The Smell of several cups of steaming hot coffee wafted over the landscape of Sam Mother's Diner..
It was early in the morning...and Sam smiled at the rotations.. The cops always came in first, then the Attorneys, Defense Attorneys, Assistant District Attorneys, Judges..and then the college students and everybody else...
It was 6:30 am...kind of early, but all of the cops were here...
The male detectives , Duke, Tyriq, Jimmy and Hop liked
huge servings of Pancakes and sausage...
and hash browns...
Sissy, Lt. Sissy Van Buren and her female detectives...Sirena, Tyriq's wife, Angie, Jimmy's wife, Hazel, Duke's wife and Sharon, Hop's wife all preferred Omelettes to order..
and Hash Browns...
While Carlotta, my wife..enjoyed
her Friatta with sausage...
We ate and talked quietly....
Lt. Tragg walked in while we were eating our meals...He had been on indefinite desk duty for costing the city a big lawsuit brought on by a judge he had falsely arrested twice... Off desk duty , he became a suspect ,but was cleared in the framing of that same attorney who had sued the city...We couldn't find any connection to him...but he was questioned by the D.A.'s office, The DEA and us...He wasn't in the best spirits lately....
"Well look who it is...Philadelphia's finest....."he said sarcastically as he walked in …"You guys got lucky yesterday...Caught a double murder -suicide...Two cases that solved themselves huh?" he said..
"Every Now and then you get lucky...."said Sissy ,diplomatically...
"Yeah, everybody but him.."laughed Jimmy...
"Jimmy, cool it!" said Angie..
''Yeah, what did I tell you?" said Sirena...
Hazel, Carlotta and Sharon giggled at the remark...
Lt. Tragg walked over to the table...
"Uh Oh...Here comes trouble.."whispered Duke to Tyriq..
''Damn, can't we have a meal without him spoiling it...I might find another diner to eat at."said Tyriq.
"Yeah, I been thinkin the same thing."said Hop..
"BARLOW!! DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH ALL OF US.?" Lt. Tragg bellowed..
''Artie ,leave my customers alone..They were minding their business."said Sam Mother..
Jimmy stared him in the eye and said.. "The people I meant to hear what I said, heard it..So no, I have nothing to share with anyone else." he said softly and continued eating his food.
"Gotta hand it to Junior...He's got some stones on him.."said Duke..
"That he does.."said Tyriq, smiling..
There was nothing Lt. Tragg could say...Jimmy hadn't said anything to him...He was having a private conversation and he had broke no statute or regulation...He stared balefully...Then he turned to Sissy,
''Siss, you are too liberal with your detectives...you need to teach em some respect for a superior officer." he said.
"You need to get a cup of coffee and some breakfast...What are you so uptight for ,so early in the morning? You had a case or something? Were you up all night?" Sissy asked calmly..
''Why do I waste my time talking to you...I'll take this up with the Deputy of Operations." he said.
"You'll take what up?" asked Sharon, who as FBI was not under his jurisdiction and couldn't stand him...She was itching for a fight..
''Sharon No...Let it go.."said Angie.
"Yes..let's pay our bill and get out of here."said Sissy as we all settled up with Sam and got up and left..
"You have a great day Lieutenant." I said as we all went to our cars and left..
Sam Mother shook his head ...He poured Lt. Tragg his coffee..
"Nobody can clear a room like you can Artie." he said.
II-
Back at headquarters we continued to look into yesterday's double murder-suicide...
''Okay, me, Rico and Jimmy did some digging, we found out that our guy Terry South was being blackmailed by this girl Angel Gentry..."said Carlotta
''She was an Exotic Dancer at that Strip Club, the one that got sued. HUSTLER'S... She was fired because several customers , met with her in hotels outside the club and complained they got rolled."said Tyriq.
"Several residents of the apartment complex th South's lived in said they saw her there with Mr. South a few times during the day..'said Jimmy..
''Everytime he took a major amount of money out of his account...It showed up in her bank account the next day...and apparently he wasn't the only one Angel Gentry was blackmailing...There were at least three others.."said Hop..
''We tried to talk to them, but they wouldn't say anything on the record.."said Sirena.
"I can make them talk...with something called a Subpeona.." I said..
"Hold off on that for a little while...Keep their names and addresses...We can still talk to them, they aren't going anywhere.." said Sissy.
''Ms. Gentry is not from Philadelphia..She hails from Miami ,Florida...Her real name is Angela Gibson and she's been at this for awhile...She was blackmailing a local businessman in Miami..he committed suicide after the payments got to be too much and she threatened to tell his wife.." said Duke.
"Hmm,she runs her little game right? Then someone kills themselves..The game gets a little hot, So She moves here...Only something went terribly wrong and she got herself killed..You think she moved here and set herself up by herself.?" asked Angie..
''She could have.."said Sissy..
''Well Check this out.. I had a team monitoring her accounts.Her bank account is closed, all of the money wired out...Her credit cards, paid off and closed out...TODAY as in two hours ago."said Carlotta.
''Where was the money wired too?" I asked.
"I don't know..but it's gone and the account was closed electronically!"said Carlotta.
"Is it me or does this smell to high heaven?" said Duke..
"Oh yeah....it smells.... She was working with somebody..She had a partner.."said Sissy..
And deep beneath the Schuylkill River , a young woman's two feet ,slip away from the rope ,hastily tied to the cement block that's been holding her down and her body begins to float upward toward the surface...
III-
THREE DAYS LATER...
''Boss Lady, we got an email from Miami... Look at these photos.."said Carlotta.
"A Businessman committed suicide in Miami a few weeks ago..and these photos were found in his possession....these two girls are said to be here in the Philadelphia area.... Well one of em isn't.."said Sissy..
"That's our murder victim of three days ago...Angela Gentry or Gibson.."said Tyriq..
"This other girl...Sirena and I have been looking for her.."said Hop..
"She also worked at Hustlers and was recently fired..And she has a long rap sheet in Miami and here and Atlantic City, Prostitution, Grifting, Fraud, Petty Theft."said Carlotta..
"It was three days ago...I checked out her apartment...Her car is there , Her clothes, messy kitchen and all..but no sign of her..."said Jimmy...
"No visible means of support...by that I mean a job, yet she's living in a Condo , a very expensive Condo and pushing around a very expensive whip!" said Tyriq...
''She's got a very generous Sugar Daddy or Sponser."said Sirena..
"The Power Of The Panties" laughed Sissy.
"Siss, we got a call...Murder at Penns Landing.."said Duke..
''Want me and Duke to check it out?" said Angie..
''We are all going."said Sissy.
A Body was pulled from the river......
Dr. Hazel Baylor observed the body.....
"Looks like she was drowned.....Because she's been in the water...Her body is cold...I can't tell how long..but rigor has set in...I'd say at least 48 hours..." she said..
" She was weighted down by something...She was alive when she was dropped in the water..What a cruel way to die.." said Angie...
"One of the Marine cops found this purse...It was weighted down with her or she was clinging to it.."said Duke.
''Well look at this, The drivers license says TANGERAY BELL....The other girl in those x-rated pictures." said Sirena.
"The girl we were looking for.."said Hop.
"Yupper partner....This case didn't solve itself..It just got nastier..."said Sirena.
The double murder-suicide was just the tip of the iceberg....
"The girl who transferred the money from Angel's account immediately after it was learned that Angel was murdered."said Jimmy...
"Terry South may have killed Angel and then his wife and himself...but he didn't do this...He was already dead!!...This was somebody else.."said Carlotta.
"This is much bigger than we thought.."said Tyriq..
''Hazel....Release the body...there is nothing more we can do here.."said Sissy.
"Okay Siss...Alright boys bag her and wrap her up...Let's go.."said Hazel.
The body was put in an Ambulance and headed off to the M.E.'s office..
I stood by somberly and watched as the Ambulance drove off....
"You Okay Papi?" asked Carlotta.
"Yeah....I'm fine.." I said..
"No you're not...I'm not fine either.."said Carlotta.
IV-
Back at headquarters we began to talk about this series of events that began with a double murder -suicide....
"Let's look at what we got....We got a girl...she was fired from a local hot spot for hustling customers..She moves into the big time , picks her mark carefully....Terry South was married, an investment banker.....Loaded..She and her girlfriend have sex with him, lots of sex and unknown to him..he's being filmed...and now he's got to pay...$1200.00 a month.....Not just him, but five other guys..."says Sissy..
"This money only stays in their accounts for a short period ,then it's transferred out...I was watching the accounts.One is in the Cayman Islands, Dummy account, phony name....The Other is in Canada."said Tyriq..
''So Both girls are obviously working for somebody..."said Duke.
"Right and according to their police records they were doing the same thing in Miami, until a businessman committed suicide....Whoever their pimp or sponser is tells them to disappear...because their photos are in this man's phone...There will be an investigation.."says Carlotta.
"Yeah, so they are running the same shell game up here in Philly...and then one of their marks, Terry South is unstable...kills one of the girls and his wife and himself...So the string puller says move that money before the police get curious.."said Sirena..
"Why kill the other girl though? she did what she was told Unless string puller has a flock of girls?" said Jimmy...
"She's in those videos two...Both the man in Miami and Terry South. If the string puller has a flock of girls...Then one or two are expendable..."said Carlotta.
"Look , a suicide in Miami....Both girls are told to get lost...A double murder -suicide in Philly...same two girls are involved ….the Police might look at this, see a connection, which we have....The police from Miami might talk to the police from Philly, which they have...and make a connection...Both girls are now a liability...One is already dead, and now the other one..Ms. Bell has to go..."said Hop..
''You guys are missing something here..HOW IS ALL THIS INFORMATION GETTING AROUND SO FAST? " asked Angie... ''A suicide in Miami, a Double Murder -Suicide here in Philly, all intangibles...Nobody counts on that...and now this murder....Somebody got this information real quick and cleaned up even quicker...I mean who gets that kind of information about seemingly random events, THAT FAST???"said Angie..
"Angie's right....This isn't some Pimp....This is a large operation with girls or operatives in Miami and Philly and a network of information... This is big and sinister..and EVIL!!!!" I said..
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