Pre-Emptive Strikes

Gus accompanied Kool Kat, Clerow and myself to the facility where "Beauty " Williams lived.   It was in the middle of downtown and it looked as clincical as these places tended to look.. Inside it was very clean, but it smelled like a combonation of Pine Sol and fresh urine ,depending on what floor you walked on...Here many older adults lived who could no longer take care of themselves and who's children could no longer take care of them...For some reason, this place reminded me of prison, despite the fact that it wasn't.

Carlotta "Beauty" Williams  still had a head turning shape...even though she was old....Her hair was still long and pretty, even though now it was completely white....and if you looked hard enough, you could see the stunningly beautiful woman she used to be... She had high cheekbones and strong very distinct facial features.

She was a very fastidious woman....Her room was clean, it had fresh flowers and it smelled fresh, unlike the rest of the facility.

"Gus...Gus...How long has it been?" she said when we entered the room...And look...you bring three handsome young men with you!!!! Now that's my kind of visit." she said with a gregarious smile."

"Hey Beauty...How ya been babe?  This here is Kevin Morris, Walter Jones and Clerow Hamilton...Friends of mine." said Gus.

"Oh my god.... That's Kenny's boy....Kevin?? Oh lord...he looks just like his daddy, spittin image...and this big hunk of man here....ohhh that's Junie Jones son.......This third one ..He don't look like nobody I know." she said.

She was right..I was the son of Kenneth Morris and Kool Kat was the son of Walter "Junie" Jones Jr.  His given name was Walter Jones III...but we have called him "Kool Kat" since we were in grade school.

"Your mind is still sharp as a tack babe." said Gus, laughing.. I looked around the room...I noticed photos of her and a young handsome white man...These photos were taken in the 60's...Maybe the 70's...then there were what looked to be more recent photos of her and another man...a Black man.

"I know why you're here Gus.....I read the papers...I know they found a baby's body underneath old Iceblock Jones's warehouse...The cops don't have a clue...but I know...It was that louse of a first husband of mine's love child." she spat.

"First husband?" I questioned.  She smiled....then she answered...

"Yeah....White boy loved Black women...He probably still do...He was always in West Philly and Southwest Philly back then...Hangin out, tossin money around...Buying friends....The word was that his daddy was mobbed up...So the brothers loved him...He started runnin with me because I was a redbone you know..I looked close enough white that his Daddy might not mind....But of course his daddy did some snoopin..found out I was mixed and tried to bust us up...Course..He didn't have to do that....My husband and his wanderin eye was already doggin around with Cora Waters...Guess he wanted a real Black woman.." she laughed wryly.

All the while she was telling this story, Neither Kool Kat nor Clerow said a word...Gus held his head down...

"So you knew about him and Cora?" I asked.

"Everybody knew about em...You can't do nothin out in the street and nobody not know about it." she said.

Gus nodded his head in agreement.

"I didn't know about a baby until the child was about six months old...Then I confronted him about it and he denied that it was his....He said that he broke up with Cora Waters before she got pregnant.....and then she she......hung herself.....in that house on the corner of Creighton Way." she said.

"Creighton Street...Corner House??? That's where I live!!!!." said Kool Kat...

"Might explain your dreams junior." said Gus.

"You've been dreamin about Cora ??? You don't even know her...She was dead before any of yall was born." said "Beauty"

"That's what I said" said Gus.

"Funny...I been dreamin about her too." said Beauty.

"Oh Lord." said Kool Kat.

"It's her!!!...She's tryin to find her baby boy."  said Beauty.

I dismissed this part of the conversation...but Beauty, Gus and Kool Kat clearly did not!

Gus and Beauty reminisced about the old days for another hour and then we all bid her goodbye...She hadn't told me anything I hadn't surmised...

"So tell me...Who pays for you to stay here?" I asked.

"Inquisitive fella aint you?" she laughed... "My second husband, God rest his soul died and left me enough insurance money to pay for my stay here if you must know....not that dirty rat Dag Hammerskold." she said.

I smiled and she smiled back at me!

"Get him!" she said..

"If I can...I will." I said..She smiled again..a sweet smile.

II-

A few nights later, Kool Kat, Clerow and I located now retired private detective...Burt Flowers in of all places, Joe Neptune's joint...The Mermaid club...He wore a shabby and ill fitting brown suit, with a black shirt and a white tie and a dingy fedora...He smelled like liquor and cigarettes....

I bought him a drink and the three of us sat down and talked...

"Yeah...Old man Hammerskold hired me to get the skinny on his son....He knew that his son liked to hang out in the black neighborhoods and had a thing for sweet young black girls...He didn't mind it when he was a teenager, but when he went and married one...that was that...Her name was Carlotta Williams and I tell ya Kev..She coulda passed for white...Look jes like a white girl...but that booty and that coarse hair gave her away...I checked her out..White mother...from Germany...Her dad was a Black G.I, , who got her mom pregnant and brought her back here.." he laughed.

''What about Cora Waters?" I asked.

"What about her?  She was a hot little number from the hood...Young Dagg was tossin dough around and drivin his fancy cars around the neighborhood like he always done and he hooked her..." he said.

"Did you know she gave birth?  To his child? " I asked.

''Yeah I did...He kept it a secret for six months." he said.

"What happened to the baby?" I asked.

"I don't know.....One day I ran into Junior and I confronted him with it...He swore me to secrecy..Paid me off.  He told me that he had broken it off with Cora and that the baby wasn't his...That he'd broken up with her before she got pregnant." said Burt Flowers.

"You believe that?" I asked.

"No...but he was payin me...I didn't see no evidence of no baby, so I kept my mouth shut...And to his old man's delight..Him and Beauty busted up not long after Cora hung herself!" he said.

"Hmmm, so the only person who can shed some light on this is "Icebox" Jones." I said wryly.

"Good Luck with that...He's been dead for over thirty years now...Somebody shot him." said Burt Flowers.

"Ohhh really?? The cops get the guy?" I asked.

"Nope...Unsolved after all these years." he said.

"Unbelievable." I said.

I tossed a couple of dollars on the table to pay for his drinks...

"Thanks a lot Mr. Flowers." I said.

"No...Thank you." he said and raised his glass to me.

"Where to next Boss?" asked Clerow...

"I just got a text from Peeping Tom and Lockpick Johnson...They're down the street in the van.." I said.

"What did they want?" asked Kool Kat...

"I had them do some work for me...a sort of pre-emptive strike ." I said.

III-

Kool Kat ,Clerow and I walked down the street to where our surveillance van was parked...Lockpick Johnson and Harry Charles tossed the three of us a beer....Peeping Tom and Sean Jackson were inside the van...Tom came to the door.

"Any problems?" I asked.

"None at all Kevin...Lockpick and I got inside his house..disabled his alarm system and planted micro -cameras and listening devices everywhere that it was pertinent...We also got a tap on his phone and his computer."he said.

"What about his downtown offices?" I asked.

"Got them too...It was a good idea to have Sean and Harry Charles follow him and keep us informed of where he was..." said Lockpick Johnson..

"Old dude is still up to his old tricks..Still chasin Black tail...Strip clubs...After hours joints...He gets around."
said Sean Jackson.

"Kev, you buggin this guy before you talk to him?" asked Kool Kat...

"Yeah...I got a feelin  he might not be as receptive as the other two people I've interviewed...I want to make sure we glean something from him." I said.

"Mannnn, that's thinkin ahead like a mother.." said Clerow.

"No..that's staying alive like a mother." I said..

All of us, Peeping Tom, Lockpick Johnson, Clerow, Harry Charles, Sean Jackson, Kool Kat and myself broke out in gales of laughter!

(To Be Continued....)