Cut Rate Connie

Early in the wee morning hours , right before people are getting up to go to work in the home of Lieutenant Sissy Van Buren...

The sounds of sweet lovemaking can be heard...

''Ouuuuuuuuuuuu....ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm...Oh my god Sissy, you're driving me crazy..."moaned her husband Eddie C....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh work me , work me daddy, work me like a job...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, oh my goodness..." moaned Sissy...

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" he yelled..

''Eddie please!!! We have neighbors and the window is open...you want everybody to know we are up here doin the nasty?" said Sissy...

"I don't care if the world knows how good I feel...ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" he moaned..

She laughed...

''Glad you're enjoying yourself..but I do care....I have to live here...and so do you! Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, lawd...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! I have...Ouuuu I have...Oh my goodness Eddie..Ohhh I have a reputation to uphold...Ouuuuuuuuuuuu" she giggled..

The bed was squeaking out of control and the headboard was slamming up against the wall so hard, the paint and the plaster was coming off...

They were kissing passionately.....taking a break and then getting right back into it..

''Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...oh Eddie, babyyyy...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu give it to mama, give it to mama strong....YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" she moaned...

She had collapsed in the bed when she'd gotten home...She and the guys had been working hard on this drug case..Had shut down a major playa and had solved another major or semi major playa's murder...And yet people were still dying of mysterious overdoses..

Sissy and her detectives were stumped....She had slept about five hours...She woke up and her husband was looking at her, smiling..She hadn't even felt him slip her panties off...

He smoothly entered her and for the past FIVE TO SIX HOURS, they had been making sweet love...She felt good..This was the release she needed..It had been a few days...

'Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..."
"Ohhh baby, give it to meeeeee....ummmmmmph..."screamed Sissy

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....Sissy...Boss Lady ...ouuuuuuuuuu, more, more... ohhhhhh..."he screamed....

"Sock it to me EDDIE...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...take me...take all you wannnnnnnt baby!"she moaned..

"LAWDDD woman, what are you doing to meeeee?"he said...

"What am I doing to you? What are you doing to MEEEEEE? Ouuuuuuuuuu..."she cooed...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh gooooddddddd lawdd it's soooo goood...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh I've missed you girl...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sweeeeet jesusssssssssss ..arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.."he screamed...

The bed was squeaking something terrible...the headboard was slamming against the wall..

"Morrre...Morreee....morrre...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. Eddie..ouuuuuu......OHHHHHHH."
she wailed...

"Ohhh Siss, Siss,ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..I'm losin my minddddddddd!! "

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...I love you soooooooooooooo much...ouuuuuuuuuuuu..EDDIE!!!!"she yelled out...as she experienced an intense orgasm...

before Eddie knew what was happening, he was cumming like a gusher...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH LAWWWWWWWWD!" he yelled...

 He came so hard....he felt as if all of the bodily fluids and energy was being drained from him...He was a little afraid he might be dying...

 He sat up, sweating profusely......trying to catch his breath...Sissy lie flat on her stomach, totally satisfied.....

A few hours later ,after showers, they sat on the side of the bed, kissing and talking...

"Damn...You guys cleaned Harry Parmenter out, he was the biggest cancer in the neighborhood...Hugh Benny, he was like catching a cold.." joked Eddie C.

"Yeah, but neither of them is who we are looking for...People are still dying of overdoses.."said Sissy..

"Oh Yeah? They probably been buying Cut rate Connie's junk." said Eddie non-chalantly...

''Who?" asked Sissy..

"Cut Rate Connie....He's even smaller potatoes than Hugh Benny...Sells the cheapest junk around...Only fiends, you know the real desperate type or newbies who aren't that street smart buy from him...He's got a small package on the street.. He's a real sneaky one...That Cut rate...He never openly sold like Hugh Benny..He was too afraid of Harry Parmenter."said Eddie..

"How do you know all of this?" asked Sissy..

"Everybody knows it...Well everybody on the street." he said.

She kissed Eddie some more..

"Ummmmmmm....If I had time...I'd give you some more." said Sissy,laughing...

II-

But at a stylish uptown loft...There was yet another body...Another overdose..

Once Again, Crime Scene photographers snapped photos and dusted for prints and DNA.

"This guy was in our files...Not a target...but a person of interest.." said Carlotta..

"Yeah, he was part of Parmenter's Organization..."said Jimmy...

"The vomit around the mouth....The sickening smell...He's another one...I'm going to have nightmares about that smell."said Tyriq....

Sirena felt the body...

"It's still warm...He died in the past few hours..." she said..

''I asked around , nobody saw or heard anything.."said Hop...

Hazel looked at the arms and the legs...

"He ingested this, just like the others...He didn't skin pop...His pupils are dilated....Body tempt suggests he died three hours ago."

I walked in with Angie just then who took one look at the body and gasped...

''Oh My God...That's Klemplar...Warren Klemplar...Harry Parmenter's accountant...I had no idea he had a Heroin addiction...The whole time I knew him ,I had no clue he used." she said..

 "Probably used to take the edge off..." I said.

''Can we take him out of here?"asked Hazel...

"Yeah...Take him...Boss Lady and Duke had one last night...Wow!  We got a problem..We got to find out who this new player is.."said Sirena.

We all watched as the body was put in a body bag and strapped to a stretcher and wheeled off...These overdoses were particularly cruel because the person went into cardiac arrest almost immediately after ingesting...They didn't get high, they died..

III-

We returned to headquarters where Sissy, Sharon and Carol Redding were sitting at the conference room table having coffee..

"Another Overdose victim huh?" said Sissy.

''Yeah...And I'm going to have nightmares about the smell of that vomit on their mouths mixed with decomp, which smells bad enough as it is.."said Tyriq..

"I'm Already having nightmares about it.."said Carlotta..

"Yeah Me too!" said Jimmy...

''Why do you think I wear a Gardenia on my lapel? The smell deadens the smell of death." said Duke.."Carol,Your Husband, Captain Ed Cantrell taught me that..." he said.

Carol laughed...

"He taught me and Sissy that too..When we were young detectives...He used to pin Gardenia's or roses on our blouses when we were at a death scene..remember Siss?" said Carol Redding..

''I do.." said Sissy.

''Wait til you find out who this guy was."said Sirena.

''Yeah Tell em Angie."said Hop.

 ''Warren Klemplar..."said Angie..

"Harry Parmenter's accountant and bag man?" asked Sharon.

"Yes indeed." said Angie..

"He fits a pattern."said Sissy.

''A Pattern, what kind of pattern?" I asked..

''Let's look at our victims...Last night we had a Doctor... Let's see, you had a middle aged truck driver, a house wife, a young college freshman, a young couple, a law clerk and a student..The middle aged man in the apartment complex..All of them are novices...Not street people...Probably using for their first time....They wouldn't buy from the hardcore dealers that worked for Harry Parmenter...Not hip enough to run in the crowds that Hugh Benny serviced , but green and inexperienced enough to buy from a sleaze like Cut Rate Connie." said Sissy.

 "CUT RATE CONNIE!! I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!!" said Tyriq...

 ''NAH ,LAST I HEARD...HE WAS A GUEST OF THE STATE..."said Jimmy.

 "TALK ABOUT SMALL TIME...HE WAS SMALLER POTATOES THAN HUGH BENNY!"said Duke.

 ''GOD...I BUSTED HIM SEVERAL YEARS AGO.." said Sirena..

 "SO DID I...I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD!" said Carlotta...

"I BUSTED HIM TOO!...He's very much alive...I saw him in Josie's a week ago ...The night I introduced Harry Parmenter to Carol.."said Angie..now remembering their encounter...

Angie waded through the crowd and bumped into a scruffy white guy she knew....

''Whoaaaaa, Detective Belton...Myyyyyyyyyyy goodness..Look at you..Milk certainly does a body good.."said the man...

''Cut Rate Constantine...When did they let you out?" asked Angie.

''I been out for two years now.."said the white man..

"What are you doing in here?  I never figured you to be a lover of R&B or Hip Hop.." said Angie ,who had busted him for selling drugs years ago...

''Detective Belton you got me all wrong...I like all kinds of music and all kinds of people.." he said..

''Especially paying kinds of people...You dealing smack again Constantine?" asked Angie..

"Me? Nahhhhh, Harry Parmenter has everything pretty much sowed up...I'm into other things.." he said.

"Other things ,Like what?" asked Angie..

"Don't go all cop on me Angie,Especially since we was havin such a nice conversation and all......I'm totally legit.." he said..

''Well Mr. Totally legit...Buy a drink or get out..You've been in here two hours and haven't bought a thing.."said Honey Brown...

"I can take a hint...Okayyyy..I'm out of here...Nice seeing you again Detective Belton." he said looking her up and down..."I mean real niceeeeeeeee...." he said and left...

 "My brilliant street smart husband mentioned him today...said that he has been in the shadows for awhile ,selling the cheapest H. in the area...Quietly undercutting all of the crews who bought from Parmenter and Hugh Benny and neither one of them knew it ....They would have killed them...Except he's as slick as canned grease...His product is cheap and weak.. He had to cut it and step on it himself...I suspect that whatever he is mixing with it ,is designed to give it more of a blast and it's too potent.."said Sissy...

''You're probably right Siss..He didn't water it down enough..The savy street people know better, but first time users...wouldn't know.."said Carol....

Cut Rate Connie or Constantine  Jordan,

his real name was a two time loser...purely small potatoes..but responsible for close to ten serious overdoses....We had to find him and more importantly, stop him before someone else overdosed and died.


IV-

 Red Bar was a Tony Bar in Philadelphia peopled mostly by high powered attorneys and their clients, doctors, politicians...et al....

So to see Constantine ''Cut Rate Connie " Jordan sitting in here in a cheap suit was definitely a red herring..

Angie sat down in the booth next to him...She was wearing a form fitting orange mini skirt with a zipper on the side that had heads turning...

''Detective Belton...Are you following me?" Connie asked jokingly..He was checking out her sexy body....

"It would seem that way ,wouldn't it?" she said..

Jimmy sat down on the other side of him...

"Hi ya Constantine...I thought you were still upstate..." he said..

''Detective Jimmy Barlow...Long time no see...Do you know Detective Belton here?" he asked..

''He knows me real well...He's my husband.."said Angie..

''Husband?? You two?? Nahhhhh!" he said..

"Yes..We've been married two years now."said Angie.

They showed him their matching wedding bands...

"Wowwwwwwwwwwwww! Look at this...Detective Barlow...Never knew you had that much game..Guess I had you pegged all wrong huh?  Funny Ange...I never thought you would go for a white guy..."laughed Connie..

"I just went for this white guy.." said Angie..

''This is a little out of your league aint it Connie..A place like this?" asked Jimmy.

"It's outta your league on your cops salary Jimmy...but not outta mine..I'm uh movin up in the world.." laughed Connie..

"You're selling junk,that's what you're doing.......See my partner over there.."said Jimmy..

Carlotta was across the room...She waved..

"I remember her....That Puerto Rican Chick you used to roll with...You guys still together huh? You guys started out as uniforms in a patrol car...Now you're both detectives...Aint that something?" said Connie.

"She saw you pass a package to a young lady that just left here.."said Jimmy..

''Nah, she's mistaken...I uh passed her my phone number.." said Connie..

''I don't think so...see my husband's other partner saw you pass it to the same young lady and exchange money."said Angie.

Tyriq was by the door.

Out on the street, Hop was running towards the car the young white woman was about to get in..

He pulled his badge...

"I'm a cop...You just bought a package of Heroin from a guy in there...We know it..Don't deny it...Just don't take the stuff...It's bad..I'm not trying to bust you...Just give me that stuff you bought.." said Hop..

The girl laughed...

''Cop? You?  Yeah right!! What are you talking about?  I already snorted it...You got nothin...You'll have to buy your own." she laughed..

"Oh Nooooo.."said Hop..

 Sirena and Duke came running...

''Partner...Did you get to her?" she asked..

Duke stopped running...He saw the look on Hop's face...

He already knew...

Hop didn't say anything...He walked away from the car...Shaking his head....

Sirena looked in the window of the passenger's side.....

The girl had vomited...her head was slumped over the steering wheel......Sirena took her pulse...She shook her head..

"This wasn't supposed to happen like this.." she said..

Duke said softly...

''Go Get your partner...I'll call Hazel and Siss,"He said.

Angie had handcuffed him...

Jimmy had read him his rights...

Carlotta was walking behind him...

Angie ,Jimmy,Carlotta and Tyriq marched Cut Rate Connie out of Red Booth and over to the car where the dead body of the young girl he had just sold to was slumped over the steering wheel..

"See? That junk you're selling is killing people...It just claimed another victim."said Tyriq...

"Holy Crap!  I-I -I had no idea." was all he would say...

Sirena bought a Coke for Hop, She sat on the sidewalk next to him, while he drank...

"You Okay partner?" she asked.

''Yeah, nothing a good nights sleep won't cure.."he said and smiled.. ''Thanks for the soda.." he said.

''I called Sharon..She's on her way.."said Sirena..

"You're a good partner and a good friend!' said Hop, who smiled at Sirena.

 Sharon arrived shortly...

''You Okay baby?" she asked upon seeing Hop..

''I'm fine..Now that you are here.." he said and hugged his wife...

Carlotta said to Sirena...

''He has loved her his entire life...She was always the antidote to any problem he had."

"I think what they have is sweet." said Sirena.

I drove up with Sissy....

 I looked in the car at the dead girl...I shook my head..

"That's him over there Siss." said Duke ,pointing to Cut Rate Connie.

 ''That's him???...I was expecting more.." said Sissy...

"Why?" asked Duke...

''You've got a point."said Sissy.

Sissy walked over to Cut Rate Connie.

"You're Cut Rate Connie?" she asked..

''It's just a nickname." he said.

"It suits you." said Sissy. She then walked away...

Two uniformed  officers put him in the police car...

"I'm charging him with 12 counts of 2nd Degree Murder...I'm going to make sure he never sees the light of day."I said.

Hazel came...She examined the body, then told her people to bag her ,strap her and cart her away...as had been all too common now..

We watched as the body was wheeled away...

The Night was still young, but none of us felt like partying.

EPILOUGE-

 We raided Cut Rate Connie's apartment and found several baggies of Heroin,all laced with a synthetic chemical he thought would give his Heroin an extra kick..He had no idea his customers had been dropping dead in the streets....

I charged him with 13 counts of manslaughter and Distribution of controlled substances...He got 25-50 years...For him, that may be a life sentence...

A rare day off found Carlotta and I

sitting in Sam Mother's Diner having breakfast..

 Cheddar Omeletts

and hot steaming coffee..

''Papi..We sat at this very table...Many years ago ,when you first brought me here and paid for my breakfast."said Carlotta,smiling..

''Really?" I said..

''Yes and you've been following me around the city on my cases ever since...No other ADA does that...You must really like me.." she said and laughed..

"I'm crazy about you...I have been since the day I first met you.." I said...

"I'm Crazy about you too Papi.." she said and rubbed my knuckles softly...

We sat there quietly just smiling at each other...