VENTURES: Hairy Situation

We met in Court downtown the next day for Bennie Gillespie's bail hearing and arraignment'where he was formally charged with First Degree Murder. The charges were serious and we didn't have Judge Reynolds or Judge Morrison who was going to set a ridiculously low bail.

Judge Wong was by the book and fair...Tough ,but fair...

Bennie Gillespie knew that him being an Attorney made this increasingly dire for him...His life, his career was on the line..He was a fairly successful attorney himself and had money...He was paying us after all to defend him...but a particularly high bail might drive his finances to the limit.. He was psychologically preparing himself for a long jail stay..

Olivia and Beverly argued that this was a case of rush to judgement and that there was no forensic, fingerprint or DNA proof of their client even being at the scene..

This entire case was based on an Anonymous phone call and a piece of a toupee that was in the client's hand....

A toupee they argued could have belonged to anyone..

Josie, usually a serious person was holding her head down and leaning on my shoulder..I could feel her body shaking...She was looking at Bennie and guffawing with laughter..

His toupee did look a mess...but that was going to be the central issue in this case and I didn't like that!

Nelson whispered in my ear.... "He should have murdered whoever sold him that hairpeice.."

Beverly heard him and bowed her head....Her body was shaking and tears were running down her face..

Olivia kept a straight face....but she didn't look at her niece...

Bennie Gillespie stood stoically...

Judge Wong smiled a bit herself and held her head down...

ADA Ron Harper looked at him and smiled himself.. He knew Bennie Gillespie...He liked him...He didn't want to believe he was capable of a murder...He shook his head...

"Damn, that hairpiece is terrible.. Just admit you're bald man and go about your business ." he muttered to himself..

Lt. Tragg couldn't help himself....He was visibly laughing at the toupee and held his head down and was shaking...

ADA Harper argued that the piece of toupee found in the dead man's hands was a match for the very toupee worn by Attorney Gillespie and verified by the toupee shop he purchased his..And he also mentioned that his toupee was "reported stolen." just a day before the murder.

Josie got herself together and asked where did all of this information come from? She asked again if this was from an anonymous source...

Nelson argued that any number of toupee's purchase from the shop...HARRIET'S HOUSE OF HAIR, could match that description...

At this point, Olivia, Beverly and Josie ,who were seated, were laughing, had their heads in their laps and their body's shaking..

ADA Ron Harper

and Lt. Tragg were both laughing in their seats at this point...Lt. Tragg's face was beet red and tears were streaming down his face....

The defendent, Bennie Gillespie didn't know what the laughter was about...

I felt sorry for him

Judge Wong gave her ruling...

"I know you Mr. Gillespie..You have tried cases in my courtroom...I don't believe you to be a flight risk or a danger to the over all community....I am going to set your bail at $3000.00." she said.

"I'll pay it.." came the voice of a pretty blonde woman...She was Rita Basket, wife of the deceased Roy Basket... She wrote a check immediately and Bennie was released..

"Oh Bennie..I was sooo worried about you.." she said..

"Baby , babbyyyyy I'm fine...You didn't have to do that." he said.

"I couldn't bare the thought of you in jail another night." she said.

and they kissed passionately.

Lt. Tragg was shocked..

"You gotta be kiddin me...He's got a Broad that looks like that? With that Hairdo??" he said..

"WOW, Maybe there is something to that toupee'' mused ADA Ron Harper...

"You may have a point." I said.

"WOW" said Nelson..

"OHHH BABE, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" moaned Bennie

as he and Rita Basket kissed passionately...

"I missed you toooooooo." she cooed.

II-

We all went home and decided to order our lunch in , rather than eat at Sam Mother's Diner.. We went on Sam's website and ordered our lunches..

3 Hot Roast Beef Specials , One for Olivia , Beverly and Alfreda.

3 Corn Beef Specials, One for me, One for Nelson and One for Josie.

and cold Coke sodas for everybody.

While we chowed down ,Olivia addressed us...

"Bennie and Lois have signed into a Hotel using their own names....Now what we know about this case...Roy Baskett vanished two years ago....Not a trace of him could be found...Leaving his wife in control of his company...We know now, he was in Jamaica....His company was near bankruptcy two years ago ,around the time he vanished...Then a year ago...things were on the upswing and his company began seeing an upsurge in profits...His wife, Rita sold some shares off and cashed in, She cashed in big....Bennie Gillespie , our client ,was her personal attorney..They couldn't declare Roy Baskett legally dead, but she could divorce him on the grounds of abandonment...Somewhere in the middle of all of this, they fell in love or lust or something and just when they were about to draw up the divorce papers..in absentia...Roy Baskett shows up from the dead!" "He tells her to fire Bennie and the two of them ,Roy and Bennie got into a huge row...It was witnessed by at least 10-12 people.."said Olivia.

"Our victim, was in his office building and was shot at least three times by a .38 smokeless... The gun has not been recovered.. In his hand was a piece of toupee...An anonymous call to police said that Bennie Gillespie was the killer and that the toupee was his extra toupee.' When Police arrested him, he told them that his apartment had been robbed and his extra toupee' was the only thing stolen..."said Beverly, trying not to choke on her food as she began laughing..

"You two stop it...A lot of men wear hairpieces....His Toupee, can't be that bad.."said Alfreda.

"It's that bad!" said Nelson..

Beverly was beside herself with laughter...

So was Olivia...The two girls were holding each other and laughing..

Josie was laughing and trying to break up the laughter and return to the meat of the case...

''Did Mr. Baskett have any other enemies?" she asked.

"As a matter of fact, he did...Mr. Bob Haskell....Bob was a partner in the company...Not a majority partner... His wife, Sylvia vanished two years ago, shortly after Baskett vanished... It was believed that they might have been having an affair..Sylvia was found, wait for it....In a Hotel in Kingston, dead!! An apparent Suicide...Bev, you and I need to talk to Mr. Bob Haskell as soon as possible.."I said.

"And we need to talk to officials in Kingston...."said Nelson...

III-

The Next day, Beverly and I met with Robert Haskell in a deli in Port Richmond...

''We stand out like a sore thumb Donnie Ray...I'll bet we are the only Black people in here." said Beverly...

"Good thing I'm armed huh?" I joked..

"That's not funny Donnie Ray." said Beverly..

We both ordered Beers...

"Here he comes now." I said.

''Donnie Ray? Beverly ? He said.

"How'd you guess?" said Beverly with a smile..

He apparently had no sense of humor. He didn't smile at all...He sat down and looked at me..

"I'm Robert Haskell , you're the lawyer for Gillespie?" he asked.

"I'm The Investigator on the case...I'm Donnie Ray Alexander....This is one of the Attorneys, Beverly West-East.." I said.

This time Beverly merely stared at him...

He ordered a drink...

or rather three flutes of Vodka..

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Basket, Roy Basket....You know him?" I asked.

"Yeah, I knew him.....I was a minority partner in his business.....I didn't like him....Nobody who knew him liked him, except maybe Walker Long and when he vanished, we all breathed a sigh of relief...For two years...we were able to work in peace without that taskmaster and micro manager around and we managed to bring the company back to standards again...We were actually making a profit...HIs wife Rita Baskett was getting ready to sell her shares and cash out..and here he comes...Here he shows up.." said Bob Haskell.

"You had another reason you didn't like him, didn't you?"asked Beverly..

"My wife, Sheila and him always seemed more than just a little chummy...She vanished just two weeks after he was last seen...For a year...I had no idea if she was dead or alive, then...Boom, I get a call last year that she was found in a sleazy ,cheap hotel room, dead of a gunshot wound to the head...Suicide..." he said as he finished his three drinks..

"You don't believe that do you?" I asked.

"I don't know what I believe...but she's dead...They say it was a suicide...Then just six months later, I find that Baskett was also in Jamaica and he shows up here in Philly,like nothing happened.. I asked him if he saw her while he was there...He told me no...but Jamaica is only so big." said Robert Haskell.

"Where were you the night of the murder?" I asked.

"I was here all night until closing...I often help the owner close up..You can ask him....I'm sure I'm on the film footage. I didn't kill him...I didn't kill Roy Baskett...but I'll donate money to Bennie Gillespie's defense fund if he did." said Bob Haskell...

He got up , took a napkin and wiped his mouth....crumbled it up and tossed it on the table..

"Good Evening Mr. Alexander, Mrs. West." he said and walked out..

Beverly and I talked to patrons and we did check the bar film footage as well as Street and ATM cams..His alibi checked out.

IV-

Back home, we reported to Olivia..

"So Bob Haskell is not our killer..huh?" she asked.

"Nope..but he sure didn't like Roy Baskett...He had a motive too." I said.

"He thought she had run off with his wife...There is no proof, but They both were in Jamaica at the same time. Six months after her reported suicide...He suddenly returns to Philadelphia PA.

"While you guys were out...I tried to locate the company's other partner, Walker Long...He apparently went on vacation the very next day, after the murder...Guess where? Jamaica, Kingston , Jamaica to be exact.."said Nelson..

"And there has still been no sign of Rita Basket's sister in law, Terry Meadows-Baskett.

"I looked into her... It appears she was born in San-Francisco and attended Public schools there and briefly attended community college in Oakland..She entered a number of beauty pageants, including Ms. California... She migrated to Philadelphia two years ago and entered Ms. Panties....She was a runner up...Then she moved to Atlantic City...Next she showed up in Philly, married to Rita Baskett's brother, also a partner.." I said.

"Alfreda told me that her brother has called here three times today, wanting to know if we found out anything about his wife's whereabouts...I didn't have the heart to tell him that we weren't even looking."said Olivia.

As for Alfreda...She was in the kitchen...Her boyfriend, Assistant District Attorney Rockland Cambridge had taken her blouse off and was marveling at her breasts...

"You are the horniest man alive...Do you get any work done during the day? Seems like you spend it daydreaming about me..." whispered Alfreda...

"It's a wonder...you're on my mind constantly..."whispered Alfreda..

"Okay...you've had your peek at my boobies..." she said and put her blouse back on and bottoned it up.

He kissed her passionately........She giggled a bit, then really began kissing him......

"Ummmmmmmmmph, you keep kissing me like this and I'm gone have all my damn clothes off in this kitchen." she moaned as they continued kissing passionately....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!" Rockland moaned...

"Neicy Poo...I need you and Nelson to go to Atlantic City, Terry Meadow's last known Residence..

Josie....You stay here and man the office...

"That will be nice.. A Day Trip, Just the two of us.."said Nelson..

"Ouuu that will be nice.."said Beverly..

"Dang....It'll just be me and Ms. Alfreda.." said Josie..

"I'm sorry baby and I'll make it up to you...Meanwhile Donnie Ray and I are flying out to Kingston Tonight for a one day investigation of Mr. Long and another look at that suicide....We'll be back the day after tomorrow." said Olivia..