A Comely Woman

Mike White sat in the backseat of my car...We were a distance from The Pennsylvania Correctional Institution for women at Muncy....We were here because of the legwork I did days before....I had used the services of my good friends,Lockpick Johnson and Peeping Tom. We had bugged the homes and phones of Ola's Brother, Sister and Aunt....I had spent days with them listening to phone calls and picking up cell phone calls and text messages... I found out when Ola was being released and who was picking her up. It turns out her brother, Bud Brown was picking her up.

The night before..I put a gps tracking device on his car. That made it easy for me to follow him to the prison. I took my wife, Sepia with me and called Mike White ,who also rode with us. Sepia had went to get us coffee.

"Thanks for calling me Kevin.....Nice ride you got here....A BMW....What year is it?" asked Mike White.

"This is a 2009" I said.

"Wow, you do pretty good in this Private Investigator hustle you got going...Nice car, your wife is a stone cold fox if you don't mind me saying so...you aint doin bad at all." laughed Mike White.

"Thanks man." I said. Sepia returned to the car with the tumblers of coffees.

"Thank you kindly Mrs. Morris." said Mike White.

We drank coffee and talked some. In about thirty minutes , we heard a horn blow and saw an electronic gate open...Walking outside in a drab gray prison jumpsuit was a petite but comely woman..... Ola Lacey walked with the dignity of a runway model...She had on makeup and lipstick and even in that drab gray
prison jumpsuit...she still had quite a figure on her...That suit just could not deny those curves, that rack... 17 years hadn't taken anything away from her!

"There goes your girl." I said to Mike as he eyed her walking over to her brother,
A handsome young man who resembled singer Brandy's brother..Ray J. We were too far away to hear their conversation...but we saw them embrace and saw them get in the car and pull off.

We followed them from a distance to Philadelphia. He drove her to the Aunt's House. The Aunt and her sister embraced her and she went inside. I turned and looked at Mike White.

"Okay...that's where she is laying her head." I said.

"For now...I'm tellin you..she's gonna make a bee line for that money." he said.

"Okay...I'll keep tabs on her...You want me to drop you off at your hotel?" I asked.

"Yeah...And thanks Kevin...You do good work...Here's half of what I owe you.." he said. He gave me an envelope with lots of hundreds in it...lots...Not the kind of money a mere claims adjuster would have on him....There was more to Mike White than what met the eye....Just like Chess ,Chris and Donald Smooth had said.

We dropped him off and then we headed home. Sepia looked at me and then smiled.

"Kevin...You sure he's just a claims adjuster?" she asked.

"No...He works as that..but it's just a front...He's into something else..I'm almost certain of it.." I said.

"What do you think it is?" she asked.

"He used to move X a long time ago...I think he may be back in the business...If he gets his hands on this money, perhaps he can retire from that life." I said.

"We all got something we do extra....By day, you're a writer and editor of a magazine...but you're actually a private detective." said Sepia.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right babe.." I said.

My Blackberry went off just then....It was Peeping Tom.

"Kevin!" he said.

"What's Up Tom?" I said.

"Your girl just called Noble Clayton...They are supposed to meet at his house tomorrow." he said.

"Wow...She just got home and called him right away huh?" I said.

"Yeah man.." he said.

"Thanks a lot Tom."

"Okay my friend." he said and hung up.

Noble Clayton worked for Mike and Lance's company.....Then this same Noble Clayton goes into the drug business with Mike White...Lance dies, Ola goes to jail, the company goes belly up and Mike goes to jail...Noble Clayton comes out of the entire thing smelling like a rose....This guy needed some looking into...Tomorrow was going to be interesting.

(To Be Continued...)

Just Like You Said

First things First...I checked out Mr. Mike White. He did indeed work as a claims adjuster. I drove to the address he gave me and I saw him drive up and go into his office. When he went to lunch..I entered his place of business, Asked a few questions and found out that he did indeed work there. Still..He dressed to expensive for a claims adjuster's salary.

I hooked up with Robert Foxworth, My attorney friend. I hadn't told Mike that I knew Ola Lacey's original trial attorney. I looked up the records of the plumbing business he and the late Lance Lacey had run. It checked out...These two were making millions back in the 80's...and as he said..In the mid 90's, it went into receivership for non-payment of back taxes.

He had told me that he had been in federal prison...He hadn't told me what for. Apparently, he was selling Ecstacy in the mid and late 90's...He and a partner...They were moving a lot of this stuff on the party circuit at Penns Landing and the Main Line....He got popped by the DEA and did a three year bid in Lewisburg....When he got out...He went straight...straight to where-ever he had his ill gotten gains stashed...My guess is that his money is running low and that in order to live the life he had gotten acustomed to , he needed this two million that baby girl stole from his dead partner and his business.

"I remember Ola Lacey...Lawdd jesussss that was a fine woman....I defended her, kept her from gettin a death sentence and a life sentence." said Robert Foxworth.

''You think she was guilty?" I asked.

"Guilty? Oh hell yeah!...She's a psychopath, but she was hell in the bed..." he said.

"So that's how she paid you?" I laughed.

''Naw..Naw..she paid me in cash...but she gave me a little in return for saving her from a needle."
he laughed.

"You never cease to amaze me Robert." I laughed.

"That was a longggg time ago Kev." laughed Robert.

"Yeah, well she's getting out soon.. I heard she made parole." I said.

"Hmmmmm...I haven't heard from her in years...I wonder if she still looks as good as she did twenty years ago?" he laughed.

"Twenty years is a long time." I said.

"Yeah man..it is." He said.

I thanked Robert and was on my way. I looked up Ola's last known address. It was the house that she and Lance had lived in...The house he had been murdered in, no doubt. There was now someone else living there..A man named Noble Clayton.. His name didn't ring a bell..he was of no concern to me.

I located and scoped out Ola's sister and her younger brother and an aunt...They all lived in West and southwest Philadelphia. They appeared to be her only relatives in the area. As far as I knew,
She hadn't been released yet..So I had no trail to follow. I went back to City and State records and did some more digging into the plumbing company's public financial records. As Mike White had told me..They had started missing money around 1988 and from 1989 -1991, no taxes had been paid. According to the IRS case worker who originally worked the case.. Calls to Lance Lace were never answered by him...Always by a woman who told them she'd tell Mr. lace when he got in...Then the calls just stopped being answered at all. Calls were made to a "Mr. White" who appeared oblivious to the situation...

Soon it was discovered that Mr. Lace never got the calls and that he was missing...After the trial and conviction of Mrs. Lace..There was still the matter of a bill that had to be paid...Not just the tax money, but the payroll money, which was also short...Guess who was handling the finances of the company at this time? One Noble Clayton...The man living in the house that Ola and Lance once lived in.

The company went belly up in the mid nineties...but Mr. Clayton seems to have made out well for himself..I was going to have to have a talk with him. That would be later...I happened to walk into Josies and my friends, Chris Thompson and Chess and Donald Smooth were sitting in a booth...Chris was once a playa..A big time player..I decided to pick his brain a minute, just on a hunch.

"What's happenin Chess? Donald, Chris?" I said as I joined them and ordered a round of drinks.

''Hey Kev, what's shakin?"said Chess.

"Chris, I really come to see you...I gotta question for ya." I said.

Chris Thompson raised his hands in mock surrender and laughed- "It wasn't me Kev..I swear."

"It was him Kev...call the cops" laughed Donald Smooth...

Chess and I both busted out in laughter....

"Nah seriously....this is a question about the old days..When you were a major playa." I said.

''What? I aint major no more?" laughed Chris. We all laughed at that.

"You ever hear of a cat named Noble...Noble Clayton?" I asked.

"Yeah....I knew him...Him and a guy named Mikey...Mike White used to sell x to the white boys on the main line and up Penns Landing... I moved some stuff for them for awhile. They wasn't street dudes...They had had a legit business and had fell on some hard times.... Well Mikey did..Noble seemed like he had landed on his feet...He bought the house that babe murdered her husband in...You remember her smooth, the beauty queen....Ola somethin or other." said Chris.

"Ola Lacey...yeah...fine as hell.....she in jail now...for life." said Donald Smooth.

"You know somethin Kev.....I always liked Mikey....He was a straight up guy...but his partner, Noble Clayton...I didn't trust him man....When Mikey took a fall, I always thought that someone dropped a dime on him. He got knocked and straight up guy that he was...He didn't give up his partner...but I always thought that Noble gave him up.' said Chris.

"Interesting....I met Mr. White yesterday." I said.

"Yeah? He's back in town eh?" said Chris.

"Back in town? he's been gone?" I asked.

"Yeah....when he got out of prison..he moved to Atlanta." said Chess.

"He's working as a claims adjuster....I stopped by his job today." I said.

''Claims Adjuster? "said Chris... At that , Chris, Chess and Donald Smooth all burst into laughter.

"That damn Mikey....If he is...that's just his front... a straight job....He's married to the game man.. That's his front...He's definitely doing something else...believe that." said Chris.

"He's stayin at the Alonquinn Hotel." I said.

"Yeah, that's about right...." said Chess.

I said no more..We drank our beers and laughed and talked and eventually they left. I went home too.

"Well Kevin...He didn't lie to you....Everything he has told you was on the up...He just left a few things out." said my wife ,Sepia ,after I explained to her everything that had transpired.

Yeah..but it was the things people leave out that could get you killed.

(To Be Continued.....)

Arsenic And Ola Lacey

Another Night in Josies...I was sitting at the counter alone tonight , having a beer and talking with Gus, the bartender and owner when a well dressed Black man walked in. He looked about my age.
He was clean shaven and had a short,but neat and fresh haircut and a platinum earring in his left
ear. As he got closer...I could smell the very expensive cologne he was wearing.

"You are Kevin Morris I presume?" he said to me and extended his hand for a shake.

I didn't know him and I turned and looked at him kind of strangely and then replied-

"Yes I am, who wants to know?" -I had always wanted to say that..Gus winked at me and just laughed and turned away..Walked in the opposite direction of us.

''Allow me to introduce myself..I am Mike..Michael White..I was told that you hang out here and that I might find you here...I need a favor... I can pay you handsomely for that favor." he said.

"Oh Really?" I said.

"Oh yes...." he said and he pulled out a portfolio. He spread some glossies across the bar. Not only did I look, but several of the men sitting around me looked...I kept hearing them gasp and one after another go- "Dayummmm..." "Damnnnnnnn." ,''Whoooo lawdddd." They were gasping over the photos of a very attractive woman. They were photos of this woman in a bikini bathing suit, in a thong, in bikini panties and a bra...in a teddy, in a babydoll and a few completely nude..
She was honey brown...my complexion and had long black hair. Her face almost looked asian.

"Do you know who that is?" said Mike White.

"No I don't...but I'm sure you're going to tell me and all of the wolves here." I remarked.

"That there is Ola Lacey...Ms. Black Philadelphia 1989." he remarked.

"Okayyyy..and you want me to locate her for you right? I don't blame you...Anybody that fine, I'd of never let out of my sight." I laughed.

"No Mr. Morris...I know where she is...She's been in the same place for the past 17 years. She's in the Pennsylvania Correctional Institution for Women at Muncy." he said.

"What? she's in prison?" I said , astonished. How could someone that fine be locked up? I thought.

"Let me explain." he said.

"Yeah man, I'm all ears ." I said....Now my curiosity had been tweaked.

"In the 1980's...My partner , Lance Lacey and I started a pretty profitable roofing company in North Philly..We were contracters...Business was booming...and when I say booming..I mean that we were rolling in dough...Lance and I both had homes built from the ground over in Jersey with a swimmin pool , the whole nine yards....Ola Brown was a model and a dancer. Lance met her and she had his nose wide open....She was fine....No doubt, but I could see from the very beginning that she was a high maintenance type chick...a user... I couldn't get my partner to see that. He wined her and dined her and just fell totally in love with her..."

" In 1987 he married her. Big Mistake. He bought a bigger house in Deleware and sold the one he had in Jersey...He bought her a car....He financed her little modeling business and he made his biggest mistake...He started letting her handle our books....our finances...Well, in 1989 she won Ms. Black Philadelphia and was in all the papers and everything and I get a visit from the Feds....The IRS....They tell me that we haven't been paying taxes for the past two years...I say that's impossible...and I'll call my partner in to show them the books...."

"Guess what? Lance aint around... Ola tells them Feds and me that Lance has left her for another woman and she hasn't seen him...There is no sign of Lance. For a month, he is the subject of a manhunt by the FBI, The IRS and the Philly coppers.... They find him eventually...
What's left of him.....His decomposed body is buried outside of the city...Some kids were making out in a field and they discovered a hand or somethin stickin up."

"He's identified by DNA.....Get this...His body is riddled with arsenic..He's been murdered....An investigation follows and Ola Brown Lacey is arrested and charged with his murder...After a sensational trial..She's convicted and sentenced to 60 years in Prison for 2nd degree Murder.
She had a good lawyer....A cat named Robert Foxworth!"

"Wow...that's some story ." I said.

"Aint it though?" said Mike White.

"Okay, so she murdered your pal and she's in prison....What do you want with me?" I asked.

"That's just it Mr. Morris....She went to prison and she never revealed to anyone just what she did with the 2.5 million dollars of back taxes that she stole from my company...money that shoulda been paid to the feds that she squirelled away." said Mike White.

"You want me to find that money." I said.

"Exactly....and get this...She made parole...She's getting out of prison after serving 18 years..My bet is that she's going to make a b-line for that money." he said.

"Got'cha...and you just want what is yours right? Nothing more?" I asked.

''That's right Mr.Morris...After she went to jail...The Feds took that money from my end...and we went belly up..I lost my home, three of my four cars, my shirt... I got in a little trouble myself in 1998 and I did three years in the Federal joint upstate.I got out in 2001. I'm broke because of that broad...I want what I'm owed....Lance would want me to have it." said Mike White.

"Okay...I'll do what I can...I need an address, where I can find you and a phone number." I said.

"I'm stayin in the Aloquinn Hotel and this is my cell phone....I'm a claims adjuster now...this is where I work." he said and wrote all of his information down on a piece of paper and passed it to me.

He didn't look, dress or smell like a guy that down on his luck.. He was hardly broke.Something about Mike White stunk to high heaven.....but I'd worry about him later....I'd find his money for him...and I'd find out just who it was I was working for too. I shook his hand.

"Mr. White..I'll be in touch." I said.

"Thank you Kevin, May I call you Kevin?" he said.

"All my friends do." I laughed and I watched him walk out of the bar.

"Another caper huh?" asked Gus.

"Yeah...This should be easy...No gangsters or playas involved..All I have to do is follow a woman." I said.

"Ahh, we should all have it so easy." laughed Gus.

I peeled a few dollars out of my wallet and paid my tab and went home.

"Anything interesting happen tonight?" asked Sepia.

"Nah...the usual." I said as I slid into bed next to her and began to fondle her breasts...We kissed
a few times and then she climbed on top of me...

"Let's make something interesting happen in here tonight." I laughed...

''Don't we always?" she laughed as we slowly began to make love with her on top....Tomorrow was another day.

(To Be Continued)

Haven't Gotten Over You '11

ART: NUDE BY JEAN MAREMBERT

Look What you've gone and done to me..
you've got me turned out with your lovin...
Look What you've done...
you've got my head spinnin with your lovin../

Check this out baby..
I'm really sorry that I texted you
I thought maybe we could make love
just for a little while tonight..
but I forgot for the moment that we are through...
what am I going to do?/

See, I really,really want to have meaningful sex with you
I don't want to talk...
but still I forgot for the moment that are through...
what am I to do?
I can't sleep in this bed without you./

Guess you'll always be my lifelong
obsession..
I should've walked
I owed that much, at least to you...
instead I erred in the wrong direction...

I guess, I haven't gotten over you..../

A simple caress
running my hands up your dress...
the kiss of your soft lips...
caressing your naked hips...

I know you're probably sleeping with someone new
thought you might change your mind...
but I have ignored the fact...
that that's not even you...
and you'd never ever do that.../

girl, I guess you're destined
to be my lifelong obsession
and I find after all this time...
and everything and everybody we've both been through....

I guess I haven't gotten over you...
I don't know what to do...
when I haven't gotten over you...

Look What you've gone and done to me..
you've got me turned out with your lovin...
Look What you've done...
you've got my head spinnin with your lovin../

I haven't gotten over you....
I miss your warm body layin next to mine...
Making love in the shower in the summer time...

I haven't gotten over you!

Clerow's Dreams

Clerow was asleep , dreaming......For once it wasn't about his wife's older sister, Mabel...who used to be his woman....That was a long time ago....Almost an eternity now... He was dreaming about Cora-beth, his wife...who was about to deliver their second child...He was thinking about Peaches...a can of peaches he had to help himself to one night....


He went down into the shed and to his surprise...He was joined by Cora beth...wearing a see through night gown with nothing under it....The moonlight seeemingly shone through it showing Clerow a silhouette of that young, sexy body....They smiled as he opened up the can of peaches...

She told him that she had been awakened by all the noise her sister and him had been making in the bedroom.....then she winked at him...and curled her lip in that sexy way she always did....He didn't mean to...but before he knew it....he had her nightgown up over her hips and his already erect penis inside of her.....They made slow , sweet love in the shed that night....

"Ohhhhhhh Cleeerow.....you don't know how longggggg....how longggg. I've wanted you to put your large hands around my hips...how lonnngggg...I've wanted you inside me....ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." she moaned as he made love to her in that shed on that hard couch that they had moved into the shed once they got a new sofa for the living room..

He wanted to tell her the same thing....but he couldn't bring himself to say it....after all, hadn't he just left her older sister's bed?

He awoke with a startled look on his face.....He smiled... He carried the guilt of his betrayal to Mabel for years....and he wondered if he only married Cora-beth or Corrie as he called her with affection because she had been pregnant with his daughter....He had tossed this out of his mind.
Whether he had or not...He had learned to love her for her now...Had seen that although she wasn't Mabel...She was something special in bed too....and at times...even more passionate....It was hard to tell....even harder for guys to believe, but it was true....

Mabel and Anita were watching his and Corrie's daughter...they were coming to the hospital later. He drifted off to sleep and thought about Victoria....Mabel and Corabeth's older half sister..
He had had her too.... When he first came to Philadelphia...She had been married to Pastor Struthers... Pastor Struthers was a different man then...Running around with several women...
She had her blues.....and she sympathized with Clerow , who was still holding a torch for Mabel...
Who she did not know at the time, was her younger sister...Nobody knew it....

Clerow eyed her sympathetically and kept making his drink. He mixed a thawed 12 ounce can of frozen lemonade ("that cool refreshing drink"), another twelve ounce can of frozen orange juice, a cup and a half of sugar, one teaspoon of vanilla extract, another teaspoon of almond extract and eight cups of cold water..topping it off with two liters of lemon lime soda, chilled.

"He comes home with lip stick on his collar and the smell of
perfumes that I don't wear...I've known about his affairs for years
but I've never said anything...but now...I just can't take this anymore.
I'm 40 years old...I've given that man the best years of my life.."

Clerow said nothing....He thought of his Mabel....bad enough she was seeing that brother from
Philly, but stepping out on him with this old fist licking Pastor too??? She was dating like a....
like a... well like a man and he couldn't take it...but he had hurt her...he had cheated on her with her own sister...he and he alone was the reason why Mabel was here in this God forsaken city
instead of in Monroe, Louisiana....their home.

He took two large pitchers and a large punchbowl and combined the first six ingredients...He gently added the soda....Then he took two chilled tumblers and served his Citrus Punch.

"Oh My.....You Southerners got a way with food and
beverages...This is off the chain Clerow."

Clerow said nothing...He eyed this woman strangely...sitting there in his bathrobe....She had been just distraught about two hours ago, when he found her about two blocks from Mabel Jenkins house...It was the night before the Church Potluck...He was watching Mabel's house and so was this woman...Since they had "caught " each other..they began talking...They shared each other's pain and eventually, she shared herself with Clerow in his bed...

"Ohhhh my goodness, you are so...welll, so well endowed....ohhhhhhhh my gooodness..." she moaned as Clerow and she rocked in an incredible rhythem in the small bed in his small apartment....Her body was as comely as Mabels and Corabeth's...He felt like he had died and gone to heaven....They made love seven or eight times that night..until they were both spent...
It was one of maybe two nights that they ever spent together...She would go on to divorce Pastor Struthers and marry the church deacon....Larry Weatherford.....

Sometimes when she saw him with Corabeth...Her younger sister, she looked at him funny... or at least he thought so. Corrie told him that that was just his imagination.Sometimes she looked at Mabel funny too....He never liked being around both of his wife's sisters at the same time....How many men could say that they slept with their wives two older sisters and live to talk about it?

Only his younger sister in law ,Anita had a clean slate...Clerow had never slept with her and didn't intend to either... She became the only one he could talk to and thus became his favorite sister in law. Anita, who knew the whole story didn't judge him and always had a sympathetic ear. He had a sympathetic ear for her problems with Chance Howard, her current boyfriend.

"Hey ...Hey...wake up man, you'll sleep your life away." came the unmistakably gruff voice of Gus, the bartender at Josies...Where Clerow hung out when he wasn't working or out with his friend Kevin on a caper.

"Hey...uh..oh hey Gus...I must have drifted off." said Clerow.

''Yeah..I can see that." he said.

Gus and Kevin and Kevin's wife, Sepia (who it was revealed recently was his wife's first cousin) were in the waiting room with me...They had brought tumblers of coffee and donuts...

"Aww guys thanks...you didn't have to." Clerow said.

"You shoulda told us that before we sprung for this grub." laughed Gus...Kevin and Sepia joined
him laughing..

"I aint heard nothing yet." said Clerow

Mabel, her new man, Piano player, "88" and my daughter arrived soon after as did Anita ,Chance Howard, Victoria and Deacon Larry Weatherford...For some reason, he did not feel uneasy being around the Jenkins girls now...Not with their men present.

A Doctor walked out and looked at us.....

"Mr. Hamilton...Clerow Hamilton???" he said.

"Yes sir." he said as he stood up.....

"You are the father of an 8 pound, 13 ounce little Boy........He was just born about a half hour ago......I came out here, but you were knocked out....I figured I'd wait." he said.

"You figured you wait??" said Gus, looking at him incredulously. He shrugged his shoulders and managed a weak smile....

Everybody clapped and smiled.....Sepia, Anita, Mabel and Victoria all took turns hugging and kissing me....Clerow passed out cigars to Kevin, who slapped Clerow on the back, Gus , Deacon Weatherford and Chance Howard...

"Can I go see her Doc?" he asked.

"Sure....Sure...Follow me." he said.

He scooped up his two year old daughter and said to her- "You got a brother now baby...we are going to see him and mommy." She smiled... Mabel looked at Clerow and managed a weak smile....

''Congratulations Clerow....I'm happy for you." she said....He wondered if she really felt happy for him? he'd just have to take her word for it.

He walked into the bedroom and there was Corabeth holding thier second child.....their son!!!

"Heyyy Corrie....We did it...You did it....." he laughed.

"You were right the first time babe.....we did it... I named him after you...Clerow Emanuel Hamilton Jr. I hope you didn't mind.?" she said.

"No..Not at all." he said.

By Now, Gus, Kevin, Sepia, Anita, Chance, Mabel ,Victoria and Deacon Weatherford had entered the room.....They were all smiles and cheers.....Clerow pinched himself to make sure he wasn't still dreaming....He wasn't!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!! (From Escapades)

Hi...This is Blake here....It seems like we always start the New Years off... Last year we had the big rooftop party at my crib , remember? Well , this years the girls all wanted to go Ice skating at
Penns Landing and bring the New Year In...

I'm here with Cherish.....My room-mate Paris is here with his new girl, Nadine....They've been kicking it pretty regular ever since our last party... Our friend Bailey is here with Pam...Anita and Chance aren't here....Anita's sister, Corabeth is about ready to have her baby...They're across town at the hospital with her brother in law, Clerow and her sisters, Mabel and Victoria.
They don't know what fun they are missing...But then again...The birth of her nephew is a little more important...just a little...

Well, we are having a ball bringing the New Year in....It's cold out here...We are going to get some Hot Cocoa and then head back to Paris and my place for drinks and uh, ruh...whatever! Hope your New Years is as festive and nice as ours!