The Committee

''How's your food Kevin?" asked my wife Sepia.  We were at Bottom of the C.  ,Dollar Bill's joint in mid day enjoying a meal...I had a Cajun Steak seasoned well with Red Beans and Rice ,green, yellow and red peppers and onions... and a Corona to wash it down... Sepia was having a New York Strip Steak and a Baked Potato...  Today was a rare day that neither of us went to work at our perspective jobs...Mine at a very hip Magazine and She at a real estate office...

"It's Great Sepia...How bout yours?" I asked.

"Very Good...I swear, Ralph Scallion out did himself in the kitchen today." she laughed.

"Well then, you had better stop ribbing him so much." I laughed.

''Never that!" she laughed.

Life had been good lately...We had an assignment in New Orleans...and Sean Jackson, His wife Sheila, Sepia and I and Harry Charles and Bernadette all went and had a great time....Within a few weeks, Sepia and I and Robert Foxworth and his wife, Bonita were all on a trip to Hawaii...Another good time....Since we had been back in Philly, I had spent at least three days a week at the office, writing articles, editing them, approving Sean's photos and handling business....The other two days, I worked from home on my blogs and our on line services...Sepia and Bonita worked everyday at the real estate office...At night we made love well into the early morning hours...Life was routine, but good. I almost half heartedly wished to be on the streets with Clerow, Kool Kat and the gang cracking a case...Guess you should be careful what you wish for!

Just as I was paying the bill and getting ready to leave with Sepia, Kool Kat and a young lady I had never met came walking in. Sepia smiled ,but gave him the side eye...She had become pretty good friends with his girlfriend of note, Chelsea...I could see on her face that she was suspicious of this woman.

''Whoooaaa, look who it is!" I laughed...."I thought you had fallen off the face of the earth good brother Jones." I continued...but Kool Kat was surprisingly not laughing. Uh Oh..Something was up!

"Hey man...I been lookin all over for you..I thought if all else failed...You might be here..Hey Sepia." he said.

"Hi Walter." said Sepia.

"This here Kevin is Minay, Minay Jordan...Her ex-fiance was a good friend of mine...His name was Hugh Benet'... He was stabbed to death a few weeks ago.....Cops can't find a murder weapon or a clue as to who done it." he said.

''And you think that maybe I can huh?" I said.

"Please Mr. Morris...I'm willing to pay money if you could look into it." she said.

"People will talk to you Kevin, People that won't talk to the coppers." said Kool Kat.

"Okay...First thing tomorrow...I'll get on it." I said.

"Oh thank you Mr. Morris"..She said. She gave me a piece of paper. "This is my address and my cell phone number if you need anything." she said.

"I'm gonna drop her off at her spot and then I'm going home....Chelsea called me a few minutes ago." said Kool Kat....At the mention of Chelsea's name...I could see that Sepia felt better...It was obvious that there was no monkey business going on between him and the dead man's fiance.

II-

A few hours later, I was in Josies with Attorney, Robert Foxworth and Chance Howard having a couple of cold beers...They were talking about this guy, Hugh Benet, Same guy Kool Kat and this girl had come to me about...They told me about how much of a fun guy he was...How he was a real ladies man, but was otherwise harmless and how it was a shame that someone had stabbed him and his murder was unsolved...I could see that this guy, Hugh Benet had affected every life he had touched....I was surprised that our paths had never crossed.  Even Gus got into the discussion..

"Ya know Kev..Hugh was in here the night he died....He was here with this chick, Millie Wilson....I got her address,you might want to talk to her...I'm certain she was one of the last babes to see him alive."He said.

"Well Since we are on the subject Gus...Did anything weird or unusual happen in here that night?" I asked.

"No, not really but uhhhhh...there was one thing...He asked me about Joe...Joe Willis...." said Gus.

"Joe Willis?  The Developer?? One that has that fine supermodel for a girlfriend named Valerie, Valarie Brown? "I asked..  I had met them both through Rollie Rollerson....Valarie seemed a little too flirtatious to me to be anything more than a plaything of Joe Willis.

"Yeah, that Joe...He was in here that night...Hugh thought that he was given him the evil eye for some reason." said Gus...

"No offense Gus, but why would Joe Willis, someone like him, be in here hanging out.?" I asked.

"None taken Kid...I wondered that myself...He was in here, everytime, Hugh was in here the last two weeks..but he always left long before Hugh did...You know Hugh...Well you shoulda.." said Gus.

"Yeah man, Kev that cat could drink us all under the table and then screw five, six women, He reminded me of me before I got married." chimed in Robert Foxworth.

Gus, Chance Howard and I all looked at Robert Foxworth with a side eye ...Robert looked at me and shrugged...

"What?"  he said... Chance snickered, I laughed and Gus shook his head...

Well, at least I had a base to start from...People to talk to.

"Okay you guys...you have given me a starting point...I'll look into it." I said as I tossed a couple of bucks on the counter and left.

III-

Later that evening as I approached my home and was about to walk up the stairs, I saw what looked like a small committee, Pastor John Struthers, his wife, Deacon Larry Weatherford and his wife, Victoria and new deacon, Basil Robinson and his wife! all walking towards my house...I turned and greeted them all..

''Hey Pastor, deacons , missuses.." I said with a smile and a wave.

"Hey Kevin" said the women...

"Brother Morris" said Deacon Weatherford..

''What's good Kev?" said Deacon Basil.

''Kevin, the reason we are here is to ask a favor of you....A young man was brutally murdered a few weeks ago and well, while he wasn't a church goer, he was much loved in the community....and he leaves behind a grieving fiance who was just devestated by his loss and-" said Pastor Struthers before I raised my hand up to stop him.

"I take it you're talking about Mr. Hugh Benet, correct?" I asked.

''Yes...How did you know?  Did you know him?" asked Pastor Struthers."

"Nope...wouldn't know him if I tripped over him in the streets...but so many people have asked me about him today alone that I feel like I do know him or at least should have...Starting tomorrow...I'm going to look into it." I said.

''Oh , well..Well uh...Thank you brother."said Pastor Struthers...

"You're quite welcome." I said as I bid them all good night and went inside my home.

Sepia and I lay across the bed a little later ,just talking-

''Kevin...you really think you can get to the bottom of this Hugh Benet business?" she asked.

"I'm not as confident as everyone who has asked me to look into it...but who knows...I've cracked some tough nuts before." I said.

''Police have better resources than you do and they are stumped...plus Bonita told me that his father hired a team of French investigators to come here and they couldn't find anything either." she said.

''That's because nobody will talk to them. People will talk to me...At least in this community." I said.

Sepia didn't say anything else...Neither did I..We just lay there on the bed...From the streets, we could hear cars driving by...Radios playing, people talking softly and then the sounds fading away into the night!

(To Be Continued...)