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Feb-1-2021 18:51

He stared directly into her emerald green eyes as he set her plate in front of her. By God, she was beautiful. Her smile was almost everything to him, just seeing her smile would turn a bad day completely around. Her pale skin was as soft as her voice which he compared to summer rains.

A pity, he thought to himself, that she has to die, for in her salad, disguised as lettuce leaves were the leaves of a plant, unknown to her, called the deadly nightshade. It was as nightmarish as it sounds.

Almost cherry-like, but similar instructors to the tomato, he disguised the fruit as blueberries. The dressing on the salad was made from the root of the plant, which he harvested at the end of the vegetation period, when the toxins would be the highest.

He watched with a false, realistic smile as she bit into her salad, closing her eyes to savor the sweet flavor of the toxic fruit. Symptoms wouldn't start immediately, but they wouldn't take long.

Once her symptoms started, she knew she'd been poisoned. First came the sweats and hallucinations, then the shortness of breath and trouble breathing, followed by paralysis and moments later, death.

After she had died, he got up and went outside through the back door into the cool night air. He inhaled deeply, the fresh air filling his lungs, then exhaled. He grabbed his shovel from the tool shed, and stabbed the ground.

Feb-8-2021 11:48


Once the three were inside the apartment, Marc walked directly into Guy Mauve’s bedroom and came out of producing a locked diary. He used the key to unlock and open it. It opened on a specific page towards the middle where naked pictures of Guy Mauve, along with several other women, fell out of it.

“Goodness!” Joseph was unprepared for this.
“Heavens! These are famous actresses from Opera and Broadway!” Molly confirmed. “Why does Guy have all these naked pictures of them and of him.”

Marc read the diary entry from the page from which the pictures fell out. “Today I managed to break into Tony Valencia’s home and retrieve the pictures he has been using to blackmail me and Isabella. I have also retrieved all the others he had in case he was holding them over his other victims’ heads...”

Feb-9-2021 01:34

Mauve was wise.

The way he wanted to speak but always held his tongue, why he eagerly pointed out to the police that Tony was the last known person Isabella met, and why he was in love with this Tony but dreaded him at the same time… it all added up.

Marc flipped through the small stack of photos. “What a collection,” he whistled.

“So this is what we know so far,” Joseph induced, “Tony was blackmailing these exquiste performers with their exotic photos.” He recognised that leather wrapped handcuff, the single piece of attire Isabella was donning in her photo. At the time it was taken, he wondered if Isabella could fathom what Tony would use it for later.

“Blackmailing them for what? Tony’s already loaded!” Marc questioned.

“Perhaps he was coercing them into providing certain… services…” Joseph trailed off as Molly cleared her throat. Joseph realised how inappropriate it was to say such things in front of a lady.
 
“Well, we’ve got many suspects now who want to do Tony in,” Molly changed the subject, “but why the others? Why was Tony the last person and not the first to go missing?”

“First of all, I do hope Tony will be the last, but how do we know it’d stop there? We first thought Isabella was the last.” Joseph mused, “and to answer you question, maybe they were test subjects.”

“Joseph,” Molly tsked, “you are my friend but sometimes your mind frightens me…”

“Tony is a hard man to get to. I’ve seen a photo of him in the paper once. Antonio Valencia is well built and quite powerful, to say the least. It wouldn’t be easy to bring someone like him down so easily.”

“So you’re saying…” Marc inquired.

Feb-9-2021 01:35

“I’m just saying we don’t know enough to draw any conclusion yet. There are so many leads. Thank goodness there are three of us.”

At the back of his mind, Joseph sensed that there were more than just the three of them there. Someone was watching them. The lanky detective had no solid proof, could not see, hear or smell anyone else; it was simply a nagging sensation he wasn’t able to shove away.

Feb-9-2021 18:48

"Assuming any of our missing people are still alive, we don't have much time," Marc said. He crossed Mauve's name off of his suspect list. Mauve might have known more than he was leading on, but after tonight, there was no way he could be the killer.

There was a sense of urgency that Molly and Jose could also feel. "Molly," Joseph said. "Can you follow up on the missing women, see if there's a connection?"

"Good," Joseph said. He turned his head to Marc. "I need you to follow up on Tony Valencia. Just find out if he's alive and where he could be. Find out his connection with Guy Mauve."

"Done." Marc replied with a nod. "What about you?"

"I'm going to follow up on the missing boy. I can't put a finger on it yet, but something tells me he's connected to all this."


It was well past midnight when Marc arrived at the docks owned by Tony. The shipping yard was busy. Importing and exporting, twenty four hours a day.

Marc found a worker and introduced himself. "I'm looking for whoever is in charge here," Marc yelled over the sound of the cranes.

The man pointed Marc in the right direction to the supervisor, who brought him into his office.

"I'm looking for Tony Valencia," Marc said as he sat down in a chair.

The supervisor, identified as Giovanni, smiled. "We don't typically rat out our own, if that's what you're expecting."

"No, no, nothing like that," Marc said leaning back. "Tony's been missing for three days now. Him and four other people. The only connection I have right now is Guy Mauve."

"The opera singer?"

Guy had clearly been making a name for himself.

"Yes," Marc said. "I interviewed him just over an hour ago. He named Tony as a mutual friend."

"I'm sorry," Giovanni said. "I don't know anything about that.

"Does the name Isabella Valente ring a bell?" Marc asked.

"Should it?"

"She was identified as well, having a connection with him. She's missing too.".

Giovanni looked shocked.

"Are you insinuating he's a kidnapper?"

"No, but I do fear that his life is in danger, if he's

Feb-9-2021 18:49

"What do you mean?" Marc asked.

Giovanni opened his mouth to reply, but made a gurgling sound and he grasped his throat. How body started convulsing as he struggled to breath. Blistered formed around his lips. Marc knew he'd been poisoned. Quickly, he called the police.

Feb-10-2021 07:08

EDIT: I missed some lines when I was copying and pasting.



"Are you insinuating he's a kidnapper?"

"No, but I do fear that his life is in danger, if he's not already dead." Marc replied.

Giovanni took another sip of his drink.

"He was a good business man. He wasn't the smartest person." Giovanni said looking down. "He must have gotten in too deep."

"With who? What do you mean?" Marc asked.


Giovanni opened his mouth to reply, but made a gurgling sound and he grasped his throat. How body started convulsing as he struggled to breath. Blistered formed around his lips. Marc knew he'd been poisoned. Quickly, he called the police.

Feb-10-2021 07:31

Bright and early the next day Joseph drained his black coffee, ready for the day’s investigation. Without a single cloud in the sky, he knew it will be warm in the day followed by a chilly evening, just like yesterday. Joseph wondered how Guy Mauve was doing. A midnight arrest only signified that the police planned to drill him until sunrise. Mauve would not get any sleep. Joseph made a mental note to visit the police station later in the day, but first thing first.

The address brought Joseph to the lower East side. He slithered through crowds of push carts and large baskets to find 97 Orchard Street. Signs from the vendors were written in Polish, Russian and Hebrew, the conversations around him were loud and colorful. The front entrance into the building had turned into a make shift necktie ‘factory’, with young boys and old ladies sewing their life away. Joseph had no choice but to climb the fire escape, dodging damp tunics and bedsheets hung out to be dried on the railings and windows.

Each tenement was subdivided into several family homes. It took Joseph some effort to find the cramped living quarter of the Hernández family at the back, windowless corner. The air was stale and stuffy. The radio next door blazed sharply with swing jazz. A pair of impoverished young girls were trimming yarn ends from a stack of half made winter hats.

“Hello,” Joseph tried to put on his friendly voice, “this is the Hernàndez, right?” The girls looks up at the lanky man, then returned to their trimming without a word. Working in such dim light would probably ruin those beautiful eyes. “I’m looking for the parents of Mateo Hernandez.”

“You know Mateo? Will he be back soon?” The younger of the two piped.

The older girl hushed her, mouthing the word “stranger”. Joseph changed tactic.

“I’m with the police,” Joseph flashed his handy fake badge. “Mateo has been missing for three weeks now, so we’d like to find out more, to see if we can locate him.”

Feb-10-2021 07:34

The older young girl smirked, yes smirked, at Joseph’s remark. “Coppers would never help people like us. Mamá said they brushed her off like a fly, called him a runaway. Our brother loves us, he would never do that. Who the heck are you?”

Joseph exhaled, he replied frankly, “I’m a private eye. Your brother is one of the many people that had gone missing in the past month. His where about could help us locate my client’s daughter as well.”

“Oh, a flatfoot,” the elder girl spat, “well, only if you help us find our brother as well would we help you.” The girl looked about age 9, going on 30.

“They probably ran into the same trouble. The more I know about Mateo, the higher the chance I can find out about all of them. Any reason you can think of: people, places, that may explain why he’s gone missing?”

The girl scanned her surroundings, and moved closer to Joseph, her voice blanketed by the tenor saxophone by Lester Young on the radio, “Mateo was making good money dancing.”

“Dancing?” Joseph wondered. Taxi dancers were common amongst pretty young dames, a good 10 cents a dance, but a young man? “Where?”

“Mateo had mentioned it, told us not to tell mama, said they have a secret section for the boy dancers,” the older girl strained her mind trying to remember, “the name of the place has something to do with flowers… was it Tulip Place?”

“No, it was Roseland!” the younger girl replied smugly.

“The Roseland dance hall? In the theatre district?”

“I don’t know,” the younger one shrugged, “but Mateo said it’s the most aces place he had ever been. Very fancy! They gave him nice clothes to wear for dancing, said Mateo is a natural.” With the radio next door blasting all day long, Joseph could imagine how an active young man would become good at swingin’.

Joseph was piecing the puzzles together in his mind as made his exit. “Thank you ladies for all your help,” the two girls beamed for being called ‘ladies’, “I shall find out what happened to your brother."

Feb-10-2021 07:36

*****

Joseph made a right turn into Centre Street from Grand and stopped by the New York City Police Headquarters. Before he entered, he gave Molly a call, remembering that one of the missing female also worked as a taxi dancer of some sort. After passing Molly the new discovery about Mateo, he straddled up the stairs into the NYPD building.

Given Mauve was in the custody of Barnes, Joseph doubted that he was allowed to see him. Self-absorbed and reckless as he often seemed, Barnes at least played by the book and not subject to bribery, and Joseph respected the Inspector for that. At least the two could see eye to eye. Joseph did not expect co-operation, but at least they could share information.

The seasoned PI was no novice to the headquarter, and the officers who knew Joseph simply ignored him. Joseph made his own way to Barnes’ office and knocked. Smoke seemed to pipe out of the inspector’s head, as usual.

“Another tricky case, Inspector Barnes?” Joseph inquired politely.

“Your partner Lacrimosa. He found a poisoned supervisor at the shipping dock!” Barnes barked, as if the man being poisoned was Marc’s fault.

“Were they sent to the hospital?”

“Yes, to Cornell, but the supervisor was dead on arrival,” Barnes lamented.

Marc must have found an important lead on Tony’s side. This also meant Mauve had the perfect alibi for not being a suspect, being locked up by the police all night.

“So Guy Mauve is…” Joseph hinted.

“Well Ms. Maltese’s lawyers made sure we couldn’t touch a single hair on her precious Opera singer, and yes, the culprit seem to be someone else.” Barnes dived through stacks of files on his messy desk, “I was about to sign the paper to release Mauve, but he must still report to the station if needs arise.”

“Certainly, I shall remind Mr. Mauve of that.” Joseph replied automatically, but his thoughts were already on the poisoned victim.

Feb-12-2021 11:09


By noon Joseph Zeo was escorting Guy Mauve back to his apartment at the 10th Park Avenue on 34th Street. Guy Mauve was not man handled by the policemen as he had prepared himself for and, thanks to Ms. Maltese’s excellent legal representation, he was put in a solitary cell so he did not have to deal with other convicts. ‘At least I got my vocal rest!’ he thought. But the seriousness of the matter was dawning on him as Mr. Zeo filled him in with regards to the latest discoveries.

“I really had no idea it was going be a matter of such magnitude.” Guy spoke clearly. “I am more prepared to work with you and Mr. Lacrimosa.” He was more willing now than ever to cooperate fully.

“Do you feel that Tony Valencia could be behind this?” Zeo asked.

“Tony is many things Mr. Zeo.” Guy lamented. “But I simply cannot see him as a murderer. You see these rich men, once they acquire their wealth, they wish to spend it naturally. The darker side of humanity can sometimes move them from consuming alcohol, expensive cigars, cars and trips to consuming people.”

“I see.” The lanky detective was deep in thought.

“Depending on their tastes they can fish for their likes in Theatres, Opera Houses and Movie Sets. However, something quite doesn’t mesh or gel in this story. Taxi Dancers are a far cry from the decorated musician Isabella was. And why would Tony himself go missing if he’s a suspect?”