“Mr. Givens was wearing a cowboy hat, yes.”
Cynthia Geary looked around her living room as if she might find a sign telling her what to do next. When she didn’t spot one, her demeanor grew rigid, as did her tone.
“I have nothing to say about my ex-husband and I want you to leave my house.”
“The DA will offer you immunity from prosecution if you testify. If you’re worried about getting into trouble, don’t be. Your ex-husband will go to prison and you’ll be able to get on with your life.”
“I said I wanted you to leave.”
“All right, play it that way,” Tanner said, “but we will be back. I suggest you hire a lawyer.”
Cynthia Dalton watched them drive away, then shut the door. Tanner wondered if she were calling Dalton Geary. He drove around the block and parked where they could keep an eye on the house.
“I think you were right about her, Tanner. The woman looked terrified when you said Geary would go to prison for life. She’s really grown dependent on the bastard.”
“Yeah, and with any luck she’s calling him right now.”
“You’re hoping he comes here to see her?”
“I am, and if he shows, I’ll kill him.”
78
Cookies And Milk
HIGHWAY I-19 SOUTH, ARIZONA, APRIL 1999
Despite the odds having been six against two, Cody and Romeo triumphed over the motorcyclists that attacked them. However, they did not avoid getting marked by the battle. Both boys had bruises on their arms from blocking blows. Cody had a puffy upper lip and Romeo a welt over his left eye, but their hand-to-hand combat training with Spenser had paid off.
“I can’t believe those girls are working with Farnsworth,” Romeo said. He was driving toward the town of Green Valley, which was south of Tucson. Pete Roscoe’s retired parents lived there, and the boys hoped that the bank robber might have gone home.
“That old man is more than he seems,” Cody said. “We can’t underestimate him, or Kayla and Zoe.”
“Do you think those are their real names? I mean, we gave them phony names, maybe they did the same.”
“I don’t care about them anymore, but they’d better stay out of our way. Pete Roscoe is ours; we’re not losing him to some old bounty hunter.”
“And I thought this would be a cinch compared to running in the desert for a full day. If we don’t watch it, we’ll lose this test and then neither of us will be a Tanner.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Cody said. There was anger in his voice. The anger was directed at himself. He had acted like a fool by fawning over Kayla, and the girl played him for a chump.
Spenser said on more than one occasion that to be a Tanner you had to be superior to the average man in every aspect. Cody understood that better than ever and vowed to never be fooled again. A woman could be every bit as devious as a man, if not more so. By letting his hormones run him instead of his intellect, he had opened himself up to be taken advantage of by Kayla.
No more of that. If the girl wanted to play games again she would lose.
The small home of George and Marjorie Roscoe had cozy written all over it. The red tile roof looked new and the landscaping, which included Angelina daisies and blue Plumbago plants, was simple and tasteful. After spending hours watching the home and seeing no sign of Pete Roscoe, Cody and Romeo decided to get a look inside.
George Roscoe greeted the boys with a smile when he opened his front door. He was a bald and chubby man of seventy with a fringe of gray hair.
“You fellas selling something?”
“Magazine subscriptions,” Cody said. “To help pay our way through school.”
“I was a Fuller Brush man myself, of course, that was back east and a long time ago. Hey, you two come in out of the heat and the wife and I will see what you’re selling.”
George led the boys to the kitchen where his wife was frosting a cake. As they walked through the home, the boys looked around for a sign of Pete Roscoe. There was none, nor were there any pictures of him on the wall. Roscoe was a career criminal and had run with a gang in his earlier years. Perhaps his parents had disowned him.
“Marge, these young fellas are selling magazines. I figured we’d take a look and see if there’s anything we might want.”
Marjorie Roscoe was sixty-six. She had snow-white hair and startling blue eyes. Her smile was as genuine as her husband’s as she greeted the boys.
“You two are just in time for chocolate cake,” she said. When she spotted the swelling above Romeo’s eye and Cody’s puffy lip, she gave them a worried look. “What happened to you two?”
Romeo smiled at her. “We got banged up while playing football, it’s nothing.”
Marjorie smiled back at them.
“Oh, to be young and full of energy again. I got tired just baking this cake.”
The boys brought out the materials they were using as a pretense, but George and Marjorie seemed interested.
By the time Cody and Romeo left the home an hour later, they each had a piece of chocolate cake in their stomach, along with another piece wrapped for the road. They also had orders for three magazines.
“I’m going to send these order cards in for real,” Romeo said. “I’d feel bad if Marge didn’t get her magazines.”
“I know what you mean. It’s hard to believe those two raised a criminal like Pete Roscoe.”
“They don’t talk about him; did you notice that?”
“I did,” Cody said. “Maybe he broke their hearts.”
“I don’t think he’s coming here; that means we have only one place left to look.”
“The hunting cabin, but I don’t think we should go there right away. It will be dark soon, and Roscoe might have rigged up explosives.”
“Yeah, I hate to wait for morning, but I’d hate getting blown up too, and besides, there’s a chance Roscoe is in Tucson. He lived there for years.”
“We’ll get rooms at a motel, then search the bars for him. Maybe we’ll get lucky and spot him, but I want to be at that cabin early.”
“Hell yeah, we can’t let this guy get away,” Romeo said.
They took a pair of cheap rooms at a motel outside of Tucson, then headed into the city to look for Roscoe. After coming out of the fifth bar they visited, they saw a pair of familiar faces.
“You chicks play dirty,” Romeo said to Kayla and Zoe. The girls were standing outside their blue van, which was parked behind the boys’ sports car.
Kayla and Zoe moved closer to the boys.
“That was a dirty joke to play on you,” Kayla said, “and we’re sorry.”
“I don’t want to hear I’m sorry,” Cody said. “Just stay away from us.”
“Don’t be like that,” Zoe said. “We were just trying to help out our granddad.”
“Farnsworth is your grandfather?” Romeo asked.
“Yeah, and he really wants to catch Pete Roscoe before you do.”
“Where is your grandfather?” Cody asked.
“He went to bed early,” Kayla said. “You know how old people are.”
Zoe moved closer to Romeo and stared into his eyes.
“Do you two have any idea where Pete Roscoe might be, sexy?”
Romeo laughed. “Like we’d help you after you tried to get us beaten to a pulp.”
Kayla smiled. “We weren’t worried. Granddad said you two would win the fight.”
“He did?” Cody asked.
“He sure did,” Zoe said, “and he was right.”
“Granddad is always right,” Kayla said. She reached out and squeezed Cody’s left arm. “You must be strong.”
Cody yanked his arm away. “Don’t even try it. We’re not falling for the sweet sexy girl act again. You two are competition, and you’re going to lose.”
Kayla pouted. “You don’t find me sexy anymore?”
Cody shook his head in consternation, then headed for the car.
“C’mon, Romeo. We’ve wasted eno
ugh time with these two.”
Romeo waved a dismissive hand at the girls before walking away and getting in the car. As they were driving off, he looked back over his shoulder.
“They’re just standing there and watching us drive away. Good, I thought they might try to follow us.”
“Maybe they’ve realized we’re through being fools for them,” Cody said.
After watching until the boys’ car was out of sight, the girls got back in their van. Farnsworth was in the rear and looking at a device that displayed a crude map with a red dot on it.
“Is the tracking device working, Granddad?” Kayla asked.
Farnsworth grinned at her.
“It’s working like a charm. I wish I had toys like this years ago.”
“What’s the range?”
“Just a few miles, so we’d better get to following them.”
“They were mad at us. I don’t think Kayla and I will be able to fool them again.”
“Yes, you will, there’s one more trick I want you to play on these boys.”
“What is it?” Zoe asked.
“I’ll tell you when the time comes.”
“Do you think they’ll lead us to Pete Roscoe?” Kayla asked.
“I’d be shocked if they didn’t,” Farnsworth said.
“They’re young, they can’t have any more experience than Zoe and me, and I doubt we could find Roscoe without your help.”
“You girls are better than you think, and so are those boys. One way or another, Pete Roscoe’s days of freedom are over.”
At a ramshackle cabin outside Bisbee, Arizona, Pete Roscoe was taking pains to keep his freedom. He had rigged up an explosive device using gunpowder and nails. If anyone came to the cabin looking for him, they’d be sorry they had.
Roscoe was not alone. He was with a man he’d once shared a cell with named Nate. Nate wasn’t very bright, and he looked up to Roscoe, whom he considered to be a master criminal. They had been cellmates in a county jail for three days and had kept in touch over the years.
Nate almost always had a can of beer in his hand, and he drank the brew cold or warm. He sipped on a can while watching Roscoe rig his bomb.
Pete Roscoe was certain that the former partner who had ordered his death knew nothing about Nate, but the man did know about the old hunting cabin. Roscoe had hunted bears with the man there once. His former partner would tell whoever he’d hired to kill him about the place, and they’d be walking into a trap.
“Did I tell you I had to move my damn trailer?” Nate asked Roscoe.
“Yeah, you told me three times.”
“Damn shopping center, but I just had the trailer towed across the highway.”
“Who owns that land?”
“Hell if I know, but I’ll squat there until they chase me off.”
“Thanks again for letting me stay with you, Nate. I’ll make it up to you someday.”
Nate smiled a gap-toothed grin.
“What are friends for?”
Roscoe ran a thin strand of fishing wire across the shack’s entrance and attached it to a nail on the door frame. If anyone opened the door more than a few inches they’d regret it.
“That’s some trap there, Pete, but what if some kids come up here and decide to play in the cabin?”
Roscoe smiled. “This is a hunting cabin, Nate. Kids aren’t allowed to hunt.”
“Oh yeah,” Nate said. Roscoe’s response made perfect sense to his alcohol-addled mind.
They were in Nate’s old truck and ready to leave as the sun was sinking from sight. Roscoe said he would drive. He wasn’t about to risk Nate getting in an accident on the way to the trailer.
Nate looked around the truck’s dirty floor, then into the back seat, which was filled with newspapers and fast food wrappers.
“What’s wrong?” Roscoe asked.
“Nothin’, I thought I brought a girlie magazine along, but I must have left it at home.”
“I’ll buy you another one at the new supermarket you told me about.”
“Damn shopping center,” Nate muttered.
Inside the cabin, Nate’s magazine rested on a table, with the old address of his trailer printed on the cover.
79
Go Wee-Wee
MOUNT VERNON, NEW YORK, MARCH 2018
As they waited for Dalton Geary to arrive at the house, Tanner climbed into the rear of the SUV and took the gag out of Cord’s mouth.
“You’re going to die,” Cord told Tanner, after Tanner uncovered his eyes and removed the tissue from his ears. “I don’t know what this bitch is paying you, friend, but if you keep helping her you’ll get whacked.”
“My name is Tanner.”
“Tanner?” Cord said. “The same Tanner who was out in the desert years ago?”
“That’s right.”
“Did you kill Ron and Mikey?”
“Were they Mead’s bodyguards?”
“Yeah.”
“They’re fine, but they’ll have a headache all day.”
Cord looked pleased that his friends were still alive, then said he had to pee. Tanner ignored him. Cord’s hands were cuffed behind his back. Tanner wasn’t about to let him loose, and he sure as hell wasn’t working the man’s zipper down for him. Cord would just have to hold it in.
“Where can we find Dalton Geary?”
“You might not believe this, but I don’t know.”
“I believe you. If Geary didn’t let Mead know his whereabouts, he wouldn’t confide in a peon like you.”
“I know his real name. He trusts me that much.”
“Good for you.”
Cord looked out the windshield, then squinted.
“This is Cynthia Geary’s block. I recognize it.”
“She said that she knows you.”
“Yeah, I’ve driven Mead here before. I even dropped in on Cynthia a few times myself, if you know what I mean.”
“You’ve slept with her?” Andrea asked.
“Hell yeah, Ron and Mikey too. Cynthia is a whore.”
“I don’t care about Geary’s ex-wife,” Tanner said. “But I’ll use her to track the man down.”
“What happened to Mead? Did you kill him?”
“He’s dead, just like Geary will be soon,” Andrea said.
Cord sent her a venomous look.
“You killed my brother, bitch. I’m going to make you pay for that. I looked for you. Did you know that? I hid after the shit that went down in the desert in case the cops came after me. When I figured it was okay, I went back to that house where you lived with your father, but the place had been cleaned out.”
Andrea smiled at him. “You’ll be joining your brother real soon.”
Despite having his wrists and ankles bound, Cord lunged at Andrea, as if trying to head-butt her. Tanner grabbed him by the hair and slammed him back against the seat. When Cord refused to sit still, Tanner smacked him in the throat. Cord wheezed in a breath and began to cough, that was followed by him wetting himself.
“Great,” Andrea said. “Now we have to smell that.”
When Tanner was certain Cord was still breathing normally, he duct-taped his mouth and his eyes again, then made it so Cord couldn’t hear.
A limo arrived minutes later, and Andrea smiled wide.
“He’s here,” Andrea said.
“Maybe, or maybe Geary just sent someone to fetch his ex-wife, either way it looks like she contacted him.”
“I’m starting to hate this bitch, Tanner. It’s partly because of her that my father is dead. She went to him to get help freeing herself from Geary, but now she’s aiding the man.”
“She’s got a lot to lose if he goes down. Everything she has comes from Geary.”
No one exited the limo, but Cynthia Geary came out of the house carrying an overnight bag. The bag was a vibrant lime green, while Cynthia’s jacket was electric-blue with pink polka-dots.
“Where does this woman shop?” Andrea said.
“I d
on’t know, but it looks like she’s leaving home for a while.”
The driver of the limo was a burly man with a beard. He hopped out and opened the rear door for Cynthia, then the limo was rolling again.
Tanner waited until it turned the corner before he followed.
“That limo must mean that Geary is nearby,” Andrea said.
“I hope so,” Tanner said. “I want to kill him and then forget all about him.”
“Thank you for helping me, although I know you want to kill Geary too, and I still owe you for saving me years ago.”
“You don’t owe me, Andrea. You were a child back then.”
“And children should be protected no matter what?”
“Yes.”
“You’re a strange man, Tanner. You’re as cold-bloodied a killer as I can imagine, and yet, you have a good heart.”
“I’m a trained assassin, not a random slaughterer.”
“Who trained you?”
“My mentor. He was an assassin too.”
Andrea laughed.
“An apprentice hit man. What happened if you failed to kill someone, did you get a bad report card?”
Tanner smiled.
“No, but I learned a valuable lesson,” Tanner said, and his mind drifted back in time to his days as Xavier Zane.
80
Boom!
OUTSIDE BISBEE, ARIZONA, APRIL 1999
Cody and Romeo arrived in the area where Roscoe’s hunting cabin was and watched it through binoculars. To call the place a cabin was to be unduly kind. It was a shack at best, and one that a strong wind could topple someday.
The plan was to keep watch until someone emerged. It was a warm day. Even if no one came outside they would still open up one of the two dusty, cracked windows.
“Does that thing even have a bathroom?” Romeo asked.
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