A Victim of Circumstance Read online

  A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE

  A TANNER Novel - Book 22

  Remington Kane

  Contents

  Introduction

  Join My Inner Circle

  1. Like Clockwork

  2. See Yourself As Others Do

  3. A Change Of Plans

  4. Say What?

  5. Mouse Trap

  6. Mister X

  7. A Close Call

  8. What Goes Up…

  9. Top This

  10. Let’s Talk

  11. Have You Seen This Guy?

  12. Millions In Gold

  13. Ransom Drop

  14. Divide And Conquer

  15. Drop Your Weapon!

  16. Self-Interest

  17. Speed Bump

  18. Mightier Than The Sword

  19. Hanging Around

  20. No Honor Among Thieves

  21. No Honor Among Kidnappers

  22. Officer Tanner

  23. Fire!

  24. Trapped!

  25. Tables Turned

  26. Tickled To Death

  27. The Widow Bellamy

  28. Secret Revealed

  29. Horribly Disappointed

  30. Sugar And Spice, And Everything Nice

  TANNER RETURNS!

  Afterword

  Bibliography

  Make Contact

  Join My Inner Circle

  Introduction

  A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE

  A TANNER NOVEL – BOOK 22

  What should have been a simple hit turns into a struggle to survive and a race against the clock for Tanner.

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  1

  Like Clockwork

  Tanner, seated at the counter inside a diner in Byzantine, West Virginia, watched as one of the waitresses slipped into the men’s room.

  It was Friday morning and he had been staying in the town of eighteen thousand for two days in preparation of making a hit. Byzantine, West Virginia, was without doubt the most unscrupulous and corrupt town he had ever been to. And Tanner had once lived in Las Vegas.

  Upon his arrival, he had gone less than a mile into the town when a police officer pulled him over. The cop, who was in his twenties and overweight, wore a soiled uniform shirt along with jeans and sneakers.

  Tanner assumed he had wandered into some unmarked small-town speed trap. He had. The cop claimed that a section of the road had a limit of only fifteen miles an hour. When Tanner asked the man where the speed limit was posted, the cop pointed to a road sign nailed to a tree. The sign was no bigger than a memo card and too small to be read without binoculars.

  Tanner took the ticket without complaint. It was bad enough he had been seen by a cop, he didn’t need to become memorable. He was breaking one of his own rules by hanging around the town where he was to make a hit. Worse yet, he’d taken a room there. It couldn’t be avoided.

  The other hotels and motels in the area were full. There were a pair of conventions taking place in the area and one of the larger hotels had recently suffered a fire and was temporarily closed. If he had more time to plan, Tanner would have booked accommodations outside the town of Byzantine.

  The contract came to him with a fat fee and a time limit attached. He was given four days to kill his target, a man named Jack Bellamy.

  Bellamy had committed financial fraud while he was the head of a top hedge fund. Yet, Bellamy hadn’t served a day in jail. Instead, he’d placed the blame on his compliance officer and the fund’s chief financial officer.

  Jack Bellamy was tainted and disgraced by the scandal. Although he shouted his innocence in interviews, those in the know were aware that he alone was to blame. His compliance officer and his C.F.O. had been made dupes by the man.

  Once it became obvious that his legal shenanigans had been uncovered, Bellamy went to the Securities and Exchange Commission and made a deal. He would incriminate his colleagues to save himself. His personal fortune was several hundred million and the only financial penalty he faced was a relatively small fine.

  The hedge fund failed. The wealthiest shareholders managed to get their money returned. However, thousands of smaller investors lost everything, and it was because of Bellamy’s actions.

  That the man was unrepentant became obvious when he gave an interview in which he called his victims, “Amateurs who should have stayed out of the market and let the big boys play.”

  Tanner routinely took contracts on those who had harmed others through violent means rather than financial. Still, a scumbag was a scumbag, and Tanner agreed to put Bellamy down.

  Tanner was in town under the guise of being a real estate developer named Paul Diehl. Byzantine had dilapidated lakeside cabins that were sitting vacant. The owner was looking to sell to someone who would revitalize or rebuild the property. It was a good cover identity and gave Tanner a reason to be in town.

  The waitress exited the men’s room while placing a stick of chewing gum in her mouth. Seconds later, a man in a work uniform came out too. The man was wearing a satisfied smile on his face. Tanner had been propositioned by the same cute waitress. She had asked him if he liked what he saw and offered to butter more than his toast.

  Tanner declined, and he had observed that his waitress and one other server hooked on the side. When he watched the women pass along money to the man who owned the diner, Tanner realized the part-time prostitution was encouraged.

  At the Byzantine Hotel, where he was staying, the bell boys sold drugs while the maids committed petty theft.

  Tanner had placed a hidden camera in his room and caught one of the maids going through his things. The woman had taken a pair of cheap sunglasses and had the audacity to wear them in front of him. Tanner didn’t report the theft. He just wanted to fulfill his contract and leave the corrupt town behind him.

  To that end, Tanner had spent two days getting to know his target and his habits. He had been helped by the client, who had revealed the location of Jack Bellamy’s love nest. Bellamy, who was forty-four, was married to a beautiful twenty-three-year-old redhead named Melissa. Melissa was Bellamy’s fourth wife. Despite his wife’s obvious attributes, Bellamy had an equally stunning mistress named Tiffany Hayes. Tiffany was also in her twenties, blonde, and gorgeous.

  The love nest was a bungalow-style house in a secluded location. It had three bedrooms, two baths, and a finished basement. There was a well-stocked bar, a jacuzzi, and a huge wall-mounted TV. A large picture window at the front of the home looked out onto the wraparound porch. Tanner decided it would be a good location to make the kill.

  Tiffany had left the love nest first the previous day, leaving Bellamy behind and alone. Tanner had been tempted to kill the man at that time, but he had yet to follow through on the procedures he used whenever making a hit.

  He had to scout the area surrounding the home and assess the probability of anyone being near enough to see anything. Once he fired the shot that would kill Bellamy, the noise would travel, sound suppressor or not. It likely wouldn’t be a problem, since no one would be near enough to pinpoint where the shot came from.

  Tanner also had to make plans for escape in the event he walked into a trap or something went wrong. He had learned years earlier through painful experience that it was important to prepare for every contingency.

  There was also the reason for his visit to the area to consider. To keep his cover up, Tanner had met with the man selling the lakefront property. The man had extolled the virtues of the lake and its great fishing until Tanner told him he knew the lake was devoid of fish because
it had become contaminated.

  “How did you find out about that?” the man asked. He was an older gentleman with a grandfatherly face.

  “I did some research before coming to town. The lake would have to be drained and cleaned before anyone could live here. I’m also aware that the cabins have termite damage. Given that, your asking price is much too high.”

  The man had sent him a wink. “I’ll find the right sucker to buy it, you watch.”

  Tanner wondered then if everyone in the town was corrupt in some way. Jack Bellamy might be the community’s most notorious native scoundrel, but he was certainly not it’s only one.

  Tanner left the diner and drove to the area where Bellamy would soon be meeting with his lover. The client had given him four days to kill Bellamy and half of that had already gone by. Tanner spent the next three hours preparing for the hit, with the final hour used to scout the surrounding area. There was no one else around. The nearest home was on the other side of the road and half a mile away.

  Tanner settled in atop the small hill he had picked out for a firing position. He was pleased to see the car that belonged to Bellamy’s mistress sitting beside Jack Bellamy’s white Jaguar.

  Tanner had expected a longer wait, but the young woman appeared in the doorway twenty-six minutes later, with Bellamy at her side. They shared a passionate kiss before she got into her car and drove away.

  Tanner had sighted in on Tiffany as she walked toward her vehicle and admired her through his scope. The blonde was an exceptional beauty. Bellamy had good taste, if not good sense.

  After Tiffany left, Tanner watched Bellamy move around by spying on him through the picture window. The man was wearing a white dress shirt with no tie and his slacks were black.

  Bellamy had made himself a drink and was sipping on it. Jack Bellamy had dark hair, brown eyes, was bearded, and stood five-foot-ten. His build was average, and he stayed trim despite never exercising.

  Tanner was about to pull the trigger on Bellamy when the man moved away from the window. It was of little consequence.

  Bellamy had opened the front door and stepped outside. He walked several yards away from the home, then stopped and took a sip of his drink. Bellamy was gazing around at the fine summer day when Tanner placed four rounds in his chest.

  The high-velocity slugs tore apart Bellamy’s lungs, heart, and severed his spine.

  The man who had abused his power and lost millions for the people who trusted him fell backwards and settled atop the driveway. The law might have dealt leniently with him, but Tanner’s employer wasn’t as forgiving, and Bellamy had paid for his transgressions.

  Tanner smiled as he left the area. The contract was fulfilled, and he could leave the shady little town of Byzantine behind him.

  Unfortunately for Tanner, he was wrong on both counts.

  2

  See Yourself As Others Do

  ONE HOUR EARLIER

  While Tanner had been scouting the area in preparation for making the hit, Jack Bellamy had arrived at the secluded home to meet his mistress. Tiffany’s green Mazda was already there, and Bellamy parked beside it.

  This would be only his third meeting with Tiffany, whom he had met while he was out cruising bars in a nearby town. The woman caught the eye of every man in the room when she’d entered the sports bar, but Bellamy had been the first to buy her a drink. An hour later they were in a motel room.

  Bellamy had no delusions about himself. He wasn’t ugly, but neither was he a male model. Tiffany was seeing him because he was rich and could buy her things. She had already gotten an expensive diamond bracelet out of him, and he would buy her more things as long as they were together.

  Women themselves were things to Bellamy, as were most of the people he interacted with. He respected no one, and life was all about having fun and getting richer.

  He had been ruthless and conniving since he was a child and was proud of it. Bellamy considered those attributes as being the main qualities that had taken him from poverty to extreme wealth. It never seemed to occur to him that his lack of empathy and love of deceit might be the cause of his downfall.

  Sure, he may have been a bit too greedy when he came up with that scheme to defraud that ruined his hedge fund. Still, he’d been wise enough to take out insurance by dragging others along with him. He had talked two of his fund’s executives into helping him with the promise of making them more money than they had ever seen before.

  As soon as things went south, Bellamy called the authorities and asked to make a deal. Bellamy claimed he was innocent of any wrongdoing, but that he knew the names of the ones responsible.

  No one believed in his innocence, nonetheless, a deal was struck that enabled him to remain free. As for his partners, they were still serving time and had years to go on their sentences.

  Bellamy didn’t escape completely unscathed. His reputation was ruined, and his company dismantled. He’d also had to pay a fine of a hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The fine was but a fraction of the money he’d hidden in foreign banks and meant nothing, nor was he concerned about the hit his reputation had taken. What caused Bellamy pain was being told he could never run another financial institution.

  His lack of ethics and empathy aside, Bellamy was a true genius when it came to financial matters. He loved high finance and wheeling and dealing. He had found a way around the ban by acting as a secret advisor to an old friend he’d grown up with in Byzantine, a man named Grant Dixon.

  His recommendations had increased Dixon’s modest portfolio by a hundred-fold. Later on, Bellamy’s gift at investing gave Dixon the reputation on Wall Street of being a top market analyst. Dixon was also considered a genius by many. Those accolades rightly belonged to Bellamy. And he had a plan to see that he was acknowledged.

  To confess that he was the true wizard behind the curtain was a risky act that could see Bellamy serve time. Without doubt it would ruin Dixon and turn him into a joke. Jack Bellamy didn’t give a damn what happened to Dixon, his oldest friend. What he couldn’t abide was being thought of as a has-been, not when he had built one of the most successful hedge funds of all time and knew that he could do so again. His ego was about to override his good sense. In some ways, it was the story of Jack Bellamy’s life.

  Bellamy entered his love nest and halted inside the doorway. Sounds were coming from the bedroom. They were noises he had expected to hear, but only as a participant. It was the sound of lovemaking. Bellamy eased the front door shut and crept toward the bedroom. The home was furnished with sofas and chairs in a traditional style and had a fireplace that ran on propane.

  The thick braided rug on the floor helped to muffle his footsteps. As he moved closer to the bedroom doorway, Bellamy found himself aroused by the obvious sounds of pleasure coming from Tiffany.

  Tiffany was smart enough not to ruin a good thing. She wouldn’t be screwing some other guy in his bed, especially when he was expected at any moment. That meant that she might have talked a woman into joining them in their fun. If so, Bellamy approved.

  Jack Bellamy eased one eye around the door frame of the bedroom. What he saw made him gasp. There was a man in bed with Tiffany. They were both naked and making love. Yes, it was a man, but not just any man.

  Bellamy gave up trying to be stealthy and entered the room with his mouth hanging open in shock. He told himself that what he was seeing wasn’t possible, and yet, he kept on seeing it. Tiffany had her back to him as she rode the man beneath her.

  The guy smiled up at Bellamy as he approached the bed. The man could have been Bellamy’s twin.

  “How? What?” Bellamy said. Then a bright white light erupted inside his skull, and Jack Bellamy fell to the floor.

  Tiffany climbed off her lover after hitting Bellamy with a powerful stun gun. Before the man could recover, she removed a syringe from the bedside table and used it on Bellamy. The ex-titan of Wall Street began snoring as drool leaked from the corner of his mouth.

  Bellamy’s doub
le, a man named Carl Leffler, climbed out of bed and put on a robe.

  “We got him, baby. And did you get a look at his face? He thought he was seeing things. If I can trick him, everyone else will be fooled too.”

  Leffler was nine years younger than Bellamy and their resemblance was only superficial. Nonetheless, Leffler was a master at changing his appearance.

  Tiffany fastened her own robe as she stared down at Bellamy. “I wish we really could ransom him for a million dollars. It’s a shame we’ll only be faking his kidnapping.”

  “That million won’t matter, not after two days go by. All we have to do is keep him on ice and we’ll all make millions.”

  Tiffany grabbed a computer tablet and composed a quick email.

  “I’ll tell the others to come and get him.”

  Within minutes, two men showed up. They were Rudy and Larry. Rudy was thirty-six, had blond hair and brown eyes, while Larry was twenty-nine and had brown hair and blue eyes. Both men were around six-feet tall. They stared at Carl Leffler, then down at Bellamy.

  “Damn, but you two look alike,” Rudy said. “Are you sure you drugged the right man, Tiffany?”