Extradition

One week later, we were back in Philadelphia....

We were all at Josies…

And just in time too ...It was an epic night..

 Reed Nelson and his quintet was there..

 So was Downtown Rob Brown and his quintet...

 Bone Hampton and his group played a set...

 As did Dutch Van Buren and the Liquid Love Band...

Featuring former "Blind " Keyboardist, Chazz Gillison.


The crowd was digging it...

Honey Brown and Gus were appreciative....

In a corner booth, I sat with Sepia, Kool Kat, Chelsea and Sharon Silver.. I had made a copy of Fearless Fosdick's files and turned them over to Sharon..

 "That is what we found....You can come to your own conclusion..."I said.

 "Sorry we couldn't come up with more..."said Sepia..

 "Oh this is more than enough..."said Sharon..

 "The one goon we interviewed in prison told us that those were definitely the bodies of Brion Carson, Noble Fontaine and Bert Wilson....They had been shot...He and friends were paid to scrub the place down with soap, water and bleach...and discard the bodies.."said Kool Kat...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu Gruesome." said Chelsea..

"He said they loaded the bodies on to a ship and went out to the middle of the ocean, weighted them down and dropped them in the water...He said he didn't take part in that and that neither he nor his friends were present when the three people were shot to death.. They were just paid by Dell Carson in cash to discard of the bodies and clean up.." I said..

"If they dropped those bodies in the ocean...They'll probably never be found.. So three of the people who cleaned up and discarded the bodies are themselves dead now and you have one living witness to all this, who is in prison for an unrelated murder and even he didn't witness the murders.." said Sharon.

"Add to that, he committed this triple murder in another country....There is nothing that can be done to him here in Philadelphia..."said Kool Kat..

Sharon sighed...

"At least I now know that Brion is dead...I sure wish that creep of a brother of his could pay in some way." sighed Sharon..

I smiled..

"There may be a way..."I said..

Kool Kat smiled..

"The gears in his mind are working.."he said..

II-

I was no fan of TV Host B.L. Benz , who hosted the TV Crime Talk Show , HARD BOTTOM...which spotlighted sensational crimes...

One of the reasons is that Lt. Tragg was a frequent guest and it often felt like a love fest between the two..

Lt. Tragg hadn't been on the show in a few weeks... I needed a favor and I figured this story was right up his alley....

I invited Attorney Bruce Fishburn and Special Investigator , Fearless Fosdick to come to Philadelphia

 from St. Martinique to tell their story....

B.L. jumped at the story and invited me, Bruce, Sharon and Fearless on his show...

He started with a photo of Brion Carson...

"Remember this guy? Local Football great who vanished just before last years draft and hasn't been heard from since... Today I have his fiancé and the Private Investigator she hired to look into this, along with her attorney and a Special Investigator from the Island of St.Martinique..

"Say Hello to Ms. Sharon Silver..

Local Private Investigator, Kevin Morris..

Attorney Bruce Fishburn..

and Special Investigator, Fearless Fosdick..

"Fosdick is my name...Solving Murders is my game.."said Fearless...

and at the law offices of Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West-East...

"Auntay, come here!!!.. Look at this...Remember him from Punta Canta.??" said Beverly, laughing her head Off..

 Olivia cracked up laughing...

"How could I forget...Oh My God! Fearless Fosdick!" she said...

"Fearless Fosdick is the name, solving murders is my game.." said Donnie Ray, laughing..

"I don't know those other people...but I know Kevin...If he's involved in this...It must be serious.." said Nelson.

"Wow...They were in St. Martinique about a week ago.." said Josie..

"Must be nice.." said Alfreda, smiling...as they watched the show....

''So Mr. Carson, who was a local football prodigy vanished about a year ago without a trace...The story was that he'd gotten married and moved to the islands...but that's not what happened was it Ms. Silver?" asked B.L.

"No, not at all...So I hired Mr. Morris here.'' Said Sharon..

."And the Trail led me to St. Martinique where I met Mr. Fosdick here and Attorney Bruce Fishburn who had practically been working on this investigation by themselves with no help.." I said..

"Immediately after he vanished...I got involved in this case...Attorney Bruce Fishburn reached out to me.." said Fearless Fosdick.

"I interviewed 17 people who were at the hotel that night...They were the last people to see Brion Carson, Noble Fontaine and Bert Wilson alive...

I took statements from these people, Cooks, cleaning people, Front Desk people, Valets, hotel guests...All the people who saw the four of them that night.."said Fearless..

"Brion, Noble and Bert were seen playing cards...the door was open...Then the door was closed...A loud argument was heard....four voices....Then what sounded like a pop, according to two people..A scream and then three more pops... Four more men, never identified showed up an hour later.. The next day....The room was empty...The bedsheets were missing, the pillow cases were missing and there was no trace of Brion Carson, Noble Fontaine or Bert Wilson... A visibly shaken Dell Carson checked out alone...He never mentioned his brother or the other two.. Their hotel bills were never paid.. "

"Three people go missing...All Americans...One a budding football star and nobody cared...I even called the FBI...I don't remember who I talked to, but they didn't have much interest..."said Fosdick..

"I brought in my forensics guys...I don't know for sure what happened in this room that night.. but we did a Luminol test and we found an awful lot of blood, an awful lot of blood splatter all over the room...and look.. we found one spent shell...but witnesses swear they heard several popping sounds.." said Fearless..


We drove to the Marina...

I had a team search the ocean and the local waters for bodies..

We took a boat out to the middle of the damn Atlantic ocean..

Sent  more guys out with sonar equipment...

but we didn't find any bodies... The local Police agree that something horrible happened that night...but we don't know what...and without bodies...we can't even be sure of murders.." said Fosdick..

"There was an ATM camera across the street from the hotel...My operatives hacked into that camera and we found these..."I said as the video was shown to the television audience...

We hacked into that atm cam..and went back to the week of Brion Carson's disapearence.. On it was Brion Carson, Noble Fontaine, Dell Carson and Bert Wilson in happier times ,laughing, clowning, coming and going up to the last night.... Then on that night...Four men were clearly seen being let in the back by Dell Carson... They had bleach, mops, rubber gloves and what looked like a years supply of Hefty trash can liners.. It showed the men lugging what looked like bodies wrapped in Hefty Trash can liners and hoisting them on to a pick up truck...along with another bag... Dell Carson can be seen paying them and they pull off..

"Three of these four men are dead...all killed in unrelated incidents just months after the disapearences….but the surviving man in a sealed affidavit said that  those were definitely the bodies of Brion Carson, Noble Fontaine and Bert Wilson....They had been shot...He and friends were paid to scrub the place down with soap, water and bleach...and discard the bodies.." I said...

"Oh Myyyyyyy…"said Bl. Benz...

"I called the head guy in Homicide up here for help...Uh Lieutenant Tragg

and he took my number, but never called me back...That was last summer... If Mr. Morris hadn't of showed up and offered the help he did..We wouldn't know as much as we do know.."said Fearless..

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" asked B.L. Benz with canned outrage...

I found it humorous..

"According to the man we interviewed in prison last week...Those bodies were weighted down and dropped in the ocean...The current has probably washed them away....They'll never be found.."said Attorney Bruce Fishburn…

"And you say Dell Carson..the one survivor and possible killer  is here in our city now?" asked B.L. Benz..

"Yes he is...but since no crime was committed in The U.S.  He can't be touched by local authorities.." said Sharon Silver..






III-

At a local watering hole.. Someone else was watching this..

"I don't believe this....I'm not on the damn show and Benz is guttin me like a fish...got that guy on there accusing me of dropping the ball on that case.." protested Lt. Tragg…"What could I do?  The murders occurred in St. Martinique...It wasn't in my jurisdiction..."he protested to anyone who would listen..

Dell Carson was in the bar...He was nervous...He slowly got up and started to slip out...His face had been plastered across the TV screen...Some of the patrons began looking at him.

Lt. Tragg saw him...

"That's him!!.. That's the guy!!!  Hold it.. Hold it right there...YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!!"yelled Lt. Tragg.

Patrons began to spin around...

Dell Carson ran for the door, but two people blocked him..

"Get out of my way, if you know what's good for you." spat Dell...

Lt. Tragg grabbed him and slammed him up against the wall..

"You're not getting away with murder pal.....Not anymore.. IF YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOOD FOR YOU, YOU WON'T RESIST" he said..

"You're off your nut Tragg...It was in St. Martinique...You got nothin..."said Dell Carson..

"We'll see." he said..as he handcuffed him and read him his rights..

"Curly, call the local precinct..tell em to send a couple of rollers down here.." he said.

"I'm on it Artie." said Curly..

The bar patrons all began to clap...

"Way to go Artieeee!" they yelled..and whistled..

Lt. Tragg smiled..

And at the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Philadelphia Police Department-it appears others were watching Hard Bottom that day also..

 "I'm not a fan of this show normally....I only watched it today because Kevin was on the show.." said Lt. Sissy Van Buren..

"Same Here...This was a good show today...As usual, Kevin did a sterling investigation...I wish we could've helped  him." said ADA Keith Wallace..

"I do too..I remember when Brion Carson vanished... I can't believe so many people dropped the ball on this.. That investigator should have called us or Missing Persons, Not Tragg!" said Carlotta.

"He called Lt. Tragg?, No wonder the ball was dropped." said Jimmy...

"I'm certainly no fan of Lt. Tragg….but in all fairness...the crimes occurred in practically another country.." said Tyriq..

"Yeah that's true...but the culprit is here.. He might have done something...Keep him under surveilience..Something!"said Duke..

"WHATTTTT and miss being on HARD BOTTOM or a Press Conference?" said Sirena..

Hop cracked up laughing....

"HE's Not On Hard Bottom anymore....Especially not after how he interfered with our case and got that cabbie killed..." he said.

Angie and Hazel  were just coming in with some officers.. They had brought lunches..

"Guess what? Lt. Tragg just arrested Dell Carson...They were both in the same bar watching .."said Angie.

"Wait for it!!...Hard Bottom.." said Hazel.

"Hard Bottom's ratings went through the ceiling today..."laughed Carlotta.

"That's because he's got a credible guest for a change, Somebody who actually investigates and helps to solve crimes and not Lt. Tragg."said Sissy.

Everybody busted out in laughter...

FBI Deputy Special Agent in charge, Sharon Hopkins walked into our day room. She had heard the tail end of the conversation also...

"It's true, he did arrest him...We can't hold Brion Carson on anything here...but I have with me.. Several Homicide Detectives from St. Martinique and an Extradition Order...He's wanted for Suspicion of Three Homicides on the Island of St. Martinique...We are going to turn him over to them.." said Sharon..

IV-

One hour after Dell Carson was released from custody...He was arrested by The FBI and turned over to St. Martinique Authorities,...

I stood outside with Sepia and Sharon and watched as he was released from one set of handcuffs and handcuffed again...

He was stunned...He looked at the three of us or at last Sharon and I with white hot hatred...

"You two better hope I don't get out...EVER!" he threatened..

 "I worry about that and you ,like I worry if the sun is coming up the next morning.." I said to him as they put him in a car and drove him to the airport..

He grimaced....

"I don't believe this...I'm going to jail.." he scoffed...

"Yes you are...That's for damn sure." I said.

He stomped his foot in both anger and frustration....

 "Wow...Glad to see him gone.." said Sepia..

"So Am I....I never liked him....Thank you so much Kevin for seeing this through.."said Sharon...

"What are you thanking him for?  I'm the one that made the collar...I broke this case wide open..."said Lt. Tragg…

"Yup...You sure did.." I said as the three of us walked off..

Leaving Lt. Tragg standing alone on an empty street, looking confused....There was no press, no reporters, no nothing.. Just a few cops milling around...

"Maybe this will get me back on Hard Bottom." he thought...


EPILOUGE-

Dell Carson stood trial for the murders of Brion Carson,  Noble Fontaine and Bert Wilson...Apparently he and his brother had  quarelled bitterly and the argument continued after Bert Wilson had broken it up...

He was drunk, he shot and killed his brother....Then he panicked and shot and killed Noble and Bert because they witnessed it...…

He was convicted and given 30 years for each murder , totaling 90 years behind bars...I doubted we'd ever see Dell Carson again..

All was quiet at our home...

Sepia smiled and whispered...

"I just put her down...That little girl has a lot of energy.." she said, smiling. She was talking about our little daughter, finally home after being spoiled by our friends, Eva Corona and Josie Boyd.

 who had her for a little while..

"She gets that from her mama."I said..

"No, she gets it from her daddy..."laughed Sepia..

"Well regardless, let me get a little somethin from her mama." I said..

I kissed her softly, but passionately.....

"Ouuuuu you are so nasty.." she whispered seductively.

as we kissed and fell up against the wall....