The Crossing (2 page)

The Crossing

T
he Crossing is a ‘self-named’ community located to the west and south of the small West Tennessee town of Humboldt.
 
 
The name denotes the area where the north/south Gulf, Mobile & Ohio (GM&O) and the east/west Louisville and Nashville (L&N) railroads cross.
 
The ‘Crossing’ has transfer tracks, where north/south or east/west traffic can be turned around or rerouted in other directions.
 
This makes the area perfect for produce and product transfer.
 
Empty boxcars from the north arrive, are loaded with fresh produce and then turned around and routed back to their original destination.
 
Also, loaded boxcars with fresh produce arrive from the south/west and are then rerouted to eastern or northern destinations.

During the harvest season, the Crossing is where local farmers bring their crops to be graded, packed and shipped on railroad cars to various processing plants in other parts of the country. While some locally grown strawberries are routed this way, the majority of activity is centered on cabbage, corn, melons and tomatoes. Time is critical when dealing with perishable produce, so farmers with their trucks line up for miles waiting to unload produce at the various packing sheds.
 
It must be rapidly graded, packed and shipped to its final destination.
 
These sheds operate seven days a week and around the clock, with some employees working 80 to 100 hours per week.
 
Farmers need to be unloaded quickly and then get back to their farms to gather more products.
 
The produce buyers must make sure their purchased fruits and vegetables are rapidly processed and on their way to market as soon as possible.

With the exception of a few winter months, the ‘Crossing’ is a very busy community and a valuable source of economic income for the surrounding areas.

The ‘Crossing’ is also an area known as being ‘on the other side of the tracks’.
 
Its residents are mostly colored, as well as the churches, schools, and yet white merchants owned the majority of the businesses.
 
However, the economy of the ‘Crossing’ is good, and several Humboldt merchants operate successful satellite or second storefronts in the ‘Crossing’ community.
 
Even though segregated and separate, the ‘Crossing’ plays an important part in the West Tennessee economy.

Introduction

T
ammy Blurton’s job at ‘Skeeter’s’ in Jackson was really just an excuse to get out of the house and away from her husband, Sonny.
 
The former, Tammy Whitmore and Sonny Blurton married while they were both seniors at Humboldt High School.
 
It was a marriage built upon never ending love – a love that ended soon after their graduation.
 
Dreams of happy times faded to dreams of reality, as the work, bills and responsibilities took the place of parties and football games.
 
Most of their classmates went off to college; Tammy and Sonny went to work.

Sonny went to work for Chester Hagler at H&R Plumbing and Electric.
 
He was learning how to be a plumber.
 
Tammy went to work at Alton Box and was doing well enough to advance through several positions with hopes of becoming a supervisor – then she got pregnant.

Tammy continued to work through her 30
th
week of pregnancy; then she spent the next 6 weeks in bed.
 
It was an extremely difficult delivery, and the baby, a boy, lived for only two days.
 
According to the doctor, the baby was born with a serious heart defect, which could not have been prevented.
 
He assured Tammy that her work, activities and personal care had nothing to do with the death of the baby – she didn’t believe him.
 
In fact, neither did Sonny.

They named the child, Sonny Jr. and buried him in Rose Hill next to Sonny’s mother.
 
It was a short, sad funeral service held on a rainy day in Humboldt.
 
Other than the funeral home personnel and the First Methodist Church preacher, only Tammy’s parents and Sonny’s father attended the graveside services.

That was the end for Tammy and Sonny.
 
They never forgave themselves and they never forgave each other.

Tammy’s job at Alton Box was gone and now she needed something to keep herself busy and away from Sonny.
 
Her brother, Richie, told her that ‘Skeeter’s’ in Jackson was looking for some inside and outside waitresses, and Tammy couldn’t get there fast enough to complete an application.
 
‘Skeeter’s’ is a restaurant similar to Chiefs, except they don’t offer rooms or cabins for rent.
 
They do offer inside dining, a bar and outside curb service – just like Chiefs.
 
What they offered Tammy was a way to get away from Sonny, Humboldt and the bad memories.
 
What it also offered was an opportunity to meet other people, lots of people.
 
For Tammy, it was also a chance to meet other men, and she did a lot of that.
 

At 23, Tammy was still a very attractive girl.
 
The pregnancy had not left its’ marks on her looks, and she could certainly turn a lot of men’s heads, when she wanted to.
 
And ‘she wanted to’ a lot; Tammy enjoyed the attention.
 
Certainly, something she wasn’t getting from Sonny.

It was two days before anyone reported Tammy missing.
 
Sunday and Monday were her days off and she always spent Monday visiting with her parents.
 
When she missed her Monday visit, her father, Thomas Whitmore, called her house all day – no answer.
 
He finally reached Sonny that afternoon, and Sonny told him that she had changed her work schedule and was working.
 
Her father didn’t accept that answer, and Mr. Whitmore called the sheriff’s office to report Tammy as missing. The sheriff’s office collected information and made the usual and necessary calls.
 
However, when she didn’t report for her shift at ‘Skeeter’s’ on Tuesday, her boss called her father to inquire about her absence.
 
That’s when her father learned Tammy had definitely not worked on Monday, and in fact, had not worked since the previous Saturday.

Tammy had not been seen by anyone since finishing her shift at ‘Skeeter’s’ at 1:00 AM Saturday night; however, it didn’t take long for the sheriff, Leroy Epsee, and his deputies to find Tammy.

Crossing Rexall Drug Store, owned by Dr. Parker Williams and Dr. Whitley Johnson, is just around the corner from ‘Blue’s Pool Room’.
 
‘Blue’s Pool Room’ is a popular hangout for many of the residents of the ‘Crossing’, and many of the male colored citizens of Humboldt grew up inside the walls of ‘Blue’s Pool Room’.
 
While the poolroom and the drug store don’t have much in common, they do share a trash dumpster located in the alley area behind both businesses.
 
 
It was here where they found Tammy.

Jack Cooley, better known as ‘Jack the Rack’, worked at ‘Blue’s Pool Room’ as a rack boy and ‘step and fetch-it’ for most of the patrons.
 
It was his weekly responsibility to make sure all the trash was placed in the alley garbage dumpster for Tuesday’s collection day.
 
Behind the dumpster, among all the discarded boxes and trash, is where he found Tammy Blurton.
 
She was naked, except for an extremely bloodstained, short sleeve, blue work shirt with ‘Henry’ on the red name label above the left pocket.
 
Tammy had been beaten, strangled, stabbed and presumably raped.
 
It would be four days before the coroner could determine the exact cause of death.
 

Leroy’s crime scene investigators did a good job and eventually located a large knife among the scattered trash bags.
 
It was an eight- inch, butcher-type knife and had what appeared to be bloodstains on the blade.
 
They also found a small slip of paper in the pocket of the shirt Tammy was wearing; it contained a name and phone number.

Henry Walker
 
 
 
SUnset 4 – 2031.

A Train Called ‘The City of New Orleans’

T
he Illinois Central
City of New Orleans
runs regular schedules between Chicago and New Orleans.
 
The 926 miles takes almost twenty hours and offers deluxe accommodations for all classes of travelers.
 
Operating two trains, the southbound
City of New Orleans
departs Chicago at 5 PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The northbound departs New Orleans at 5:30 PM on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays.
 
The trains make numerous stops, some of which are unscheduled and required by reservations made by travelers at the small stations along the route.
 
The Chicago/New Orleans scheduled stops are Gary, IN, Cape Girardeau, MO, Memphis, TN and numerous stops in Mississippi – including Batesville, Grenada, Winona, Canton and Jackson.
 
After crossing Lake Pontchartrain, the southbound passengers arrive at the New Orleans terminal at 1:00 Central Time – completing their twenty-hour journey.

Our client, Black Diamond Insurance, was prepared to forfeit on a bond policy held by Jarrett Savings and Loan.
 
Their semi-annual audit had uncovered over $500,000 in missing funds, and they had no concrete information on who the embezzler might be.
 
Attention immediately focused on a Mr. Temple Truett, who had the access and ability to steal the money, but they had no proof.
 

Compounding the problem, a check of Mr. Truett’s financial situation uncovered no appearance of the funds or any evidence of wrongdoing.
 
They hit a wall; that’s when Black Diamond Insurance came to Drake Detective Agency for assistance.

My associate, Joe Richardson, had been working the case for weeks and was running into that same wall.
 
Joe was getting nowhere, until he observed Mr. Truett during one of his weaker moments!

Mr. Temple Truett seemed to be happily married and had two grown children with families of their own.
 
His wife, Harriet, didn’t work, and they led a very simple, normal life from their home in Germantown; however, things were not as they appeared.
 
Mr. Temple Truett had another life, one which his family and Jarrett Savings, was not aware of.
 

During Joe’s surveillance, he had followed Mr. Temple Truett to numerous Memphis nightclubs; one particular club was a favorite of mine, the Starlight Lounge.
 
His rendezvous were always with a very attractive woman, Sandy Scarlet Rogers.
 
Scarlet had previously had some minor troubles with the law, but never anything serious.
 
But, finally it seemed she had found a ‘sugar daddy’, and had set her sights on finally landing the ‘big fish’.

Now, all this was good news, but where was the money?
 
If Mr. Temple Truett had the money, it was well hidden.
 
Also, if he were ever going to make use of the money, it probably wasn’t going to happen in Memphis or with his wife, Harriet.

Joe is the best and his surveillance was relentless.
 
It paid off.

On Wednesday of last week, Mr. Temple Truett used his lunch hour to visit an ‘out of the way’ travel agency on Front Street.
 
There, he purchased two train tickets – one for a Mr. Tommy Brown, travel from Memphis to New Orleans and a second for a Mrs. Sandy Brown with travel from Jackson, Mississippi to New Orleans.
 
These were booked on the
City of New Orleans
for travel on Tuesday - tomorrow. Then, he purchased two airline tickets for Mr. and Mrs. Brown from New Orleans to South America.
 
We had him, maybe.
 
We just needed to find a way to catch him with the money!

My office address is officially listed as 149 Union Avenue – L6, which means I occupy office 6, located just off the lobby of The Peabody Hotel – Memphis, Tennessee.
 
I actually would consider my address to be 3
rd
Avenue – not Union, but the address has its perks.

The location itself is also handy.
 
All my phone calls come through the hotel operator, which is also my answering service.
 
I eat lunch and breakfast in the employee dining room at a great price. I have a beautiful lobby to greet potential clients - and please don’t forget the duck show, it happens twice a day.
 
Aside from the perverts who hang out in the lobby restrooms, I can’t find a lot of fault with my office arrangements.