Tanner- Year Two

by Remington Kane

  “There are four motorcycles parked in front of the diner; that must be part of the group you spotted.”

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about them, Henry. Why would a motorcycle gang stop in this nowhere town and try to take it over?”

  “Did you call Brandt and let him know?”

  “Yeah, he’ll be here any minute with Sal and Julio; they must have just made it into town before that gang shut it down.”

  They had watched the cop drive by and make the turn into the diner’s parking lot. When Tanner’s gunshots rang out, Henry and Conleth lifted their binoculars to their eyes and saw the bloody cook and his family being herded into a booth by Piper.

  “There’s some shit going down over there,” Conleth said.

  Brandt drove up with his headlights off and parked out of sight on the side of the building. When Conleth saw Daisy emerge from the front seat, he grinned.

  “Hello there, beautiful.”

  “I’ve asked you not to call me that,” Julio said.

  Conleth punched him on the shoulder. “I was talking to the lady, dickhead.”

  Henry had been disturbed by the sight of the bloody short-order cook. He kept his shaking hands out of sight as he filled the others in on what had just happened.

  “Maybe they’re robbing the place, huh?” Sal said.

  “No, they had plenty of time to do that. I think something happened to that cop too,” Henry said.

  “What about our man; have you seen him?” Brandt asked.

  “Not since the shooting.”

  “Everybody get out of sight,” Julio said. “We’ve got company coming.”

  It was the two mercenaries on the motorcycles. Brandt’s people moved along the side of the building as the bikes appeared around a corner. Their twin headlights washed over the front of the gas station, but by then, everyone had moved to cover. Once the riders had gone past, Brandt and his group saw that they were headed to the rear of the diner.

  Brandt used Conleth’s binoculars to watch the restaurant. He saw the mercenaries take the pickup truck, then watched as Tanner emerged from a side street and followed them on the motorcycle. The headlight on the black bike was off and Tanner was trailing at a distance. The two in the truck would never know he was there.

  “I think our pizza boy is on that motorcycle; he’s following those two guys in the pickup. I wonder if he’s connected to them.”

  “He’s getting away?” Daisy said.

  Brandt lowered the binoculars. “I don’t think so. I think they’re all up to something in this town, and it’s worth killing a cop over.”

  “In this town?” Conleth said. “What could be worth stealing here?”

  Sal began laughing and everyone turned to look at him.

  “What is it?” Brandt asked.

  “Guys, there’s an armored car depot here; that’s got to be what they’re after. I’ll bet you they’re going to rob the place. There have to be millions in there.”

  “Holy shit,” Conleth said.

  Brandt rubbed a hand over his chin, as he thought over the situation. Counting Daisy, they were six, while the bikers numbered eleven, twelve if Tanner was involved with them. And yet, the bikers didn’t even know they were there.

  “I say we wait until they take the money, then rob them. What about it, guys?”

  Henry’s face drained of color, but he nodded his approval. Conleth, Sal, and Julio were game as well.

  “I like money too,” Daisy said. “But I came here to kill the bastard who murdered Raul.”

  Brandt reached over and took Daisy’s hand. “That will happen, I promise you, but this is too good an opportunity to pass up. If you want to sit it out, that’s fine. We’re used to killing, you’re not.”

  Daisy surprised everyone by laughing as she thought of all the junkies she had murdered. She freed her hand from Brandt’s grip and gestured at him and the others.

  “I may not have a fancy camouflage outfit and was never in the army, but I’ve killed before. So, yeah, I’m in, but no matter what happens I still want that hit man.”

  At the diner, another motorcycle roared to life as Steve Piper went off to take care of a bit of business. Brandt lifted the binoculars and watched him go.

  “We need to find out what’s going on. There are two bikes remaining in the lot over there, and that means there are two guys left. I say we go over there and get some questions answered.”

  The others agreed, and they left the gas station and traveled on foot. Brandt was eyeing Daisy. When she stated she had killed before, it sounded like the truth. He had always thought of her as a delicate southern flower, but the woman was made of steel. When everything was said and done, he thought he might try to fill the space in her life that was left by Raul’s absence.

  15

  The Lesser Of Two Evils

  Luna Grant was so excited about getting a new job that she wasn’t the least bit tired.

  She had applied for over twenty positions and been turned down every time. The problem was her seeming lack of experience working in the human resources field, along with the gap in her employment record.

  She had three years of experience but didn’t dare list them on her resume because of fear. Luna had worked at a company where the owner had been a friend of her ex-husband, Steve Piper. If her former employer were contacted, Luna feared it would lead to Piper finding out where she was.

  Luna married Piper not knowing he was a criminal. He had convinced her he was an entrepreneur who traveled often on business. The truth was that his frequent travels were to locations where he was committing a heist. Once Luna became aware of Piper’s true nature, she’d had a decision to make.

  As the mother of a young daughter, she faced going it alone financially if Piper went to prison. Whatever else Piper had been, he was a good provider. Combined with her salary, they had lived comfortably and traveled in luxury. By contacting the police, Luna not only lost her husband but also her livelihood, as her employer fired her for turning Piper over to the authorities.

  Luna could live with that and looked forward to making a fresh start. Then, Piper broke out of jail. Luna heard about the breakout and left her house only moments before Piper and his cousin Mike Walsh came to the tiny apartment she had rented.

  She had been avoiding Piper ever since by shunning contact with mutual friends. However, after running into her old college roommate, Callie, Luna’s luck turned. She and Callie had only roomed together for one year before Callie dropped out, and they hadn’t stayed in contact. Still, Luna had always gotten along well with Callie, and after meeting her for lunch the friendship picked up where it had left off.

  It was Callie who, a short time later, told her about the job opening at the Safe & Secure Armored Car Company. According to Callie, the job wasn’t posted anywhere, as the company liked to hire through word of mouth.

  While Luna thought that odd, a call to the phone number Callie gave her was answered by Keith McHugh. McHugh assured her that there was an opening and told her to come on in and apply.

  What Luna didn’t realize is that Callie knew of her marriage to Steve Piper after meeting him in a bar. Callie’s cousin had been dating Bernard, a man who was a member of Piper’s gang. With the robbery of the armored car company pending, Piper came up with the plan to lure Luna to Delran at the time the robbery would be taking place.

  Piper schemed to make the score of a lifetime while also regaining his wife and child. The deceitful Callie ensnared Luna in the trap, and McHugh ensured she would stay in town by offering her a position he himself currently occupied.

  Luna was seated at the scarred desk in her motel room as she worked on a budget figuring in her new salary. The promised pay was more than she previously earned, and Luna was dreaming of buying a house someday. Earlier, she had looked through the local newspaper to see what the rental market was like.

  The quiet of the night was disturbed by the sound of an engine, as an old pickup truck drove into the par
king lot. When the two men stepped out of it, Luna saw that they were both wearing leather vests and looked like bikers.

  In another part of town, Steve Piper was visiting a house with peeling paint and a leaky roof. Having heard his motorcycle, Callie opened the door to greet him. She was a week away from turning thirty but looked as if she were nearing forty. She had a pronounced overbite, was heavily freckled, and smoked two packs a day.

  She had sold-out her college roommate for the promise of a thousand dollars and knew nothing of the robbery that was soon to take place. Callie believed Piper was there to pay her for setting up Luna. Instead, he was planning to eliminate a witness who could possibly testify against him someday.

  Callie welcomed Piper inside the house with a nervous smile. She wasn’t savvy in the ways of the world but had eventually realized that Piper could refuse to pay her now that Callie had lured Luna to town. However, since he had come to visit her, she was certain she was about to be paid.

  Steve Piper stepped into the house and looked around. Callie had decorated the place with cheap furniture and gaudy trinkets, including a foot-high golden statue of Elvis Presley. Instead of art work, there were movie posters taped to the walls, and a pink shag carpet was in the center of the living room. The rug looked as if it had never been cleaned.

  “You have my money?”

  Piper slid an envelope out of a pocket on his vest and handed it to Callie. The gleam of greed in her eyes sparkled as she took it and counted the cash.

  “I guess you and Luna weren’t very close if you were willing to sell her out for a grand.”

  “I like Luna, but liking Luna doesn’t pay my bills. Besides, I always thought she was a little stuck up.”

  “Have you seen my daughter?”

  Callie grinned. “That’s one cute little girl, and blonde, like you.”

  Piper cleared his throat. “You got anything to drink?”

  “I got beer.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  As Callie turned her back on Piper, he reached out and gripped the Elvis statue. He was pleased when he felt the heft of its weight. After raising it over his head he brought it down on Callie’s skull. She fell to the floor as if a safe had been dropped on her.

  After rolling onto her back, she stared up at Piper with a pair of unfocused eyes, as blood seeped from an abrasion on her scalp. Piper brought the statue down again, making contact with Callie’s forehead. He had been so forceful that the statue broke in two, leaving him gripping Elvis’s head. As for Callie’s head, there was an indentation in it. The resultant brain damage had killed her, and her eyes stared at the ceiling, while seeing nothing.

  Piper pried the envelope of cash from her hand and went into the kitchen. He returned holding a bottle of beer. He hadn’t been lying, he was thirsty, and killing Callie had made it worse.

  Piper stepped over her body and took a seat on the front porch, as he waited for his men to bring Luna to him.

  As she watched the two men from the pickup walk toward the door of her motel room, Luna got an uneasy feeling. That sensation escalated when one of the men reached behind him and pulled out a gun.

  “Luna Piper! Open up, Steve sent us.”

  “No,” Luna gasped, and a moment later, one of the men kicked the door.

  “You might as well come out; we’re not going away.”

  Luna grabbed her phone, then saw she had no signal. When she picked up the receiver on the motel room phone, there was no dial tone.

  A voice cried out from somewhere behind the men. It was the motel’s night clerk, a middle-aged man with a graying mustache.

  “What the hell is going on over there? Are you trying to wake everyone up?”

  Luna felt relief and was hoping the men working for Piper would go away. She peeked outside through a gap on the side of a curtain and saw the clerk holding up a phone. He had stopped walking when he was halfway between the office and Luna’s door.

  “I’ll call the cops if you two don’t get out of here.”

  The man with the gun raised it and fired at the clerk, hitting the man in the left leg. The clerk released a scream as the leg gave way and he fell onto his back.

  The man who’d fired walked over and glared down at the clerk. “You should have minded your own damn business.” He raised the gun, and Luna thought she was about to witness a murder.

  She was right, but it was the man holding the gun who died. The sound of three shots echoed across the motel lot accompanied by the rumble of a motorcycle. It was Tanner.

  The man standing over the clerk jerked spasmodically as one of the hastily fired rounds struck him in the head. As he hit the ground, already dying from his wound, Luna saw the man on the bike swivel his arm and aim in her direction. He fired again before she could duck, but the shots weren’t meant for her. They hit the partner of the man who’d wounded the clerk. Luna heard him grunt as he slammed back against the door to her room. Afterward, he took several steps before collapsing along the walkway, where he died.

  “Luna?” said the man on the bike. “I came here to help.”

  Luna peeked out at Tanner. He had just killed two people, but they had been violent men out to cause her harm. Still, she wasn’t ready to trust a dangerous stranger.

  “Mommy, what’s all that noise?”

  Sofia had woken and was sitting up in bed rubbing her eyes.

  “Stay in bed, baby, it will be all right.”

  Tanner called to her again as he was getting off the motorcycle, which he had shut off.

  “I don’t blame you for not trusting me, but you can’t stay here. Piper will send more men after you or come here himself.”

  Luna was opening the door before she realized it. “Steve is here, in town?”

  Tanner was helping the clerk to stand. The clerk’s wound was bleeding, but the slug hadn’t hit an artery. When Tanner turned to look at Luna, she saw he had an intense gaze.

  “He was at the diner a few minutes ago. He told these men to bring you to an address on Maple Lane. Do you know anyone that lives there?”

  Luna nodded, while thinking of Callie. She had left Sofia with Callie while she was being interviewed for the job at the armored car company.

  “You have a little girl, right?” Tanner asked.

  Sofia pushed her way past Luna. She was dressed in a pair of pink footy pajamas that had white bunnies on them. When she saw the man lying on the walkway, she pointed and giggled.

  “Look, Mommy, that man fell asleep outside.”

  Luna picked her up and turned her so she couldn’t see the parking lot, but Sofia swiveled her head around anyway. The other residents of the motel had opened their doors and were taking in the scene. There were only six of them, three couples, all older than Luna.

  “What’s going on?” one of the men asked Tanner. He was a burly beast with tufts of white hair sticking out from the tank top he wore.

  “The phones aren’t working, and I’m guessing the roads leading out of this town are being watched,” Tanner said.

  “Watched by who?”

  “There’s an armed group in town that have disabled the phones and killed a cop. Stay in your rooms and keep the lights off.”

  “Who the hell are you? You’re not a cop?”

  “No.”

  “But you saved that clerk and killed those two men—what are you?”

  “I’m the lesser of two evils,” Tanner said, then he turned his attention back to Luna. “If you come with me, I’ll keep you and your daughter safe.”

  Luna looked out at the two men Tanner had killed, men who would have handed her over to Steve Piper.

  “Let me grab my things,” Luna said.

  “Hurry.”

  She stepped back into the room, grabbed her purse, then went outside while wishing she had time to pack her bags.

  Tanner was at the pickup truck Piper’s flunkies had used. Luna gestured at her old car, a 1990 Chevy Lumina.

  “Can’t we take my car?”
r />   “Piper might have a way to track it.”

  “Oh, all right, but I’ll take the car seat.”

  Luna joined Tanner and secured Sofia on the truck’s rear seat. The little girl smiled at him and asked him his name.

  “I’m Tanner. What’s your name?”

  The little girl held up three tiny fingers on her right hand. “I’m Sofia and I’m this old.”

  Tanner held up his own hand and flashed his fingers several times. “That’s how old I am.”

  Sofia giggled at him. “That’s old.”

  “Where are you taking us?” Luna asked, as Tanner drove out of the motel’s parking lot.

  “I’m not sure, but I need to tuck you somewhere your ex won’t find you.”

  “How did you get involved?”

  “I was at the diner when they—” Tanner had been about to discuss the cop’s death then thought better of it with Sofia seated so near. “I witnessed something, so they’re looking for me too.”

  “Do you live in town?”

  “I was passing through.”

  “Why can’t we just drive out to the highway?”

  “That was my plan when I was alone, and I might try if it were just the two of us.”

  “But not with Sofia along? Yes, I won’t take a chance on her getting hurt either and I—wait a minute. I have an idea.”

  “What is it?”

  “There’s a house for sale not far from here that I noticed earlier when I took a wrong turn. It’s at the end of a dead-end street. If we can get inside, it will be a good place to hide.”

  “Give me directions and I’ll take you there.”

  The house was only five blocks from the motel. Tanner broke into the home through a basement window and let Luna and Sofia inside. There was no furniture, but they would be safe and away from Piper.

  He took the time to place a fresh bandage over the cut on his chest. Luna assisted and was able to tighten the gauze better than Tanner could do it alone.