Inherent Evil

I arrived about 30 minutes after I got the call from Detective Tyriq Pile...  I had to admit...This was indeed an odd call....I'm used to my wife, detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace calling me..But in my line of work...I'm used to odd calls...This call was at a school...An elementary school.

I am Assistant District Attorney ,Keith Porterhouse Wallace...I prosecute cases from Homicide, Major Crimes and Special Victims Unit...The occassional odd call is par the course. It was close to 11:00 am...A time when most of us are midway through our morning....It was a beautiful spring morning in Philadelphia.

 When I arrived ,I saw a crowd of people, Teenagers in a playground....talking to my wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace, who was taking statements...

In a corner....Detective Tyriq Pile , one of her two partners was taking statements from another group of teenagers...

He saw me and pointed to the body of a young African-American male...about 22 or 23 years old lying face up in a pool of blood....

Detective James "Jimmy" Barlow, their other partner  was kneeling over the body ,along with Forensic Investigator, Dr. Hazel Hunter....

 ''Hey counselor... We got a black male..age 23, named Norman Bowers...also known as ''Flea", cause of death, one GSW to the head..."said Jimmy...

"Time of death appears to have been within the last hour or so..." said Hazel...as I looked at the body...

"Drug dealer?? " I asked ,hating to profile the man without knowing him.....

''Yeah...He was a drug dealer...He had several corners around here....His boss is the guy we are staying up so many nights profiling and trying to take down." said Detective Tyriq Pile...Who I was guessing was the primary in this case..

"Jimmy Bishop....So what crew is warring with Bishop?" I asked...

"That's the thing chief...None...Jimmy Bishop owns all of the real estate in West Philly, Southwest Philly, Manyunk, Roxborough and the main line...All of Fathead Newton's old territory and even the territory the old El Rukin Gang used to have.." said Jimmy...

'Yeah that's right...Bishop took over this whole area quietly and not a murder, not a death was reported all last summer, all last fall and winter until now and it's a member of his crew..." I said..

Carlotta walked over to me and gave me a very slow and sensual kiss....

''Ummmmm, good morning Honey Bunny..This may be the easiest murder we've ever tackled.." she said..

''Why is that?" I asked..

"Because we have over one hundred eye witnesses....Everybody I interviewed told me who shot him...A guy named..."Junior"...Real name...Walter Morris...They say he walked right up to him and shot him in the head about an hour ago and calmly walked away..." said Carlotta..

''Told me the same thing too and they weren't from rival crews...Both of em worked for Jimmy Bishop...This wasn't about drugs...This was about a woman....Apparently our victim here was dating the mother of Walter Morris's child...and Morris didn't dig it too much...The two had been arguing about this all weekend long and had even been in a fist fight that had to be broken up...Morris saw Norman Bowers coming out of the girl's house and they quarelled...Then Morris left...According to eyewitnesses , Morris came back and Bowers was on the playground talking to friends and he walked right up to him and shot him in the head and calmly walked away..." said Tyriq...

"Damn!" I said...

Jimmy pointed up to a Street Camera....

"It's working...I'll bet, it caught the entire murder....I don't understand...We never get a case this easy..." he said.

"Like Sis says....Take the wins when you can.." said Tyriq...

"This was personal...Not drug related...Still he could be a viable witness in our case against Jimmy Bishop..Pick him up." I said.

I pulled Carlotta to me...

"I'll see you back at headquarters..."I whispered to her...

She giggled...

"It's a date papi..." she said and kissed me softly...

II-

 Drug Kingpin Jimmy Bishop was one of the youngest suspects of this type we had ever gone after...He was just barely 24 years old...A vicious little thug with a long juvenile record and an even longer adult rap sheet....

He now controlled a lot of real estate , more than Fathead Newton had...and was the largest buyer of Heroin, Cocaine ,Meth and other illegal drugs...He had a huge network of street dealers working for him...

We were back at "Copland" , the apartment buildings the government bought that we used for our task force assignments...It had living quarters for us on the first floor and our guests...The FBI, DEA and Vice and Narcotics cops who were all on the other floors...

An investigation like this called for secrecy and so our location was unknown and what we were working on was top secret ,except to the people involved..

Detective Sirena Pile , Tyriq's wife had been an excellent undercover operative and criminal profiler when she worked in Special Investigations...It was one of the reasons..I had lobbied to add her to the team...

She and Detective Edwin ''Duke" Baylor had been working non stop with Plain clothes cops from Vice and Narcotics, Plus DEA and FBI agents detailed to our task force to identify the Street Bosses and team leaders in the street organization....

They had a solid team of Plain clothes Vice and narcotics cops, and undercover DEA and FBI violent crimes unit agents blanketing the area around the clock ,snapping photos and taking notes of all of the activity going on...

Angie, Detective Angela Belton-Barlow, Jimmy's wife and Sirena's partner, Detective Antonio Hopkins found themselves working together...

They were investigating not a murder, but the mysterious disapearence of  drug dealer named Jason Tyson ,who had refused to give up his turf to Jimmy Bishop and had been giving us a lot of information on the structure of his organization...

He had dropped out of sight a week ago and no one they interviewed seemed to know where he was....

Rounding out the entire crew was Lt. Sissy Van Buren, who was less on the street and more of a co-ordinator now of days..

She smiled when she saw me coming through the door of our safe house...

"Hey Keith...Chica told me they had an easy one at first..." she said.

"What do you mean at first?" I said...

"Their suspect vanished...His Mother and Grandmother say that they haven't seen nor heard from him...His estranged Baby mama said she hasn't heard from him...He wasn't at any of his usual haunts.."said Sissy..

"He wouldn't be...He committed a cold blooded murder in plain view of several people..he's probably on his way out of town.."I said.

"That's just it...Jimmy and some uniforms found his car....keys were in the car ,along with his drivers license and a wallet full of cash...$2500.00 to be exact...

And your wife and some uniforms talked to all of his closest friends and running buddies...none of them knew of his whereabouts"

And Tyriq put plain clothes and uniforms at the train stations, bus stations and airports with a photo of him...

Nobody has seen him...." said Sissy...

"So they know who their shooter is...They just can't find him...He'll turn up....No money, No car...He'll have to turn up soon." I said...

''I don't know Keith...Something is weird here...An inherent evil about this case...Angie and Hop's informant, Jason Tyson gave us good information...really good information....for weeks...That's what got this task force started...Now he's missing...We were going to give him money and get him out of town...The last time he was seen..He told Angie that he thought someone saw him talking to them...The next day

Angie said his apartment door was open....All of his clothes were there...his wallet, his car keys, no sign of him...

She said the place looked like he had left for a few minutes and was going to come back...He's been missing for a week now...

"Hop did the same thing Tyriq did...He  put plain clothes and uniforms at the train stations, bus stations and airports with a photo of him..Nothing....Found his car...a few blocks away....Nothing in it of any consequences and everybody that knows him seems afraid..Nobody wants to say anything about him or Jimmy Bishop period.." she said.

''Wow this little guy is a real terror.."I said.

Just then, FBI Deputy Special Agent in charge, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins , got out of a cab and arrived with her bags...

"Hey guys...Where is everybody else?" she asked..

''They're on their way here...They're working a murder and the disapearence of a confidential informant." said Sissy..

"Jimmy Bishop right?" she said...

''You're good...you've been out of town for close to a week, You come back and know to meet us here and know about our target..."

"That's because this all ties in to our investigation of Mr. Brooklyn Louis Decker..." said Sharon...

''Oh How is that?" asked Sissy..

"I'll tell you...but first..I've been traveling...I need to get cleaned up, I need to see my mannn and I need some food..." she laughed...

''Fair enough..."I laughed..

Just then...The others returned...Carlotta,Tyriq,Jimmy,Hazel ,Angie and Hop

 "What a day, what looked liked the easiest case ever and it turns into a manhunt."said my wife, Carlotta...

 "He''ll turn up...We got this city bottled up." said Tyriq.

 "Yeah,how bout you honey bunch...? You find your guy?" asked Jimmy...

 "I didn't find that guy...but I have found MY guy."said Angie sweetly as she put her arms around Jimmy and gave him a sweet kiss..

"Hey babes." said Hop to Sharon as she kissed him passionately in the doorway...

"Heyyyy sugarrrrrrrrrrrr."said Sharon

"Dinner's ready guys...I got my world famous chilli on...I just talked to Eddie C.  He's on his way with the beer." said Duke...

His wife Hazel, took her heels off and sat on her husband's lap and gave him a big kiss.....She leaned her head on his chest....

Sirena kissed her husband, Tyriq....

"Hey baby...although we have some mysteries...We've compiled enough information on Bishop's people to start making some major arrests soon..." said Sirena.

"God because this guy has got that entire area scared to death." said Tyriq...

"Strange thing...The area is so quiet..so peaceful...Not one shooting, Not one mugging, not one robbery reported in those areas since last July.." said Carlotta.

"Normally I'd say that was good, but it's too good...Something just isn't right about all this.." said Sissy.

III-

We ate dinner quietly...Us, The FBI and DEA Agents and the Vice and Narcotics guys.....Sharon held the floor...

"Curly Nelson told me that Jimmy Bishop quietly began taking corners in the late summer...and by October...he had all of the prime real estate in West Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia, Overbrook,Wynnefield, Manyunk,Roxborough and the main line.It was all he could do to hold on to his corners in Point Breeze and Greys Ferry." said Sharon...

''We know...There was nothing but a lot of independent crews operating....Sirena and I had profiled most of the major playas....What I don't understand is , you don't take over that many crews without somebody bucking,without some gunfire and some bodies falling...wasn't a peep.This is Philly,it just don't go down like that!  I know some of those boys...Even some in the rival crews work together at times..But not this time...It just doesn't play.." said Duke..

''And here is where it gets cute Sharon...Duke and I had Thirty five crews identified...and guess what...35 guys, all leaders of various independent drug crews have all just vanished... vanished off the face of the Earth and now 11 more..bringing the total to 46, Just dropped off the face of the Earth... Vice and Narcotics had plain clothes guys and uniforms blanketing the area...Nobody knows what happened to these guys ,nobody talks and everybody seems terrified to mention Jimmy Bishop's name.The new guys who have taken over are like little monkeys...They jump at the sound of Jimmy Bishop's name...They are not going to overturn the apple cart..Which is why they are still walking around.." said Sirena..

"Your husband and I had an informant...Jason Tyson...A Drug crew leader who got forced off his corners who gave us good information...the whole layout and we can't find him...He's dropped off the face of the Earth.." said Angie.

"Our murder suspect, Flea Bowers kills one of Bishop's Lieutenants in plain sight and now he's gone without a trace..." said Carlotta.

"Maybe I can help you out....In the weeks before we arrested Curly Nelson the first time...Jimmy Bishop and his two Lieutenants approached him...Not about a merger...They wanted him and his crew to work under his umbrella...for him....Curly told him no way and was prepared for war....Only his three top lieutenants vanished....No trace...No calls...No sightings....He complained to London Cummings people about him....Remember our old pal Mac Heath?  He was supposed to clean Bishop and his people up, only
we captured that boat with all of their swag and we put Mac Heath and others on ice...Now that Jimmy Bishop has become the MAN, so to say...He's going to be one of Brooklyn Decker's biggest customers...as soon as we identify who Brooklyn's new represenative in Philadelphia will be..." said Sharon...

"Where is Carol on all of this?" I asked...

"She's out of town too...She says she has an informant who can break this case wide open...I'm talking about Brooklyn Decker." said Sissy....

"That's good...but right now...We have to concentrate on Jimmy Bishop..."I said.

"Inherent evil..I sense an inherent evil on the streets...Chica, Rico,Jimmy...continue working your murder...Angie, Hop....Your informant,Jason Tyson is either out of town or he's more than likely dead....Sirena, Duke..Those missing players...They're all dead...I know it...He's killing them and disposing of them quietly...
Kevin Morris and I worked a case a few years ago where a guy was disposing of his rivals using a crematorium...He was doing it quietly too."said Sissy.

"He's got guy from Jamaica named...Basil Templeton...a cold blooded killer suspected of 28 murders in Kingston alone and a girl...a Lesbian psychopath named.."Charlie Brown", real name Charlene Brown, suspected of at least 8 murders herself....These two may be taking these guys out...quietly...Curly Nelson told me all about them..He is proving to be a wealth of information....Remind me to buy Kevin Morris a drink or two when this is all over..He put us on to Curly."said Sharon..

''But Sharon..Where are the bodies?They're not in the water...Certainly not on the street...If they're killing these people..Where are they?" asked Carlotta..

"Check this guy's holdings...see if he owns any businesses or warehouses or properties...Someplace you could store bodies temporarily.." said Sissy...

 "Sirena and I can do a property check tomorrow.." said Hop..

"I miss my partner." said Sirena smiling...

I grabbed Carlotta gently..

"I need to do a search of your property." I said under my breath...

"Ouuu papi you are sooo bad..." said Carlotta..

Eddie C. arrived with the beer and just in the nick of time...we all needed a drink...Badly...

Sissy smiled...

"I was beginning to get worried." she said..

"No need..I stopped by the house to grab a few things..." he said..

"Well let's go up to our room...I feel like being grabbed a bit." whispered Sissy in his ear...

Eddie C. smiled sheepishly....

(TO BE CONTINUED)