Eriksen looked down at her notes. “Stephen Hendricks, Carl Taylor, and Darren Stepp?”
“That’s them.”
“What else can you tell me about your ex-husband?”
“He’s a drunk, and a mean drunk at that. He never hit me before he started drinking so heavily.”
“There was violence in the marriage?”
Sherry stared at Eriksen. “That bastard hit me once and I got the hell away from him. I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier, Agent Eriksen, but I know that once a man hits you, he never stops. I learned that lesson as a child by watching my parents.”
“I agree with you. Domestic violence is never a one-time act… unless it’s deadly the first time.”
“I wasn’t sticking around to find out how bad it could get.”
“I know you said he has no siblings but does your ex-husband ever visit his mother?”
“Roy can’t stand her. He blames her for his father’s suicide.”
Eriksen’s lips parted in surprise. “His father killed himself?”
“Yeah, the man went into the garage and shot himself when Roy was a junior in high school. Roy said his father was drunk when he did it, and that his mother always nagged his father, telling him to make more money.”
“What about other friends?”
“Every friend Roy had was on the job; he joined the force when he graduated high school. I always thought he did it because he wanted to be respected, and he was, for a while anyway.”
Eriksen asked several more questions, then she ended the interview and thanked Sherry Wicks for coming forward. After assuring the woman that, “Yes, you’ll get the reward if he’s the one we’re after.” Eriksen left the coffee shop and headed back to her black Bureau SUV. She was lost in thought as she drove, and unaware that Tanner was following her.
13
Bingo!
Caleb followed Sherry Wicks to a bar and took the stool beside her. He had been hoping to strike up a conversation with her and discover if she had a connection to the home invasion team. As usual, when he acted as Stark, Caleb was wearing a three-piece suit and a hat, a black fedora.
His adopted father, John Knox, wore such attire during his career as a detective. Caleb embraced the style as a sort of tribute to the man.
The TV over the bar had on a twenty-four-hour news station. When a story came on concerning the Mulberrys’ home invasion, Caleb pointed up at the screen.
“I bet someone knows who those guys are.”
Caleb had been hoping that Sherry might respond in some way. Perhaps she would let him know that he had guessed right about her, and that she was involved in the case peripherally. Her reaction was more than he could have hoped for.
“Oh my God, you’re so right that someone knows who they are, and it’s me. I think one of them is my ex-husband.”
“Really?” Caleb said, and it was the last word he was able to get in for several minutes, as Sherry went on and on.
Agent Eriksen had advised Sherry to keep her suspicions to herself and not to speak to reporters. Sherry either forgot that advice or chose to ignore it. As for Caleb, he kept Sherry’s martinis flowing as he listened to her story.
Caleb had a good memory. The names Roy Wicks, Stephen Hendricks, Carl Taylor, and Darren Stepp were now etched in his mind. As they talked over drinks, two light beers for Caleb and four martinis for Sherry, Caleb learned everything he could about the men.
Sherry didn’t know much about Hendricks, Taylor, and Stepp, but she was an encyclopedia of knowledge when it came to her ex-husband.
“I had known Roy since kindergarten, but we never dated until after we left high school.”
“It’s a shame the marriage didn’t work out.”
“Are you married?”
“No.”
“You’re a good-looking guy, you know that?”
“Thank you.”
Sherry leaned in and kissed Caleb on the mouth. The move surprised him. Sherry was lovely, but she was more than a dozen years older than Caleb. He had never been hit on by an older woman. When the kiss ended, Sherry placed a hand on his thigh.
“I have an apartment right around the corner. Why don’t you come up and keep me company?”
Caleb looked at his watch as a pained expression came over him.
“Damn it. I can’t tonight. I promised my mother I’d take her to the bingo parlor.”
“Bingo? Do people still play that?”
“My mother does, and I’ll have to stick around at the church and drive her back home too.”
Sherry leaned in for another kiss, a more sensuous one that involved a little tongue. Despite the age difference and the extra pounds Sherry was carrying, Caleb felt himself respond.
“I’ll be here again tomorrow night if you’re still interested, honey, and hey, what’s your name?”
“I’m Stark.”
“Is that a first name or a last name?”
“Both,” Caleb said, as he stood.
After placing money on the bar for a tip and another round for Sherry, he ventured outside and found that it was growing dark. He called Tanner after getting in his pickup truck.
On the walk to the truck Caleb had lit up a cigarette. He had stopped smoking while in college, then took it up again the first time he’d acted as Stark. When he wasn’t in his role of Stark, Caleb never smoked. While thinking about it one day, Caleb decided that Stark was a smoker, while he was not. He never gave the discrepancy in behavior another thought after that.
“Where are you, Cody?”
“Agent Eriksen stopped at a restaurant after leaving the FBI’s Sacramento field office. She’s having dinner with a man. It could be her husband.”
“Is he an okay-looking guy in a suit who’s about ten years older than her?”
“That describes him, and he arrived in a limo.”
“Yeah, the guy owns some sort of business that supplies other businesses; he’s loaded.”
“She smiles when she’s around him, and they’re acting like two kids on a date.”
“I almost had a date of my own.”
“How’s that?”
“I’ll explain when I see you, and speaking of dinner, why don’t we eat somewhere?”
“This is your area, pick a spot and I’ll meet you there.”
Caleb gave Tanner the name of a restaurant, started his truck, and headed off to have dinner with his brother.
Amanda Eriksen laughed aloud at one of her husband’s stories. The man had a way of making her relax and she was glad to have time to be with him.
As Caleb had told Tanner, Agent Eriksen’s husband was a successful businessman and her senior by a decade. The two of them had fallen in love at first sight and married six months later. Despite leading busy lives where they often had little time to spend together, the relationship worked. It was made more difficult because her husband’s main office was located in a different state.
The man had lessened their time apart by promoting an underling and heaping more responsibility upon him. That had proven to be a success, and Eriksen’s husband was in the process of moving his business to California.
As her husband, John, began another anecdote, Eriksen’s mind wandered away to thoughts about the case she was dealing with. Since talking to Sherry Wicks, Eriksen was hopeful of apprehending the home invasion team before they struck again.
Former chief of police Roy Wicks was looking good as a suspect. Sherry’s claim that her ex-husband was an alcoholic echoed something remarked on by Tim Mulberry. Mulberry said that the leader of the home invaders smelled of whisky.
“Amanda?”
Eriksen pushed Roy Wicks from her mind and smiled at her husband apologetically.
“I’m sorry, honey; I drifted off while thinking about work.”
“That happens to me at times too.”
Eriksen kissed her husband. “I won’t let it distract me again; tonight, I’m all yours.”
“In that case
, let’s pay the check and get out of here.”
14
Mercy Me
Wicks and his crew were aware that the FBI was involved in the search for them and that it was known they were ex-cops. Instead of stopping, or laying low, the crew decided to ramp things up a notch. There was an older couple they had in mind to rob. Their home was back in Texas, near Laredo.
Through conversations Taylor had with an acquaintance over the years, he knew that the old couple kept a lot of gold in the house. Taylor, who was a trusted police officer at the time, was told about it in secret by the couple’s son-in-law.
“I’m telling you, Carl, it’s crazy how much gold the old man keeps in that house. When he opened the safe inside the bedroom closet, I thought I was looking at Fort Knox.”
Still, it was just a rumor, and so they had gone after other targets first. Taylor also knew that once investigators talked to the family and friends of the old couple, that his name might come up.
That didn’t matter anymore, not with the Feds breathing down their necks. If there was as much gold to be had as Taylor’s acquaintance made it seem, they could cash it in and be set for years. If they were suspected someday, there was still no proof against them. No one had seen their faces and they had left no prints or DNA behind. Being suspected of committing crimes was one thing, proving it was a different story.
Taylor and the others had taken two connecting rooms at a motel. Wicks was passed out drunk on one of the beds. He’d begun drinking after they left the Mulberry home and continued until he had fallen and lay on the floor. Hendricks and Stepp had picked up their leader and dumped him atop a bed.
“Roy’s boozing is getting worse,” Stepp said.
“He’s a damn alcoholic, just like his old man was,” Taylor said.
“You knew his father?” Stepp asked.
“My family moved into a house across the street from Roy’s folks when I was fifteen. I don’t think I ever saw his father sober.”
Hendricks waved a hand toward Wicks. “Once Roy wakes up, we’ll tell him what we have planned. I think we should go at the house tomorrow morning.”
“Why so early?” Taylor asked.
“Why not? You said the couple is old and retired. They’ll be home no matter when we go in, and time may not be our friend, you know?”
“That makes sense. All right, when Roy’s back on his feet we go get the gold, and afterward we find a place to keep our heads down.”
Stepp grinned. “I vote we go to Florida and buy a boat. We could live on that and have a ball fishing all day.”
Hendricks placed the back of his hand to his forehead as he considered Stepp’s words.
“That’s not a bad idea, Darren. Of course, it will take a lot of gold to buy a boat and live on it.”
“The gold will be there,” Taylor said, although he knew they were taking a risk on a rumor.
Tanner was pleased with the restaurant Caleb had chosen. The food was excellent, and since they’d arrived later in the evening, the place wasn’t crowded. Once the meal was finished, they began talking over drinks, as both of them sipped on wine.
“You told Sara that you didn’t know why you targeted thieves, Caleb, but I think the answer is clear.”
“You’re talking about Billy Gant?”
“Yeah, the man kidnapped our mother when she was pregnant with you. You spent the first several years of your life around Gant and his people, who were thieves and mercenaries. Not to play armchair psychologist, but I do think it’s the reason you hate crooks, and those who harm the innocent.”
Caleb nodded. “I can’t say you’re wrong, and I know I hated Billy Gant, uncle or not. I’m glad the man’s dead.”
“Our cousin, White, he told me that Billy Gant claimed that all male Gants were born killers. I don’t know if that’s true, but we do seem to crave action and have less fear than most. White’s brother, Michael, he’s the only one of us with Gant blood that leads a normal life. White and his wife Jessica hunt down serial killers, I’m an assassin, and you’re a vigilante. Maybe there is something genetic going on.”
“Mom said that the family came from somewhere in Europe. I wonder what the Gants are like over there.”
“If Billy Gant was right, we’re better off not knowing,” Tanner said.
They grew quiet as they sipped on their drinks again. Tanner had liked Caleb from the moment he’d met him. Later, after discovering that they were brothers, he’d felt the familial connection grow between them. Caleb resembled their late father greatly. At times, Tanner almost felt as if he were with the man again. Tanner had loved his father, but young Cody quarreled with him often over the situation involving his stepmother.
If he could go back in time, Tanner would make certain that his father knew how much he loved him. He would also let his stepmother Claire know that he cared for her as well. However, you couldn’t go back. Life flowed in only one direction, toward the future, and the future had been on Tanner’s mind much of late.
Sara wanted him to reclaim his identity of Cody Parker before she married him, and he had agreed to do so. He saw the wisdom of her request. Once they had children, they should not have to wear names that were aliases.
The Parkers had a strong and vibrant history in Texas, and the land the ranch was on had been theirs for generations. It was just and fitting that Tanner reclaim what was rightfully his. Sara had said it best.
“Alonso Alvarado stole your family from you; don’t let him take your heritage, and our future children’s heritage as well.”
Yes, it was time to be Cody Parker again, and after months of thinking about how to go about it, Tanner finally had a plan to do so.
Outside the restaurant, a man sat in a car as he waited for his partners to arrive. His name was Jude, and he and his cohorts were art thieves. Some time ago, Caleb, while acting as Stark, robbed Jude of over thirty thousand dollars, while also giving him a beating.
At the time, Jude promised Stark that he would pay him back someday. That day had arrived. Jude had spotted Stark as he entered the restaurant for his meal with Tanner.
His partners were forty miles away, but since Stark and Tanner were enjoying a leisurely dinner, they arrived before Stark left the restaurant.
Jude greeted his friends with a smile as they pulled up in their blue van. Jude was wearing a green hoodie and jeans but saw that his partners had arrived dressed in black. One of the men had a gun, while the other, who had long hair, held a baseball bat. Jude was armed with a knife, and like his friends, he was in his thirties and in good shape. The three of them believed they’d have no difficulty overpowering Stark.
“Is he still here?” one of the men asked Jude as he climbed in the van. The man had a trim goatee.
“Yeah, and he came here in that black pickup truck parked across the street there. I told that bastard I’d get him someday. Stark messed with the wrong guy.”
“Don’t kill the prick,” the man with the long hair said, “not until we get him to give us some dough.”
Jude nodded. “Oh, I’m getting our money back, and anything else he has, but yeah, I’m going to kill him. That bastard has it coming.”
“How long has he been in there?” asked goatee.
“About an hour, and I peeked through the window. He’s having dinner with some guy, maybe we should take him too. If he’s a friend or a brother of Stark’s, hurting him might make Stark give up the money sooner.”
“No, Jude, we’ll just take Stark,” long hair said. “Believe me, when I start in on his ass with this bat, he’ll talk plenty. Besides, three against one are better odds than three against two. We don’t want to take a chance that Stark might get away.”
“I hear you,” Jude said, as he took out his knife. “I can’t wait to have Stark at my mercy.”
Goatee laughed. “What mercy?”
“Exactly,” Jude said.
15
Why Couldn’t There Be Two?
Tanner and Caleb w
ere still inside the restaurant and were waiting for the check. Tanner had become lost in thought as he ruminated over what it would take to win a war against Ordnance Inc.
“Hey, Cody?” Caleb said, breaking him from his reverie.
“Yeah?”
“I know you said you’re the seventh Tanner, but how does that work?”
Tanner explained how he was trained by Spenser alongside Romeo, and that when the time came, Spenser had to make a choice between them.
“Why did he have to choose?”
“Because of his injuries. Spenser needed years to recover fully, and he had lost an eye as well.”
“No, I get that. I meant why did it have to be you or Romeo? Why couldn’t both of you have become Tanners?”
“That’s how it’s always been done, Caleb, with one Tanner succeeding the last one, then training an apprentice to take over.”
“No, I get that, but didn’t you say that Romeo was good enough to be a Tanner?”
“He was, no doubt.”
“Then I don’t see why he couldn’t have been named a Tanner too. You were Tanner Seven, but Romeo could have been named Tanner Eight. With two of you, there would be a greater likelihood of the line continuing. If you never found an apprentice, maybe Romeo would have, or maybe he would have trained three guys. The way it is now, if you don’t find someone to train, the whole thing ends.”
Tanner thought over what Caleb said, and saw the wisdom in it. Other than the desire to keep doing things the way they were always done, there had been no reason why Romeo hadn’t been named a Tanner. Yes, it made being one seem diminished the more of you there were, and yet, you were either good enough to be a Tanner or you weren’t.
Romeo had been beyond good enough, although he had been better than Romeo was, Tanner knew that Romeo would have been an excellent Tanner. Besides, the man still made his living working as an assassin, he’d just been denied the title.
A Man Of Respect Page 7
