She hoped the man drowned and prayed that it be both painful and terrifying, but she knew it would not equal a tenth of the agony she planned to put the woman through.
Cameron placed her truck in gear, eased off the clutch, and rolled away to find a nice, secluded spot in which to find some justice.
The law be damned.
172
Sour Puss
Tanner had been using the end of a spring taken from his cell’s cot to work on the door lock when Chief McCoy’s wooden desk floated over and nearly crushed his hand.
The impact with the bars sent the desk drifting off in a different direction, but Tanner was quick enough to reach out and grab the underside of the center drawer.
The drawer opened, broke free of the sliding track it rode upon, and spilled its contents, which drifted down into the water to fall to the floor outside his cell.
Before he could grope at them and discover what treasures there might be, he had to rise once more and refill his lungs.
When he reached the ceiling, he was disheartened to discover that only inches of space were left that contained air, which meant the building would soon be filled with water, eliminating his air supply.
Tanner floated on his back while sucking in the last of the air, then dived down to search the floor in front of the cell.
Visibility was almost nil, but the moment he passed his hands through the bars, they came upon the contents of the drawer.
A wet box of paper clips.
A stapler.
Something that felt like a ball of rubber bands.
A fresh magazine for the gun.
Tanner paused in his search after finding the full magazine but realized that his odds of shooting the metal lock open weren’t good, even with multiple rounds, particularly underwater; still, he could try it as a last-ditch effort.
With his hands groping again in the murky water, he came upon something round, thin, and made of metal. When he lifted it and felt the slight weight dangling from it, he knew it was a key ring.
It held four keys. Only one of them was big enough to be a match for the lock on his cell door.
Tanner found the hole on the lock with the fingers of one hand and placed the key inside it with the other.
The key refused to turn at first, but Tanner gave it a twist in the opposite direction and felt the lock unlatch.
He swam from the cell, pushed his way out through the front door and surfaced, to gulp air into his lungs.
Up on the hill, groups of people appeared and were pointing down at the new lake in their town. Wanting to avoid them, Tanner swam to the side of the building, which was now a foot below the surface. Although it took longer to reach a higher elevation in that direction, when his feet touched upon muddy ground, he was alone in a wooded area.
He convulsed from the cold and was sick to death of being wet, but even if he had somehow miraculously emerged from the water dry, he would still have been soaked within seconds from the rain.
Through the trees, Tanner spotted the rear of several homes in the distance. He headed their way, hoping to find one where the owner was at work.
He needed to get dry, he needed warmth, and he needed to find Sara Blake and put her out of his misery.
But he also needed a car and he needed it soon, because there was a debt he had to repay. Despite his fatigue and discomfort, Tanner headed toward the homes at a jog and hoped that he wouldn’t be too late.
After narrowly escaping the flood at the station, Lydia drove the chief’s cruiser back to the farm, where she pulled up behind Sara’s vehicle.
“I guess the minivan is toast,” Tyler said.
“It’s underwater, just like the jail.”
Tyler pointed at Sara’s car. “I’ll use that, it belonged to the woman.”
“That should be safe, but can you start it without the key, and what about the alarm?”
“Not a problem, Sherry found the woman’s purse where she dropped it in the living room… it was beneath Randall’s body.”
Lydia leaned over and kissed Tyler. When it ended, he smiled at her.
“You’ve been wanting to do that for a while, haven’t you?”
“Yes. It’s why I began sleeping with Randall, because it gave me an excuse to be around you.”
“Sherry knew. She’s been saying that since the day you and Randall hooked up.”
“I liked Randall well enough, I’ll even miss him, but now that he’s gone, I wanted you to know how I feel.”
“I’m with Sherry, Lydia.”
“Why? Habit? The woman is a downer and a psycho. It’s because of her that the Feds are hot to catch you. If she hadn’t murdered that man, there wouldn’t be half the heat there is.”
“Still, she and I have been together a long time.”
Lydia left her seat and straddled Tyler’s lap; after a deep kiss, she gazed into his eyes.
“Does Sherry kiss you like that?”
“Speak your mind.”
Lydia reached up and loosened her blonde hair, which fell about her face and softened it.
“I’ll just say it. Let’s kill the bitch and keep the money. Or do you want to spend the rest of your life looking at her sour puss?”
Tyler shook his head. “That’s a big step. Sherry and I, it’s all I’ve known for years.”
Lydia’s hands went to Tyler’s belt. “It’s time for a change.”
Tyler reached beneath Lydia’s uniform blouse and undid her bra.
“You might be right at that.”
They went at each other inside the car as the rain drummed out a beat that drove their rhythm. By the time they were done, the windows of the SUV were steamed solid, blocking out the world.
Lydia remained astride Tyler and nuzzled his neck.
“I’ll handle those kids, get back the money, and when I return you take care of Sherry.”
“All right, but I want to make it painless. I don’t want her to suffer.”
“Neither do I. I don’t hate her; I just want her gone.”
Tyler got out of the cruiser. After throwing him a kiss, Lydia went off to find Dean and Amy, with the intent to end their young lives.
173
Won’t Somebody Please Think Of The Children!
Sara regained her senses slowly and moaned in response to the pain that the blow from the shotgun had inflicted upon her.
Following that, she felt the ache in her shoulders, then realized that her arms were cuffed together at the wrists and were being raised above her head.
She was still wet from her escape, but the small structure she was in was dry and looked to be an old wooden building of some kind, possibly a large shed.
The building no longer had a door. Through the opening, Sara could see trees and the ever-present rain amid a dull light that resembled dusk, although night was hours away.
“Why did you kill him?”
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. 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. 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. 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 a
nd Tyler run from the station from her vantage point on higher ground. That 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 toward 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. I think she’s going after two kids that took the money from the bank robbers. Leave me tied up here if you must, 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 Sara’s 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 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 lying 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. 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.
174
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, 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. With Blake and the man she called Tanner both dead, there would be no one around to contradict Lydia.
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. With the kids dead and labeled drug dealers, no one would look twice at the case.
Certainly not Chief McCoy, who Lydia felt bad about killing, since the man had always treated her well. However, 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, then she 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 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. 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 toward 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 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, 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
. Tanner figured that the shooting had already ended by the time she reached her front door.
The woman shrugged and went back inside. 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.
175
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 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. As she talked, she turned her head toward the right, to see them better with her good eye, while the other one was covered by a dark lens in the glasses she wore.
The Tanner Series - Books 1-11: Tanner - The hit man with a heart Page 54