***
At the club, Johnny R sat up on the sofa in his office as Al Trent walked in.
Trent handed Johnny the newspaper version of Street View and jammed a finger at the picture.
“That is unacceptable. Are they going to arrest you?”
“Picture or not, there are no bodies, my lawyers say they can fight it.”
“Why didn’t you check her camera?”
“She didn’t have one; she had a phone and it had no pictures on it.”
“She likely sent them to herself or placed them in cloud storage.”
“Phones can do that?”
“Of course,”
“I didn’t know that. I’m old school.”
“Mr. Richards is also extremely upset over the loss of Gruber. He was a valuable asset.”
“He’s blaming that on me?”
“Gruber was only involved in this because you were so ineffective at stopping Tanner. If you could run your own shop, Gruber would still be alive.”
“Why are you here?”
Trent smiled, as his eyes twinkled behind his glasses.
“I’m here to give you a bit of news.”
“Which is?”
“You’re being demoted.”
“Say what?”
“It’s simple. Mr. Richards will be recommending to the rest of the ruling council that you be relegated to an inferior position inside The Conglomerate.”
“Only Sam Giacconi can remove me as Underboss.”
“Sam Giacconi is a senile old man, and in any event, Mr. Richards seems confident that he can remove you as well.”
“Bastard! Why doesn’t he just have me killed like he did my uncle?”
Trent smiled again.
“That was my recommendation, unfortunately, Mr. Richards ignored it.”
Johnny was off the sofa and had Trent slammed up against the door before the younger man could even flinch. He took out his knife and pressed it against Trent’s throat.
“I should slice you into pieces and toss you in the river.”
Trent swallowed hard several times, but when he spoke, his voice sounded steady.
“If you hurt me, Richards will have you killed.”
Johnny withdrew the knife, opened the door, and shoved Trent out into the hallway.
“Get the hell out of here!”
After slamming the door, Johnny picked up the newspaper and saw Sara’s name and picture under the byline.
He laughed to himself as rival emotions surfaced.
He wanted to see Sara again, but when he did, he didn’t know if he’d try to kiss her, or kill her.
“Maybe both,” he muttered, and fell back onto the sofa.
***
Al Trent left the club in a huff, but as he drove away, his mood brightened.
He still had the gun that Gruber used to kill Jackie Verona. It was time to play that card and have Johnny R framed for murder.
The gun was hidden inside his apartment, and after retrieving it, he planned to return to the club on some pretext and plant the weapon in Johnny’s office.
However, Trent returned home to find a patrol car waiting for him.
The homicide detective accompanying the officers handed him a search warrant for both his car and residence.
“Are you serious? What is this about?”
“I’m investigating the murder of Carl Reese.”
Trent thought the name sounded vaguely familiar and then recalled it.
“Mr. Reese supervises the night cleaning staff for us. You’re saying someone murdered him?”
The detective was a tall man in his fifties with graying hair, and he looked Trent over with suspicious and knowing eyes.
“An anonymous caller said that they saw you and Mr. Reese having an argument inside a warehouse yesterday.”
“That’s crazy; I barely know the—what warehouse?”
“It used to be a box factory. Mr. Reese was found shot to death inside the trunk of a nearby car.”
Trent went silent as his mind raced through the possibilities. Someone was trying to frame him, but who? And what happened to Jackie Verona’s body?
“I want a lawyer,” Trent said.
The cop was not surprised by his request.
Later, the murder weapon that Tanner had planted in the trunk of Trent’s car was discovered, and found to match the bullets that killed Carl Reese. It was the same gun Reese had used to threaten Tim and Madison.
Tanner had walked the still stunned Reese away from Madison’s apartment the day before, as if escorting a drunk home. Afterwards, Tanner had driven Reese to the former box factory, where he shoved him inside the trunk of the Pontiac and shot him with his own gun.
Reese had pleaded with Tanner for his life, but was ignored,
As if the attempted rape of Madison wasn’t reason enough to kill him, Reese also knew that The Conglomerate’s computers had been compromised by Tim, and so had to die.
In the coming days, a forensic team would discover one of Al Trent’s hairs in the warehouse, a single strand left behind when he was there with Gruber.
While an envelope found with Reese’s body would be confirmed as having Trent’s prints on it.
A second gun found in Trent’s apartment won’t be linked to any crimes, but two shell casings recovered inside the warehouse will match the gun perfectly, and cause the police to wonder if it had been used to create the dried puddle of blood found beneath an equally bloody chair.
When Johnny learned of Trent’s troubles, he wore a smile for days.
***
On East 6th Street, Mrs. Edith Ross opened her apartment door and smiled at her young neighbor, Ms. Claire Harper.
“Hello dear, how are things?”
Claire looked disheartened.
“Things are awful. My renters insurance won’t cover all the damages, the police are still calling my apartment a crime scene, and the landlord says that he doesn’t know when I’ll be able to move back in.”
Mrs. Ross looked sympathetic. The old woman also felt a sense of guilt over having let the young man with the family photo fool her. Had she called the police or the landlord to confirm his identity, Claire could have avoided all the trouble she’d been going through since returning from her vacation.
The old widow invited Claire inside and they talked over coffee. But as Claire was leaving, she remembered the main reason that she had dropped by.
“You said that a package came for me?” Claire asked.
“Oh yes, this came yesterday.”
Mrs. Ross reached over to a table by the door and handed Claire a package that was about twice the size of a cigar box. It was wrapped in plain brown paper, postmarked New York City and had a fictitious return address.
“I don’t know what this could be, but thank you for holding it for me.”
“You’re welcome, dear, and how are your parents?”
“They’re great, but it’s a little weird being back in my old bedroom.”
“The next time I speak to the landlord I’ll try to light a fire under him. I miss having you in the building.”
Claire kissed the old woman goodbye on the cheek, and returned to her car. She was just about to start the engine when curiosity took hold, and she decided to open the package instead.
Inside, was a rectangular metal box, and taped atop the box was a note,
Sorry for the mess, I hope this makes up for it.
When Claire opened the box, she saw that it contained thirty-thousand dollars in cash.
It was a large chunk of the money Tanner had stolen from The Conglomerate drug den he had attacked days earlier.
Despite the horror show she returned home to, after her apartment had become a battleground for Tanner and Joe Pullo’s crew, Claire had enjoyed a very lovely time while on her Mexican vacation.
Next year, she was going to Hawaii.
CHAPTER 55 - I wouldn’t miss it for the world
The farm was as isolated and large as Tim had prom
ised it would be, enabling Tanner to hone his long distance target shooting skills.
The limp in his leg had gone, and he wiped off the temporary tattoos with rubbing alcohol, but some of the hair dye remained, particularly along the sides, and Madison quipped that it made him look distinguished.
The old farmhouse was huge with six large bedrooms, and Tanner took the one farthest from Tim and Madison, giving them their privacy and insuring his own.
The Conglomerate thought he was dead and had no idea that he possessed their organization’s files.
Tim was undoubtedly still being sought, but he would no longer be using the handle Rom Warrior and was working exclusively on cracking The Conglomerate’s encryption.
As for Madison, her only family, her father, had disowned her, and had no reason to track her down.
***
Days after coming to the farm, Tanner was laying prone on his stomach atop a grassy hill, sighting a long-distance shot, when Tim approached from behind.
Tim gestured at the shooting earmuffs Tanner removed as he stood to greet him.
“How did you hear me coming with those on?”
Tanner pointed at the thermos of coffee he’d brought with him to practice shooting. It was shiny and better yet, reflective.
Tim smiled.
“That’s why you told Madison to make sure she bought the type made of stainless steel, you could see my reflection. You don’t miss a trick, do you?”
“If I did, I’d really be dead. What’s up?”
“The daily progress report, I’m still unable to break their encryption, but as I said before, it would be the greatest of luck if we stumbled onto the correct sequence randomly.”
“I get that, I also think you wouldn’t climb up the hill just to tell me that again.”
Tim took a folded piece of paper out of his shirt pocket.
Tanner opened the paper and saw a list of names. He recognized a few from the news and Frank Richards was also on the list. The heading at the top gave a time in the near future and the place was a building on Wall Street in New York City.
“What’s this?”
“You can thank Madison for that. She bagged up the debris from the office shredder and spent the last few days piecing that and two other sheets together. The other sheets turned out to be nothing, but that, that’s a list of The Conglomerate ruling council, along with the time and place that they’ll be gathering.”
Tanner looked thoughtful for a few moments, but then nodded to himself, as an idea came to mind.
“The next time we go into town, I’ll be shopping for a business suit.”
Tim looked puzzled for a moment and then appeared stunned.
“You’re planning on going to that meeting?”
Tanner was still holding his rifle and he stroked it like a lover.
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
MAKING A KILLING ON WALL STREET
By
REMINGTON KANE
CHAPTER 1 - Two are better than one
When Tanner spotted the beer mug coming at him from the corner of his eye, he ducked, while also thrusting a fist to the right and punching his attacker in the balls.
That’s when the man’s four friends decided to join the fight.
Tanner was in rural Pennsylvania, in the small town of Ridge Creek, and near the farm he’d been living at with Tim and Madison.
Tanner hadn’t been with a woman since he was in Florida nearly a month earlier and after a week on the farm, he was beginning to stare longingly at Madison and so knew it was past time he got laid.
Hell, he was so horny that even Tim was starting to look good to him, and so he went to the local watering hole, a big rambling dump named Grover’s Bar & Grill that had once been a barn.
It was late afternoon and people were just getting off work, so the bar only held a little more than two dozen patrons, many of which were couples.
Tanner found the pickings slim the first hour he was there and was talking up the middle-aged, but still tasty, bartender, when a pair of women walked in who were young, hot and wearing short dresses that showed lots of cleavage.
One of them was a blonde with huge blue eyes and hair that hung down to her ass. The other was a brunette with shoulder-length hair, large breasts and green-eyes that seemed to sparkle.
Tanner zeroed in on them immediately, as did the group of five guys that looked like factory workers. The men wore matching green shirts that had CRAMER STEEL stitched on the back.
The factory workers were closer to the women’s table and so one of them, a man with a goatee and ponytail, sauntered over there first, but Tanner made a point of catching the eye of the blonde as he leaned back against the bar.
The woman smiled, looked him over and then whispered something in her friend’s ear. When the brunette’s eyes wandered over him and she licked her lips, Tanner knew his chances had improved, and he planned to exit the bar that night with one of the ladies on his arm.
The man at the table followed their gaze, then glared at Tanner and asked him what the fuck he was looking at.
Tanner ignored the man, walked over to the table, and spoke to the women, in hopes of leaving with the blonde.
Not fond of being ignored, the ponytailed man sitting with the women stood, and then told Tanner that he should go back to the bar, “...if he knew what was good for him,”
Tanner did know what was good for him, and it was the 108 pounds of primo blonde tail who was seated in front of him and making his cock twitch.
Tanner finally acknowledged the man with a glance, told him to fuck off, and that’s when the man swung the beer mug at his head.
As beer mug’s four friends charged at him from their table, Tanner stepped atop a chair, leapt towards them and landed in their midst, while smashing two of them against the side of the head with his elbows, the twin blows buckled the men’s knees while stunning them, and cut their numbers in half.
The bigger of the two remaining men swung a punch at Tanner that he managed to duck just barely, to then rise and jab his rigid fingers into the man’s throat. A second later, the remaining man struck him in the left kidney, making him wince from the pain.
The blow had also knocked the wind out of him, and as Tanner tried to regain his breath, the man swung again and gave him a solid blow above the right eye.
Tanner let out a loud moan, dropped to one knee, and pretended to appear dazed by the blow.
The man grinned down at him, cocked his right fist way back behind his shoulder, and prepared to finish Tanner off with one mighty blow.
This left the man’s midsection exposed, and Tanner rose in a flash and buried a knee into it. When the man doubled over, Tanner straightened him up with a forearm beneath the chin and the man fell to the floor of the bar, where he lay flat on his back.
However, the man’s friends were all recovering their wits and would be looking to start the battle again within seconds.
When the hand touched his shoulder, Tanner nearly reacted with violence, but the delicate nature of the fingers upon him spoke of their owner before he turned and confirmed it with his eyes.
It was the blonde with the long hair, and when he turned to face her, she placed a caressing hand on his cheek and smiled.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Tanner nodded and then the other woman joined them as they reached the door.
They were driving away in Tanner’s pickup truck when the five guys came stumbling out of the bar shouting curses.
The blonde touched the bruise forming above Tanner’s eye.
“Does that hurt?”
“Not when you touch it.”
“I’m Brittany, she’s Amber and what’s your name?”
“Call me, Romeo.”
“Romeo? I like the sound of that. Take the next exit and turn right, our apartment is a few blocks down that street.”
“You two live together?”
Amber reached across Brittany and rub
bed Tanner’s chest.
“We do everything together.”
Tanner smiled.
He had hoped to leave the bar with a woman and wound up with two, so much the better.
“Romeo?” Brittany said.
“Yeah?”
“That was a hell of a fight, are you a boxer?”
“No and I didn’t start the fight.”
“You just finish them, hmm?”
“Yeah, you might say that endings are my business.”
“No talking about work,” Amber said. “Tonight we party.”
“Fine by me,” Tanner said.
He left the young ladies’ apartment the following day, fully sated and with a request to return soon, but his mind had already begun to make plans about the best way to move forward.
It was time to get back to work.
CHAPTER 2 - Vice versa
The Cabaret Strip Club in New York City was playing host to the heroes of the hour, as Merle and Earl Carter were finally being rewarded for their perceived killing of Tanner.
The club had been shut down for a week, as the FBI investigated the murders of Lars Gruber and Tanner, which they believed took place in the alleyway behind the club.
Gruber was indeed murdered, and by Tanner, while the other body carted off that night belonged to a mobster by the name of Jackie Verona, who Gruber himself had killed just hours before his death.
The conclusion the FBI came up with was that murders took place, but that they had no way of proving so, despite there being a photograph that showed the bodies. Still, the photo couldn’t be positively linked to the location of the club and so the investigation was stalled and the strip club reopened.
The Carter brothers had already been given the hundred grand in cash they had won as a reward for their presumed killing of Tanner, and on this night, they were being led by hand back to the VIP rooms, each in the company of a young woman who would see to their pleasure.
They were not alone, as their generous host, Johnny Rossetti, had also decided to reward the men who had guarded the front doors, along with the other men who had guarded the alley. They were all present, except for Romeo, who had yet to return the calls made to his phone.
The TANNER Series - Books 1-3 (Tanner Box Set) Page 29
