VENTURES: One Shot In The Dark

Olivia and I were having a night out...We were at a tony french Bistro...

and enjoying French cuisine.

''Ouuuu Donnie Ray, this food is simply delish...Please tell me, which of your musician friends turned you on to this place?" asked Olivia.

''Wasn't any of them...I read about this in Esquire...They said it was Philly's newest and trendiest restaurant.." I said.

''You read about it? Wowwww.. Music, Food and me...That's what drives you..." Olivia laughed..

"Noooooo you got it all wrong." I said.. It's YOU, then Music, then Food.."I said..

Olivia giggled like a high school girl.. "Ouuuuuuu so nice to hear that I'm number one on your list.." she said.

A very handsome white man walked over to the table...

"I couldn't help but notice you from afar...You are the Attorney, Olivia Bennett-Alexander..are you not?" the man asked..

"I am indeed." said Olivia, smiling..

"You are even more beautiful in person than on TV and in the papers...I am Chef Ari Kattan....and you sir are the lucky man who is married to this beautiful woman, Mr. Alexander.." he said.

"I am indeed...Very lucky." I said, smiling..

''I am a very big fan and I hope you two are enjoying your meal tonight." he said and smiled...

''Why thank youuuuuuuuuu, We are very much soo."said Olivia with a smile.

He walked away..

"Damn ,I thought he was going to give us our meals on the house." I said.

"You are tooo funny husband.."laughed Olivia...

A loud argument was breaking out , not too far from where we were finishing our meal..

"I am Malcolm Paltrow, Mr. Kattan..." said a young man who had just walked in..

"Yes...I know who you are...You are the man who has been fooling around with my wife...I will never give her a divorce , and even if I did..she would never go for a pathetic little man like yourself.." said Chef Kattan..

''She does not love you and she knows about the other woman in your life....She gave you fifty thousand dollars recently to pay off your gambling debt...THAT WAS MY MONEY AND I WANT YOU TO PAY ME BACK!!" yelled the man..

"You fool, she just used you...I am not going to pay you one red cent...Marla would never leave me for you....YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH IN YOUR PANTS TO SATISFY HER...HAHAHAHAHAHA!" he laughed..

"WHYYYYYYY YOUUUUUUUUU!" said Malcolm Paltrow who swung at Chef Kattan..

Chef Kattan blocked his punch and punched him in the stomach and then hit him with an uppercut that knocked him into a server who was carrying back some used dishes...

They both fell to the floor,plates breaking and customers gasping..

"NOW GET OUT, BEFORE I CALL THE POLICE, YOU PATHETIC LITTLE MAN!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH laughed French Chef, Ari Kattan..

Malcolm Paltrow got up off the floor and helped the server up..

"THIS IS NOT OVER...YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS...I WILL KILL YOU!" HE SCREAMED AS HE STORMED OUT OF THE BISTRO.

"Wooowwwww, a great meal and entertainment..."said Olivia, smiling..

''Yeahhh, Imagine that!" I said, smiling wryly..

II-

Just a few Blocks away-

Attorneys, Beverly West and Nelson East had just finished a delicious meal at one of Philadelphia's tony restaurants and were preparing to leave...

"Oh Nelson...This place is fabulous....I've got to tell Auntay and Donnie Ray about it..." she said...

"No Need...Donnie Ray told me about it." he said laughing...

"Donnie Ray?? He's not even from Philly...Only been here a little over six years since he met Auntay and he's giving you restaurant tips?" laughed Beverly...as Nelson waited for the waitress to return his credit card..

"You know Donnie Ray is a big Foodie..."said Nelson...

"Yeah, he is, isn't he? " laughed Beverly...

"He's a rennassaince man Bev...Former cop, Musician and lover of good food and fine dining...There is more to the man than meets the eye as your aunt probably knows.."laughed Nelson..

"Yeah...he has sooo many layers"laughed Beverly...

"Well I hope you enjoyed this..Happy Anniversary Mrs. East." said Nelson.

Beverly smiled serenely....

"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MR. EAST!" she said softly..

"I guess he is...Your birthday is coming up soon...I have to find another nice place to take you...I guess I'll ask Donnie Ray." she said laughing as they got in the car..

Nelson drove a few blocks and turned down a side street and parked under a tree....

He peered at Beverly sheepishly...She smiled at him sheepishly....

"Of course ...you uh could give me a down payment on uh my birthday present a little early you know.."he said.

Beverly smiled and then laughed...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh so I'm your Birthday present huh?" she said..

"You're my present everyday." he said..

''Awwwwwww,you say the sweetest things..."she said and leaned over and kissed him passionately...

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmph....ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." he moaned...

Beverly could see that his trousers were standing out like a circus tent...She softly rubbed his erection and continued deep throat kissing him....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Nelson...We need to take this back to our place..."she moaned...

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...I know...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh but I'm losing my mind over here...Ohhhhhhh.."he moaned and lifted her top

and began unbuckling her bra...

"Wowww, you're really good at this...Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.." she moaned as Nelson sucked on her breasts and kissed her breasts, her neck and her cheekbones and finally her lips....She moaned and leaned her head back....They had made love in this same spot just three weeks before, for hours......She was giddy with excitement....Nelson started by kissing Beverly from her mouth down to her breasts, He began giving her french kisses,He moved his lips slowly across her breasts down to her body, He kept kissing her body as he lowered himself to her waist and hips. Beverly was wearing a short skirt and Nelson lifted it..

As he got to her panties, He placed a hand on both of her shapely legs and slowly spread them, Instead he kissed her vagina through her panties and even squeezed it slightly with his lips,

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM ,OHHHHHHHHHH

MY GODDDD!!! OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU, NELSONNN!" she moaned.

Beverly was near delirium.. Nelson ran his tongue softly over her panties... He kissed her through her panties for a few minutes He moved slightly lower, kissing along her inner thigh. He licked & kissed her inner thigh... Then he began deep throat kissing her again...She was breathing heavily and her body was shaking..

"OH MY GODDDDD NELSON....UMMMMMMM!" she cooed.

"OHHHHHHHHHHH BEVERLY....OHHHHHHHHHHH!" Nelson moaned.

"Ouuu husband...Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"Beverly moaned...She was very close to having a very intense orgasm....So was Nelson..

"OH MY GOD BEVERLY...OUUUUUUU!" he moaned..

She was getting ready to unzipper his trousers...when she saw police lights in the background...

"Nelson!!! It's a cop!!" she said as they broke their embrace...She hooked her bra and pulled her top down...She straightened her dress and buttoned her blouse before the policeman got to the car..

Nelson straightened up....zippered his trousers back up...

The policeman, a tall white man with blond hair and blue eyes walked towards them with a flashlight...He had a grin on his face....

He peered at Nelson and Bev....

"Sooooooooooooooo..What's goin on here folks?" he laughed...He knew exactly what had been going on..

"Nothing officer.."said Nelson...Luckily they were fully clothed...

Beverly said nothing...

The policeman chuckled...He eyed Beverly's cleavage and her shapely legs...and smiled sardonically...Beverly felt uncomfortable the way he was staring at her..

He noticed matching wedding bands on both of them...

"Okay...well just move your uh nothing along alright?" he said...

"Okay Officer...We are leaving."said Nelson as he backed the car out of the alley....

"Auntay and Donnie Ray are eating right down the street from us...maybe we'll run into them."said Beverly ,straightening herself out and pulling the window down to get some air.

"Yeah....Good Idea."said Nelson who turned the air conditioner on and lowered the windows...He realized what he had done and looked over at his wife..

Beverly laughed and shook her head..

"Goofball.." she said.. "But you're my goofball and I love you.." she added..hugging him..

III-

Olivia and I had paid our bill...

I was waiting for her to come from the ladies room...

The Chef was standing outside the Bistro on his phone..

I couldn't hear the conversation...

I did hear the loud pop!

and I saw Chef Kattan fall face forward to the pavement..

I heard several people screaming and pointing towards a driveway across the street..

I kneeled down and felt his neck and his arm for a pulse...

HE WAS DEAD!!!

A crowd of people gathered around...

"Somebody call the police, call 911..." I said.

Olivia joined me by then...

"OH MY GOD!!! WHAT HAPPENED??" she said.

"I was standing by the door..He was outside on his phone talking and a shot was fired..He fell..I didn't see anything.." I said..

"Heyyyy what happened?" said Nelson...

"We were down the street and were passing through and we heard a pop....Then we heard screams.."said Beverly..

"I didn't see anything..I was inside.."said Olivia...

She looked down at the body...

"That was our chef...Chef Ari Kattan..."said Olivia..

Some time later, Police Cars flooded the area...

Dr. Hazel Baylor observed the body...

"The killer was either a marksman or they got lucky...The bullet went right through the heart and out of the shoulder blade.. He was killed instantly....One shot! Did you guys witness it?" asked Hazel..

"I didn't...I was inside."said Olivia.

"I saw him standing outside the door, I heard the shot and saw him fall..That's it" I said.

''We were dining a few blocks away and were driving through when we heard a shot...but we didn't know what had happened.."said Beverly.

"We just happened to see Donnie Ray and we stopped ."said Nelson.

''We found the shell Doc." said one of the crime scene investigators.. "It's a .22"said another man..

Two police cars drove up, facing in opposite directions...

Hazel, Olivia and Beverly sighed.. They knew that once again, Lt. Tragg was on the case.

Lt. Tragg got out of the car and walked up...

''What have we got here?" he said and looked at the corpse..

''Caucasion Male, 40 years old..cause of death, single gunshot wound to the heart..Bullet exited out his left shoulder blade.. One shell casing recovered... His name is Ari Kattan, he's the chef here..or rather he was.." said Hazel...

Lt. Tragg put on latex gloves and observed the bodies...He looked up at us..

"What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"We were dining here tonight..Me and my husband."said Olivia.

"My husband and I were dining down the street, We were driving through when we heard the shot." said Beverly..

"Yeah ,we heard the shot, but we didn't see a thing."said Nelson.

"A couple of people told me there was an altercation between him and someone in there...Did you witness that?" he asked.

"Some guy accused him of owing him some money..." said Olivia.

"He accused the guy of fooling around with his wife..There was a short altercation...It wasn't much of a fight..The Chef here handled his business and the guy left..." I said.

"I take it you don't have a name."asked Lt. Tragg..

"Nope....We were dining.."said Olivia.

Lt. Tragg smiled..

"You were dining...Well, I hope you at least enjoyed your meals.." he said and bowed..

"Good Night....HAZEL!!! you know the deal...Get me the Autopsy reports as soon as possible....Wrap him up!" he said.

The Body was loaded onto a gurney and packed into a Medical Examiner's Van..

Just another murder in the big city...

None of us had any idea that we were going to be involved in this case past tonight.

IV-

The next morning, we were all having coffee in our place..

We had all had a nice night, minus the murder..

''All in All last night was pretty good minus the murder." said Olivia as we sipped our coffee.

"Yeah, you know..I didn't want to talk about the altercation between the chef and that man ,because whoever killed him could have been someone else and for a different reason..."I said.

"And Lt. Tragg will arrest the wrong person. You know he will."said Beverly...

"Yeah, but it won't be our problem." said Nelson..

''We at least hope so." said Josie.

"Never a dull moment with you guys laughed Alfreda...

We sat in the conference room going over and filing away our previous cases....A normal day for us when not in court...

Our doorbell rang...

Alfreda answered the door..

"Good Morning Mam...Is Olivia Bennett- Alexander and Beverly West here?" asked the man.

"You look like you really need to see them.."Come on..Follow me." said Alfreda.

She walked him into our conference room..

"Olivia Bennett-Alexander, Mr. Donnie Ray Alexander...I saw you at the restaurant last night...I need your help... The Police are looking for me for Murder charges...They think I shot Ari Kattan, but I was miles away from there at the time..I need you to defend me..I can pay you...." said Malcolm Paltrow.