Cody turned to look at Romeo and saw that he was still asleep.
“Romeo wants to be a Tanner too. What happens after we train? Do you pick one of us?”
“I won’t need to do that. Within a year or two it will be obvious which one of you will be my successor. Not everyone who trains with a Tanner becomes a Tanner.”
“You had competition too?”
“There was someone who trained with Tanner Five before I did. He was about to be named a Tanner when he did something he shouldn’t have. Tanner Five said that he was too willing to kill, and so he refused to name him as his successor.”
“What happened to him?”
“As far as I know, he’s working as an assassin somewhere in Asia. Tanner Five said the man was as good as anyone he’d ever seen.”
“What was his name?”
“Vince Ryker. If you ever come across him, run the other way.”
“Why?”
“Ryker hates me because I’m a Tanner. He might hold it against you that you’re training to become a Tanner too.”
“I can’t wait to get to Mexico. I want to learn everything I can.”
Spenser smiled. “You may feel different once we’re there. The training gets intense at times.”
“What happens when we get through it?”
“It will be time to leave the nest. I’ll supervise you, but you’ll be working as an assassin.”
“Could Romeo and I work as a team?”
“Maybe, but first the two of you have to make it through the training. There’s a good chance that one of you might decide that being a Tanner isn’t worth it.”
“It won’t be me,” Cody said. “I’ll be a Tanner someday. I have to be.”
Spenser took his eyes from the road and stared at Cody.
“Why do you want it so badly? Is it because of what happened to your family?”
“If you, a Tanner, had been there that night instead of me, could you have killed all those men?”
“I don’t know, Cody. You were outnumbered dozens to one. The odds you faced were staggering.”
“Someday I’ll be so good that no matter how many they throw at me, I’ll win. I want to be that good. I have to be that good.”
“Such a thing may not be possible.”
Cody shook his head.
“It’s possible, or else I wouldn’t want it so much.”
Spenser nodded in understanding, and they continued back to Reno.
32
Hiring A Part-Time Spy
THE BRONX, JANUARY 2018
Sanchez Office Maintenance did business out of a storefront on Clay Avenue in the Bronx.
At daybreak, Tanner followed the yellow van to the location where one of the other workers jumped out of the passenger side door to unlock a chain-link fence. The woman driver entered the office, where two other employees were talking.
Hoyt and the rest of the crew walked off toward a bus stop a block away. When Hoyt climbed aboard a bus, Tanner continued to follow. Hoyt stepped off the bus about twenty minutes later in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx and proceeded to walk along a street coming alive with morning traffic. Now and then Tanner would catch a glimpse of the Bronx River. The water sparkled in the rising sun.
Tanner parked and watched Hoyt. His car was new and expensive, while the neighborhood he was in verged on being a slum. His car stuck out in the area. Being white made him memorable as well.
When Hoyt walked past a group of teenagers standing on the dilapidated porch of a decaying building, the boys yelled something at him. The kids weren’t gangbangers, at least they didn’t have the look.
Hoyt quickened his pace, but the swagger was still in his step. If he was afraid of the rowdy boys he hadn’t shown it, only the good sense not to force a confrontation. Hoyt then disappeared into an apartment building six doors down.
The boys on the porch laughed at what they took to be Hoyt’s cowardice, then one of them noticed Tanner’s car. A moment later and all five teens were staring his way.
Tanner made a U-turn and drove off. Killing Hoyt at home was not the way to go. He knew where the man lived and knew where to find him. Far easier to kill the man at night on the streets of Manhattan, than in bright daylight where he would be memorable to those who lived in the area.
There was just one problem. It was the blonde girl in the coffee shop. Hoyt was interested in her. For all Tanner knew the man might make his move on her while Tanner was back at home. Hoyt might also know where the woman lived and go there instead of waiting to grab her as she headed toward the coffee shop.
The answer was simple. He had to keep watch on Hoyt. Otherwise the man might rape and murder the blonde from the coffee shop.
Staying awake throughout the day while sitting in a bad neighborhood did not appeal to Tanner. He pulled over to the curb to give the situation some thought. It was less than a minute later when he came up with an answer.
The boys on the porch stared in surprise when Tanner pulled to the curb, then looked worried when he stepped from his vehicle.
“That guy that walked past you before, do you know his name?” Tanner asked.
One of the boys squinted at him. He looked to be the oldest of the bunch, but Tanner doubted he was more than eighteen. The kid kept his hair cut short, was handsome, and wore better clothes than the others. That he was intelligent wasn’t in question. You could see it in his eyes.
“Are you a cop?”
“No, but I want to know that guy’s name and I’ll give fifty dollars to whoever tells me.”
Three of the other boys shouted out a name. They were all different. The older boy shoved one of them and told the rest to be quiet.
“We don’t know his name. We just mess with him when he walks by. He’s weird.”
“Weird in what way?”
The kid spread his arms wide.
“He’s white, but he lives here. Would you live here?”
“No.”
“See what I mean?”
“What’s your name?”
“James.”
“I need to know when that man leaves his apartment. I’ll give you five-hundred-dollars if you keep an eye on him for me today.”
“You’ll give me five-hundred just to watch him?”
“Yeah, but when he leaves I’ll also need you to follow him. Can you get a car?”
“I’ve got a car right there,” James said. He pointed out at the curb where an old Ford Mustang sat. The car was at least thirty years old and rusting near the fenders, but the tires were good, and the windows were clean.
“Just follow the guy. If he spots you, let him go. Don’t confront him.”
“He won’t spot me.”
Tanner took out his wallet, removed five hundred-dollar-bills, then tore them in half. James came down the stairs and Tanner saw that the kid was almost as tall as he was.
“Why did you rip the bills in half?”
Tanner handed him part of the money.
“You get half now, and the other half when I see you later.”
“You’re coming back here?”
“If I have to, but if you follow that man and he goes where I expect him to go, I’ll already be there. When I see you, you’ll get the other half.”
“What if he goes somewhere else and you don’t show up?”
“There’s a number written on each of those bills. Call it when the guy is on the move again and I’ll answer.”
One of the other boys came down the stairs. He was darker than James, but Tanner could see that he was Hispanic. As he walked, the kid rolled his muscular shoulders while moving his head from side to side.
“We could kick your ass and take all your money right now.”
Tanner stared at him. “No, you couldn’t.”
The kid stared back, then looked away.
“Shut up, Juan,” James said. “We’re not robbing anyone. If your mother heard you acting all tough she would smack you on the back of the head,” Jam
es looked back at Tanner. “I’m going to need my boys here to keep watch when I have to use the bathroom. They should get something too.”
Tanner was amused by his haggling.
“Pay them what you want, but it comes out of the five-hundred. Do we have a deal?”
James nodded. “Yeah, but what’s your name?”
“You can call me Tanner.”
Tanner returned to his car, hung another U-turn, and headed toward Manhattan. If all went well, he would be alerted the next time Hoyt left his apartment and the woman from the coffee shop would remain safe. Using James to keep an eye on Hoyt wasn’t a perfect plan, but it would have to do.
Tanner sighed. Keeping people alive was more difficult than making them dead. But there was someone he would soon make dead, the man who once called himself Ray Hoyt.
33
Planning
RENO, NEVADA, MARCH 1998
Spenser was pleased to find Cody and Romeo dressed and ready to be on the move at four a.m.
They left their hotel and grabbed breakfast at a coffee shop, where Spenser explained that he wanted to spend the day watching the target’s home. He had an inkling of a plan forming in his mind, but he needed more information before he was ready to formulate a strategy.
On their way to the house, they stopped at an all-night market, where they bought thermoses of coffee, cold sandwiches, juice, a foam cooler, and ice.
They arrived in the area at 5:14 a.m., then hiked to the location they had previously used where they could look down upon the front of the property. As before, there was a guard in the tiny shack beside the iron gates. Despite the early hour, the man looked alert and ready to respond.
At 5:33 a young woman left one of the new homes to the right of the walled estate. She was dressed in a jogging outfit and had her long dark hair tied back in a bun. After stretching a bit, she took off along the road, then sent a wave to the gate guard as she passed him. The guard answered her wave with one of his own and watched her until she disappeared around a bend in the road.
A short time later, a vehicle arrived. The driver swiped a card through the electronic reader, then he entered the area where the guards parked. After leaving his vehicle, he went into the home through a side door while carrying a newspaper.
Two other vehicles arrived within minutes of each other just before 6:00 a.m., they were the guards they had seen the previous day returning to begin another twelve-hour shift.
Spenser pointed down at the parking area the guards used.
“They screwed up by placing that small parking lot on the east side of the property. Had it been laid-out near the guard shack, each arriving man would have to be seen by the guard before entering the home through that side door. The way it is now, the guard has no real idea who’s coming into the house.”
“But there are still the cameras,” Cody said. “The other two guards in the security office would see if anyone else entered.”
“They’d have to have a swipe card to open the gate too,” Romeo said.
“All true,” Spenser said, “but the card can be obtained, and as for the cameras, all the guards inside see are men in gray uniforms and black caps coming to work. If I gave them what they expected to see they wouldn’t take a closer look at me.”
“Like the role camouflage of a waiter you used the other night?” Cody asked.
“Yes, and it might work here too, but we’ll still spend the day watching and learning. If I don’t see anything to make me change my mind, the hit will go down in two days, maybe three.”
A new man took over the guard shack at six, and the night guard went inside after a short conversation. The side door of the home opened a few minutes later and the three night-shift guards headed to their cars, including the one who drove the blue Chevy Cavalier.
The man was tall and well-built. Through the binoculars, Spenser saw that there was an insignia of some sort on his uniform pocket that the other two guards lacked. Perhaps he was a supervisor or shift manager of some sort. That might explain why he had arrived earlier than the other men the day before.
If that was the case, Spenser knew what he would do to gain entry into the house, but then there would still be the matter of the guard at the gate.
The man might remain oblivious to what was happening inside the house, or he might grow suspicious if no one answered his call, or missed a pre-arranged check-in.
No, it was better to neutralize the gate guard as well. Afterwards, with all the guards handled, Spenser could roam the large house with impunity as he tracked down his target.
Spenser took the cap off a thermos and poured coffee into its plastic top, which had a handle and doubled as a cup.
“Settle in, guys. We’re in for a long day.”
Around ten a.m., a door slid up on the attached garage and a slick red Mercedes drove up to an iron gate, which the guard in the shack opened with the push of a button. As Romeo snapped away taking pictures, Spenser and Cody were watching through binoculars.
“It’s a woman, a blonde, and she’s alone,” Cody said.
“She’s Gregor Rossi’s flavor of the week,” Spenser said. “According to the report the private detective filed, Rossi goes through women at a fast clip. The P.I. speculated that they might be high-priced call girls.”
“How often do the women stay over?” Romeo asked.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll be hitting him in the late afternoon, and they likely don’t show up until after dark.”
The rest of the morning and early afternoon was uneventful, but around 3:30, several kids on bikes rode up to the guard shack and began pestering the man inside. When he stepped from the shack in an irritated manner, the kids rode off laughing. An hour later, a different woman than the one they saw in the morning jogged by the property, and from the opposite direction.
This one didn’t send the guard a friendly wave. She was all business. She had on headphones and kept her eyes straight ahead as she ran. Twenty-three minutes later, she jogged by again on a return trip.
A car arrived at 5:38 p.m.
It was a blue Chevy Cavalier and its driver was the night-shift supervisor, who carried a cup of coffee with him. Once again, he had arrived earlier than the men he was there to supervise. Spenser was certain it was a regular habit. One of the men from the day-shift had also arrived early. Perhaps they needed to confer with each other before the ending of one shift and the beginning of another.
That was good. It opened a gap since the other guards all arrived about fifteen minutes later. During those fifteen minutes, Gregor Rossi would die.
34
The Unexpected
NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 2018
The kid from the Bronx, James, called Tanner in the evening and told him that Hoyt was on the move. He called again a short time later to report that he had followed Hoyt to the storefront that housed Sanchez Office Maintenance.
Tanner told James that Hoyt would be getting in a yellow van and that he was to follow it and call him again once the van parked somewhere.
In the meantime, Tanner went to the area where he had spotted Hoyt the night before, thinking that the crew cleaned the same buildings each work day. He was proven right when he spotted the yellow van, then seconds later, he saw James’ old Mustang park at a hydrant.
Tanner tapped at the kid’s passenger window while the boy was dialing his number. The window lowered, and James smiled at him.
“I was just calling you. The guy went into that glass office building down the street there.”
“Good work,” Tanner said, as he handed James the rest of his money.
James smiled again. “You wouldn’t have any tape on you, would you?”
“No.”
James handed him a slip of paper. “That’s my number. Call me if you need me again. You pay better than my weekend job at the supermarket.”
Tanner took the slip of paper, then slapped the roof of the car with the palm of his hand.
“I’ll se
e you around, James.”
James sent him a wave and drove off. Tanner walked across the street where his car was parked in front of a corrugated garage door and waited for Hoyt to emerge from the building.
A few moments later, it struck him that Hoyt might have another way out. He pulled away from the curb and drove to where he had a view of the name brand coffee shop where Hoyt had bought the coffee. It also gave him a good view of the other coffee shop, which was across the street.
After breaking out the binoculars, Tanner scanned the coffee shop where the young blonde woman worked, but he didn’t see her. Maybe she had the night off.
What ensued was yet more hours of waiting. Tanner thought he should kill Hoyt just for being such a time waster.
At eleven o’clock he spotted Hoyt. The man was no more than a shadow in the distance, but his swaggering gait gave him away. Hoyt grabbed the handle on the door of the coffee shop where he’d bought the coffee the previous night. He released it before opening the door and stared across the street at the other coffee shop, the one where the blonde worked.
After hesitating for a moment, Hoyt ran across the street, barely catching the last few seconds of a green traffic signal. Once he was on the curb, Hoyt leaned against a mailbox and stared into the coffee shop, while searching for the girl.
Tanner left his car and walked toward Hoyt. He carried a black stiletto with a nine-inch blade that could be used to kill quickly and quietly. Once slid between Hoyt’s ribs, the tip of the blade would puncture his heart and end his life in seconds. When Hoyt collapsed, to anyone witnessing it, he might appear to be a drunk who passed out. The method of death caused internal bleeding and there would be only a small wound and little blood.
Tanner wore a black cap with a long bill that shielded his face from overhead cameras. He drew near to Hoyt, then concealed himself behind a closed newsstand that sat beside the corner. He was so close that he could hear Hoyt, as the man muttered to himself.
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