Like A Honey Bee Stings

For the next week or so , nobody saw or heard from My wife Sepia

or her business partner, Bonita..

and her husband, Attorney Robert Foxworth

Or Bonnie and Ronnie Shay..

or for that matter , me of course...

It was as if we had dropped off of the face of the Earth....

Nothing of course could have been farther from the truth...

We were all staying at an Air BNB that Sepia and I owned in nearby Bayside... We were all able to work remotely at our respective jobs thanks to the equipment I had installed in the basement...

Even though I wasn't in court with her, I was still able to share information with Attorney, Kayla Bennett....

She kept a laptop in court and it was almost as if I was there beside her..

II-

Dillon Grant called Kool Kat...

"Yo!" he said.

"Is it done?" he asked..

"They are all gone...I had to off the husband of Bonita Foxworth...but I'll let you off the hook for that one." laughed Kool Kat..

"You disposed of the bodies?" asked Dillon..

"Trust me...They'll never find their bodies....any of them..."said Kool Kat, "I told you...I work fast and efficient..." said Kool Kat..

"You killed Morris too? Kevin Morris?" he asked."

"Sure did...Him and his wife...and Bonnie Shay and her husband as well.."said Kool Kat...

"OUTSTANDING....That calls for a bonus...Oh and I have one more person for you to kill."said Dillon Grant.

''Who is that?" asked Kool Kat.

"That guy named Pink....He lives here in Philadelphia and I don't want any loose ends...I'll add another three million to your account right now." he said.

"I'll kill him on my way to the airport..Heard you had some problems with a contractor...You should have called me then." said Kool Kat, laughing ruefully..

"I should have...I had a local guy here take care of that, a local guy named Randy Dalton, unfortunately, he became a liability...I had to take care of him myself.". said Dillon Grant.

"Next time, leave killing to the professionals." laughed Kool Kat...

"You're right...Hopefully there will be no need for a next time., Nice talking to you."said Dillon Grant.

"Likewise." said Kool Kat.

(Click!)

''Well I'll be damned...After all I done for him, this is how he pays me back..Puttin a contract on me."said an exasperated Pink...

"There is no honor amongst thieves." I said laughing....Then I turned to Sirena..

"Is that enough?" I said.

"Ohhhhh way more than enough..."laughed Sirena..

"We got every blood thirsty word on tape...full digital sound."said her partner Hop..

"Seven counts of Conspiracy and Solicitation of First Degree Murder and he puts himself in for the First degree murder of Randy Dalton....Who we now know killed Gaylord Birch..Pick him up!" said Sissy.

III-

In court,The day before all this trans pired Kayla Bennett began her closing argument in her defense of Tyrone Lee...

The week leading up to this had practically a retread of her defense of him during the prosecution's case...

She was still turning heads and breaking necks with her tailored mini skirts, matching heels and sheer white or blue blouses...

ADA Ron Harper was  still sweating, just watching her....


Kayla, still showing the brilliance of her two famous cousins...Cross examined the CSI and Forensic people again ,getting them all to admit that by the time they found the body there was next to no DNA or other forensic evidence pointing to her client..

ADA Harper  again in his dissenting argument painted Tyrone Lee as a "Habitual criminal...and pointed to his two previous convictions, which Kayla had unsuccessfully tried to get suppressed.

Kayla added that her client had been working gainfully at a number of construction sites since he'd gotten out of prison..had gotten an apartment and a car as well as a pretty sizable bank account and had gotten his GDI and was taking classes at Community college..All of which was true and supported by records..She was every bit as thorough as her famous cousins..

She brought in character witnesses from the job ,from Community College and his church...

I thought she was swaying the jury by mid week...I followed it by Laptop...

Kayla surprisingly called the six so called eye witnesses of the prosecution...

Two had perjured themselves in other trials..Three had to admit that they didn't see anything, they had heard talk on the street..and the last eyewitness couldn't explain how he had come into a large amount of money right after Mr. Lee had been arrested.

Kayla provided the bank records of a now closed account from the Caymen Islands that put money in his bank account electronically and phone records of all six men in the days prior to the arraignment...

The phone calls came from the now deceased Mr. Dalton...the same man, 25 others admitted hired them to commit vandalism on several properties that Mr. Birch had sold to the Unity Group...Sepia and Bonita's company...

ADA Harper fought diligently to get some of this suppressed or stricken...This time , he lost...

For the second time, Dillon Grant's name came up in the trial...and a conspiracy theory began to circulate..

From what I could see...The jury was squarely on Kayla's side now...Especially the males on the jury, who loved her tight skirts, her shapely legs and her soft sultry voice..

Kayla called the arresting officer, Lt. Tragg to the stand again!

He was as usual , sour...

He had to admit again that he got an anonymous call telling him where to find the body and telling him who committed the crime..

He had to admit again that he had next to no physical, DNA or Forensic evidence whatsoever pointing to Tyrone Lee....and his entire case was made on the testimony of people who were themselves questionable and unreliable at best...

And he had to admit that there was another suspect, the now deceased Randy Dalton seen with Birch just two hours before he went missing that was never called in...

He was so angry,he was shaking...

ADA Ron Harper shook his head...He couldn't believe it...


He wasn't the least bit surprised when the jury of seven men and five women returned with a NOT GUILTY VERDICT!

 Tyrone Lee breathed a sigh of relief...He hugged Kayla...

"You are a miracle worker...Thank you so much." he said..

"Thank you for trusting me and being straight with me.."said Kayla...

All of this was a day before what happened next..


III-

Dillon Grant was leaving out of his tony Condo when he saw me...he looked as if he'd seen a ghost..

"I always wondered what kind of place guys like you live in." I said..

"YOU!!!!" he said..."THIS CAN'T BE!!" he said..

 "Hi Creep...with you in jail, we may buy out some of your other properties."said Sepia ,who was with me..

"Where you're going, you won't need them." said Bonita..

"No, No, No...THIS CAN'T BE...THIS CAN NOT BE!" he said...

"Oh but it is.."said Detective Sirena Pile..

"He's alive and so is six of the seven people you admitted to conspiring to kill." she said and showed him her badge..

Hop handcuffed him and read him his rights...

"Dillon Grant, you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law...You have the right to an attorney, if you can't afford one, one will be provided for you...do you understand these rights? Of course you do...You're charged with Seven counts of Conspiracy to Commit Murder, 1 count of First Degree Murder, Making terroristic threats, conspiracy....Wow....Quite an accomplishment.." said Hop...

"I-I don't believe it..I-I'm going to jail.." he said.

"You bet your ass you're going to jail....You sir got snookered.. You were talking to two of my operatives the entire time.." I said.

"You better hope I never get out of prison." he snarled..

"I worry about you like I worry about whether the sun is going to come up." I said..

As the police hauled him off...

"Thank You darlin...Never thought I'd close this case this easily.." said Sirena...

"The pleasure was all mine."I said..

IV-

Lieutenant Tragg was livid that two of Sissy's detectives had caught the killer of Gaylord Birch...

He complained bitterly to the Deputy Of Operations...

"THAT WAS MY CASE....A DETECTIVE CAN NOT INTERFERE WITH ANOTHER DETECTIVE'S CASE!!!  I'm not blaming Detectives Pile or Hopkins, I'm blaming their supervisor Sissy Van Buren..who willingly assigned them to a case that she knew was connected to mine.."he said.

The Deputy of Operations paused then said..

"YOU didn't know your case was connected. You sat in that courtroom with the wrong suspect for weeks..And you had two months , TWO months before the trial came up to find a connection...but you did not...Private Investigators, working for Defense Attorneys and an Insurance Company and Sissy's detectives solved a recent murder as well as YOUR MURDER CASE in two weeks...and you had a TWO MONTH HEAD START ON THEM ALL!!  Get your life together Artie...Don't call me with this non sense...You know instead of breaking her stones, You could learn something from Lt. Sissy Van Buren, about working with others to achieve a common goal..The Commissioner is still mad at you for that brouhaha with those reporters a few weeks back....GET IT TOGETHER ARTIE!" he said and hung up...

"For the love of Pete...I don't believe it...I just can't get a break!." he said, nearly in tears.

He was pissed... Me? I was just happy things were back to normal.

EPILOUGE:

Dillon Grant was convicted on all counts and sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole. .He is essentially buried..

This was Kayla's last case until after she and Ray St. Jacques were married..

Me, Sepia, Bonita and Robert Foxworth accompanied her to the Mermaid Crabhouse for a celebratory dinner...

Little did she know...It was a surprise wedding shower..

"SURPRISSSSSSSSSSSSSSE!!!!" came the huge shouts from her guests,,,,

"Heyyyy Booo."said her cousin Beverly, who kissed her on the cheek..

"Congratulations Kayla girl.."said Olivia, who hugged her..

"Congrats Kayla.."said Nelson, who also hugged her...

"Congratulations baby"said Donnie Ray..

"Heyyyy Kayla."said Josie Boyd and her boyfriend Paris.

"Heyyy Neicy Poo."said Alfreda...

Rockland smiled.

Beverly, Olivia, Nelson, Donnie Ray, Josie and Paris, Alfreda and Rockland Cambridge, who as promised successfully prosecuted Dillon Grant , sending him away for life...

"Finally going to take the plunge eh?"said Zoey, who had worked a case with Kayla last year..

"Congratulations Young Lady." said Lem.

"Heyyy Kayla." said  Attorney Yvette Jones

there with her boyfriend, District Attorney's investigator, Gary Lockwood.

"Relationship Goals Kayla!" shouted Attorneys Beatrice "Bee Bee"Evans and Sofia Garcia.

"Congratulations Kayla"shouted Attorney Keith Jones.

"Congrats "said Attorney Kahlil Ahmed...

"Congratulations Baby"said Jade Lee..

There with her boyfriend, Lt. Danny Ho.

"Congratulations Baby Girl." said Ronnie Shay.

"I'm so happy for you."said Bonnie Shay..

''Oh My GODDDD!" she screamed and began to cry....

''Heyyy No crying...You're about to get married.....You got your client off and I put a bad man behind bars.. This is a celebration.." I said..Hugging her.

" Bonita, Olivia and I rented this entire section just for you..."said Sepia..

"Congratulations Kayla...We've got you and Ray's new place ready." said Bonita...

"Oh Thank You...Thank You all.."gushed Kayla.

 It was a beautiful night....

 Everybody looked as though they were having a great time..

 and I do mean everybody...

 Beers were flowing...

As well as Crab Legs...


Did I say everybody was happy? Not quite Everybody....

 Lt. Tragg sat at the bar as sour as usual complaining...

"That was my case...I should have been notified." he mumbled..

But ADA Harper was staring at Kayla..

"They're celebrating something over there...They look like they've got the whole section rented..This might be my chance to ask Kayla out..." he said to no one in particular..

Kayla was still crying profusely...Tears of Joys..

"HI EVERYBODY!" came some more voices..

 Lt. Sissy Van Buren and Her husband, Eddie C.

 Detective Edwin "Duke" Baylor

 and his wife, Dr. Hazel Baylor

 Detectives Tyriq and Sirena Pile

 Detectives James and Angela Barlow..

 ADA Keith Wallace and his wife ,Detective Carlotta Rodriguez-Wallace.

 Detective Tony Hopkins

and his wife, FBI Deputy Special Agent in charge, Sharon Hopkins.. joined us...We had one last table reserved for them...

''Well Artie...Looks like all of your favorite people are here..Defense Attorneys, Investigators , cops."laughed ADA Harper...

Lt. Tragg looked at the three tables..He groaned...

"Why would they all have to be here tonight?" he groaned..

"Cheer up Artie...You need to get laid ,which is what I'm about to do now.." he said..headed  towards Kayla..

"Oh Kayyyyla.." he said..

"Oh hello ADA Harper."said Kayla..

Just then..her fiancé, Ray walked in..

"Hey Baby...Sorry I'm late..Were you surprised?" he asked.

''You knew?" she asked..

"Yeah, Sepia, Olivia, Bonita and Kevin told me.." laughed Ray..

"And you didn't tell me..."she laughed..

"Wouldn't have been a surprise if I had told you." he said.. He pulled her to him and kissed her passionately...

Everybody clapped and whistled and cheered.

Ron Harper nearly dropped his glass..

"Her Fiance." I said.

"FIANCE?" he said astounded..

"Yeah ,they're just snatching those Bennett girls up...Donnie Ray, then
Nelson...Now Ray.." I said...

"You are sooo bad.."  said Sepia, who peeped the whole thing....

"But that's what you love about me." I said.  She kissed me..

"I guess so." she said.

What a wonderful night...Old friends and new friends, all enjoying the night together...