She Was Her Man

By Ian C. Dawkins Moore

Clarissa MacWashington had become Claire Langton and married the aging Delray Roberts, a career congressman who was burnt out. Rumors had it she had been a porn star. The internet expanded opportunities for entrepreneurs; Clarissa built a website, hired a cameraman, and began performing oral sex six days a week. She wore a mask and titled herself Ms. Ebony Fantasy.
Along the way, allegedly, she relieved many of her clients of their excess cash when they were ecstatic. She courted drug dealers, politicians, and Baptist ministers, but only the rich. Within two years, she had a war chest of over $4 million. That’s when, so the story goes, she met and married the Mayor of Oakland.
Mani and Nina traced her activities by working as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune and as a detective for the XYZ agency in San Francisco, respectively. Mani believed Charissa had changed her name and her appearance and became Claire Langton and, under that name, had got close to and married Mayor Delray Roberts. After a lifetime in politics, Mayor Roberts was tired and had too many skeletons in his closet to stand up to Claire, whom he married after his former wife mysteriously disappeared.
Many of Nina and Mani’s wealthy American African clients wanted to expose the Mayor for his connection to Peachy, the local drug dealer, and the Reverent Al Jackson, a well-connected but morally compromised Baptist minister. Then there was the narcissistic City Controller George B. Beckett, the Gay Mafia twins, and the sudden disappearance of Delray’s first wife, Doris Roberts.
Mani and Nina were primarily looking for a lost Kid, Algernon Johnson, whose rich Grandfather was paying them to find him for his daughter, Jill. But every time they got a lead to the Kid, they found more leads to Claire Langton, aka Clarissa MacWashington.
Mani and Nina had met Clarissa during the MacWashington murder case over two years earlier. Five members of a wealthy American African family had died, and three members were convicted of their deaths. But Nina was up for the challenge: She was her man!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ian C. Dawkins Moore
• Release date: Jan 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215357415

Ian C. Dawkins Moore

Ian C. Dawkins Moore was born under the sign of Aries in the year of the Tiger. He survived a British boarding school, the jock world of football hooliganism, hitch-hiking across the Sahara desert, and the two-tone culture of American racism. He is the published author of over 20 books, and he can still see the funny side of life- Be Well & Enjoy!

Book preview

SHE WAS HER MAN

A Nina & Mani Mystery #2

A Noir Novella

Ian C. Dawkins Moore

SHE WAS HER MAN

A Nina & Mani Mystery #2

A Noir Novella

Copyright © 2023Ian C. Dawkins Moore

ISBN: 9798215357415

All rights reserved.

A Smashwords.com

edition

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted by any means,

electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,

or otherwise, without the written permission

from the author.

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used

fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,

living or ideas, business establishments, events,

or locales is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION:

There are many ways to avoid life:

You can get married, get drunk, have an affair

with someone’s wife, eat a sawn-off shotgun for a midnight snack,

or you can just move to California.

Walter Mosley – ‘Black Betty’

for

Cynthia

SYNOPSIS

Clarissa MacWashington was let out of prison after two years for defrauding her Law Practice. She’d been with some of the most notorious and successful - until they were caught - female criminals in America. She’d learned a lot. One thing she realized was that the only way for a single middle-aged black woman to make serious money in America was in the porn business. After two years, she had a war chest of over $4 million. Then she set her sights on her real prize. Becoming the Mayor of Oakland. She was her man.

SETTING: City of Oakland, California, 2000

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Delray Roberts: (65 years old) Oakland’s Mayor and former Congressman.

Claire Roberts/Clarissa MacWashington: (46 years old) ambitious new wife of the mayor.

George B. Beckett: (59 years old) Oakland City Controller.

Peachy Collins: (50 years old). A drug dealer with a sick body and sick mind. He lives curtsey of the city in a halfway house.

Algernon Johnson: (18 years old) missing rich Kid. The grandson of Harold Johnson-Jones, who’s mixed up with Peachy, the Rev. .Al Jackson, and Claire/Clarissa.

Jill Johnson-Jones: (45 years old) Algernon’s mother, Harold’s daughter.

Harold Johnson-Jones: (70 years old) a sage old gentleman who made his money in real estate and lives in Montclair. He asks Nina & Mani to find Algernon, whose gone missing.

Reverent Al Jackson: (50 years old) a morally compromised Baptist minister who’s mixed up with Algernon.

Terry & Scotty: (49 & 45 years old) The Gay Mafia, who kidnapped Karl and are running a scam with Algernon.

Karl Kellar: (50 years old) a drunk from Hawaii who spins a story to Mani, claiming to be the cameraman for a porno star. Claire Langton, the wife of the mayor.

Jake: (59 years old) semi-retired hit man, Karl’s partner in crime who ‘comes a cropper’ in Hawaii.

Police Chief Cliff Townsend: (56 years old) The newly installed Police Chief of Oakland, who wants to make Oakland a community-friendly environment.

Inspector Keith O’Reilly: (57 years old) A black cop with an Irish brogue accent, an associate of J.C. Smythe.

Jack Gunter: (64 years old) An old crusty editor of the Oakland Tribune who insists on speaking German, even though he’s lived in California most of his life.

Mani Beckford: (42 years old) works as a journalist with the Oakland Tribune and an associate in the Nina & Mani Detective Agency with Nina, his wife, and J.C. Smythe. He’s from the UK via Grenada.

Nina Ngozi-Beckford: (44 years old) The owner of the Nina & Mani Detective Agency. She has a degree in criminology and a detective license. She’s also Mani’s wife and business partner. She’s from the UK via Nigeria.

J.C. Smythe: (50 years old) Detective-in-training, studying forensic science. Has a detective license. Born and raised in Oakland, California, he is an ex-hippie who’s still buzzing from the acid he took in the 1980s.

CONTENT

Prologue

1 – Mani heard a Story

2 – The Bad & The Good

3 – Mr. Mayor & the City Man

4 – Peachey’s Prototype

5 – Death of a Pig

6 – The Kid Surfaces

7 – Peachy Cashes Out

8 – Chief Cliff Townsend

9 – Closing In

10 – Delray Learns too Late

11 – She Was Her Man

Epilogue

About the Author

Other books in the Series

Nina & Mani – Detective Agency

Other books by Author

pROLOGUE

Clarissa MacWashington had become Claire Langton and married the aging Delray Roberts, a career congressman who was burnt out. Rumors had it she had been a porn star. The internet expanded opportunities for entrepreneurs; Clarissa built a website, hired a cameraman, and began performing oral sex six days a week. She wore a mask and titled herself Ms. Ebony Fantasy.

Along the way, allegedly, she relieved many of her clients of their excess cash when they were ecstatic. She courted drug dealers, politicians, and Baptist ministers, but only the rich. Within two years, she had a war chest of over $4 million. That’s when, so the story goes, she met and married the Mayor of Oakland.

Mani and Nina traced her activities by working as a journalist for the Oakland Tribune and as a detective for the XYZ agency in San Francisco, respectively. Mani believed Charissa had changed her name and her appearance and became Claire Langton and, under that name, had got close to and married Mayor Delray Roberts. After a lifetime in politics, Mayor Roberts was tired and had too many skeletons in his closet to stand up to Claire, whom he married after his former wife mysteriously disappeared.

Many of Nina and Mani’s wealthy American African clients wanted to expose the Mayor for his connection to Peachy, the local drug dealer, and the Reverent Al Jackson, a well-connected but morally compromised Baptist minister. Then there was the narcissistic City Controller George B. Beckett, the Gay Mafia twins, and the sudden disappearance of Delray’s first wife, Doris Roberts.

Mani and Nina were primarily looking for a lost Kid, Algernon Johnson, whose rich Grandfather was paying them to find him for his daughter, Jill. But every time they got a lead to the Kid, they found more leads to Claire Langton, aka Clarissa MacWashington.

Mani and Nina had met Clarissa during the MacWashington murder case over two years earlier. Five members of a wealthy American African family had died, and three members were convicted of their deaths. But Nina was up for the challenge: She was her man!

1 - MANI HEARD A STORY

Charissa MacWashington-Jackson emerged from prison after two years, determined to be her own man. She could be successful at whatever she put her mind to, regardless of the obstacles in front of her. The first obstacle was that she had no money. I found out later that she’d been in the porn business during her first two years out of prison and made a fortune.

Karl Kellar, a dude from Hawaii, was her cameraman. He set up the locations with his partner Jake, a no-nonsense ex-marine who was the security. I met