Brighter Side Of Blackmail

My friend Troy had been murdered and I didn't have to wait for my good friend, Dr. Hazel Baylor to rule it a murder..I was already looking into it..

I had copied his entire hard drive and had it's contents on a zip drive...

Decoding his password was child's play for Peeping Tom and my five additional investigators....A look inside his computer revealed lots...There were stories and half stories he started for my magazine and others he was working on...and something even more revealing... A photo of

Assistant State's Attorney Tony Richardson....Why would he have his photo in his files...

Another photo of Local Attorney , Patricia Reynolds...

A very vivacious, shapely and attractive woman ,who was the wife of a very distinguished Judge....Recently caught up in a scandalous relationship with one time State's Attorney candidate, Eric Becker

 and another tawdry affair with a young man

 in a road house that led to murder...

Her husband, Judge Percy Reynolds

 who had been fighting with the man , who it was said was showing too much physical attention to his wife was initially accused and cleared....

Somehow or other these two were still together...

I began looking into Troy's financials...I went back as far as six months before..  He had been nearly broke..His five credit cards maxed out and in debt to damn near everybody.....Then recently he had a change in his fortunes...

He had nearly one million dollars in his bank account....He had paid all five of his credit cards off in full, I saw him come in Josies on his last night alive and pay myself, Chris and Chess, Gus and Kool Kat off and buy two bottles of the best champaigne for our tables...

How did he get so flush?  It certainly wasn't from his stories... Oh sure , they were paying for his stories...but not this kind of money...

I saw the last two payments to his account...One for 100K wired from Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Richardson's account to his and the other from Patty Reynold's account....

Now why would both of them be giving him that kind of money....for what?  I wondered...

In one file there was the combonation and location of his safe deposit box....I knew that old Lt. Tragg probably hadn't figured out his password yet....and wasn't privy to this...I decided I was going to take a look...

I found his safe deposit box and opened it... Inside was another Zip Drive..

I put it in my pocket and walked away...

II-

Back at Morris Investigations, this zip Drive proved to be quite interesting...

Attorney Patricia Reynolds and my friend, Assistant U.S. Attorney,

Tony Richardson, a married man and a confirmed womanizer who had put the moves on the two beautiful attorneys I sometimes work for, Gloria Brown

and Kayla Bennett,

Had recently met with Patricia Reynolds in a downtown hotel here in Philadelphia...

and done the hibbity bibbity, the nasty, the horizontal polka...

they had had wild sex, according to several videos...

several well filmed videos...in color, great digital sound...et al...

There was nothing grainy about what I and my associates were watching...It was almost as if they consented to be filmed...Whoever set them up used some very, very good high grade equipment...much like what I used...

If this got out...

It would certainly ruin her already strained by two very nasty sex scandals marriage...I was amazed her husband had forgiven her twice...And I had heard there was even a third ex-lover in the past...But looking at the woman...She was gorgeous....and had a very round and womanly body....and she was some 22 years younger than her husband, who was nearing retirement...The man was just hypnotized and mesmerized and hopelessly in love with her...

And Tony Richardson , a very herald Assistant U.S. Attorney was looking for bigger things, perhaps a judgeship, or a run in politics...He was quite popular in D.C. where he lived and here in Philadelphia where he commuted to work sometimes... I had saved him from a couple of scandals...His wife, who had recently given birth didn't have the slightest idea that he and Gloria Brown had slept together several times a year ago and that he had tried unsucesfully to put the moves on young Kayla Bennett...

And now he had crossed paths with Patricia Reynolds....

I looked at Peeping Tom

"You know what these two payments of 100K from both of them to him was...This was Blackmail...." I said..

"You're probably right Kevin." he said.

"Make two copies of this zip drive..."I said..

I hacked into Troy's bank account and wired the 100K back into Patricia Reynolds and Tony Richardson's accounts...

I needed to talk to them both...

III-

Patricia Reynolds agreed to meet me at the home of a friend of hers in Southwest Philadelphia, far away from where she lived....The friend left the house shortly after Patricia and I arrived..

She was a beautiful woman...She kept smiling at me the entire time we talked..

"Mmmmm you're a handsome man Mr. Morris..Who are you?" she asked...

"I'm a private investigator...and a friend of the late Troy Lester..." I said.

At the mention of his name, her warm demeanor suddenly turned cold..

"What do you want?...I paid you as agreed....Are you going to continue blackmailing me?" she snarled..

"Not at all..."I said and handed her the zip drive...

She looked at it...

"What is this?" she asked..

"That's freedom..That's whatever he was holding over you and Tony Richardson,also a friend of mine...I have a copy for him too...If you check your bank account, you'll see that I returned the 100k he was blackmailing you for..I returned Mr. Richardson's money also..You are both free and clear.."I said.

''Why? Why are you doing this?" she asked...

"Troy is dead!!!....I don't know if you know that...Somebody murdered him a few nights ago...He has no need for your money....I found this zip drive in his safe deposit box...I checked his financials and found the two large deposits from you and Mr. Richardson, who I have worked for before...."I said..

She broke into tears, gushing tears...

"Oh Thank you...Thank you...."she said..

"I was with Troy in Josies most of Friday Night...He was killed just a few hours after he left the bar on early Saturday Morning...Where were you Mrs. Reynolds?" I asked..

"I was with my husband...In a hotel room in Cape May...but don't ask him please...Check my credit card records...I paid for it...We had a very nice night..if you know what I mean?" she said alluringly...

I could imagine....

"I'll check...but I believe you....Good day Mrs. Reynolds..."I said..

''You're a good private investigator Kevin...Do you have a card?" she asked.."An Attorney can always use a good investigator.."she said..

I gave her my card...

"Thank you ,and if there is ever....I mean ever, ANYTHING I can do for you...You call that number..." she said very seductively...

I smiled...

"I certainly will" I said.

I checked her and her husbands credit card records and I checked with the hotel she said they were at...She was telling the truth...I never doubted that she wasn't..

III-

Tony Richardson was ecstatic...

"Kevin, you are the best......" he said and pocketed the zip drive..

"I saw all that money in my bank account and I couldn't believe it..So that little bastard is dead huh? Good...and before you ask...I was in Los Angelas Friday,I just returned yesterday...Check my credit cards and the hotel I was in...With my wife mind you.." he said..

"I already did...but I'm investigating his murder...kind of undercover...Lt. Tragg is the official case detective." I said..

"Hell, then whoever killed him has nothing to worry about...but you might want to try that damn club he was part owner of.." said Tony Richardson..

"Club?? What Club??" I asked..

 "It's a very exclusive uh adult club.....It really has no name...Only those uh ruh in the know know about it.....Most of it's customers are uh ,not to sound egotistical, but real movers or shakers....Politicians, Lawyers, Doctors, Entertainers....what have you....It's a place you go to have drinks quietly and to uh say uh hook up discreetly..." said Tony....

" A club with no name....and you met Patricia there." I said..

"No, Patricia told me about it...We had dinner in town and then went there...

we had more drinks and we talked quietly....and then we rented a room...

I knew Patricia when she was a Judge....a very no nonsense professional woman.....Since she quit the bench and became an attorney again ,she's been uh rather out there....My goodness...

We were at it for close to EIGHT HOURS....I mean just non-stop lovemaking...She's insatiable..." said Tony...

"I got that impression...I saw the video..."I said..

"Those were spliced scenes from several trysts we had there.." said Tony...

"But a place like that that deals in confidentiality would be compromised if people couldn't have their privacy right?" I asked..

"You would think......We saw that little bastard, Troy Lester in there ,but we thought nothing of it...He was working there part time...Next thing I know....I'm getting a zip drive in the mail with video of me and Patty and demanding one hundred large....I was furious...

Patty got one too.....She was frightened....She's had you know, a couple of scandals....Her and her husband just got good with each other....It would have ruined her....It would have ruined me....I'm not sad that little asshole is dead.....But I didn't kill him..."said Tony..."Neither did Patty..." he said.

"Oh I know...Both of you have solid alibi's and I cleaned all records of the bank transactions from his account...Neither of you will be questioned about his death.." I said..

"But you need to know who killed him and why he was killed right?" asked Tony..

"I do.."I said..

 ''Start at that club...I'll give you the address..Troy was good friends with the owner's son...Bobby Clapper Jr.

He's the Assistant Manager, Club D.J..Short White Guy, a hipster...Wears a Pork Pie Hat.."

.  He might could tell you what you need to know about the late Troy Lester...Ironic thing.....I used to read his expose's in your magazine and others...I loved his writing...I never expected to become the subject of his stories and like that..." said Tony...

"He gambled heavily and was in debt up the wazoo....When he saw you two and recognized who you were...He set you guys up and suddenly he was free and clear of all debt...and it cost him his life..."I said.

 "He must have done this to somebody else....The wrong person and it cost him his life...."said Tony..

"You're right....His apartment was tossed ,like whoever was looking for something...."I said.

"I'm sure Patty is going to destroy her zip drive...and I plan to destroy this one and the other....I take it you have the original huh?" asked Tony...

"I've already destroyed mine....but the police have his computer...If they guess his password...They have access to the original..." I said..

"Damn it!" he said...

''Relax...Lt. Tragg is on the case..You got nothing to worry about.."I said..

"You're right..."said Tony, who busted out laughing....

IV-

 Sepia and our Daughter,Kimberly picked me up in her car....

''So ,get anywhere in your investigation of who killed Troy?" she asked.

"I don't know who....but I think I know why....He was blackmailing people...He was working at an exclusive adult club...to make ends meet...The kind of club where people meet discreetly to uh..."I said..

"I know the type, to drink and then do the hibbity bibbity.."said Sepia..

I smiled...

''Exactly....and a lot of famous people got to this one...people who don't want it to be known they are there...and people who might not be there with their spouse..."I said.

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.."said Sepia ,laughing...

"I know of two such people who he blackmailed...but they didn't kill him, but I suspect he blackmailed or attempted to blackmail somebody else who didn't take too kindly to it..."I said..

 'WOWWWW!"said Sepia..

She stopped the car at the intersection...I leaned over and kissed her..

"Ummmmm how about me and you do the Hibbity Bibbity tonight...?" I asked in between hot smouldering kisses...

"Kevin not in front of the baby!" said Sepia..

"Won't be in front of the baby.." I said..

"You are Sooo Nasty!" she said,laughing...

TO BE CONTINUED!