By the time they left the man, they could reassemble their weapons blindfolded, having learned to distinguish each part by feel. Those same weapons were in the car with them, but they were hidden behind a false panel in the glove box.
They were discussing what they had learned as they headed toward Tucson, and were looking forward to getting there. Spenser told them that they would have some down time once they reached Tucson, and that meant hooking up with girls.
To arrive quicker, they were on a back road that should save them time, since there was major construction being done on the highway, and traffic there was down to a single lane in spots.
As their conversation turned from weapons to women, Cody caught sight of a vehicle coming up fast behind him. His first thought was that it was a police car, but no, it was a pickup truck. The truck flew by them in the empty oncoming lane and Cody got a glimpse of the driver. He was a bearded man with wild dark hair.
After passing them on the quiet road, the truck returned to their lane, then hit its brakes while turning sideways, to block the road. Cody brought the convertible to a stop just several feet shy of the truck, then watched as the driver jumped out and rushed over to them.
The driver of the pickup was unarmed, but muscular enough to be trouble all on his own. Before looking at either Cody or Romeo, the guy checked out the back seat, which was empty.
“Hey, dude,” Romeo said. “What’s your problem, man?”
The guy looked at them, and Cody could see the anger in his eyes.
“I’m looking for a girl, a hitchhiker. She caught a ride with me and then she stole my wallet.”
“We haven’t seen her,” Cody said. “And why would anyone hitchhike on this road instead of the highway? Your truck is the first vehicle we’ve seen in ten minutes.”
“She’s blonde and small, but she’s got great tits on her. If I catch her I’m going to beat her ugly for stealing my wallet.”
Cody pointed at the pickup. “Move your truck.”
The man gave him a hard look, then turned and headed for his vehicle. A few seconds later, the pickup truck was flying down the road again.
“What an asshole,” Romeo said, and Cody agreed.
They were back on the road for only a few minutes when they spotted her. The girl ran out from behind a row of scraggly bushes and waved for them to stop.
The jerk in the pickup truck’s description of her had been crude, but spot on. She was wearing a pair of tight blue shorts and a red top that left her midriff exposed. Her blonde hair was long, but she kept it tucked back by her ears and out of her face with the use of colored bobby pins.
Cody stopped the car as she came up on Romeo’s side of the vehicle. The girl was about their age, and she looked frightened.
“I need a ride, please? There’s this crazy guy out here looking for me.”
“We met him,” Romeo said. “He told us you stole his wallet.”
“He’s a liar! All I did was toss it out of the truck when he started touching me. He had the wallet sitting in the cup holder, and I knew if I threw it out the window it would make him stop the truck. It worked, and then I jumped out and ran off into the desert. I think he wanted to rape me.”
“What’s your name?” Cody asked.
“I’m Gina.”
“Hop in, Gina. I’m Xavier, that’s Romeo.”
Gina smiled, and as Romeo got out of the car to let her into the back seat, Gina looked him over.
“You’re cute, Romeo.”
“Thanks,” Romeo said.
As Romeo settled back in the passenger seat, Cody sent him a thumbs up signal. At least one of them had found a girl to spend time with.
Cody drove off as Gina and Romeo began talking, he was unaware that someone was watching them, watching, and following.
6
Bean Counter
On the grounds of what had once been the Desert View Motel, Tanner questioned the man he had abducted. The long single-story building was dilapidated and covered in graffiti. Weeds surrounded the motel and vegetation had encroached upon it, while the road leading to it was cracked and crumbling.
The Desert View Motel had been a thriving business until about twenty years earlier, when a new highway extension diverted its source of customers away from the area. The owner eventually abandoned it, leaving the utility bills and mortgage unpaid. After that, the place was left to rot.
Tanner had pulled his man into what had been the motel office, then shoved him to the floor. After cutting the man’s wrists and ankles free, Tanner tore the duct tape from his mouth and asked his first question.
“What’s your name?”
“Thomas Beck.”
“Tell me where I can find Daryl McCall.”
“I… I don’t know where he is.”
“But you know someone higher up in the organization. Who is it?”
Beck tried to smile, and failed. Instead, he looked as if he were about to cry.
“I’m just an accountant. The money man. I never touch the drugs.”
“But you know someone higher up in the gang, who is it?”
“An associate of Mr. McCall. His name is Keith Brown. He’s the one that handles the drug end of the business. I simply count and launder the funds.”
“You have Brown’s personal number?”
“Yes.”
“And you were about to call him?”
“Yes.”
“What were you going to tell him?”
“I was going to inform him about the two dealers who were killed earlier, and the remaining boy’s claim that they were murdered by a rival gang.”
“And Keith Brown knows where Daryl McCall is?”
“I would think so. I’ve heard that they’ve been friends since they were children.”
“Where can I find Keith Brown?”
Thomas Beck hesitated in answering the question, then shrugged.
“I don’t know where he is. I only have his number.”
Tanner smashed an elbow against Beck’s face, breaking his nose and causing blood to flow. The accountant let out a howl of pain as he scurried away across the office’s filthy floor. The front of Beck’s suit jacket was turning red from the blood flowing from his nose. Tanner waited until Beck could speak, then asked his question again.
“Where can I find Keith Brown?”
“I can’t tell you,” Beck said. “He’ll kill me.”
Tanner raised his booted foot and brought it down on Beck’s left hand, several small bones broke as the heel crushed Beck’s fingers. As the accountant was reacting to the fresh agony in his hand, Tanner took out a knife and sliced a red line across Beck’s chin.
Through tears, Beck shouted, “The factory!”
“What factory?”
“There’s a pottery factory north of Phoenix. It’s where they cook the meth, but from the outside it looks like they only make dinner plates and ceramic cups, that sort of thing.”
“And Keith Brown is there?”
“Yes, along with his men. You’ll never get to him. He always travels with at least three bodyguards.”
“Let me worry about that,” Tanner said. He questioned Beck until he was certain he could find the factory and identify Keith Brown. He also had the cell phone that contained Brown’s phone number.
As Tanner took out his gun, Beck held up his hands.
“Don’t, please, you said everything would be all right.”
“It will be, just not for you.”
“No! Hey, I’m an accountant. I don’t sell drugs. I’m just a bean counter.”
“You should have counted someone else’s beans.”
Tanner pulled the trigger twice, hitting Beck in the head and chest. When Tanner left the motel office, he paused to look to the left, at what had once been room Number 12 of the Desert View Motel. As he did so, he drifted off into a memory.
7
Ambushed
ARIZONA, MARCH 1998
Gina was fine with goi
ng to Tucson, but said she was sick of being on the road and wanted to take a break.
There was a nearby motel she knew of, which was named the Desert View. Gina claimed the rates were cheap, but when Cody caught sight of it, he had one question.
“Is this place still open?”
Gina smiled. “Of course, but what did you expect for twenty dollars a night?”
“It looks like it was abandoned. I only see one car in the lot.”
Romeo sent him a look.
“Chill, Xavier. It won’t be so bad for one night.”
Cody shook his head. He wouldn’t care what the place looked like either if Gina was sharing his bed. The girl had locked onto Romeo since she first laid eyes on him. Cody was certain Romeo wouldn’t be sleeping alone when night came.
The desk clerk said his name was McKenna. He was in his thirties, with dirty blond hair, and had Devil tattoos on both forearms. He also had bad news.
“I hope you’re kidding,” Cody said.
McKenna smiled at him.
“Nope, the electric is on the fritz, but it should be back on soon.”
“How soon?” Romeo asked.
“Any minute now,” McKenna said.
Cody headed for the door.
“Let’s go, Romeo.”
“Did I mention the rooms are free?” McKenna said.
Cody turned and stared at the man.
“Free rooms?”
“If you’re just staying the night, but I’ll still charge you the twenty bucks if the power comes back on.”
Gina leaned into Romeo and hugged him.
“The power might come on by the time it gets dark, and I really want to be alone with you.”
Romeo sent Cody a pleading look, which Cody answered with a sigh.
“Give us the damn room keys,” he told McKenna.
Cody took Room 4, while Romeo and Gina had Room 12. Cody wanted to be far enough away from the couple so he wouldn’t hear them going at each other.
After throwing his duffel bag on the bed, Cody watched as dust rose up off the blanket. The room was filthy, and he decided that even staying there for free was a rip-off. Cody opened the window, which had a cracked pane of glass, but the breeze drifting in alleviated the heat.
He used the toilet, then turned on the faucet to wash his face and hands. The water came out brown at first, and even after it cleared, there was still no hot water.
Cody let out a curse, washed up with the cold water, and grabbed his tape player from his bag. He had recently become competent at speaking Spanish, and sought to learn French as well. With nothing else to do, he figured he might as well spend the afternoon studying irregular French verbs. As Cody was about to put his headphones on, he heard Gina scream.
He flung the door open and found Gina running toward him. She was barefoot and wearing only a set of lacy, pink underwear.
Cody grabbed her by the arm. “What’s wrong?”
“That man with the pickup truck broke into the room. Romeo’s fighting him, but the guy has a knife.”
Cody’s eyes flicked to the car. There were two loaded guns hidden in it, but he might waste valuable time retrieving them. It was time that could cost Romeo his life. He rushed toward Room 12 while calling Romeo’s name, hoping it would distract the man with the knife.
Only, there was no man with a knife. There were two men with guns, and one of them had his revolver pressed against the side of Romeo’s head.
One of the men was the pickup driver, but the other man was McKenna. It was McKenna who held a gun on Romeo, who had also been gagged.
“What the hell is this?” Cody asked.
Gina walked past him, reached into her purse, and removed yet another gun. She giggled as she looked at Cody’s expression, then sent him a wink.
“Gotcha!”
8
Where There’s Smoke, There’s Gunfire
The name on the factory was Gotham Stoneware, but Tanner knew they were manufacturing more than dinner plates inside the sprawling gray building.
Before going to the factory, Tanner made a stop at a pair of office supply stores. He paid cash for ten cases of copier paper, three boxes of printer cartridges, and a packet of blank invoices, then loaded the merchandize into the rear of the van.
He had split his purchases unevenly between two stores, so that tracking the items would be more difficult. Before entering the second store, he had altered his appearance by changing his shirt and donning a different hat.
Tanner had no reason to think anyone would ever investigate where the materials came from, but was simply being cautious, as he had been trained to do.
After writing up a phony invoice for the cases of paper and the copier ink, Tanner drove the white van along a winding blacktop driveway that led to the front gate of the factory. He pulled up to the guard shack as if he were there to make a delivery.
The uniformed guard at the gate made a call to someone in receiving and told them what Tanner was delivering.
“The guy says it’s copy paper and printer ribbons.”
The guard was quiet as he listened for a response. After seeing no name on the side of the van, he asked Tanner a question.
“What’s the name of your company?”
“Killem,” Tanner said. “Killem Office Supplies & Service.”
The guard repeated the name to the person on the phone, as Tanner pretended to be bored and checked his watch.
A few more seconds passed, then the guard hung up the wall phone.
“That was Jimmy in receiving. He said the storeroom has enough copy paper to last months but he knows they’re low on copier ink. Drive straight in, head right, and follow the signs around to the loading dock. When you’re done, come back here and I’ll let you out the other side.”
“Cool,” Tanner said.
The chain link gate rolled backwards and Tanner drove on in. The gate guard was just that, a gate guard. Tanner was certain the man had no idea that a meth lab was on the premises. Whatever else was going on inside Gotham Stoneware, it was still a factory that did legitimate manufacturing.
As Tanner backed up the van to the loading dock, he decided to change his tactics. He had planned to go at Keith Brown inside the building, but now he figured he needed to think of a way to lure Brown out into the open.
A shootout inside the factory could result in some innocent worker getting injured or slain. Tanner hadn’t come to Arizona to kill the innocent, but to free a girl who was being held captive. He had no qualms about killing the members of Daryl McCall’s gang, but he hated involving innocents in his battles. After all, he was the sole survivor of a family that had been murdered because of the reckless actions of another man.
Thomas Beck had told Tanner that Keith Brown was chauffeured about in a vintage Rolls Royce Phantom. Tanner spotted the silver vehicle parked sideways across three parking spaces, and a new plan entered his mind.
Before leaving the van, Tanner stuffed two round disks into the pockets of his jeans. A gun was tucked in his waistband and concealed by his shirt, while a knife was in a sheath inside a boot.
The guy at the dock, Jimmy, met Tanner with a smile. Jimmy was middle-age, with smoker’s teeth, and thinning brown hair.
Tanner greeted his smile with a grimace, as he held a hand over his stomach.
“Where’s your bathroom? My ass is about to explode.”
Jimmy jabbed a finger toward a row of shelves to indicate direction.
“All the way down that aisle, then make a left, the door’s right there.”
“Thanks,” Tanner called back over his shoulder, as he rushed down the aisle.
Jimmy’s directions had been perfect. Once he was inside the bathroom and determined that he was alone, Tanner removed the two disks from his pocket. They were essentially smoke grenades, but were equipped with a digital timer that gave its user up to a ten-minute delay.
Once the disks activated, they would release thick black smoke. Tanner set the timers fo
r the full ten minutes, then left the bathroom. There were stacks of shelves nearby filled with flat cardboard boxes that were banded together.
After looking for a camera and finding none, Tanner slid both disks beneath the bottom shelf, then headed back toward the dock.
Jimmy smiled at him as he drew closer to the van.
“Where did you eat lunch? I want to stay away from the place.”
“I got a tuna sandwich at a deli in Phoenix. I don’t remember the name,” Tanner said, and held up his phone. “My boss called. He said they sent me to the wrong address.”
Jimmy nodded. “I was thinking that. We usually get all our supplies from Ace Stationary.”
“Do you know if Ace is hiring? My company sucks. This is the third time this month they’ve screwed up a delivery and had me running in circles.”
“They might be hiring. Ace is only a few miles down the highway, on Calvert Street.”
“I’ll check them out.”
Tanner said goodbye to Jimmy and got back in the van. After pulling away from the dock, Tanner stopped the van near the Rolls Royce, and hopped out to take a look at it.
Jimmy shouted to him from the dock.
“Stay away from that car. The guy that owns it has no sense of humor, if you know what I mean.”
Tanner raised a hand in acknowledgement and got back in the van. He had already placed a magnetic tracking device under the car’s front fender.
He made it back through the gate, drove along the winding driveway, then pulled the van over and parked when he was out of sight of the gate guard. Tanner checked his watch, and saw that the disks would be sending forth smoke at any second. After taking out Thomas Beck’s phone, Tanner sent a panicked text to Keith Brown.
Young Guns Box Set - Books 1-4: A Tanner Series (Young Gun Box Sets) Page 3