THE FIFTY DOLLAR MAN

Detective Tony Langel completed fifteen years with the Mount Olive Police Department, the past four years as a detective. He turned 38 during November. He met a cocktail waitress named Kate Gearing a few months earlier that was seeking help in determining if her boy friend Tom White was a crook.

He recently solved a major case involving the same Tom White. White happened to be a renegade former CIA operative who after being arrested for the second time died while in custody of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. During that particular investigation, White met Kate Gearing at the Northside Hotel lounge while on a trip to California. His stop in Mount Olive was planned as he intended to go to the state capitol of Lexington to meet with an associate for a special clandestine operation. He fell in love with Kate and wanted to take her with him to a Pacific island and enjoy the good life. Kate became fearful of him and went to the police for help during the time Tom would be in Lexington for a couple of days. This is when she met with a detective Jarvis Randall and was soon introduced to Detective Tony Langel.

White was apprehended upon return to the hotel, closing the arrest of a fellow that possessed two stolen cars, several weapons, large amount of money, a ski mask, numerous fake identification cards, many vehicle license plates to use on the stolen vehicles, and a few other pieces of evidence indicating the man was a bank robber.

White died from poison administrated to him while in custody by an attorney who came to visit him. The attorney turned out to be a fake lawyer, but an assassin that got away with murder and was never apprehended.

Tony and Kate began dating, fell in love, and decided to tie-the-knot. Not only would he gain a bride from the Tom White investigation, but he was also promoted to Detective Lieutenant, largely due to past cases and recent solving the Tom White case.

Tony didn’t mind if she continued working nearly three years at the lounge after they get married; however it was her decision to quit the job. She didn’t want her husband, a policeman to have any gossip about her working at a cocktail lounge. Kate figured that if she did any other work, it would be respectful work, not that what she did was bad, just not what she thought was appropriate at the time.. Tony didn’t object and was pleased to have her move into his house shortly before they would be married, making her home too.

Kate decided to give her thirty day notice to Clyde Williams, the owner-manager of t lounge located in the Northside Hotel. He hated to see her go and remembered when she first stopped at the lounge while traveling through the state on her way to California. The lounge was very busy that evening and she volunteered to help wait tables. Her help resulted in her being hired to work at the lounge on a temporary basis, as long as she wanted the job. She had plenty of time and liked making a few extra dollars to pad her purse before continuing the western venture. The short time job ended up to be almost three years, and about the time she met Tony.