Closer Than You'll Ever Know

My wife Sepia was always good for me...In more ways than one...Besides the mind blowing late night and early morning sex we'd just had...She was also able to put some perspective to this seemingly bottomless pit of a case...I had a missing investment banker who had fleeced several people to from anywhere from 15-20 million dollars....Two dead gangsters , one dead partner and not a clue as to who pulled the trigger, who had tried to kill me or the whereabouts of the money or the investment banker...Nothing.

Just the night before I'd found myself saying-
"None at all...This case is hopeless." I said. "I got nothin." I said.


"Relax baby...the answer might be closer than you'll ever know..Relax and attack it with fresh eyes tomorrow." she'd said. 

"The key to this case may be closer than you'll ever know." said my wife Sepia.... She said it again this morning as we had a delicious breakfast of  Scrambled Eggs, Hash Browns, Bacon and Toast, with Orange Juice and two tumblers of hot steaming coffee...at an outside cafe in town...She was waiting for her partner, Bonita Foxworth to show up....

Bonita was late , but she joined us eventually.....

"I see you're driving your car today eh?" I laughed...

"Yeah..Sepia and I have an important client to show a house to." she said.

"Yeah?" I said...

"Yes...and you should get with Robert sometime today...He says that he may have something for you." she said.

"Okay..." I said....I pulled out a few bills and gave Sepia what started out to be a peck on the lips , but turned into a long sensuous kiss...

Bonita cleared her throat...

"Uhhhh if you two go on like that much longer I'm going to have to rent you a room." she laughed.

"Oh and why were you late and why is your hair kind of tossled?" asked Sepia with a devilish smile...

Bonita smiled guiltily......."Okay...Carry on!"

We all laughed.

II-

At Robert Foxworth's office, his partner, Attorney Chance Howard, who might one day have a promising career doing what I do, investigating was very excited....

"Kev...for the past few days...Cole and me have been doing work ups on all of the people fleeced by Alden Jones...and guess what we found out?" he said...

''What?" I asked.

"They all had a link to the late Tony Dusable.." he said.

"WHAT???" I asked.

"That's right...Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians, Gangsters, Rappers....All of them were talked into this by Macaroni Tony.....See like bossman here, He had something on them...They either gambled in his high stakes card game, represented him or his associates in court, cared for him or his associates in medical matters or was his peers ...He was setting up an investment group.....He was the one who put all of these people on." said Cole.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"The Past two days we have talked to all of these people...They all thought that this was a way to make their money grow...They are sick to death that they got ripped off.." said Chance...

Then it hit me.... I had to laugh....

"What's so funny Kevin?" asked Robert...

"It was all right there from the start...The Ponzi scheme....I'm sure Macaroni Toni was getting a kickback from everybody he put on to Jones and Pryor....He must have known all along what it was about...and then Jones got greedy... When his money was starting to look funny..He hired me....To get information so he could not only blackmail him, but have justification to kill him if all else failed.." I said.

"A guy like that doesn't need justification to kill someone he thinks is ripping him off." said Robert.

"True, but Tony's mind was funny like that....He re-imbursed his gangster friends....but my speculation is that all of those other poor saps were just going to have to take a bath." I said.

"So why is he and Dominique and Pryor dead?" asked Robert.

"Why? Because somebody else is involved...Either somebody told Jones to cut out all of the middle men....or there is an independent operator involved with their own agenda. Any of you guys consider that?" I asked.

"I did " said Robert Foxworth....Cole, Chance and I gave him the serious side eye.

"It's all there." I said, still laughing...."Great job guys.." I laughed as I left.

There was definitely someone else involved in this....Just had to find out who.

III-

Here's what I did know...

Members of Alden  Jones family who I interviewed and several of his associates mentioned in court documents I saw, (thanks to my contact in records), that he had a young woman who handled a lot of his affairs...a Valarie Price. They gave me her address..She was no longer with the company and a quick background check showed that she had no criminal background....but they all seemed to agree that she more than anyone else knew the ins and outs of his business dealings to a point.  So why was she still alive? Why was she not in custody?

 A manager at the bank Alden Jones  and  Lacy Pryor directed, which has been purchased by another bank and reopened this week under a different name, said he couldn't comment, citing the ongoing investigation. Alden Jones left his home in Northeast Philly sixteen days before, telling his wife he was headed to the Virgin Islands for business, This was more than likely a lie!

 Two days later, Jones's wife said she'd received letters saying he was going to Key West, Florida to board a ferry headed to Fort Meyers and planned to jump off somewhere along the way to end his life. I doubt if that happened.

A check of his credit card records show he purchased dive weights and a ferry ticket. The ferry ticket was scanned at the boarding point, but that's where the trail runs cold. I called the Coast Guard.

 The Coast Guard searched for him, and investigators talked to the ferry crew and rental car agencies in the Fort Meyers area, to no avail. Nothing.. I shared this information with FBI Special Agent in charge, Frank Cotton.

I found and  interviewed  this associate of  Alden Jones named Valerie Price, who told me that she first met Lacy Pryor when she was fresh out of college and that they had worked together at an investment firm.....Years later ,after a brief affair with the then married Lacy Pryor,..She met Alden Jones... and they hired her to work at a new company they were starting.

Alden Jones became director of  Your Bank and Trust Inc.., in December 2010, when a company he and Pryor controlled bought a controlling portion of the bank's stock, according to a complaint filed late last month in federal court in New York. Jones then opened brokerage accounts through a securities clearing and custodial firm in New York  and Philadelphia and told bank managers he would invest in U.S. Treasury securities. Instead of investing the bank's money, Valerie Price said that Jones and Pryor wired the funds into accounts they controlled at other financial institutions and provided bank managers with fraudulent documents.

She said she believed that Jones and Pryor embezzled $17 million in bank funds. The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a complaint in federal court here in Philadelphia saying he defrauded investors. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.   seized Your Bank & Trust Inc.  Valarie said that since  2009, Jones and Pryor had raised roughly $40 million from about 115 investors, mostly in Philly and a few in South Jersey, through the sale of membership interests in their investment firm.

They routinely sent investors messages saying the firm, for which they made the investment decisions, consistently had positive returns, the SEC lawsuit says. Jones and Pryor provided monthly account statements to investors that were falsified to hide the fact that millions of dollars were missing. This was around the time they caught the attention of a savy gangster known as Macaroni Tony Dusable..
Valarie said that she'd never met him.

"I just did what they told me Mr. Kevin...I didn't ask any questions and didn't try to find out too much...When I couldn't stomach anymore...I quit the company and went to work for another firm...I've been gone six months now...But I still have my access card and I still know a lot of people who are still there." she said.

I believed her. Valarie said that she personally moved about $300,000 of a few clients money to Your Bank & Trust inc. after Lacy Pryor told her it would be a good investment. She met the also married Alden Jones once for drinks. She said that he tried to make a play for her, but was rebuffed.

 "He should have won an Oscar for his performance that day, He was as cool as a cucumber." she said. "He has left a path of financial carnage.I'm sorry I was a part of that...but I didn't gain from it."She said.

"Because you wouldn't sleep with him right?" I said.

''Right...He always told me that he'd buy me a car ,set me up in a condo..Anything ,if I'd just give him some...I refused.."she said.

"Neither of them knew that you knew as much as you know, did they?" I asked.

"I guess not..and after I left..I didn't keep in contact with them."she said.

The very attractive woman said that  said she discovered something was wrong late last month when she wanted to withdraw some money she had  invested with them from the firm to invest in another business.

She tried multiple times to contact the firm to withdraw her money. When she texted her financial adviser, he responded that he had had no idea what was going on at the company and said he thought Alden Jones was still alive despite rumors of his possible suicide.

I asked her if the FBI or SEC had been to see her...She told me no and that she and her girlfriends had just gotten back from a wedding in the Bahamas..She had no idea that Mr. Jones had vanished and that people had been killed.  I believed her...She appeared to be just an honest pawn who did what her bosses at the firm told her to do.

"Mr. Kevin...I think Alden is still alive...He wasn't the type to feel guilty about nothin involvin money and he certainly was too in love with himself to take his life." said Valarie Price.

"I think he's alive too baby and I think I know where he is." I said.

"You do?" she said.

"Yeah..Just hang loose...I may need to talk to you again." I said.

IV-

I got a call from Lt. Sissy Van Buren....She asked that I meet her at the M.E.'s office...

When I got there, She and the coroner were standing near the table where a short stocky man with slicked back hair lie...He had several bullet wounds in his torso...

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you?" asked Sissy.

"Who me? Noooooo...I've been busy trying to track down leads on all the folks Alden Jones ripped off.." I said.

"Well..we found this guy in his car early this morning on a side street in West Philly....We pulled several slugs from a .38 smokeless and a .45 from him...We also found a rifle with a silencer in his car ,which was pretty bloody..We did a ballistics check...This is the gun that killed "Macaroni" Tony Dusable, Dominique Guinn and Lacy Pryor..." she said...giving me the side eye....

"It's obvious that there might have been someone else with him, driving....His body was found on the passenger side...but whoever the driver was, wiped the car down of any fingerprints.." she said.

"Wow you did good work Sissy..." I said.  She gave me the side eye...

"We found his blood outside of Pryor's place and a latent finger print...Do you know who he is?"she asked.

"Nope...Never seen him before in my life." I said...telling the truth...

"He's William Bangles....." she said.

"Billy Bangs????" I said in awe...

"That's right!....One of the highest price hitmen in the game...suspect in , if you believe the legend...100 killings."she said.

I had heard of him...Everyone in Philadelphia had....It was said that if someone called him in, you were as good as dead before the ink dried on the contract!  Clerow and I had took out a major  hitter and weren't even aware.

''Who took him out?" I asked innocently.

"I don't know....I don't really care either...I'm just glad he's off the street...I thought you might be able to help me with this one. My detectives found enough guns and other things in his apartment to link him to several unsolved and open murder cases...I expect to be making multiple arrests tomorrow of several major underworld figures, so whoever killed him did the city of Philadelphia a big big favor." she said.

I shrugged my shoulders...

"Good for you Sissy. This also clears three recent open murder cases you had.....I was refferring to (Macaroni Tony, Dominique and Lacy Pryor .)Maybe, just maybe...it might help me with my case." I said and smiled...

I was pretty sure that it did.

(To Be Continued...)

Hopeless

After making several calls, Alden Jones's wife, Desiree Jones agreed to meet with me... She lived in a weird looking condo in the Northern Liberties section...Not far from where I'd just been a few days before with the Diaz Brothers...I couldn't find Kool Kat or Owen Todd...So I took Clerow with me... I had to admit...The voice on the phone sounded markedly different than the voice on the outgoing phone message I'd heard some days before...but I had no choice but to go with it. 

Clerow was good company...In the early days before Kool Kat and Owen joined me...It was me and Clerow...Clerow could drive well and was good with a gun...That was all I hoped I needed this afternoon as we drove up to the place.

"You want me to wait outside boss?" he asked.

"Nah..Come on up with me." I said.

"Oh Hi...I didn't know you were bringing someone." she said when she answered the door...She was only wearing a man's shirt...She had a black bra underneath which I could see and some black bikini panties on...Which I could also see!
She saw both Clerow and I looking at her and she smiled. She tried to cover up a little bit, but not much!  Strange behavior for a married woman, whose husband was missing!  I made a mental note of all of this.

"Wait a minute..let me go put on some clothes...I'll be right back." she said.

Clerow smiled a little bit and looked at me...I smiled too...I wondered just what she thought was supposed to happen...I told her that I was a private investigator and that I was looking for her husband.
"Take a number..Who aint lookin for him?" had been her reply.

She came back in some tight jean shorts and a black blouse and some sandals....Her hair looked as if she'd just gotten out of bed, still she was a very attractive woman.
This fact wasn't lost on Clerow..I thought his eyes were going to fall out of their sockets the way he was looking at her..but I couldn't blame him...I had a feeling that she knew exactly what she was doing!

"Can I offer you guys something?" she asked.

"Nah..I'm good." I said.

"You got a beer?" asked Clerow....We both gave him the side eye....

"Is Heinekan okay?" she said.

"Sho" he said smiling that toothy grin of his.

"You know that your husband was into some shady business don't you?" I asked.

''Well I know that now ." she said.

"He and his partner were running a ponzi scheme...and some of their investors were not the type of people that you want to scam.." I said.

"You know...for a long time....I didn't know what he was into..Then he began acting strange...Couldn't sleep, didn't want to have sex....Complained of headaches...was vomiting a lot...He was real stressed out...Before he disappeared he came clean about the gangsters that he had investments for...You think they killed him?" she asked.

"Question is do you think he's dead?  I don't.....I know that the gangster who got the others to invest is dead." I said.

"They hit him huh?" she asked.

"No they didn't...I've checked all of them out....We kind of travel in the same circles....They tell me stuff that maybe they won't talk to the police about....It was none of them.But somebody obviously did kill this man and his female companion." I said.

"You sure?" she asked...I gave her a look that let her know that I was sure.

"Hmmmm, how do you like that?" she said rather non-chalantly.

She gave me a letter...

"Look ,Alden wrote this...I found it the day after he vanished..." she said.

"My deep depression and discouragement have driven me to deep anxiety, fear and shame. I am emotionally overwhelmed and incapable of continuing in this life,"

The letter read. I looked at her...

"That's it?" I asked.

"Yeah that's it." she said and shrugged her shoulders..

"And you haven't seen or heard from him since?" I asked.

"Nope....." she said.

"There is 21 million dollars of investors money missing." I said.

"Yeah, well I haven't seen any of it...I had to leave our home....It was put in foreclosure shortly after he went missing." she said.

"WHAT???" I asked.

"He hadn't been paying the bills at all like I thought...He had been hiding them from me...His firm had been losing money ...That's why he and Lacy came up with this scheme, this ponzi scheme..." she said.

"You aren't the least bit upset about this? Losing your home and your husband missing?" I asked.

"Well it is what it is." she said non-chalantly...

I wasn't buying her act at all.....I had to do some more fact checking......I would see her later.

"Thanks for your time Mrs. Jones." I said.

"Sure." she said.  Clerow and I left...

"Boss..I don't buy her act." he said.

"Me neither Clerow....Me neither...I need some more information....We got one more person to check out... His partner Lacy ...I'm sure he's found a lawyer to get him out of jail on bail by now...In the meanwhile..Call Peeping Tom....Tell him and Lockpick to bug this spot and call Owen Todd...Tell him and Sean to scope her and let me know who comes and leaves this spot and where she goes during the day." I said.

''I'm on it Kev." He said dialing the numbers and setting things up."You don't trust her boss do you?" said Clerow.

"No..I don't..She's just too cool for a wife who's husband just left her and who had to leave her nice expensive home..." I said.

"Yeah, but she sho had some big legs didn't she?" he asked.

I smiled -"Yeah she sure did, among other things." I said.

We both laughed and high fived each other.

I planned to get with Robert Foxworth and find out how she was paying for this crib too  or rather who was paying for it...but that would be later.

II-

Clerow and I drove to Lacy Pryor's spot.....It was eerily quiet..I had a bad feeling about this.  There wasn't a person in sight...Not even on the streets and the door was wide open...

We went to his condo and walked up the stairs to his loft....We saw a man sitting out on the terrance in a white bathrobe with what appeared to be  a big stain in the back!!

His back was to us, so I couldn't see...As We got closer I saw broken glass...

"Mr. Pryor? Lacy." I said...I touched him and he fell over....A nice round hole in the side of his head and fresh blood running down the side of his body all over his nice white bathrobe....He had his boxer shorts on under the robe and nothing else. Lacy Pryor was dead..recently dead!!!! I saw a shadowy figure running down a driveway ,across the street...

"Let's get out of here Clerow...." I said...The building was eerily quiet..Not a soul in sight...we ran down the stairs and out into the street...

''We'd better call the cops " I said.

Just then...I saw a bright light...a flash from a distance....

"KEVIN WATCH OUT!" screamed Clerow as he dove and pushed me down....

Two shots rang out!!!  They missed us both...

I pulled out my .38 smokeless and Clerow pulled out his .45.. We returned a fusilade of shots in the direction of the shot that was fired at us...

"ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH.... HOTTT MOMMMY..I DON'T BELIEVE IT....I'VE BEEN SHOT!!! LAWDDDD HAVE MERCY!" came a voice...

"Come on Clerow...Let's go." I said as we ran toward the sound of the voice...

We heard a car door slam....and tires screech!...and a car pull off in a puff of smoke...

"Drive nigga drive....I've been shot....Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" came the voice.

''Wow...Whoever shot at us is probably the same guy that aced Lacy Pryor." said Clerow...

"Probably....He's lost a lot of blood....The cops can handle this...let's not hang around." I said.

''You aint gotta tell me twice." said Clerow as we both looked around and then jumped in our car and pulled off.

III-

That night I went home for a little tender lovin care from my wife, Sepia...

''Wow Lover..I'm beginning to get a little concerned about the danger you find yourself in." she said.

"Me too...Tonight was a close one." I said.

"You got any evidence on who killed Macaroni Toni." she asked.

"Nope..None." I said.

.

"And certainly not Lacy right?" she asked.

"Nope." I said.

"Any idea where Alden Jones is or if he's alive?" she asked.

"None at all...This case is hopeless." I said. "I got nothin." I said.

"Relax baby...the answer might be closer than you'll ever know..Relax and attack it with fresh eyes tomorrow." she said.

"You're right dollface." I said as I turned my attention to her...

"I know I am...I'm your wife." said Sepia with a seductive smile as I rubbed her feet!

(To Be Continued...)

Gangland

Two days later I found Attorney Robert Foxworth sitting alone in Josie's nursing two drinks....I walked over to him and passed him an envelope filled with crisp twenties....

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's money...what does it look like?" I remarked.

Robert smiled...

"Before our mutual client, Macaroni Tony's sudden demise...He did pay me handsomely.....This half is your end." I said.

"Any leads on who might have killed him? " asked Robert.

"No...but I am kind of wondering where you were the other night?" I asked.

"Very funny." said Robert who looked at me and laughed...

"Well at any rate, you're off the hook with him...He and his number two, Dominique are dead." I said.

"Groovy...How about Alden Jones? anything on him?" he asked.

"Nah...he's in the wind too!" I said.

"Kool Kat, Owen Todd and I had spent the day after the murders of Macaroni Tony and Dominique rousting several low level and mid-level players in the area.......None of them had any motive or the juice to hit Tony. I had called Alden Jones's wife and had asked to meet with her...but hadn't heard from her since and had just missed her when I stopped by her house yesterday." I said.

"You think she might know something?" he asked.

"Of course...I'm sure the FBI is watching her too...being that her husband is a fugitive now and 21 million dollars of those people's money was missing." I said.

"You know....His clients included Fathead Newton, Lin Chang and The Diaz Brothers..." said Robert Foxworth...

"Really?" I said..."Those are three of the biggest kingpins in town..." I said.

"Anyone of them could have had reason to go after Jones." said Robert.

"Yeah...Jones...but why Tony? Tony was a victim too...He wanted me to bring Jones down." I said.

"No he didn't...That's what he told you....Because it was the only way to get you to agree to work for him." said Robert.

"He wanted you to get the goods on him.....To get proof...So that he would have justification to hit him later or Blackmail him..Tony was a snake....Since he had me by the short and curlies...I couldn't say more...You know...as his attorney and all." said Robert.

I gave Robert the side eye...

"He told you this?" I asked.

"I know this...I know how guys like him think..You know how guys like this think...He knew you'd get to the bottom of it...get him solid proof that this guy was a thief...and then he'd take him out as an example.  Macaroni Tony was a cut different than say Fathead or Lin Chang or the Diaz Brothers....They would have just taken him out...Tony wanted proof, solid proof....He kind of had a code of honor." said Robert...

"Oh..an honorable gangster...Wow...gotta love him." I laughed...

Robert smiled...pulled out one of the crisp twenties...

"Hey Gus...Get Kevin two beers." he said.

II-

I was one of the few people who knew where Fathead Newton's safehouse was...  I had holed up there once...

The next day Kool Kat, Owen Todd, Clerow and I went to see Fathead...was the rare day that the West Philly Kingpin was actually there...

Roscoe, Ralph Mole and Fathead were actually sitting inside watching a boxing match from the night before on his 70 inch Flat screen...

''Wow Fathead...you got Verizon Fios?  That's a great picture...It almost seems like you're there." I said.

Fathead smiled... Ralph Mole passed us a bottle of cold water...

"So what brings you guys around?" asked Roscoe..

"Macaroni Tony!  You no doubt know what happened?" I said.

"Yeah...I heard." said Fathead....

Roscoe nodded.
"It wasn't us Kev...If that's why you're sniffin around...We were in business with him...I invested some money with his guy." said Fathead.

"His guy was a thief....and he's in the wind right now...you do know that right..It was a ponzi scheme..You got took." I said.

"Yeah..I know that too...but Tony told me that he had you on it , so I wasn't worried.. Besides...it wasn't that much money...about a quarter of a million...I wanted to see how it would do before I committed to more. " said Fathead..

''So when you found out that you were scammed, you wasn't a little bit mad at Tony?" I asked.

"I was mildly pissed...but Tony paid me my money back..He was good like that." said Fathead.

"He paid you back?" I asked.

"Yeah and he said he had you lookin into to it and when he got proof that this guy wasn't on the up..He was gonna deal with him himself.....We had no beef with Tony." he said.

That was good enough for me....Kool Kat,Owen, Clerow and I thanked them for the water..We shook hands and we left.

"I coulda tole ya that it wasn't them Kev...Fathead keeps a low profile now of days...He aint into that street mess...He sells product to the youngins and takes his cut off the top...He lets them determine how to distribute and how to run the corners....and he's barely into that...He's got a number of totally legit businesses that he's runnin now..He's slowly easing himself out of the streets man." said Kool Kat.

"Really Kools? Fathead loves bein a gangster..."I said.

"A man can change Kev." he said.

"Yeah...I guess you're right." I said.

III-

The Garden of Bejing was the most tony of Chinese Restaurants...It was in Chinatown....But the office upstairs was the headquarters of Lin Chang...who ran the Asian mob in Philadelphia....I had never tangled with him...but we knew each other...

Kool Kat, Owen Todd and Clerow ordered heaping bowls of General Tso's Chicken  with white or fried rice and steaming tumblers of Hot Tea...  While Lin Chang , who was close to 70 years old and his nephew ,Thomas Lee who was about my age sat with us....

"So Sorry to hear about Tony.....He and I were in business together." he said.

"What? You too? Let me guess...He got you to invest money with his guy, Jones right?" I said.

"Indeed...His guy turned out to be a very dishonorable man..." said Tommy Lee..

"Yeah...I'm searching for him...So is the FBI I'm sure."I said.

"They've been by here....We had men looking for Jones...But we had no quarrel with Tony." he said.

''Especially since Tony paid you your money back right?" I said.

"You are correct." he said. "Apparently Mr. Kevin you have all of the answers you need." he said with a smile.

"Yeah..apparently." I said.

He and I and his nephew looked over at the table where Clerow, Owen and Kool Kat were devouring the hot food.

"Your associates are really enjoying themselves ." said Lin Chang with a smile.

"Yeah...I can see that." I said giving them the side eye....

Tommy Lee, his nephew ...laughed.

IV-

We drove to Northern Liberties to meet with the Diaz Brothers...We stopped and Picked up Chess, Chris Thompson and Donald Smooth... Not because I needed more muscle...I didn't..Clerow, Owen Todd and Kool Kat were more than enough...but Chess, Chris Thompson and Donald Smooth knew these guys and knew how to get in contact with them...

They took us to a condo where The one living Diaz Brother, newly released from prison and his two nephews and his son resided....

We all sat in the living room....Unlike at Fatheads or Lin Chang, we weren't offered anything...

"The only reason I'm even talking to you is because Chris Thompson said it was cool....I'm trying to keep my nose clean....So let's get on with this." said Diaz Senior as I called him...

Kool Kat Sat next to me...Chris Thompson , Chess and Donald Smooth stood behind me.. Clerow and Owen were outside in the car..

Macaroni Tony!  You no doubt know what happened?" I said.

"Yeah...we heard." said Nestor Diaz, his son....
"It wasn't us ...If that's why you're sniffin around...We were in business with him...I invested some money with his guy." said Diaz Senior.

"His guy was a thief....and he's in the wind right now...you do know that right..He  was running a ponzi scheme..You got took." I said.

"Yeah..I know that too...but Tony told me that he was on top of it , so I wasn't worried.. Besides...it wasn't that much money...about a half of a mill..I wanted to see how it would do before I committed to more. " said 
Diaz Senior.

This was beginning to sound like a broken record...

"Tony gave you your money back when he thought he smelled a rat didn't he?" I said.

"Damn straight he did or else he would've been hit sooner....but nobody in my organization hit the guy...We liked him...He was an honest straight up guy...You don't meet that many guys like Macaroni Tony in this business.We didn't have no beef with Macaroni Tony." he said.

"Good enough guys..Nice talkin to ya." I said and stood up...I shook each of their hands and we all left...

"Thanks Chess, Chris, Smooth" I said as we all got in our cars...

"No prob Kev...Just be easy, you been all over gangland I hear...If Tony was hit by any of these locals...These guys would know about it...Whoever hit him was from somewhere other than Philly or someone not associated with these guys." said Chris Thompson... Chess and Donald Smooth nodded in agreement.

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

A little while later after everyone had gone their seperate ways and I was headed home, I thought to myself...

I've got a dead gangster who hired me to find out if he was being ripped off.... I find out and the thief vanishes and my client is murdered...I've been  all over town....I've got no murderer and no thief...I've got nothing...

Mann, I've been down this road before!

(To Be Continued...)

Hide And Go Kill

It was night time.....I would normally be home with Sepia....watching Television or letting the Television watch us, if you know what I mean!!  Everything about this caper was wrong to me...I didn't like it from the beginning...but here I was outside the office of a Hedge Fund Manager by the name of Alden Jones.  I had dealt with his type before...

Lockpick Johnson walked over to the van...He gave me the high sign...That meant he had successfully disabaled the alarm and security systems and had gotten in... Peeping Tom, Sean Jackson and I followed him inside...

On the street...Kool Kat and Owen Todd served as lookouts for cops or any other unwanted guests we might have...Clerow was at the wheel of our van, ready to drive to the back and pick us all up if we had to leave quickly.

My team and I had watched this building for a couple of days..We saw who went in and who went out..We studied the exits and the security.  I had sent Sepia and Bonita inside to locate the exact office we had to go in and to get inside and b.s. the employees enough for me to get a layout of the office...They had used micro-cameras and had taken good photos...

Tonight, Lockpick Johnson, Peeping Tom, Sean Jackson and I went up the backsteps, disabled the video cameras and broke into the offices of Alden Jones's Investment firm...I felt like an outlaw...This wasn't a criminal and we had no business in here...but my client..Who wasn't exactly on the right side of the law himself had invested a great deal of money with this man and felt as though he was being played.

My job was to find out if he was.

We went through all of his records...Photocopying what we could and using micro-cameras to photograph what we couldn't...Lockpick Johnson cracked the safe and we photographed and xeroxed another set of records... The entire operation took an hour and a half... and we took close to five boxes of copied records out of his office and loaded them into our van.. We also meticulously put everything back where we found it
and got the hell out of there.

With Clerow driving...Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson, Sean Jackson and myself quickly headed to Robert Foxworth's law offices where he,Chance Howard and Cole awaited us... Kool Kat and Owen were in a car behind us!

To our surprise..When we got to his floor, my wife, Sepia, Sean's wife, Sheila, Kool Kat's girl, Chelsea, Corabeth, Clerow's wife and Chance Howard and Cole's girls...Anita Jenkins and Nicole Butler were there with tumblers of coffee and Hoagies...

"What is this?" I said as we all lugged the boxes into his conference Room.... Robert Foxworth and his wife Bonita appeared...

"Look guys...I felt bad about having you all out this late on a week night, so I invited the girls here and told em to bring food..They'll be in the other room, playin cards and eatin and we can get down to cases." He said.

Peeping Tom laughed and nudged me..

"I never seen Foxworth like this...What's gotten into him? " he asked.

''Fear...I don't know what this guy has on him....but he's certainly afraid." I said.

II-

Perhaps I should have started from the beginning...This all began about a week and a half ago... Robert called me at my job to come to his office...Said he had a case for me... I went...Hadn't been busy lately....
As soon as I got to his office and seen his client, I wanted to turn around...It was Macaroni Tony...Macaroni Tony was the new power, the new player president in the neighborhood.  He had his hands in drugs, prostitution , numbers..a little of everything...Normally, this was the kind of guy I'd be trying to take down..

He kept things quiet...He moved in and quietly took over the entire area without any murders, no shootouts, no noise....There was only a few local crews...No big boys to tangle with..The local crews gave him no resistance and pretty soon he was as big a kingpin as Fathead Newton out in the West.

Robert looked like he'd seen a ghost...

''Kevin...this is Tony Dusable...Tony this is..." he said.

"Oh I know Kevin...Been knowin him for quite some time..." he laughed...He had a very attractive young lady with him ,who said very little..and wore dark shades.

"Macaroni Tony!" I said.

"HA! You remember!" he laughed.

"You guys know each other?" asked Robert.

"Yeah..We go back aways ." I said.

"So listen let's get down to business." he said.

''What kind of business?" I asked.

"As you know..I'm uh , you might say, Businessman...and from time to time I like to diversify my portfolio...
The gambler, Stephen Bristol put me on to this brother, this brother who works for an investment firm....I invested some money with him...a lot of dough..I'm talkin six figures and it's been close to a year now and I haven't seen any money or any returns on my dough...Everytime I ask about my portfolio this guy gets dumb on me and gives me the run around." he said.

"And you can't handle that?" I asked, amused.

"Well, if it was a player, a street guy...I of course do have my ways, but this is a suit and tie, wall street type of nigga...I play rough with him like that and the cops shine a light on me...And as you can see..I keep things quiet." he laughed..."Aint that right Dominique?" he asked....

The attractive female laughed..It was the first time she had made a sound or a movement.

"So what do you want?" I asked.

"Mr. Foxworth is my attorney...I have him on retainer....I asked him if he knew any investigators who could check up on my man's dealings....and so, here we are." he said.

"You just want me to check up on him?" I asked.

"I want any information you can give me....ANY....I'll pay you and Foxworth handsomely for your services." he said.

"No rough stuff right? " I asked ,staring at him hard...

"No rough stuff." he said." But I do intend to get my money back or see some kind of return." He said.

And thus we began.

III-

With help from Chance and Cole ,I found out all of the legitimate information on one Alden Jones..Local guy,
went to public schools...got a bachelors from Morehouse, An MBA from Howard and his J.D. from Columbia in New York...Worked at a Law firm for years , then returned to Philly, got married ,bought a house and went to work for a huge investment firm...Worked there for awhile , then partned up with a former employee and started his own firm...Was doing very well for himself...Had two BMW's with his name engraved in gold on the side.. His wife had her own Jaguar and they had a nice home in Northeast Philadelphia...with plans to move to Deleware soon.  I asked a few people about him and found out that tidbit.

His firm was raking in big bucks and from what I could see wasn't having any problems...To know what I needed to know about this guy...I had to get a peek at his books...Thus the operation tonight.  It took days to scope out that building, get the layout and put Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson on it...

Robert, Cole, Chance, Sean and I went through his records... Records copied illegally that we couldn't use in any courtroom and discovered that Mr. Jones had two sets of records...The public records and the private records which we took out of his safe...

He had some very heavy hitters as clients, Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Politicians and Gangsters...who had invested some heavy dough in his hedge fund...a fund that was beginning to look more and more like a ponzi scheme...!!!

"From the looks of these records...This cat and his partner...a Lacy Pryor are fleecing these people ." said Robert Foxworth..

"Including our boy, Macaroni Tony?" I asked.

"Yeah...includin him." said Robert.

"What's he got on you counselor?" I asked Robert, when we were out of the earshot of the others...

"100G's Kev..." he said and hung his head.

"WHAT???" I asked.

"I was playin in one of his high rolling poker games...You know?  I don't chase the women no more..I gotta do somethin man, so I got in this game man... Real high rollers...I've lost my shirt..." he said.

"He sent his muscle around to collect....First payment would have been ten percent, next fifteen if I was late...I didn't want him comin around my office man.....Then he said..He needed me to do him this solid..Get the skinny on this Alden Jones guy and he'd knock have of what I owe off." he said.

"Damn man...how could you?" I said.

"I messed up Kevin.." he said almost in tears..

"Bonita know?" I asked.

"No." He said.

"Your secret is safe with me...Listen...I got one idea...Let's anonymously call everybody on this client list and mail them a copy of their records, the fake one and the real one and let them know they're being scammed...
They'll do the rest..they'll either go after Jone's head or call the police or both...That should satisfy your debt and square things with Tony." I said

''You think so?" he said.

"Yeah... Kool Kat and I will visit him and talk to him tomorrow." I said.

"Thanks Kevin." said Robert.

"Don't mention it...Get yourself some help for that gamblin." I said.

"I will" he said.

Within the next hour, everyone grabbed their wives and or girlfriends and went to their cars ,which were parked in the indoor lot and headed home.

IV-

Robert had his staff do as I instructed...They faxed, emailed and called all of Alden Jones's hedge fund clients....This caused a firestorm...People were demanding their money, threatening legal action and calling the police...

The Police raided the office and arrested Lacy Pryor, his partner....but there was no sign of Alden Jones!!!!
The Police went to his house...His wife said that she had not seen him... and his car was gone!!!!  The FBI put out a warrant for his arrest for Wire Fraud and Interstate Flight to avoid prosecution!! He was in the wind!!!

That night Kool Kat and I decided to have a little "talk" with Tony to convince him to let Robert's debt fly...We hadn't been able to get his money back, but we had put Alden Jones  out of business...It would only be a matter of time before the Feds caught him and brought him to justice! He ought to be satisfied with that.

We pulled up to the little private cantina where he and his girl, Dominique Watkins liked to drink....In fact, we saw them from a distance sitting at the table.

"How we gonna play this Kev?" asked the big man.

"Nice and quiet..No rough stuff...I'm going to talk to him....Once he sees you, he'll get the message...You've scared the piss out of  more dangerous players than him in your day." I said.

"Yeah, sometimes you do it on your rep alone." said Kool Kat laughing and cracking his knuckles.

The area was eerily quiet....  Tony was sitting with his back to us...Dominique appeared to be staring into space... Surprisingly enough, not a soul was around...

"Macaroni Tony...My man, Guess you heard the news today?" I said as we walked up on them..."The cops are hot on the trail of your boy...They got his partner." I said.   There was no response.

"Where is everybody?" asked Kool Kat..

I tapped Macaroni Tony on the shoulder...To my horror, he was as stiff as a board..He fell over...He had a nice round bullet hole in his temple, dried blood on his face...He was dead.....

Kool Kat looked at Dominique...She had a bullet hole in her chest, near her heart...There was dried blood on her blouse ...She was dead also....Her expresionless eyes still open, staring into nothingness....

"Kev, they dead!!! They been shot!!!!  " he said.

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

"What do we tell Robert?" he asked.

"That his debt has been paid in full!" I said.


(DEFINITELY TO BE CONTINUED!!!!)

I Don't Think....

Once I ...
dreamed of you..
and I in a home ,
with a perfect view...
I have to believe..
That you also...
Shared my same
world view.../

but time
made you change...
plans
got re-arranged..
and now..
things between you and I
just aint
the same..../

your ego needs me to cry
your vanity needs to see regret...
but baby, I'm just not there yet.../

because girl...
I Don't think about
you like that anymore..
No girl...
Not since you walked out of my door
and baby, baby
I don't think about you
like that anymore...
quiet as it's kept..
I moved on...
and I would've thought
that you would have too!/


Amazing what
two people might go through...
I
stayed the same...
Why couldn't you?/

I would've given
you the world
and anything in it boundaries..
You took me for granted
pretty girl....
you tried to clown me../

you want me to cry
you want to see some regret...
but baby, I'm just not there yet.../


because girl...
I Don't think about
you like that anymore..
No girl...
Not since you walked out of my door
and baby, baby
you may not believe this ,but
I don't think about you
like that anymore...
I moved on...
and I would've thought
that you would have too!/

and baby, baby girl..

I Don't think about
you like that anymore..
No girl...
Not since you walked out of my door
and baby,maybe
I don't think about you
like that anymore...
Maybe ..
someone new has walked inside my door...
I moved on...
and I would've thought
that you would have too!/

Twofer

Cherry Johnson wondered if she had gone from being an independently sexual woman
to just plain slutty...  Her terms alone...In the past 24 hours she had had sex two times and with two different men!!!  That was a first! For her anyway...

She and Roscoe had a non-exclusive "Friends with benefits" type of relationship....An understanding...Roscoe understood that he wasn't her man..just her friend as always...but occassionally when there was an itch to scratch, he could come by and get some...

That other man, Samuel Rasulala had been her man, but they had drifted apart...She didn't consider him her man anymore...Plus she had heard that he had been with a few other ladies....

So when he stopped in her place of employment, Victoria's Secret yesterday and dangled a black lace thong in her face..She didn't know what to think...

"Well ..look what the cat drug in." she said.

"Aww come on baby, don't be like that." he said.

"I'm not your baby anymore...How's Nadine?" she said.

"Who?   Aww look, I can't pretend with you Cherry..I was with Nadine for a hot minute..but that's over...been over for a minute now." said Sam.

"So who are those drawers for?" she asked...

"Check out the size...They are for you." he said.

They both laughed...He was such a liar, such a rogue...It made him kind of sexy in her mind...

"Want to go out for a drink after work?" he asked.

"No...I try not to drink during the work week." she said truthfully.

''No...well uhhhh, what do you do during the week?" he asked flashing that toothy grin.

II-

Why did she let him walk her to her apartment/ She knew he was going to talk his way inside...Admire the new furniture...Ask for a drink...ask her to join him in a drink...Try to sneak a kiss, beg for a kiss...Get one...then another...Then try to rub her booty...

She knew she was going to move his hands a couple of times then just let him go for it...She found herself unzippering his trousers and massaging his unsurprisingly massive erection....

She could have stopped there...Should have stopped there....but she didn't...He had his mouth all over her breasts..He had long unhooked her bra and taken it off..He was such a snake...He was an expert at this...

Before long they were both nude and on her bedroom floor, doing the nasty and doing it well... Samuel Rasulala brought her to the point of ecstacy so many times that afternoon she thought she was going to die...

Sometime later...She walked Sam to the door...

''Damn baby..that...That was ...wow...incredible.." he said.

"It doesn't change anything you know." she said.

"Yeah I know...but maybe we can talk about it....In..In the future." he said.

"Bye Samuel..." she said.

"Okay....See ya around." he said with his raffish smile..

She closed the door and laid up against it...breathing in and breathing out!

III-

Roscoe called Cherry a few hours later and asked if he could drop by...She hadn't seen or heard from him in a month and she did want to see him...So she said yes..She tidied up her spot, Put new sheets and pillow cases on her bed and quickly did laundry and added candles and incense to her apartment...

There was no trace of the sexual shenanigans that had gone on just hours before when Roscoe arrived..looking good ,smelling good and with wine and cheese and grapes...
They sat in her living room, drinking wine...eating grapes and cheese and watching a movie on cable...She rested her head on his massive chest and gradually his hands began to find her breasts...

She didn't move them....She let him softly squeeze to his hearts delight...She rubbed the massive bulge in his pants....He moaned softly and before she even realized it..They were kissing passionately..Was it the wine?

 Before she realized it..Roscoe had her across her bed, legs akimbo and his body interwined with hers...thrusting deeply...

She screamed out in pleasure.....So did he...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH..." she yelled...

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.." he moaned..

The headboard of her bed was slamming hard against the wall and the bed was squeaking so loudly that it sounded as if it might collapse....

Eventually..Roscoe and Cherry wound up  making sweet love well into the
early morning hours...

IV-

The next day as she stood at her mirror thinking about it...part of Cherry wanted to smile....She had had two men ravish her in just a matter of hours...  She was desired by two men!  Some women couldn't get one man's attention she thought...

But on the other hand...What she did was sluttish! Her terms....Then again...Men did this type of thing all the time..didn't they?  Things that make you go..Hmmmmmmmmmmm!