"Ouu Kevin, Why did you bring me here? This place gives me the creeps." said my wife Sepia....
"It'll just be a minute...I had some questions to ask the M,E., then we can go to lunch." I told her.
"Lunch? How can you think about eating after being in here?" she asked.
"Just wait out here in the waiting room...I'll be right back." I said.
''You're not leaving me alone in this ghoulish place." she said as she followed me, but once the door was opened and she saw several dead bodies lying on steel tables , she changed her mind.
"I think I will wait out here for you." she said. I looked at her and just shook my head. She was better than both Kool Kat and Clerow...I couldn't get them to even consider coming with me.
"The body is of a six month old infant male and it's been buried there at least 40 years..if not more..." said the Medical Examiner.
"Can you determine what caused the death?" I asked...
"No, not really...there isn't much left...and it's been so long." he said.
"Well the fact that the child was buried under that plant all this time smells like foul play." I said.
''Yeah, the police think so too, but there is no clue to say one way or another if this little boy was murdered or if he just died and someone disposed of him." said the M.E.
"Oh alright...Thanks Doc." I said.
With that..I left...Sepia and I got in the car and pulled off..
"So what did you find out?" she asked..
"Nothing...The bones have been buried under that plant for close to 40 years.." I said.
We had a brief lunch and then I dropped Sepia off at her job.....I next went to see , Attorney Robert Foxworth and his young Protoge', Chance Howard at their law offices.
"Well Kev...I did some research on that property.... Joseph "Icebox" Jones never really owned the property..
It was actually owned by one Dagg Hammerskold Sr." said Chance.
"Really? I've heard that name before ." I said.
"I can't see how you could have...He's been dead for over thirty years...He had a son...His son was married to a bi-racial woman... I saw a photo of her..she could have passed for white. Old man Hammerskold didn't know she was half black..but he hired a private eye to look into her background...When he found out she had a Black father and a white mother he damn near hit the ceiling.Needless to say,he wasn't pleased with that and did everything he could to break their marriage up." said Chance.
"So when or if he found out that Sonny boy was cheating on this wife with another Black woman, he must have hit the ceiling. Wow Chance, you really do good research..you ought to be in my business." I said.
"You think he knew about this other woman Kev? and the fact that she might have had his half black grandson? " asked Chance..
"I don't know...but I'll bet that sonny boy knew and I'll bet sonny boy knew that now he'd gone wayyy too far and had to bring the show to a close ." I said.
"It's all speculation Kev, but my guy in research came up with some dope on "Icebox " Jones, who ran the meat packing plant. He said that Joseph "Icebox " Jones, in addition to running a legitimate meat packing plant was quite a charactor...He sold Beer and Liquor illegally, had convictions for rum running and bootlegging and he ran numbers..had a conviction for that too." said Robert Foxworth...
"Really? sounds like a real hustler. Was he connected?" I asked.
"Was he?" said Robert Foxworth...."It was never proven...but there is a nasty little story on the streets that when the old gangsters rubbed somebody out....he kept the bodies in the back in a deep freezer ,until somebody came around to pick the body up and dispose of it.... It's been said that many a missing playa was dis-membered and disposed of in the back of that shop." said Robert Foxworth....
"So if he could make a grown man vanish into thin air...a little baby would be no problem." I said.
"Yeah Kev...I guess....But I was talking about gangsters, playas man....They wouldn't kill a child..." said Robert Foxworth as Chance looked on...
"No they wouldn't...but someone else...Someone close to the boss might need a child "disposed of..",especially if it was the illegitimate child of a woman whom his father definitely wouldn't have approved of." I said.
"Wow Kev...you're really running with this.." said Robert Foxworth..
"Nah, not really..everybody involved is dead...Icebox Jones, Cora Waters, Beauty Williams Hammerskold and old man Hammerskold." I said.
"No Kev...Not everyone....The son... Dag Hammerskold is still alive...Very much...He lives out on the mainline, he's a big time developer and Beauty Williams...She's no longer married to him , but is in an old folks home." said Chance as Robert Foxworth smiled.
"How about the private eye that old man Hammerskold hired?" I asked.
"He's still around...Retired though..His name is Burt Flowers." said Robert Foxworth.
"Him? I've heard of him.....I need to talk to him and Beauty Williams before I go to see
Dagg Hammerskold." I mused.
"Really? You got addresses?" I asked.
''Right here Kev , This is Hammerskold's business office and his home address and the facility where Beauty Williams lives,but none for Burt Flowers" he said.
''Kevin, why are you draggin all this mess up? It was years ago and you don't have any proof of what happened." said Robert Foxworth.
"I know...but a baby is dead...and his mother committed suicide because of it....and possibly...the person that killed that child is still alive and has to pay." I said.
"But you don't know that. This is all speculation based on what? A dream that Kool Kat had that frankly sounds so bizzarre ,I don't know if any of this makes any sense at all." said Robert Foxworth..
"No I don't...but I intend to try at least to find out. The remains of that baby are real Robert..That was no dream and as bizzarre as it sounds..Cora Waters did exist and killed herself..and she was involved with a white man, just like Kool Kat described in his dream" I said.
"Mannn this is some spooky mess here." said Robert Foxworth..who pulled out a bottle of Jameson's and took a swig...
"Indeed it is...but all of this ,all of this that I'm talking about is real and some answers need to be heard to the questions that are in the air." I said.
On a table in the medical examiners office were the bones, the lovely bones of a baby boy....Somebody had to speak for him I reasoned.
(To Be Continued.....)
