Requiem For A Clown

The next morning...Sepia and I walked out of the hospital...I was discharged...

I had had a light concussion...Nothing a good night's sleep wouldn't handle...Lucky for us..Eva  Corona watched Kimberly for us....Sepia spent the entire night with me...

I saw a familiar face when we walked out the door...Lt. Sissy Van Buren...

"Well , you don't look any worse for the wear." she said managing a slight smile..

"I've been better." I said.

"I can't let him out of the house ,without him getting into trouble." said Sepia..

"It's been an interesting night....ADA Brad Parsley and Frenchette James were shot in her apartment last night...I don't know why he was there...but both were shot on the terrace...With your gun!" she said.

''Siss,I been in the hospital all night."I said.

"I know that...Relax Kevin...Sepia called me...We then got a call of gunshots heard...A shooting...And we found Brad and Mrs. James on the terrace of her condo in pools of blood."said Sissy..

"Oh My God!!Are they dead?" asked Sepia..

"No...Brad will be fine...Mrs. James however is in critical condition...we'll see...Problem is...She's unconscious and he didn't see who shot them...We found your gun in the trash...but it had been wiped clean...but using Sepia's statement that she saw Leroy James leaving his apartment...We hauled him in...." said Sissy...

"Good ..I feel better with him in custody..."I said.

"Had to let him go.."said Sissy...

"What?" I said...

"Sirena and Hop had him in the fishbowl all night...

He denied everything..."said Sissy..

"Brad didn't see who shot him...and Mrs. James is unconscious!!! And I'm guessing you didn't see who hit you from behind...You're just assuming it was him because you were in his apartment right?" said Sissy...

I sighed...


"Yes...but Sepia saw him leaving his apartment...."I said.

"She didn't see him with your gun...We couldn't hold him...but we are looking at camera footage....We'll get him...You go home and get some rest..I'll bring you your gun back when we are finished.."said Sissy...

''Don't worry about it." I said.

"Come on Boo...Let's go home.." said Sepia.

II-

 I slept the rest of the day and well into the night.....The next morning...when I woke up,I felt as good as new....Sepia was sitting on the side of the bed...

"Hey baby.." she said...

''Hey girl!" I said and smiled.

"How are you feeling?" she asked..

"Much better.....Thank you...."I said.

Sepia leaned over and kissed me slowly and softly....

"For what bae?" she asked..

''For finding me and taking me to the hospital..."

"I'm your wife...and your partner....That's what I'm supposed to do...: have your back.." she said...

I hugged her...

"And you always have...." I said....

She got up...

"Come downstairs...I've got breakfast cooking...Cheese Grits and Shrimp and thick country bacon..."she said smiling...

"Well alright...I've got quite an appetite ...with all that sleeping." I said.

She smiled and I watched her as she walked down the steps..

I began to think, as I sat on the side of the bed.....I knew, though surprisingly I couldn't prove that this crazy fool had hit me in the back of the head with a sap, and stolen my gun....I knew that he had shot both Brad Parsley and his own wife, Frenchette James....and then wiped my gun clean and dropped it in the trash can...I planned to make him pay for that...but now I wondered about something else...Something else he said that I had let slip completely out of my mind......

"She's trying to have me hit....One of the guys trying to have me hit tried it Saturday Night...right after I performed at Josies..." he said.

"He did?" I asked.

"Yeah, tried to acost me in the alley way..but I got the drop on him, beat his brains out....He'll never try that again." he said.


That ran through my mind again...

"She's trying to have me hit....One of the guys trying to have me hit tried it Saturday Night...right after I performed at Josies..." he said.

"He did?" I asked.

"Yeah, tried to acost me in the alley way..but I got the drop on him, beat his brains out....He'll never try that again." he said.

Then I thought about my conversation with Sissy a few days ago...

"We found some matches on our victim, Allen Wilson from the other day in his pants pocket....They were from Josies...So since we couldn't find any street cam footage from the area he was found killed in...We did find him in Josies...Just hours before...See look, there are you and your wife and Honey Brown in the crowd as your client is performing.."said Sissy.

 "Look...There is your client and our victim having a heated discussion..."said Sissy...

 

" There you are at the bar with Gus....Leroy James comes over and you and he talk and he slips you an envelope...Our victim, Allan Wilson is standing there eyeing the entire thing....He leaves....Now we follow him to an after hours joint....Where for reasons we don't understand...He leaves his car...He walks west and that's where we lose him...He's found a few blocks away with his head bashed in..."said Sharon.

OH MY GOD!  MY CLIENT KILLED Allan Wilson!!! And he practically told me he did it...That completely slipped my mind....but I had to prove it....And I believed I could...

III-

 After I ate the hardy breakfast that Sepia had prepared and helped her wash the dishes and clean up...I got on the phone and called the boys...We met at the basement headquarters of Morris Investigations...Me, Clerow, Owen Todd, Sean Jackson, Peeping Tom ,Lockpick Johnson and the five operatives....we scrubbed club video from Josies, the night Leroy James performed...

"Right there....There is the video of Leroy James and Allan Wilson...having a heated argument...It almost got physical."I said.

"Yeah ,good thing Buddah the bodyguard broke it up right?" laughed Clerow...

"He was close enough to hear what they were arguing about." I said.

"Yeah...If you get over to Josie's now..you might catch him...His shift is starting." said Owen Todd..

"Oh and Kevin...We kept looking and we did catch something extra.."said Peeping Tom...

"What was that?" I asked.

''We scrubbed traffic cam feed and we caught your boy ,Leroy James leaving shortly after closing...That's his car...He followed Allan Wilson to this after hours joint...but he didn't go in...He just sat outside...Now see..There is Wilson walking west....We now know why....because his car was in the parking lot...a block from where that club is." said Peeping Tom.

"I've been to that club...Parking is horrible...Wilson knew that so he parked a block away...Only on this night..He could have parked in front of the joint.."said Lockpick Johnson...

"And look, this is the only footage of Leroy James we have..He's leaving his car and he's walking in the same direction Wilson walked..." said Sean Jackson...

"We don't have the two of them actually in contact..."said Peeping Tom.

"No but that puts him in proximity of Allan Wilson... You take the fight they had in Josies...and him following him to that club and not going in and then following him after he left...That puts it all together..He's the killer..Copy that and send that to C.I.D. headquarters." I said.

Next I went to Josie's and talked to Buddah the bodyguard...

"Awww Kev that guy James is crazy as a loon..First he accused that young guy of trying to make time with his wife...then he accused him of being hired by her to kill him...He wouldn't stop...Allan had enough and was about to crack him, when I intervened and broke it up...I thought it was squashed.." He said.

''Thanks man." I said.

"Hey that clown has a gig tonight.." said Buddah...

"He does?" I said.

"Yeah...at the comedy club...Chuckles." he said.

"That's one performance I plan on making." I said.

I got on the phone and called Sissy.

IV-

Chuckles was like Josie's...It had been around for years...When Chris and Chess built two shopping centers and with my wife and Bonita Foxworth and Clerow and Owen Todd started buying up and renovating Apartments ,Condos and Houses...a lot of new people began flowing into the neighborhood...Young Hipsters , Black, Latino,Asian and White and a lot of my old friends from around the way...Chuckles and Josies benefitted greatly from all of the new patrons and the money and they jazzed themselves up to accomodate them...

Leroy James had packed them in...He was killing...had the crowd in stitches....

Sissy and the guys met me outside..She kissed my cheek...

"Thank you so much for that video feed Kevin, that was the icing on the cake of the case we are building against him..." said Sissy..

"I was only too glad to help..I should have put the pieces together sooner." I said..

"He said he wasn't anywhere near Frenchette's Condo...but we looked again and we have him running down the street, where he parked his car...just minutes after the shooting...

"And he didn't wipe that gun that well...Hazel found a fingerprint smudge that isn't yours on the handle..While we had him in the box, he drank a glass of water and we extracted his fingerprints from the glass.."said Tyriq.

 "And with your feed from the night before..We got this clown for Murder one as well as the attempted murders of his wife and ADA Parsley."said Jimmy...

We walked inside...Leroy James was finishing up his set....He got a standing ovation....He looked and he saw..Detective Sirena Pile, Detective Tony Hopkins and five uniformed policemen walking down the aisle..

He was sweating profusely...Then he saw me, Sissy, Carlotta, Rico and Jimmy coming down an adjoining aisle...

He panicked and dashed out of the side door.....

Detective Angie Belton ran into him....

"Ohhh Excuse me...Can I have your autograph sugar?" she asked...

"Not now...I'm in a hurry.." he said...

"You aint in no hurry son...You're under arrest, First degree Murder and two counts of attempted murder.."said Duke, who with two uniformed officers handcuffed him and slammed him against the wall..

"How are you doing Mister James?" I asked..

He looked at me with disdain and spat....

"She got to you too didn't she?" he said.

''Excuse me?" I said.

''My wife...How much did she pay you to turn against me?" he said.

I shook my head...He was gone...Stone gone...

"It never gets any easier Kevin...but thank you once again for your help."said Sissy..

"Anytime Guys" I said...

"Thanks Kev...Bye" they all said...

A small crowd watched as The police took Leroy James away...Ironically ,he was just starting to get famous...Now ,he was going to be infamous....The Killer Comic!

EPILOUGE-

Comedian, Leroy James was convicted of the First Degree Murder of Allan Wilson and the attempted murders of ADA Brad Parsley and of his estranged wife, Frenchette James..He was sentenced to 25 years to Life...

He is being held in the Psych Ward of Green Hill State Correctional Institution...Where he is receiving round the clock psychological treatment.

Frenchette made a complete recovery and she and Brad Parsley met with Sepia and I for wine at our little wine bar a few weeks later...Robert and Bonita Foxworth joined us...

''Robert...Bonita..we haven't hung out in a minute."I said.

"Now that you got your agency and don't need my help anymore..I hardly see you."Laughed Robert Foxworth..

''We are going to do better...Our little girls have a play date next week.."said Sepia.

"This place is sooo nice...Thank you for inviting Brad and me." said Frenchette.....

Brad smiled...

"Thank you Kevin...I knew that between you and Sissy Van Buren and her guys, My Nephew's killer would be brought to justice...Never imagined it would be crazy ass Leroy..." he said.

''Well hopefully he 'll get the help he needs now."I said. "I wish it could have been different."I said.

"I do too...but on a lighter note...Mr. Foxworth here got me my divorce and Brad and I will be getting married in the fall."said Frenchette...

" That is wonderful" said Sepia...

"Yes...Congratulations...A Toast!" I said...

We all lifted our glasses and had a toast!