From Itta Bena to Houston, Lt. Thompson to Sgt. Coyle

This coffee is awful. I ain't never come in here and it was made right. I tell you. This fuckin white boy starting with me early too. I'm telling you these Texas boys gone make me show em something. I need to call and check on my mama in a lil bit. She back from El Savador. She went there with the church. Twin was there to see her off. I missed her and my grandma. I got a chance to see em every now and then when I went back home. I loved the Delta and I would never forget it but soon as I had another opportunity I was outta there. Heard Rob had moved down to Dallas and now Drell was here. I couldn't believe he had turned to the Feds. I'm still tryna figure out he did that. "Thompson! Piggy-I mean Coyle made it in yet?" Coyle. Piggy is what everybody around here called her. That thing there was something else. I don't think many around here knew that she and I were from the same place. Itta Bena, Mississippi. She wasn't born that. Transplanted better to say that. She a few years younger than I. When I was in high school, she was still playing outside. She had moved back out here in Houston and had made a name for herself. I had to give it to her. She had moved up through the ranks. Bad as she wanna be. She's my type. Attractive. I liked her attitude too. But it was something else about her that irked me. It was her eyes. They were deadly. My daddy told me when a woman has eyes like that she was poisonous. You stay way from her. It was something that drew me to her. "Capt, Coyle is not here yet. You need me I'll be in my office." I wasn't even gone wait for a response. Fairfield got on my nerves. I mean then he act like he and Courtney was fucking. The whole department thought so too. He didn't want you to say nothing to her. She did what the hell she wanted to do and if anybody besides him called her on it, he was all up in arms about it. I shake my head. I guess she had got to him. He was a square when it came to her. Cussed out all of us but handled her with kid gloves. This Dynastie Foy case had me losing sleep. She was another of my many murder cases that I was bit behind on. Foy was a beautiful young woman. Beautician. Two kids. A boy and a girl. We found her body in a landfill past the ship channel. It was a clean shot. There were ligature marks around her neck from a rope or a necklace being pulled too tight. She had a pretty clean slate except for some charges years ago. Credit card fraud and stuff like that. Her face haunted me because something about her death didn't seem right. There was gun powder residue on her fingers. A lot of it. How did she end up dead if she had fired a gun? Shit like that don't really happen. I was still working leads on it. I wouldn't let her family down. Her mama kept asking about a pendant. Whoever killed her might have it or it could've been lost along the way. It's a pretty day out in Houston, Texas. Still hot and humid as hell but I was a Mississippi boy to my heart. Didn't bother me none. Homicide was a lonely department. All of us kept to ourselves and then it was even harder for me because I didn't have any family here. I'm thinking its time for me to go ahead and settle down. I'm getting up there and I eventually want children. My twin had already had him one. My niece Madison was my heart. I love her like she mine. These back spasms ain't no joke either. Wasn't that long ago I was playing football for Mississippi State. Car accident I was in got me feeling way older than I am. I get through it but ain't a day go by that I'm not in pain. What's all the commotion out there? Oh, Miss Piggy is in the building. In a T-shirt and jeans, this chick was bad enough to be Queen. She must've come here on that damn bike. I saw her sit that helmet down. I love the way she walk. She licked her lips. "What's up Twin?" "You got it Lonzo." I had to chuckle at that. I had started calling her that after ole boy in Training Day. Denzel's character. Piggy was just as cocky as that bastard was. Think she invincible. I tower over her short ass but when she stood in front of me it felt like we were the same height. It was something about this woman. I had been hearing things about her possible ties with the underworld. I didn't know if it was true or not but one thing for certain and two things for sure, Courtney Coyle wasn't like any woman I had ever met in my life. "Lt. Thompson, we've got ballistic reports back on that warehouse heist and murder." Good. It took em long enough. "Put em on my desk Sherry." "Twin what warehouse heist?" "Piggy you remember. Gitto's Warehouse got knocked off and so was he. Popped him right between the eyes. I'm about to go over these reports now." "Twin, give me a minute. I need to talk to you in private about something." Here we go. She twirled a finger through those blonde locks of hers. Wonder what this was about. "Sure. Come on in." She twisted in my office. I closed the door. She sat square on my desk. That big soft ass of hers seated on every case file I had. Including the ballistic reports I needed. She bit her bottom lip and looked me dead in the eye. I had to look away. Her eyes were piercing I guess you'd call it. I could hear Otis Redding playing on my small radio. Sitting at the Dock of the Bay. She leaned back on my desk and I watched her breasts rise and fall. Yeah she was poison. "Let's talk, Twin."