“I guess now we know why Reyes is hiring security guards.”
Tanner gave Doc the handguns and the old man put them in his pack, while Tanner carried the shotgun pointed downward.
They walked down a paved driveway that Tanner remembered being gravel the last time he was there, and when they came upon the house, its size surprised him.
The place was new, no more than ten years old. It was a ranch-style house that was still bigger than the two-story house the Parker home had been, and it sat in the same place as the old structure.
There was also a new barn and a massive stable, and although everything looked different, being back on the ranch still stirred something in Tanner.
His reverie was broken as a rider approached from the left, and the woman riding the black horse stopped the beast abruptly, as she spotted the shotgun in Tanner’s hand.
Tanner sat the gun atop a nearby tree stump and then walked over to speak to the woman.
“Mrs. Reyes?”
Maria Reyes nodded to Tanner while taking him in, and after looking at Doc, she asked a question.
“Are you with those men parked outside?”
“No, I took their guns and sent them away.”
Maria cocked her head as she studied him. She was a beautiful Mexican-American woman in her mid-forties with flawless light-brown skin. She sat atop the huge stallion as if it were an extension of her.
“You took guns away from the Harvey brothers?”
“I didn’t catch their last names, but they called each other Ernie and Rich.”
“That’s them, and what’s your name?”
“I’m Tanner and that’s Doc.”
Maria’s eyes flowed over Tanner once more.
“Are you looking for work, Mr. Tanner?”
“Yes.”
Maria smiled.
“Consider yourself hired.”
CHAPTER 6 - Fair warning
The Parker Ranch, September 1997
Cody Parker walked into the kitchen holding the dog under one arm, just as his twin sisters were headed out the back door with their friend, an auburn-haired girl named Tonya.
All three girls were eleven-years-old and classmates. Tonya had been headed out the door first, but she stopped suddenly and grinned back at Cody.
“You found my dog!”
“I told you I would, but now make sure you close the gate at your house from now on.”
“I will,” Tonya said, as she took her dog from him and smiled dreamily, her crush on Cody was evident to anyone with eyes.
The blond-haired identical twins were named Jill and Jessie, and Jessie, being the bossier of the two girls, grabbed Tonya’s sleeve and pulled her back towards the door with one hand, as she balanced a plate in the other. The twins were holding food and drink in the form of fried chicken, biscuits, and single-serve cartons of juice.
“Where are you going with all that food?” Cody asked, and his stepmother, Claire, who was seated at the kitchen table, answered him.
“They wanted to have a picnic.”
“That looks like a lot of food for three little girls.”
“We’ll eat it all,” Jill said, and then the girls were gone.
Claire gave Cody a sour look as she spotted the rifle slung across his back.
“Do you have to tote that thing with you everywhere you go?”
Cody stared at her. Claire Parker married his father, Frank Parker, less than a year earlier, after discovering she was pregnant with Frank’s child. At thirty, she was closer to Cody’s age than that of his father and the two of them seemed to rub each other the wrong way.
Claire was a blonde and had regained her shapely figure in a short time after giving birth to a son, James, who sat in his high chair beside her.
“I’m just placing the rifle on the porch so I can clean it later.”
“It’s not loaded, is it?”
“No.”
Claire sent Cody a small smile.
“I just worry about the girls getting hold of it, you know?”
“Jill and Jessie know better than to play with weapons, and they’ve got .22’s of their own.”
Claire had been feeding the baby, Cody’s stepbrother, James, but Cody’s words caused her to lower the hand holding the spoon atop the high chair.
“Those little girls own rifles?”
“They got them a year ago on Christmas, fired them a couple of times and then lost interest.”
Claire shook her head. She had grown up in the East and had never been around guns while growing up.
“The girls are only eleven.”
“I started shooting a lot younger than that. Is my father here?”
“Yes, he’s in the living room with a visitor, a man named Tanner.”
“I know Tanner, I met him earlier.”
Little James made a mewing sound and smiled up at Cody.
“Aren’t you going to say hello to your brother?” Claire asked.
Cody walked over and took James small hand in his own.
“He’s getting bigger.”
“Yes, and I think he looks like you and your father too.”
“People always said that I looked like my mother,” Cody said, and Claire tensed up at the mention of the first Mrs. Parker, who died when Cody was only eight.
“Um, dinner will be ready at six.”
“Alright, but this Tanner, do you know why he’s talking to my father?”
“No, but it seemed like something serious.”
***
Frank Parker paced back and forth across the living room of his home after hearing what Tanner had to say about his meeting with Andy McKay.
Parker was an average looking man with dark hair and green eyes, and appeared younger than his forty-six years.
He stopped his pacing and looked at Tanner again, who was seated on a sofa.
“All of us, not just me?”
“Yes, all of you, and then he wanted this house burned to the ground.”
Frank Parker settled across from Tanner by sitting on the edge of a table that sat near the windows.
“My daughters are just kids, and my son, my youngest son... he’s just a baby.”
“Yeah, and he was willing to pay extra for him, but Mr. Parker, McKay wants every last one of you dead, what I’m wondering is, why?”
Parker paced again, but then walked back to the windows and gazed out, as he spoke to Tanner.
“My new wife, Claire, she and I had an affair while she was still married to McKay. We couldn’t help it, we fell in love.”
Tanner nodded.
“That explains it. I figured it had to be very personal for him to hate you so much.”
“We used to be friends, good friends... until I met Claire. Still, I can’t believe he would be so ruthless.”
“Love changes a man, but so does hate, and while love usually fades with time, hate deepens.”
Frank Parker gave a weary sigh.
“I don’t know what to do. The county sheriff is McKay’s brother.”
“That does complicate things, but there’s only one way to handle this, McKay has to die, otherwise, it’s just a matter of time before he finds someone who won’t turn him down.”
Parker spun around.
“Why did he try to hire you?”
“I was referred. I’ve done this sort of work before, not the craziness McKay has in mind, but I’ve killed for money.”
Parker blinked several times at that news and broke eye contact, before asking a question.
“Would you kill McKay for me?”
“No, at this point, I’d be a prime suspect, but Parker, McKay needs to die. The way I see it, it’s either you and your family or it’s him.”
Parker walked over and stood before Tanner.
“I appreciate you coming here to warn me, but I guess all I can do is hire bodyguards.”
“I’ll kill McKay,” said a voice from the doorway.
When Tanner turned around in
his seat, he saw Cody Parker walking into the room.
“You were eavesdropping,” Cody’s father said.
“I was listening in, and Tanner is right. McKay needs to die.”
Tanner stood and walked over to stare into Cody’s eyes.
“You really think you could kill a man? It’s not like shooting a coyote, you know?”
Cody met Tanner’s gaze.
“Like you said, it’s him or us.”
Parker walked over with his hands held up.
“Whoa, nobody's killing anybody. I’ll hire some bodyguards and then go talk to the man. I can reason with Andy, like I said, we used to be friends.”
Cody pointed back towards the kitchen.
“McKay hates you because of that woman in there and I warned you that she was nothing but trouble.”
“That woman is your new mother, and like I’ve told you more than once, we didn’t plan to fall in love, it just happened.”
Cody shook his head at his father.
“She’s not my mother; she’s just your wife.”
Frank placed a hand on his son’s shoulder.
“I love her, boy.”
Cody’s expression softened.
“I know, Dad, but loving her has turned you into a fool.”
Tanner watched this exchange in fascination, the boy, Cody, seemed to be more of a man than his father was.
Parker offered Tanner his hand.
“I thank you for warning me about McKay’s intentions, and like I said, I’ll hire bodyguards. I’ll also let others know what he tried to do. That alone should stop him from going through with it. The man might want me dead, but he also doesn’t want to wind up on Death Row.”
“I wish you luck, then,” Tanner said.
“Why don’t we hire you to be a bodyguard?” Cody said to Tanner.
“I don’t do that sort of work, kid, sorry, I meant to say, Cody.”
Cody stared into Tanner’s eyes.
“I trust you. You could have taken the job, or you could have just left without saying anything, but instead, you came here to warn us. Why not see things to the end?”
Tanner smiled, he couldn’t help it; he liked the kid.
“I don’t come cheap.”
“Room and board and a thousand a month,” Cody said.
“Two thousand, and it won’t take a month.”
“Done,” Cody said.
Frank Parker was watching this exchange silently, but found his voice.
“Hey! Who does the hiring around here, boy?”
“We need him, Dad.”
“I should consult Claire.”
“I’ll pay him myself if I have to,” Cody said, “But Tanner is staying.”
Parker sighed and looked over at Tanner.
“Do you believe this kid? And let me tell you, he was always like this. You’d think he was my father and not the other way around.”
“He’s a man all right,” Tanner said, and he shook Cody’s hand.
“We have a deal?” Cody asked.
Tanner gripped Cody’s hand tighter.
“Yes sir, Mr. Parker, we have a deal.”
CHAPTER 7 - Regrets
The barn at the Reyes Ranch was used for storage, and so it didn’t smell as bad as Tanner thought it might.
Maria Reyes had shown Doc and Tanner the loft apartment at the top of the barn, and even though it had its own entrance on the side, it still smelled faintly like the hay that was stored beneath it.
The tiny apartment had a kitchenette, bathroom, and a washer/dryer combo. It had been the ranch foreman’s residence, but that man had recently married his pregnant girlfriend and bought a house.
The ranch foreman also had use of an old pickup truck until he bought a better vehicle in which to keep a car seat, and Tanner asked Maria if he could use it. She said yes, and had hired both he and Doc on as security.
“I’m not a security guard,” Doc had complained privately, but when Tanner pointed out that it paid better and was easier work than mucking out stalls, Doc agreed to take the job.
They would be off the books and paid in cash. Maria also told them that they would take it a day at a time, but that Tanner was off to a good start by ridding her of the Harvey brothers, who had been a nuisance for days.
There was no Mr. Reyes, other than Maria’s teenage son, Javier. Her husband, Diego Reyes, had died a year earlier from a heart attack. However, Maria did have her children, and along with nineteen-year-old Javier, there was a sixteen-year-old daughter named Romina.
As far as Tanner could tell, he and Doc were the only employees who would be living on site, other than a housekeeper and cook named Mrs. Salgado, who had her own room inside the home.
Mrs. Salgado was an energetic woman with long white hair. She had been with the family even before they moved to the United States from Mexico, the same year Maria gave birth to Romina.
Tanner met Mrs. Salgado as he and Doc entered the home for dinner at Maria’s request, and the two of them were escorted to the living room, where they were to wait until they were called to eat.
Doc settled in a recliner and turned on the flat screen TV that hung on the opposite wall.
“This is a real nice place, and even bigger than the old Parker house.”
“You knew Frank Parker?”
“I used to play poker with him, and McKay too, but that was a long time ago. I even delivered Parker’s kids right in this house, well, I mean the old house.”
Tanner walked over and stared down at Doc.
“You’re Dr. Richards, Graham Richards?”
“Yeah, but how do you know that?”
“I heard the name mentioned years ago.”
Doc stared up at him.
“Do I know you? I mean back in the old days, but no, you’d be too young, and I crawled into a bottle when you were just a kid.”
“Do you still drink?”
Doc reached into his pocket and pulled out a bronze medallion, which Tanner recognized as being a sobriety chip.
“I haven’t taken a drink in over five and a half years, and I’ll tell you something, I hope this job works out. I need to settle down somewhere. I’m too old to keep living hand-to-mouth.”
Footsteps came from the hall. When Tanner looked that way, he saw a girl standing in the doorway. It was Maria’s daughter, Romina, and when the beautiful sixteen-year-old spotted Tanner, her eyes widened and she smiled.
“Hi.”
“Hello, are you Romina?”
She nodded, and Tanner thought that she looked like a younger version of her mother, with the same long lustrous hair, large eyes, and smooth light-brown skin.
“Are you two the guards Mom hired?”
“Yes.”
Romina looked at Doc and made a face.
“He looks too old to guard someone.”
“Right now he’s guarding the TV remote.”
Romina laughed and pointed down the hallway.
“I have to go help Mrs. Salgado.”
“We’ll see you later,” Tanner said, and Romina sent him a wave and walked towards the kitchen.
Doc smiled.
“She thinks I’m an old geezer, but she sure took a shine to you.”
“You are an old geezer, and she’s just a kid,” Tanner said.
***
Romina seemed well behaved to Tanner, but her brother impressed him as being a punk, as he sat across from Javier at the dinner table inside the Reyes’ home.
The tattooed, muscular, and smug-looking Javier said very little, but he eyed Tanner as if he were an intruder, rather than a guard. And from what Tanner gathered, Maria’s son neither worked on the ranch nor went to school, meaning that the boy had no sense of responsibility.
And although he didn’t say much, Javier did have questions for Tanner.
“What’s your experience?”
“I recently disarmed and ran off the two men blocking your driveway, if that’s any help.”
“How
do we know you’re not really working for Chuck Willis?”
“I guess you don’t and I’ll have to prove myself.”
“Yeah, you will,” Javier said, and then he stayed silent and sulky during the rest of the meal.
Although, Tanner did notice that Javier bristled whenever Romina spoke to him, and he wondered if the boy thought he had eyes for his sister. If he did, the kid could relax. Romina was a beauty, but too young, and Tanner spent more time admiring her mother, Maria, even if the woman was ten years his senior.
However, Doc was right about Romina taking a liking to Tanner, as the teenager sat beside him and hung on every word he said.
But, Maria did most of the talking, as she explained that Chuck Willis, a land developer and businessman, had made several offers for a section of her property. After she turned him down repeatedly, the ranch and its workers began to suffer “accidents.”
Willis denied his involvement, but Maria didn’t believe the man.
“It also doesn’t help that people think the land is cursed,” Romina said.
When Tanner asked her what she meant by that, her eyes lit up.
“Some people in town say that there are ghosts here, but we’ve never seen any.”
“Whose ghosts would they be?” Tanner asked, and Maria sat her wine glass down and cleared her throat.
“This land has a sad history; it’s the main reason that my husband and I got such a good deal when we bought it years ago.”
Doc spoke up.
“We both know that this used to be the Parker Ranch.”
Maria looked relieved that she wouldn’t have to explain.
“Oh, good, and no one has ever claimed to see a ghost here... only at the cemetery.”
Romina turned in her seat to face Tanner.
“Why don’t we go for a walk after dinner and I’ll show you the graves.”
Doc looked perplexed.
“A walk? The town cemetery is a long ways off.”
“They’re not buried there,” Romina said. “They were buried on this land.”
“All of them?” Doc said.
Romina nodded.
“Mm-hmm, the entire Parker family, and they were all killed on the same night, even the poor baby.”
Tanner pushed his plate aside, as his appetite had gone away.
***
The first thing Tanner noticed about the graves was that they had been cared for.
The TANNER Series - Books 4-6 (Tanner Box Set Book 2) Page 14
