For Once we didn't have to go to someone...That Someone was coming to us.. That someone was Jeanette Billings, who I had already talked to... I had a feeling that Jeanette hadn't told me everything..So I called her and asked her to meet me here.
well Kayla is family and Jazzy was my girl.." said Beverly..
"I mean, Juanita defended Gladys Daye or repped her several times and from what you told me, It looked like it was Pro Bono.."said Nelson..
"They were friends from the neighborhood I suppose."said Josie.
"She came around our house only one time, when my aunt came to visit us...I remember that my mom didn't want her back in our house...I never knew the reason why...I was very young."said Bresha.
"Well we are going to get to the bottom of that today." I said.
'Thank Youuuuu, yessss, this is my husssssbanddd! Pleased to meet you Jeanette.I'm Olivia Bennett-Alexander." said Olivia.
"Hi Jeanette, Thank you for coming.." I said.
"Hi Jeanette! I'm Beverly West-East, Founding Partner and Associate Attorney." said Beverly.
''Hello Jeanette, "I'm Nelson East, Beverly's husband, an Associate Attorney." said Nelson.
"I'm Josie Boyd, Associate Attorney." said Josie.
"I just recently passed the bar....I'm an intern here..A paid intern.." said Bresha..
''We only have a little bit more information than the police finished with..We are hoping you can help us fill in the blanks, starting with Gladys Daye...Who was she?" asked Olivia.
"Did you ever hear her mention a Detective Phillip Marlowe?" I asked.
"Did they ever respond?" asked Olivia.
"WOWWWWWWW THAT WAS SOMEEE STORY!" said Beverly.
"INDEED! You could make a movie out of this." said Nelson.
"WOWWWW!" said Josie.
"All you guys needed was some popcorn huh?" said Bresha, laughing..
"Thank you Jeanette." I said.
"Yes, thank you." said Olivia.
"You're welcome....I hope you find out what happened to my friend....I'd like to know...Those two officers didn't come to a good end... In 2009, one of them, the one working in the Commissioner's office, walked in on his wife and another man in the bed...The man grabbed a .45 and blew him through the bedroom door, then shot the wife and turned the gun on himself...It was a mess.. Then in 2011, the other one was shot to death on a street corner... No one was ever arrested or charged in his murder.. A fitting end for two crooked cops."said Jeanette..
"Everything ends with this detective Phillip Marlowe, who is still on the force by the way....I believe he is in Homicide under your favorite guy and mine, Lt. Arthur Tragg, but I'm going to get to the bottom of this with him or without him.." I said.
"She got a call at 11:05 pm the night she died.. She was to meet Gladys Daye at the coffee shop they often met at...Somebody had to know that and to get to that Coffee Shop, she had to come over that bridge..."said Olivia.
''What if she set her life long friend up? Gladys ,I mean... She's the only one Juanita would get up that time of night for.."said Beverly...
"Phillip Marlowe busted her three times for drug possession with the intent to distribute, according to her police record and Defense Attorney, Juanita Townsend defended her and got her off every time...This must have pissed Marlowe off...Much the way we piss Lt. Tragg off everytime we get a person off he's arrested."said Nelson.
"It built up over the years...The animosity... And eventually he finds himself indicted and under investigation for serious charges... His Captain and his Lieutenant can't help him but so much...He might want to get rid of this thorn in his side once and for all.."said Josie.
"I plan to find out about that..." I said..
"So Nice to see you again Olivia...Beverly...guys."said Lt. Sissy Van Buren of the Criminal Investigation Division.
"We've got to come and visit with you guys...You don't live that far from us.."said Olivia.
"Yes...I think the last time we saw you was the party we gave for Josie and Hop when they passed the bar."said Beverly.
"That was a good time."said Nelson.
"Wow...that seems like a life time ago...That was fun..
"Thank you guys for doing me this solid.."I said..
"Yes thank you." said Bree..
" We found that Palm print and the latent fingerprint copy...They had that buried so very far back that it was a miracle it was found..but I found it."said Dr. Hazel Baylor, deputy Coroner and Forensic Investigator.
"I ran that palm print and those two latent finger prints through decks and Vicap and I didn't get a hit..but I sent them to Quantico and I'm running them through civil service files..I should have something for you in a few days...Liv I feel like I'm always doing your husband favors...He's going to be buying me drinks in Josie's for the rest of the year, joked Sharon...
"I know...Don't think we don't appreciate it.." said Olivia, hugging her law school friend..
"OUUUUUUUUUUWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" squealed Olivia as I pounded into her..
We wound up in the bed...Making sweet love for the next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!
Downstairs in Nelson and Beverly's apartment..
''Wow! I will always be grateful to you guys for finding out what happened to my aunt."said Bresha.
"Well we haven't found out yet, but we are getting closer.." said Beverly...
"There was a reason they didn't run those prints and that palm print on her car..And a reason they buried it."said Nelson..
"Even if it turns out my aunt's murderer is dead, at least I'll know what happened to her.."said Bresha.
Josie rubbed her back..
Their Beers arrived ...
"There is this private detective....You know him...The Pussy whipped husband of Olivia Bennett-Alexander...
Donnie Ray Alexander, He's been going around asking questions, Questions about a 15 year old cold case.... That bitch, Juanita Townsend that was trying to hem me and my boys up....He talked to uh the two Homicide detectives who were on the case and he's been over the M.E.'s office, looking at Autopsy reports and photos from it...and I hear he's been questioning a lot of people about it." said Detective Phillip Marlowe.
"A lot of people? Hell, I remember that case.. Practically everyone involved with that case is dead .."said Lt. Tragg.
"Welp, that's the doorbell, must be her."said Alfreda.
Jeanette Billips arrived...She looked good..Had her hair styled nice and had on hoop earings...
''Wellll Hello...Your husband said he was married to you Olivia...and I first I didn't believe him, but wowwwww...He really is and you and your niece have a great place here...wowwww!" she said.
"Oh My God!!! Bree?? Little Bresha?? You work here too?? Oh my god...I haven't seen you in years...I had seen your mom just before she passed and she told me you had started law school..That was three years ago..." said Jeanette..
"Oh My Goddd!!! Juanita would be sooo proud of you....You followed her into law...You're working with such distinguished lawyers...Awwwwww I could se her now....Ummph ummmph ummph.."said a smiling Jeanette Billips.
'' Which is why I'm trying to find out what happened to Juanita.. It's been 16 years and her murder remains unsolved... You told me she got a call that night from a Gladys Daye...at 11:05 pm and she got up and left...Now I know she repped Gladys Daye a number of times for Prostitution, Drug Possession, Running a house of ill repute et al..She appears to be a career criminal... Your friend helped her do a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.
This woman miraculously avoided jail on a number of occassions... She apparently was Juanita's project... And from what I have ascertained..She repped her pro bono.."I said..
"You've done a more thorough investigation in the short time you have been looking into this than those two doofus detectives who were originally on the case..They came around and talked to us twice...but that was it..They didn't seem like they cared too much about solving it and within a week, they were off the case...I called the Police department...They told me the case was still open but right now they didn't have anymore evidence.. It's been 16 years and they still don't have any evidence." said Jeanette...
"Sit Back...I gotta story to tell." said Jeanette.
II-
Beverly ,Nelson and Josie were like kids about to watch a movie...They gave Jeanette rapt attention...
Olivia and I and Alfreda smiled, observing them....
"Bree I uh hate telling you this about your aunt...but you're an adult now...You've finished college, you've finished law school...You can take it.. Your Aunt was a wonderful woman and in many ways ahead of her time..She was many things...Many things to many people...She was also Bi-sexual..."said Jeanette..
Bresha took it well...She shrugged.....
"No Biggie" she said.
"Gladys and Juanita met while they were both students at Masterman....Something happened between them there..They had some kind of conection...They uh maybe even fell in love I suppose... But by the time we all entered Girls High, that aspect of their relationship was over. At least it was for Juanita..
She began dating a boy from Central High... She even got pregnant....She got that taken care of though..
Gladys Daye began dealing drugs...First Marijuana and then later Opioids and Crack..She even had a crew of girls who sold for her...
We graduated together...and we all went our seperate ways...Juanita and I went to Howard University...
After we graduated...I got married..I returned to Philadelphia.. Juanita of course went to Howard Law school and passed the bar...
By the time Juanita and I saw each other again, I had had a miscarriage and had gotten divorced...Juanita on the other hand was big time..She returned to Philadelphia.. She started her own law practice after completing law school.
She was also very active in the civil rights movement here in Philadelphia. After participating in the co-ordination of the Million Man March and the marches in Philadelphia.
She rented voting machines and held classes to teach black residents how to vote for the candidate of their choice. She established the Independent Voters Association and was an active member of the Philadelphia Urban League and the NAACP Legal defense initiative..
She was making waves...First as a Defense Attorney and later as an Assistant District Attorney prosecuting police brutality cases specifically...The police, well certain police hated her guts..
She was engaged to a bright young Attorney, I forget his name now..and was living with him...
And then Gladys re-entered her life again.. Unlike us..Gladys hadn't done much with her life after high school, she worked as a cashier in a couple of stores, a waitress in a couple of restaurants and even a stripper in a few strip clubs and a bar maid in a few bars..
She started hanging around Juanita , a little too much and getting into trouble..one thing after another, the drug busts, the prostitution busts, the Chapter 13 et al... Her hanging around didn't help the relationship with Juanita and her fiance and he broke it off and put Juanita out..
Juanita came to live with me.. I had a boyfriend who semi-lived with me at the time.. Alan Tackett. He's dead now! Gladys came to visit us a few times...but she was a user, she was trying to hang on to Juanita however she could.. Whenever she got in trouble, Juanita was there to bail her out and keep her out of trouble..
Juanita got involved with another guy...He was an Assistant District Attorney, and later became a Judge..He's semi retired now, Jetty Dukes.
He wanted no part of Gladys and made that clear...Juanita was in love with him and she abided by his rules..
But Gladys was trouble...And she wouldn't go away! She owed a beautician some money and wanted Juanita to sue her...and the last night of Juanita's life she called there frantic.. Juanita didn't tell me where she was going...I went to bed...She told Alan she was going to meet Gladys....That's it...I never saw her alive again."said Jeanette.
"Yess...She wanted to bust him like nobody's business...He was the definition of rogue cop..He was a Narcotics cop.....He was rumored to bust the street dealers and then resell their product back on the street..
He had two rogue uniform officers "collecting "for him...He was like a loan shark...He shook down a lot of the small businesses....If they didn't pay they got an arm or a leg or a collar bone broken or arrested on some trumped up charge... Marlowe had been making a small fortune off of his graft....Everybody knew about it.. On the street and other cops...but nobody did anything about it.. Well Juanita was going to do something about it.. She put Marlowe and his two corrupt stooges on blast!!! That was the case she was working on when she died..She couldn't get any co-operation from Lieutenant and Captain Tragg, so just before she was murdered..She sent a letter to the FBI, asking them to intervene.."said Jeanette.
"No and she was murdered two days after she sent the request.... My guess is that Captain Tragg told them that he had the matter under control and they backed off...All I know is that charges were dropped against Marlowe, and the two officers afterwords...They were given desk jobs...One in records and another in the Commisioners office and Marlowe first went to the Marine Unit for a year and then back to Homicide..At any rate, there was no more shakedowns.. Although dead, Juanita had put a stop to that...She was a Queen...I loved her!"said Jeanette.
"I told you, your auntie was sharp baby!"said Alfreda.
"WOWWWWWWWW! This story sure has some legs on it!!!So Ms. Jeanette...Whatever happened to Gladys Daye?" asked Bree.
"She was never the same after Juanita died...She paid that Beautician $1000.00 that she owed her and she spent the next few years high and drunk...She'd get so high that the bartenders would toss her out.
She used to call me, drunk and high and just say..."I'm sooo sorry...I'm sooo sorry....I loved Juanita, this should have never happened to her.." I asked her what happened to her.. but she'd never answer, she'd just blubber and cry on the phone.
On August 4th 2009, they found her in her apartment, dead of an apparent overdose...Almost the fourth anniversary of Juanita's death."she said..
She looked at Bresha.."But Juanita would be so proud of you baby!"she said..
III-
"It's not impossible...He may have followed her, had her followed and knew about the relationship between her and Gladys....$2500.00 was deposited into her account the very next day after the murder..and she paid off her debt to the Beautician...The debt she was going to fight in court..My question is, where did that money come from?
"And what about that palm print and that fingerprint on the car?" asked Beverly...
We all went over to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Division..
"I wasn't a cop when Juanita Townsend was murdered but I remember that case."said Detective Carlotta Wallace,.
"I remember it and to tell you the truth...I always thought a cop killed her...I never liked Jack Tragg or Arthur Sr...and I don't put anything past them...They were rats..."said Detective Tyriq Pile.
"Tell us how you really feel Rico."laughed Detective James "Jimmy" Barlow.
"Lt. Tragg is pretty bad...but I don't think he's corrupt and brutal like his father and his uncle were...I wasn't a cop when they were running things...Thank God."said Detective Sirena Pile.
"Yeah I wasn't a cop either...I was going to become a lawyer...It was only later I became a cop...To make ends meet.."said Hop..
"And look at you today...You've made all of your dreams come true."said Detective Angie Belton-Barlow.
"Donnie Ray, you did a great job, a great investigation....You might just get to the bottom of this. Here comes Hazel and Sharon.." said Duke Baylor.
IV-
''You Happy now husband?" asked Olivia. We were at home now, relaxing
"I sure am....We've finally gotten farther than the original detectives.. They never checked those fingerprints...or that palm print...Had they of done that, this murder might have been solved sooner..
I'm going to the bank tomorrow to find out where that money came from that wound up in Gladys Daye's account."I said..
''Wellllll you're getting somewhere...Let's celebrate!" she said, smiling.
I smiled...and pulled her to me..
"You know...I love you.." I said..
"I know that....How can you not? I'm irresistable.." she laughed in between slow, sloppy kisses...
"Yessssssssss indeeeed!." I moaned..
She giggled..
I slowly slipped her thong off..
I slowly entered her and picked her up...
"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU MYYYYYYYYY GOOODNESSSS....OUUUUUUUU
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" she moaned.
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH OLIVIAAAAAAA!" I moaned..I was feeling so good..
Olivia sat on top of me...moving up and down...
"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU DONNIE RAYYYY! MYYYY GOODNESSS!"moaned Olivia..
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOD LAWD YOU FEEL SO GOOD!" I said and she did, she was so soft, smelled so good...
Downstairs in Nelson and Beverly's apartment..
"If anyone will get to the bottom of this, Donnie Ray will." said Josie.
"Yeah, sure enough."said Paris.
At Curley's Bar...
Detective Phillip Marlowe is talking to Lt. Arthur Tragg
"I'm so glad to talk to you Artie...Your old man and your uncle would be proud of you , making Lieutenant and all...Sorry about your troubles with these damn lawyers...I hate lawyers...Especially activist lawyers.." he said.
"Yeah Phil , well what are you gonna do huh? It's a different world...Everybody's got rights" said Lt. Tragg..
"It's a lot of nonsense Artie.. Your pops and your uncle are dead even...They shut it down . They saw that it was going nowhere...There was no evidence..Not enough evidence to charge anybody...They shut it down....Now after all this time...He is asking questions and digging into it again..." said Detective Marlowe.
"What are you worried about? It's been 15 years....The case is as cold as ice.. Practically everybody involved is dead....There are no witnesses, He's got bupkis...Relax Phil." said Lt. Tragg.
''Talk to him Artie...Lean on him a bit...In the old days , your Uncle Jack and your old man would have shut him down hard...They'd of snatched his license in a heartbeat...Might have beat his ass for good measure..heh heh heh...I loved old Captain Jack...He took care of me." laughed Phil Marlowe...
Her doting husband, Donnie Ray...who is usually right by her side, sniffing her panties practically! That's what he was doing...Investigating this., but why? They took the perp to court...He pleaded guilty....The Judge gave him a fine and let him go..A Slap on the wrist." said Lt. Tragg.
"I'll talk to him...I wondered where he was yesterday.... I popped some clown, Came in Sam Mother's Drunk as a skunk and naked as the day he was born...Turns out he's some fancy dan lawyer who got pissy drunk at some fancy party and walked out naked..I popped him , guess who shows up..Auntie and Neicy and two of her cohorts..
Guess who was missing?
"Some world we live in huh Artie.. Not your dad or your Uncle's world.They'd of taken that naked guy down a back alley and tuned him up first, then let him plead guilty." he laughed... "That was the old way." he said. He then changed back to the subject of this old case..
"I think I know why. they're so hot on this. . Olivia and crew...They don't care..None of em were even lawyers yet...They're too young....Have you noticed another person with them ? A pretty little thing..." asked Detective Phillip Marlowe.
He was talking about Bresha Williams.
"Yeah, she's some kind of intern....Olivia told me that she just passed the bar and would be interning with them for a little while...."said Lt. Tragg.
"She's the niece of Juanita Townsend.. She was a little girl when Townsend bought it....She's grown up now and she probably sang some sob story about how she wants to know what happened to her auntie..An Auntie she could never know. Talk to her, Impress upon her that it's best to let sleeping dogs lie.."said Detective Phillip Marlowe.
"I'll do what I can Phil." said Lt. Tragg.
"Good...Good Job Artie...You're a good kid...Your Old Man and Your Uncle would be proud."said Detective Phillip Marlowe.
(CONCLUSION NEXT)
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