Sara took a step closer.
“No, it’s me saying goodbye to you.”
The blast that followed was loud and echoed off the surrounding hills, but it undoubtedly came from behind Sara, and she jerked her head around while crouching down.
She saw nothing at first glance, but did hear something splash into the water from beyond the fallen tree, and as the swift current carried that something away, she saw that it was the body of a man.
She turned back to look at Tanner and saw him taking aim at her, only to hear another loud blast, followed by the sight of the ground at Tanner’s feet exploding upward, as a hurried shot went low.
Tanner sprinted for the trees, and when Sara tried to shoot him, he fired an underhanded shot at her, even while running, and by either skill or luck, the shot came close to hitting her, as it passed within inches of her face.
Two more booming shots missed Tanner as he zigzagged towards the trees, and before another attempt could be made, he ran past the roots of the fallen tree, across the railroad tracks, and began running deep into the pines.
Sara squinted as she covered her eyes with her hand to keep out the rain. Across the stream and up atop the crest of the hill, she saw her benefactor.
It was Agent Cooper, sporting a rifle with a scope, and Sara knew if he hadn’t been there, she would have been killed, by either Tanner, or the man who had been at her back, and who she knew must have been Tyler Gray.
Sara raised her hand in thanks and then rushed off in pursuit of Tanner.
CHAPTER 32 - The evening commute
Tyler had been set to pull the trigger on Sara when he felt an agonizing jolt course through his body and realized that he was falling into the rushing current.
He swallowed some of the water, and the sudden coldness of it sent his teeth to chattering, as he rushed downstream and around the bend, only to come to a jarring stop, as the backpack snagged on something.
Tyler just hung there, twenty feet from shore, and realized that he was at the top of a small tree, which the rising water had swallowed.
That’s when the shock wore off and the pain became localized on his left side. When he placed his good hand there, he felt tattered flesh and the sharp edge of a broken rib.
The backpack, which had been speared by a branch, ripped open, and Tyler could feel it grow lighter as its contents spilled out and the bundles of cash bobbed to the surface and drifted away in the powerful flow.
“All for nothing,” Tyler whispered between spasms of agony, and knew that he was dying.
Before another minute passed, he was dead.
The current continued to batter him, and his limp form slipped free of the branch. The rushing water carried his body away downstream, leaving behind no marker of where most of the pack’s contents had settled.
***
Tanner assumed that he had been fired upon by the Feds, after they had taken out Tyler.
He could hear Sara coming through the woods behind him and had to admire her tenacity, but then he heard a more troubling sound, and she was pushed into the back of his mind.
It was the sound of several voices, faint, but audible and growing closer, from higher up in the hills. He then heard yet another sound, a train whistle.
There was a train approaching and if he could reach the tracks and make it across before his pursuers did, perhaps the train would delay them long enough for him to gain some distance.
Tanner changed direction and headed back towards the water, beyond where the tree had fallen, to cross the tracks that ran alongside the road.
***
Sara saw Tanner turn right and head back down towards the road and so she ran diagonally in an effort to catch up to him.
She knew from her earlier pursuit that he was much faster than she was, and when she heard the train approaching, she realized what he hoped to do.
One train had passed her earlier, as she began her journey along the road, and was stopped for a red light.
The train pulled a long line of freight cars behind it, and after the light turned green, she had passed the train easily, as it lumbered along.
If this was that same long train and Tanner made it across the tracks, she would have to wait a while for it to pass. That meant that Tanner could make it to the next town, or find a trail through the woods on the other side, and be out of sight before she could follow.
Cooper and his men would be on the other side as well, but they would have to come down the hill to intercept Tanner, and from what she’d seen of it, Sara knew it was a steeper and more dangerous journey than the hills on her side.
Sara ran harder, despite her fatigue, despite the slick and muddy ground, but it was clear that luck was with Tanner, and judging by the sound of the train, he would make it across the tracks in time; the question was, would she?
Sara stopped running, dropped into a shooter’s stance, and let loose with the Glock.
***
The bullet felt like the sting of a bee, as it whipped across the outer thigh of Tanner’s right leg and he heard several more rounds impact with the trees around him.
Not seeing anything wide enough to hide behind, Tanner dived to the ground, then slid along its wet surface for several more feet.
After crawling behind the base of a tree, he checked the wound and saw that the slug had barely broken through the skin. When he looked back through the trees, he saw Sara moving towards him, but she also hit the ground just as he returned fire.
Seeing his chance, he got to his feet and headed for the tracks, but then cursed as he saw how narrow his chances of crossing in time had become.
He ran as fast as he was capable and made it to the tracks an instant too late, as the lumbering train appeared in front of him.
He ran alongside it, hoping to hop aboard, but the freight train was towing fifty or sixty cars behind it. All of the cars were of the type called a hopper, which mostly held gravel or coal that had been poured into their open tops for transport.
There were no doors or handles to grab onto and pull oneself onboard, just walls of steel. Tanner considered the ladders attached to their rears, but although slow for a vehicle, the train was still going faster than he could run. He’d never be able grab the rungs without dislocating a shoulder or losing his balance, and risk being crushed beneath the wheels.
Still, he kept running, despite the train, he still needed to get distance between himself and his pursuers, and as the road curved once again, he saw another way to cross the tracks.
There was a pedestrian bridge up ahead, with steps on both sides and a covered walkway that sat above the tracks, the road, and the water.
Tanner glanced back and saw that he had left Sara behind. He climbed the stairs and was three quarters across the walkway when he saw Cooper and his men headed his way.
A quick mental calculation told him that he’d never make it past them, and so he headed back the way he came, determined to kill Sara Blake and escape.
***
Just as she thought she had lost him for good, Sara watched Tanner turn and run back across the bridge.
She was near the foot of the steps and, after readying her gun, she took position behind a tree and waited for Tanner to take the first shot.
***
Tanner had only two rounds left in the chief’s gun he carried and he fired the first round as he came off the stairs.
The shot took a chunk out of the tree Sara was hiding behind and she stepped out to return fire.
An instant before Tanner let loose his last shot, which he had centered on her chest, Sara dropped flat, fired, and rolled away. Both of their hurried shots missed their targets, and when Tanner saw that the slide on Sara’s gun was locked open, he realized that he wasn’t the only one whose gun was empty.
He turned his head and saw that Cooper’s men had just reached the bottom of the hill on the other side, while the men he heard earlier could be seen in the woods above him.
There was time,
not much, but enough to inflict a fatal twist of the neck.
Tanner approached Sara, where she still lay atop the ground, with the intention of breaking her neck.
When he was ten feet away, he stopped.
She was smiling.
Smiling and reaching into her jacket pocket.
“You’re not the only one who’s tricky, Tanner.”
He saw it then, saw what she had done. She had chambered a round before removing the clip from the gun, so that when she fired, it would appear as if she were empty.
Tanner attempted to twist out of the way of her shot.
He was unsuccessful.
The bullet struck him in the chest, just beneath the left collarbone.
There was no exit wound, and as he fell to one knee from the shock of impact, Tanner wondered if the bullet had pierced a lung.
Precious seconds ticked by as Tanner fought to ignore the pain and get moving, but the wound was agonizing, and he had to gather himself together before moving on.
When he raised his head, he saw that Sara was standing and gazing down at him.
“Nicely played, Blake,” he said, and his pain-filled voice was nearly drowned out by the train thundering along behind him.
Tanner thought that Sara would shoot again, in an attempt to finish him off, but the expected second shot didn’t come. When he looked at Sara’s gun, the slide was locked open once more, and this time it was truly empty.
***
Sara had a look on her face that was a mixture of triumph and disappointment.
She was pleased to have outsmarted Tanner, but sad that her shot hadn’t killed him.
Tanner regained his wits, and as he looked about, Sara glimpsed the animal cunning in his eyes as he weighed his options.
Sara could see only one option, and in his wounded state, it would do nothing more than delay his capture by a few minutes at the most.
He could run off towards the woods again and hope by some miracle that he slipped through, which he wouldn’t, because there was no time left. The men and women of the search teams were already descending the hill and closing in.
And yet, Tanner did run, but the direction he chose baffled Sara.
Tanner sprang to his feet, moaned from the pain of his wound, and ran back towards the stairs of the pedestrian bridge, shedding the thick jacket as he did so.
Sara cocked her head, as a confused look came upon her.
He can’t possibly escape that way; Cooper and his agents are already climbing up the opposite side.
And it was true, while one agent, a young man in a blue rain slicker, had already reached the covered walkway and was running towards Tanner with his gun gripped in his hand.
That’s when Sara saw the method behind Tanner’s seeming madness, as she watched him climb atop the metal railing of the stairway.
Tanner balanced precariously upon the slick surface, as his eyes scanned the train passing below. The young agent was almost close enough to grab Tanner, when the hit man bent his knees, leapt sideways into the air, while twisting in such a way as to fall backwards, and fell inside one of the open train cars, which was a hopper filled with sand.
Sara stood wide-eyed and with her mouth agape as she stared at the departing train, and despite her hatred for the man, his desperate move had impressed her. Had his jump been off in any aspect, he could have easily been killed or mangled.
On the bridge, Cooper and his men also stared in amazement, but seconds later, Cooper was on his two-way radio and giving instructions for the train to be intercepted.
Sara watched the train until the last car disappeared from sight, and her hope dispersed along with it.
***
Tanner lay on his back atop tons of sand and felt the movement of the train beneath him.
His chest burned where the bullet had entered, and he knew he needed medical care soon, or else risk infection and death.
The wound was his greatest ache, but not the sole one, as the impact of landing atop the sand rattled him to his bones and he suspected that a rib on his left side was either cracked or broken.
In the meantime, his pursuers would keep coming, and so he would keep moving and do whatever it took to stay alive and free.
He lay there atop the sand, watching the sky grow dark as night approached, and he let out a great laugh, which only made his wounds hurt more.
Yet, still he laughed, as he realized that the rain had finally ceased.
As he continued to stare at the sky, a star appeared, like a beacon of hope, and Tanner decided to take it as an omen of better things to come.
CHAPTER 33 - There’s got to be a morning after
The next day, in a morning bright with sunshine, Sara met with Cameron for breakfast at the Ridge Creek Diner.
Cameron’s left arm was bandaged and in a sling, and she had gone against doctor’s orders and not stayed in the hospital overnight.
Tanner was still free. When the train car he had fallen into was checked, the only trace of the man was a small quantity of blood, which had mixed with the sand.
Sara knew it was useless to search for him anymore and was heading back to New York City.
“You really think he’ll come after you?” Cameron said.
“I know he will, and I might never see him coming.”
“He may not even be alive. It sounds like you gave him a serious wound.”
“Not serious enough, I had been aiming for his heart, but the shot hit him high.”
“If he surfaces again, you’ll get him.”
“Or he’ll get me.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself, Sara; it sounds like you nearly bagged that asshole.”
“I came close, but close just means I lost.”
“You’ll get him, mark my words.”
Sara smiled wistfully, and when she looked around the diner, she saw several people gazing their way.
“We seem to be of interest to the townspeople.”
Cameron nodded.
“Yeah, more went on in this town yesterday than in the last ten years before it. We were a big part of that, and you want to know something else, I’ve been offered the job of Chief of Police.”
“Are you serious?”
“I am. Three town council members appeared at my motel last night and congratulated me on saving those kids and killing one of the bank robbers. I told them that I didn’t do it alone, but when they heard that I was a bounty hunter and used to be a cop, they made the offer.”
“Are you going to take it?”
“I told them that I’d think it over. I also told them to move the damn jail out of a flood zone, although to be fair, that lake hadn’t overflowed its banks in nearly a hundred years.”
“I think you’d be a good chief, and it’s actually not such a bad town.”
They finished their meals and talked more while enjoying a second cup of coffee.
“So the money was just washed away?” Cameron asked.
“Most of it, yes, but Cooper and his people did recover nearly three-hundred thousand dollars, and they’re still looking, but that stream flows into the Delaware River, so the money may be lost forever.”
Cameron smiled.
“I was thinking about those kids, Amy and Dean. What if they had taken the money without anybody seeing them? If they were smart, they might have kept it with no one being the wiser.”
“Instead, they nearly got killed.” Sara said. “And I hoped they learned their lesson.”
***
At that moment, across town, Amy was placing an envelope on the coffee table before her mother, who had fallen asleep on the sofa the night before, while watching TV.
The envelope held a card. The card expressed Amy’s handwritten wish that her mother get the help she needed, and also said goodbye.
Amy left her home for the last time and found Dean waiting for her. Along with her purse, she carried a brown teddy bear and a suitcase.
Dean smiled at her and thought she
looked beautiful in her new red dress; it was the one item from their spending spree that the cops had failed to reclaim.
When Amy reached him, Dean showed her the morning paper. She read the part about most of the money being lost to the river, and was relieved to know that both robbers were dead.
Dean had borrowed a friend’s car and told him that he could pick it up later at the Amtrak station, which was located in a neighboring town.
Amy and Dean had decided to go to Florida to live, and although he still had two weeks to go until he was considered an adult, Dean doubted that anyone would come looking for them over that infraction of the law, and they planned to take courses and finish high school online.
After arriving at the station, Amy settled on a scarred wooden bench while Dean went off to buy the train tickets, but he returned to her only moments later.
“I need another two-hundred dollars.”
“Why so much?” Amy asked.
Dean grinned.
“We’re going first class.”
Amy grinned back at him, and after looking around to see if anyone was watching, she undid the Velcro seal and stuck her hand inside the bear. When her hand emerged, it held five, hundred-dollar bills.
“There’s extra, for other things later.”
Dean kissed her.
“Thank God, you’re smart.”
The bear had been Amy’s idea. They had come so close to losing the money when Lydia came to her home that Amy decided it didn’t make sense to keep all the money in one place.
The backpack that Tyler wore when he went into the water had several hundred thousand in cash, yes, but only on top, beneath that, Amy and Dean had filled the pack with dozens of note pads, which were similar in size and thickness to the bundles of cash.
When Sherry grabbed the backpack and confirmed that it held the money, she only checked one layer, and had been deceived by the pack’s weight. Had she dug deeper, she would have discovered the truth.
When it was time to board, Amy and Dean climbed on the train and headed towards a new life in Florida.
Minus the twenty-five grand they gave Tanner, and the three-hundred thousand taken by Tyler, Dean and Amy still had well over half a million dollars, all of it unmarked and untraceable.
The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2) Page 11