The Pressure

 The Next Morning , After a good night and a good hot breakfast...

Lt. Sissy Van Buren was laying down the law at our morning meeting...She addressed some of her detectives and a room full of uniformed cops assigned to us and plain clothes cops..

"I want you to put the word out to all of the Pawn Shops, All of the known Shot Callers, that that money is hot.. We have the serial numbers and if we see it in circulation, we'll know where it came from...same with those Bearer Bonds...It's tied to a murder now....That makes it too hot to touch.. He won't have it to spend here..or have it laundered here..Not if I can help it." said Sissy.

"That means the pressure will be on...He's not going to be able to get that money washed (laundered) anywhere on Philadelphia or Southeastern Pennsylvania."said Duke.

''So he'll go to Jersey, Camden maybe." said Angie.

"They got anybody in Camden who can handle this kind of weight?" asked Hop..

"No but we can call the Stateys from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and give them a heads up." said Sirena.

''Since he robbed a bank, that makes this Federal.. I'll alert New Jersey, Deleware, New York as well as Pennsylvania, both State and Federal Authorities.,.." said Sharon Hopkins , head of the FBI and ATF..

''And Robbery Homicide is all over this." said Lt. Danny Ho.

Just then, Carlotta, Jimmy, Tyriq and Hazel walked in....

''We have some Good News Boss Lady.." said a smiling Carlotta.

''After Yesterday we all could use some.." said Jimmy.  "One of the uniforms found a gun in the dumpster behind the block where Tony Schram's house was...We rushed it through Ballistics and it's the murder weapon...and it's got fingerprints and sweaty DNA on it belonging to one.. Albert "Allie Boy " Crotty." said Jimmy.

"There's more..Our murder victim, Amazette Charles put up quite a fight...The skin cells found underneath her fingernails  from her scratching his face and his back while he was raping her, plus the blood and semen and saliva we found belongs to , wait for it...Tell em Hazel." said Tyriq.

"Albert "Allie Boy" Crotty...He is the Killer of Tony Schram and the rapist and murderer of Amazette Charles." said Hazel...

Sissy smiled..."Look at that!! Good old fashioned , scientific police work...In under 24 hours... We have a suspect in two murders and we know who one of the participants in yesterday's take down was..Well Don't just sit there.. Pick him up!" said Sissy.

Naturally we went to his apartment complex.... Because of the seriousness of his crime, Wanted for Kidnapping, Rape and two homicides..Carlotta, Tyriq and Jimmy took a fully armed tactical squad with them.. They found his apartment empty!

"I'm not surprised...He knows he left prints and DNA behind after the Charles Murder..I wouldn't expect him to be here." said Carlotta..

Tyriq searched his apartment.. No phones were found..No papers and certainly no money or bearer bonds..Nothing but clothing...Most of his clothing and his car keys.. His bed was neatly made and there were no dishes in the sink.. His computer yielded nothing but Porn searches..

''Ole Boy needed to get out more." said Tyriq.

Jimmy used the keys to search his car... The seat was bloody, filled with blood, later identified to be Crotty's blood.

"He's lost a lot of blood...You know what I think Guys...I think he's dead!" said Jimmy.

With no success there...They pulled out. They had the car towed.

Sirena and Hop likewise took a tactical team to all of Crotty's favorite haunts..No one had seen him since the weekend they all said.

Likewise...They went to all of the hospitals....

No one had seen him.

At headquarters...

"That piece of the mask that our murder victim ripped off of his face, had a serial number on it..Angie and I traced it to the Hobby shop it was purchased from.." said Duke.

''Albert Crotty purchased two masks, A Donald Trump mask and a Richard Nixon mask with his debit card, two weeks ago." said Angie.

"How careful is Johnny Brian Goode.. The Masks used in his take down weren't purchased by him and we don't have a print or DNA or an eyeball witness that places him at the Jackson Residence or The Bank...All we have is his ex-cell mate, Crotty... Crotty bought the masks, Crotty stayed with the girl, while our mystery man presumed to be Johnny B. Goode took Mr. Jackson to the bank and looted it..

Crotty raped the girl, which wasn't part of the plan and got scratched up,leaving blood, semen, saliva and fingerprints belonging to him... And we find a gun with his prints and DNA on it..not far from the scene of another murder.." said Sissy.

''Crotty's a tough guy...an expert heist man.. but he's nowhere near as smart or ambitious as our boy Johnny Brian Goode.  Ugh Ugh...Goode put this heist together...He Faked us out with the false rumor on the street that a mysterious new playa was recruiting guys for a heist...A driver and two other men and was planning to take down the city's newest bank... That got C.I,D, Robbery-Homicide and The Feds out of the way....Then he and Crotty kidnapped Jackson and held his girlfriend hostage as insurance and took down the Foreign Security and Exchange Bank right around the corner, right under our nose... I gotta hand it to him...It was brilliant.. Nothing leads back to him...He was probably wearing the Donald Trump Mask. By now he's discarded the mask and the gun...He's actually home free, except for Crotty, his ex-cell mate, the only person that could connect him to the crime.. We catch Crotty and we explain to him that he's facing the Death Penalty...and maybe, just maybe we crack this case..We nab Johnny B. Goode." I explained.

"Rico called me, He , Chica and Jimmy had no luck...He wasn't at his apartment..but they found his car... The front seat was full of blood... They had the car towed.   And Sirena called me.. Her and Hop went to all of the bars he hangs out at...No one has seen him since the weekend..."said Sissy,

"You know what I think?  I think he's dead!" I said..

"My phone is ringing... It's Danny, maybe he found Crotty." said Sissy to me.

It was indeed Lt. Danny Ho..

''Sissy, I think you'd better get down to the Harbor...We've found Crotty." said Lt. Danny Ho.

watching as a body was being pulled out of the river..

II-

We joined Danny Ho at the Marina where the body of Albert "Allie Boy" Crotty was fished out of the river.

"The Marine Police found him early this morning and they gave me a call." said Lt. Danny Ho.

"They didn't want Lt. Tragg involved in this." he added.

"Good for them...Good for us." said Sissy.

"This is Johnny Brian Goode, getting rid of loose ends." I said solemnly...

"Let's Pick him up...Suspicion of murder..." said Duke.

"We have no proof...We have no evidence..Now you're sounding like the good Lieutenant Tragg.." I said smiling.

"On the other hand,, We've got two homicides down in record time." said Angie, Not mention a rape and kidnapping." she said.

"I knew he was dead, when I saw all of that blood in the front seat of the car." said Jimmy..

"Rico, do you think he would've rolled on Johnny B. If we had caught him?"asked Carlotta.

"He's a tough guy...Old School Guy, but I don't know..Facing the Death Penalty, which he would have faced or the rest of his natural life in prison for blowing the score...He might have."said Tyriq.

''At any rate, he got the death penalty anyway...Judged by a jury of his peers." said Sirena.

"When you put it that way, you're right.." said Hop.

"Cause of Death, Multiple Gunshot wounds...Mostly to the head and neck.. His Drivers License says he's Albert Roland Crotty." said a CSI man..

"From the look of the body...He hasn't been in the water that long... I'd say time of death was sometime last night.or maybe in the afternoon.." said Hazel.

"Heads up!" said Dr. Marcy Martin...

An unmarked police car drove up... Three uniformed officers got out..

Lt. Tragg walked up.... He looked at the dead body of Albert Crotty and shook his head...

"Allie Boy...I knew you'd wind up in a chalk outline one day.." he snickered...

"He is my suspect in the Bank Robbery yesterday and the kidnapping and murder of Amazette Charles, the bank president's girlfriend..The other suspect is still at large and unknown at this time..  He is also my suspect in the murder of a low level hood named Tony Schram, whose body we also discovered yesterday..We found the murder weapon, The Gun with his prints in a dumpster behind the house Schram was renting...And His Blood, semen and saliva was found all over the murdered girl, Ms. Charles." said Sissy.

"Lucky you...I heard you guys were around the corner guarding another bank when this one got hit..Boy those two guys made you look like a fool."laughed Lt. Tragg..."Looks like one of em got greedy...At least you got one of em...You got any idea who the other guy might be.?" he asked.

''We have an idea, but no solid proof.. and unlike you...We aren't going to touch him until we do." said Sissy, smiling sweetly...She figured one good dig deserved  another..

Hazel smiled her approval...She despised Lt. Tragg....She didn't even know why he was here...This wasn't his crime scene.

''Well, Somebody saved the taxpayers money and saved your face....Carry on...Let's go boys," said Lt. Tragg as they got in their car and left..

We stood there as the Body was put in a body bag,

and wheeled away...

'' Duke I've changed my mind... Bring Johnny in..Take him to my office...Tell him I want to talk." I said.

Duke smiled wryly.

III-

THE OFFICE OF ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY KEITH WALLACE

"Would you like some coffee?" I asked..

as I poured myself a cup..

Johnny smiled..

"Sure." he said and I poured him a cup...He added Cream and Sugar...as did I...

"I gotta hand it to you Johnny....You out thought me every step of the way...You put that phony story out about a new playa in town recruiting guys for a big bank robbery...Every known snitch and C.I. was talking about it.. You even made me think we had slipped up and discoverd the bank you were going to hit...and then you back doored me...You kidnapped the president of the Foreign Exchange Bank , right around the corner and had your boy, the Late Mr. Albert Crotty hold the man's girlfriend hostage..While you and the president looted the bank of very expensive Bearer Bonds and a cool million in cash.. Nice haul... Shame your boy Crotty couldn't keep it in his pants just for a few hours...Shame you didn't do your research on your boy. It appears Mr. Crotty and Amazette Charles knew each other.. From back in the day...He'd had a school boy crush on her forever....He had tried numerous times as an adult to get some of that...So when he discovered her, being kept by your victim and there in that Emerald Green Baby doll and those matching Emerald Green bikini panties and Bra, when you guys busted in their condo at the crack of dawn...Well, it was more than he could handle.. His Libido got the best of him, He had to have her..He left his prints behind and his DNA in his saliva on her bra, in the oceans of semen he left on the bed...and in the blood he left behind from her scratching his face and his back...left his skin cells underneath her finger nails."I said and sipped my coffee.

Johnny yawned, then took another sip of his coffee..

''And you're telling me this because?" he said.

"Because I KNOW you killed Crotty last night, I KNOW One or both of you killed Tony Schram, The snitch you got to give my wife the story in the first place...And I KNOW Crotty was too smart to throw the murder weapon with his prints and DNA off in a dumpster behind Schram's house..No that was you...I KNOW he raped and murdered Amazette Charles , while you and your other hostage Jackson looted that bank... Crotty screwed up..He nearly blew the score..So he's dead and there is no one who can tie you to the Heist, The Kidnapping or the murders....but you're not going to enjoy that cash...Every pawn shop, every shot caller...Every Laundry man in Southeastern PA. ,New Jersey, Deleware and even New York has been put on Notice...We have the serial numbers to the loot and The Bearer Bonds.. You try to pass that swag off to anybody and The Criminal Investigation Division, The FBI and ATF ,Robbery-Homicide and the State Police in all of those jurisdictions are going to be on you and whoever else touches that money...The minute I see it...We got you... I got you and I'm going to make sure you do every single day, every year of whatever sentence you get." I said..

I finished my coffee.

"Can I go now? He asked.

''Sure...but just remember.. I'll be watching." I said and smiled.

We got a search warrant and searched the Apartment Complex he lived in from top to bottom,

Of course we found no Money or Bearer Bonds or Guns..He was too smart to have that stuff on his person, I knew that...but I liked the fact that it irritated the hell out of him... In all we raided his place three times.

The Attorney, Sersi Robinson, who was really a good girl, Guilty only of having bad taste in men

Had her apartment raided and searched three times also..

She worked at McCluskey/Cozen/Connor & Pratt, a prestigious law firm..

and she was jockeying for a position on States Attorney Tanya Mosely's staff..

She didn't need any impropriety or scandal following her, She didn't care how good the sex was.. She politely asked Johnny not to call her or see her any more..and when he wouldn't relent.. She got a restraining order swore out on him..

This made him nuts..

He found I was right...Nobody in Philly, New Jersey,Deleware or New York would touch his money..He couldn't get it laundered and no one was buying his Bearer Bonds.. The Feds and local authorities had put the pressure on them...They didn't want that kind of smoke...

He was made aware that he was being watched by detectives..

Within THREE WEEKS...He was close to cracking. He was running out of money..The money his good friend, Crotty had staked him when he got out of prison.

IV-

At home one night..

"Carlotta, those bearer bonds are worth millions...I'm talking about 20- 30 million or more if he finds the right buyer on the International market.." I said.

"Ouuu that's hot...Shame he can't move it... But you know, those Russians in Little Norway, they might buy them and find an international trader." said Carlotta..

"I thought about that....Sharon has a number of them monitored electronically...We haven't heard any chatter about it yet." I said.

Carlotta checked her phone, then put it down....

"Come here papi."said Carlotta softly...

I stared deeply into her eyes...

We kissed slowly and tenderly for a few minutes....

She moved up and down on me on the side of the bed...smothering me with soft kisses...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...UMMMMMMMMM PAPI!" she moaned.

"CARRRRRRRLOTTTTTTA! OH MY GOD!" I moaned.

I picked her up.....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu weeee papi." she said..

Her legs were wide open and I entered her slowly..

She was so warm, so wet and I was deliriously aroused..

She smiled serenely and wrapped her legs around my waste as I began to move in and out of her...

Carlotta never failed to get excited.....I couldn't stand it...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupapi...yesssssssssssssssssss....yes.......AYE MIOS DIOS......Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.."she moaned softly as we made sweet love...…

"PAPiIIIIIIII..AYE MIOS DIOS!" she moaned, 

I was very close to exploding....Her body was trembling and the tears were flowing from her eyes...She was a very passionate lover...

We got into a nice rhythm in the bed and we made love for the next NINE TO TEN HOURS!

I hadn't captured  Johnny Brian Goode yet...but at least I had put the pressure on him...He couldn't spend his dirty money....He couldn't launder it..Nobody on either side of the law would do business with him....He has lost his girlfriend and everywhere he went, every waking hour...He was being shadowed..

Watched..

Be it the supermarket-

Swimming....

Or his favorite Rooftop Bar and pool getaway.....

We were there...To let him know he was being watched and that we hadn't forgotten him..

The Pressure was getting to him...Upon seeing one or more of us... He'd usually get up and leave in both anger and frustration...

He tried calling Sersi..

She had taken to blocking his calls..

I thought about all of that while Carlotta and I made sweet love..

"OUUUUUUUUUU PAPI, YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!! OUUUUUU!" she moaned..

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,AWWWWWWWWWW CARLOTTTAAAAA!" I cried out...

He had won a battle...but I was definitely winning the war!

(CONCLUSION NEXT)