The TANNER Series - Books 13-15 (Tanner Box Set) Read online

  Durand studied her as he took a sip of his whiskey.

  “My understanding is that the FBI released you without taint of any sort, is that true?”

  “Yes, I’ll never get any benefits, but I also won’t be prosecuted. Why do you ask?”

  “There are people who operate privately, and there are also special contractors, like Tanner, and not all of them are mercenaries or hired killers. You could always offer your services as an investigator.”

  “Yes, that’s something to think about, but as for Tanner, I’ll pass along any offers you have for him free of charge.”

  “No, I insist you be paid.”

  “Contractually, I can’t accept it, but there’s no reason my compensation can’t go to a charity, if and when Tanner agrees. Is that acceptable, Jacques?”

  “Yes, Sara, and now enough talk of business. Let me buy you that dinner you mentioned.”

  “Would that dinner be followed by another indecent proposal?”

  “Most certainly, but only after a liberal amount of wine has been imbibed.”

  Sara laughed.

  “I’ll have to take a rain check. I’m having dinner with my family, but if you’re ever in Connecticut, give me a call.”

  Durand reached across the table, took Sara’s hand, and kissed it.

  “I will make it a point of coming to Connecticut someday, now that I know you’re there.”

  Sara grinned.

  “You are a charmer, Jacques Durand.”

  Durand winked.

  “Most scoundrels are.”

  CHAPTER 19 – Analogous

  Inside Burt Hodges’s home office, Hodges told his son, Dexter, to take a seat on the worn leather sofa that was positioned near the desk.

  Dexter had a cast on his right wrist that had been signed by Pete and Rocco, and Hodges marveled that the moronic Rocco had actually misspelled his own name.

  Although it was late, neither Hodges nor Dexter had yet eaten, and so Hodges had ordered a pizza, which they ate as they talked. It was the closest thing they’d had to a family dinner in years.

  Hodges was telling Dexter about The Brotherhood, and how he was going to join up with them in order to gain a seat on the The Brotherhood Council.

  Hodges then went on to tell Dexter about the glory days of Killburry, back when Dexter’s grandfather practically owned the town. That was a tale that Dexter had heard many times before, but there seemed to be a new tone in his father’s voice this time. It was the sound of renewed hope.

  Dexter listened while chewing his pizza and sent his father the occasional grunt or nod of agreement. When Hodges wound down, Dexter asked his father why The Brotherhood would let him join.

  “It’s the houses I own, Dexter. The Brotherhood is going to use them as barracks and supply depots. We’re in a perfect position to attack either New York or Boston from here.”

  Hodges reached into a pocket and took out a wad of money. When he handed it to Dexter, the kid’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

  “What’s this for, Dad?”

  “We’re moving up in the world. The next time I meet with Adán I want you standing by my side. Take that money and go buy some suits, shirts, and ties. We’re going to make it clear from the start that we’re management and not worker bees. This is going to be your introduction to a new life, and I want you to make a good impression with Adán.”

  “I never bought a suit before.”

  “Just go into that new men’s shop in town and tell them what you need. And listen, don’t come back here wearing some sort of pimp costume, you hear me?”

  “I won’t,” Dexter said as he laughed. He stood up and headed for the door. The pizza had made him thirsty and he didn’t want the soda his father was drinking, not when there was cold beer in the fridge.

  “One more thing, Dexter.”

  “Yeah, Dad?”

  “Stop hanging out with those two morons across the street. You’re their boss, not their friend.”

  “But Pete and Rocco are cool, and we’ve been friends forever.”

  “Times change kid, and we gotta change with them.”

  Dexter frowned but didn’t argue. His father was always telling him what to do and then Dexter would just go and do the opposite anyway. Besides, he reasoned that once the old man got over his excitement about The Brotherhood bullshit, things would go back to normal. Dexter was headed towards the kitchen, but then returned and leaned in the doorway.

  “Dad?”

  “What’s up?”

  “You said that these Brotherhood dudes were letting you join because you had all those houses?”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “It’s just that, back in grade school, me, Pete, and Rocco formed a club. We even made a clubhouse out in the forest by using some old plywood and 2x4’s we’d found.”

  Hodges laughed.

  “Found? I remember that clubhouse. You stole that shit from old man Raney’s garage. He bugged me about it so much that I had to give him a beat down to make him shut up.”

  Dexter laughed along with his father.

  “I remember that. That was cool. He thought that you were gonna whip me and got his own ass beat.”

  “I should have whipped you, but what about the clubhouse?”

  “There was this nerdy kid, Roger. Roger had a shitload of cool comic books, and so me, Pete, and Rocco let him join our club, but only if he kept the comics in our clubhouse. You know, so we could all read them.”

  Hodges smiled.

  “I have an idea where this story is headed, but go on.”

  “Rodger brought the comics to the clubhouse, and then Pete says to me, ‘We got the comics. Why do we need Rodger hangin’ around?’”

  Hodges nodded knowingly.

  “You kicked him out of the club and kept the comics. I get it, but what’s your point?”

  Dexter shrugged.

  “Maybe your houses are like those comic books, and once you give them to The Brotherhood they’ll kick you out of their club.”

  Hodges stared at his son for a moment, and then sent him a smile.

  “It’s not the same. I’ve got insurance in place. If they turn on me, their plans are fucked.”

  Dexter smiled.

  “Okay Dad, and thanks for the cash. Can I keep the change?”

  “Yeah, but buy at least three good suits.”

  Dexter held up his wrist, the one with the cast on it.

  “Are we gonna just let Tom Myers get away with breaking my wrist?”

  Hodges smiled coldly.

  “No, son, we are not, but let me handle it my way.”

  “Okay.”

  “And why the hell did you snatch that purse in the first place?”

  Dexter shrugged.

  “I was bored.”

  Dexter headed down the hall and Hodges moved over to his office chair. As he swiveled the chair right and left, he thought about Dexter and what he’d said about the clubhouse. That led him to an inescapable conclusion. He needed more insurance and safeguards in place.

  Hodges looked through his father’s old rolodex and found the number he needed.

  He was calling his Uncle Mike. Mike Hodges was in his sixties and Hodges hadn’t talked to his uncle in years. Still, his Uncle Mike was the toughest man he ever knew and he doubted the man had changed much.

  No one answered, but he was able to leave a message on an answering machine.

  After hanging up, Hodges leaned back in his chair and chuckled as he thought about his son’s perceptiveness and savvy concerning The Brotherhood.

  The kid was smarter than he’d thought.

  CHAPTER 20 – Skeletons in the closet tend to rattle

  In California, Sara had asked her Uncle Gary to join her out on the back porch for a talk. They had just had dinner, and Gary and Sara were both sipping on coffee.

  “What’s this about, kiddo?” Gary said.

  “It’s about Grandma, Uncle Gary. She’s said some things that have led m
e to believe that she might have another child out there somewhere. Although, I guess he would be older than you, and might even have children of his own.”

  Gary was smoking a pipe, and after taking a puff, he sent Sara a grin.

  “What exactly did Mom say?”

  “She said that she had an affair with a ‘bad man’ when she was younger, before she was married, and that they produced a child together.”

  “Uh-huh? And would you like to find this child who’s now a grown man?”

  “Yes, I guess so. He would be family.”

  “Well then relax, you’ve found him. It’s me.”

  “You? Were you born out of wedlock and adopted by Grandpa when he married Grandma? But wait, no, that can’t be. I remember Grandpa; you look just like him. You have to be his son.”

  Gary laughed.

  “I am his son. He was the bad man that your Grandmother was talking about.”

  “Grandpa? But he was a decorated police lieutenant by the time he retired. Grandma made it sound like she had been with a mobster or something.”

  Gary leaned in closer to Sara.

  “What I’m about to tell you stays between us. Your aunt doesn’t know the truth, and there’s no reason that she should ever know. But you’re not a kid anymore and you’ve been an FBI agent, so I’ll just tell it to you plainly. When he was younger, your grandfather, my father, was a no good, murdering son of a bitch.”

  Sara’s mouth dropped open in shock.

  “Grandpa? The man that insisted we go to church whenever we came to visit?”

  “Same guy, different era. Listen, honey, Los Angeles was a cesspool of corruption and crime back when Dad joined the force. He was deep in the pocket of some mob boss back then, some hood named Aldo Maglione. Dad beat up or killed whoever Maglione told him to, and he was a cop at the same time.”

  “Grandpa was a dirty cop and an enforcer for the mob?”

  “Think about it, Sara, and look around you. This house is huge and sits on a large parcel of land. How do you think a cop was able to afford that?”

  Sara gazed about at her surroundings, and for the first time, she gave thought to the worth of the property she had played on as a child. It encompassed many acres in an area of high real estate value, and must be worth over a million, likely several million.

  “Oh my God, you’re right. This land couldn’t have come cheaply, not even decades ago.”

  “Yes, and this house cost a pretty penny to build too.”

  “How did you find out about Grandpa?”

  “I did research once, a long time ago, back when you actually had to go to the library and look up old newsprint on microfiche. I spent hours doing it, and it was enlightening, let me tell you.”

  “How so?”

  “Dad was brought up on charges twice by internal affairs, and once a DA publicly accused him of murdering a witness for the mobster he worked for. Dad survived it all. That is, after a few more fortuitous and convenient deaths occurred. And then, there was the unexplained disappearance of the DA’s six-month-old daughter.”

  Sara was speechless, and could only gasp at what she was learning. Gary saw her expression and held up a hand.

  “Oh, don’t worry, the kid was returned a few hours later, and you can bet your ass that Dad had an alibi during that time. As a matter of fact, he was in the DA’s office. He had gone there to ‘hash things out’ as I heard him say. The DA dropped the charges and Dad never heard a peep out of internal affairs for as long as he remained on the force.”

  “Grandpa spoke to you about this?”

  “No, but as a kid I was nosy and I heard things. After eavesdropping on a certain conversation between my mom, my dad, and an old cop buddy of Dad’s, I became really curious. I was a teenager then, and they had been talking about the old days. I overheard the friend say that he was amazed that Mom married Dad.”

  “Why was he amazed, because of Grandpa’s reputation?”

  Gary shook his head.

  “No Sara, he was amazed because one of those witnesses that went missing was your great-grandfather, the Reverend Joshua Hamilton.”

  “Wait, you’re saying that Grandma married the man who killed her father? Why the hell would she do that?”

  Gary smiled sadly.

  “The old girl loved him, and she still loves him and talks about him all the time. She hasn’t been the same since he died. And anyway, there was never any proof that Dad killed her father, it could have been someone else. Although, it doesn’t seem likely when you know that he was the go-to guy for hits.”

  “How could she ever come to care deeply for a man who had killed someone she loved?”

  “The heart wants what it wants—or else it does not care,” Gary said.

  “That’s a quote from Emily Dickinson, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, and very true words.”

  Sara’s eyes look glazed over and her cup nearly slipped from her hand, but after spilling a few drops of coffee, she placed the cup on the table.

  “My grandpa was a hit man,” she whispered in wonder.

  Gary shrugged, and talked around the pipe clenched in his teeth.

  “More or less, but like you said, he was a churchgoer in his later years, so I guess he repented.”

  “Wow!” Sara said, “And people call you the black sheep of the family.”

  “Do they really?” Gary said.

  Sara gave him an apologetic smile and nodded her head.

  Gary grinned around the stem of his pipe. “That’s nice. I like that.”

  CHAPTER 21 – Just plain silly

  Jake Vincento and the flight attendant named Eve hit it off so well that she had invited him back to her apartment in Woodbridge, which was a large town just a few miles south of his motel.

  They showered together after making love again, and then Vincento followed Eve around the local mall as she shopped. Vincento’s mind would constantly drift to thoughts about the hit he had to make that evening, but Eve was distracting enough to keep him from dwelling on it.

  He had told her that he was in the area visiting a brother, but that the brother had to leave town on business. He also told her that he was a personal bodyguard and showed her his gun.

  If she suspected that he was anything other than what he claimed to be, Eve didn’t show it. She no more wanted a long-term relationship than Vincento did. They were just two adults having a bit of fun during down time.

  When six p.m. came, Vincento drove Eve to the airport, where she would soon board a flight to San Francisco. Jake promised to call the next time he was in the area and Eve pretended to care.

  After leaving the airport, Vincento stopped to grab a meal at a fast food drive thru, and then returned to his motel room and changed into dark clothes. He carried a tactical vest filled with extra magazines out to the car concealed inside a pillow case, and placed it in the trunk beside the modified AR-15 he would use to kill Michael DeLillo and his bodyguards.

  A quick stop at a convenience store to grab some water and a protein bar, and Vincento was headed to the docks to get into position.

  He felt like the most dangerous man alive.

  ***

  A man who might actually be the most dangerous man alive, Tanner, was sitting on his front porch. He was watching the watchers, while drinking iced tea and eating potato chips.

  The neighborhood watch group was back out on patrol with their yellow shirts and white hats. If they did get bikes, they’d probably be painted in a bright neon color

  Chief Ellison had told Tanner that there was a group roughing up the known child molesters, wife beaters, and other miscreants in town. The beatings had mostly gone unreported because the victims were warned to remain quiet, or else.

  Tanner gave a slight shake of his head as he watched the neighborhood ninjas stroll off towards the avenue. He couldn’t believe that they were the ones doing the beatings. And Dexter, who knocked him out and restrained him? If it wasn’t the neighborhood watch, then wh
o was it?

  Tanner’s train of thought was derailed by Alexa, who stood up from her seat beside him, and then leaned over and kissed him. She had been reading a book.

  “I’m going to take a shower and go to bed.”

  “Why so early?”

  “I’ll be awake for a while; I just want to relax. Are you coming in soon, or are you going to keep watch?”

  “Not tonight, but I’ll give it another hour before coming to bed, just in case.”

  “I’ll still be up. After you mentioned Jacques Durand I looked up his books, and now I’m reading one. It’s very good. I think you would like it.”

  “What’s it about?”

  “He writes about true crime.”

  Tanner grimaced in distaste.

  “It sounds too violent for me.”

  Alexa laughed and kissed him again, before going inside and heading upstairs. Tanner saw the neighborhood watch group return, send him a wave, and then walk back out to the avenue. They seemed to be on a pre-determined route that a two-year-old could figure out and find a way around.

  When a slight noise came from Tanner’s right, he continued looking the other way at the departing watch group. But, he raised the glass of tea he’d been drinking with his left hand, and used the reflective surface like a mirror.

  There was movement on his right, as someone climbed stealthily over the porch railing. Tanner sat the glass down with one hand even as he reached for his gun with the other. When he turned to look, he saw Josie Anderson’s expression of wide-eyed amazement, as he pointed the gun at her face.

  Tanner lowered the small gun, then put it away in its pocket holster.

  “Hello neighbor, why are you sneaking around?”

  “Why do you have a gun?”

  “Home protection, you never know who might drop by.”

  Josie had recovered from her shock. She walked over to stand in front of Tanner, then lowered herself to her knees between his legs. The blouse she wore had a plunging neckline, and offered a view of her breasts.

  “You don’t need protection from me; I’m very friendly.”

  “I have noticed, oh, and as long as you’re down there...”