“I don’t know. It must have been someone involved in the money laundering.”
“Are they the same people who hired you?”
“She already told you that we don’t know who hired us, maricón,” Raúl spat.
Tanner looked at him and saw the hatred in his eyes. “You’re taking this personally. I was hoping we could keep this on a professional level.”
Felicia looked over at her partner. “We have nothing to gain by angering this man or lying to him. He says he’ll let us live and I believe him.”
“He’s lying. If he let us live, he knows that I would hunt him down and kill him.”
Tanner looked at Felicia. “Will you come looking for me too?”
“No. I will leave this area as soon as I can. But I warn you, the people who hired us will send others in our place. They will not give up on finding what belongs to them. They’ll also punish anyone involved. That includes you and your young friend here,” Felicia said, then looked at Henry. The teen stared back at her until she looked away.
“Raúl,” Tanner said.
Raúl glared at him. “What?”
“You should never have threatened me.” Tanner drew his gun and fired at Raúl with such speed that the man didn’t have time to react before the bullet struck him in the forehead.
Felicia gasped in shock. Her astonishment was not surprise at Raúl dying, but at Tanner’s speed with the gun. He’d cleared leather, fired the shot, and had the gun holstered again in less than a second.
Henry gave a little shake of his head. He was fast with a gun, but not that damn fast. Seeing his mentor in action reminded him of just how big the shoes were that he hoped to fill someday. Cody might be the seventh Tanner, but he was one of a kind.
Felicia tore her gaze away from Raúl’s dead form. “I’ve told you everything I know. What happens now?”
Tanner reached into his pocket and took out the razor blade he’d found on Felicia. He dropped it on the floor in front of her.
“You should be able to free yourself with that. Afterward, get far away from here. If I see you again, I’ll assume that you’re looking for me and I’ll kill you. Understand?”
“Yes,” Felicia said.
Tanner nodded at Henry and the two of them headed for the exit.
Felica glanced over at Raúl’s corpse again before maneuvering her hands around to where she could grab the razor blade.
By the time she freed herself and made it out of the warehouse the van was gone. Her purse had been left near the door. It contained her wallet, keys, and passport. Her phone was missing and so was her gun. She couldn’t remember the last time she didn’t have a gun handy and was grateful that she still had the razor blade.
A few hundred yards away were the lights of the cars on the roadway. Felicia started walking toward them. Thirty-one minutes later a vintage pickup truck pulled over and an old man with kind eyes was looking at her with an expression of concern. He was wrinkled and sunburned. Despite his age, his clothes were the attire of a working man. His hands looked like his callouses had callouses.
“Young lady, are you all right?”
Felicia gave him a sad smile. “I just broke up with my boyfriend and he made me get out of his car.”
The old man gawked at her. “Out here? At night?”
She nodded and saw the man color with anger.
“Hop in and I’ll take you where you want to go.”
Felicia climbed into the truck. “Thank you. Is there an airport near here?”
“Oh yeah. It’s not far at all. Is that where you want to go?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll have you there in a jiffy. My name is Terry Rowan. What’s your name?”
“Felicia.”
“It’s nice to meet you, missy. Are you planning on flying back home?”
Felicia nodded yes but it was a lie. Home had been a slum where her mother had sold her to men for sex to get drugs. Felicia had left there at thirteen and never looked back.
Terry dropped her off at the airport and wished her luck. While she was waiting for her flight, Felicia stole a phone from a man in the airport bar whose rapt attention was on the game playing on the TV. The phone’s screen was unlocked, and she was able to send a message to the people she and Raúl were working for.
The leads we had all turned out to be dead-ends. I’m willing to work for you again in the future but no more on this one. My partner was killed by an unknown man who is looking for the same people. This man is very dangerous. He is about six-feet tall with dark hair and has eyes that make one shiver. I suggest you take him seriously and send someone to deal with him. You might want to send more than one.
She opened the message with a code word that identified her and ended it with the same word. Before getting on her plane, Felicia dumped the stolen phone in a garbage can. She was flying to San Antonio because that was the first plane available. She’d stay there overnight and head to Miami where she could get a set of new ID. She was done with being Felicia.
She thought of Raúl. He had displayed genuine concern for her welfare, and she was certain that he hadn’t been infatuated with her. The man had never even hinted at anything like that in the six years they’d worked together. Perhaps he’d been motivated by a sense of machismo. A part of her would miss him.
Then she thought about Tanner. She had been certain that he was lying about letting her live but saw no reason to refuse to answer his questions. That would have only made things harder on her. When he tossed her the razor blade so that she could free herself it surprised her. She had never before met anyone who kept their word.
She thought about the message she’d sent and wondered if she should have mentioned that Tanner wasn’t alone and that he had a boy helping him. No. Let him have that small edge. Felicia surprised herself by having that thought and realized that she wanted Tanner to win.
That would not happen. The people she worked for were not the type to lose. They would send someone to deal with Tanner. More than one, as she suggested, and they would see to it that he stopped interfering in their business.
Felicia spent most of the flight considering what new name she would go by. She decided that she would choose Natasha. She’d always liked the sound of it.
7
Trapped
It was after ten by the time Cody made it home and, of course, the kids were both asleep. He was Cody at home. Until he left to run down another lead, Tanner would be put on hold.
Sara was awake in the living room and cleaning a pistol while she watched a movie on TV. She’d been practicing her shooting at their indoor range and had gone through several boxes of brass.
After greeting each other with a kiss, Sara paused the movie and asked Cody if he was hungry.
“I am. I haven’t eaten since lunch.”
“Franny always has something good in the refrigerator. I’ll heat you up something.”
The food turned out to be chicken and dumplings. Franny made them the same way Cody’s mother used to make the dish when he was a kid. As he ate, Sara indulged by eating two chocolate chip cookies. Those she had made herself. After eating, they returned to the living room. Sara stretched out across the sofa while resting her head on Cody’s lap. While he talked and told her about his recent activities, Cody ran his hands through her hair.
As he was partway through relaying the Carrawell brothers’ worst day ever, Sara asked for clarification on one point.
“She tortured them while she was naked?”
“Yeah.”
“What does she look like?”
“Young, beautiful, with flawless skin.”
“Not that you noticed, hmm? She gave you quite an eyeful, didn’t she?”
“She did at that.”
“Getting naked in front of men you’re torturing sounds like some sort of kinky sexual deviancy. I wonder if she got a thrill out of it.”
“You can be sure the men didn’t.”
Cody finished t
elling Sara the rest of the story and she made an observation.
“It sounds like you’re no closer to finding the robbers than you were before.”
“It sounds like that because it’s true, but I’ve another lead to look into.”
“Tonight?”
“No. Tonight I’m sleeping here, and, in the morning, I’ll have breakfast with you and the kids.”
Sara grinned as she sat up, then made it to her feet, as she took Cody by the hand. “Let’s go to bed.”
“I could use the sleep.”
“You won’t get as much sleep as you think. You’re about to see another naked lady—me.”
“Do you plan on torturing me too?”
“If that’s what you want.”
“Talk about kinky,” Cody said, and Sara laughed.
Henry had classes again and Tanner told him to relax afterwards or catch up on his studying. Until he had a firm direction to head in, there was no point in them both running around chasing their tails.
There was one lead that Tanner could look into, the vendor whom the rare bill had been stolen from, Alex Tinsley. Felicia had said that Tinsley was involved with his own robbery and had made a deal with the Carrawells. If her employers had that information Tinsley was either dead or on the run. And while it was unlikely that he would know anything about the other crew that had the stolen item, the lead had to be checked out.
After rising early for a ten-mile run and an intense calisthenics workout, Cody had breakfast with his family. Later on, he had a brief meeting with Rick Winhoffer, the foreman of his ranch. Rick wanted to let Cody know that they would have more than enough silage stored for feeding the cattle during winter. There were also discussions about ranch employees. One in particular was Elijah Turner. Elijah was a friend of the ranch house’s caretaker, Bobby Lincoln, and was also dating Winhoffer’s daughter, Heidi.
“You have concerns about Elijah, Rick?”
“Not at all. He’s become my right-hand man, and I’ve gotten to know him and his family on a personal level because of how close he and Heidi have become.”
“Okay, so what did you want to talk about?”
“I’d like to promote him to the position of Assistant Ranch Foreman.”
“That position doesn’t exist.”
“It could, with your say so. But it will also require giving Elijah a bump in pay.”
Cody grinned. “It sounds good to me. I’ve seen how hard he works around here. I’d hate to lose him to another ranch.”
“So would I,” Winhoffer said. “And Heidi would give me hell if that happened.”
“I don’t think Elijah is going anywhere without Heidi. If anything, you might have him as a son-in-law someday.”
“I could do worse. He’s a damn good man. Do you want to give him the news about the promotion or should I?”
“You do it,” Cody said. “And bump his pay up by forty percent. Just let him know that he’ll have more responsibility now too.”
“Oh yeah he will; I’ll be training him to take my place someday. It’s smart business to always have someone who can fill in for you when you’re laid up or off on a vacation. And someday I’ll retire. It will be nice to know that things are in good hands.”
“I agree,” Cody said, as he thought about his training of Henry to succeed him as Tanner.
Cody had other matters to attend to that concerned the ranch and his personal affairs. When he was done with them it was time for lunch. He ate while also feeding his baby daughter, Marian, then saddled up a horse and took a ride around the property with Lucas. As he rode, an idea came to him that might result in getting a fresh lead on the thieves who robbed the festival.
After returning to the house, he settled in the office and called Kate Barlow.
“How can I help you, Tanner?”
“Do you know anyone who can enhance and enlarge stills from video?”
“I can do that.”
“Do you have the time?”
“For you? Always.”
“Thank you, Kate. I’ll send you the video. It shows a young girl being knocked out of the path of a speeding van. See if you can get a clearer look at the driver. He’s wearing a mask, so it won’t be easy. I also need a sharper view of the people in the background that are near a barn. Some of those people will be masked too, but I’m hoping to find something that might lead me to them.”
“I’ll get on this as soon as you send me the video.”
There was a voice in the background on Kate’s end. Tanner recognized that it was Kate’s husband, Michael. He was speaking to someone and did not sound happy.
“What’s Michael so angry about?”
“Oh, he’s on the phone with our son. We called to say happy birthday and now it’s turned into an argument.”
“How does that happen?”
Kate sighed. “Our son, and our daughter have asked us to never speak to them again. We didn’t think that meant we couldn’t call on their birthdays.”
“I doubt Michael’s shouting is making things better.”
“No, but my husband and my son are both stubborn, and at least they’re talking.”
“I’ll be waiting to see what you turn up on that video, and don’t forget to bill me this time.”
“We owe you our lives, Tanner. A favor here and there is nothing.”
Tanner stayed home until the kids were laid down for their naps before he left to continue his search on the robbers.
He arrived at Alex Tinsley’s shop in Culver just before three p.m. The sign over the door stated that the shop dealt in Numismatics & Philately. In other words, currency and stamps.
It didn’t surprise Tanner to find that the shop was closed. If Tinsley had any sense, he was out of the country by now. Wanting to be thorough, Tanner decided to enter the shop and look around. That was when he discovered that someone else had that idea already.
The back door had been left unlocked. After entering, Tanner saw that the face of the alarm system’s control panel had been removed. Some of the exposed wires had small alligator clips attached while others had been snipped.
The back door opened onto an office with an L-shaped desk. There was also a mini fridge, coffee maker, and a floor safe that was sitting open and was empty. A small bathroom in a corner was barely big enough to hold the sink and toilet inside it.
As he left the office, Tanner looked left and saw a table and two chairs inside a small room. On the table was a powerful electronic magnifying glass. The device had a pair of bright LED lights attached. It was where Tinsley would let serious customers with money take a private gander at the valuable currency or stamps they were thinking of buying.
The rest of the shop had glass cases containing the regular merchandise while stamp and coin collecting paraphernalia filled several racks and hung from hooks on the walls behind a counter.
Whoever searched the shop had done a thorough job. Books were piled up on the floor and it was a safe bet that every one of them had been searched for the valuable 1880 thousand-dollar bill.
There were other pieces of old currency in the shop. They were sealed in clear, rigid vinyl sleeves or otherwise protected. They had been scrutinized and left stacked on a counter near the cash register. Every drawer had been opened, every rack shuffled through, and the ceiling tile had been moved around and the toilet tank in the bathroom peeked into.
Tanner remembered Felicia’s hesitation when he’d stated that Tinsley would have been their next target. She must have known that Raúl had already attended to that matter. While she was torturing and killing the Carrawells, Raúl had been searching for Tinsley and rummaging through his shop.
Before he got off the phone with Kate Barlow, Tanner had asked Kate to see what she could find on Tinsley. She had sent him a text back minutes later.
Alex Tinsley had recently sold his home and had a buyer lined up for the shop. He was sixty-eight and had been ready to pack it in and ride off into the sunset. Arranging to have t
he rare bill stolen was a way to enhance his retirement fund. He grossly underestimated the gullibility of the people he’d been laundering funds for. Even if he had nothing to do with the heist, they would have assumed that he had and sent someone to question him. Now that Alden Carrawell had claimed that Tinsley was involved, there was nowhere he could hide. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.
Kate had found an address for Tanner to check out. It belonged to Tinsley’s only daughter. She was recently divorced and living under the surname of Weiss, in Corpus Christi. That was Tanner’s next stop.
Alex Tinsley’s daughter, Julie Weiss, lived in a row of two-story homes in Corpus Christi that had green front lawns and attached garages. Dusk had settled on the community by the time Tanner arrived in the city.
He drove past Julie Weiss’s house, parked around the block, and returned on foot while pretending to be a jogger out for a run. Tanner looked the part with the dark-blue jogging outfit and black sneakers he was wearing. There were also a pair of earphones to enhance the look but there was no music playing through them.
The homes he moved past were alive inside with activity as the evening meal was being prepared for those, and by those, who had recently returned home from a hard day at work. If there were children in the neighborhood none were in view, but then, the days of kids playing hopscotch and kick the can on the neighborhood sidewalks were in the past. Most of the current crop of youths had probably never even heard of the games, much less played them.
Tanner stopped running in front of Weiss’s driveway and looked around while appearing to tie an errant shoelace. There was a light aglow in the front windows of the home indicating that someone might be inside. There was also a car parked at the top of the driveway. It was a late-model green Mercedes. The license plate matched the one Kate Barlow had given Tanner for Tinsley’s car. He had located the dealer in rare items.
Tanner continued on his run and jogged past the house. There were very few cars on the street as most of them were in garages or parked in the owner’s driveway. The traffic driving through the neighborhood was sporadic as the street became a dead-end three blocks to the north.
To Serve And Protect (A Tanner Novel Book 39) Page 6