Waking The Sleeping Bear

Inside a Television Studio...A Producer counted down...

"AND IT'S FIVE...FOUR....THREE..TWO...ONE....This is HARD BOTTOM, Philly's number one hard hitting crime show with your host...B.L. Benz...!" he said..

"Ladies and Gentlemen.. Welcome...This is Hard Bottom..and my guest tonight is Homicide Detective, Lieutenant Arthur Tragg,  a veteran detective who has tracked down some of Philly's most dangerous criminals..." he said..

"HA!" laughed Jimmy Barlow ,who was watching it on the monitor at our headquarters..

He guffawed with laughter..

"Junior, why are you watching that crap?" scoffed Tyriq..

His wife, Angie plopped in his lap..."Especially when he could be watching me.." she cooed..

''She makes a great point Junior." said Duke.

."Why do you guys call him Junior?" asked Angie , who like Duke and Tyriq were a good three years older than Jimmy...

"He's the youngest guy here next to Top and we have a nickname for her..."laughed Tyriq..

"Oh yeah...you call her Top because her top came off when you were trying to wire her, which you shouldn't have been doing anyway freshie's...Yall just wanted to look at her boobies.." laughed Angie..

"Non sense...Top is like our sister.."said Duke..

"I'm your sister too ! What about Hop? He and my husband are the same age.." said Angie..

''Yeah, but Jimmy was here first..."said Tyriq..

"Hey guys listen to these two.." said Jimmy...

"It's been two weeks.. Two weeks since a lone gunman slaughtered these six people.."said B.L.

The crime scene photos of all six of our victims were shown in their gory details..

He called me...ME..B.L. BENZ at my studio and bragged about the killings...he told me things that only the killer and the case detectives working the cases knew.. They declined to be interviewed for this segment...He then told me and Lieutenant Tragg here that he was in the commission of yet another wholesale slaughter...and when we got there...he had slaughtered these two...shown here..
Then The "Lovers Lane Killer" who refers to himself as BIG DADDY went silent...I am asking tonight.. Where are you?  Why are you silent now?" said B.L. Benz...

Lt. Tragg broke in..

"I'll tell you where he is...He's hiding like the coward he is....He knows that the long arm of the law is breathing down his back....HE KNOWS THAT I'M ON THE CASE NOW...and I promise the citizens of Philadelphia that I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth you coward....I won't rest until you are made to pay for killing those six young people.." barked Lt. Tragg..

"BIG DADDY HE CALLS HIMSELF...I'm guessing he's small in the wrong places...you know what I'm saying Art?" laughed B.L. Benz..

"I KNOW RIGHT?" laughed Lt. Tragg….

''These two idiots.. Why would they taunt this guy?" sneered Sissy...

"It's been my experience that most serial killers have what they call a cooling off period...before they start up again.." said Sirena and Hop, who had just joined us.."Taunting him could start him up again."said Sirena.

''Yeah, well those two clowns just might have stirred things up..."said Sharon..

''Yeah, waking the sleeping bear.." said Hop..

II-

 Carlotta had just joined us...

"Guys we have amazing news...We may have gotten a hit."said Carlotta..

''Keith your idea was brilliant...We hit one of those DNA databases....We narrowed down 27 people and we came up with this guy...a 99.9 percent match." said Hazel...Russell Tucker-Meyers" said Hazel..

"This guy used to be a cop....A Homicide Detective..."said Tyriq, looking at his photo and his sheet.

"A Cop?" I said..

"Well, he's my father's age...So he was on the job long before any of us were even thinking about being cops." said Duke..

''It says here he was a Homicide Detective...Made it to the rank of Sgt...Retired...went to work for the Sherrif's department.." said Hop..

"He drove the bus.. transferred prisoners back and forth from the old House of Corrections to court and then retired for the last time and moved to Las Vegas.." said Carlotta..

''He appears to have dropped off the grid for awhile...He married a much younger woman...A Stripper from one of the clubs...He caught her in a car with a young man...He beat the man to within an inch of his life...He did a nickel in the Nevada State Prison and was released...Did three years probation. .and then moved back to the Philadelphia area.. " said Sharon..

''It makes sense...He kills people making out in cars...because he caught his ex-wife in a car with another man."said Sirena.

''Where is the wife?" asked Angie..

"Hmmm, this is disturbing...She went missing, shortly after he was released from prison...Hasn't been seen or heard from since then...He was questioned by Las Vegas P.D. and released...One month later, he moved back to Philadelphia and the killing started..."said Sissy...

''Boss lady...Let's show our photo to our witness.. Michael Renault." said Carlotta.

"If he ID's him...along with his DNA at the scene of one double murder, we got him!!"said Hop..

''Go Get him" said Sissy..

"Him being a cop explains so much...Why there was no evidence at the scene of the crimes...He knew what a cop would look for.."I said..

"But he made mistakes...He left a living witness."said Jimmy..

"And he got shot and left his blood, thus his DNA at the scene..."said Angie..

"Thank God we kept that out of our reports...Lt. Tragg and B.L. Benz would have it all over the news." said Carlotta..

"You said He got shot....That was two weeks ago...He's lost an awful lot of blood.." said Hazel..

"He can't go to any area hospitals...He might very well be dead.." said Tyriq..

"He's not dead...Look at the Television Screen "said Hop.

III-

At the Television Studio, a call came in...

''This might be him...it's the same unlisted number..."said B.L. Benza.

"My guys are on it...Burner phone or not...The minute he starts talking they can ping the nearby cell tower and pinpoint the exact area he is calling from....We'll have him..."said Lt. Tragg..

At our headquarters...

"My guys are monitoring their frequency...the minute that guy calls them we can ping the nearest cell tower and pin point the exact area the call is coming from.."said Sharon..

"I love the FBI's toys." said Jimmy, laughing.

''I do too, that's why I became an agent.."said Sharon.

At the Television studio the call went through...

"YOU PEA BRAIN WING TIP BOZOS HAVE THE NERVE TO TALK ABOUT MY MANHOOD? BIG DADDY IS BIGGER THAN, BIGGER THAN YOU TWO WILL EVER BE...WOMEN HAVE TOLD ME ABOUT MY ,MY SIZE...YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW CLOSE TO YOU I HAVE BEEN AND YOU STILL COULD NOT CATCH ME...PHILADELPHIA P.D. ZIPPO, BIG DADDY SIX....MAKE THAT SEVEN BABY!!!!"

A gunshot was heard....Then screaming.....

"Oh My God...He just shot somebody..On Air...OH my God.."said B.L. Benza..

''Come On...We know where the shot came from.. we've pinpointed the area...Let's go." said an excited Lt. Tragg..

"Oh My god...The collar of my career....Sissy and all of her so called brilliant detectives and all of their pain staking mamby pamby investigating and I will be the one to crack this case...Oh My god...I can't believe it."said Lt. Tragg as he, B.L. Benza and a camera crew raced through the city streets at break neck speed.

IV-

When they arrived....The first shock was that we were already there...

"I don't believe it....How did they get here first?" asked Lt. Tragg..

"My ratings are gonna go through the ceiling.." said an exuberant B.L. Benz..

A lone cab sat on the corner surrounded by people....several uniformed policemen formed a human barricade keeping them back..

CSI and Medical examiners personell  snapped photos and bagged the shell casings....

Sissy and I stared somberly...

 Carlotta peered inside the cab... There was only one person in the cab.....he was dead......he was the cab driver...

 "This back seat is loaded with blood...The killer must have been a passenger.." said Jimmy...

 "These cabs have cameras now...a lot of people don't know that...He's probably on the camera..."said Tyriq.

 "Look at all this blood in the back seat...I don't think it's the cabbie..."said Sirena..

Hop looked up...

"There's a Street Cam and a ATM camera across the street...They would have had to have picked our boy up...He got careless." said Hop.

"I've got a couple of eyewitnesses..They can give a description of the shooter...They say he was a passenger...They heard what sounded like a firecracker or a car back firing and they saw the man get out the car and start walking west.."said Angie..

"Take em to headquarters..get a police sketch artist...."said Sissy...

"Siss, Sharon just called...They talked to Mike Renault..He identified Russell Tucker Meyers from the mug shot and the police photos as the man who shot him and his girlfriend...He's our guy." said Jimmy...

"One of the uniforms found this in the trash can....It's a burner phone alright and the last number called is the Hard Bottom show...but there's more...There is a latent print on the phone.." said Hop who had bagged the phone and tagged it..

Lieutenant Tragg was arguing with the uniformed officers , who would not let him, B.L. Benz or the camera crew near the crime scene..

"I am a Lieutenant,Philadelphia Police force..I gave you men an order...If you value your police career you will let me  through.." he bellowed..

"I'm the Officer in Charge here and they were obeying my orders...You're not coming on this crime scene, nor are you interfering with my detectives." said Sissy.

"WHAT?" screamed Lt. Tragg..

"Oh Boy, this doesn't look good."said Carlotta.

"I know.. We gotta pull Siss away.." said Sirena..

"No...he needs to hear this.."said Angie..

"YOU HEARD ME!!!....This little stunt you two pulled cost this innocent man his life....B.L. Benz is only concerned with his ratings...I'm sure they'll go through the roof now..but this poor guy here..He lost his life...We have a good idea who we are looking for now....and we'll get him....He shot this man, but you...you and Benz killed him, you signed his death warrant, you and your over inflated egos....You should know better Lt. Tragg...You're a cop...You know that serial killers have cooling off periods.. You woke the sleeping bear and got a man killed tonight...NO you are not coming anywhere near my crime scene...You can call the Deputy of Operations, You can call Captain Cantrell, You can call the commissioner if you want...but those are my orders and these guys are following them and they will not be subject to any reprisals from you...So go home Lieutenant or to a bar or wherever, but you're not welcome here.."said Sissy softly but sternly..

"You can't get away with this...I out rank you...The Deputy of Operations will hear about this...I have him on speed dial..." he bellowed..

Sissy walked away.

Duke ,Jimmy, Tyriq and Hop followed her.

''We are done here...can I move the body?" asked Hazel.

"Yes ,move it.:said Carlotta,

As Angie, Sirena and I followed Sissy.

Our sixth and hopefully final victim was carted away...

The crowds disapated….

Lt. Tragg was on his phone..

"Yes sir...She would not let me, A superior officer on the crime scene at all....She was totally disrespectful of.. What is that sir?  Yes...I know it was her crime scene.. Well uh.. well Uh no I was not interfering with another detective's case...No sir...Sir we meant only to draw him out on the phone so we could trace him.. We had no idea he was going to kill somebody.. No My Head is not up my ass sir...No sir I did not intend to put her case in jeopardy....No sir...But sir...what about Sissy Van Buren and her blatant disrespect for...Yes I know she uh saved my life...No I have not thanked her...Sir I..Sirrr..Yes sir sirrrrrrrrrrrrr.. .Good Night." he said.

Lt. Tragg stomped his foot in total anger and disgust...

B.L. Benz was not concerned with Lt. Tragg at the moment. He was busy addressing the press who was still milling around..

(CONCLUSION NEXT)