The Fall of Gild City 1-8

The Fall of Gild City
Series1, Part 8

Gild City- Downtown
Gild City Police Department
10:10 am

 

Sitting at his desk Detective Jeremy Hawk was in the process of tracking down Jackson’s brother, Kevin. Checking the criminal database was a dead end. Kevin Graham had no priors. He didn’t even have a speeding ticket. Jeremy sat back deep in thought as Clyde came sliding into his chair across from him. In his hand he held a fresh cup of coffee. The aroma was enough to bring Jeremy back. He looked at Clyde as he took a sip.

“I guess you figured I wouldn’t want any coffee,” Jeremy remarked.

“Want some,” Clyde asked holding his cup up. Jeremy just gave a smirk. “I thought as much. So, anything on Kevin Graham?”

“Not yet. His record is squeaky clean. Doesn’t even have a speeding ticket.”

“A regular boy scout I see. How about his nephew Luther?”

“Now you know I can’t do all the work. I’m going to use Jackson as my source point to track down his brother. I’m sure if I look into Jackson I’ll find Kevin.”

“While you do that I’m thinking a visit to Luther’s past is in order. I’ll pull up what I can on him and see if there’s anything there.”

“Good deal. First one to finish buys lunch,” Jeremy said.

“Oh you’re on,” Clyde smiled and then went to work.

After having spent nearly twenty-five minutes eyeball deep in research Clyde pulled a rap sheet on Luther. While he did have some expectation of finding something, he had no clue he’d be holding pages and pages of passed priors. On Jeremy’s part, Kevin was finally tracked to an address on the northeast side of the city.

“Done,” Jeremy exclaimed.

“No, no, no, no,” pleaded Clyde.

“Sorry, you lost so you’re paying for lunch,” Jeremy gloated.

“Fine, fine. You won fair and square. What did you find,” Clyde asked still pulling pages off the printer next to their cubicle.

“Kevin Graham, 58 year old African-American male, one brother who is now deceased, still married and one child. Lives at 4909 Maple Drive. Your turn.”

“Luther Graham, 31 year old African-American male, wife and only child are deceased, was self employed as a contractor but no name of the business, and he has a list of priors the length of the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, maybe not but it’s a long list.”

Just then Jeremy heard his coat ringing. He reached behind him where he retrieved the phone out of the coat pocket. He took a quick glance at the caller id and noticed it was from the coroner. Sliding the phone open he pointed to it and mouthed who was calling to Clyde.

“Hello.”

“It’s Nigel Stokes from the city morgue. We just got done processing the body from that car fire out by the old steel mills. I gotta say, it was pretty badly burned. A positive ID is next to none but we did find a partially charred photo of a woman in the wallet.”

“Not to worry. We know who it is. I’ll be there as soon as possible with the next of kin.”

“See you then,” Nigel replied and hung up.

“What’d he say,” asked Clyde.

“Jackson was badly burned in the fire. I’m going to call Luther and have him meet me at the morgue. You check out Kevin and find out if he knows anything about his brother that would have gotten him killed.”

Clyde nodded before grabbing his coat from off the back of his chair. He handed Luther’s rap sheet to Jeremy before picking up his keys and turning to leave. Jeremy watched him leave before looking at the papers in his hand. It was a shame Luther’s troubles started at the age of fourteen and it didn’t stop there. Run-ins with the law seemed to come one after another before he entered the Armed Forces at eighteen. Five years later he was dishonorably discharged. Then it was like he vanished for several years. Oddly enough the several years Luther was incognito coincided with his years of being a private contractor.

Jeremy sat back and thought for a moment. There was something more to Luther than what he let on back in that hospital room. Someone seemed to be targeting him but why? The only way to find out was to find Luther. Jeremy pulled his phone out again and phoned Luther. When he didn’t pick up he left a message.

“Hello Mr. Graham this is Detective Hawk again. I know we’re not the best of friends but I need you at the county morgue for a body ID. I also need to speak with you on a related matter. Call me back at 907-7987,” Jeremy said and slid the phone shut.

 

The Underside
Blaine’s Apartment
11:00am

 

Luther, Jennifer and Blaine returned to the apartment after poking around at Henderson High School where the two witnesses attended school. Neither Janelle Smalls nor Roman Santiago saw who set the car on fire. According to them it was already blazing when they got to the old steel mills. When asked what they were doing there, they both declined to respond but Luther’s best guess was that they were there to tag the place. Jennifer asked if they saw anything out of the ordinary and they reported that they saw a dark sedan coming from the direction of the steel mills while they were walking along a broken dirt path beside the road.

“Did you see a fox head-like emblem anywhere on the car,” Luther had asked.

“The front looked like it did have something to that affect,” Roman had replied.

Entering the apartment, Blaine immediately headed over to his desk and logged onto his web blog. He had to jump on this story while it was still fresh. As far as he knew no one had reported the car fire, not even the news media. As he typed away, Jennifer and Luther sat on the couch and went over what little facts they had. So far there was no pin-pointed time as to the incident and no one saw who the assailants were. The only thing they had to go on was a dark sedan with something that resembled a fox head-like emblem on the front. They did have two eye witnesses who saw the car leaving the vicinity of the car fire some ways down the road. After Jennifer contacted the police department she found out a call about a car fire by the old mills had come in a little after 1am. Other than that, there was nothing else.

“Okay, so if we’re going to ruffle The Fox Hole’s feathers this would be a good story to test the waters,” Luther said.

“Well we really don’t have any hard core evidence that The Fox Hole is behind this. We can, however, implicate them. Those kids said they saw something that looked like a fox head-like emblem on the car. That’s enough to get their attention.”

“Great. Let’s do it but let’s keep the kids’ names out of it,” Luther said. Jennifer nodded her head as she pulled out her laptop. While she began on the story, Luther felt his phone vibrate for the umpteenth time and decided to check it. He’d missed a call and received a voice message. It was from a number he didn’t recognize so he listened to the voice-mail. He let go of an annoyed groan as he listened to the message.

“What is it,” Jennifer asked.

“Detective Hawk. He wants me to meet him at the city morgue. He better have some answers for me as to who killed my family when I get there,” Luther replied getting up to leave. “I’ll be back after a while,” he said and vanished through the door.

 

Gild City- Downtown
City Morgue
11:20am

 

Jeremy Hawk waited outside the morgue with a Dixie cup filled to the brim with coffee. Standing with his back against the hard stone wall of the morgue he glanced up and down the street waiting to see any sign of Luther Graham. He’d left the precinct right after the call back and Graham told him that he was on the way. Jeremy finished his coffee as a cab pulled off the street and into the parking lot. Getting out of the cab was Luther Graham. Jeremy watched as he paid the cab driver and thanked him before the cab pulled out and drove off. Finishing his coffee, he tossed the Dixie cup into the trash beside the door and waited for Luther to join him.

“Alright I’m here. What do you want?”

“Come with me,” Jeremy nodded.

Together they entered the building and walked down a long corridor lit by humming incandescent lights. The shoes of the detective clicked against the polished white tiled floor and the air was thick with the smell of formaldehyde. The smell was enough for Luther’s stomach to send waves of food bouncing off the stomach walls. Then without warning a small upheaval caused him to gag before he swallowed it back. The detective looked over at him strangely but said nothing as they turned a corner. A few moments later they stepped through a pair of steel double doors where a man stood in blue scrubs wearing a white lab coat.

“What is this,” Luther asked as they stopped beside the man in the lab coat. He watched as Detective Hawk lifted the sheet to reveal a charred human body. The smell hit Luther and he lurched again.

“Here,” Detective Hawk said handing him a handkerchief. He pulled out another for himself. “This is the body from that car fire out by the old steel mills. Nigel here found this partially burned photo of a woman. Do you recognize her?”

Luther took the photo and gave it a once over. He instantly knew who the woman was in the photo. The pit in his stomach told him that Detective Hawk knew he would recognize her, otherwise why would he be here? Luther looked up from the photo, confusion and dread clouded his eyes. The woman in the photo was his long dead mother which meant the body on the gurney had to be his father. But that couldn’t be. He’d placed his father in hiding at Tim’s house. There was no way this could be his dad.

“I’m sorry Luther,” the detective started.

“Save it,” Luther spat, “you knew it was my father, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“So why did you call me? You didn’t need me to ID the body, so why am I here?” The Detective looked over at Nigel and asked if they could have a minute.

“I need a break anyway,” he said and left. The Detective looked back at Luther.

“We need to talk Luther.”

“About what,” snapped Luther.

“I have three murders on my hand and you are the common denominator. Why is that,” Detective Hawk asked.

“I already told you!”

“But that’s not telling me anything! Where’s the proof? You have yet to show me any proof that the mayor is connected to the The Fox Hole Syndicate.”

“I’m working on it,” Luther shot back.

“That’s fine and dandy Luther but while you’re busy trying to get me proof, your family is dropping like flies. Tell me what is going on. Someone is targeting you, why?”

“Listen to me and listen real good,” Luther began as he stepped into the detective’s space, “they don’t need a reason to kill, steal, lie or cheat. They do it because they can, because they hold all the power and double crossing them has its consequence.”

“So that’s why. You double crossed them and now they’re targeting you. Only problem is that your family members are the ones dying.” Luther looked down at his father’s body before replying.

“FYI Detective, they targeted me too and for all they know I am dead. My father, on the other hand, was a loose end. His death had nothing to do with the attempt on my life or the death of my family. Speaking of which, have you gotten any leads on who killed them?”

“Nothing except our dead syndicate.”

“Figures. Look I have to be somewhere, are we done?”

“For now we are.”

“Good,” Luther said and turned swiftly towards the door.

Jeremy understood Luther’s frustration, he truly did. He was frustrated himself because he hadn’t been able to give Luther any good news on the deaths of his wife and child. All he could do was hope that the crime scene investigator would give him something. As he exited the morgue Jeremy hoped his partner was having more luck in getting any information. Getting into his car, he placed a call to Clyde.

“Hey,” Clyde said.

“So I just left the morgue and spoke with Luther. He’s more furious than before. We gotta find something. Have you checked out Kevin?”

“I had to make a quick stop but I’m on my way now.”

“Okay. See you back at the precinct,” Jeremy replied.

“Yup,” Clyde said and hung up.

(original work of Te’Kia Miller. Copyright)