Unwilling to wait until his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Henry used the pen light. He moved the narrow beam around and saw a pair of shoes, then socks, pants, and the man who was wearing them. It was Mac Strawbridge. He was sitting up in one of the wooden kitchen chairs, and he was smiling at Henry. In his right hand was a gun.
“Who do you think this is?” Strawbridge asked. He wasn’t talking to Henry, a fact that Henry realized when he sensed movement on his left. Before he could react, Henry felt a sharp pain at the base of his skull and felt himself falling. He rolled over onto his back as someone flipped a light switch and illuminated the room. Looking up, Henry saw a face he recognized, but couldn’t quite place. When he went to sit up, he was hit again; this time he took a knee to the right side of his face. Although Henry remained conscious, he was too dazed to react when hands took hold of him, and his weapon was taken away.
A few miles north, Candide was headed home and worried about what she might find there. Willy had called her on the burner phone and left a message.
“Candide, something went wrong. It’s… you have to see it. Come home. He’s not dead… I… just come home.”
He’s not dead and something has gone wrong, Candide thought. What the hell does that mean?
They were not words she had wanted to hear. She tried calling Willy back when she was halfway home, but the fool never picked up or answered her texts. It was her fault she got the call in the first place. She should have thrown away that phone after they’d met in the supermarket parking lot.
Candide checked the time on the car’s dashboard. If she had to, she could be back in Myrtle Beach before daybreak and keep her alibi intact. Of course, that depended on what she was going to find at home. Had Willy shot her husband and only wounded him? And if so, why not shoot him again and finish him off. And what if the police were there? No. If that were true, Willy wouldn’t have been able to make a phone call. Candide turned onto her block and saw that the house was dark and the same was true for the other homes. She parked in her driveway, killed the headlights, and shut off the engine. She was suddenly furious.
You idiot, Willy. How could you screw up such a simple plan? She rushed to the rear door and tried to unlock it with her key but found there was no need. As she stepped inside the dark space, she heard her husband’s voice.
“Welcome back, baby.”
Candide flipped on the lights. Seated in front of her was her husband and Willy. The kitchen chairs they sat in were turned away from the table, so that they were facing her. Willy’s chair was tipped back slightly, as he balanced himself on two of the chair’s legs. They were both smiling at Candide, and they were holding guns. The gun in her husband’s hand had a silencer attached.
“What’s going on?”
Strawbridge pointed to his right, which was his wife’s left. Candide followed his finger and saw Henry. He was sitting slumped in a chair and his ski mask had been removed. Candide remembered him from their earlier exchange, along with the name he’d given her.
“Bob?”
“I told you she would know him,” Strawbridge told Willy. “She probably hired him to kill you, after you were supposed to kill me.”
Willy laughed. It sounded nasal. “Things didn’t go as she planned.”
Candide looked from her husband to Willy. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Shut that door,” Strawbridge said. “We don’t need anyone overhearing us.” Candide did as he said, and Strawbridge grinned at her. “Willy is smarter than you think. Instead of killing me like you asked him to do, he decided to make a deal with me.”
Candide looked shocked, then released a laugh. “Kill you? Baby, why would I want you dead? I love you.”
Willy took out a device from his pocket. It was a memo recorder. He brought up a recording and played it. It was one he’d made earlier in Candide’s car, when they were together. He played it at high volume. It was obvious who was speaking.
“Are you sure you still want me to kill your husband, Candide?”
“Yes. I told you, he beats me. I want him dead. If I divorced him, I might get nothing because we haven’t been married that long.”
“Where should I shoot him, in the chest or the head?”
“Shoot him in both. And before you do it, let him know I sent you. I wish I could be there to see his expression.”
Candide cursed, as her face twisted in anger. “You’re an idiot, Willy. My husband won’t give you a dime. He was lying.”
Willy brought out a thick white envelope from his back pocket. He opened it to reveal a wad of cash. “He’s already paid me twenty-five thousand, and I’ll get more once your divorce takes place. Who’s an idiot now?”
Henry was watching it all and listening while trying to appear like he was still stunned from the hits he’d taken. He was the one who felt like an idiot. He had walked into the house armed, well-trained, and as fit as could be, and he’d been surprised and taken out by someone like Willy. And now the man he had been contracted to kill was holding his own gun on him. Cody would be sure he had picked the wrong guy to be his successor, and Henry couldn’t blame him.
“I’ll divorce you if that’s what you want,” Candide told her husband. “It will cost you, and it won’t be cheap.”
Strawbridge laughed at her. “Are you delusional? You’ll leave here with nothing. I have you on tape planning to have me killed, and you were screwing around behind my back.”
Candide realized he was right, and her shoulders slumped. She was going to wind up with nothing, and it was because of Willy. She began walking toward him.
“You stupid, lying little nobody. We had a deal!”
As Candide passed in front of him, Henry leapt up while gripping an arm of the chair he’d been sitting in. He wasn’t going down without a fight.
Cody had been waiting in the car for Henry on the other side of the block. While waiting, he kept an eye on the feed that was coming from the hidden camera in front of Strawbridge’s home. Cody had seen Candide’s arrival and wondered what it meant, and if Henry was aware of it.
It seemed unlikely Henry wouldn’t have heard the car pull into the driveway. Being aware, he would take measures to avoid being seen by Candide. After thinking about it, Cody decided to act and head to the house in case Henry needed help. Cody grabbed a ski mask from a compartment in the center console and left the car. As he was scaling a fence to reach the house, two shots rang out.
Henry had shoved Candide at her husband then tossed his chair at Willy. The chair hit Willy in the face, and he fell backwards as his own chair tipped over. Henry was on him before Willy knew what was happening and kicked Willy on the chin. The blow rocked the pudgy teen, and the back of his head struck a leg of the wooden table and rendered him unconscious. After claiming Willy’s gun, Henry turned the weapon toward Strawbridge.
Candide was fighting her husband for possession of Henry’s gun. Strawbridge had stood up during the struggle and still held the silenced weapon. He was twice his wife’s age, but not yet fifty and still much stronger than Candide. When he managed to shove her backwards, he had left himself wide open.
Henry took aim at him and shot Strawbridge in the heart and then the head, fulfilling the contract. The body fell to the kitchen floor and Henry grabbed up his weapon. After using his thumb to flick on the safety, he stuck the weapon in his waistband.
Candide stared at Strawbridge’s dead body and kept backing up until she ran into the sink. She put her hands up.
“Don’t shoot me!”
Henry switched Willy’s gun to his left hand as he rushed at her. With his right hand, he delivered a blow to the side of her head. Candide staggered forward, then dropped to the floor near her husband. Henry reasoned that if she were unconscious when the police arrived, she wouldn’t have time to make up a story or dispose of any evidence, such as the incriminating words on Willy’s memo recorder. Henry dropped Willy’s gun near Candide and turned to leave.
The shot
s had been loud, as Henry left the house with his ski mask back on, he saw a light come on in a window of the home next door. He had to move quickly before he was spotted.
“It’s me,” Cody said, at the same moment Henry had caught sight of movement.
Again, Henry felt the pain of having screwed up. Cody had been worried enough to leave the car and come to his aid. If he had come any earlier, he would have found him being held captive by the target with his own gun.
They stayed quiet and made it back to the car without being seen. As they were driving away with their lights off, Cody turned to Henry.
“What happened?”
“I fucked up.”
“Did you kill Strawbridge?”
“Yes.”
“Then the contract is complete. Tell me what else happened.”
Henry told him as Cody drove. When he reached the part where he found himself unarmed and defenseless, Cody didn’t comment, and he went on.
“The police will find a dead husband, and a wife and her neighbor with the body. The recording will look bad for them, but they’ll tell the cops about me.”
“You wore gloves the whole time you were in there?”
“Yes, but they took off my ski mask. They can give a description of me to the cops.”
“The police will think their story about a mystery man is a lie. No one else saw you, and there’s no proof that you exist. That recording will seal their fate. From what you told me about it, if a jury heard that tape, there’s no way they could avoid doing time.”
“I’m sorry, Cody. I almost screwed up everything.”
“You completed the contract, Henry. That’s what matters.”
They returned to their hotel and walked in after putting on jackets. A tan sports coat for Cody, and a red windbreaker for Henry. If they had walked into the lobby wearing only their dark clothing, they would have looked like a pair of cat burglars.
Cody told Henry to get some sleep and that he would meet him downstairs in the coffee shop for breakfast at ten. Before heading home, Cody was going to attend the cattle auction in Charleston.
The following morning, Henry picked at his breakfast and Cody could guess why. He asked Henry about it as they drove to the auction.
“How can I have an appetite after what happened last night? And I’ll understand if you want to look for another apprentice.”
Cody pulled the car over to the curb, where a storefront was listed as being available to rent. He stared at Henry.
“You made mistakes last night. That’s to be expected since you’re still in training. What you didn’t do was give up. I’m proud of you for that, and because you still managed to fulfill the contract.”
“I got lucky when Candide crossed in front of me. If she hadn’t done that, you probably would have had to save me and do the contract yourself.”
“That didn’t happen. You fulfilled the contract. You’re going to make mistakes, Henry. The key is to learn from them.”
Henry shook his head. “That’s not good enough, not if I’m going to follow in your footsteps.”
Cody began laughing, and Henry stared at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Do you think I’ve never made mistakes?”
“None that I’ve seen. And I’d bet you were never taken by surprise and held at gunpoint.”
“And you’d be wrong. When I was about your age, Romeo and I were both fooled by a gang of thieves and locked up with some other kids. We managed to turn things around, but they used a pretty girl named Gina as a lure and played us like suckers. I remember how I felt then, how both Romeo and I felt when it happened. We thought Spenser had been wasting his time on us, but he wasn’t. We just needed more experience and training. The same is true for you.”
“I’m just afraid that I may screw up big someday. I don’t want to let you down, Cody.”
Cody hung his head. “I made a mistake once that nearly cost Spenser and Romeo their lives, and mine too.”
“When was this?”
“When I was a few years older than you and already working as an assassin.”
“What happened?”
“Did Spenser ever tell you how he lost his eye?”
“No. And I’ve never asked.”
“It was my fault. I trusted someone I shouldn’t have.”
Cody told Henry the story of his greatest regret. When he was finished, Henry’s eyes were full of sympathy.
“God, how that must have sucked.”
“That it did. I’m not perfect, Henry. I’ve made mistakes. It wasn’t that long ago I made the mistake of not dealing with Ordnance Inc. when they first came after me. And despite my decades of experience, I’ll probably make more mistakes. That’s just being human. But I’ll tell you this, I learn from every one of them, and I won’t repeat them. You need to do the same.”
Henry nodded. “I hear you. And Cody, thanks for telling me all that. It made me realize I didn’t do so bad after all. I still screwed up because I was overconfident, but yeah, I did fulfill the contract. That’s something.”
“It’s everything when you’re a Tanner. No Tanner has ever failed to fulfill a contract, and I know you’ll carry on that tradition someday. You’re no worse than I was at your age, Henry. And time will see you improve.”
They drove on to the auction. It had been a cover story in case they were ever questioned about why they were in the area, but Cody wound up buying a first-calf heifer, a pregnant cow of excellent breeding. He decided to do so after calling his ranch foreman and discussing the purchase with him. The foreman, Rick Winhoffer, agreed with Cody that it was a good deal, and the trip to South Carolina became a double success.
Later that day, Cody and Henry drove to an airfield, climbed on Cody’s plane, and flew home. And Henry had his first successful contract under his belt.
14
Flies With Honey
Dana Leonard thought Elliot Lipson wouldn’t be half bad-looking if he traded in his glasses for contacts, lost a little weight, and did something about his unruly brown hair.
Lipson was six-feet-tall and wearing jeans with a sweatshirt, although the temperature was in the seventies. Dana had followed him to a hobby shop a few miles away from Lipson’s house in Toms River, New Jersey. Since entering the store, Lipson had been looking at model trains.
What a nerd, Dana had thought. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. The shirt was custom-made. It had the words—TANNER The greatest of all time—written on it. Above the words was an image of a man with intense eyes. Dana had found the image on the assassins website. It was purportedly a drawing done from memory of a wanted poster that had once been distributed when Tanner had a price put on his head by the now dead cartel leader, Alonzo Alvarado.
Dana couldn’t believe that anyone had eyes like those shown in the image, but she was certain Elliot Lipson would recognize the shirt. Online, Lipson called himself, Tanner Fan #1.
Dana pretended to be looking at model car kits that were on a shelf above Lipson’s head. He glanced over at her, his eyes widening when he saw the sexy blonde, then bulging when he took in the shirt. Lipson usually didn’t talk to women he didn’t know, especially hot women. Experience had taught him that they wanted nothing to do with him. He usually got tongue-tied too. But he couldn’t resist speaking when he spotted the shirt.
“OMG. Where did you get that shirt?”
Dana smiled. “Do you like it?”
“Oh yeah. I’m Tanner’s biggest fan.”
Dana gave him a doubtful look. “You’re just saying that to start a conversation with me. I bet you don’t even know who Tanner is. Most people don’t.”
“He’s an assassin. Like your shirt says, the greatest of all time. Where can I get a cool shirt like that?”
“I had it made. I can get you one too if you want.”
“Really? Do you sell them?”
“No. For Tanner’s biggest fan, the shirt would be free. Better yet, why don’t you buy me lunch?”
“Sure, and we can talk about Tanner. It’s nice to meet a fellow fan.”
Lipson looked Dana over, then swallowed. “Um, where would you like to eat?”
“I passed a diner near the Parkway entrance. We could go there.”
“Yeah. I know the place. The food is good there.”
Dana smiled. “Let’s go, handsome.”
Dana kept a smile plastered on her face as Lipson went on and on about Tanner during the meal. She understood most of what he was referring to because she had spent hours reading the comments in the forum on the assassins website. She had also read every exchange Lipson had had with the Soulless fan, Tom Curry.
She had found the things said about Tanner to be unbelievable, especially the rumor of how he had wiped out hundreds of men who had attacked him, from some defunct criminal organization called Ordnance Inc.
Elliot believed it all, was indeed Tanner’s biggest fan, and seemed to be obsessed by the killer’s exploits. Dana pretended to be as well and told Elliot she had a crush on the man.
“I’d love to meet him someday, and I think I know a way to do it.”
“How? No one knows where he lives. I stayed in New York City for weeks a few years ago hoping to run into him. I spent every night in Johnny R’s club, figuring he might show up there to see his friend, Joe Pullo.”
“What’s Johnny R’s?” Dana asked.
Elliot’s face reddened as he answered. “It was a strip club, but it was destroyed by a bomb.”
“A strip club, eh? I bet Tanner could have sat right next to you and you wouldn’t have noticed. Your eyes were probably locked on the girls dancing on the stage.”
Elliot giggled. “Those girls were something else.”
Dana leaned closer to him. “Were they prettier than me?”
Elliot shook his head. “You’re hot as hell, Dana. I mean, look at you.”
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