''Geez, this guy is all busted up...and the smell....whewwwwwwwwwwwwww! Decomp has really set in.." said Homicide Detective, Lt. Tragg..
"He took a header off that roof Lieutenant and fell through the ceiling of this building..." said a CSI
man..
"He's got multiple fractures...Both legs broken, multiple rib fractures, broken arm, fractured skull, all of which I could say was the result of the fall, but do you see these lititures on his neck? He was strangled or pushed...I'm writing this up as a homicide.."said Hazel..
"Okay...I'm going up to the roof...Yvette? What are you guys doing here?" he asked..
"This is Mercedes Felicidad, the wife of the deceased...and Sofia Garcia's cousin...Her husband has been missing for 6 days...We located him today...She doesn't know why he would be here....."said Yvette.
"He got a call...I don't know from who..and he got up, got dressed and ran out of the house six days ago and I never saw him alive again.."said Mercedes...who was in tears...
''She called me and I told her to call Missing Persons, which she did and we are just locating him today.." said Sofia..
Bee Bee, Kahlil and I just stood silently...
"That last call was from someone in his office, the place where he works...but it came through the switchboard, so I was never able to determine who made the call or which office it comes from..When I went to the job to interview the employees...I was told that they had all signed a non-disclosure agreement and that if I came again I'd be taken to see the company attorney..."said Jade.
Lt. Tragg didn't like Private investigators and he hated that Jade had gotten a week jump on him, still that was good to know and even he said..
"They all lawyered up , before his body was even found? That's odd..." he said.
It was the rare time that everybody was on one accord.
II-
On the roof, Lt. Tragg saw his sunglasses and his cell phone.
Left exactly where we had found them....untouched..
wearing Latex Gloves , he checked the phone...
'Still in working order...I'm surprised the charge didn't run out...It's been a week...and the sunglasses..Not a scratch...It's funny the way they were placed here...It looks staged.." He said..
He passed them to an officer.."
"Bag them and tag them.."he said... He looked around for scuff marks...for some sign of a struggle.
There were a few footprints...Two sets...one a size 12 or 13 and another smaller size that led to the edge..He had them photographed.
Gary Lockwood, Once a Homicide detective himself, now an Investigator for the D.A.'s office said..
''Don't worry about that subpeona....I'll get you one Artie." he said.
" Thanks Gary." said Lt. Tragg.
We all watched from the street as the body was removed...
His car was in the parking lot across the street...It had multiple tickets on it..
Mercedes searched the car...She found his License and registration..
''What Are you looking for mami?" asked Sofia.
''Something Missing?" asked Bee Bee.
"His Money Clip....I gave him a Gold Money Clip for his birthday...He loved it...He always carried it..It had about a thousand dollars in Hundreds in the clip...He never spent the money..He just flashed it..It made him feel like a baller ,he said..He never went anywhere without it...It's missing." she said.
''Maybe he left it at home...in his haste to go whereever he had to go.."said Kahlil..
I had just come out..
"I asked around in there...Nobody remembers seeing him in here that night and there is no video of him on any of the cameras...and that camera on the roof...It's been disabled for awhile and no one was aware of it.."I said.
"This all seems sooooo messy....I don't like it. I know a Judge...I can get us a court summons to talk to those people..Monday, we are going to pay his job a visit." said Ms. Yvette.
"Got'cha." said Ms. Jade.
III-
Monday Morning, Bright and Early, We were all in the offices of the Brokeridge firm that once belonged to Ramos and his best friend, and founding partner..Mark Tollison..
Mark Tollison looked nervous and surprised to see Mercedes in the office..
''Mercedes...I am sooo sorry for your loss..What are you doing here? Who are all these people.?/" he said..
He remembered Jade from the week before..
"YOU! I told you not to come back here..unless you come with an Attorney." he said.
''Save it Mark....I called you and left messages with you seven times and you never returned my calls, When my investigator came here she was turned away.." said Mercedes.
''You told me to come back with an Attorney...So here I am...with my attorneys.." said Jade.
"I'm Attorney Yvette Jones." said Yvette.
"I'm Attorney Sofia Garcia." said Sofia.
"I'm Attorney Kahlil Ahmed.."said Kahlil.
"I'm Attorney Keith Jones." I said.
and I'm Attorney Beatrice Evans...We are all from McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt and associates." she said.
Mark Tolliver turned a shade of red and he looked very nervous..
"Mercedes...You know my door is always open to you...You, You didn't have to bring an Investigator and Attorneys into this..." he said , extremely nervous..
An older man suddenly appeared..
"I don't know why you're here...but I am the Company Attorney.. Robert Ruffin...and if you have any questions you will direct them to me." he said.
"Well I have questions to direct to you and a number of people here and I have a court summons."said Lt. Tragg. "Homicide, Lt. Arthur Tragg, Philadelphia Police department." he said.
"I'm Gary Lockwood an Investigator with the District Attorneys Office and I have his court summons right here."
"WHAT? , Wh-What are you trying to say?" asked a now very nervous Mark Tolliver..
''Shut Up Mark..I'll handle this..GO BACK TO YOUR OFFICE! Look, let's all go in the conference room and air this out.." said Attorney Robert Ruffin.
We all sat down at a nice table in a modern conference room.. Robert Ruffin tried to intimidate all of us...
''Now look, Ramos was a very well liked and very loved employee...We don't know anything or have anything to do with the circumstances surrounding his disapearence and now, his tragic death." he said. "That's our official statement and ALL you need to know from us." he said firmly..
"Why did you have your employees sign Non disclosure agreements six days before we found out he was dead? We didn't even know if he was really missing....But you told my investigator she couldn't talk to anybody and to come back with legal counsel..Which she did." said Yvette.
"It's almost as if you guys already knew my husband was dead....Didn't you? What are you covering up?" asked Mercedes..
''Which is what I'm asking." said Jade.
''Yes, what are you covering up?" asked Sofia..
"Oh and we have a court summons that allows us to talk to your employees and we will represent anyone of them that faces any kind of reprisals from this company."said Bee Bee.
''Something like this...could keep you guys tied up in legal battles for a longggggggggggggg time." I said.
"And we have all the time in the world." said Kahlil..
Ruffin breathed deeply....I could tell he was furious and angry...He was used to intimidating people..We were young, people of color and we weren't intimidated...He didn't like that.
''Whether you talk to them or not, is not my concern, but you will talk to me...I'm police. You'll talk to me or I'll have a team take this office apart piece by piece until it's not standing.."snarled Lt. Tragg.
"If you've done nothing wrong...What are you afraid of?" asked Gary...
"There is no need to involve our employees...They don't know anything.." he protested..but he was fighting a losing battle..
Faced with summons and not wanting legal battles...He had no choice but to relent and to allow us to interview employees...
Even though he wasn't around...We all could tell that these people were afraid for their jobs...They would only tell us basic stuff, they knew him..He was a great guy...they didn't notice anything strange about him during the last time they saw him, et al.
Satisfied that we got all we could out of them..We all left..
"There is nothing more to gain here." said Yvette.
"You're right...but I could tell, they're all scared.."said Sofia.
"Yeah, but of what?" asked Bee Bee.
"That's what I want to know.." said Kahlil..
"Maybe someone will call us...I slipped my business card in two people's pocketbooks." I said.
"Good Thinking."said Jade.
IV-
Night time came...
We were all having Pizza at Food Corner..
A nice way to wind down the long day...
''Mercedes, do you remember anything weird in the week leading up to Ramos's disapearence and murder?" asked Yvette.
''Actually...I do! The week before Ramos went missing...We were in bed...we have a motion detector..One in the front of our house and one in the back..That Tuesday night ,the one in the front went off...The multiple lights came on...Ramos had this look of pure fear in his eyes..He got a baseball bat and ran outside...He even called the police... They looked around and said that it probably was a squirrel or a cat that triggered it...but Ramos wasn't convinced.. Then two nights later ,it happened again..This time in the back of the house, Ramos grabbed a bat again and ran outside..he showed me evidence that someone was trying to saw our bars on the window..I asked him what was wrong, what was going on, but he wouldn't say..He said the less I know..the better it would be.." said Mercedes..
"Somebody was after him..." said Sofia.
"And somebody at his job knows and won't talk.."said Bee Bee.
"My guess is it's his best friend, Mark Tolliver, Did you see how spooked he got when Jade and Mercedes showed up with all of us lawyers....They aren't the only ones who can get lawyered up."said Kahlil..
"And when the Police and the D.A.'s Office Investigator showed up...I thought he was going to crap his pants...Man, that was the only time I was actually glad to see Lt. Tragg.." I said..
We all cracked up laughing..
''I wonder if Gary found out anything different..Anything we couldn't...which would be anything." said Jade..
We all sat quietly and finished our Pizza.
At Gary's house..
"They were all scared , but I did find out something...I'm glad that shady lawyer wasn't around..Apparently Mark Tolliver and Ramos published an article in their newsletter and they placed it on the company websites, Facebook and Twitter, advising people to invest in this Russian Start Up company.. The company went belly up and a lot of people lost a lot of money...One person, whose name I couldn't get...More than the others.. THE SEC investigated and pressed charges against the company for advertising a fraudulent stock...Robert Ruffin represented the company in court and he won...Saying all they did was exercise their first amendment rights and could not be held liable.. But somebody is not satisfied with that..They took a bath and they want satisfaction...I get the impression this somebody is dangerous...I couldn't get a name." said Gary..
"You got enough..That's not going to help Mercedes or bring her any closure...We aren't cops...I wish we could do more, but legally there is nothing else we can do." said Yvette.
"It's on Lt. Tragg now.. I've got other fish to fry...Other pending cases in the D.A.'s office.. Now that we got that out of the way...I need to be on your case.." said Gary..
"You are such a horn dog.You're always on my case.." laughed Yvette..
"But you're my horn dog..." she said as she and Gary kissed passionately...
"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm you feel so good Gary..."Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu." she cooed softly...
Gary kissed her and slowly slipped her panties down and off..
They stood nude in the middle of his bedroom , while Yvette kissed him and softly fondled his now hugely erect penis..\
"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, look at this thing.....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" she marveled.. "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." he moaned..
within minutes they were in his bed, making sweet love....bed springs squeaking, headboard rattling...
''Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.." he moaned.. "Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Gary..." she cooed.
The Mystery of just what happened to Ramos Felicidad remained just that...A Mystery for now!
No comments:
Post a Comment