The Women of Tony Richardson

Before I could even get started on Tony's case...I got a frantic call from Sharon Silver, my friend..

I had helped her solve the mystery of what had happened to her missing fiancé..A Semi-Pro Football player ,who vanished and was never seen again... I helped bring his murderer to justice..I hadn't heard from her since then...

She was calling me telling me she had brought the New Year in with her new boyfriend...Gil Carter, only to step out for a minute and find him shot to death...She told me blood was everywhere...

I called in my entire crew...

Lockpick Johnson, who disabled the street and traffic cams in the vicinity of the building...

Peeping Tom and my five other investigators who all had backgrounds in the intelligence community..

Even Clerow, Sean Jackson and Owen Todd... They sat at different angles on the street an acted as look outs...

We parked in the back alley and made our way up the stairs...dressed in Latex booties and latex gloves like the police wear and carrying bags...

I had stopped by her apartment and gotten a  new dress, bra, panties and shoes...

I hated invading her privacy like this...but I had no choice...

"Oh My God, Kevin, I'm so glad you came...." she said..

I saw the body lying in the middle of the floor..

"I know him...That's Gil Carter...He's written a few freelance pieces for me....Oh My God! Who would do this to him? He was a nice kid.."I said..

''We spent the night together...We made love..I had just left to go get some bagels and coffee...I wasn't gone twenty minutes...I come back and and he's dead.." she cried..

"Okay guys...bleach everything down....They made love...take the sheets, bed spreads, pillows..everything...Did he use condoms?" I asked..

"Yes..they're in the trash can..."she said..

My guys bleached and wiped everything down....

"I need your clothes...Take off everything...Dress, panties, bra...blouse and put it in this bag...I brought you a change of clothes...Anything that touched him has his and your DNA on it.."I said..

Sharon did as she was told...

"Usually when a man asks me for all of this...He wants sex." she joked and smiled as she undressed...

I smiled.

I grabbed both of his laptops, his phone, which I turned off..His tablet and all of his notes...

We all left out the back and down the back steps....Got in the van and pulled off..

.

Sean Jackson, Clerow and Owen Todd went in the opposite direction....

Kool Kat sat in a coffee shop down the street from the loft...

And just as I suspected...The Police arrived within minutes after we exited...

"You were right Kev...whoever clipped this guy wanted him found...That's why they left all that stuff and didn't even try to clean up the scene..." he said..

"Yeah, we got her out of there in the nick of time..." I said..

II-

The CSI and Forensic people were baffled...They found nothing...No DNA or prints...Not even of the deceased...

They found Five shell casings..but that was it..

Dr. Hazel Baylor, Forensic Investigator and Deputy Coroner was baffled..

"Most of the blood has been cleaned up....The bedspreads, sheets and pillows are gone...The trash cans are empty....The kitchen and bathroom are spotless... I smell the bleach....There is nothing here.." she said..

Lt. Tragg was equally perturbed...

"Nothin...No prints, no DNA...This guy was a Free Lance Reporter...where are his notes? Where is his laptop?? His Tablet??  His phone for godsakes?? This is the cleanest crime scene I've ever seen.." he said...

I hated to do that....but I couldn't have Sharon being caught up in this...There was no evidence she had been in his apartment...None at all...

I blindfolded her and took her down to the sub-basement where Morris Investigations was located..

''Thank You so much Kevin.." said Sharon...

She looked around...She saw the computers and high tech equipment, she saw my 30-40 administrative assistants and Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson and my five operatives..

"My god...what is the Bat cave?" she asked..

"I'm a Private Investigator...this is my agency...This is where the magic happens...because of the type of work I do...It's better if the general public not know the location of all of this..or the identity of the operatives working for me." I said..


''Hey Kev...This guy....You said you know him?" asked one of my investigators..

"Yeah....he has done free lance work for me.."I said..

"We dusted his tablet and his laptops...He has a lot of information on Tony Richardson...your uh client.." he said.

Upon hearing his name, Sharon sighed...

'That dog....I dated him....I didn't know he was married , he neglected to tell me that until after he got into my panties.." she sighed..

There was a dozier on Gloria Brown...An Attorney I work with from time to time..who had slept with Tony.

Photos of and allegations of him and Attorney Kayla Bennett-St . Jacques...

He had slept with Gloria and had tried to sleep with Kayla.

There was the horny wife of a local judge, Attorney Patricia Reynolds, once a Judge herself....Who hadn't she slept with....No surprise there...

U.S. Attorney Karla Williams, his former assistant....Now a U.S. Attorney herself

Local Attorney, Jasmine Jenkins.... I didn't know her...She was a former Public Defender and ADA, now a top litigator for a corporate firm who had a brief affair with him recently....He had broken it off with her once he learned his wife was pregnant...or so the allegation went...She too refused to talk to Gilbert and had security usher him out of her law firm's offices...

And his lovely wife...who was a D.C. Attorney...oblivious to all of this.

"This guy has photos and allegations...but not a word of confirmation from any of them...Apparently Gil  went to visit every one of them and none of them would talk to him...

"According to these emails...he appeared to be getting his information from a second party...but we don't know who...We'll have to trace it.."said one of my operatives..

"Get on that.." I said..

"Wow...so glad the cops didn't find all of this stuff...Wow...Tony would have been in big trouble.."I said..

''You mean I'm not listed in his notes?  I slept with Tony too..He was such a dog, such a horn dog...." said Sharon...

"No...you're not in here...Be glad...It would have hurt your relationship with Gil..."I said..

Sharon sighed...

"It would have..Gil was a real nice guy...I had no idea he was working on an expose of Tony Richardson..."said Sharon...

"Tony got this CD sent to his house in D.C. two days ago...No return address, but a Philly post office  stamp...."I said and played it..

"Take your clothes off baby.....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...ummmmmmm…."clearly U.S. Attorney Tony Richardson's voice.. 

"Ohhhhhh your hands are cold...." a woman's voice..

"That's alright...we'll be warm soon enough....oh my god...you're so sexy...ooouuuuuu…" Sounds of kissing... 

'Oh my godddd...you don't make any sense being this big, this hard so soon...I've barely undressed...Ouuuuuuuu look at that thing...myyyyyyyyyyyyyyy lawd!"came the woman's voice.. 

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh babyyyy…" 

Sounds of the bed squeaking out of control... The headboard slamming hard against the wall...

 "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm losing my mind...ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu" said U.S. Attorney Tony Richardson....

 "Ummmmmmm Mister U.S. Attorneyyy...wouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.." 

More sounds of the bed squeaking and the headboard rattling.. 

"You like it daddy?"came the woman's voice.. 

"Oh my god!"moaned Tony Richardson.

(CLICK!)

"Kevin!!! That's me!! That's me...That was recorded in August at the Marriot, where he stays when he is in town.....Oh My God!"said Sharon...

"Apparently whoever recorded this...Didn't know who you were...Thank goodness for that....whoever killed Gil , wanted all of this stuff to be found...including your DNA and prints...That's why they just shot him and left all this stuff strewn everywhere.."I said.

"You guys even cleaned up the coffee that was spilled.."laughed Sharon...

"I know most of these ladies...They're nice women ,I don't think any of them want their reputations tarnished and scattered all over the press...This spares them...and you.." I said..







III-

A small crowd gathered as the body was taken out in a body bag...

"My guys found nothing...No murder weapon...No DNA or Prints...Not even the victims...The Kitchen and the Bathroom were spotless..The trash cans were empty...Only his clothes were here... And so far the cause of death appears to be five gunshot wounds to the chest and torso...Judging from the fact that nobody saw anything or heard anything...My guess is that the killer used a silencer...That's all I got.."said Hazel..

"That's not enough....I need more.."said Lt. Tragg...

"Well, you're the detective...That's your job.."said Hazel, who had never seen a crime scene this clean...

They weren't going to find anything on the Traffic Cam or Street Cam either....We had wiped Sharon off of the camera coming and leaving...and off of the business camera across the street...She had brought two coffees and two bagels from down the street...but after that...There was no evidence she had even been in Gil's loft....

IV-

And meanwhile...The actual murderer was furious....

"I don't believe this...The cops found the body...No mention of the expose on Tony Richardson...There was a tablet, two laptops, his phone...filled with crap...they didn't find any of it...The CD I sent him...Gone!!...WHO THE HELL DID THIS?? WHO WIPED THAT PLACE CLEAN???   He had a girl in there with him....No trace of her??? I DON'T BELIEVE IT!! Richardson has somebody heavy duty working for him.... I've got to find out who it is..This looks like a government agency type of job." said the man who was beyond livid..

Back at my headquarters...

"You'll be safe here....for a few days...then you can go home..."I said.

"Oh Kevin, thank you sooo much.." said Sharon..

I took the elevator to my upstairs office...

It was no surprise...Lt. Arthur Tragg was waiting for me..

''To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" I asked sarcastically..There was no love lost between us...He had arrested me once and tried to have my P.I. License pulled...I despised the man...

"Knock it off Morris...Gil Carter was found shot to death earlier this afternoon..." he said.

"Gil Carter?? WOWW!!!! He worked for me...He wrote some Free Lance pieces...He was pretty good too!  You got any leads?" I asked..

"No, Not yet and don't get in my way either...When is the last time you saw him?" he asked.

"In August....but he called me last week..Said he was working on something big..."I said.

"WHAT?" asked Lt. Tragg….It was more like an order..

"He didn't say...We were supposed to meet for lunch and go over things this coming Friday.."I said.

''You aint the least bit upset that he's dead?" asked Lt. Tragg..

"He wasn't a close friend...Just a guy I knew...Do you know how many people I meet in this business who tell me they've got the next big story and it turns out to be nothin?  I don't get excited when somebody tells me that until I actually see the story...I am curious to know what it was though...Maybe it got him killed."I said.

"Forget it...Whoever iced him cleaned his place good, took everything and didn't leave not one clue.."said Lt. Tragg...

"Oh wow!  A Pro.....Well....You're the detective...Happy Hunting...."I said..

"I knew this was a waste of time..Just stay out of my way!"snarled Lt. Tragg as he left...

I laughed...

I was going to get to the bottom of this …..Just so I could laugh in his face once again...

(TO BE CONTINUED)