Read Online King Divas by De'nesha Diamond - Free Book Online Page B

hair back from my eyes. In the distance, police sirens and news helicopters fill the sky.
    â€œCaptain! Captain! Are you all right?” An officer arrives at the top of the hill and glances down at me. He looks pretty shook up.
    â€œYeah. I’m fine,” I mumble, proceeding to climb up out of the ditch. “Did we get him?”
    â€œThey’re still searching,” he says.
    â€œGoddamn it,” I mutter.
    The officer offers me a hand on the last leg of the climb. I ignore it to catch my breath. “It was fuckin’ Terrell Carver,” I tell him. “I recognized his face.”
    â€œHoly shit. For real?” he asks, shocked. “I thought he was dead.”
    â€œYou need a priest, holy water, and a crucifix to kill the devil,” I say, my head clearing. I look down at my fucked-up car. “I need a ride back to the department.”
    â€œYou got it, Captain.”
    The whole department is abuzz about the wild police chase where the subject eluded the police. It comes as a major blow against the department at a time when we can’t afford to look bad in the press.
    Â 
    Back at the department, I head straight to the break room for a much needed cup of coffee. When I’m sure that no one is looking, I reach for the hidden bottle of bourbon in the back of the cabinet and then top off my drink. I’ll need the kick before Chief Brown rips me a new asshole. She’ll order another press conference to calm the media; not like those are working too damn well. In an election year, the bigwigs need to appear to be doing something about the violence.
    The street wars have accelerated in recent years. Day and night, bodies drop like flies. Only Chiraq and Detroit stack higher body counts than Memphis. The city is under siege. So far, no one has been able to figure out the genesis of the wars. My money is on the department’s former superhero, Captain Johnson, and possibly his daughter, Detective Melanie Johnson.
    During the investigation of his and his daughter’s murder, Lieutenant Fowler and I discovered that Melvin Johnson was Terrell Carver’s biological father. His daughter couldn’t have known about this because she was engaged in an affair with the notorious gangster. They even had a child together, Christopher, who is currently a ward of the state.
    We also uncovered a surveillance video of Detective Melanie Johnson murdering her partner, Detective Keegan O’Malley. Weeks later, Detective Johnson herself was murdered, and strong evidence pointed to her lover slash half brother. Then Christopher went missing. Johnson’s murder and Christopher’s kidnapping landed Terrell “Python” Carver on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
    Christopher was rescued months later from an abandoned house out in West Memphis, but weeks after the child was returned to Captain Johnson and his wife, they were found slaughtered inside their home, by the child’s other grandmother, Alice Carver. Now she’s dead—killed by her older sister, my stepmother, Maybelline Carver, who she’d also kidnapped. Pretty soon I’ll need a family tree diagrammed to keep up with this crazy-ass shit.
    â€œCaptain Hawkins, you’re here,” Detective Hendrix shouts, rushing over.
    â€œWhere else would I be?” I ask her.
    â€œLieutenant Fowler is looking for you.”
    â€œWhy? What’s up?” I gulp down my coffee.
    â€œAnother homicide. This one at the Power of Prayer Baptist Church.”
    My head snaps up. “Isn’t that off Florida and McLemore?”
    â€œYeah. I think so.”
    Python. That thug is still in the game, dropping bodies—but at a church?
    Hendrix rattles on. “I would help, but my partner and I caught three bodies last night at Hemp’s liquor store over off Orange Mound.”
    â€œOkay. I’m on it.” I drain the rest of my coffee, and then jet off to find Fowler. I spot him coming