E.F.G.

The next morning...Monica and I stood in the Tony Condo of millionaire real estate baron and playboy, Efram Francis Graham..one of the wealthiest men in the city of Philadelphia..


Monica stared around...

 "This place is beautiful..." she said..

I turned my attention to the bed...

All four of the legs were broken.....


The headboard was split in half...He saw us looking at the bed and smiled sheepishly...


"Things got a little hectic in here last night.." he said.

His lady friend, who didn't speak a lick of English, it seemed walked out of the bathroom in just a bra and panties and wandered into another room, where she turned on the 50 inch wide screen television and streamed a movie...


Efram pulled his bathrobe together..


He was the same age as Monica and me, Handsome, Urbane,Tan, Athletic build....With a goatee... He was wearing a nice fragrance...


He smiled..


"So  Detectives ,what is this about?" he said..

"You're planning to get married in a few days correct?" said Monica.


"Yes...That is my fiancé , that you just saw..Whooooooooooo baby!" he said.


''Well besides the fact that you're not supposed to see the bride a week before you get married.. You could be in for some really bad luck if you marry her.." said Monica.


"WHAT?" he bellowed angrily!

"My partner is right...Did you sign a pre-nup?" I asked..


"Yes...I left her my entire fortune upon my death...I love her ,I am crazy about her.." he said..


"Oh My God...Look...How much do you know about her?" I asked.


"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER?" he asked..


"You met her in a bar didn't you? Down by the waterfront...Or you saw her photo...You were taken to a hotel...a few blocks away...You had a wonderful night...You went to see her again, several times...right?  And now you're head over heels in love..." I said.


"How do you know that?" he asked.

"She's not an American citizen.. She's from Russia or Eastern Europe..She needs you in order to get a Green Card right?" said Monica..


"What you say is preposterous...She's no gold digger...The pre nup was my idea.." he said.


"I'm sure it was...After the way she rocked your world in the bed...I'm sure it was..What do you really know about her?" asked Monica..


"Listen...I don't like this talk.." he said.

I put four huge glossies of other girls on the table.....

"I know four guys who wouldn't have liked this talk either...but this talk might have saved their lives if they had had it.." I said.


He looked at them...


"I don't know these women." he said.


Then I put photos of our four millionaires on the table..


"That's....Thomas Arrington,  Robert Branton, Stanley Carson and Jerome Dodd... A,B, C, D....all rich,like you and all dead within months after their marriages...But..They were all married to four different women...These women ,Women who didn't appear to know each other...but who met them in that Bar and slept with them in that hotel...." I said..

 Monica showed him photos of the men in death...Thomas Arrington , run over and nearly sliced in half by the trolley...


"Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I have not eaten breakfast yet." said Efram....


The bloated body of Robert Branton , being pulled from the water....A scuba diving accident..


Stanley Carson and Jerome Dodd, blown to bits in two separate car explosions...


"Co-incidences? We thought so at first until we found out that all of these women worked out of the same bar and hotel, all of these women collected as soon as their husbands were in the ground and deposited their money into one dummy account..an account we believe is controlled by your wedding planner...And who might that be..
Helena Rubenstein?" asked Monica..


Efram looked afraid now..


"Yes.. How do you know that?" he asked.

"Because it's our business to know...We've been investigating all of these accidents..and we know now that they more than likely weren't accidents..She is going down the alphabet...Arrington...Branton, Carson, Dodd....and you, EFG...You're next!" I said.

Monica showed him a photo of the dead Henrique Swanson...


"Henrique!!! He's dead??" he said.

"So you know him? "I said.


"Yes..He was the attorney who handled the pre-nup and the purchasing of her green card..." he said.


"He was Ms. Rubenstein's partner....Until the Feds pre-maturely busted everyone in the hotel and bar and shut down the operation....His name just kept coming up too much..So they had him silenced.." I said.


"Oh My god!!!" he said..


He pointed to the bed..

His fiancé waved to him from the other room...

"Look at her!!! She couldn't hurt a fly....She was the best sex I ever had in my life...Look at her!!!" he said to me..

"You marry her and we'll be looking at you in a pine box....At least hold your wedding up for a few days.. She's no killer...but her sponser and her partner certainly are...A few days or a week can't possibly hurt anything." I said.


He looked so sad...I kind of felt sorry for him...


Monica and I left.....I hoped he took what we said to heart...We didn't want another murder...

"Hold up Nate...It's my phone." said Monica..


It was Kylie..

"You need to get down here.....The waterfront....I would tell you on the phone, but you won't believe this unless you see it yourself." said Kylie..

"What did Kylie want?" I asked..

"She said we needed to get down to the waterfront." said Monica.


II-

Monica and I arrived at the waterfront...A body was being pulled out of the water...

"Oh No...Another body...Did we miss something Mo-Mo?" I asked.

''We must have.." said Monica.

"Take a look at the body.." said Monique, who had on latex gloves and was examining it..

"Yeah, take a look." said Lt. Cotton , who was shaking his head...

Monica, Kylie and I looked at the badly beaten body of Ivan Donald Putin...our suspect in five homicides....

"He was beaten badly, but the cause of death is a gunshot wound to the temple.. It's a nine millimeter..." said Monique..

"You can tell by the size of the hole in his head?" I asked her...

"Well yeah, that and the fact that we have the probable murder weapon...It was lying on the side of the docks." said Monique.

"WHAT?" said Monica... This is police issue....A Glock Nine..." said Monica..

"So the killer shot him and dropped his gun here on the docks...Come on...No police would do that." I said.

"We are going to take it back to headquarters and run it through the system....If it's a cop...It'll be registered in our system..." said Lt. Cotton...

The body was released...Helena Rubenstein was cleaning up anything and anybody that was leading to her..


III-

An hour later we were all back at the squadroom...Mostly sitting, waiting...We were so convinced that we were close to breaking this case that we were no longer hiding from Ed Lawlor...

"You know...that would have been a hell of a nice place to get married...Shame we have to bust her.." said Lt. Cotton with a meloncholly smile.

"I know right? I liked it too..Shame we have to bust her...but yall got some time...We will find you another place." said Monica..

"Here comes Kylie and Monique...Maybe they have something we can go on.....Something about that Glock." I said.

Kylie had a weird look on her face...

"Please tell me that gun is in the system." said Lt. Cotton.

"Oh it's in the system....and it's the  murder weapon.....It's issued by the FBI...This is Special Agent Ed Lawlor's service revolver!!! " said Monique.

"WHATTTTT???" said Lt. Cotton, laughing...

"OH MY GOD!!!" I said, laughing myself...

"WOWWWW!" said Monica...

"This is crazy....but I find this hard to believe that even he would commit murder or be so stupid as to drop his service revolver at the scene." said Kylie.

"I don't think he would either...but we've got to find him..." said Monica..

Her phone was ringing....

''Let me take this...Detective Monica Nellis- Homicide!!"she said.

"Mo-Mo baby!  I hate to call you like this...but you and your husband need to get down to my bar...I got a guy down here in his undies...A cab just dropped him off...He says he's an FBI agent...He's in bad shape...Like he's been fighting and lost.....He definitely lost his clothes...He's just in his boxers and undershirt...and he needs a doctor.." said our friend, Ziggy...

"Okay Zig...Nate and me are on our way..." said Monica...

"That was Ziggy....He's got Eddie at his bar...He says he's been beaten up pretty badly and he only has his underwear on....He said a cab dropped him off!" said Monica..

Lt. Cotton, Kylie, Monique and I exploded into raucous laughter....

Monica smiled...but she didn't laugh like the rest of us....

"Come on Partner...Let's go pick him up.." she said silently and sighed.....

I followed her to the flying car and took off...

IV-

We arrived at Zig's port side bar....

"Hey guys...He's inside...He uh was very clear to me that he only wanted to talk to you Mo-Mo..." said Zig..

"The hell with what HE wants." I said.

Monica shrugged...

"My Husband has spoken...and besides...He's the primary on this case." she said.

We walked in....Ed Lawlor was sitting at the bar, clad only in his boxer shorts and his undershirt....Upon seeing both of us, he winced...

"Eddie, you're in a hell of a lot of trouble, you know that...We have your gun with only your fingerprints on it and a dead man in the water...A dead man who was our suspect in four ,possibly five murders...." said Monica..

I couldn't help but laugh....I tried to laugh quietly.....

He ignored me and looked at Monica..

"Mo-Mo...I didn't kill him..I swear..." he said.

Monica scanned his mind...He was telling the truth....He quaffed down what looked like a third beer and then drank a cold glass of water...His face was swollen...One of his eyes swollen so bad it was nearly shut...His lip was bleeding and also swollen...

"You...You..You and your partner were right...He is your killer and she is the mastermind...I heard him confess to all of the murders...I followed you and your husband and your sister and the Lieutenant there...I broke into the basement...and he surprised me...we fought...I thought I had knocked him out, but he tasered me...They tied me up and tossed me in the shed...I was semi-conscious...I heard her, I heard her talking to him..Telling him to stay put, that the cops wouldn't think to look for him down here..in the basement of that parlor...Then this morning, she got a call from somebody, Somebody named Efram..He was canceling his wedding plans indefinitely...They quarelled it was pretty loud..Then I heard a gunshot...That's all I remember....Next thing I know...I'm in a cab...in my drawers....Mo-Mo, she took my suit and my gun..." he wailed...

"Not to mention his dignity." whispered Zig to me..

We both walked outside and laughed so hard, tears were falling down our faces...

Monica walked outside after awhile...She peeled off a few dollars...

"Zig...Call him a cab.....This should cover the ride to his apartment...." she said.

"I'm sorry for laughing babes.." I said..

"I don't care about that...He told me , he heard her making reservations for Octopus Gardens...If we hurry, we can stop her and close this case.." said Monica..

I pulled her to me and gave her the slowest ,sweetest ,softest kiss I could give her...She pulled me back to her when I tried to break our embrace...

''Ummmmmmm, that felt good partner" she said.. "I know you love me...You're supposed to...Now come on."she said..and we continued kissing for a minute....

Zig smiled..

"Oh yeah..He drank three tall boys...I'll uh put it on your tab." laughed Ziggy...

And so we were off to the Aqua Port to stop a psychopathic mastermind..

 We arrived at Aqua Port within minutes...I used my cyber eye and it took me just seconds to locate our quarry..

Helena Rubenstein alias Helen Robinson, birth name Helen Rubil was enjoying several Mixed drinks in the bar...Awaiting her transport sub...

"I got it hand it to her...The lady has got style...I love her clothes and those shoes..I have to ask her where she got them." said Monica..

''She does have style at that." I said...

We walked over to where she was sitting and sat down with her...

She smiled..

"Cops?" she asked..

"Yup" I said.

"You two really married?" she asked.

"We are...Almost two years now.." said Monica..

"Wow and you're partners...You two give off that vibe of being a couple." she said.

"Everybody tells us that." said Monica gushing..

"So is your sister a cop too?" asked Helena..

"Oh Nooo...She's a Doctor." said Monica..

''So she and Mr. Cotton are really getting married.?"she asked.

"Oh yeah...He's a cop...He's our boss...Lieutenant Cotton..." said Monica..

"Wow! You two caught me...Did you send that goofy FBI agent in too?" she asked.

"Uh no...He was on his own...That was a neat trick...Killing Ivan Putin with the agent's glock."I said and laughed..

Helena laughed..

"You liked that huh? Yeah it did have a bit of poetry to it.." she laughed..

"Finish your drinks...The officers are here to take you down.." said Monica.

Three uniformed officers were just arriving..

Helena looked at us...

"You know...I've pulled this same scam in other cities and you two were the first detectives to figure it out...I was usually gone before anybody got too close to me.." she said.

''Where else have you done this?" I asked.

Helena smiled..

"Oh London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Chicago, New York ,Miami...Read some old news accounts of rather wealthy fellows who got married and had fatal accidents...That was me.. This aint my first rodeo as you Americans say...." she laughed as the officers read her her rights and took her away...


"Nice meeting you two...Monica, Nate" she said....



I was horrified...She was so non-chalant about murders....

Monica walked up to me..

"Yes dear heart...She's a psychopath....I scanned her mind...She's barren...No soul...No empathy, nothing.." said Monica..

"She scares me.." I said.

"She scares me too! That's why we do what we do...To protect the normal people from the monsters...Monsters like her!" said Monica, who pulled me to her and kissed me passionately...

"I've got enough warmth to protect you baby.." she said as she held me and kissed me passionately..


She was soft and very warm....and I felt very safe as well as aroused at the moment!



EPILOUGE-

Helena Rubenstein was convicted of six counts of first degree murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection.

The frightening thing is this just scratches the surface of the many murders...She is actually guilty of...We called detectives in London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Chicago, New York ,Miami and told them who we had in custody and told them to look into some mysterious deaths of wealthy men who married Russian mail order brides or prostitutes...They did and sure enough they found patterns...and declared and closed homicide investigations...With Helena facing the death penalty, there was no need to charge her or pursue her...

Helena would have the last laugh though...She was found dead in her cell on the eve of her execution...Heart Failure....I always thought you had to have a heart first!

FBI SPECIAL AGENT Ed Lawlor didn't get in any trouble...but the snickers and out right laughs he gets from his fellow agents is punishment enough....The humiliation of having his suit and his gun taken and Monica having to send him home in a cab in his boxers was embarrassing to the hilt.

 Sometime later, Lt. Cotton, Monica, Monique and I were at home chilling..

''Once again...good work guys ...We cleared six murders....took that crazy woman off the streets...And you say she confessed to even more around the world?" asked Lt. Cotton..

"Yeah...They'll probably never be proven...but at least no more people have to die.. She eliminated everybody that got too close to her....She almost got away with it..."I said..

"Okay guys...No more shop talk...Nate, look at your wife.." said Monique, who had finished doing her hair..

Monica walked out...She looked beautiful...Monique had braided her hair...She had beautiful long braids and a white mid drift.  She had a Long Jean skirt with a split in the middle....She looked so beautiful.. I was star struck...

"You like it Nate?" she asked.. She looked nervous..

"I love it..." I said...

She smiled...

"My baby likes it." she laughed...

"I swear Monique...If you hadn't of went to med school...You could have been a hair dresser." I said.

"Maybe when I retire I'll open up a shop." joked Monique...

"I like those blond streaks in your hair baby...Do Blondes have more fun?" asked Lt. Cotton...

"Only one way to find out Lieutenant..." said Monique jokingly...

"Come on baby, let's go upstairs where you can show me how much you like my new hair.." whispered Monica to me..

"Works for me.." I said.