“Sara has invited people from the town to join us. Maybe you’ll meet someone.”
“The only girl I was ever serious with was Makayla. All the others never made me feel the way she did.”
“I understand. She was your first love. Maybe there will be others for you.”
“Only maybe?”
“There are no guarantees in life.”
“Thanks for not telling me that I’ll forget all about Makayla someday. That’s what my grandmother always says.”
“Laura just wants you to move on, and there are a lot of women in the world.”
Henry grinned. “And thank God for that. I may never fall in love again, but I’m no monk either.”
Cody’s phone rang. It was Sara calling to tell him that their guests were arriving. He told Henry goodbye and said he would see him at the barbecue.
Cody returned home to find Sara at the front of the house playing hostess. At her side was Lucas. Cody joined them in greeting guests. He was far from being gregarious, but he could be a good host when the occasion called for it.
Everyone who worked on the ranch was invited to attend the barbecue, and those who had to work were given extra time for their afternoon lunch or break so they could join in.
Cody smiled when he saw Doc, Doc’s daughter, Beth, and his granddaughter, Kelly walking their way. Cody hadn’t seen Doc in a while and thought the old man looked well.
“How have you been, Doc?”
“Great. Retirement suits me, and I get to spend lots of time with my granddaughter. I’m working again too, but only a little.”
“Working where?”
“At home. I built a chicken coop for Beth last spring, and her neighbor liked it so much that they asked me to build one for her too. Before I knew it, I had six people asking me to build them one. I take my time building them. It’s fun, and it makes me a little money so I can spoil Kelly.”
“I’m glad you’re keeping busy.”
Kelly was several years older than Lucas, but Cody noticed his son was smiling at the pretty girl. Despite the difference in their ages, Lucas wasn’t much shorter than Kelly. He had gone through a growth spurt during the summer.
He was advanced for his age group in many ways, and the height made him look older than he was. The added height had another advantage, it had allowed him to have his own horse, although he was only allowed to ride when accompanied and under parental supervision. The boy loved being in the saddle, and Cody thought that Lucas would carry on the Parker tradition of being a rancher someday.
Lucas’s sister, Marian, had also grown over the summer, and the baby had become a child. Marian’s vocabulary had increased significantly, and she was talking in sentences more often.
The little girl looked so much like the grandmother she’d been named after that Cody sometimes saw his mother in her face. Marian was a daddy’s girl through and through, and she could often be found at Cody’s side.
The ranch’s caretaker, Bobby Lincoln, showed up with his new girlfriend, Alyssa. Like Bobby, Alyssa was black. She was also gorgeous, tall, and a senior in college who was studying medicine. Cody liked the girl and thought she and Bobby made a good couple.
People from the town began showing up, including some of the police officers. Deputy Chief of Police Clay Milton arrived with a date, a woman named Amelia whom Cody didn’t remember seeing around town. When she spoke while being introduced, he knew why. She had a pronounced English accent.
“Amelia moved here to take a job at Willis Financial Services,” Clay said.
Amelia Harper was in her twenties and had long blonde hair. She gestured at her surroundings. “You have so much land, Mr. Parker. It’s fantastic.”
“It’s a large piece of property,” Cody said. “But not big by Texas standards. Some of the ranches here cover more than one county.”
“Amazing,” Amelia said.
The mayor showed up. As usual, Jimmy Kyle was accompanied by his living shadow, Councilwoman Gail Avery. Avery was a stern-looking woman who dressed in plain clothes. She showed up at the barbecue wearing a gray business suit that had a skirt that reached down to her ankles. Jimmy had dressed for the occasion. The mayor wore jeans with a western-style shirt and a bolo tie.
As he was about to be escorted to a table by one of the catering staff working the barbecue, the mayor leaned in and whispered to Cody.
“Who’s that blonde gal with Deputy Chief Milton?”
“That’s his date; her name is Amelia.”
“She’s way too hot for Clay.”
“I guess she disagrees with you.”
Jimmy winked as he said, “We’ll see about that,” and then he left to catch up to the councilwoman.
Sara had overheard the conversation. “He’d better not start any trouble here today.”
“If he does, we’ll throw him off the ranch. I’m surprised that you invited him and the councilwoman.”
Sara leaned back, revealing her own surprise. “I didn’t. I thought you had.”
“I guess they invited themselves.”
The barbecue went well, and Cody had to admit that it was good to see so many people he cared about in one place. They had hired entertainment in the form of a local band, and there were games and prizes for the children that attended.
Jimmy, who was twenty years her senior, made an attempt to move in on Amelia, but the Englishwoman shot him down and the mayor slunked back to his table while muttering to himself.
It was a good day, a damn good day, and Sara suggested they make the barbecue an annual event. Cody saw no reason to disagree, and he remembered barbecues that his own parents had held. Those had ended when his mother was believed to have died, but it was time to resurrect the tradition.
That evening, after everyone had left, and the cleanup had been completed, Cody sat out on the front porch with Sara and enjoyed the coolness and quiet of the night.
He had a great life in Stark, and he still took contracts as Tanner on occasion. However, something had been eating at him for weeks. It was Soulless. The man was out there somewhere, and he wanted to kill Tanner. Cody knew he would have to do something about that, but first he had to have at least some idea of where the man might be. Thanks to Elliot, Tanner would soon have a place to start hunting for Soulless, and inevitably, they would engage in a fight to the death.
The day after Elliot had left behind the phone with the note in the house they had been renting, a couple came to clean the home in preparation for renting it out again. It was to be their sixth and last house of the day, and they were both weary.
Enzo and Allegra, a married couple, had lost their jobs on the same day two years earlier when the factory they’d been working in began laying off people. They’d both been working there for more than twenty years, and because they made more money than most of their fellow workers, they were among the first group to be let go.
Their unemployment benefits only paid about a third of the wage they’d been making and ran out six months later. Enzo and Allegra had been looking for new jobs, but they were over fifty and the jobs went to those who were younger.
It was Allegra who came up with the idea that they begin working for themselves. A friend of hers was a real estate agent. She had told Allegra that landlords had a need for people to clean properties after tenants moved out, so they could be made ready for new renters. Enzo had skill as a handyman, so he could also repair any small damage a renter might have done to a home. Within a few months they had as much work as they could handle, but many days were long and tiring.
At least this home was furnished. Enzo was glad. It made the place feel less lonely. Enzo missed his friends at the factory, and the feeling of being part of a group. Cleaning houses paid the bills, but Enzo thought of the houses as a series of big empty boxes. He never said anything to Allegra, but being in the unfurnished homes depressed him, with their echoing walls and vacant rooms. The homes were empty boxes, and the rooms smaller boxes, and one day, he w
ould be laid to rest inside an empty box called a coffin and sealed away forever. For some reason, the houses reminded him of that sad fact.
Enzo had lugged in their equipment and supplies while Allegra went around the home to see what needed doing. She met Enzo at the door as he was bringing in his toolbox and showed him what she had found lying in the kitchen sink.
Enzo read the note. He could read English thanks to the schooling he’d received as a youth. His pulse quickened in recognition of Soulless’s name. He remembered seeing the news stories about the bombs going off in a cemetery in Mexico during a funeral weeks earlier. He explained what the note said to his wife.
Allegra held up the cell phone. “Could this be real, or some sort of joke?”
“We’ll let the authorities figure it out,” Enzo said, as he took out his own phone and dialed 112, to contact the police.
That night, noise from outside woke Soulless from the sound sleep he had just fallen into.
His hand closed around the weapon he kept near the bed he shared with Gwen as he listened for any odd sound.
“What is it?” Gwen asked. Her head had been resting on Soulless’s chest, and she had awakened when he moved to reach for his gun. They were naked, having made love hours before. Elliot was in the next room, alone, and handcuffed to a brass bed.
Soulless limped over to the window and moved a curtain aside to look out. In the distance, he could detect a blue glow. The light was flashing, meaning that he was seeing the illumination given off by Italian police cars. It occurred to Soulless that it was coming from the block where they had been living previously.
“The police are in the area,” he told Gwen.
“They’re here?”
“No, but they’re close.”
“Close enough to wake you up?”
“No,” Soulless said. “That must have been something else.”
He parted the curtain wider and studied the street. That was when he saw another police car parked near the corner. It didn’t have its flashing lights going, but there were two cops knocking on doors nearby. If they were waking people up after midnight to question them, then something serious was going on. That something might have to do with them.
“Get dressed, and put on the old lady clothes. Then we’ll need to put our wigs and makeup on.”
“It’s time?” Gwen asked.
Soulless nodded. “It’s time.”
Elliot was already awake when Gwen came into his room to release him from the handcuffs. He didn’t need to see the flashing lights to know the police were nearby. His note had worked, and there was a chance he might be rescued.
Gwen was wearing a modest dress, a gray wig, spectacles, and had attached latex to her cheeks that she had sculpted to make her look as if she had wrinkles.
“We’re leaving here, Elliot. Soulless said to tell you that if you gave us any trouble, he would kill you.”
“What else is new?” Elliot said, and the sarcasm earned him a frown from Gwen. He grabbed his things, which were kept in a suitcase and his backpack. They had told him to always be ready to move at a moment’s notice.
They had a van with a wheelchair lift. The old man Soulless pretended to be was an invalid. It made it less likely he would be suspected by anyone.
Soulless wasn’t at a hundred percent and back to his full strength, but he was close. Other than the limp, he was about as healthy as he had been before he’d been shot. He couldn’t run because of the leg being weak but he did pushups, sit-ups, and other calisthenics every day until he was sweaty and breathing hard.
Elliot saw that Soulless was dressed like an old man and wearing the wig and makeup. He showed Elliot that he was holding a gun. It wasn’t a real gun. They couldn’t travel with guns and hadn’t wanted to risk acquiring one on the Italian black-market. But Gwen had improvised a weapon that fired projectiles. Gwen had fashioned it out of pipe, and it had a ring on one end. When the ring was pulled, it fired a projectile that was six nails welded together and was quite lethal. Because it could only fire once, Gwen had made three of them, which Soulless carried.
“If we run into anyone, you’re to keep your mouth shut.”
“I understand,” Elliot said.
They got in the van and drove off with Gwen behind the wheel, Elliot in the passenger seat, and Soulless in the back sitting in the wheelchair. They made it two blocks before a police car came up behind them with its lights going. It was a mainly industrial area and there usually wasn’t much traffic about in the early morning hours. Their vehicle couldn’t help but catch the cops’ attention.
“What should I do?” Gwen asked Soulless.
“Pull over,” he said.
She did so, and seconds later, two cops approached the van with their hands on their weapons. When they saw that there was an old woman behind the wheel, they visibly relaxed, then spoke to Gwen in Italian.
“Why are you out so late?”
Gwen spoke some Italian and was able to follow most conversations if the speaker didn’t talk too fast. She answered the cop while gesturing at the rear of the van.
“It’s my husband. He’s had an attack and I have to get him to the hospital.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” the cop said, and tossed his chin toward Elliot. “Who is this man?”
“He’s my husband’s nurse. He stays with us.”
The cop gave Elliot a good look, but it was obvious he didn’t match the description of the man he was looking for.
His partner spoke up. “Before you go, have you seen these people?” The cop held up a flyer that had two photos on it. They were pictures of Soulless and Gwen.
Gwen shook her head. She was afraid to speak and give away the quaver she knew would be in her voice. The police had photos of them. It would be only a matter of time until their faces were all over the news.
Soulless spoke to her in English. “Tell them to come around to the van’s sliding door and let me see the photos.”
Gwen did as he asked. Soulless used a remote control attached to the arm of the wheelchair to slide open the side door on the van. When the cops appeared there, they saw an old man seated in a wheelchair with a blanket draped over his legs.
Soulless stared at the photos on the flyer in the light given off by the van’s interior. He turned his attention away from the photos and glared at Elliot. In his eyes was the knowledge that he knew Elliot was responsible for the photos’ existence.
One of the cops spoke. Soulless didn’t understand him, so Gwen translated.
“He wants to know if you recognize the people on the flyer.”
“Tell him yes, and that I know where they are.”
“What?”
“Just tell him.”
Gwen did, and the officers looked at each other, then at Soulless.
“Dove sono loro?” the cop holding the flyer said excitedly. Soulless didn’t need an interpreter to know that the cop was asking where he could find them.
“Right here,” Soulless said, as he brought a makeshift gun out from concealment beneath the blanket and shot the man in the face. His partner only had time to gasp in shock before Soulless used another of the weapons to kill him too.
“Oh God,” Elliot said, he was about to say more then shut his mouth as Soulless turned the last of the zip guns on him.
“Don’t!” Gwen said. “We still need him. No matter how old we look we’re still a couple, and they’ll be looking for a couple, not three people.”
“He’s responsible for this,” Soulless said. “I know he is.”
“How? He doesn’t have a camera and we keep him locked up.”
“I don’t know how, but he did it.”
Elliot found his voice. “I didn’t do anything. I’m a fan of yours, remember?”
Soulless lowered the gun and stood. He had to stay stooped over because of the height of the interior of the van. He stepped off the van and claimed the guns of the dead policemen while studying their wounds. The nails had impacted
with enough force to leave ragged exit wounds behind. One of the officers’ radios crackled to life, as someone tried to reach him. They would need a talented spirit medium to do so.
After climbing back inside the van, Soulless hit the button that would slide shut the side door. Gwen’s improvised weapons weren’t bad, but now he had two real guns, Beretta 93Rs. He passed one of them to Gwen and told her. “Get us out of here.”
“What about the, you know?” Gwen said, as she got the van moving.
“Let me have it. I’ll do it,” Soulless said.
Gwen dug into her purse and came out with a device that resembled a TV remote control.
“What is that?” Elliot asked. He was ignored.
“There are more cops coming,” Gwen said. A look out the rear window revealed to Soulless that there were at least three police cars headed their way. The patrol cars were several blocks back.
“What’s the range on this thing?” Soulless asked Gwen, as he held up the device in his hand.
“If you’re going to do it, you’d better do it soon.”
“Is it safe?”
“It is for us; I don’t know about those cops.”
“They’ll be on us at any minute,” Elliot said, and he couldn’t keep the excitement out of his voice. Soulless couldn’t kill three carloads of cops, and there would be more on the way. He was soon going to be free of the nightmare he found himself in.
Soulless said, “We’re going to give the police something else to worry about,” as he pushed the button. Nothing happened. Then, two things happened at once.
An explosion went off that was so loud it deafened Elliot although he was miles away from it. That was accompanied by a brilliant flash of light that turned night into day. Behind them, a plume of fire blossomed and rose in the air to a height of over a hundred feet. It widened and reached nearly two hundred feet when a series of four more explosions went off.
Soulless had just ignited a bomb that set off one of the huge tankers that stored gasoline. That initial blast set off several others.
Soulless (A Tanner Novel Book 43) Page 22