Marlow’s Coastal Empire

Steven knelt down by their corner table at the Mansion to address Marlow and W. Their waiter had done so earlier during their Friday dinner to murmur things to them that other tourist patrons of the restaurant likely did not want to know about their hostess. Diner appetites might disappear, should they learn that their table had once been a long ago cooling board for Savannah’s dearly departed.

They had struck up a rapport with Stephen, since they were of a certain age Hostess City residents, lovers of food, laughter and mischief, seekers of new things and risk takers. They found his South Carolinian accent disarming, since it reminded them of one of Marlow’s two wheeled riding friends, Augustus. All three were quitting things – Stephen, alcohol; Marlow, tobacco; Marlow and W, Key West.

They took his genuflection as a sign that something special, like favorite local haunts might be shared. They were surprised when what followed was a warning that went well beyond the recent local paper’s one-day headlines.

Kevin Reid and Kari Graham-Reid had been doing exactly the sort of thing that Marlow, W and other downtown Savannah residents relish doing. They had eaten dinner Wednesday night at a neighborhood cafe and were strolling toward home on East Waldburg Street, a few blocks from Forsyth Park and three short blocks from where Marlow and W live.

One of the pleasures of downtown living is walking to dine or drink, to shop or see a show, to visit friends. The Reids had every reason to believe they’d arrive home safely. The area was inside the donut hole that until that night had been keeping killers away. Savannah-Chatham’s online crime map showed that as of last week, none of the 41 people murdered in 2016 lost their lives in an area that stretched from River Street just past Forsyth Park at East Park Avenue, from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd to East Broad Street. The misery of murders instead dwelled in the donut neighborhoods to the east, west and south of the hole.

The downtown, however it is defined, like the city in general has been plagued by too many robberies, assaults and various forms of theft. But it’s not as if city officials have been sitting on their hands. Indeed, Marlow and W had heard the local police at the previous week’s Victorian Neighborhood Association meeting report that property crimes were the major issue downtown, and that brighter street lights, trimmed hedges and more patrols would help. So would citizens doing their part by securing their property and reporting what they witness. More help was already here. At the Police Chief’s request, the Georgia State Patrol had already sent in officers to help quell stranger-to-stranger armed robberies.

There were no cops or troopers around at 9:45 PM last Wednesday on East Waldburg when three young men, at least one of them armed, accosted the Reids and reportedly tried to rob them. They shot Kevin Reid, 54, who died on the way to the hospital while the three men got away. A senseless homicide popped the downtown security bubble, stunning the community.

Steven ended his account with some information that could only come from a long time Savannah resident. He alluded to the early 90s when drug running gangs, posses and crews sometimes required wannabes to undergo an initiation by murder to gain membership.

After Steven’s discourse, Marlow began to feel slightly uneasy. He had become unused to such ceremony and secretiveness since his spook days concluded twenty years ago. There was now something ominous in the atmosphere. It was just as though he and his W had been let into some conspiracy – something not quite right. They would be glad to get safely back home.

All but the last piece of information from Steven were risk assumptions that W and Marlow had accepted long before they moved off of their tranquil isle. Internet searches of this murder’s accounts didn’t turn up any direct or indirect evidence of Stephen’s suspected gang involvement until Marlow caught an offhand mention, likely a due to a slip of the tongue by police or a witness, in one of the press reports five days after the event.

It was a single two word phrase – red bandana.

To be continued.

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