CHAPTER 1
BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
Josephine Taylor’s first mistake was being born. Her third mistake was not putting a gun into her mouth and blowing out her own brains. That being said, however, the second mistake she made was the real doozy. And the one that ultimately cost her everything, including her miserable fucking life!
Following the takedown of Malik Oldham a few years ago, law enforcement throughout Birmingham and Jefferson County made it their mission to ensure that no one would ever again rise to the top of the crime world in the Magic City. In fact, they did all they could to make sure there was no crime world in the Magic City, pouring in resources and personnel to work around-the-clock to accomplish this goal. And with the assistance of local prosecutors and some legislators in Montgomery, tougher and lengthier prison sentences were put in place for any of the perpetrators unlucky enough to be caught and convicted.
Of course, they weren’t naive, they knew that crime and vice would likely never be completely stamped out, but they could try very hard to limit and contain it at minimal and disorganized levels, never allowing anyone to consolidate criminal power as Innes Redbone had done twenty years ago, and to a lesser extent, Malik Oldham had done after knocking off Innes. But there were those who tried, and some of them were a lot worse than either Redbone or Oldham had ever been, if you could believe that.
About a year ago, Jo-Jo Taylor decided that it was high time Birmingham had a Godmother of Crime, and a white one at that, so she started taking over as much territory and operations from other gangs as she could, smaller outfits at first, but soon she was going after the bigger fish, and kicking them to the curb, too, oftentimes via extremely violent means. And despite their best efforts, local LEOs[8] just couldn’t seem to stop her.
But then about seven months ago, Madam Taylor ran afoul of Triple-D[9] because the girlfriend of one of her lieutenants went to a domestic abuse shelter to get away from him, only to have the lieutenant in question and some of his boys bust into the shelter and drag her out, destroying property and injuring the security guard on duty in the process. The shelter was run by a friend of Reese Tamblyn’s, and when Reese heard about this, she called Ollie. Ollie was standing in my office at the time of that call, and shortly thereafter, Mr. Oliver and I were out hunting.
Within a couple of days, thanks in part to a bit of assistance from a bail-bonding agent who had paper on Taylor, we managed to locate and detain the wannabe Nasty Godmother of the Magic City, and then turn her over to the Shelby County cops. At that point, Birmingham cops went to work on her fledgling criminal empire. Triple-D was out of it and I was hopeful that the cops would be able to deal with Taylor and her associates through conventional legal means. Unfortunately, the judicial system is not all it’s cracked up to be sometimes. Or, to quote Ollie, “It fucking sucks, man!”. About sums it up.
Taylor cut a deal with the feds, gave up some major drug players in Atlanta that she had information on, and in exchange, they had all local charges in Birmingham quashed, meaning she was back on the streets with the thanks of a grateful Department of Justice and told to keep her nose clean. Yeah, sure, that worked all right. Not even two weeks before she was back at it, and once again rising to the top of the thug game, assembling a crew and going after the territory she had lost, and staking out claims to new areas that she had intended to take before her brief incarceration.
In the meantime, Reese Tamblyn had put together a group of investors with the goal of assisting Birmingham with its efforts to revitalize the most desperate and crime-ridden neighborhoods in the city. She was still general manager at Dex’s Place in Five Points West and a vice president at EAD Enterprises, but thanks to several smart investments over the past few years, Reese had amassed a decent sum of money of her own and decided she wanted to do more to help those out there who needed it. She had a good life, a husband, a son, a nice house, a great job and friends, but there were so many people out there who had none of that. And Reese wanted to do something substantial to help, hence the formation of the Birmingham Neighborhoods Project, of which Ms. Tamblyn was the Executive Director.
Gate City was the first area chosen for BNP to invest in, and given the reputation of the place, it was a tall order, but Reese and her friends were not deterred, there were a lot of good people in Gate City who needed help and they couldn’t wait for the municipal government to get around to doing the job, so in the meantime, the private sector would have to step in and shoulder some of the responsibility.
Lamentably, Jo-Jo Taylor had set her sights on Gate City as well, and she was packing a lot more than a heart full of love and a pocket full of cash. Also, as Ollie and I could personally attest to, she was one mean bitch. Marvin Daniels, Sandra Lopez, and Reese Tamblyn were all gunned down while talking to a gathering of residents in the parking lot of an apartment complex on 66th Street North that BNP had just purchased with the aim of kicking out the drug dealers (once they hired Triple-D) and then completely remodeling the place, with no increase in rent to the tenants. They were discussing additional plans for the neighborhood when three beat up old Chevys rolled onto the scene, several bangers climbing out with machine pistols.
Lopez died on the way to the hospital. Daniels did not survive surgery. Reese and six others never left that parking lot alive.
As it happened, Ollie was in my office again when the call came in from a friend of mine with BPD Robbery-Homicide. My reaction was shocked disbelief. Ollie damn near destroyed half the office before I and the rest of the team managed to calm him down, after physically restraining him. But that calm would not last long, I knew that. And honestly, I didn’t really want it to. I don’t like a whole lot of people on this planet. I had liked Reese Tamblyn. I did not like the fact that she was dead. People were going to pay for that.
Oh, and in case you were confused, yes, Josephine Taylor’s second and worst mistake was killing Reese Tamblyn, because as of that moment, she was the only mission Triple-D had, and none of us would stop until that mission was accomplished.
By whatever violent and bloody means necessary.
