The Turn Around

A normal day at my offices... Morris Communications and Investigations...or MC&I as we now called my company...

Upstairs...We dealt with our digital and print magazines and newspapers....A floor above that we dealt with my sattelite and streaming radio stations, television station and the blogs we supervised as well as our newly acquired recording studio that was across town...

Me? I'm Kevin Morris and I run this operation with the help of my good friends...Sheila Jackson..Deputy CEO, Her husband and my ace boon coon, Sean Jackson, former Staff Photographer..back when I was a writer and editor of the magazine I bought and turned into this company...Now my chief of staff and of course my guy friday, Harry Charles...whose wife is my wife's and every woman in the neighborhood I know, hairdresser Bernadette Charles...

We have a support staff of close to 90 people...

Underneath this building in the sub-basement is Morris Investigations..

I now have enough money that we have a full administrative staff of twenty five people who work down there, keeping records and files up to date and updating our computer files...My man Peeping Tom and his associate ,Lockpick Johnson manage the whole thing, including four ex CIA Agents and one ex-KGB agent...

I am the chief investigator...We've gotten very sophisticated now..We have equipment that can rival many police departments and federal agencies....

Today however...I was finishing lunch with my wife, Sepia..We were standing in the doorway kissing passionately....

"Ummmmmmmm lover, I have to show a house this afternoon, save some of that for tonight..." she said..

"I'll try ,but it won't be easy..." I said, smiling salaciously at her...

"Oh My...Is this a bad time? " asked our good friend, Attorney and Insurance Investigator, Bonnie Shay...

"Heyyyyyyyyy Bonnie!" I said..blushing....a little embarrassed that she caught me and Sepia kissing like that.....I had to remember to lock that door....

"Heyyyyyyyyyy Bonnie Girl...How are you?" said Sepia, who kissed her on the cheek...

"I'm doing great...My Boss isn't....Which is why I'm here..." said Bonnie Shay....

"What has he done now?" I asked..

"I'd love to stay and listen to this...but I gotta go, show a house.." said Sepia..

"Bye girl...We got to get together..one Saturday and do Brunch, a little shopping...If I have a job after all of this." said Bonnie..

"That Bad huh?" said Sepia...

"Honnnnneyyyy, you don't know the half..." said Bonnie...

"Oh My God!!!! Help her Kevin!!!Well I gotta go...See you guys later...Bonnie, Call me girl, we can hook up next weekend .." said Sepia...

"Sure thing Sepia." said Bonnie.

We entered my office...

"Harry ,hold my calls.."I said as we went in my office..

Harry Charles was slyly checking out Bonnie's sexy body and smiling sheepishly at me...

II-

Bonnie passed me an envelope....I opened it...

"WOW! He really is in trouble...."I said ,looking at the check....

Bonnie put a photo on my desk...

It was of a very shapely and attractive woman......

"Ummmm she's nice looking.." I said, smiling...

''She's an Attorney, her name is Alexandria Miller....About two or three months ago, we hired her....She was actually a very good attorney. We got nothing but glowing reviews about her...My husband worked with her, said she really knows her stuff....Anyway...you know my boss..He never met a woman, who he didn't feel he should liberate from her panties and bra... They started messing around almost as soon as she got there...At the job ,at his loft, in hotels....I know about the hotels because he billed them to the company...Idiot.....He gave her her own office after two months and two huge raises...He was head over heels in love, bringing her roses and whistling in his office all day...."said Bonnie..

"Is she pregnant??"I asked..

"I wished that was the case...If it was...I wouldn't be here..,.Look at these.." she said and passed me some reports...

"These are bank statements...Looks like Elwood transferred a crap load of money...Millions from Cyclops Insurance to a private pocket account in the Caymen Islands..."I said.

"He didn't...and look at this....Our twelve wealthiest clients...confidential and sensitive information transferred to the Centaur Insurance Company from his Laptop, His personal laptop and his office computer...These guys have been contacted and they are furious...They are threatening to leave Cyclops and sign with Centaur..I think she did this...I think she was a deep cover agent,planted inside Cyclops. " said Bonnie...

''So he's being Blackmailed..."I asked.

"Yes....by Steve Stansberry...The owner of Centaur Insurance...He planted Alexandria Miller inside of our company and  she got access to our highly confidential files and transferred them to Centaur....He wants Elwood to convince the Board of directors to merge with Centaur or he'll make this public...Elwood would get disbarred and possibly sent to prison and they still have enough leverage to absorb our company..."said Bonnie..

"WOW!  This is heavy...."I said...

"They have our offices wired with Micro-Cameras and listening devices , Elwood's Loft as well...and his phone is cloned...Mine and Ronnie's as well...I left my phone at work before I came here...I have another phone...a burner phone that I use...They said if they detect that we are moving any of their devices...They'll make this public and kill one of Elwood's friends....They've got him in a box.."said Bonnie..

"And you need my help? Say no more ,I'm on it... I know this Steve Stansberry guy...

I said...

"You do?" asked Bonnie.

"I did some work for his late father once...He's a stone knucklehead....Born and Raised here in Philly, went to the finest schools on the Main Line, kicked out of every single one of them...His daddy's money got him into one in which he could graduate...Went to Harvard, got expelled, Went to Columbia, got expelled, finally went to Penn, where he just barely graduated from Wharton...Got a wealthy socialite pregnant...Daddy paid for her abortion and sent him to Los Angelas to handle his affairs out there...Then Daddy died...He returned to Philly where he received his inheritance and that Insurance company,which was losing money like a sive a few years back and about to go under...I guess sonny boy got himself together and got to work...Today Centaur Insurance is you guys number one competitor..." I said.

"Wow...You do know your stuff..." said Bonnie..

"I try." I said,laughing...

"I did some digging myself...In the past year....Centaur has merged with and then taken over four Insurance companies and two law firms...Here is the list of them and their holdings...All of them fell just like that.."said Bonnie..

I peered over them....Bonnie passed me a sheet of Centaur's holdings...

"All four of these companies and these two law firms were doing better, much better than Centaur...Why would they have to sell, why would they need to merge with a company on the verge of being Bankrupt?"I asked..

"Exactly what I'm thinking..." said Bonnie...

"Unless Centaur acquired them the same way he's about to acquire Cyclops..." I said...

"These are all African -American owned companies...."said Bonnie....

"Look...They're probably watching you....I can get you out of here without them seeing you....You go back to work, you act like everything is normal and let me do some digging...I'll be in touch...Give me the number of that burner..."I asked..

"Thank you Kevin...Thank you so much..."said Bonnie..

"We are going to take this guy down and send a message to anybody who gets ideas about this...Don't worry."I said.

I looked at the photos of Attorney Alexandria Miller....She was good looking...I could see how any guy would fall for her.

III-

The first thing I did was look into Ms. Alexandria Miller...The deep cover agent they fished into Cyclops, who stole Elwood's mind and heart...

She was good looking..I had to admit....A closer look at her revealed a lot of things...Surprisingly..She actually was an Attorney....Born in Atlanta, Georgia...Educated in Atlanta Public schools, BA in Administration of Justice from Fisk....She ventured to New York City ,where she attended Columbia and got her Masters in Public Administration....She began dating and living with Steven Stansberry...Well, Well ,Well..The connection.

She had a couple of misdemeanor arrests for prostitution....

I took a short trip to New York City the next day and asked around the clubs about her...She was a High Priced Call Girl and an exotic dancer at one time...Apparently she made so much money she paid off her existing student loans from Fisk and Columbia in no time and put herself through law school....Earning her J.D. from New York University and passing the bar on her first try....

I don't know where her association with Steve Stansberry began...but from what I ascertained..She worked as an Attorney at both law firms and at all five of the insurance companies that got gobbled up by Centaur and resigned shortly after they were acquired.....All were headed by Black men, married black men ,who couldn't afford to be exposed....

Back in Philly, I hooked up with Kool Kat and Lockpick Johnson....It took us no time to find Steve Stansberry's  Safe deposit box...

Lockpick Johnson disabled the cameras and gained easy access...Inside...we found access.....Seven Zip drives and folders with hundreds of Negatives...

"Looks like you hit the jackpot Kevin..." said Kool Kat laughing...

"Yupper..."I said..

I replaced what I took with empty negatives and empty zip drives...For awhile...Stansberry wouldn't know the difference...

Back at headquarters....Kool Kat, Sean Jackson,Clerow, Owen Todd, Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson and I poured over the negatives and Zip drives...

"Lawd today..." we all said...

Sure enough , there was Ms. Alexandria Miller on her knees with the penises of The five heads of the different insurance companies in her mouth and the two heads of the law firms..All seven of these men were pillars of the community and married with children...three of them with grandchildren....There was film footage of her in hotel rooms with all of them at different times, Elwood Barnes included, making love...doing all kinds of things...

Kool Kat was sweating...

"My lawd, she's....she's talented..." he said...

We all busted out laughing...

but locating her was another thing...All we had was the address Elwood had supplied us that she gave him....

She wasn't there....Had moved out a week ago...

We found the car on Street Cam footage...It was a rental...Returned two weeks ago....It was paid for by Centaur Insurance.

Clerow, Owen Todd, Sean Jackson and I discreetly asked around about her...She had been seen ,by some, but not lately....

I found her...She was staying with a cousin....I took a few photos of her....Talking to her wasn't important...Not yet!

III-

I met with Bonnie Shay , a few days later...I told her everything I'd found out..about the Blackmail and about Alexandria Miller..I gave her the address...

"This is where she lays her head.." I said. and showed her the photos..

"Great...but she's not important...She's just an operative...You guys getting those zip drives and those negatives are better...but we have to get inside of there and find out who is monitoring us and knock out their hard drive...That's impossible...He knows you and he knows me..."said Bonnie..

"It's not impossible...it's been done before...I need you to call each of these men...Tell them to meet me in my conference room here tomorrow at noon and to make sure they weren't followed." I said..

"You think they'll do it?" asked Bonnie..

"Impress upon them how important this is.." I said.

The next day at noon , seven very frightened men met with Bonnie and me in my conference room at Morris Communications and Investigations...The twelve wealthy clients of Cyclops insurance were there too..

I showed them the Zip Drives and the negatives....The men looked as if they could go through the floor...

"Gentlemen....I'm a private investigator...I stole these from Steve Stansberry's safe deposit box...I know he's blackmailing you and he has been for a long time...I know he absorbed and took your companies and firms from you....I know he's spoken to you twelve men and told you to sign with Centaur...I'm telling you to hold tight..." I said..

"That's nice that you got that....but he's got people everywhere..We've all been threatened..."said one man..

"He can't threaten you if he has no leverage...If you give me 72 hours...I'm going to get inside his company and destroy his hard drives...and transfer all of your money back to you...." I said..

"You can do all this huh?" said another man....

"I was able to get this much wasn't I? And he doesn't even know it's been taken....72 Hours and he won't have any leverage over you anymore...You won't have to knuckle under to him anymore..This is the turn around..."I said..

"Who do you work for?" asked another man..

"I work for Cyclops....Kevin Morris and Morris Investigations was hired by us...to aid in rectifying this situation...They've helped us before with a simular problem..."said Bonnie...

"Will you trust me?" I asked..

The seven men all agreed...They were African-Americans ,who had lost their insurance companies and law firms..

"We got nothin to lose.."said one..

The twelve clients looked at me..They were all Caucasion,except one who was Asian...

"Well...Alright...What do we have to do?" asked one..

"Nothing...Act the way you have been...I'll be in touch...When I call you, check your bank accounts..."I said..

They all agreed and left......

"Can you pull this off?" asked Bonnie Shay...

"Yeah...I'm going to need some extra personell to do it...Don't worry...I know just the two, I said and smiled..

IV-

Sepia was waiting for me when I got home...

"Heyyy Lover..."she said..

"Sepia "I said with a smile...

"How would you like a job?" I asked.


(TO BE CONTINUED)