Just Like He Said

Carlotta and I sat on my bed, drenched in sweat...trying to catch our breath!...

"Oh My God Keith....I'm out of breath....This is soooo intense...Ay Dios Mio.." she sighed...

"Whew...that was something else..."I said, drinking a bottle of cold water I had in the small refrigerator in my room....I passed her a bottle, but she shook her head...

"No...I'm good.." she said.

We hadn't been together in two weeks and we made up for lost time in the bed...

"You know Keith...you didn't give me much time to say anything when I got here...You started pulling my clothes off and I forgot to tell you that I checked out Eddie C." she said.

I looked up now...My post coital high now completely gone!

"Oh?" I said.

"Yeah...He was born and raised here in Philly, went to Philly public schools...Turns out he and I went to the same Middle school...He was a year ahead of me....Graduated, did a four year stint in the Army...Came home....and for reasons unknown became a dealer of drugs...Marijuana, Heroin, Cocaine...Worked for an old playa, Indian Joe...now deceased...Branched out on his own...Seemed to have had a change of heart when both his neice and nephew died , a year apart of overdoses....And right around that time...He got pinched....By the feds...He wouldn't give up his partner or his connect, so he did three years and three months in the federal penitentary at Lompoc for his troubles...Lawyers believed that he could have gotten out in a year if he had given up his partners and his connects." she said.

"In the world he lived in, that could have been a death sentence...So he just did the time huh?" I asked.

"Yeah..Did every day his 39 month sentence and was released about six years ago..That remains his only conviction..." said Carlotta.

"So what happened next?" I asked.

"Well...He went to work at a used car dealership.....and went to school at night...Two years in Community College and two and a half years at Temple....Got his Bachelors degree in Public Administration just like he told Sissy and joined the local Baptist Church here....He managed to get a job with the city  just like he said and he does work with Deacon Basil Robinson in out reach....."she finished.

"Just like he said..." I said with a laugh..

"Yeah...Just like he said....He's kind of like a local legend....The young hoppers know that guys like him, Deacon Basil and Chris Thompson used to be in the game and that they got out.....They respect them...They talk to them and probably tell them things they won't tell us directly." she said.

"Just like he said..." I said sarcastically....

Carlotta punched me in the arm...

"Silly...Stop saying what I just said... I'm hoping he can produce either an eyeball witness or somebody willing to talk about this murder....I'd like to close this one quick...before a whole new rash of killings start." she said.

I pulled her to me and kissed her long and slow.....She moved in closer and kissed me ,slowly,passionately and sensually....

"I swear....you are the horniest guy I've ever met....I'm trying to talk seriously to you and you're just interested in....oh hell, forget it ..." she said as I straddled her across the bed, slowly and softly opened her legs and entered her once again....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...." she gasped as I began to stroke her slowly and intensely....

She wrapped her legs around my back and I continued to enter her slowly, savoring every stroke, like a fine gourmet meal....

"Aye Dios Mio....Aye....Dios Miooooo, pappppppi...aggghhhhhhhhhhhh!" she moaned...

II-

Carlotta left in the morning before I woke up...That was probably just as well...It wouldn't have looked right for me to be driving her to work...

Detective Pile dropped by my office....

"Morning ADA?" he said and he passed me a tumbler of hot steaming coffee...Two creams and extra sugar...He was learning...

"Detective Pile!" I said.

"I uh checked out Eddie C. " he said.

"You did?" I said sounding surprized...

"Lieutenant is sprung over him...I just wanted to make sure he was on the up...and he appears to be...but he does have a sheet on him." he said.

"Let me guess...He did three years at Lompac, which might have been one if he had given up his partners and connect right?" I said.

Detective Pile seemed surprized and genuinely impressed.....

''Wow! That was fast." he said.

"You're not the only one concerned out your Lieutenant...I mean ,she's still one tough cookie...but she's human...Now I suggest this be you and I's little secret...I wouldn't want her to know that we were delving into her private life..." I said with a wink.

"But of course.." he said.

"Anything on that murder?" I asked.

"Well Duke Baylor and I talked to two girls....Two neighborhood girls...All they would tell us is that they heard that it wasn't over drugs or territory that it was something else...They wouldn't elaborate...We pulled an address...His grandmother...You might want to talk to her." he said.

"Where is his parents?" I asked.

"Mother is dead...AIDS...Father is in prison...serving 5-10 for Armed robbery....He was raised by his grandmother....Oh yeah...He's got a girlfriend and she's pregnant with his child....and has another small child by someone else...We called and made two attempts to talk to her....but we couldn't locate her." said Detective Pile..

"Okay...I'll have Detective Rodriguez look into that." I said.

"Way ahead of you boss...That's what she's doing now." he said.

"Damn...you guys are really good." I said.

"That's what Lieutenant Van Buren Said." laughed Detective Pile...

"Get out of here man." I said with a laugh....


III-

"I lost Tray to the streets a long time ago.." said Mrs. Sadie Mae Jones, Tray's Grandmother....

"His Mother dropped out of school when she became pregnant with him....The Father was a stick up man, about ten years older than her..That no-account knee-grow never did nothin for her or Tray....My daughter...I couldn't control her...She worked at fast food joints, stripped for awhile and went from man to man and then she come down with the bug..(AIDS) and died...Been about five years...  and Tray was gettin older and startin to hang with the wrong crowd...and before I knew it...He was out there slingin that poison.....I knew this was going to wind up happening." she said.

Carlotta, Sissy and I sat in her living room in North Philly and talked to her...

"I know you don't know about his business on the streets, Mrs. Jones...But we are hearing word from the street that this might not have been drug related..." said Sissy.

"He had a little ole girlfriend....She had one daughter by this guy named Fruit Loops...What the hell kind of name is that?  And from what I hear...She was pregnant with Tray's baby." she said.

"This guy "Fruit Loops"...You got his real name?" asked Carlotta.

"Nawww, I aint studyin them damn kids...That's all I know him as...He's dark skinned, old nappy headed boy...The kids know him...He sell drugs too...He got some of the corners around here..." she said.

"Thank you mam...We'll look into him and the girlffriend..." I said.

We all got up and left...As we were walking out...Sissy looked at Carlotta...

"Have  Duke  and Tyriq find this "Fruit Loops" charactor and bring him in...You go talk to the girlfriend." she said.

Sissy's phone rang....She took the call...Carlotta and I watched her ...She began to smile and her entire demeanor changed...

She looked at both of us and exclaimed..."It's Eddie C. He says he's got somebody for us to talk to." she said.

"Wow....that was quick wasn't it?" I exclaimed...

Carlotta began laughing...

I looked at her and smiled..."Don't say it." I said.

"Just like he said." she laughed....

"What are you two laughing about?" asked Sissy.

"Nothing Boss Lady, just a private joke between us." said Carlotta.

"Concerning Mr. Clarke huh?" she asked.

"No....Noooooooooooooooo.." said Carlotta , still laughing.

"You've been hanging around the ADA too long chica...You're becoming as bad a liar as he is." said Sissy and the three of us laughed....

(Conclusion Next)

All the Kings Horses....

It would seem that this was just another day or afternoon in the big city for me, Keith Wallace, Assistant District Attorney....I oversee, Homicide, Major Crimes and The Special Victims Unit...  So a routine murder of a neighborhood drug dealer shouldn't warrant my arriving on the scene right?

Well normally it wouldn't except that this suspect is part of a group of young dealers that my office was targeting in a push to free up this neighborhood from drugs and violence and two of my favorite detectives, Lt. Sissy Van Buren and Detective Carlotta Rodriguez were on this case....Okay....I actually wanted to see Carlotta..I hadn't been with her in two weeks...She had been busying working and closing cases....Cases like this one...Violent Drug offenders...

I got out of my car and walked over to them...

"Hey ladies , who do we have here?" I said looking down at the bloody lifeless body of a young man who couldn't have been more than 22 years old...

"His name is Trayvon Jones....Better known as "Tray"...Head of a local crew that was vying for control of all of these corners around here." said Lt. Sissy Van Buren...

"Tray huh?   Isn't he the guy who was warring with our old friend, George Bailey?" I asked.

"The same" said Sissy..

"The kid we found last week in the early morning shootout? That 19 year old....Benny  Sessions...He worked for Tray, he took out two of George Bailey's people...I should say three...The ballistics check on his gun shows that he was more than likely the killer of Carlo Hunter, just a few nights before..." said Carlotta.

"You think George Bailey or his people did this?" I asked.

"That would've been my first guess...Only  old Georgie boy has been out of town or at least off the scene for close to three weeks....and from what I'm hearing on the streets...What was left of his crew either defected or has gone to ground.....No, this was somebody else.... Tray owned the corners around here...Even though he failed in his attempt on George, he effectively ran them out of the neighborhood...and none of the other independent crews had enough muscle to challenge him...This was somebody else..." said Carlotta.

Sissy Van Buren smiled ,looked at me and winked....

"This was the detective I was waiting for.." she beamed....

I had been waiting for her too, but for slightly different reasons...

"I've got some uniforms canvassing the neighborhood and running down leads.....We know all we are gonna know here Lou....He was hit with two in the head....Apparently ,he knew his killer, because you don't get that close without knowing the guy.." said Detective Pile....

"Naturally nobody saw anything did they?" asked Carlotta...Detective Pile smiled... "Naturally...They gotta live here...We just visit occasionally." he said.

"Well we've got to find somebody willing to talk to us...This foolishness has been going on all summer.." said Lt. Sissy Van Buren...

"Almost makes you long for the old days of Big Daddy, Wally Gator,Fly Ty, Cakeman Raven,Tone Capone, Beautiful Bobby Hunter and Joey Porter....They kept it quiet...they controlled all of the cats in this area and kind of had a gentleman's agreement not to step on each others toes...Now they're all dead or in jail and these young bucks have turned the neighborhood into the OK Corrall." I said.

"The problem is....Nobody stays "king" long enough to have any control...."Two Guns " Cassidy was the man on the streets for a hot minute and then he got killed...and George Bailey was almost the man and it looks like he got run out of the city.....Then Tray Jones looked like he was the man and now after only two weeks...poof, he's gone." said Carlotta.

"Yeah, damn shame....How many open murders you got behind this?" I asked.

"Just him and the two guys who worked for Tray who bought it in that shootout... I like George Bailey for both of those killings, but we don't have enough to charge him...No eyeball witnesses, no weapons and no sightings of him..." said Sissy Van Buren...

"The kid, Benny Sessions who bought it in that early morning shootout killed Carlo Hunter and two of George Bailey's people...So we just got this killing here on our plates." said Carlotta.

"Okay, well do what it is you do...You're murder po-leece..." I said with a fake country accent...Sissy and Detective Pile laughed...

"Release the body." said Detective Pile as people came with stretchers and lifted the now lifeless body of Tray up and put it in the M.E.'s wagon....I grabbed Carlotta's arm gently and pulled her to me.

"Uh Detective Rodriguez...Could I uh have a word in private?" I said.

"Huh? , oh.....uh yes." she said and we walked across the street, away from the crowd behind the restaraunt
into a vacant parking lot!

II-

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....ohhhhhh Carlottta, I missed you so much.." I said as we kissed each other passionately...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I'm so sorry Keith, but I've been busy..." she said as she began kissing me like it was going out of style...

"Stop by and see me tonight if you can." I said in between kisses...

"I will...I'll bring an overnight bag." she said as we continued to kiss...

We broke our embrace....

Carlotta fixed her hair....

"We'd better go back before people start getting suspicious." she said.

"Yeah." I said.

"You okay?" she asked...

"Let me take a few deep breaths..." I said.   Carlotta smiled that sweet smile of hers....I smiled too.

We walked back...Carlotta was blushing...I was trying my best to look professional and non-chalant...Detective Pile and most of the uniforms and the M.E. was gone... Only Sissy and two uniforms remained..

Sissy was not concerned with us...She was grinning from ear to ear and talking to a well dressed, light skinned African-American man with freckles...

"The name is Clarke...Edward Clarke....Most people know me by my street name..."Eddie C." ...I'm a former player.... Like Chris Thompson and Basil Robinson, my former contemporaries...I quit this game before it quit me...heh heh heh....I volunteer down at the church with Deacon Basil and his neighborhood outreach program...I talk to a number of these knuckleheads and try very hard to get them off the streets....Some I get through to, Some I don't...." he said.

"So you think you can be of help to the Philadelphia P.D.?" asked Sissy, giggling like a school girl.  I must say I was intrigued..Sissy is a no nonsense, tough as nails Homicide Lieutenant...I'd never seen her like this before...

"I got a bachelors degree in public administration.....I work for the city, but like I said...I volunteer with Deacon Basil...I can get some of these guys to talk to me that won't talk to you .....Here's my card...I'll give you a call in a few days...I'll get one of these knuckas to tell you something." he said.

"Well thank you Eddie C." said Sissy..

"Nahh thank you Lieutenant...for caring about these boys and these streets...and for being such a fox...yowsa!" he said... "I was wondering if uh....well uh, you know...Like me and you could meet for dinner, some drinks and uh ruh, discuss this case and uh these streets?" he said...What a smooth operator, I thought.

"Wow!  you don't waste any time do you?" said Sissy.

"I don't have time to waste Lieutenant....I waste time and someone else will be going to dinner with you." he said.

"Wow...I like a guy that's direct." she said.

"Hopefully , you'll uh like other things about me." he laughed. He tipped his hat and walked away....

Carlotta giggled...Sissy looked at her...

"What?" she said.

"Nothin Boss Lady, but you're blushing." she said.   I said nothing, I just smiled...

"He was just so handsome....and so direct..no stutturing or beating around the bush...just came out and asked me directly what he wanted...No pretense...No B.S.  It's been so long since I've met a man like that....and his cologne!!! Girl...I was about to collapse, it smelled so fresh and good." she said. She noticed me smiling , then she reverted back to the Sissy I know and love...

"So..uh...how was your kiss?" she asked ,looking at Carlotta and me...

"What are you talking about?  I had a couple of things I wanted to ask Carlotta, I mean Detective Rodriguez about that I didn't want eveybody else hearing." I lied.

Carlotta laughed and shook her head...Sissy looked at me as though I was crazy.....Finally I said-

"It was the best damn kiss I've had in a long time."

Sissy smiled- "Awwwww that's cute.."

Carlotta blushed something terrible...

"Well uh...look, my detective has work to do....Do you need anything else ADA, besides the obvious?"she said , then smiled at me....

"No mam...Like I said...Do what you do?" I said...

"Carlotta...I'm going and start the car." she said.  "Keith...I'll keep you up to speed on the case." she said.

I pulled Carlotta to the side...

"Pull Mr. Eddie Clark's file." I said..

"Way ahead of you ADA....Don't want boss lady to walk into anything untoward." said Carlotta..

"I'll see you later on tonight right?" I asked.

"With an over-night bag." she said with a wink....

Loved that woman!

(To Be Continued...)

The Trolley Car Meet

 Early in the morning....a quarter to six in the city.....Unlike in the summer...the windows are closed....Passerby can't hear the sounds....the sounds of Debbie and I making furious ,passionate sweaty love in our bedroom...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu....OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDD....OHHHHHHHHHHHH   REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED!  OUUUUUUUUU" she moaned as I thrusted like mad into her....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHH Deb...DEBBBB...You feel so damn goooooooooooood..." I moaned....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHH Baby, so do youuuuuuuuuuuuuu...ouuuuuuuu weeeeeeeeeeee..." she cooed....

Debbie let out a guttaral yell like none I'd ever heard and then began kissing me...kissing me with such passion and abandon that I began to thrust even harder...

"Ohhhhh Reed, you're hittin my spot...ohhhhhhhhh..." she screamed......

What I couldn't know and what I wouldn't find out for hours is that not far from where we were in coital bliss..... George Bailey, the gangster father of 88 and my little protoge' and prodigy, Veronica Bailey was himself in the middle of some heavy love making....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuu, George." yelled the woman...

"Ohhhhhh baby, give it tooo me...give it to meeeeeee...aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." he howled as he and a young woman he had picked up in Josie's just hours before were in the middle of making the same type of passionate, hot sweaty jungle love that Debbie and I were making....

The way I later heard the story....A Black Caddilac drove slowly down the street....One young man, couldn't have been older than 18 or 19 got out of the car...He was wearing black skinny jeans, black penny loafers and a black hoodie....He approached a man standing guard outside the girl's house..

"Is George here?" he asked.

"Who wants to know?" asked the man....

The young teenager produced a gun and shot the man in the head...Killing him instantly...He kicked the door in and ran up the stairs of the boarding house... George had a guy sitting outside of the girl's room...Sleeping..
He must have heard the pop sound of the gun blast...He got up...

"Heyy who is you?" he asked... That was the last thing he  ever said in life because the young teen ager shot him and killed him also!

Meanwhile in the bedroom...George came furiously....

"YEAHHHH BABY YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed in ecstacy! Just as he heard his man outside questioning the intruder and being shot to death....

"Quick baby, get down..get on the floor." he whispered to the girl...

"George what's going on?" she asked...

"Hush up, get on the floor." he said as he fumbled to put on his boxers and slip on his pants....He also grabbed and loaded his pistol...

"George ,I aint got no clothes on..." she protested...

"Will you shut up and get on the floor?" protested George.

The teenager fumbled with the locked door , then kicked it open and came in the room with his gun blazing...

His shots missed...George's one shot didn't!!! ...It hit the kid square between the eyes and dropped him where he stood, dead!!!!

The girl was about to scream...but George cupped her mouth with his hands...He finished getting dressed and ordered his date to get dressed also...He told her to stay back....He then ran down the hall and crept down the steps...just in time to get to the door and see the driver of the Cadillac shooting it out with his man in his BMW...They traded two shots a piece...

George walks out into the street and calls out...

"Hey...Hey!!"

The driver of the Caddilac spins around...and George fires again...Hitting him square between the eyes and once in the chest...He too falls to the ground...Dead!!!

George runs to his car.... His driver slowly appears.....

"Good Lookin out Georgie." he says.... George looks at him with disdain..

"That's more than I can say for you." he said.

"They crept up on us and before I knew what was happenin....man ,they got the drop on us." he said.

"Yeah,Yeah,Yeah...come on." said George.

"Hey man, you leave anything behind?" he asks...

"No..Nothin.." says George...

"What about the babe?" he asks..

"She won't say nothin....She don't even live there...She borrowed that spot from a friend...She aint want her man to know we was uh having relations...She gone get out of dodge. She aint gon say a damn thing" said George...

"Well man ,I suggest we do the same." he said.

''Well what you sittin here for??, Let's get outta heah." said George as they pulled off.

II-

Many hours later,I got a strange text....I'm glad I saw it after I had gotten dressed later on that morning...It was surprisingly enough from George Bailey...  He asked me to meet him at the Trolley Barn...To get on a trolley and just wait for him...He said it was urgent...

Any other time I would have ignored it or thought it to be a trap....I wondered what would my friend, Kevin Morris have done?  I wasn't Kevin and I wasn't trying to take him down....I had flirted with the idea of dropping a dime to Tray's crew on his whereabouts...But I thought better of it.. I certainly didn't want George dead...I just wanted him to see the light before it was too late!!

I got on a Trolley and waited...This trolley had just been washed  and there was no driver on it... Like clockwork, George Bailey appeared...

"Hey Reed, glad you could meet me here man..." he said.

"What's this about George?" I asked.

"I guess you heard about the shootout , a few blocks from you early this morning.?" he said.

''Yeah I heard...Some kid, 19 years old got killed....and it looks like he killed two guys...and somebody killed him and his guy...." I said.

"That would be me..." said George non-chalantly...

"WHAT?? You??" I said.

"Reed, they were from Tray's crew...I was in that house with Wilona McGhee..." he said.

"Wilona McGhee?? The babe that be in Josies?" I asked.

"Yeah...She borrowed that spot from one of her friends so we could uh go there to uh, you know, be alone." said George...

"And what happened...Her man found out?" I asked.

"Nah..Nah, Tray found out somehow that I was there and he sent a hitter...Cat killed the man at the door and the guy I had watchin the room, but I got him...before he woulda got me." said George.

"Then what happened?" I asked.

"His driver was about to shoot the last guy I had....When I popped him...I'm gone let the cops sort it out...I aint stayin around ." he said.

"So you called me here to tell me that you're leavin town....Really George??...Really?...I don't even like you like that." I said....I paused for a minute...Then I smiled.

George looked at me and busted up laughing.....I laughed too...

"I know right." he said...continuing to laugh... He went in his pocket and pulled out a paper bag and passed it to me...It was loaded to the gip with money....

"Reed....You told me that my daughter can be anything she wants right?" he said, no longer laughing.

"Yeah...she's good..." I said.

"This is 125G's...I want you to give it to her...It's for her schooling.." he said.

"George....She won a four year scholarship to Julliard Music School..." I said.

"Then give it to Vee and her....They can ...They can do whatever.." he said.

''What are you going to do man?" I asked.

"I'm gettin as far out of Philly as I can for now...I got dough stashed away and I got enough to support me until I can find another hustle.....I think I'll go south...Where the drinks are cold and I don't know the names of the playas..." he said.

"You think you'll ever come back?" I asked.

''Who knows? Anything is possible." he said. "We kind of hit it off on the wrong foot Reed, but you done good by my daughter.....You was a man of your word....You alright  with me man..." he said.

We were silent for a long time....Then finally he smiled weakly...

"Thanks...Thanks for lookin out for my daughter man....Well Reed, I got to sky up man...Be easy baby!" he said. We shook hands.

"Always ." I said...He got up, slipped off the trolley...He looked both ways and then he got into what looked like a cab, but probably wasn't.....and that was the last time I saw George Bailey.

EPILOUGE:

One warm fall Saturday, a few weeks later, Veronica Bailey and I sat on the wall in a playground, not far from where we lived, eating Ice Cream of all things and talking...I didn't tell her about the shootout or her father's departure....I didn't tell her that he was wanted for questioning in the shootings...I just told her that he had to leave town and that he would be back soon...

"I don't care if I never see him again." said Veronica.

"Don't say that Ronnie...Your dad isn't perfect, but in his own way he wants the best for you." I said.

"That money is nice." she said and laughed that mischeivious laugh that all young girls laugh.

"Yeah, I figured you wouldn't have a problem with the money he left." I laughed.

"Mama put it in a bank account for me...Gave me a debit card....It'll help with books and other things." she said.

"I know you're responsible...you won't blow all of that money, will you?" I asked.

"I plan to get a job once I get settled...I might not even touch it." she said.

I looked at her and winked...

"Oh?" I said.

"Well...a girl has got to have a couple of pair of shoes Mr. Reed." she laughed...

I laughed too and we sat there , eating ice cream and laughing and talking for a long while!

I still play at Josies and every now and then, Veronica comes to Josies to listen to me and my band and to take notes....I go up to the high school to listen to her play whenever 88 has the school jazz band perform....for the same reason....to take notes!

For SLC

The Least Of Your Worries

It is my hope that one day, Debbie and I will have a child and our child, be it male or female will be musically gifted....After all, look who it's daddy is!! Me, Reed Nelson, Trumpet Player...Did I mention that I also play the Piano quite well too?

Debbie and I sat in the high school auditorium with Vera Johnson and watched as her daughter's High school Jazz band performed... These kids were all good...I was quite impressed with the job that "88" , my former sideman, now their teacher and mentor had done with them....

They didn't just play jazz...they played the tunes of the day that they loved also...Veronica and the guy playing the saxophone were practically dueling each other with improvisation...I was impressed....I looked at 88, who was beaming with pride as his kids went through each tune... The parents were cheering and clapping....You would have thought they were in Josies listening to Me or Downtown Rob Brown or Symphony Sam...

After the concert, Veronica  and her mother came over to where Debbie and I were standing...

"Ronnie you were great...Vee, I know you're so proud of her." said my wife Debbie.

Vera laughed and beamed with pride...

She was looking absolutely stunning in her black dress that seemed to show a little too much cleavage for my wandering eyes...

"Yes, I'm very proud of my baby...I'm gonna miss her so much when she leaves in June." she said.

"Awww mama, I told you that I'd write and I'll call you every day." said Ronnie.

88 looked at me and I smiled...Ronnie might believe , might truly believe she'd do all of this, but once her studies began, not to mention the attentions of some slick guy...She'd forget all about her mama back here in Philly...At least for awhile....And there would be a slick guy...I was surprised that there wasn't one now trying to say something smooth in her ears and tempt her to slip those panties down...She was a very attractive young lady.

While I allowed my mind to ponder on the beauty of both mother and daughter, a loud pop sound was heard!! Followed by a succession of pops...the sound of car tires screaching and people screaming outside...

II-

Once outside the school, I saw a  Black BMW...I recognized it...It belonged to George Bailey.....The windshield had many holes in it...There was a young man lying in the street in a pool of blood...It wasn't George!!

No George was behind the car peering around to make sure  no one else was around to fire at him....

The police had arrived and a crowd of people were gathered around...A pretty Latina detective and her Black Partner finally coaxed George up and was talking to him....

"George...George ...George....Why is it...everytime I see you, you're in trouble?" she said to him.

"I aint in no trouble Detective Rodriguez.....I aint do nothin."he said.

"Of course not....Who is that in the street?" she asked.

"That's my bodyguard, Carlo Hunter." he said.

"That was your bodyguard...He's dead now! Guess he earned his keep though, You're still alive.  I suppose you have no idea who did this right?"  said her partner who she called Rico.

"No...I don't." he said.

"Come on George...You know and I know that the shooter was from Tray's crew...They want a couple of your corners." she said.

''Well if you know so much, how come you foolin with me and am not out gettin em?" he asked.

"Just wanted to know for sure." she laughed.

"You still don't know." he said.

She smiled...She was gorgeous....

"Yes I do...you just told me." she said.  "Good Night George...Stay safe.Let's go Rico" she said and she and her partner got in her car and prepared to pull off...

"If you wasn't so fine...I'd hate you." he muttered.

Detective Rodriguez smiled sweetly.

Vee covered Ronnie's eyes and took her in the opposite direction,Debbie stood and waited on the steps for me as I headed towards George Bailey...

"You missed your daughter's big concert George...She was very good." I said.

"Yeah? Where is she?" he asked.

"On her way home with her mom." I said.

"Wasn't no other dude with Vee was it?" he asked.

"That's the least of your worries." I said.

"I aint worried about nothin....The guys that tried to get me? They will be dealt with." he said.

"Maybe...or Maybe they'll deal with you....Thing is..you don't know how that'll go...Still don't understand what I said about patterns do ya?  There have been many who have worn the crown in this neighborhood.. All of em are in jail or the cemetary." I said.

"Maybe, but they got to wear that crown...I am the king now and I intend to be around for a long time." he said.

"So did they......So this is the legacy you're going to leave your daughter??" I said.

"Reed...Sunday was a few days ago...I don't go to church and I don't need no sermon from you." snarled George...

"Good Night George." I said and walked over to Debbie..

III-

Later that night , I made fierce love to Debbie...

"Oh My God Reeeeeed..." she cooed as I began thrusting into her mightily......

The bed rocked from side to side as we made love like it was going out of style...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu..." she moaned and cried out loud....I could see her facial expressions rapidly change, feel her body tremble as she experienced  small orgasms....

She sat upright and lowered herself on top of me....

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." I moaned as she began to move up and down furiously until I came......

"Wow Reed, you really put it to me tonight....what is on your mind?" asked Debbie...

"Sex" I said...

"More than that" she said...

"Yeah...I was thinking about Vee and Veronica....How George stalks and terrorizes them and they'll never be free as long as he's around." I said.

"Veronica is going away to college soon." said Debbie.

"Yeah, at least she'll be free." I mused.

"Poor Vee....every guy she's dated or attempted to date has been run off by George and his goons..." said Debbie.

"Yeah, somethin ought to be done about that." I mused.

"Reed what you got in mind?" asked Debbie...

"Who me? Nothin." I said innocently.

(Conclusion Next!)