Gone Missing

 PRELUDE- The morning started off good enough...Sepia was in the bathroom in just her T-shirt...brushing her teeth and fixing her make up...I had awakened to a sweet kiss from her and had followed her into the bathroom....She had just finished brushing her teeth...

I came in behind her and put my arms around her waste, hugging her...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.....You never get enough of me do you?" she asked softly....

"I told you I don't...." I whispered....

"Ummmm I'm getting my lipstick all over you, but you don't care do you?" she said as I kissed her...

"No I don't." I said , still kissing her..

"I didn't think you would.." she laughed.

I slipped her panties down slowly....

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..." I moaned..

"Listen at you moaning...you sound like a mule......Ummmmm, you're certainly hung like one...OUUUUUUUU!" she cooed.

Sepia and I were in our bathroom....I lifted her up on the sink...had her legs spread and was thrusting slowly and gently inside of her...She was sooo soft, so wet....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! OH MY GODDD.....OH MY GODDD UMMMMMM

IT'S SO BIGGGGGGG!! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AND SO DAMN HARRRRRRD! OUUUUUUUU OH MY GODDDDD! SO EARLY IN THE DAMN MORNING!!!!" she moaned... "You know Bonita and I have a house to show this morning...." she said in another breath. She was good at compartmentalizing things...

"You'll be on time." I assured her..

"OUUUUUUUUU! OHHH MY GODDDDDD!UMMMMMMMM I HOPE SOOOO...OUUUUUU!" said Sepia....She was having an intense orgasm....Her body was trembling,,,,her head was turning from side to side....Tears were flowing down the sides of her face..

Soon I had her legs spread , had her turned around and was entering her doggie style..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....UMMMMMMMMMMMM...YOU NASTY DOG!! WOUUUUUUUU!" she screamed out....

And just like that..She was having another intense orgasm....Her body was trembling,,,,Her head was turning from side to side....Tears were flowing down the sides of her face..She was banging her hands on the counter...

"Ouuuu Kevin,Kevin dear, you know I love you....Some girls can't get one orgasm....I get multiple ones a week...I love youuuu..OUUUUUUUUU I LOVE YOU!" she screamed.

"OHHHH SEPIA, I LOVE YOU TOO!" I screamed out...

I came so hard and was shaking as though it was an earthquake..

Sepia laughed....

"Are you alright?" she asked me..

"Yeah.." I said, catching my breath.

"OUUUUUUUUU I GOTTA GET BACK IN THE SHOWER." she said..

"Let's get in together..." I whispered in her ear....

I held on to Sepia for dear life and squeezed her butt..

"I love you...I'm crazy about you." I said.

"I love you too! Stop squeezin my butt, before we both get all hot and bothered again and then we won't make it to our jobs  on time...WOUUUUUUUUUUU! " she said, catching her breath too!

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I said.

"Come on, let's get in the shower..." she chided me.. I smiled as she grabbed two towels, two wash cloths and body wash...

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMM look at youuuuu!" she said, placing her hands over her mouth!

We got in the shower....kissing and making love as we soaped each other down with body wash.....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! OH MY GODDD.....OH MY GODDD UMMMMMM

IT'S SO BIGGGGGGG!! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! AND SO DAMN HARRRRRRD! OUUUUUUUU OH MY GODDDDD! SO EARLY IN THE DAMN MORNING!!!! IN THE SHOWER" she moaned..

We didn't often do this...but when we did..It was pure heaven..

In the kitchen Sepia said to me..

"Don't you think that girl should be giving you that key to that safe deposit box now?" 

''We are supposed to meet today...I have her Airline tickets..One way to Los Angelas...You can't get any further from here than there." I said.

"Can they get to her out there?" Sepia Asked.

"I doubt it and especially if they don't know where she's going... There are things they can do...and there are things they can't." I assured Sepia.

II-

In the sub- basement of the building that my communications conglomerate was located in..

was the secret headquarters of Morris Investigations... With State of the Art equipment..A Thoroughly vetted administrative staff and operatives...all with P.I. Licenses and all with history in the Intelligence Community (Homeland Security, CIA, one ex-KGB Agent) and me myself, an ex NCIS man...Overseen by Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson...They did a lot of leg work for me...Even though Penelope Herring called me from a burner phone and a blocked number...We were able to pinpoint the signal...

I was able to pinpoint the area...if not the street , her calls came from...

I had a better idea of where she was than Gangster, Smiling Jack, who in addition to his goons searching for her, had a ten million dollar bounty on Penelope's head...That meant that 10 Milli was being offered to anybody that spotted her , whether they worked for him or not..

And despite my superior technology...ten million dollars would get a lot of mouths to talking...He just might get to her before I did.

Penelope's movements had been fluid...She didn't use her credit cards or her debit card to charge anything.. She departed Smiling Jack with a large amount of cash and she paid for everything in cash...She never ate or drank at the same place twice...and she moved in stealth better than some guys I know.

She even managed to be at my office without anyone knowing...Anyone but Deuce Jenkins... I kept wondering , how did he know she had been at my office?...How did he know she would come to me?

The answer was simple..She had inquired to a number of people on the street, who were in the know, who was tough enough, smart enough to help her...

Not that I'm bragging, but my name came up more than a few times....Deuce was plugged into the talk on the street more than Smiling Jack , who had been insulated from the actual going on in the street.

He lived in a condo...

Downtown, away from the streets...He had others running his various nefarious enterprises.. Which explained why I hadn't gotten a visit from his goons...Hopefully I could avoid that almost certain inevitability...

We had done our homework on Penelope.. She hadn't lied to me...She had been born here in Philadelphia.. Her parents were Lithuanian Immigrants who had migrated here and become naturalized citizens..

She went to Girls High, and  in fact she graduated with some friends of mine..

Attorneys Beverly West-East, Her cousin Kayla Bennett- St. Jacques, Jasmine Jenkins(Now Coley) , Natalie Tennison (Now Charles) and Renee Cantrell(Now Jones) 

 They had all left Girls High and gone on to Temple University...Beverly, Kayla and Jasmine had went from there to PENN Law School, Natalie had matriculated to Georgetown Law School and Renee had gone on to Howard University Law School..

Penelope's  thing had been Finance and She had matriculated to Drexel University...Where she majored in Finance and Accounting...With her excellent Accounting and Book keeping skills , she was courted by many major firms in the Area and outside..

She met up and coming gangster, Jack Sanders at Josie's of all places...

He dressed nice, wore a nice fragrance and flashed a lot of cash..He was then a middle manager for Fathead Newton...an up and coming little psychopath...

When Fathead Newton left town and gave all of this up, he managed to survive the war and work his way up into Manny Spain's organization...with Manny Spain dead, that left another scramble for power and Deuce Jenkins who

took over and ran him out of town to Detroit, emerged as the Boss of Philadelphia Crime for awhile. There in Detroit , Jack Sanders, ingratiated himself with Crime Boss, Big Uncle.

For awhile.Jack and Penelope were happy in Detroit..She was dubbed "Booty with Brains" and was like his number two, running his operation....They lived together in a posh Condo in suburban Detroit.

Big Uncle wanted a beach head in Philadelphia and sent them home, with enough muscle to edge Deuce Jenkins out.. 27 people lost their lives that summer in a bloody gang war in which Deuce got the worst of it...

Penelope was at heart a good girl and she tired of the gangster life....She didn't like even being marginally involved with loss of life...She wanted out and she wanted her Jack to get out...

but he wasn't getting out...He was a Boss now..He had money and best of all ,power and respect...He wasn't about to give that up...not even for his Booty with Brains. he chose "the life" over her.

Which brings us to where we are today!

I knew where she might be...but did I dare try to locate her?

III-

Penelope called me around 3:00 pm...I told her I had her Airline tickets...She told me to pick the place for the meet..I gave her directions to Pink's Seafood Joint.. It was a good distance from where she was..She liked that...She said she'd be there...She told me the key on her gold wrist bracelet was THE KEY, the key to the safe deposit box...She said she would  tell me where to locate the safe deposit box with the information I needed when she saw me. She said she'd meet us there at 5:00 pm.

She told me to bring my family....Nothing looked more innocent just in case I was being followed than to have my family there , having dinner...Plus she liked my wife and my daughter...She wanted to see them one last time.

I came with Sepia and Kimmie at 5:00 pm as agreed....We had dinner and Sepia bought some seafood for later..

"It's Seven O'clock Kev, where is your guest?" asked Pink..

''I don't know...She's never been late before...Not even close...We are going on two hours....I don't like it Pink." I said.

"You think she got lost?" asked Sepia.

"Her? No...She knows this city like a book..."I said.

"Then Kev...She got got!  Face it...She's dead man!" Pink whispered in my ear... I didn't want to hear that...but it was true....he knew the streets and how these things worked.

When she hadn't arrived by 9:00 pm... We left...

I called the burner phone number she gave me.. but no one answered.....it went straight to voicemail..

I dropped Sepia and Kimmie cakes off and I got Kool Kat..

We were going to try and find her....

I zeroed in on the neighborhood...

We saw police outside of a residence..

"Hmmm Looks like a police presence....You want to check it out?" he asked.

"Yeah pull up to the corner..." I said.

We pulled up and entered the premises...Inside we saw a muscular Black man, who I did not know, lying on the floor....His lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling....He had a gun in his hands...a .38 smokeless....It was still warm....in the doorway was another black man , who I did not know...He had four bullet wounds in his back....fired from the other man's .38...he too was very dead.

"This guy on the floor took three to the chest....probably from laughing boy over by the door.. Looks like he got three or four shots off before he bought it." said one of the Crime scene investigators..

''What a mess....a double."said the other guy...

"Hi Kevin." said Dr. Marcy Templeton, relieved it was me and not Lt. Tragg....

"Do you know either one of them Kevin?" asked Dr. Hazel Baylor.

"No I don't." I said.

"I know the Big Guy on the living room floor with three slugs in his chest...His name is.Marcus Cure...an ex Army Man...served in Iraq and Afghanistan...Demolition expert....Also a hitter for both Deuce Jenkins and Smiling Jack Sanders... His specialty....the car bomb or the Booby trap...Sound familliar Kevin?" whispered Kool Kat to me...

"Yeah....Now I'm beginning to get it." I said.

IV-

The address got more crowded... Sissy and her detectives arrived...They looked at the carnage...and stepped over the bodies..

 "Hi Kevin...You know these guys?" asked Sissy.

"No Neither one of them..." I said, shaking my head..

"The one on the living room floor is Marcus Cure.. He was a co-operating witness for us, against Smiling Jack." said Carlotta.

"Once we took Deuce Jenkins down....We set our sights on Smiling  Jack." said Tyriq.

''Can't fault you guys for lacking ambition." I said with a smile.

"He was going to turn in States Evidence for immunity." said Jimmy.

"He was out of Detroit...He was back up muscle for Smiling Jack Sanders , imported from Detroit....He had been one of Big Uncle's main men..." said Serena.

"Once here, he freelanced...He did hits for Deuce Jenkins and Smiling Jack...His specialty was car bombs...Booby traps...."said Hop..

"We like him for the murders of Deuce and Snap in Bayside." said Duke..

"Probably ordered by Smiling Jack." said Angie..

Kool Kat and I knew different...but we remained silent.

''Somehow Smiling Jack must have found out he was going to testify for us and he got to him first."said Assistant District Attorney Keith Wallace..

I looked around, I smelled a very familliar fragrance...Penelope Herring...She had been here, but where was she now???

I looked in the bedroom...

There was a half packed suitcase....with women's panties and bras...These certainly didn't belong to the late  Marcus Cure...Penelopie had been staying here with him...Now he was dead...Where was she?

"The guy over here by the door is Gus Dozier....An old hitman...I thought this guy retired..." said Duke.

"He's retired now!" said Tyriq..

Kool Kat laughed and slapped his thigh...

"That's for damn sure.." he said...

"Look at these scuff marks...There was at least two other people in here...a woman and a man." said Carlotta.

"You're right Carlotta."I said. "Those small footprints definitely belong to a woman..." I said.

"Can we remove the bodies Sissy?" asked Hazel...

"Yeah, get em outta here." said Sissy, sighing.

I stood and watched as both bodies were removed from the sight.....I had a real bad feeling in the bottom of my stomach.

(CONCLUSION NEXT)