A Girl's Life

At the Medical Examiner's Office the next Day , Hazel , Duke, Jimmy and Carlotta waited for the arrival of Hector Diaz...The Brother of the slain Golda Diaz....The pregnant 16 year old  girl, whose body we found in an Oil Drum in the basement of a funeral home that had been closed for 2 years....The decay on the body showed she had been dead for 45 years...

Hazel had blown up a photo of what the young lady looked like...The photo had been retrieved from Missing Persons after we identified her through her dental records...and a Forensic Artist had used her skull and designed an almost uncanny likeness of her...

Hector hadn't arrived yet...Hazel and Carlotta were in another room... Duke,Tyriq, Jimmy and I stood around looking at her photo...

"No disrespect....But My God...She was stacked..." said Jimmy ,looking at her photo..

"No argument there...I find it hard to believe she was only 16...She's got a woman's body..."I said quietly...

"Mannnn she drove those boys crazy in that school, they didn't know what to do with her..."said Duke..

''Somebody knew what to do with her...They got her pregnant!" said Tyriq....

staring at her photo...

''Hard to believe she was only 16 huh?..I couldn't either...but I saw her birth certificate..."said Hazel..."She was born here in the city..." she said...

"Just like me...I developed early too!  I had grown men, My father's age trying to take me out..." said Carlotta.

I was four, almost five years older than Carlotta myself and she  had had my nose open since the day I first met her...When she was a young detective...I could certainly understand that! I mused..

II-

Hector Diaz came in ...He was 57 years old....He looked much younger..He bore an eerie resemblance to Olivia Bennett-Alexander's first husband, Elwood Barnes...

Carlotta made him feel at home by speaking to him in Spanish...They conversed for a short while and then resumed the conversation in English...

"Goldie...We called her Goldie...was my older sister...Older than me by just a year...We had another sister...she died of breast cancer a few years ago...My Mother and Father and my other sister all died with a little bit of as broken heart...Wondering whatever happened to Goldie....We knew she didn't run away...We told the police that something bad had happened to her...but they didn't believe us and they didn't look too hard...We were Puerto Rican....Working Poor...My pops had a corner grocery store..We didn't matter then and as now , we still don't matter...You guys found her by accident, because they were cleaning out that Funeral Home to tear it down..."he said through tears...

"I'm Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace and Hector your sister was murdered and hid away for 45 years...Me and these Detectives here don't think that should be swept under the rug...We are investigating her death right now as a fresh homicide.."I said..

"It was on the news for two days ,then nothing.."said Hector..

''We want to keep it that way..We think whoever did this is still alive and still out there.." said Duke..

Hector balked..

"Nah...It's been 45 years...What makes you think that?"he asked..

"Because yesterday, the former owner of that funeral home went to our Captain and tried to stop us from looking into this..Now why would he do that?  Unless he had something to hide..?" asked Tyriq..

Hector grimaced..

"Bert? Bert Caulken??" he asked.

"Yeah, the guy running for State Senator...You know him?" asked Jimmy...

"Yeah I know him..We grew up together...He had a thing for my sister...But she wouldn't give him the time of day...He was always coming around, bringing her flowers, trying to walk her to school....He was crazy about her..." he said..

''She was pregnant at the time of her death...By somebody..Four Months Pregnant..."said Carlotta.

"It wasn't by Bert...She would have never of given him any...It must have been by her boyfriend...Julio Garcia."said Hector.

"Is he still...Alive?" asked Carlotta..

"Yes... He has a car detailing business and car wash in Northern Liberties...he's married , got a son in college and two girls , still in High school.

"Then we need to talk to him, get his DNA, find out when he last saw your sister.."said Carlotta..

"Julio would have never hurt Goldie.."said Hector..

"We need to talk to him anyway...Hector, too much time has already gone by...Time is of the essence."said Duke.

III-

And at a diner in the Fishtown Section of Philadelphia.. Lt. Sissy Van Buren sat drinking her coffee and waiting for her three detectives and her friend from the FBI...

She looked up and she saw Angie, Sirena ,Hop and Sharon walk in...

 "Heyyy Sis." said Angie

 "Boss Lady" said Sirena..

 ''Wow ,this place brings back memories..I asked you to be my steady  in here Sharon."said Hop..

"I remember ..And I told you no ,because I was already going out with Al Thompson.What a loser...He just wanted to get me in the bed.." said Sharon...

"I'm sooo sorry...I should have been your girl...I would have been so happy years in advance.."said Sharon..

''Babe, we're together now!  "said Hop...

 ''Chica told me you three grew up in this section." said Sissy...

''She and her sister Carmen lived on one side of me and Sharon lived in the neighborhood behind us...Across the driveway....Hazel lived a few blocks away...She used to date Sharon's older brother.."said Hop..

''Carlotta and I used to come to our back windows and talk every night..about all kinds of things..."remembered Sharon..

It was a long time ago...

They ordered their food... Sirena began the conversation...

"We talked to a lot of her friends and former school mates... Golda or "Goldie" as she was known then was very vibrant..The life of the party...The type of girl who just absorbed all of the light out of the room..She was a presence...Boys wanted her , Girls wanted to be her..She was very popular...We couldn't find anybody that had a bad word to say about her... And they all talked about her dissapearence for years..."said Sirena..

''She had a boyfriend...Julio Garcia... They were pretty hot and heavy and guess what.?? He had a rival..Take a guess who....??Young Bert Caulken...Bert Caulken was obsessed with her...They all said that Bert pursued  her doggedly..She never showed much interest...."said Angie...

"In fact the two had a big fight...It was pretty bad..."said Hop....

"Sirena can I say this?" asked Sharon...

"Go ahead..." laughed Sirena..

''Here's where it gets cute.. Bert Caulken had something on Julio...Something he was holding over him...We know now that  Julio had gotten another girl pregnant!!!  He threatened to spill the beans if Julio didn't break up with Goldie....So they broke up...And soon after that, Bert and Goldie started seeing each other..."said Sharon...

''From all accounts, she was miserable...She wasn't herself, Laughing, clowning...Joking...She became real quiet and reserved and then one day she didn't show up for work at the Bodega...Long gone now and she didn't show up to school that Friday ..the Friday before Memorial Day, 1972...She was never seen or heard from again.."said Angie..

''Shame that Bodega is gone.."said Sissy..

"We found the owner...He was still alive.."said Hop...

"He told us a lot about Golda...Mostly what we have already told you....He said she confided in him that she was pregnant the very last time he saw her....She never told him who the father was..This was two days before she vanished in 1972...He thought ,like everybody else that she had just run away..."said Sharon...

They had made some progress.

IV-

Carlotta and I, Tyriq and Jimmy and Duke arrived in a nicer part of Fishtown...At some fancy lofts...The home of Julio Garcia..

''When I lived in this neighborhood...It was a dump....It is amazing what they've done with all this new housing."said Carlotta.

"I didn't live too far from here...Port Richmond..." said Jimmy...

"Pig Town" laughed Carlotta..

"You know it girl!" laughed Jimmy...

Julio Garcia came to the door...

He was like ,Hector Diaz about 60 or 61 years old... He was married, had two daughters that were in high school and a son in college...

He had a very successful car detailing and car wash business....He was doing very good for himself..

He saw Hector and us and he knew what it was about...

"I'm Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace, These are Detectives, Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace, James Barlow, Tyriq Pile and Duke Baylor..."I said.

He looked at Hector and looked us up and down...

"This is about Golda!  You found her..That was her in that funeral parlor wasn't it? I thought for years that she was right here in the neighborhood...People kept saying she ran away..People kept saying they saw her...I knew she was dead....She would never just leave her family like that..." he said..

Carlotta spoke to him in spanish...She told him that Golda was pregnant at the time she was murdered.

He told her he was in school at the time Golda vanished...He said that in addition to the three children he has with his wife... He fathered a boy with another girl , who is now about 44 years old...He told her the boys name and where he was living...Said that his oldest son had two girls and a son of his own...He said that Bert Caulken found out about it and forced him to break up with Golda....So he could have her to himself.. Golda and him were not together at the time she vanished..

Carlotta explained everything to us in English...

''We'll check your story out as best we can..Would you mind giving us a DNA test....So we can determine if she was pregnant with your baby....."said Tyriq..

He agreed and we took him to see Hazel..

He left Fingerprints, Urine ,Saliva and Blood...Hazel had his DNA processed immediately....

The results...

Positive...That was his baby, she was pregnant with at the time of her death...

He never knew...He broke down and cried...

It was Duke who comforted him...

"I know...I know man...I know how you must feel...but you have been blessed with a wife, Three lovely children and another son and grandchildren...You have a lot to be thankful for.." he said..

He looked at us....

"Please...Please...forty some years ago...I told the police to look at Old man Caulken and his son, Bert....They brushed this under the rug.....All these years  I wondered what happened to Goldie..She wasn't that far away..She was in the basement of that damned Funeral home in a corner...in an oil drum,like a ,like the evening trash....Don't let whoever is responsible for this get away with it.." he pleaded...

''We won't."said Tyriq and Jimmy..

Carlotta stood in the corner, silently weeping...

Hazel had her arms  around her,comforting her...

I was damn near destroyed myself...

V-

That night, we all met and had dinner back at "Copland"....We compared notes...

''So she was pregnant with Julio Garcia's baby huh?" said Sissy.

"Yes...He never knew.."said Carlotta.

"His story and Hector's all check out..."said Tyriq...

''We talked to his oldest son and his wife and his mother...They verified that Bert Caulken found out about their relationship and was holding it over Juan's head  to make him break up with Goldie.."said Jimmy...

''As bad as it all sounds...This is teen age drama...We all have heard this story how many times when we were growing up?" said Sirena..

"It still doesn't point the finger at anyone...We have to find out how she wound up in that funeral home in the basement with a fractured skull.."said Hop..

"And there is only one man who can answer that....Bert Caulken..."said Angie..

"He's still not answering his phone.."said Duke..

"He might be pursuaded if our new information hits the media..."said Sissy looking sexy and devilish...

''And if he got a visit from an Assistant District Attorney." I said.

''And a high ranking FBI official." said Sharon...

And in the downtown offices of Attorney A. J. Miller.. A very Angry Bert Caulken is meeting with him..


"I thought when we met with Cantrell this matter was handled.. It's all in the papers and on the television.. Girl found in basement was identified and she has romantic ties TO ME!" said Bert Caulken...

"Our hands are tied Bert...What can we do...We were dancing pretty close to Obstruction of Justice charges just meeting with him and conversely suggesting such a thing..Why didn't you get rid of that oil barrel when you moved out of there? You had two years..Two years before anybody would have suspected a thing."said A.J. Miller..

"Because I forgot..I forgot...Do you know how long that damn barrel has been in the basement in that corner...??? I never go down there.." he screamed...

"That was a costly miss step." said A.J.

"Does Cantrell have anything in his past? Any dirt??" asked Caulken...

"I'm sure he must...."said A.J. Miller..

"FIND IT!!! CALL HIM AGAIN!!  I WANT THIS TO GO AWAY!" said Bert Caulken...


(TO BE CONTINUED)