The Deadline. KiKi Swinson

Чтение книги онлайн.

      3

      DOWN AND DIRTY

      “A’ight, Khloé, you see that cop right there?” Kyle pointed through his windshield as we sat in his car hidden across from the Norfolk Second Patrol Division station house. My legs swung in and out nervously. Kyle had called me at home. He told me to hurry up and get dressed; he had to show me something related to my story.

      “Which one? There are a few,” I replied, craning my neck to see whom he was talking about. “There’s one that’s not in uniform. You mean him?” I squinted to see.

      “Yup, that one. He is a detective. He’s a dirty detective in every sense of the word. He works directly for your boy, Barker, the possible future mayor, and all of his clients, but he pretends he’s out here solving murders. More like out here committing them and then solving them like he’s the best,” Kyle told me.

      “Are you serious?” I asked. I know Kyle was getting tired of me asking that, but some things were just so unbelievable.

      “Man, I know of at least six murders commissioned by people associated with Barker and his clients and cleaned up by this cat in front of us. He plants evidence, he gets rid of evidence, and I’ve heard sometimes he carries out the murders himself too. The reason I said to follow him is, I think after a while, he will lead us right to Barker’s hideouts.”

      I sat staring out of the windshield in astonishment at what Kyle was saying. How could someone who’d sworn an oath to protect and serve be doing what Kyle was saying. I guess I was being naïve, since that shit happens all over the United States every day.

      “That is crazy. He looks so straightlaced and clean-cut,” I replied, my mouth still hanging open a little bit as I watched the smooth detective chop it up with a few uniform cops before heading to his car.

      “Appearances can be deceiving, for sure. He’s the only person with his hands a little dirty that our friend will take visits from. He’s the insider/outsider, if that makes sense. Barker is smart. He tries to keep his hands clean, even though him and his clients run all this shit around here. Every single nickel and dime sold in Norfolk, Barker gets a cut. He’s like the Pablo Escobar of this city,” Kyle explained.

      I was struck silent as I listened and watched the clean-cut and dapper detective get into a darkly tinted black car.

      “So, how can I get something newsworthy if we can’t get next to Barker?” I asked, still a bit shocked at what Kyle was really telling me.

      “We going to follow him right now, but we got to be careful. You know he’s police, so his countersurveillance skills is top-notch,” Kyle explained as he cranked up the car. As soon as the engine started, so did my nerves. I had to bite down hard to keep my teeth from chattering. Biting my nails was the next best thing, so that’s what I did.

      “This is the time of day he makes some stops at the secret stash spots to pay for the re-ups and collect money sometimes. I heard from one of my street connections that they about to blow the lid on a dude they suspect of turning on one of Barker’s biggest clients’ spots. Which, in turn, means, it fucks with Barker’s cut and all the dudes on payroll cuts. My connect said he knows once the detective finds out dude was being a traitor, he is going to take care of the situation right then and there, since the possible future mayor and his clients only trust him to deal with it,” Kyle told me.

      Kyle slowly and carefully pulled out behind the black car. My heart throttled up in my chest, because everything Kyle was saying sounded extremely dangerous. But that news-desk job was still calling my name. I imagined the shocked look on Christian’s face when I got this whole story solid, and that was enough to keep me moving closer toward danger. I told myself to sit back and go along for the ride, because everyone knew that in the journalism business, there was never any reward without a little risk.

      * * *

      It seemed like we had driven forever when Kyle finally stopped the car. I moved my head around, peering out of all of the car windows trying to figure out just where the hell we were at. No lie, it looked like we were transported in time and place. We were in some backwoods part of Virginia, and the property that sat in front of us looked like an old abandoned farm or plantation. There was a big, dilapidated, and haunted-looking plantation-style house to the left, and almost in the way back of the property was an old shack. It looked like if one bad wind came through, it would collapse.

      “What the hell?” I said, mouth hanging open a little bit.

      “I told you, these dudes are very careful with their shit. Barker actually purchased this old plantation so that he could have a place for his most dangerous clients to conduct their business. We are not dealing with dummies here, twin. Everything they all do is well planned and thought out,” Kyle said. As he spoke, I took in eyefuls of the area. We were so far from any civilization СКАЧАТЬ