close to 12 Million dollars after you and your boy nearly lost your shirts on that real estate deal...You think I'm stupid? You could be disbarred , you could go to the fed for Fraud.....I bailed you out and I bought one of those dilapidated properties..." he shouted...
"And you made a fortune..." said Elwood..
"Yeah...and you double crossed me...You put the cops on my joint...What happened, Becker cut you out of the deal?" he spat...
"No..No I didn't...He didn't....I swear...I hired a P.I. to find Harkey....I wanted out of the deal...I was going to give him my end back..It was too risky...I didn't call any cops..." said Elwood..
"That's not what I heard...I got an anonymous tip from someone very close to the deal that said YOU put the cops on my joint!"" he said.
"No...No..I don't know who would have told you that...or why? Harkey probably got the cops on his tail...Isn't that why you killed him?" asked Elwood..
"I didn't kill him..Why would I do that? He was my front man...The joint was in his name!" asked Becker...
Now I knew who had killed Harkey!!
Just then I stepped forward...
"Sorry Mr. Becker......Mr. Barnes is telling the truth for once...He didn't put the police on your joint." I said.
Becker and his goon turned towards me...
"Who the hell are you?" he asked.
I had my .45 aimed at his goon's head..
"Who I am isn't important....I was hired to find Harkey, I followed him to that joint....There was an under aged girl working in there...She was a cop's daughter....The cops had that place under survellience when I got there...The cops raided that place...Neither Barnes nor Harkey had anything to do with it.."I said.
"And I should believe you why?" said Becker..
Kool Kat walked up and placed his .357 magnum to Becker's head..
"Because it's better for you if you do as opposed to not." said the Big man...
Becker looked surprised at first, then afraid...
"Oh My God...Thank god you guys got here.." said Kathy Harkey...
Becker put his gun away....
So did his goon...
He smiled..He raised his palms towards us....
"Okay....What's done is done....I'll take your word for it...Don't ever contact me again Barnes...You're a lucky s.o.b... You get to live...and I suppose keep your job and practice law...It's more than you deserve..Happy Holidays." said Walter Becker as he and his goon got in their car and drove off...
Elwood Barnes looked at me and sighed..
"Whew...That was close..." he said. He was sweating profusely...
"Indeed...."I said...Neither I nor Kool Kat relished the thought of a shootout during the Holiday season...
"Becker let you off the hook,only because he probably made the money back that he fronted you...It was just the principle of the thing."said Kool Kat..."Which leaves the question...If he didn't kill Stephen Harkey...and you didn't...THEN WHO DID?" asked the Big man...
''Who cares? I'm off the hook..." said Elwood..
"You psychopath!" said Kathy Harkey, who slapped his face hard...
"HEYYYY, WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he asked..
"If you guys are going back to town...Can you drop me off at my home??...I won't be going back to Mr. Barnes house ......EVER!!!" said Kathy Harkey...
"Babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... What is this about?? Where is this coming from??" he asked.
"Save it Elwood...I don't know how I could have ever gotten myself involved with a selfish, self involved, self serving loser like you in the first place..." said Kathy Harkey...
Kool Kat looked at me..
I shrugged my shoulders....
We drove them back to their seperate abodes and I made a phone call to Sissy...
Using the Street cams and checking phone records....Sissy and her detectives arrested Buster McCretin, The Broker who had originally brought the deal to Stephen Harkey and Elwood Barnes attention in the first place..
They were thankful to have one hundred percent clearance at the end of the year....I'm sure...
Elwood and Stephen Harkey had aced him out of the deal and cut him out of some good money or so he thought...He too had been hunting Harkey...He killed him first and was going to Kill Elwood next...He was the one who had called Walter Becker and tipped him off about Elwood...Phone records proved that!
Police found the murder weapon on him.....He quickly confessed.
This case was now officially closed...
EPILOUGE-
NEW YEARS EVE-
Buster McCretin was convicted of First degree murder and sentenced to life .... He talked long and hard about the real estate deal he shopped to Stephen Harkey....He had never met Elwood Barnes..but knew who he was...
Since the money had been returned and Elwood had destroyed all records of the transaction...He simply denied the man's story....He said he had never met the man..
I'm certain he was sweating bullets(no pun intended) the entire time..
So I was quite surprised to see Elwood at my door on New Years Eve...
"Kevin....I come bearing a gift...
He brought a bottle of wine...
''Wowww, thanks man...What is this for?"I said.
"You saved my life and my job and my freedom...I was a fool to get involved in that business...Just got a little greedy." said Elwood.
"Well as long as you learned your lesson."I said.
He stared at Sepia, who was playing with the baby..
He frowned...
"You're the lucky man Kevin...You've got a gorgeous wife and a cute baby girl....I had a chance at that once...I was married to the attorney, Olivia Bennett.....before she added the Alexander.." he said.
"I had no idea of her potential then...I under-estimated her and I cheated on her every chance I got...She was a good woman...Good in bed...Pretty and smart...Two times, she nearly had a child for me and two times she miscarried...Mostly my fault...Finally, She had enough and she left me....I don't blame her...Look at her today...She's a famous Attorney now, got her own practice...Always on TV.....
I'm very proud of her and her accomplishments...I didn't know how good I had it...Messing up with her was the one thing I regret the most in life. She may have been the only woman, I ever truly could have loved.."He said.
He continued to eye Sepia and the baby...
"You of course know how lucky you are..." he said.
"I do...You know it's not too late for you Elwood...There are other women out there.." I said.
"Nah...I'm not built for marriage or any long term relationship...After I get into a woman's panties...The thrill is pretty much gone for me...That's who I am...but you...You Mr. Morris, you are a better man than me, a smarter one ...Sorry for all of that....I-I have been drinking...I-I felt a need to uh unburden myself a bit...Happy Holidays to you all...Thanks again.." he said and walked down to his car and pulled off..
I watched him as he drove off....I felt a bit of pity for him....
Sepia stood next to me...
"I don't like that man..'After I get into a woman's panties...The thrill is pretty much gone for me'..What a jerk....I'm amazed that Olivia was married to him for as long as she was...Ouuu...I don't like that man." she said.
"I imagine a lot of people don't." I said...
"Come on inside.. I've got some cornbread and some Hoppin John cooking.."said Sepia...
