VENTURES: A Clear And Present Threat

A nice fall afternoon....A Tony Rooftop Bar and Grille- A rare afternoon when neither Sean ,nor I was with our wives...

"I'm so glad I got you ladies out with me this afternoon..."said Natika Sommers , the new director of the Public Defenders Office,.

"It's nice to get out...Just me and Nat...I kinda miss that sometimes."said Brooke.

"Well we live next door to one another and we see each other every day, all day...Wde are closer than close..We just share that time with so many others."said Natalie with a smile.

"Not to mention Husssssssbands..."laughed Natika..

Their drinks arrived...

"Ummmmmm these are delicious." said Brooke..

"Ummmmmmmmmmm Yess..." said Natalie.

"Ladies while I'm here....let me run a case by you...a recent case... A guy named Alex Williams.. a Black kid.. convicted of murdering..a teacher...an attractive young white schoolteacher at his boarding school.. He confessed to the murder...and was convicted, sentenced to death....He is 17.,.Tried as an adult.. He has since recanted...Saying a confession was beaten out of him... he wasn't arrested by Lt. Tragg, but by another cop, Lt. Chris Curtis, a notorious detective with a number of brutality complaints against him......He's a beast...He's been sent to the Marine Boat as many if not more times than Lt. Tragg. He is a clear and present threat. said Natika.

"Hmmmmmm that seems right up our alley."said Brooke.

"Tell us more.." said Natalie.

"I did a little research on my own....that Mr. Williams' implication in the murder was racially motivated and inconsistent with the crime scene details, and that the real perpetrator of the murder may have been the schoolteacher's own abusive ex-husband. Following a posthumous review of her murder,

The School Teacher, Vida Ulek ,worked at the Boarding Schools alongside Fred Ulek, a math instructor who, according to contemporaneous news reports, was her husband; later research by my investigator,revealed that the Ulek were actually divorced before the killing on the grounds of Fred Ulek's " jealousy and extreme cruelty" and domestic abuse towards Vida.

Early reports of Mrs. Ulek's killing claimed that Fred Ulek, misidentified as her husband, returned home from work on October 3rd 2024, and stumbled across the crime scene. He alerted police afterwards, who arrived to find Robare lying in her bed, partially clothed, with over 35 stab wounds in her chest, a fractured skull, and two broken ribs. There was a man's bloody hand print on a nearby wall, ostensibly belonging to the killer.

The handprint was photographed by the Pennsylvania State Police and examined by two local fingerprint experts, but it was never mentioned again, or seen either at trial or in contemporary newspaper accounts." said Natika.

"Girlfriend...We've got to bring this up to Karen tomorrow." said Natalie.

"Thanks for putting us on to it..."said Brooke..

Karen had been busy lately...Speaking of Lt. Chris Curtis....

12 boys who had been beaten by him into confessing to crimes and convicted had been recanting their confessions...

Jessica , Chip and their new attorney , Matthew Akes began looking into these cases...

They used Yvette Jones Lockwood and her attorneys, Keith, Bee Bee, Sofia, Kahlil and Jade to help them with six of the cases, which they got acquittals for..

and she used Olivia Bennett-Alexander, Beverly West, Nelson East,Josie Boyd and Bresha Billips with Donnie Ray Alexander to help with the other six boys..winning acquittals also..

Natalie, Myself ,Brooke and Sean all worked with both groups to bring these cases to trial..

None of these cases were Murder Cases...They were Robbery, Burglary, Assault...But this case Natika was talking about was not only murder but a Capital Case...

This Man, who ironically enough was still on the Philadelphia Police Department...Lt.Chris Curtis,

needed to be prosecuted....

"Now that bit of business taken care of...I think Lester is close to popping the question."said Natika.

"Ouuuuuuuu girl for real?" said Natalie.

"You two were pretty cozy in the NO ID BAR a couple of weeks ago..."said Brooke.

''And he even went shopping with us girls when we went to Bayside Mall also."said Natalie.

"For the past two weeks , he's been practically living with me....His suits are in the dry cleaners around the corner from me and he's done his laundry in the laundromat in my building's basement...and he can't keep his hands off of me...always hugging me and kissing me...I'm loving the attention."said Natika.

"Well we've got to get you to Bridget's shop to buy you some more things to keep him interested." said Natalie, laughing..

"Works for me."laughed Brooke.

The women continued laughing and drinking....and Natika drove them both home...

II-

THAT NIGHT AT HOME!

"Hi Baby! Glad to be home." said Natalie.

"Did you have a good time?" I said.

"Well yeah...we had good drinks...Me and You have to go there to this bar and grille...In fact our whole group needs to go."said Natalie..

"Ouuuuu I look forward to that. You kind of tipsy? "I asked..

"Why? You think if I am, I'm horny right?"asked Natalie...

"Just asking, is all." I said.

"Well to answer your question......I am a little horny." she said and smiled.

"Oh me too!...I'm as horny as hell." I said.

"You always are when you're alone with me." said Natalie.

"It's nice that we both are." I said.

I unsnapped her bra...

"See?" she said.

"OHHH MY GODDDDDDD!" I said.. She looked so sexy.....

"Look at youuuuuuu...OUUUUUUUUUUU!" laughed Natalie ,softly fondling me....

and slipped her panties off...

"You've got my clothes off and my underwear is following." she giggled.

"Yeah, how about that?" I said. "MYYYYYYYY GOOODNESS!!! Damnnn girl, you look good!" I said, just looking at her.

We stood in the middle of the floor naked for a minute, saying nothing...

"I love you David."she whispered.

"I love you too Natalie. I'm so turned on I can't think straight" I whispered to her..

"It's okay......It's okayyyyyy!" she said sweetly....

I picked her up and slowly parted her legs and entered her warm wet center.....Her body once again trembled and her head moved from side to side...She held on to me for dear life...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU HUSBAND!" she cried out..

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW LAWWWWWWD!" I moaned...

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM DAVID...IS IT GOOD TO YOU? IS IT GOOD TO YOU BABY?" she screamed as I thrusted away...

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS....OH YESSSSSSSS!" I practically screamed.

I laid her on the bed and parted her legs....She was so wet and so warm and smelled so good that I was delirious...

I couldn't get enough of Natalie and she couldn't get enough of me...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUU SWEET HUSBAND!!! OUUUUUUUUUUU!" she cooed softly...

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWW LAWWWWWWWD!" I cried out...

We weren't doing a lot of moaning and cooing...but we were really going at each other...Natalie had her arms wrapped around my neck and her legs wide open and wrapped around my back...

She was having an intense orgasm! She wasn't speaking but she was smiling broadly....and her body was trembling....

"Is it good to you? Is it good to you baby?" she whispered..

"YES...YES!" I cried out..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUU, UMMMMMMMMMM! I'M GlADDD! OUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH....DAVID.....OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"Natalie finally moaned loudly.....She was having another intense orgasm!!!!

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM NATALIE....YOU ARE DRIVING ME CRAZY!" I cried out..

"YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY! THIS IS WHY YOU'RE MY HUSBAND!! OUUUUUUUUUU OH MY GOD!!! THIS IS WHY YOU'RE MY SWEET MANNNNN" she said...."OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned. Her body trembled and her head turned from side to side...Tears streamed down the side of her face...

We made love for the next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!

Ending our night with Natalie lying on top of me, breathing heavily.....

"Look at you...Big smile on your face.." she said..

I continued to smile as she lay her head on my chest....I wrapped my arms around her back...

She snuggled in the crook of my arms...

"I'm glad I make you happy." she whispered and smiled at me....

"I'm glad you do too!" I whispered as we both dozed off.

Next Door at Brooke and Sean's house..

''I 'm a little tipsy..."said Brooke.

"I figured you might be....." said Sean laughing.

"Well let's get undressed and get in the bed" said Brooke,smiling.

"Ouuuuu listen at you....I was just going to suggest that.." said Sean,

"I know you were...I saw that bulge in your trousers...." laughed Brooke.

"Kinda hard to hide it sometimes..."laughed Sean...

"You never hide it...At least not from me..." said Brooke, smiling..

She took him into her arms and kissed him passionately....

"EXACTLY!" he said.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Brooke you drive me mad!"said Sean....

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu good, that means I'm doing my job..." she said.

"AWWWWWWWWW LAWWWWD!" he exclaimed.

Brooke giggled.

"I'm taking your clothes off."said Sean..

"I'm not resisting.." she whispered as they continued to kiss.

Sean slowly unsnapped her bra...

and slipped her panties down...

"Oh My God Sean, you are so hard....ouuuuuuu and so big! Ummmmmm" moaned Brooke..

He spread her legs and entered her slowly....She was wet and warm and smelled good...He was delirious...

OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!! WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she cooed.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! LAWDDDDDDDDDDD! BROOKE!" he moaned...

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH MYYYYYYY GODDDDDD!!OUUUUUUUUUUU
WOUUUUUUUUU!" she screamed. Tears flowed down her cheeks!

Her body trembled and she had a quick almost embarrassing orgasm....

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.LAWWWWWWWWWWD BROOKE, MY SWEET VANILLA!!!" he moaned.

The bed squeaked loudly and the headboard rattled....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! CHOCOLATE DADDY!!!" she moaned..

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HUSBAND! OUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned.

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"he moaned loudly...

"Chocolate Daddy ,I'm about to cummm....OUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"

"OHHHHHHHHHHH BROOKIE...SO AM I....AWWWWW LAWWWWWD!" he yelled out.

They made love for EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!

Brooke ended her night resting on top of Sean......

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU HUSBAND!!!! UMMMMM!" she moaned.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH BROOKE!" he moaned.

A Nice night for us....

III-

The Next Morning we sat in our conference room...Drinking coffees and talking..

''So you talked to Natika and she told you about the Alex Williams case..We knew about it a week ago..but we were busy with those 12 other cases... All of these cases were teen aged boys who were racially profiled by this guy, Lt. Lt. Chris Curtis... over a period of years. We thought we had cleaned up his record , but here is this case from last year..."said Karen.

"This boy is on death row....This is the most serious of the cases."I said.

"I want to attack this case right away." said Karen..

"Wilbur Patch was the original prosecutor..."said Natalie.

"I worked with him once.. He was more interested in what color panties and bra I was wearing than the case."said Brooke.

"Hmmmm that seems to be a thing with men who work with you." joked Sean..

"Yourself included ." said Brooke...

"But you married him!" laughed Natalie...

"Yeah, I did." said Brooke, playfully swatting at her husband..

Sean laughed,," In all seriousness..I think that Williams' implication in the murder was racially motivated and inconsistent with the crime scene details,some of which have mysteriously vanished. and that the real perpetrator of the murder may have been Vida's abusive ex-husband. he was questioned only once and was never even called to testify during the trial. He bares some looking into. He's A Clear and Present Threat!" said Sean.

"We are going to have to take on this case ourselves....Olivia and Beverly are already working on another case and so in Yvette and her team....And I think, Jessica and Chip are also working on something." said Karen..

"We can handle it...That's why we are here." I said and we all laughed and had our coffees..

"Mr. Williams is at Phoenixville's death row....Get up there to see him tomorrow...While I look for a judge in an appellate court to hear our appeal." said Karen.

IV-

THE OFFICE OF H.STANLEY STANLISON-

''What do you want me to do? I have no case against the City of Philadelphia, who you work for ,or the attorneys from the D.A.'s Office, who plan to re-open this case......" said Attorney H.Stanley Stanlison..

"Look ,they are trying to ruin my life...Some of those cases were 10-9 years old....Those twelve boys had all served their time and been released...and and this Wrongful Conviction/Conviction Integrity unit brought the cases back up and got the verdicts reversed and a lot of heat on me... Now they're opening up another case...and there is a lot of heat on me...I'm up for a promotion to Captain..."said Lt. Chris Curtis.

"Again...What can I do? They are taking a second look at a case.....If it was a good collar....You got nothing to worry about.."said H.Stanley Stanlison.

"I thought the other 12 were good collars....Those were career criminals...If those boys weren't guilty of what I busted em for...surely they had done something else or was going to do something else."said

Chris Curtis.

"I looked at all 12 cases... All of them were out of prison within six years and of the 12 boys , only one of them went back to prison and he was released after two years... All 12 boys were cleared of the charges you brought up on them and like I said...Only the one who went back to prison has a criminal record. They've all been clean.." said H.Stanley Stanlison..

"They used a lot of outside lawyers to make these cases...Olivia Bennett-Alexander and her niece, Yvette Jones and those four snot nose kid lawyers and some Innocence Project lawyers...rabble rousers, can't you do something?" he asked.

"What do you want me to do?" asked H.Stanley Stanlison.

"Nothin....Nothin" said Chris Curtis.

That night he drove up into the neighborhood his perceived enemies lived in... He stuck his neck in a predominately Black bar where they hung out...

Josie's Bar and Grille-

A Band was playing.....

Naturally, the place was packed...This being a Saturday Night...

Drinks flowed a plenty... We drank and listened to the music...

"This band is nice...isn't it? And we weren't going to come out tonight."laughed Jazzy.

"I'm glad we did....What a musical treat..."said her husband, Dabnis.

"Josie's always was and still is the best place to hang out."said Kayla.

"Yeah, it is...."said Ray..

"Now if they could have a couples night, comparable to Curleys.." said Jessica.

"Yeah, that would be the shot." said her husband, Chip.

Karen Page was embroiled in a deep conversation with a young white woman that no one seemed to know but her..

Her husband, B.L. looked on.

"I thought all of Boss Lady's friends were Black or people of color."laughed Natalie.

"Oh come on...you'd have to figure she knows more people than us...After all ,she's not Brookie." I joked.

"The folks I used to know, you don't want to know and they don't want to know me anymore."said Brooke.

Her husband, Sean, put his arms around her and squeezed her... "Friendship knows no color...it just is." he said softly...

"That's right and you guys are the best friends anybody could have." said Brooke, who always felt comfortable and safe amongst all of us.

"AWWWWWWWWWW That's such a sweet sentiment." said Zoey,kissing Brooke on the cheek.

Her husband, Lem smiled...

"I really like this band....They're the best band that's come through here in awhile."said Renee.

"Well we haven't been here in awhile to know." said Tyrell.

Lee rested her head on Matthew's shoulders...

"Nice Night huh?" she asked him.

"It is..Nice Band, Good drinks, Mellow night." said Matthew.

"Having a good time?" Zoey asked her husband, Carlos..

"Anytime is a good time when I'm with you." said Carlos.

"Awwwwwwwww that's so sweet." said Yvette.

"Hey how about when we leave...We all go to Jakes and get one of his fabulous hot dogs?" said her husband, Gary.

"That's a good idea." said Keith Jones.

"We are going to fill that place up tonight."said Bee Bee.

"They should have been serving food...Shrimp Baskets, Barbecued Chicken and Shrimp.."said Sofia.

"Yeah they should have been." said Kahlil.

"They stiil might."said Jade.

"Glad you're so optimistic..."laughed her husband, Danny...

"Ouuu Look...Somebody heard you...Here it comes." said Virginia.

"Just what the doctor ordered." said Jetty...

And just like that ,Shrimp Baskets and Barbecued Chicken Wings were place on the table for the hungry customers.

"Ouuuu look Shrimp Baskets and Wings." said Olivia.

"I was just going to suggest we go to Jakes after we left here."said Donnie Ray.

"Doesn't look like we'll have to."said Beverly.

"No we won't." said Nelson , who was already munching on a fried shrimp.

"Didn't I just say that they should have been serving food...Shrimp Baskets, Barbecued Chicken and Shrimp.."said Josie.

"Looks like they heard you." said Paris...

"I didn't think it would be like them to have a band here tonight and no food."said Bresha.

"Yeah I didn't either."said Tony....

"Ummmmmmmmmmm let me get at that chicken."said Alfreda.

"That Shrimp looks good." said Rockland.

"So this is the neighborhood they all live in and this is where they hang out." thought Lt. Chris Curtis

He had scanned the neighborhood..He knew where we all lived. "I remember when there was nothing up here but empty warehouses and trash filled fields of grass...Now all of that is gone, New Houses, New Lofts, New Condos, New Apartment complexes, Three shoppin malls, a Movie Theatre and several Bars and Clubs as well as restaurants....Nice area... and all these lawyers and young people have gobbled it up." he thought to himself.

Even though he wasn't the only white person in here, He still felt like a fish out of water..

He also saw some of his police colleagues... Lt. Sissy Van Buren and the detectives of the Criminal Investigative Division...He certainly didn't want any parts of them.

"Is that Lt. Chris Curtis over there?" asked Sissy.

"Yeah it is." said Carlotta.

"What's he doin, slumming? I never thought of this as his type of place." said Tyriq..

"It's not! He's up to something or searching for someone."said Jimmy.

"He's in a lot of hot water....Internal Affairs is looking into him hard....12 of his collars were overturned."said Sirena..

"Not to mention there is a 13th one that is being looked at a serious case."said Hop.

"He's up for Captain I heard.."said Duke.

"He might not get it...and talk is..he could be brought up on charges for making so many false arrests."said Angie.

"Not to mention Obstruction of Justice...I heard a lot of the evidence in those 12 cases mysteriously vanished and the jury never saw it." said Sharon Hopkins.