That Girl

Things were looking up for me...Business was good...Morris Communications had over 200 new subscriptions for the music and video streaming service I had set up...I now was part owner with Meek Rollins of a new Recording Studio and my private investigation business couldn't be better...
Two foxy Attorneys ....Kayla Bennett, Olivia's cousin...

And Gloria Brown...An Attorney at the Harris Group were throwing me a lot of cases..

Soft cases that didn't involve tussling with gangsters...Just routine Investigations..Not to mention, my buddy ,Robert Foxworth was throwing me a bone or two from time to time..

I was making a pile of money there and coming home to my wife Sepia and our baby girl every night on time..

So it was a surprise when my lunch guest today was my friend, Walter "Kool Kat" Jones...

The Big man....Who had been my friend since childhood...We met in Kintergarden actually...Some guys stole my lunch and my lunch money...I attempted to fight them back, but they got the best of me.. Some time later...this big kid returned with my lunch and my money and two of the guys who had attacked me...They were pretty beat up and they were shaking...They apologized for robbing me and beating me up and I never had any trouble out of them again...


Even then ,he was a fearsome presence on the street....


A year later.. My dad enrolled me in a local gym, where I learned how to box...My Dad and his best friend, Gus...Yeah that Gus.. Who owns Josies were big fans of the sweet science....They loved boxing and I took to it like honey to a bee.. I was pretty good and won quite a few of my bouts...I was a Welterweight then...and eventually moved up to Middle weight by the time I became a teenager...Kool Kat was also in the same gym...He was a light heavyweight ....and like me, won quite a few bouts...


We bonded then and were friends for life....We always had each other's backs...


Later on Kool Kat went to work as an enforcer for local gamblers, Loan sharks and Drug dealers..


By that time I was in the Marines...Boxing...(I was the Armed Forces Welterweight Champion at one time) ,and eventually becoming an investigator for NCIS...After my discharge from the Military.. I went to college and earned a degree in Communications/Journalism, with a minor in business...


I returned to Philadelphia and began working as an investigative reporter for Hype Magazine...Somewhere around that time..I got my P.I.'s license and became a Private Investigator.. Mostly helping people in the neighborhood who couldn't go to the cops or to anywhere else..Kool Kat and I became reunited once again...He had stopped being an enforcer...survived being shot six times and had hit the lotto for twelve million dollars...after taxes....Kool Kat's nickname was The Cat with Nine Lives..


Gus and I helped him invest well and bank his fortune and today he lives pretty comfortably....He has an offshore account and an account here...in which he lives off the interest...He also is employed by me as one of my operatives in my Private Investigation Agency, which is housed in the basement of this very building where I run my main business..Morris Communications...


I only call on him, when a case requires his particular skills...(Guns and muscle) I haven't needed his services lately...Not with the types of cases, Kayla Bennett and Gloria Brown were throwing my way...

II-

"So Kools...To what do I owe this visit?" I asked smiling...

"I need a favor...Can you believe that?" said the Big Man...


He produced a bottle of wine...Expensive Vintage Wine....

"I got this when I was out in California for a few days last month...Try it.." he said.

I smiled and poured myself a glass..

I took a sip...

"This is a nice smooth sweet wine man.." I said.

"Yeah..I dig it.." said Kool Kat...


He passed me an envelope filled with 50's..It was 3 Large...

"What's this?" I asked..

"Most people call it money Kev..I told you..I need a favor.." said Kool Kat..

I passed the envelope back to him...


"Take this money, buy Chelsea something nice..Your money will never be good here..What do you need?" I asked.

"Kev take this money man...I'm your client..." he said firmly..

"No!" I said softly..."Now what do you need?" I asked..

"I need you to find somebody..."he said.

"That's what I do." I said and poured myself another glass of the sweet wine..

"Damn Man, this is good." I said.

"Christmas is comin up...I'll get you and the missus a bottle.." he said smiling and placing his envelope back in his jacket pocket...

"So who do you need me to find...What's her name?" I asked.

"How do you know it's a woman?" he asked, laughing...

"It is ,isn't it?" I asked..

"Yeah!" he laughed ,shaking his head...

"So tell me her story.." I said.


III-

''Well Kev...as you remember...I was in Puerto Rico a few years back, after I first come into my money..." he said.

"Yeah, I remember...Thought you was gonna live there for good..Glad you came back." I said.

"You needed somebody to help you out on these streets man, with the kind of heavy dudes you was dealin with...Though from the looks of your uh clients now of days..I see you're gettin a lot of soft cases...I seen those two foxy Attorneys you been workin for and of course you and Robert Foxworth..." said Kool Kat..

''Can't complain...They pay extremely well."I laughed.

"Yeah, between that and this business you got here ,I imagine you do quite well.." he laughed.. "Anyway, while in San Juan..I fell in with this wild boy named  Diego...Diego Ryder....

"Man Kev, He reminded me of me and you..We hung out...drank mad tequila, played cards every night, drank some more...smoked good weed...and went to another party late into the morning..

Man Kev...I was living in a haze of weed and alcohol..Waking up at noon everyday and splashing on white sandy beaches...." laughed Kool Kat...

"This Diego know you were a newly minted millionaire?" I asked..

''Naw Kev, he wasn't like that..Diego is good people man..He knew I had some dough...He never knew how much..It never came up...He liked a good party and so did I...

and so....that's how we rolled..but man..I gotta admit..After a few months..I was getting tired of havin so much fun..."laughed Kool Kat..

''What did this Diego guy do for a livin? Slingin?" I asked..

''Naw Kev..He was a ...a heist guy...He always had a lot of money layin around and I was at his place..he had the tools of a heist guy...cable, rope, climbing tools..safe cracking essentials...The works...He had just scored the score of a lifetime...Five million dollars worth of jewels....Cops didn't even know his name...He had a girlfriend...

A white girl named Roxy....

''She was a looker man...and she was from here..Philly...Like me..We talked a lot....She knew what Diego did for a living and she wanted him to quit....He said he would and while I knew him..He didn't look like he'd put down any scores....He was talkin about gettin married man.." said Kool Kat..

"Which brings us to today...I suppose this girl of his dreams is missing right?" asked Kevin...

''Yeah man....Diego was crazy about her man and she upped and left him....He traced her to here.....He looked me up ...Kev you had to see him man...He was distraught...Tore up over the whole thing..He begged me to find her...

 He said..."I know you know people Kools...You gotta help me find her...I love her man and I want to marry her.." he said..

"So I need you to find her Kev...If she's here in this city...Aint nobody better than you to locate her.."said Kool Kat...

"She got any relatives here?/ You got a photo?" I asked..

''Why don't I take you to meet him Kev?...Gus is lettin him stay in that spare room on top of Josies.He's got photos and next of kin...."said Kool Kat..

"I take it...Him being Puerto Rican and her being White...It would be a problem for him to go visit the next of kin....But it of course wouldn't be a problem for two soul brothers like us right?" I joked.

''Can't nobody say that you don't ask the right questions Kev...Let me take you to see him..." said Kool Kat..

Just then..My wife ,Sepia walked in...

''Wowwww you guys just killed a bottle of wine...Looks expensive..."she laughed..

"Expensive and sweet too ,like you.." I said and squeezed her behind..

''Ouuuuu..stop it Kevin.." she laughed..''Hi Walter...I want some of that wine.." she said.

"Hey bad girl...I got another bottle...I'll give it to your old man after he helps me find somebody.."said Kool Kat..

"You got another case?" asked Sepia..

"Yeah and a non-paying customer.." I laughed...

"Awwww that's cold Kev.."laughed Kool Kat...

On the surface, this seemed like an easy case...but nothing involving Kool Kat was ever easy...As I was going to find out..

(TO BE CONTINUED)