The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2)

by Remington Kane

  The question was asked by Cameron, who had been standing behind the wooden post that Sara was lashed to.

  Sara turned her head to look up at her and the movement increased her pain, so she simply lowered her chin and answered.

  “I didn’t hurt your brother and I’m not the woman you want. My name is Sara Blake, I’m an ex-federal agent and the man who I left to drown in the jail was a hired killer named Tanner.”

  Cameron stepped in front of her and got down on one knee, so that she was eye level with Sara. In her right hand was something that looked like a long yellow bar, and when Sara realized what it was, the pain in her head became a secondary consideration.

  It was a cattle prod.

  “That’s some story, but I saw your other partner break in the jail to try to free you before the flood happened.”

  “If you were watching, then you know that the deputy and that man fled together and left me to drown, and that’s because she’s one of them.”

  Cameron thought that over, and yes, the deputy’s behavior was odd. She had thought that at the time, as she watched Lydia and Tyler run from the station, from her vantage point on higher ground, but the thought was pushed aside when she saw Sara swim from the building.

  “What happened to the chief?”

  “She killed him, his own deputy shot him and the bitch used my gun to do it.”

  A thought came to Sara then and she remembered what Lydia had said about watching the girl’s house.

  Was it the girl she had seen earlier, the one who had been heading towards the farmhouse with the boy? It must be, and those kids must have taken the stolen money.

  “Listen to me. There’s something you need to do. That deputy, her name is Lydia and I think she’s going after two kids that took the money from the bank robbers. Leave me tied up here if you have to, but go to.... oh God, what street did she say? 10th Street? Yes, she’ll be somewhere on 10th Street, look for the chief’s vehicle. I think she’s going to kill those kids.”

  Cameron stood and stared down at her, not knowing what to make of everything Sara was saying, but there was an urgency to her words, a look of truthfulness in her eyes that made Cameron begin to doubt that she had the right woman.

  She took out her phone to call her friend, Bobby, but found that she had no signal.

  “If you were thinking of calling the police, don’t,” Sara said. “The ones in this town are either dead or crooked, and it would take too long to convince anyone else.”

  Cameron looked around, as if the answer whether to believe Sara was to be found laying somewhere on the floor.

  “10th Street?”

  “Yes, and we have to hurry, oh God, how long was I out of it?”

  “It wasn’t very long; I spotted this place right after leaving the jail.”

  “Please, untie me or leave me, but you have to save those kids. The girl was all in black and the boy had red hair. Find them before she does, and if you do find her, you’ll find the woman you’re after, or the deputy can lead you to her.”

  Cameron laid the cattle prod aside and took out a knife to cut Sara’s arms free, as well as the duct tape that bound her ankles.

  “I’m leaving your wrists cuffed, but you’re coming with me, and lady, if this is all bullshit, you’re gonna die twice as hard.”

  “I’m not lying and we need to go.”

  Cameron helped Sara to stand and they were on their way in less than a minute, unfortunately, they would arrive too late to save anyone.

  CHAPTER 19 - Career change

  Lydia was still smiling from her tryst with Tyler when she parked the police cruiser in front of Amy’s house.

  Once she handled Amy and Dean, she would have the money back, and then she could deal with the mess at the station.

  She would have to come up with quite a story to explain the three dead bodies at the jail, but the fact remained that Chief McCoy was shot with Sara Blake’s gun, and with her and the man she called Tanner both dead, there would be no one around to contradict her.

  But first...,

  Lydia touched the pocket of her uniform blouse and felt the packet of cocaine. She had stopped at her apartment and grabbed the drug from her private stash.

  Nosy old Mrs. James had spotted Amy and Dean spending money that they shouldn’t have and the cocaine would make for a ready answer as to where they got it.

  Along with the cocaine, Lydia had also grabbed a second gun, a cheap thing that couldn’t be traced. She would kill the teens, plant the drugs, drop the gun near their bodies, and claim it was self-defense.

  Thanks to Mrs. James, she even had a legitimate reason for being there, and with the kids dead and labeled drug dealers, no one would look twice at the case.

  Certainly not Chief McCoy, who Lydia actually felt bad about killing, since the man had always treated her well, but in this world, you did what you had to do and then you moved on to the next day, and the one after that.

  Lydia rang the doorbell and then eased her gun from its holster, to hold it in front of her, if a neighbor were watching her, they wouldn’t see anything thanks to the wide black rain slicker she wore.

  The girl, Amy, answered the door and the boy was standing beside her.

  On the couch, her mother stirred and then blinked their way with one bleary eye.

  “What’s going on, Amy?”

  Amy opened her mouth to answer her mother, but then, she saw the gun and stepped back.

  Lydia kicked the door shut behind her as she spoke.

  “Go stand by your mother, you too, boy.”

  Only Dean moved, and it was just a step, far enough to place himself between Amy and the gun,

  “Don’t try to be a hero, kid, now both of you, go over to the couch and shut that damn TV off.”

  This time, they followed instructions and when Amy silenced the television, it was the first time in years that it had been shut off during daylight hours.

  “Why are you here?” Carol Patton asked, as even her drug-addled mind could tell that something was very wrong.

  Lydia ignored her and spoke to the kids.

  “Where’s the money?”

  Amy took Dean’s hand, as her other hand pointed towards the stairs.

  “It’s in my bedroom.”

  “Go get it, and if you try anything, I’ll shoot your mother in the face.”

  A sound came from down the hallway that led to the kitchen. It was the sound of a door opening and closing, although not the door itself, but rather the sound of the rain beyond, a rising and falling of its volume.

  “Who else is here?”

  Amy shook her head.

  “No one, I swear.”

  Lydia looked down the hall; saw first a shadow and then its source.

  It was Tanner. He was holding the chief’s gun and firing at Lydia.

  One bullet missed her face by just inches as another passed through the rain slicker and almost hit her ribs.

  Lydia returned fire, which caused Tanner to retreat back down the hallway, and gave her time to flee the home.

  She had the cruiser moving as a bullet shattered the rear side window, but it didn’t strike her, and she sped off, just as Tanner intended. He had been trying to drive Lydia away, not kill her. The last thing he wanted to do was kill a cop, even a dirty one.

  ***

  With Lydia gone, Tanner closed the door and turned to Dean.

  “If you hadn’t warned me this morning out at the farm, I’d be dead, so I guess this makes us even.”

  Dean laughed as he wrapped an arm around Amy.

  “Who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter, what does matter is that money you took.”

  The smile left Dean’s face and he glanced over at the gun still dangling from Tanner’s hand.

  “We’ll give it to you, just please, don’t hurt anybody.”

  “I don’t want it and I don’t care if the bank ever sees it again either, but that money is trouble. If you’re smart, you’
ll hide it and yourselves along with it, at least until the bank robbers and that dirty cop are rounded up, or dead.”

  Amy stepped forward.

  “You saved us. I think she would have killed us, thank you.”

  “I was just returning a favor, now do like I said and find a place to hide.”

  The TV came back on. When Amy looked at her, her mother was watching it as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place. Her mother’s head was cocked sideways, so her good eye, the left one, faced the television head on.

  Tanner sent Dean a nod and then walked out of the house.

  He was wearing clothes he’d stolen from a home he’d broken into, a pair of blue cargo pants that fit well, along with a black T-shirt and hoodie that were both a size too large.

  He had acquired the car he was driving at the same house, an old gray Buick. The car had been covered in dust, and took several attempts to start, but once Tanner got it moving, it ran well. The rain had removed the dust, while the trip over had fully recharged the car’s battery.

  Tanner walked several houses down to where he had left the vehicle, and saw only one neighbor looking about for the source of the sound the shots had made.

  It was an old lady in a pink robe and matching slippers, and Tanner figured that the shooting had already ended by the time she reached her front door.

  The woman shrugged and went back inside, and she would likely chalk up the sounds as thunder.

  As Tanner drove by Amy’s house, Dean came running out.

  “Wait!”

  Tanner stopped and rolled down the window.

  “What’s up?”

  Dean passed him a plastic bag that had the name of a supermarket printed on it. When Tanner looked into the bag, he saw that Dean had given him several stacks of bills. A quick count told him it was twenty-five thousand dollars.

  “Amy wants you to have that.”

  Tanner smiled.

  Last week, Johnny Rossetti had paid him to guard Sophia Verona, and now he was being paid for saving the life of two teens. He normally made his living taking lives, but if this kept up, he might consider switching careers.

  He told Dean to give Amy his thanks, rolled up the window, and drove away.

  CHAPTER 20 - The eyes have it

  After Cameron and Sara rode along the four blocks that comprised 10th Street without spotting the chief’s SUV, they called to a woman who was getting into her car and learned which home was Amy’s house.

  Once there, Cameron had to ring the bell three times, before Carol Patton finally pulled herself away from the TV and answered the door.

  Not really sure of how to bring up the subject of a rogue cop, whose intentions were to harm her daughter, Cameron simply asked Carol if the police had been by to see Amy.

  In answer, Carol swung the door wide and showed Cameron the bullet holes caused by Tanner’s shots.

  Cameron excused herself and returned to her truck. After freeing Sara’s wrists from the cuffs, the two of them entered the house to talk to Amy’s mother.

  Carol Patton massaged her knee where the straps for her artificial leg crisscrossed, and as she talked, she turned her head towards the right, in order to see them better with her good eye, while the other one was covered by a dark lens in the glasses she wore.

  “The man was quick. I don’t think that bitch knew what hit her, and she ran out of here like the devil was after her.”

  Sara was glad that someone had saved the kids, but she couldn’t figure who it could be, and the throbbing pain in her head was distracting.

  “What did the man look like? Was he tall and skinny?” Sara asked.

  “No, he was a good looking guy, dark hair, built, but not muscular, you know, he just had that look, like he was in shape, oh yeah and his eyes, he had some serious eyes.”

  Cameron looked at Sara.

  “That sounds like the man I saw in the cell next to you, Tanner you said his name was?”

  “Yes, that was Tanner, but Tanner must have drowned. You saw that building, I barely made it out before the water covered it, and I had a key.”

  “Yeah, so maybe it’s another of the bank robbers, but if that were true, they wouldn’t have saved the kids, and if it was a lawman, he would have stuck around, or taken the kids into custody.”

  Sara knew Cameron was right, but even if Tanner had survived, the man would never risk himself to save anyone else. He was a dirtbag that killed for money.

  “Mrs. Patton, what did the man do after the deputy left? Did he threaten your daughter and her boyfriend?”

  Carol shook her head.

  “Threaten? No, he saved them from that woman with the gun and then after that, he left too.”

  That news left Sara convinced that the man wasn’t Tanner. If he had saved the kids, he would have done so only to take the money for himself, and yet, the man’s description did fit Tanner well.

  “Do you know where we can find your daughter?” Cameron asked.

  Carol didn’t answer; she had become engrossed in her TV show again. Cameron waved a hand in front of her face to catch the attention of her good eye and spoke louder.

  “Mrs. Patton, where can we find Amy?”

  “She’s in and out, her and that boy.”

  “Have you seen her with a large amount of money lately?”

  “Hmm? Oh, no, but I think she has a job somewhere, you know, after school, she’s in the tenth grade, or, maybe she graduated by now, I’m not sure.”

  The two women gave up on Carol Patton and went upstairs to look at Amy’s room. They found several bags that indicated recent purchases, but no clue as to where the kids might have gone.

  Once they were back in the pickup truck, Cameron passed Sara a bottle of water, and Sara used it to swallow the pain reliever Cameron kept in the duffle bag. Sara downed four of the pills and drank half the water.

  “I want to go back to the jail. As hard as it is for me to believe that he could be alive, I have to make certain that Tanner is dead.”

  “I’ll drop you there, but then I’m going to that farm you told me about.”

  “I’ll come with you, but first the jail.”

  Cameron reached across the seat and offered her hand.

  “I feel like shit for what I did to you. Can you forgive me?”

  Sara shook her hand.

  “You thought I killed your brother, I would have done the same to you if things were reversed.”

  Cameron drove towards the jail, and when she stopped at a traffic light, she looked over at Sara.

  “This Tanner, he did something to you personally, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, he killed someone that I loved.”

  “I figured, leaving him to drown was harsh, but it sounds like he deserved it.”

  “I still don’t know why he was in this town in the first place. Before today, I thought he had died recently, I came here because I was tracking a phone, and the phone was in that farmhouse, along with Tanner.”

  “These bastards that robbed the bank, they won’t stop until they get that money back, and thanks to the cop they’re working with they’ll know this town, know where to look, so we have to find those kids. Once we do, we’ll follow them and then the thieves will come to us.”

  “Wouldn’t that be like using those kids as bait?”

  “No,” Cameron said. “They made themselves bait when they took that money instead of turning it in or calling the cops.”

  “Maybe, but if they had done that, the thieves would have gotten it back anyway because of the deputy.”

  Cameron sighed.

  “That’s true, what a shitty little town.”

  “And this rain doesn’t help. I haven’t been dry since I came here.”

  “Reach back in that duffle bag where I grabbed the water, there’s a black sweatshirt in there that will fit you.”

  Sara did so, and as Cameron drove along, she changed into it, and delighted an old man who caught a view of her in her wet bra.

/>   Cameron chuckled.

  “Did you see the eyes bulge out of that old bastard’s head? I bet you gave him a boner.”

  “It wasn’t intentional; and I would have waited if I had noticed him.”

  “Don’t sweat it; he’s probably happier than he’s been in years.”

  “You told the chief that you were a bounty hunter, was that true?”

  “Hell yes. I track down people like these bank robbers and that Tanner for a living. We’ll find the scum that killed my brother, and if he’s still alive, we’ll find that Tanner too, count on it.”

  Sara nodded, while telling herself that Tanner was dead, and his bloated body was locked in a jail cell. But, a part of her didn’t believe it, and she knew that if anyone could have escaped that cell, it would be Tanner.

  “A good looking guy, dark hair, built, but not muscular, and his eyes, he had some serious eyes.”

  That was what Carol Patton had said the man who saved her daughter looked like, and even before she reached the jail, Sara knew, she knew.

  The son of a bitch is still alive, and after today, he won’t rest until I’m dead.

  She had Tanner at her mercy earlier and he escaped, then, she left him to drown and he somehow survived.

  When they met again, she would have to kill him outright and forget her fantasies of vengeful torture. The man was too dangerous for such risk.

  At their next meeting, the tricky bastard would do his best to kill her, but she would kill the killer, she had promised that on her lover’s grave and it was a promise she meant to keep.

  One way or another, Tanner would die.

  CHAPTER 21 - Bye bye, bitch

  Lydia was tempted to shoot the smirk off Sherry’s face, but the pleasure of killing her had to go to Tyler and once he murdered her, Lydia could be certain that he was hers.

  “It looks like the law lady can’t even handle a couple of teenagers,” Sherry said.

  “I told you, it was that guy, Tanner. Somehow he got out of that cell.”

  Tyler paced about the kitchen for a moment and then kicked in the cabinet door beneath the sink, revealing the drainpipe, and sending a can of sink cleanser bouncing off the back wall.

  “I should have shot him when I had the chance, and we still don’t have the money.”