Another Zip Drive

For two days we had been watching the waterfront condo of Reputed Gangster, Tony Gallante....He was nowhere to be seen and neither was any body guards...

Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson and my five new investigators attempted to breach his security and wire his condo for sound and video , except that they found...

"Somebody else is already bugging him Kev, The Government and the PPD.." They said..

I told them to back off...I already knew who might be watching him...I didn't want to disturb their operation...

I had Clerow and Owen Todd keep tabs on his place...I borrowed them from my wife and Bonita, who they now worked with..

"Nobody has been in or near his condo in days Kevin..."said Owen Todd....

"He's got mail just piling up..".said Clerow..

Sean Jackson had taken several surveilience photos...It was true...Nobody had been at his condo at all...

We all returned to headquarters...

We checked his credit card and debit cards for movement...There hadn't been any movement since the day before Troy Lester had been murdered...That was weird!  A whole week and this man hadn't spent any money anywhere...Bills piling up...Perhaps he;d left town...

Time to visit Sissy..

II-

I loved it that my good friend, Lt. Sissy Van Buren and her detectives

 now had a building of their very own,just for them.....and my other good friend, FBI Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins and her entire FBI operation shared the building with them...

It was a modern building that had ultra modern crime fighting equipment, plus several rooms on the upper floors so that if they were working overtime and needed to sleep, they could stay and rest...

Sissy and Sharon had a hand picked and vetted administrative staff and several uniformed policemen were assigned to them...It was great to visit them...I took my customary coffee for the boss lady as I always did..

On this day, they all were there...

including ADA Keith Wallace...

"Thank you friend...What brings you here..?" asked Sissy...

''What do any of you know about Tony Gallante,besides the obvious, that he has the new package on the streets?" I asked..

At the mention of his name, everyone turned around...

"Have you seen him?" asked Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor..

"No, not at all...I was at his waterfront condo....My associates and I were going to wire his place for sound and video, only we found you guys equipment in place already so we backed off."I said..

"You and your guys are good, we never saw you..."said Detective Tyriq Pile..

"He's our target...We and the FBI have been investigating him for awhile now.."said Detective Sirena Pile..Tyriq's wife..

''We have dossiers on 38 of his known associates.."said Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace..

''As well as several known drug organizations who do business with him.."said detective James "Jimmy"Barlow..

"Any day now, we are going to start knocking on some doors and taking down some very big fish associated with him.."said Detective Tony Hopkins..

"So Maybe he got word and split town.."I asked...

"No way...We've been very quiet and very careful...We are very good at this now.."said Detective Angela Belton Barlow, now married to Detective Jimmy Barlow, but a long time ago...My first love...I smiled at Angie, She smiled back...

''What is your interest in him Kevin?"asked Sissy...

"A murder!" I said..

 "A Murder??  Now you're talking" said FBI Deputy Special Agent in Charge, Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins, wife of Detective Tony Hopkins.

 "A Murder?? Who??" asked Sissy..

"Yeah Who? asked ADA Keith Wallace..

"Now that you guys are so high fallutin..."I joked..."You don't hear about all of the little murders that occur..A week ago a friend of mine, A freelance writer named Troy Lester was murdered..."I said.

"I heard about that....It's Lt. Tragg's case...

We aren't going anywhere near that case.." said Carlotta..

"Anyway, he was a friend of mine...I was with him just hours before he was murdered...He was a degenerate gambler, owed everybody money, credit cards maxed out...close to being evicted...Then he got a job as a book keeper in a club owned by, well a club Tony Gallante is a majority partner in...It's an exclusive adult club on the 13th floor of a building down town...It's very expensive...Mostly High rollers, Actors, Doctors, Lawyers,Politicians, rappers, Musicians, singers...that type go there...They can drink, it's private and there are private rooms they can retreat to if they want to do something more than dance and drink or talk...It's a place they can go with someone other than their spouse and not be in the public eye.."I said.

"Oh My...We didn't know anything about this.."said Sissy...

"Tony Gallante is never there...but I think he launders his dirty money through that club..."I said..

''So your friend who was murdered...He was the book keeper at this place huh?" said Tyriq..

''Yeah..he was... Now like I told you...My friend was in debt up the wazoo, about to be evicted from his apartment...Then a month ago..He's got close to a million dollars in his bank account..His credit cards are paid off in full, He pays off his bookie, comes in Josies pays me the money he owes me and everybody else he owes money to,pays his rent and buys champagne and drinks for everybody showing a lot of cash...then he's dead within an hour...That was a week ago..Whoever killed him tried to make it look like a suicide.. "I said.

''And you think it wasn't."said Duke..

"His breath smelled like minty fresh mouth wash, His shower was wet and hot...and he had on different clothes.."I said...

"Like he was waitin for a broad."said Jimmy..

"Jimmmmy!" said Angie..

"I'm sorry, a young lady.." said Jimmy...

Carlotta, Sirena and Sharon laughed...

"He was stealing?." asked Hop..

"No worse...He was blackmailing customers....He set up a micro-camera and some mikes in a couple of the rooms...He blackmailed two people I know..Clients of mine and had them pay him 100 large a piece..and I suspect he had blackmailed more...That's the only way to explain such a huge turn around in his finances.."I said..

"And you think Tony Gallante killed him?" asked Sissy...

"He certainly had a motive to .I checked Troy Lester's  finances...He received two payments of 200k a day apart...One of those payments came from the account of that actress, Debbie Jackson..." I said..

"I love her on that show on NETFLIX....I hear she has a substance abuse problem..."said Angie..

"Yeah I've heard that too!" said Sirena...

"The other payment was from Tony Gallante himself..."I said.

''WHAT?? He blackmailed the boss??" said Keith Wallace..

"Now that would get you killed.."said Tyriq..

"Troy didn't know Gallante was a partner..He's a silent partner..He's never at a place like that...All of his dealings went through the Manager there..Bobby Clapper Jr.. and his two enforcers, two lovely guys named Vick and Luther...I had the pleasure of making their acquaintence..and they in turn had the pleasure of making mine."I said.

Duke laughed...

"I know how THAT turned out.." he said..

"Gallante wouldn't get his hands dirty...He'd have somebody take care of that..."said Hop..

''Or somebody took it upon themselves...It was done so sloppily,it couldn't be a pro...I like Bobby Clapper for this, you got anything on him?" I asked..

"I busted him years ago...For possession with intent to distribute...He's been off the radar since then."said Carlotta..

"At any rate...Gallante hasn't been seen in a week...but we still plan to take down his organization in a few days, minus this club you told us about...We never knew of it's existence."said Sissy..

"That's the whole idea...Nobody is supposed to know ,unless of course, you're in the know." I said..

''So how did you find out?" asked Sharon,laughing..."You in the know?" she asked..

Sissy giggled..

"My two clients...who I won't name were being blackmailed by Troy and they were in that club...They told me about it..Whatever else he was...He was my friend...He worked for me at a time...I want his cruel death avenged and I have no faith in Lt. Tragg closing it..He tried to rule it a suicide.."I said.

''He sure did..He's pissed at me for ruling it a homicide...It's not glamorous enough for him...It doesn't get the media attention he craves...It's just a minor murder.."said Hazel ,who was just joining us.."

"Well,I'll be going...Anything I find...I'll let you guys know...Could you guys uh do the same for me?" I asked..

"Of course friend...and don't be a stranger..." said Sissy...as I waved goodbye to them all..

III-

I decided to give Troy's Apartment another going over...Somebody had tore out a page in a datebook and I'm sure they had cloned his computer, just as I had...They had gone to his safe deposit box, only I had beat them to it...They were looking for something...

I rooted through his room again...Then I looked up at a drop ceiling panel in his bedroom...

I couldn't believe it...I had found it..Another Zip Drive.. This had to be what the killer was looking for..

I looked out the window...Driving up and getting out of his car was Lieutenant Tragg...

Damn it...of all of the times for him to re canvas the crime scene...I had to slip out down the back steps and fast...

Just then...I saw Bobby Clapper's two goons...Vick and Luther...They saw Lieutenant Tragg...

"Hey, what are you doin here white man.."said Luther..

"What are you doin here?"asked Tragg...

''We'll ask the questions.."said Vick ,who cold cocked Lt. Tragg..

"Ouuuuuuu.." he groaned..

Luther punched him in the stomach...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu..ummmmmmmmmmmph." he groaned and fell backwards into the alley.

Lt.Tragg punched Vick in the jaw knocking him backwards and ducked Vick's punch and hit him in the stomach..and then punched him in the jaw,knocking him down...

But Luther punched him in the jaw...

"Oh for Christ sakes.."said Lt. Tragg, who pulled out his revolver and shot Luther in the shoulder and the thigh...

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" screamed Luther , who fell backwards...

Vick tossed his hands up in the air..

"Oh My God...He's a cop!" he yelled..

"Yeah I'm a cop and I'm bringing you two clowns in... Assault with intent to kill a police officer.."said Lt. Tragg..

I laughed my head off and managed to slip away without being discovered...

I didn't think those two clowns killed Troy, though they might have on orders from Bobby Clapper Jr. or Tony Gallante, his silent partner...

IV-

Sepia and I were kissing passionately , a little while later...

''Ummm Husband, what has gotten into you? You're happier than usual.."she asked..

"Oh lady luck smiled on me tonight..."I said,laughing and taking my clothes and hers off..

"That's good." she said...

"Ummmmmmm."she said beneath smouldering kisses... "Lady Luck should always smile.."she said...

"Indeed" I said..

I unzippered and lifted her dress off of her slowly....She opened my shirt and softly kissed my chest...

We rolled across the bed, kissing and fondling each other...

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmm I love me some mommy..." I moaned in between kisses..

"I love me some daddy!" whispered Sepia.. 

I felt good...I felt like my little murder mystery was coming to a close..

(CONCLUSION NEXT)