The Murder Zone

PROLOUGE:

This could have been any other morning in Philadelphia ,in the bedroom of some new and very tony apartments...

A man sat on the bed with a beautiful woman...He was in his boxers, He had on a Philadelphia Eagles T-shirt... She was wearing his Lasalle College hoodie and some panties...They had been watching a movie on Netflix...

He put his arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek about three times..

"Come on Cat...What has gotten into you lately? We been friends all this time, best friends...and now you're acting like you want to be my boyfriend..." said the girl...

"Come on Cindy, that's just it...We've been best friends...I tell you damn near everything..I come over here when you call me and tell me you can't sleep and sleep in the bed with you...all times of night don't I?" said Cat..

"That's what best friends do.." said Cindy...

"Yeah if I was Gay...Which I'm not.." he said and kissed her on the cheek again...Whe he went to kiss her in the lips...She turned her head..

"Come on Cat stop it. Now..We are friends...Homies." she said.

"Well the best way to begin a relationship is to first be friends right? " said Cat...

"Relationship?? Where is this coming from all of a sudden?" asked Cindy...

"Look...We go out to Brunch damn near every Saturday....I go to your family get togethers and pretend to be your date...I fix your car when something is wrong with it..or I take you shopping, I do all the things your man would be doing, except hittin that thing."said Cat...

"Oh My God...Hittin that thing? Where is this coming from? You never talked like this before.." she said...

He kissed her on the cheek and rolled over on top of her..

"Cat!!! Stop it!!! You've got an erection!!!!...You're getting yourself all worked up...I don't want to disappoint you.." she said.. "Ouuuu weee, you got a big one...WOW!" she said giggling....

"Cindy look...I know all your secrets, you know all of mine...All those guys who hurt you before..I been there..I'm not them...I'll treat you better than them...I know you and you know me..I know you think you'll lose our great friendship...but you won't.. Now come on girl,It's time to take it to the next level Cindy...Come on...come on in here...get some of this." he said..

Her eyes got as huge as saucers...

"Whoooooo Cat, look at you, you're, you're huge...Oh My God!" she said...

He took her hand and slipped his boxers down...

"Cat no...Noooooooooooooo don't.." she whispered , still staring at it..

He allowed her to softly stroke it....

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm, ouuu girl come on...Get some of this...All those nights I came over here and slept in the bed with you...I was like this...I'd leave your place as hard as a rock and frustrated that you couldn't see me in any other light than a friend."said Cat...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Cat....I never knew..." she moaned..

"Well now you do!" he said softy.....

Before she knew what was happening she was kissing Cat passionately...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, oh my god...Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu Cat this is sooo wrong."she moaned..

"Why is it wrong baby? Whyyyy ?? Ummmmm come on ,get some of this....Ummmmmm." he moaned..

He reached up under her night shirt and slipped her panties down and off...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh Cat...I can't believe this...." she said...

He unhooked her bra and slid that off....

"Ohhhhh Cat, this isn't right..." she moaned..

He continued kissing her...

''Why isn't it right?"he moaned...

She stroked his engorged and hard penis....She hadn't had sex since she broke up with her last boyfriend, almost six months ago....She had to admit, she was good and horny now...

Cat lifted her up off the bed and entered her...She was as wet as she'd ever been, much to her surprise...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu CAT....Ohhhhh my lord..." she moaned...as he stroked her tenderly and gently...

"Ummmm it's all good, it's all good, you don't know how long I've wanted to do this....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Cindy....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" he moaned...

"CATTTTTTTTTTTTT!  OH MY LORD!!! Ouuuuu." she moaned..

Soon they were lying across the bed , making sweet ,tender love... Cat was being as tender and gentle with Cindy as possible..

SIX TO SEVEN HOURS of sweet lovemaking continued...Cindy was feeling so good she found herself crying like a baby..her head was moving from side to side and she was experiencing multiple orgasms...She had never known Cat, who she viewed as a brother since their college days had felt this way about her..

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu CAT....Ohhhhh my lord...ouuuuu, it feels so good, so good, soooo  good....OOOOOOOOOOU! " she moaned...as he stroked her tenderly and gently...

"Ummmm it's all good, it's all good, you don't know how long I've wanted to do this....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Cindy....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" he moaned...

"CATTTTTTTTTTTTT!  OH MY LORD!!! Ouuuuu. I'm cumming baby...Ouuuu.." she moaned..

The bed was squeaking loudly and the headboard was ramming against the walls...

Cat came and came hard....His body was shaking and his eyes were rolling into the back of his head..

He lie in between her legs, while she gently played in his hair...

"Cat, I-I-I never imagined you felt that way...Oh my god..."she exclaimed...still out of breath...

"I been wantin to do this since the day I met you.." he exclaimed..

''Ouuu For real..??" she asked.

"Yes...I just didn't know how to tell you..."he said.

They had met in college...and had been study friends and buddies...She had several boyfriends..He had other girlfriends...but after each break up , they ventured towards each other for comfort...

They graduated together and entered Grad school and both got their MBA's....She was working for a Major Accounting firm...She didn't know who Cat was working for...That was one thing he kept from her..But he lived in this nice tony loft and had his own office downtown...Drove a brand new Benz and dressed very immaculately....When they went to brunch....They dined at only the best places...He did quite well for himself..

She started kissing him again...

"Ouuuuu look at you...You're buying into this huh? Being my woman, taking things to the next level?" he said in between wet,sloppy, passionate kisses...

She eased herself down on his eager, waiting and hard penis...

''Stop talking Cat...you're killing the mood.. Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu you are huge and sooo hard....OH MY LAWD!" she moaned as she moved up and down on him...

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" he moaned....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU Cattt, OH MY LORD...You are soo hard, soooooo goood...Ouuuuuu.."

"Ouuuuuu girl, you are sooo wet.....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" he said....

The glass in the front window of his apartment shattered....Cindy's eyes looked ahead and then her head
fell on his shoulders...She stopped moving...

Cat looked and a stream of blood ran down her back and just poured on the floor...

Cindy's lifeless body fell off of him and on to the bedroom floor...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.. OHHHHHHHHHHHH  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" he screamed in horror!!!!

This could have been any other morning in Philadelphia ,in the bedroom of some new and very tony apartments...Instead it was this morning and it was a homicide...

I'm Assistant District Attorney, Keith Wallace...I prosecute major crimes...This was a major crime!

II-

A crowd gathered outside the Apartment complex and in the hallways where the crime occurred....

My wife, Detective Carlotta Rodriguez -Wallace had on latex gloves...She and one of her partners, Detective Tyriq Pile and Forensic Investigator , Dr. Hazel Baylor examined the body....The Nude body of Cindy Sutton, 32 years old, accountant....

"Her name is Cindy Sutton, she was 32, She's an accountant....Works at a firm in town...No arrest record of any kind... This apartment belongs to Carvin "Cat" Gibbons...Apparently she was visiting...Neighbors said she was a frequent visitor"said Tyriq...

''She was shot in the back of the head...Killed instantly..." said Hazel....

My wife's other partner...Detective James "Jimmy "Barlow and three uniform policemen entered the room...

''Shot came from directly across the street... The shooter rented that room a week before, described as African-American, brown skinned..no facial hair at all, short cropped haircut....We have CSI people in the room now... but from the smell of bleach in that room we won't find much if anything...We did find one thing... A bottle of these pills...They are anti-anxiety pills...Sold over the counter...Snipers take these to ease their anxiety when they have to shoot..."said Jimmy...

Lt. Sissy Van Buren and I were talking to the distraught Cat Gibbons...her friend and an accountant himself..

"Okay, calm yourself...I know this is hard, but you have to tell us what happened Mr. Gibbons." said Sissy, rubbing his back and trying to ease his nerves...

"Oh My God...Oh My God....She was my friend...My best friend....Since freshman year in college...Who would want to do this to her? She was innocent..She didn't know anything..OH LAWD!" he said, sobbing profusely...

"But YOU know a lot don't you Cat?" I said.

He looked at me and said- "Come on man, I just lost my very best friend in the whole wide world..."he said...

Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor , who was also in the room said-

"Considering she is nude and you just got dressed...I take it she was more than just a friend...A friend with benefits huh?" he said.

"No..No..No...It wasn't like that...Not until this morning....She's been my best friend...Like a sister since college...We studied together, hung out...Told each other about our boyfriends or girlfriends...but all along...all along I had a thing for her...I didn't know it at first...but then I began to realize it....I had just talked her into ...into being with me this morning...This was the first time we had sex....I waited a lifetime for her...She was my best friend..I swear ,she never hurt nobody...she didn't know nothing..She was a good girl... ,she never hurt nobody...You wait a lifetime for somebody,ony to have them taken from you like this...It aint right!"he said and cried profusely....


At this point, Detectives Tony Hopkins, His partner, Detective Sirena Pile and Detective Angie Bartlow entered the room where CSI personell were snapping photos and dusting for prints and DNA..

"I got  teams on all of the Street Cams, Traffic CAMS, Atm CAMs and Business cams in the area, going 15 blocks and also on the ones in this Apartment complex and across the street..." said Hop..

"I've got uniforms searching the trash dumpsters and interviewing everybody in both of these buildings and the surrounding community...From what I'm hearing...Nothing out of the ordinary happened in the hours leading up to the murder...I've gotten only a sketchy outline of what our shooter looks like " said Sirena..

"I've got one eyewitness , from the corner store ,who sold him the pills that Jimmy brought over here.. He paid in cash..From what I gathered he was pretty low key...Didn't make any waves.."said Angie..

Carlotta walked over to Cat Gibbons, who was sitting on the bed weeping...She leaned down and spoke to him...

"Cat, that bullet was meant for you.... And you know that!  I know you know that! You said that you two were making love.....I'm guessing you changed positions.." said Carlotta...

"We did...I was surprised...because she resisted me for so long, but then she got into it.." he said.

"It was good huh? She was feeling it.."said Carlotta smiling..

He was momentarily caught off guard...Carlotta could do that to anybody!

"Oh you just don't know...Damn right it was goood...Yeahhhh she was moaning and before I knew it...She was on top of me ,riding me for all I was worth..." he said..

"And then she caught the bullet?" said Carlotta...

"Yes....She was a good girl...She didn't know nothin.."he said, sobbing..

''So you never shared with her , how you really make your money?" said Tyriq.

Cat Gibbons shrugged...

"No...She had no idea...I kept that from her to protect her, to keep her safe..She didn't have a clue.." he said.

III-

Carvin "Cat" Gibbons is the cousin of Drug Kingpin and Heir Apparent to the Philadelphia Heroin and opiate trade, Alvin Tolliver...A major playa who was selling High grade Heroin, Cocaine and other Opiates...

DEA Special Agent in charge Carol Redding- Cantrell and our own

FBI Deputy Special  Agent Sharon Hopkins..began a joint federal investigation of his operation after a series of Opiate overdoses throughout the city in the past six months all tied to his organization.......

Sissy and I were drawn into the investigation due to about 8 murders tied to his operation....

Once again...We all moved to our off site secret headquarters known as "Copland" ,An apartment complex owned by the government, which we used as an operating base for sensitive investigations.. Here we had privacy and autonomy!

My wife, Carlotta, Sirena, Jimmy and Angie all went deep undercover for weeks with Tyriq and Hop

on the street, running point,directing plain clothes cops from both Vice and Narcotics who were working with us and a few undercover FBI and DEA operatives...

We got through wiretapping and their excellent undercover work, enough evidence for us to swear out warrants on 39 of Alvin Tolliver's associates...

We even got a warrant out for Tolliver himself...

Duke and a squad of Tactical officers and FBI and DEA agents led the raids that netted Tolliver and 39 of his cronies.. and shut down his warehouses in which we confiscated enough drugs to juice the city

It was a successful operation that got 39 convictions and heavy sentences for all of them except Tolliver..Not one of them would testify against him....Not for ordering the murders..All of which we cleared and not for running the drug gang.. We arrested an additional 8 people for the murders...They couldn't tell us who ordered the murders...They were paid by direct deposit from a dummy or pocket account that vanished as soon as we got up on it...It originated in the Caymen Islands..The money was rerouted through Norway back into the United States..A pretty slick operation.

Alvin Tolliver was out on bail.. Awaiting his trial on RICO charges......but without corroborating witnesses, my case was pretty weak..People who didn't get arrested were too afraid to talk to us.

We were no longer staying at Copland...We were all home now....The investigation for the most part had been successful...

IV-

Which brings us to today...

Carvin "Cat" Gibbons...His cousin and suspected number two man was not caught up in the indictments.. We had nothing on him..

What we knew ,but couldn't prove was that he handled the books...He made the decisions on who got paid what, who got supplied how much...When the package came in and what distributors the organization would deal with..  He ran the organization from afar....He was never around any drugs or guns and he certainly wasn't on the street....He was very insulated...He had an office downtown and another condo downtown in which he lived  like a prince... He didn't even associate with his cousin and his associates..except for weekly meetings ,which they changed up constantly...

Carlotta, Sirena and Angie were so good undercover, we were able to keep up with the changes...

Jimmy,posing as a Rival Russian mobster was priceless.....

and Rico and Hop..

kept a good watch, making sure their covers weren't blown and monitored surveilience.

They brought in this case more than anyone else...And it wasn't lost on Carol and Sharon..

"You guys are the best...I wish I had a dozen DEA Agents as good as you guys.." said Carol Cantrell of the DEA.

"We were overjoyed to take this crew down.....They were responsible for half a dozen overdose deaths and 8 murders." said FBI Deputy Special Agent in charge, Sharon Hopkins.

But Sissy warned us...

"With Tolliver and Cat Gibbons still on the street, they can set back up and be back in business within months.. We never did identify their connection...Whoever their connect is..He's still unknown to us and still has that high grade Heroin." she said.

"I just wish we could have gotten to Cat Gibbons...He's the key here." I had said a month ago...

And now today...We had him...His girlfriend had been murdered.

"Cat, don't be a fool, help us to help you..." said Carlotta...

"She's right...That bullet was meant for you...Next time...you won't be so lucky..Depending on how you look at it." said Duke.

"Nah, you crazy...." he said.

''You live here Cat, that guy was across the street from you for about a week...He could have killed you at anytime.."Said Angie..

"He chose to get you when you were most vulnerable....Naked and distracted while making love...He just didn't know she was going to switch positions and it was too late.." said Tyriq..

"So you think my cousin did this? You want me to roll on my cousin?? Nah man...I aint no snitch!" said Cat Gibbons..

"Hey man...bottom line...Your girl is dead!!...A guy was setup across the street from you.. He'd been there all week..What does that say?  asked Jimmy...

"It says a contract was out on you playa..You aren't stupid, you know how this works." said Sirena..

"Yall crazy as hell...My cousin wouldn't do this...For all I know, you guys killed her." he said.

"Come on man, get real, you know better than that.Cindy is dead man!  She's dead!! She was a good girl.. She didn't deserve this man, She wasn't in the game!"" said Hop.

"I can't arrest you...I have no charges on you....But we can put you somewhere ,where you'd be safe...Where your cousin couldn't get to you...."said Sissy....

"And for that protection, I got to give my cousin up? Nah, I don't think so." he said.

"Let's go guys...No need in begging him...." I said...and looked at him...

"Cat....I hope the next time I see you , you're still breathing in and out...I don't want it to be like Cindy there." I said as Cindy's body was put in a body bag and taken out..

(TO BE CONTINUED)