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

  Tanner reloaded with different ammo from his pack, snapped in the clip, and handed the rifle back to Henry.

  Sara made a face.

  “Is that a good idea? He may hurt himself.”

  Tanner considered her words and then looked down at Henry.

  “He seems level-headed, and I’ll keep an eye on him.”

  “How far away do you live, Henry?” Sara asked.

  Henry pointed back through the trees.

  “I live that way.”

  “Is it far?” Tanner asked. “You’re not talking about the town are you?”

  “No, I live up in the hills back there,” Henry said.

  Tanner recalled the aerial photographs he’d seen and recalled that there were several houses back towards the area Henry indicated. They were set wide apart and had lots of land around them.

  “We’ll walk you home, Henry,” Tanner said, afterwards, he leaned towards Sara and whispered. “We have time, don’t we?”

  Sara whispered back at Tanner so that Henry wouldn’t hear.

  “Our friend is still in Philadelphia, and it will take him some time to reach the lake house.”

  Despite their precautions, Henry heard them anyway, and he took a step backwards.

  “You two are friends with the guy who owns the lake house? I don’t like him; he’s mean.”

  “No,” Sara said. “Um, actually we have business with him, and you, young man, you have exceptional hearing.”

  Henry grinned.

  “I know, but don’t worry, I don’t blab.”

  Sara reached over and tousled Henry’s mop of dark hair.

  “You’re a cutie, do you know that?”

  Henry blushed. When Sara held out her hand, he took it shyly.

  “Show us where you live, Henry.”

  ***

  As they drove to the American Military Edged Weaponry Museum, Alexa and Deke talked about their lives.

  They had decided to take turns driving, and Alexa was behind the wheel as they drove to the museum, while Deke would drive back.

  Deke listened without speaking, as Alexa recounted the horrific tale of Alonso Alvarado’s slaughter of her family.

  As she spoke, Alexa had to wipe away tears, and she decided to pull over on the side of the road for a moment, as she was becoming too emotional to drive. When she had finished telling her story, Deke reached over, took her hand, and gave it a squeeze of sympathy.

  “You know, everyone says what a triumph killing Alvarado was for Tanner, but I think that it was more of a victory for you than it was for Tanner,” Deke said.

  “We both owed Alvarado a debt of blood.”

  Alexa looked down and saw that Deke was still holding her hand. Deke followed her gaze, and let her fingers slip free, while sending her an embarrassed grin.

  “Um, Alexa, what’s next for you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m talking about work. You must want to do something.”

  Alexa smiled.

  “I put my life on hold when I went after Alvarado. Now that he’s dead, all I want to do is lead a simple life, and be a mother. I want children.”

  “With Tanner?”

  “What? You don’t think that he would be a good father?”

  “Oh, I don’t know, I suppose he would. It’s just that his lifestyle, being an assassin, that’s not exactly the best work for someone with a family. Look what happened in London. You were taken as bait to get to Tanner. What if that had been your child instead of you?”

  Alexa grimaced at the thought, and shook her head.

  “Once we have children Tanner will take less contracts, or maybe even find something else to do.”

  Deke laughed.

  “What?” Alexa said.

  “I was just imagining Tanner as a life insurance salesman, or an office drone.”

  Alexa smiled.

  “Maybe he’ll find a job like yours, where he can act as support.”

  “Maybe,” Deke said.

  Alexa gave her eyes a final wipe with a tissue and pulled back onto the road.

  “All right, you know all about me. Now what is your story, Deke Mercer?”

  “Why don’t I save it for the trip back?”

  “Okay... but I won’t forget, and I hope that it’s not as sad as mine was.”

  “Yours would be hard to top, Alexa, and for you to be sitting here sane is a testament to your inner strength. Now I know for certain that you’re more than just a beautiful woman.”

  “Thank you,” Alexa said, and then she gave Deke a sideways glance, as her little voice told her that Deke was hiding something, and attempting to avoid revealing a truth by not talking about himself.

  Alexa let it go, but on the trip back, she would make a point of getting Deke to open up to her.

  “Deke?”

  “Yes?”

  “Thanks for coming along on this trip.”

  “No problem, Alexa, we sword nerds need to stick together.”

  Alexa laughed, as the uneasiness she felt over Deke slipped away.

  CHAPTER 10 – Agent X

  Although Henry answered questions, and asked a few of his own, he never chatted mindlessly or rambled on.

  Tanner admired that trait in the kid, and in some ways, Henry reminded him of himself as a boy.

  When asked why he didn’t like the man who owned the lake house, Henry’s main complaint was about the fence. He explained that the former owners of the house let everyone use the lake, and that he used to swim there during the summers.

  And although the kid was only ten, he already had an eye for the ladies.

  He held Sara’s hand during the trip to his house, and Tanner would have sworn he saw the boy checking out her breasts, after Sara became warm and unzipped her jacket.

  Henry had an inquisitive mind, and was no fool, as evidenced by his questioning of their purpose for being in the woods.

  “Are you guys really hunting?”

  “Absolutely,” Tanner said.

  Henry had looked up at him with squinted eyes.

  “That’s an awful fancy gun for shooting deer. That’s like an army gun.”

  “I just like the way it shoots,” Tanner said.

  “And you don’t look like a hunter either; you look like a spy. I’m gonna call you Agent X.”

  “Agent X?” Tanner said.

  Henry shrugged.

  “It fits you, and why do you call Sara, Blake, instead of just Sara?”

  “It’s a sign of respect,” Tanner said. “She’s sort of my boss.”

  “Oh, I thought she was your girl?”

  “I’ve already got a girlfriend.”

  Henry looked up at Sara.

  “Do you have a boyfriend?”

  “No, not at the moment.”

  “You want one,” Henry said, and both Tanner and Sara laughed.

  ***

  At one point along the trek, Henry released Sara’s hand and ran off into the trees on the right.

  “I want to show you guys something!”

  They followed along a barely visible trail, and a dozen yards into the trees, they saw Henry lay his rifle down, get on all fours, and crawl behind a tree. When Sara and Tanner looked for him, they saw that Henry had hidden himself inside the base of a hollow oak tree.

  “This is my secret hideout Agent X; do you have one too?”

  “I do, Henry, but it’s not as nice as this.”

  Henry reached up inside the tree and his hand disappeared into a hole. Henry thought of it as his memory hole, and it was where he kept his most valuable possessions. When his hand reappeared, it was holding a photo. It showed a younger Henry with a young blonde woman.

  “That’s my mom.”

  “She’s beautiful, and you look like her too,” Sara said.

  “She’s dead,” Henry whispered.

  Sara sat down and settled beside the tree.

  “Oh Henry, I’m sorry that you lost your mom. Who do you live with now, you
r dad?”

  Henry explained to them that he lived with his grandmother and her new husband. The new husband was named Glenn, and Tanner got the impression that Henry and Glenn did not get along.

  “Glenn’s from the city,” Henry said, as if that explained everything.

  Glenn had two daughters from his first marriage, and when Henry said that one of the girls was nine and the other one only six, Sara asked him how old his grandmother was.

  “She’s old, but not that old, and she’s still pretty—but not as pretty as you, Sara.”

  ***

  When they arrived at the house, Tanner saw that it was a large modular home with an attached garage. Henry’s people had done a good job with the landscaping, and it looked well kept. It sat alone in a cleared field and Tanner saw that the nearest house was half a mile away.

  The nearby town was visible in the distance, about two miles away, and a tall white church steeple reflected sunlight. The town’s population was only about five-thousand, but it was near a highway and had an airfield.

  A man in his mid-forties and wearing glasses opened the front door of Henry’s home as they approached. He was Henry’s step-grandfather, Glenn Olsen. When Glenn saw Tanner’s rifle, he blanched, and when he realized that Henry was carrying one as well, he let out a shout and grabbed it away from him. He then held the weapon as if it were a snake that could bite you at any moment.

  “Henry, you know that you’re not supposed to have this gun. What if the police had seen you?”

  “Screw the police, Glenn. They’re useless,” Henry said. The anger and bitterness in his young voice surprised Tanner and Sara, and they shared a look.

  Henry’s grandmother appeared in the doorway, along with Glenn’s young daughters.

  Laura Olson was only forty-two. She had given birth to Henry’s mother, Anne, when she was just sixteen, and sixteen years later, Anne had done the same by giving birth to Henry.

  Laura was good-looking, but her eyes broadcast worry, and there was a sad expression on her face.

  Glenn held Henry’s rifle out by the barrel with two fingers, as if it were toxic.

  “Henry had this again, and you know what that means.”

  Laura nodded, but then she spoke to Tanner and Sara.

  “Thank you for bringing my grandson home, he tends to wander sometimes.”

  Henry gestured at Tanner and Sara.

  “Grandma, this is Agent X, and she’s my girlfriend.”

  Sara made the proper introductions, giving Tanner the name of Bob this time. Afterwards, Laura invited them in for coffee. They accepted, and Tanner even acquiesced to Glenn’s insistence that he leave his rifle outside.

  Glenn had wanted it left on the porch, but Tanner compromised and leaned the rifle against an apple tree at the rear of the home. That way he could keep an eye on it through the kitchen window. Meanwhile, while he believed the boy to be distracted, Glenn had hidden Henry’s rifle behind a tall bookcase.

  Tanner didn’t want coffee. He wanted information. He had grown curious about Henry, and sensed that there was more to his story.

  ***

  “Henry’s mama was murdered,” Laura said. “My baby, Anne, she was killed and dumped on the side of the road like so much garbage.”

  Tanner and Sara both heard the pain in Laura’s voice as she spoke of her loss.

  They were seated around a kitchen table with Laura and Glenn, while the kids had been sent to their bedrooms to play.

  “When did Henry lose his mother,” Sara asked.

  “It was last fall, about a week before Henry’s birthday,” Laura said. “Our neighbor murdered her, although we can’t prove it. Another neighbor supplied the man with an alibi for Anne’s time of death, but Boyd Kessler murdered Anne, he killed my daughter as sure as I’m sitting here.”

  “Why are you so positive it was this Kessler who murdered her?” Tanner asked.

  “We received a letter from the man who gave Boyd an alibi. In it, he told us how sorry he was that he had lied to protect Boyd, but that Boyd had threatened him and his wife. The note was typed, and when the cops went to talk to the man in the town where he moved to, he denied sending the note. Two weeks later, we learned that the man died after being mugged.”

  “Mugged?” Tanner said. “Do you suspect that he was killed by this Boyd Kessler?”

  Glenn waved a dismissive hand at the question.

  “That’s what Laura thinks, but people get mugged every day, and Pittsburgh can be a dangerous city. It’s one of the reasons I moved my girls away from there when their mother died from an illness.”

  “It’s still a hell of a coincidence if you ask me,” Laura said. “And besides, Boyd stalked Anne, that bastard would follow my baby wherever she went. Anne took out a restraining order against him, but then she had to drop it.”

  “Why?” Sara asked. She was becoming as interested in Henry’s family drama as Tanner was.

  “It was because of Henry. Henry attacked Boyd with a knife when Boyd was harassing Anne. The boy was only eight then, and Boyd is lanky, but he’s tall, at least six-four, but Henry went after him and cut him too. Anne dropped the restraining order so that Henry wouldn’t get in trouble. The damn police chief was ready to charge him for God’s sake.”

  Glenn sighed.

  “That’s why Henry had that gun. The boy wants to kill Boyd. I think he was out looking for him.”

  “Where does this Boyd Kessler live?” Tanner asked.

  Sara looked over at him, she had heard an edge enter his voice and wondered if he was becoming angry. She certainly was, and also felt sad for Henry.

  “Boyd has a piece of land to the east of here, just the other side of that ridge you can see in the distance.” Laura said. “There’s no house on it, that gold-toothed bastard just lives in that ratty old travel trailer of his.”

  Tanner narrowed his eyes.

  “Gold-toothed? Does he have four gold teeth in front? If so, I’ve run into him already.”

  “That’s him, and I bet his teeth are worth more than that trailer he lives in.”

  Tanner suddenly understood why Henry was carrying the M1 around. He probably knew that Boyd Kessler worked as a caretaker for Yatsenko, and was going to shoot the man as he walked home. Tanner didn’t blame the boy a bit. If Boyd Kessler had murdered Henry’s mother, then he was worth killing.

  “The man is still your neighbor?” Sara said. “How often do you see him?”

  “Every once in a while,” Laura said. “The son of a bitch makes sure of that.”

  “He likes to taunt us,” Glenn said. “I also worry that he’s attracted to Laura. I don’t like the way he looks at her.”

  Tanner stared at Glenn. If what they were saying was true, Glenn should have been the one carrying the gun and hunting Boyd Kessler down. But no, it seemed as if ten-year-old Henry had more stones than his step-grandfather.

  “Where did Henry get the rifle?” Sara asked.

  “It was his father’s, but that no good bastard ran off just after Henry was born,” Laura said. “We’ve hidden that gun twice and Henry just keeps finding it.”

  “He won’t find it again,” Glenn said. “I’m going to take it apart and dump the pieces along the road the next time I go into town.”

  Tanner could think of a far better use for the gun, but said nothing. He liked Henry, and wished the kid well, but he had learned long ago not to get involved in other people’s family business.

  After Sara received a text stating that Yatsenko had left his home in Philadelphia, she and Tanner thanked Laura and Glenn for their hospitality and said that they had to be going.

  As they stood on the porch, Henry grinned from a blushing face as Sara gave him a goodbye kiss on the cheek. Henry then gave Tanner’s hand a shake.

  “Good luck with your assignment, Agent X.”

  “Thanks Henry, and good luck to you too.”

  Tanner and Sara headed back to the hill where Tanner would take his kill shot.


  Neither one of them noticed that Henry was following them. In Henry’s hands was the rifle Glenn had taken away.

  CHAPTER 11 – Run-in

  Alexa stopped to buy gas when they were nearing their destination, and while Deke filled the tank, Alexa used the ladies room at the side of the building.

  There were four men nearby who were smoking and drinking beer. The men were leaning back against a black pickup truck with an extended cab. They called to Alexa as she walked by them, while eyeing her lasciviously, and one of them asked her what her name was.

  She ignored them, but when she exited the bathroom, she found that the men were all standing outside the door.

  Two of them looked so much alike that Alexa guessed that they were brothers, although one was taller than the other by several inches. The other two men had beards, one blond and the other with a dark beard that had hints of gray showing.

  When Alexa tried to walk past them, the men surrounded her, and the one with the blond beard touched her hair.

  “We just want to talk to you, senorita. You do habla the English, eh?”

  “I speak English, and I speak it very well. Touch me again and I’ll slice you open.”

  The men all laughed, but then blond beard pointed over the shoulder of the taller of the two brothers.

  “The boyfriend just showed up.”

  The men all looked at Deke as he walked over and spoke to Alexa.

  “Are they bothering you?”

  Before Alexa could answer, the shorter of the two brothers put out a hand to shove Deke.

  Deke grabbed the man’s fingers, twisted them enough to elicit a cry of pain from the man, then shoved him against his brother with enough force to send them both falling to the ground. The other two men rushed Deke, moving fast, and Deke met their charge, by jabbing rigid fingers against the throat of the man with the blond beard.

  That made the man stumble backwards into the man with the dark beard, and Deke moved in and landed a hard punch into each man’s gut, which caused both men to retch and throw up their beer.

  Meanwhile, Alexa had brought out a knife, and she used it to hold the two brothers at bay.

  Not satisfied with that, Deke went over and delivered a series of fast and vicious jabs to the brothers’ faces, rendering them senseless. Without asking, he grabbed the knife from Alexa’s hand and went back over to the two bearded men who had just finished vomiting.