Kelly Ray's Secrets

Philadelphia, 2041-

I stood out in the street and stared at the white body bag.....

A white body bag that held a dead body... This wasn't a meant to get philosophical , but I often felt a sadness when I came across a dead body...especially of a murder victim...They probably woke up today just like I did...They probably had no idea that this was going to be their last day alive...

This young woman probably got up, showered, put on a nice fragrance, which I could still smell ,got dressed up and probably had plans for the weekend...All of that was moot now...

I stared up at the apartment complex where she probably breathed her last breath and I just sighed...

"Nate? Nate?  Brother in law....You okay?" came the sweet voice of my sister in law, Coroner and Forensic Investigator, Dr. Monique Talbert-Cotton....The identical twin sister of my wife and partner, Detective Monica Talbert-Nellis...

Me? I'm Detective Nate Nellis, Homicide.....

I shook my head and said -'Yeah sis..I'm alright, I uh was just lost in my thoughts.." I said..

My wife, Detective Monica Nellis , unzippered the bag and looked at the body.....She was a young girl..she barely looked old enough to drink....She was very shapely and attractive...

Monica looked up.....

''She either jumped or was pushed from the top of that complex..." said Monica..

I looked at her face...

"Somebody did a number on her face before she took a header....Both of her eyes are nearly closed shut..Her cheek is bruised..." I said..

"You're right....She fell from quite a distance...Multiple fractures...Ummmph...What a horrible way to die..."said Monique...

"Nate, Mo-Mo...I found the room she was in..." said Detective Kylie White....Who called my smartphone.

II-

We all took the elevator to the top floor.....

We found a very nice apartment....bed was made up....Kitchen sink was clean....but a look in a side room was a different story....

The bed was not made up....and panties and bras were strown all over the floor..

I picked up a lace bra....

''You like that Nate" asked Monica...

I didn't answer....

A red stripped bra lay on the floor by the door,

A pair of Black lace panties were on the door knob and a pair of aqua panties were on the floor by the door..

In the waste basket were three condoms...all loaded...

"Hmmmm looks like baby girl was uh busy...." said Monica...as she passed them to the CSI technician, who bagged and tagged them....

Police photographers were snapping photos of the entire apartment..

"Look, it's a pair of boxer shorts..." I said...

'She had a boyfriend.." said Kylie...

"I found her purse....Here is her drivers license , credit cards, debit cards....Ky Jelly, more condoms and here sewn into the thread...Some kind of key....Safe deposit key..."said Monica.. Her name is
Kelly....Kelly Ray...She's 19.."said Monica...

''She's got a record too...10 arrests since the age of 16....All for solicitation....She's a hooker..."I said.

I opened up the ceiling panel in her bedroom and there I found it...

"Look...it's Fentynol and other opiods." I said..

"This isn't enough to sell...Chances are she was using..."said Monica..

"This apartment is in a very high rent neighborhood... Baby girl is from the hood...She's a long way from home...If she was paying for this place...My guess is , she wasn't your average street walker..She was a high priced pro...or ho...however you want to look at it.." said Kylie..

Monique and Monica smiled....

"Look!! Two sets of footprints and look how they are twisted on the floor.."I said.

"There was a struggle.....It happened here...In this room....and from the way things are thrown around...I' guessing our killer was looking for something..."said Monica..

''So..it's not a john....it's someone else.." I said..

"At any rate....a very very unsatisfied customer.."said Kylie..

"No Kylie, this wasn't a john.....This was somebody else...They were looking for something...Dust this place down for prints.." said Monica to the CSI guys...

I walked out on the terrace...

I found a Brandy glass...It was half drunk and had fingerprints on it...

"Look at this.." I said...

"Where did you find this?" asked Kylie..

"Back here....You know what this means?  Somebody else was here...and not the killer...but an eyewitness." I said.

"The John.....She was entertaining.....Somebody else came here...He hid out here on the terrace...

"Whoever he was...He heard and saw the beating she took and saw her tossed over the balcony....."said Monique...

"Get his fingerprints...I pray he has a record of some kind...And we have our eyewitness..."I said...

"Those Boxers over there....Bag them, tag them...Get DNA off of them.....I'm guessing he was here and just as they were getting ready to get into something, the doorbell rang...She told him to hide...and while he was hiding, her killer worked her over and tossed her off the terrace..." said Monica..

"Damn....and look in her purse here....$1200.00 in fresh bills.....If our guy paid , not only did he not get any loving, but he witnessed a murder...He had to get out of here in a hurry and left his drawers behind...I'm bettin he was a real unsatisfied customer.."said Kylie..

Now for the first time tonight...I laughed...

"Come on Partner...We have our work cut out for us.." said Monica..

"I'm done here....Can I release the body sis?" asked Monique..

"Yeah...release the body..." said Monica.

We all watched somberly as the body was put in the van and driven away...

I took in a deep breath of the night air..


III-

Back in the Squadroom....we settled down...

''Honey Bunny, we are supposed to go out with Lance and Cecilia tomorrow night..."said Monica..

''Yeah, I know...Shame we caught a murder case in the middle of all of this.."I said.

"That's okay....Even we are entitled to some down time every once in awhile.." said Monica...

I looked at her and smiled..

Lt.Cotton walked in just then....

"Heard you guys had a jumper!" he said.

"Not a jumper....This was a homicide...She was tossed from the roof of that building.."I said.

"And somebody did a job on her face, prior to tossing her over the side...Her apartment was tossed....Aparently whoever killed her was looking for something....My guess is this...

A Safe deposit box key..."said Monica holding it up...

''Wow....I'm guessing there was no eyewitnesses..." said Lt. Cotton..

"We think it might be at least one...Her apartment had panties and bras strewn everywhere and several loaded condoms in the trash can.." said Kylie..

"She made her living staring at the ceiling huh?" laughed Lt. Cotton..

"That's our guess..She had a long rap sheet, 10 arrests for prostitution over a four year period...All dismissed, no jail time..We found opiods and fentynol hidden in her drop ceiling...Not enough for sale,but enough for personal use.." said Monica..

"What about that safe deposit box key?" asked Lt. Cotton.

I ran the serial number through pubic decks....

It's registered to Kelly Ray...That's the dead girl..I also have an address..."I said.

"Mo-Mo, who do we know who has women on the street and who also has a package that's a number one seller amongst the drug crews?" said Lt. Cotton..

"CHARLIE FONTANA!" said Monica and Kylie in unison...

"I heard of him...He owns a number of legal strip clubs here in the city..."I said.

"That's his front....He also has girls on the street...They're hooked on Heroin and or opiods...They work harder to make his money to get his drugs....We've tried to put a tag on him for years...but we've never caught him with the drugs or around the girls.."said Monica..

"So how do you know he's the guy?" I asked.

"EVERYBODY KNOWS HE'S THE MAN!" said Kylie and Lt. Cotton in unison...

Monique walked in just then.....

"Well we eliminated the girl's fingerprints......and Nate you were right, somebody else was there...but we got nothing on him....Whoever he is, he's never been arrested...Never been in the armed services either..I checked the FBI data base, The Armed Forces data base and Interpol...nothing....The DNA in at least one of the condoms is a match for the DNA we got off the Boxer shorts." said Monique.

Lieutenant Cotton laughed...

"Wait what? You found a pair of Boxer shorts?  And a loaded condom??"he asked trying to contain himself..

"I'm thinking our guy was a john and whoever killed her interrupted them...We found a half drank glass of Brandy hidden behind a large plant on the terrace.."said Monica.

"Oh Hell, you find him and maybe...Maybe you have an eyewitness to the murder...

"I got a team on the Street cameras outside of the building and one looking at the lobby cameras to see who entered."I said.

''And who left without their drawers..."laughed Lt. Cotton..

"Frankie stoppppppppppp! It's not funny...a young woman has been murdered and some poor guy is out there somewhere scared..."said Monique...

"Not to mention cold...with no pants on.." Laughed Lt. Cotton...

Now,I was laughing and Lt. Cotton and I high fived each other..

"I can't with these two today...." laughed Kylie...

"Okay, Okay comedians.....Come on Partner....Let's find that safe deposit box and find out what is in it.." said Monica..

IV-

"It would have been nice if Fontana's prints had been found in that apartment..."said Monica.

"That would have been too good to be true...I'm guessing the boss doesn't get his hands dirty..." I said.

"Fontana is very hands on...I know for a fact he murdered a rival of his three years ago..but I didn't have any forensic evidence...I've been frustrated about that for years.."said Monica.

Monica and I located the Safe Deposit Box with no problem and matched the Key to it..

When we opened it we found something very surprising...

A briefcase loaded with baggies of pure heroin..

Huge bags of Heroin.....

'Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu Looka here..."said Monica.

I took a knife and cut a small hole in one of the bags....I took my pinkie and sampled some of it...

"It's Heroin...Pure Heroin...It's not street ready....but it's worth  millions of dollars... could see why he'd want this.."I said..

There was also a gun in a plastic bag...

"This is a big gun..." I said..

"It's in a plastic bag...Wanna bet this implicates someone in a murder?" asked Monica..

"Somebody like Charlie Fontana." I asked.

"We can only hope..." said Monica, smiling devilishly...

(TO BE CONTINUED)