A Metro-Sexual Gangster

Sepia snapped her bra on and slipped her dress on and straightened it out as I stood in the mirror adjusting my tie...She came up behind me and put her arms around my waste...

"Look at my sexy husband.." she said ,hugging me...

I looked at her and smiled sweetly....We had made love three times last night and once ,early this morning...I think I'm going to keep this goatee..

''So you got another case huh?" she said.

"Yeah...My client is Eddie Champion...Remember him?" I asked..

''Sure do...When you first got your P.I.'s license...It was him and Robert Foxworth who kept you afloat...They gave you your first few cases....And look at my baby now....CEO of his own company and has his own Investigative agency...."she said...

We turned and kissed passionately for a few minutes...

"I'd better get the baby ,before we wind up making another one..."she laughed...

I looked in on our daughter....I couldn't believe that I was somebody's father....That I had married the woman of my dreams and in such a short time had come so far....

II-

 Early that morning...I stood on the roof of C.I.D. headquarters....It was cool out...I was drinking a tumbler of hot coffee...So was Sissy...Sissy ,being Lt. Sissy Van Buren-Clark , of the Criminal Investigation Division...a group of elite Detectives and friends of mine who handled only the most major of crimes and major criminals and their enterprises..

"Happy New Year Kevin.....And I must say...that Goatee looks good on you...Sexy" she said..

"Thanks Siss..." I said... "I've been reading about you guys in the paper...You guys broke up a major drug ring, put Mac Heath, the legendary hitman on ice...and even caught the guys who iced him...nice work..."I said smiling...

''We caught the guy who killed London Cummings too ,but unfortunately...he killed himself."said Sissy.

"Yeah...I heard...Heard it was one of Lt. Tragg's guys too....He must have had egg on his face."I laughed...

Sissy smiled...

"A little, but he actually co-operated with us and helped us take all those guys down..." she laughed..."So tell me...What brings you around here ?" asked Sissy.

"I'm working a case....For bail bondsman, Eddie Champion...You know him right?" I asked.

Sissy frowned...

"Unfortunately ,I do....but anyway...go on..."she said, smiling sweetly...

"He bonded out...Curly Nelson last week....100 G's...."I said..  Before I could say anything else...Sissy's eyes got as wide as saucers...I was surprised...because even though this guy was a drug dealer...He was small potatoes compared to the riff raff she and her detectives had recently taken down...

''Kevin ,how much do you know about Curly Nelson?" asked Sissy....If I didn't know right..She looked almost afraid..

"I know who he is and what he does...He has dealers on a few corners....He has a Pawn shop ,which is a front for theives and a Barber shop and both are fronts and where I suspect a lot of dirty drug money is laundered....Everybody knows that....Now you guys picked him up.." I said.

"Narcotics picked him up actually...last week."said Sissy...

"Yeah and his car exploded....incinerated....Two days after he is bonded out ,And he is presumed dead.."I said....Sissy got the slyest,sexiest look I'd ever seen on her face...

"Yes....and you don't think he's dead either do you?" she asked me...

"Well Eddie doesn't....He asked me to look into it.."I said..

"What have you found out ?" she asked..

"Nothing...Nothing I can prove." I said.

"Come with me." she said.

We exited the building and took her car....Over to the Medical Examiners Office...

III-

 On the way to the Medical Examiner's Office Sissy began to fill me in about a major investigation they were involved in two years ago that started with major drug dealers mysteriously dying in Baltimore, Washington D.C. and here in Philly...

It was our mutual friend, DEA Agent Carol Redding who first discovered it and began investigating the deaths with Police in D.C. , Baltimore and Philly...Apparently all of these guys were connected and all were kicking a sizable amount of money to a group of shell and dummy corporate accounts that were all funding the political campaign of a certain former U.S. Senator.... Owen Mcracken...He had been an ADA and a former U.S. Attorney at one time and had made cases against all involved...He had put them behind bars...Once they were released from prison and back in business again...The Senator cut deals with them all...They kick up a certain amount of their profits to his campaign funds and he turn a blind eye to them...Only problem was...They soon tired of paying him anything and began to rebel...One by one they all began to die mysteriously...and their bank accounts began being looted dry...

With the help of the Deputy FBI Special Agent in Charge, Sharon Ferrell Hopkins and Sissy and her own CID Detectives, they took down the Senator and his entire operation....Or so they thought....

Turns out...The Senator had a partner...a silent connected partner who has managed to keep himself out of the light so far who continued  importing and selling drugs to local distributors...One was Manny Spain, now deceased...I remember reading about how they took him down...the other was Joe "Machine Gun" Thompson...Who I had recently helped them take down....and the third was London Cummings and his partners, Alvin "Superfly" Mayfield and Lonnie Denton...all now deceased...

"Okay Siss....but what's that got to do with Curly? He 's nowhere near a big playa like those guys...He just has an independent crew?"  I said.

"Oh no Kevin...He's stepped up major...He was working for London Cummings..He was buying product from him...We know that much...and we arrested him for distribution...but ADA Keith Wallace

and I believe he facilitated the prison slaying of Mac Heath...and was getting involved in the deeper part of the business..He was next in line to take over the package after the death of London Cummings.He had no idea we were going to tag him with that..." said Sissy..

''Or maybe somebody else did...Which is why he's dead..." I said.

"In the back of my mind, that is what I think...At any rate...The trail leading us to whoever is behind all of this just went completely dry with him being dead...If he is in fact dead....I saw him in custody last week...He was afraid Kevin, afraid like I've never seen anybody afraid....That's why he had his guys bail him out so fast...and he 's kept a low profile ever since..."she said..

''Who is he afraid of?" I asked..

"The less you know about him the better Kevin...He's connected...To some very influential people...Which is why he won't hesitate to kill anybody he considers a threat...." said Sissy.

Once inside  the M.E.'s office, Sissy and I met with the very lovely Dr. Hazel Hunter-Baylor, wife of Detective Duke Baylor..

Duke was there when Sissy and I arrived....Upon seeing me , he smiled..

"A goat eh Kev? Nice...." he said...

"What's up Duke?" I said smiling....

''Hi Kevin...I like that Goatee...It's sexy."laughed Hazel.

"That's what I keep hearing." I said.

"Hazel, Show him the body of uh er....Curly Nelson..."said Sissy..

Hazel walked me over to a table where a body lie...It was charred beyond recognition....

I looked it over....

"You know, I knew Curly Nelson....This body is burned so bad, I can't say if this is him for sure or not." I said...."This man is the same size, same build...but these clothes ,look at them...Duke ,you knew this guy...snazzy dresser...only tailored suits....designer shoes..."I said.

"I know Kevin...and this guy's clothes are cheap hand me down types...."said Duke..

''Hazel...Any DNA?" I asked..

"No and we need a DNA sample of Curly Nelson to compare...If I can even pull anything from this body.." she said..

"So what do you think Kevin?" asked Sissy..

"That could be him...because it's the same size and same build...but my gut tells me that that's not him...Look at the nails on this guy's hands... Curly got a mani and a pedi every week..He was worse than a woman about his grooming.."I said.

 "Oh my a Metro Sexual Gangster."laughed Sissy

"Imagine that."laughed Hazel...

"Bottom line Sissy....I don't know who that guy is you have there...but I'm certain that that is not Curly Nelson."I said.

"So we got a murdered John Doe and a missing witness...." sighed Sissy...

"I'm afraid so..." I said.

IV-

Later that night , I arrived at the condo of the late Curly Nelson...He was married...I wondered what his widow might be thinking...

Curly Nelson's wife...Addie Nelson was a very attractive and shapely dark skinned woman...She was sitting alone in the condo they shared sipping a drink when I stopped by...

"Mrs. Nelson...Thank you for letting me come by...."I said..

"You got ten minutes...Make it quick mannn." she said.

"I'm a private investigator....I work for the Bail Bondsman who bailed your husband out...I don't expect you to tell me his whereabouts.."I said..

She was incredulous...

"His Whereabouts?   He's dead!...His car blew up!" she said..

"Are we going to play this game? I have already figured out that your husband was not the man in that car that blew up last week and if I can....How long do you think before the cops and whoever your husband is afraid of will figure it out too huh?" I said.

"I don't know what the hell you're talking about." she said.

"Okay...Here is my number...If you see your husband...Tell him to call me or Mr. Champion...we can help him." I said...

She ripped my card up..

"Get out!  I told you he's dead..."she said.

"So it's been a week...you haven't claimed the body, you haven't made funeral arrangements or made any calls to the insurance company...I checked.." I said.

"Get out Mr. Morris or I'm going to call security." she said..

"Okay...I'll be seeing you Mrs. Nelson." I said.

"Not if I see you first." she said..

I smiled and left....

On the street, Clerow and Owen Todd were waiting for me..

"Kev, you want us to call Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson and their guys and get inside?" asked Owen..

"No...just keep an eye on that Condo and on her..Her comings and goings and anybody that goes into that Condo...for now..."I said.


TO BE CONTINUED-