"Ummmm Ummmph, Yall gonna pitch a wang dang doodle up in here." said Beverly's Beautiful mother, Alfreda Johnson, The Office Manager for Olivia and Beverly...
Where we were meeting today...I had told Bonnie Shay that since they couldn't terrorize us into giving up those properties..Their next step was going to be legal..
Within the next week,
A man claiming to be a housing inspector had hit
Sepia and Bonita with a slew of code violations on all of the properties on the West End.
He had hired
Attorney Wallace Payton, a real cut throat attorney
and his investigator, Bert Vandenburg to meet with Sepia, Bonita, Clerow and Owen Todd to arbitrate and perhaps to persuade them to sell the properties to Dillon Grant, who was not present..
Their first surprise was that the meeting was at Olivia Bennett-Alexander's office...Their second surprise was HOW many attorneys were representing Sepia and Bonita and Clerow and Owen Todd..
Olivia, Beverly, Nelson, Josie and Donnie Ray were there for starters...
Yvette Jones,Keith Jones,Beatrice "Bee Bee" Evans, Sofia Garcia and Kahlil Ahmed were also there as was Bonita's husband,
Robert Foxworth, an Attorney himself..
And Bonnie Shay, an attorney herself , representing the Cyclops Insurance company who had done their own investigation and found no code violations..
The arguments began.....
Wallace Payton had lost to Olivia and Beverly twice and once to Yvette and her crew...He was overwhelmed and feeling packed on..by this onslaught of Attorneys...He hadn't expected this..
Try as he may...he had nothing to counter the arguments of the attorneys or the investigations by Morris Investigations and Cyclops Insurance..
Bert Vandenburg, once an FBI agent...now an investigator was equally perplexed...
The so called "Building Inspector" was revealed to be Wally Drollinger.. I didn't know who he was..But he was no building inspector..And Wally Drollinger would turn out to be a phony name also...There was no record of him with the city or state...This was brought up not only by the Investigators for the attorneys, but also by the Insurance company.
He had an uncanny resemblance to the man those 25 guys said paid them to vandalize the buildings..
I stood in the corner and snapped his photo with a micro camera...He had been close to me earlier and had lifted a gun out of my jacket....He thought I didn't know it...but I did...He was no inspector...He was a criminal....I was 100 percent sure of it.
Finally Rockland Cambridge, Assistant District Attorney Rockland Cambridge stood and spoke..
"Mr. Payton...Let's be serious..There are no code violations and this man here is not even who he says he is...What I have heard about is several attempts of the man who hired you, One Dillon Grant, who isn't here right now to harass and intimidate these good people...There is a man on trial now for murdering the man who sold these people those properties.."said Rockland..
"I don't know any Dillon Grant....What are you trying to say?" asked Wallace Payton..
"I'm NOT TRYING TO SAY ANYTHING....WHAT I AM SAYING...IF I EVEN SNIFF THAT MR. GRANT IS SOMEHOW BEHIND THE VANDALISM AND THE MURDER...I AM PERSONALLY GOING TO NAIL HIM TO THE CROSS...NOW YOU GO BACK AND TELL HIM THAT..."said Rockland Cambridge...
Alfreda stared at him...
"Ouuuuuuu, Rocklandddd...you've got my panties moist....I want you so bad right now." she whispered in Rockland's ear.
Rockland smiled sheepishly.....He was crazy about Alfreda.
"Good Day." said Wallace Payton.
Bert Vanderburg followed him meekly...
The Phony inspector stared at me..Almost as if he could sense that I had orchestrated this whole thing..
"Tell your boss...I plan to see him...soon!" I said.
"That wouldn't be smart.." said the man..
"I'll be the judge of that." I said..
Sepia and Bonita were in tears...
"Thank you all so much.." they said..
"No Thank you...If not for you..we wouldn't have this great duplex." said Olivia.
Beverly, Nelson, Josie, Donnie Ray and Alfreda agreed...
"I wouldn't have my apartment..."said Yvette..
"Or us." said Keith, Bee Bee, Sofia and Kahlil as well.
Sepia, Bonita, Clerow and Owen Todd had given all of them their homes when they first moved into this neighborhood. This was their way of saying thank you!
II-
Bonnie and I walked outside....
Jade Lee...Yvette's investigator met us...
"It's done...I put the device somewhere discreet...It'll lead you right to him.."said Jade..
"The way I see it..Our boy has a problem...He can't send anymore goons to try and wreck the place..He knows he's being watched.."I said.
"The Police have all of those guys in custody..."said Bonnie.
''He can't shut them up and he's not going to hire an attorney for them..He doesn't have to, they don't know him..Never seen him, don't know his name.."I said.
"But they know Mr. No Name..They can describe what he looks like even if they don't know his name."said Jade Lee.
"And that makes him a liability.."I said.
"So what happens next?" asked Bonnie.
"One of two things...He either catches a flight out of here tonight or.....He's a dead man walking right now.." I said.
"That's what I think." said Jade..
III-
The doorbell rang in the apartment building...
''Dillon what are you doing in this neck of the woods?" asked the man with no name..
"I understand that our lawyer failed to achieve my endeavor this morning...He came highly recommended.." said Dillon Grant.
''Yeah, well they had representation by every activist attorney in the city...Olivia Bennett-Alexander and Beverly West, Yvette Jones, Robert Foxworth and they even had an Assistant District Attorney there..He never had a chance."said the man...
"Hmm I may have to take more drastic means.."said Dillon... "Did you get his gun?" asked Dillon.
"Sure did..Stole it right from him during that meeting.." said the man..
"Here, pass it to me.." said Dillon who was wearing Black Gloves...He attached a home made silencer to it..
''Why you wearing Black Gloves?" asked the man..
Dillon never answered...He fired two shots into the man's chest and then one into his head, killing him instantly...
"Sorry old chum... You were a liability..One of those goons describe you well enough or Mrs. Morris's husband finds out who you are and tells his cop friends ,then they have you in custody...and you could lead them to me...We can't have that...Now can we? It wasn't personal...Just business." said Dillon Grant , who dropped the gun on the floor and quietly walked out of the building and slipped out of the back.
He sat in his car across the street.
A few minutes later....Kool Kat, Bonnie Shay and I were in the man's apartment, looking at his dead body on the floor..
"Can you believe that? This jamolk was going to try and frame me for a murder by stealing my gun, only to get murdered with it..? I said.
Bonnie kneeled down and looked at the body...
"This isn't your gun is it?" she asked.
''Of course not...I took it off of Bob "Big Butt" Thornton years ago...The serial number was filed off.. Who knows who this gun belongs to?" I said.
Kool Kat laughed-
"You sure stay a step ahead of these guys Kev."
"Look he can't intimidate and he can't use the law...His only move now is to discredit somebody...Namely me...who has been a thorn in his side.." I said.
''So uh shouldn't we be getting out of here? His next move is probably to call the cops, anonymously." said Kool Kat..
"I figured as much...I already called Sissy and the guys." I said.
III-
CSI and Forensic Investigators snapped photos and dusted for prints...prints and DNA they weren't going to find..
"His body is warm...He hasn't been dead long."said Hazel.
"Two shots to the chest.."said Carlotta.
Hazel,Carlotta and Tyriq had on latex gloves and were observing the body...
"One to the head...The Kill Shot." said Tyriq.
"I questioned the neighbors...He came in a half hour ago...They said a man visited him, but nobody saw the man, they just heard him and dead guy talking."said Jimmy..
''Dead guy has a name..Randy Dalton...local muscle for hire..Three arrests, no convictions, suspected of at least two murders."said Sirena.
"He fits the description of the guy those mopes said hired them to vandalize the buildings."said Hop..
I passed them a photo...
''Here show this to them, see if this is the guy...He showed up today with some lawyers, trying to put the squeeze on my wife and her partner...Only they showed up with some lawyers too..Olivia,Beverly,Yvette Jones and her crew..Nelson East, Robert Foxworth, Rockland Cambridge." I said.
"Wow, you brought out the troops buddy."laughed Duke...
"Kevin is so connected." said Angie..
"Heads up, The Great Detective is here."said Jimmy sarcastically...
Lieutenant Tragg came in with two uniformed officers..
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING AT MY CRIME SCENE?" he bellowed.
''Our crime scene.."said Sissy softly but firmly...
"I'm guessing you got an anonymous tip...You should trace it, find out where it came from.."I said.
"Listen You Dime Store wanna be a cop....You don't tell me how to run an investigation...There is a gun here...I want it.." said Lt. Tragg..
''Do you mean this?" said Sissy, holding the gun and silencer in a plastic bag.
"This gun the murderer just happened to drop, with no prints.??....You can't have it...It's evidence in my murder case."said Sissy again...
"I am the ranking officer here...I want that gun...THAT IS AN ORDER!" he screamed.
"Sir, you're being played.. The killer called YOU for a reason...He wanted you to find this...Now think about that..Think about why he'd call you..."said Bonnie.
"Listen Insurance Investigator.." said Lt. Tragg, but before he could finish his sentence..
"Alright, release the body Hazel." said Sissy..."Sirena, you're the primary." said Sissy.
"Come on partner...Let's get on this.."said Sirena.
"Right behind you."said Hop..
Hazel, Carlotta,Tyriq, Duke and Angie filed out quietly...
Jimmy snickered and followed Sissy out.
"Good Night Lieutenant." said Sissy..
"YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE LAST OF THIS!" Lt. Tragg screamed..
I left with Bonnie and Kool Kat in tow..
Dillon Grant stood across the street fuming...The detective he wanted..Lt. Tragg ,got there too late..These other cops who he didn't know got the body first...
He couldn't understand why I wasn't in custody....He had been foiled again...
IV-
The next morning I was sitting in Sissy's headquarters...
I was having coffee with Sissy and Deputy FBI Special Agent in charge Sharon Ferrell-Hopkins.
"I'm still investigating that murder I told you about..I'm working for Olivia's cousin,Kayla..The trial starts in a few days.."I said..
"That is Lieutenant Tragg's case...We really can't interfere in that one, He's already got his panties in a bunch about last night..but it certainly looks like all of this has Dillon Grant's hands on it. We just can't prove it."said Sissy.
"I've heard this Dillon Grant has allegedly pulled this kind of stunt several times before to get what he wants...Now he's including murder.."said Sharon..
Just then Lt. Tragg came storming in...
''Did you get a make on that gun?" he bellowed.
"Still following anonymous tips eh?" I laughed.
"YOU SHUT UP!...I'm here to arrest you..Well Did you get a make?" he asked.
"Arrest him for what? We got a make...It's an old gun, they filed the serial number off , but we were still able to trace it's owner...Bob "Big Butt" Thornton...You wanna take a bus up to the state prison and arrest him for last nights murder? This gun has probably been passed around one hundred times since he went to prison, on the street." said Sissy..
