The Banks Sisters 2 Page 10

  After finishing his breakfast blunt appetizer, he went down to the kitchen for the main course he smelled cooking. The infamous drug dealer’s personal chef had come in extra early for his birthday and the potent weed had made him as hungry as five men combined.

  * * *

  Bunny spent the night at a cheap motel. Driving a few extra miles outside the city limits, she made sure she parked her vehicle near the rear of the building. Not knowing if someone would be able to shed any light on who committed Tiffany’s heinous murder, she felt it best to be as low-key as possible. Not having any remorse for her brutal, but justified actions, Bunny had taken a shower. Feeling a sense of relief, she was totally relaxed. She’d ignored the constant back-to-back calls from Simone and Ginger. Bunny knew they could and would take care of the bloody situation she’d left behind in Me-Ma’s basement. And if they couldn’t, at this point in the game, she could care less. Bunny felt she had bigger fish to fry. Wrapped in a towel, she lay across the bed gazing up at the ceiling. As she held the pillow and thought of the same thing she’d been thinking about for the past couple of weeks, Bunny prayed Spoe was also thinking of her up in heaven.

  Wiping a few tears out of the corner of each eye, Bunny rocked back and forth knowing she had to complete her deliberate task of revenge. Knowing what she now knew about Dino, there was no way in hell his mother wasn’t gonna get the same call Spoe’s lunatic mother had received. There was no way Dino’s woman or jump off was gonna miss out on the feeling of heartache and pain she was enduring. No way in hell was Dino gonna enjoy walking these streets ever again without looking over his shoulder in fear. If Spoe was dead by Dino’s hands, then he’d be dead by hers. Lenny’s death meant nothing. Tiffany’s also meant nothing, and killing her own mother in cold blood meant even less to Bunny. But sending Dino on his way was going to be like hitting the multistate jackpot. Bunny was as anxious to see him bleed out as she was on Christmas morning seeing a tree full of ribbon-wrapped toys.

  Climbing out of bed, Bunny turned on the early news report to see if anything would be mentioned about the brazen crime she committed the night before. With wide-eyed anticipation, she sat on the edge of the bed. Not having to wait long, Bunny soon saw Treat’s Gentlemen’s Club and her sister’s beau Detective Chase Dugan taking center stage. Her hands shook and her heart raced as he was being asked question after question pertaining to the case. Attentively listening to every single word reported, Bunny smirked seeing Tiffany’s picture then flash on the upper right-hand side of the television. Reading the word “victim” underneath the woman’s name who set up Spoe to get murdered brought Bunny even more elation. No suspects can be identified at this time, and no apparent motive in the slaughter. Hell, yeah!

  As Bunny Banks smiled, she reached over on the nightstand to grab Tiffany’s stolen cell phone. Having turned off the GPS tracker before she even hit the corner the night before, Bunny was ready to get down to business. With an inner rage, she started the task of trying to track down Dino. Spoe’s devoted wifey had no idea what his grimy Bloody Lions Posse ass looked like or where he lived. However, seeing how Tiffany and he were supposedly so damn close, Bunny knew she could find all the answers she wanted in the smartphone she was holding in her hands. Revenge was at her fingertips.

  Like so many other people, Tiffany had all her social media sites easily accessible. She had the app icons on her cell’s screen waiting to be tapped. Bunny grinned with total satisfaction as she hit the blue and white Facebook symbol and was directed to Tiffany’s personal page. Now having a complete view of her pictures, friends list, and time line, Bunny knew trying to find the infamous Dino would be easier than she thought. In a mere matter of minutes, Bunny was blessed. In the brightest, boldest, and most flamboyant ever flyer she’d ever seen, Bunny saw her man’s killer’s name big as day, damn near leaping off the screen. Double tapping the picture made it increase in size much to Bunny’s delight. As she studied the zoomed-in image, she saw the date of “Dino’s Prebirthday Turn Up” was that very same night. Bunny couldn’t believe her eyes or luck. Not only did it have a contact number to reserve VIP booths, but it had several of Dino’s pictures in the corner of the flyer. So this ugly-faced mud-duck piece of shit having a damn party tonight at Club You Know! Ain’t this about nothing. He out here running the streets getting life in like he some sort of a boss, and my baby gone. But I ain’t tripping. It ain’t no thang. All that bullshit gonna end real soon for his punk ass. Fucking real, real soon, I promise you that, bitch-ass motherfucker!

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  It was nearing one o’clock in the afternoon as Simone pulled her struggle buggy up into the parking lot of the Mexican restaurant. Checking her makeup in the vehicle’s rearview mirror, she was ready to go in and share a meal with her beau, Chase. Hoping the trained detective couldn’t see the countless crimes she and her family members had perpetrated since seeing him last, she took a deep breath. Braced with her game face on, Simone confidently walked through the front door. Following behind the hostess, she saw her lunch date had them a table located in the far corner of the room. Seeing Chase’s bright smile made her return the favor. Loving the fact that he stood up and pushed her seat in for her made Simone miss her deceased father even more. He always taught her that there were certain things a real man did to prove his true worth to a worthy woman. Chase Dugan had just done one, and she was on cloud nine.

  “Hey, now,” he kept cheesing, happy to see her.

  “Hey, yourself, Chase. How are you?”

  “I’m great now that I’m seeing you. You’re looking great as usual . . . beautiful smile; gorgeous face . . . the entire package. Everything a man would want or need in his life.”

  Simone blushed. Automatically, she forgot the real reason she’d taken him up on his out of the blue offer to have lunch. She was here to pump him for information about the criminal cases he was trying to solve, not behave like some immature schoolgirl with a crush on the cute boy next door. Fighting to get back on track and not fall victim to his compliments and endearing gaze, Simone took a small sip from the glass of wine she’d ordered. Seeing how he was still on duty, the police detective wisely decided to let her drink alone and just enjoy the food and her great company. The more she sipped the beverage, the freer she became with touching her lunch partner’s arm, then face, then leg. Simone had a lot of stress and guilt she’d been holding onto for the past month, and the wine she was consuming seemed to ease her troubled mind.

  Munching on nacho chips and salsa, the jubilant couple exchanged what had been going on in each other’s lives. Even though Simone Banks was a little tipsy, she still managed to use her womanly wilds to unearth confidential information. He had no more real solid leads in the bank robbery case. Detective Dugan let it slip that not only did his one lead in that crime run him directly into a brick wall, he also revealed to Simone that the important lead was the stripper that was killed the night before.

  “Oh my God, Chase, that’s too bad. Did you guys ever catch the man that did that to her? I mean, he must’ve been a real monster to do something like that. I bet a place like that has to have cameras all over, so it will be easy to at least get that thug soon.”

  “Yeah, cameras all over that don’t freaking work,” he remarked feeling like he and his men couldn’t catch a break in these random crimes as of late.

  “Wow.” Simone secretly wanted to shout hooray and do a quick happy dance as she sat still.

  “So to answer your question, sweetie, no, Simone.” Defeated in spirit, he lowered his head, not wanting to further acknowledge the fact he and his partner were present inside the strip club when the murder took place. It was bad enough having the chief ride his back about not being observant, but not his girl also. “Not yet. The bad part of it is we don’t have any strong leads on that damn murder. It’s like this entire city has gone nuts over the past month. I don’t know if it’s something in the water or what. But I mean, it’s crazy. The crime rate hasn’t b
een this bad in years. Even the national news is raking the entire department over the coals.”

  Listening to his Saturday afternoon speech on the state of the city, she was just content he didn’t suspect her sister Bunny. Simone took another small sip of her second glass of wine and felt warm all over. The tipsier she became, just like touching on Chase, the bolder her questions also became. “Listen, honey, don’t you think maybe the dancer girl was a bad person that probably was running with the wrong crowd? Maybe drug dealers or whatnot. You know those types of girls are always dealing in something shady. After all, she has lied and schemed to get the fellas to give up their money. Don’t you think?” She tried planting the seed of thought in the veteran detective’s mind.

  “Of course, I do. But it’s my job to bring justice to all the families of all victims; even the victims with questionable backgrounds or lifestyles,” he explained with a serious tone and demeanor. “It’s like these two deceased bodies that were discovered last night out by the James River.”

  “More bodies?” Simone sobered up quickly. She braced herself for what was to come next. She prayed this wasn’t a crazy setup and the police were behind the walls of the restaurant waiting to jump out and arrest her. Maybe Chase had a wire on him and was just making small talk until he gave his surveillance team the signal to reveal themselves. She bravely worked up her nerve and repeated her question. “Did you say more bodies?”

  “Yes, sweetie; two of them. We think one is a woman, the other a man. They were badly burned. Our forensics team has noted that both their hands were missing from their bodies. I mean, that’s crazy, right? Their hands, of all things. How crazy is that?”

  “Missing hands? Oh my goodness, that’s terrible.”

  “Yeah, Simone. We think it might be some sort of wicked serial killer running around the city. I know it seems like a movie plot or something, but at this point, we just don’t know.”

  “A serial killer? Seriously?”

  “Yeah, I know, right? Very bizarre but extremely dangerous.” He reached across the table holding Simone’s wrists, slowly massaging them with his thumbs. “So make sure you and your sisters stay in lighted areas and travel in groups. The chief and the mayor are trying to keep this whole handless body thing under wraps until we have a suspect to parade around the news cameras.”

  The pair soon finished their short but informative lunch. Having Chase’s word that he’d call her later, Simone and he headed toward the front door. Caught up in everything that was Chase, Simone accidentally bumped into a man and woman entering the restaurant.

  “Oh, excuse me,” Simone politely spoke without bothering to look up.

  “Dang, you’re bad!” the female rudely replied, causing Simone to give the couple her full attention.

  “Oh, hell, naw! Not you of all people. You have a lot of nerve walking around the streets coming all out to eat like you just didn’t do some old slimeball bullshit! The hospital called me.”

  “Listen, Simone, don’t start with me!”

  “Me? Are you serious, fool?”

  “Yeah, girl, I don’t owe you or that whack job sister of yours nothing! So stay out my face and keep your mouth shut.” Walter didn’t back down one bit. As his voice got louder, he seemed to be getting closer into his sister-in-law’s personal space.

  The once meek and mild mannered Simone Banks was no more. Her timid personality was a thing of the past. After all she’d been through, participated in, and seen over the past month, dealing with Tallhya’s estranged husband was a piece of cake. “Look, Walter, I’m warning you. I ain’t nothing like my sister. If you think you want it with me, you better back the fuck up and think twice. All that bossing her around and having her scared of her own shadow don’t work with me. I’m telling you, I ain’t the one,” she ranted with small beads of perspiration forming in the tiny creases on her brow. “She put up with that foolishness, but trust, I’m not and won’t. You don’t want to start nothing with me.”

  “Oh, please, Walter, don’t tell me this is another one of them go-for-bad relatives of that crazy whore you fake married to. The one whose money bought me this huge diamond ring on my finger and paid for our trip to Cancun,” Walter’s lunch date remarked with her hands judgmentally planted on her hips.

  “Yeah, baby doll. This is another one of them psychopath dysfunctional Banks sisters,” he replied, pointing his finger in Simone’s face.

  “Oh yeah, well, you make sure you tell that cross-dressing freak brother of yours the next time he tries to fight two women, my brothers got something for his sissy ass, and that’s for real! So whenever you ready, bitch, bring it. I dare you!”

  Simone had forgotten about Chase being at her side. Without reservation, she went full throttle on Walter and who she quickly had to assume was his dead baby’s momma. The very one that got her ass handed to her at the funeral home. “Listen, Frick-and-fucking-dumbass-Frack, neither one of you two want it with any of us. If you think you felt our wrath that day, you best brace yourself. And, Walter, it’s bad enough you stole all my sister’s money to spend on this trash mouthpiece of shit ho you running with, but then you had the nerve to cancel my sister’s medical coverage. You a weak-ass man for that stunt. You know she needed that insurance, and you did her like that after all she done did for your stupid ass.”

  “Well, forget her and you. The doctors done called me saying your sister up there mumbling about this and that like some lunatic; making all sorts of wild claims about things that couldn’t possibly be true.”

  “What?” Simone twisted her face as if Walter was lying. Yet deep down inside, she knew Tallhya probably was up there in the mental facility telling them who shot King and Kennedy and confessing everything else she’d been a part of the past month or so.

  “Hey, if it was up to me, I say let that banner brain broad rot in that motherfucker. I could care less—but not on my dime!”

  “Yeah, you better believe that shit!” Walter’s companion added her two cents.

  Sensing things were seconds from getting even more out of control than they were, Chase stepped in. He had no choice before someone else called the cops. Trying his best to defuse the confusing situation in a calm manner, the police detective stepped in between Simone and her two adversaries. He felt like a ring leader in a bizarre three-ring circus. “Hold up, everyone. Please just be cool and let’s try to keep our voices down.”

  “Man, who in the fuck is you? Don’t tell me you another family member of this psycho,” Walter flexed, now heading in Chase’s direction. “You trying to get some of this rhythm? ’Cause if you is, I’ma gladly bless you with some. Come get it!”

  Now in total police mode, Detective Chase Dugan took a few steps backward not only for his own safety, but that of Simone and Walter’s shit-talking asses. Showing his badge, he wasted no more time announcing his title, warning the man to maintain his position and relax. “Okay, sir, please step back and lower your tone. You are alarming the restaurant’s guests. Not to mention you are threatening an officer of the law with bodily harm. Do you really want to go there?”

  Walter stopped dead in his tracks. He surely didn’t want to be arrested but felt he and his baby momma were verbally attacked first. He complied for the most part but still continued to tell Simone just how crazy her sister Tallhya truly was. “Look, Simone, you and all y’all Banks is straight up nut jobs. Dude, if I was you, I’d watch my back dealing with one of they crazy asses! They all some animals, every last one of them. Their bloodline is tainted.”

  Chase just stood silent in amazement. He couldn’t believe his ears concerning the wild predicament he was abruptly thrust into. If he didn’t have such a strange and strong attachment to Simone, he would’ve arrested all three of them for disturbing the peace and any other criminal charges he could come up with.

  “Shut the fuck up, Walter,” Simone evilly hissed, ready to snap his neck in two pieces with her bare hands. “You gonna get enough of talking shit to me and about
my family. We were the same folks that took your sorry behind in. You ate my grandmother’s home cooked meals every single day and night, you ungrateful little nothing of a man! I swear if I saw your ass on fire, I wouldn’t even spit on your ass!”

  “Naw, Simone, you shut up! The entire neighborhood knows how ruthless y’all family can be when someone crosses y’all; especially that sneaky dead-ass Me-Ma.”

  “Who in the fuck you think you are? You can’t talk about my grandmother like that!” Simone balled up her fist ready to strike, but Chase stepped closer to her.

  “Yeah, her cranky hypocrite ass pretending like she so off into the church and the Bible, then sent her grandkid pit bulls down to the funeral home to clown. What old woman does that? That church she was so caught up in, The Faith and Hope Ministry, and that con man preacher is all a joke!” Walter was spewing all the Banks’s family secrets out loud for all to hear, especially his sister-in-law’s lunch date.

  “Yeah, who in the entire fuck does that—sending her people to fight at a funeral home? I hope that old woman burn in triple-hot hellfire for that snake shit she pulled,” Walter’s girl bravely cosigned, causing Simone to lunge at her.

  “Dude, fuck you, her, and y’all dead bastard-ass baby that’s pushing up daises. Y’all all can kiss my pretty ass!” Having to be physically restrained by Chase, Simone finally left the restaurant kicking and screaming. As he escorted her to the parking lot, she was still heated and not done clowning. She wanted her fist to connect to Walter’s and his bitch’s face. “Oh my God, I hate him! I swear I hate that soulless Negro. I fucking swear!”

  Chase had never seen this side of Simone. He didn’t know what to make out of this out of the blue altercation she was mixed into. She had always been calm, cool, and collected every time they interacted . . . Never showing any craziness or even the hint of it. Even when the bank robbers put guns in her face and had threatened to kill her, Simone was still silent and reserved. Now here she was ejecting threats and having to be dragged out of a public building. “Are you okay now? Relax, Simone. Calm down, please.”