Kool Kat sat at my kitchen table holding his head down....Sepia felt sorry for him...She poured him a tall tumbler of cold water and dropped two alka seltzers in it...
"Here Walter...this will settle your stomach ,make you feel better." she said.
I was sitting across from him..
"You don't look well man...You aint been sleepin?" I asked.
"I try to go to sleep Kev...But that woman, she just keeps haunting me...She's in my dreams..Tellin me that I'm close...that I'm almost there..to dig deeper." he said.
I couldn't believe any of this conversation....Just like that ,I was sorry I asked. I was sorry I was involved in such a dead end case...Dagg Hammerskold had not answered any of my calls...I had left about ten messages..I was pretty sure he had gotten them....Listening to him was getting us nowhere...A week had gone by and all we heard was business talk and a few calls to a few women..Not one thing that showed he was even concerned about the dead baby found on his property.
Following him and snapping photos of him had also proved fruitless...The man's life was pretty routine...He got up, he got a newspaper, went to a coffee shop, then went to his downtown offices, then maybe to the barbershop or the market and then out to the strip clubs or other erotic playrooms and massage parlors in the area..I was going to have to take a more direct approach.
"Kev..?" asked Kool Kat.
"Yeah man." I answered..
"How come she's not in your dreams?" he asked with all the seriousness in the world...
"I can't say." I said...but I quietly thought..Maybe it was because I refused to believe this nonsense. Gus had cautioned me though..."Kid, there are some things that happen in this world that just can't be explained..."
True enough..Like where was Clerow with the rental car? I had told him to rent a car because I didn't want this guy getting a line on me..
"Kevin...Clerow just called..He's outside with the car." said my wife, Sepia.
"It's about time." I said...I kissed Sepia and looked over at Kool Kat...
"You comin big man?" I asked.
"Of course." he said as he slowly got up....
"Be Easy Walter." said Sepia...
''All the time baby."he said as we got into Clerow's rental car.
II-
"Sharp Ride Clerow" said Kool Kat as he checked his gun...
"Thanks man." he laughed as he took the wheel.
"I don't think you'll need that." I said.
"You never know...Lojack aint no joke." said Kool Kat.
Lojack was Thomas Lojack, a six foot five, 250 pound nasty piece of business who was Dagg Hammerskold's driver/bodyguard...He drove him to work, to the strip clus and around Philadelphia. He was a feared enforcer for Big Daddy, Wally Gator, The Diaz Brothers and several other big time playas...He was well known and well feared...I took that into account...Which was why I brought my "muscle" along with me.
When we got to the house, I had Clerow park the car a block away...I told him to circle the block every now and then..Kool Kat and I walked to the house and rang the doorbell.
To my surprise...Dagg came to the door...He was much shorter than I suspected...He may have loved Black women...but it was quite obvious that he had little love for Black males...or maybe it was just me.
"What do you want?" he scowled.
"Just a minute of your time." I said.
"Do I even know you?" he asked.
"No, you don't...I'm a private investigator.....The remains of a small baby were found underneath your property a few weeks ago..." I said.
"Former property...I sold it..." he snapped..
"Yes...but your dad owned it at the time of demolition and from what I have ascertained...Your dad and the gentleman, a Mr. Jones...were involved in some pretty shady affairs...and not only that...You, my friend were-" I said before he cut me off.
"I been over this with the cops...I don't know nothin about no dead baby or how it got there....I don't have to talk with you and this conversation is over." he snapped.
"IT WAS YOUR BABY WASN'T IT?" I shouted..."Now if you don't want your neighbors to hear the whole sordid story about you and Cora Waters, you'll let me inside and we'll talk like gentlemen." I continued with a smile on my face. Dagg laughed...
''Lojack...Help these mooks to their car." he said...
''With pleasure" he said...
He was huge....Before Kool Kat could do anything...A smaller guy who we didn't see pulled a gun and stuck it to his neck...
Lojack, a huge hulk of a man came rushing at me...He had brass knuckles on his left hand...I couldn't allow him to hit me...One punch and it would be all over...I dodged and I ducked and he kept swinging....Dagg stood back and laughed...
Lojack swung at me again and missed...I cracked him in his jaw..then I landed several lefts and rights to his mid-section..He grunted and I landed several more lefts and rights to his jaw..I spun and landed a perfectly placed kick to his jaw that sent him flying backwards and down on the ground...
He leaped up and charged at me..I dodged a few more of his wild swings...I got up under him and landed a few more well placed lefts and rights to his mid section and his solar plexus...I could hear him grunt and see that he was out of breath...I then cracked him in the jaw again and sent him sailing towards the side of the house..
He charged me yet a third time...Kool Kat took his elbow and cracked the man holding the gun on him right at the bridge of his nose...the man fell down and dropped his gun..Kool Kat picked the gun up...There was no need for him to worry about the gunman..He was out like a light..Lojack swung at me again and missed and broke the window of Daggs limo completely...I cracked him two more times in his jaw and Kool Kat cracked him just once and it was lights out!!! Lojack fell to the ground , out for the night!!!
The snarky smile on Dagg's face was gone...That's because Clerow had a .45 in the small of his back...
"You don't know who you're screwin with " he said.
"Oh, I do know....a guilty man... a child killer...but, I can't prove it..So we are gonna go now.." I said.
''What?" said Kool Kat.
"Let's go guys...If his conscience doesn't bother him..well then Cora will." I said.
"Cora...Cora? She's dead." He said.
"Yeah? Well she seemed pretty alive to me...How do you think I got on your trail." I said.
"You didn't see Cora..." he screamed.
"She told me to tell you...she wants her baby back." I said with a smile . I motioned for Clerow to let him go and the three of us walked down the street...Dagg walked back into his house...He left Lojack on the lawn,still asleep..as well as his other gunman...Incredible.
III-
I knew after the ruckus we brought at Dagg's house , it wouldn't be long before the conversation at Dagg's house would get a tad more interesting...It did...
Peeping Tom called me just a few days later.
"Kevin...I want you to listen to this.." he said...He looked worried..
"Hello."
"Hey, this is Dagg.."
"Heyy Dagg, how you doin?"
"Hey listen...I got a problem...a problem that calls for your expertise.."
"Ohhhhhh."
"Yeah...some guy...a private detective and some of his goons came by my house the other night...asking questions...questions about things long since buried..you know?"
"I see, about the bones found in that lot huh? Why didn't you clean that up before they started digging?"
"To tell you the truth...I didn't know they were there...I told Icebox to get rid of the body after I drowned the kid...I didn't know he buried the kid there...hell it was 40 years ago..."
" Yeah, well your old man would have disowned you if he had known that you had a kid with a black chick...he was already upset that your wife was half and half."
"Yeah, well that's water under the freakin bridge....It's been 40 years...Nobody has been talkin about it and I would like to keep folks from talkin about it...Icebox got to runnin his mouth, got to feelin guilty about buryin a child and we had to shut him up remember?"
"Yeah, what a hypocrite...as many bodies as he dismembered and froze for us...back in the day..and he gets spooked about a 6 month old baby....I hated shooting him..he was a delightful old coot."
''Yeah, well I want you to shoot this P.I., his name is Kevin Morris,He hangs out in Josie's..."
"Gus's spot?"
"Yeah... "
"You got a picture of him?"
"Lojack will point him out."
"It's as good as done."
"Good...do it soon..I don't want him shootin his mouth off to too many people."
"Okay."
(Click)
"Hmmm...Not the first time I've had a contract on me." I said.
"Yeah Kev..but this guy...he's different...We traced the call...It's out of Atlantic City..His name is Jack, Jack Killigen...He's real good..works quietly..no fuss, no muss..very efficient...He's a suspect in some 22 murders, contract hits..no convictions, no indictments..he's known on the street as "The Quiet man". said Lockpick Johnson.
"Watch your back Kevin." said Peeping Tom
"I will....and good lookin out." I said.
IV-
That night in my living room, I told Kool Kat about the tape recording I had that put Dagg in , not only for the murder of his own child, but also for Icebox Jones..
"We got him baby....we got him...for a double..." I said.
"Yeah man, but he's got a contract out on you." said Kool Kat.
"I'm not worried about that." I said.
"Well you ought to..The 'Quiet man' aint no joke." he said.
"He killed "Icebox Jones" I said.
"Yeah and he's killed a lot of others too...but don't worry, I got you covered." said Kool Kat.
" What do you mean by that?" I asked.
"A lot of things , you'd be better off not knowing Kev...Ya feel me?" said the Big Man.
"Okay." I said.
"Now get some sleep." he said.
"Me get some sleep? How about you?" I asked.
"Oh I'm going to sleep good tonight." laughed Kool Kat....
(Conclusion Next!)
