Revelations, page 1
part #20 of Tanner Series
REVELATIONS
A TANNER Novel - Book 20
Remington Kane
Contents
Join My Inner Circle
Introduction
Prologue
1. Digging Into The Past
2. More Digging
3. More Digging, Literally
4. A Fellow Texan
5. A New Enemy
6. Who Are They?
7. Spies For Hire
8. Down Mexico Way
9. A Blast From The Past
10. Going Home
11. He Ain’t Heavy
12. The Client
13. Fake Beard, Real Blood
14. Ghost Tales
15. Love Or Family?
16. Ride ‘Em Cowboy!
17. Out Of Time
18. Hard To Kill
19. Welcome Home
20. The Truth Comes Out
21. Time’s Arrow
22. Hammer Time
23. Nailed!
24. Tedious
25. Family
Epilogue
TANNER RETURNS!
Afterword
Join My Inner Circle
Bibliography
Make Contact
Join My Inner Circle
REMINGTON KANE’S INNER CIRCLE
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Introduction
When an enemy delves into Tanner’s past, they uncover long buried secrets that rock Tanner’s world. The revelations usher in grief, as well as an unexpected joy.
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO INNER CIRCLE MEMBER MELODY WREST
Prologue
STARK, TEXAS 1988
Marian Parker made the turn off Main Street and headed up into the hills.
It was a blustery cold day and rain had begun falling in huge droplets. Marian didn’t care. Inside, she felt as warm and radiant as a June day.
Her son, Cody, was in school, and Marian had left her three-year-old twin daughters with her best friend. The best friend was an older woman named Emily Sounder. At twenty-nine, Marian was a generation younger than Emily, but Marian had experienced the sort of childhood that made one grow up fast.
Despite their surface similarities and circumstances, Marian found she had little in common with women her own age.
Marian Parker understood the fragility of life and knew of its ability to alter in an instant. She never spent time on such frivolities as soap operas or bingo games. She was the type of mother who read to her children nightly, grew her own vegetables, and expressed her love for her children both in words and deeds. Marian encouraged them toward becoming exceptional people.
Although her son, Cody, was at an age where young boys spent more time with their fathers than their mothers, Marian found that Cody still gravitated toward her. They talked often while out riding around their ranch. Marian treasured each moment she spent with her son.
Cody was a serious boy for his age, possessed of a will of iron, along with a streak of independence and a strong sense of self. Perhaps it was just a mother’s pride, but Marian believed Cody to be highly intelligent and an original thinker.
It was not solely the sort of intelligence that would have him leapfrogging levels in school, rather, it was an emotional intelligence that would serve him well in life.
The men in Marian’s family had a reputation for being strong-willed, daring, brave beyond measure, and unfortunately, cruel and ruthless.
She prayed nightly for Cody to be spared the negative traits that seemed to plague the male members of her family. She believed with all her heart that Cody possessed a core of goodness that would counterbalance any genetic tendency toward barbarism. Marian had nurtured that core of decency with love.
The sky darkened as the clouds thickened. Marian had planned to drive straight home with the twins after reaching Emily’s house. Looking up at the sky, she thought that maybe she would just wait out the storm with Emily.
Marian had hit it off with Emily right away. Emily’s children were grown and had moved to large cities. Emily’s husband, Todd Sounder, had passed away two years earlier at the age of fifty-three. He had been felled by heart disease, although he’d been a thin man who neither drank nor smoked.
When it was your time to go, it was your time to go.
Marian brushed thoughts of Todd Sounder’s sad fate from her mind and broke into another smile.
The rain increased as the wind continued its blustering. Marian was glad that she had only a few more miles until she reached Emily’s house.
Her good mood seemed destined not to last. A huge pickup truck came up behind her fast, far too fast given the road conditions. Her smile faded as she gripped the steering wheel tight. The pickup truck was practically riding her bumper. Although daytime, it had grown dark, and the truck’s lights were threatening to blind her.
Marian didn’t dare pull over to the shoulder to let the truck pass. Given the amount of rain on the ground, she feared getting her tires stuck in mud. On the other side of the road was a wooden guardrail that bordered a sloping hill. The hill ended at a stream. Due to the rain, the stream would be flowing at a quick pace.
Marian white-knuckled her steering wheel while increasing her speed. She was hoping to build a gap between herself and the vehicle behind her. It didn’t work. The pickup truck matched her increased speed and stayed on her bumper.
Marian beeped her horn to gain the driver’s attention, then she made a waving gesture with her hand, telling the other driver to go around her. She was ignored. Marian began to suspect that the driver was staying close to her intentionally, and perhaps for no good purpose.
Just as that thought formed in her mind, the pickup truck swerved into the other lane and began passing her. When it was even with her vehicle, it matched her speed and stayed there. Marian tried to get a look at the driver, but the rain was coming down in a violent torrent that streaked her windows and tested her wiper blades. All she could tell was that her tormentor was male and had long hair.
Marian slowed, and the other vehicle slowed, she sped up again, and the truck fell back until she could see it in her rearview mirror. Along with that good fortune, came a lessening in the intensity of the rain.
A sigh of relief left Marian, until she realized she was traveling too fast and approaching a curve. Marian entered the curve while trying her best to slow down without losing traction and spinning out. As she made it around the curve she saw a sight that made her scream.
A large truck was headed for her. A truck going the wrong way on a one-way road while hogging the center line.
As alarming as that was, the expression on the truck driver’s face was even more shocking. The man was grinning down at her, and he was someone Marian knew, someone from her past.
Marian swerved one way, then the other, but there was just not enough room to get by the truck.
Hours later, Marian’s husband, Frank Parker, gazed downward and watched with teary eyes as a rescue crew pried open his wife’s mangled car, which had settled at the edge of the stream.
Frank had been told that Marian had burned to death inside the vehicle due to an electrical fire that had broken out in the car’s interior.
The damn rain had failed to quench the blaze, because despite being cracked, Marian’s windshield hadn’t shattered to allow rain inside.
In the days ahead, Frank Parker would gain solace from learning that his wife had died on impact from devastating head trauma, and that she never suffered the hell the blaze must have been.
A young widower, Frank would go on to live on the family ranch with his father, his two young twin daughters, and his son, a boy named Cody Parker.
The truth about Marian’s “accident” wouldn’t come to light for many years.
1
Digging Into The Past
DANBURY, CONNECTICUT, 2017
Robert Martinez settled into his leather recliner and stared across at the middle-aged couple who were seated on his sofa. They were Mr. and Mrs. Barlow. At least, those were the names they were currently using. Martinez wondered what they hoped to gain by speaking to him.
He had agreed to the meeting after a former colleague at Hexalcorp assured him he would not be violating his parole by talking to them. He was also being paid for the interview. That had tipped the scales toward his agreeing to do it.
Neither Mr. Barlow, Michael, nor Mrs. Barlow, Kate, had ever been arrested for a crime. Martinez doubted that meant they had never been involved in criminal activities, only that they had never been caught by the authorities while doing so.
The same could not be said for Robert Martinez, who was known to have consorted with the late drug cartel leader Alonso Alvarado. The fact that Martinez had done so while working for Hexalcorp had been swept under the rug, along with Hexalcorp’s other dark deeds.
The corporation was never investigated, thanks to large political contributions made to the right people. All blame for any misdeeds were placed squarely on Martinez’s shoulders.
Because of the influence of his brother-in-law, Conrad Burke, Martinez had served only a year in a country club prison before being released to a decade of serving parole and having to check in once a month.
Overall, Martinez considered himself lucky. He had come very close to being killed in Mexico, and he had his holier-than-thou, billionaire brother-in-law to thank for his survival.
Michael Barlow was as average looking a man as Martinez had ever seen. The man stood abou
Although handsome, the dark-haired man was not memorably so, while his brown eyes looked out at you from a clean-shaven face.
Kate Barlow matched her husband well, but they looked nothing alike. Kate had brown hair, gray eyes, and although she was lovely, she wasn’t the sort of woman who would stay on your mind after only one meeting.
Michael was dressed in slacks with a sports jacket. Kate wore a dress with a hemline that was just above her knees. Their clothes spoke of a middle-class life style, of a home in the suburbs, and 2.3 children.
Martinez wondered if their appearance went a long way toward explaining their ability to fly under the law’s radar.
Michael Barlow smiled at Martinez.
“Are you ready to begin the interview?”
“Sure.”
“Good. Tell us everything you know about an assassin named Tanner.”
Martinez’s face grew pale.
“This is about Tanner?”
“Yes, we have a client who wants to know as much about the man as he can. It’s our understanding that you researched Tanner extensively for Alonso Alvarado and have knowledge that we can use.”
Martinez looked confused.
“I thought you worked for Hexalcorp? They have all my reports from that time period.”
Kate Barlow shook her head.
“When your involvement with the Alvarado cartel came to light, Hexalcorp purged its files of anything having to do with the incident. Also, we don’t work for Hexalcorp.”
“If you don’t work for Hexalcorp, then why was this meeting set up by a Hexalcorp employee?”
“That was a one-time thing,” Michael Barlow said. “The black ops section of Hexalcorp is no more. It has become its own entity after forming an alliance with former members of a criminal organization called The Conglomerate.”
“Tanner was involved in the destruction of The Conglomerate. He killed Frank Richards.”
Michael Barlow nodded.
“We’re aware of that. It seems Tanner’s activities were in large part responsible for the formation of the current organization we’re now working for as private contractors. If Tanner hadn’t taken down The Conglomerate’s leadership, Hexalcorp’s black ops division would have had a much more difficult time morphing into its current form.”
“What’s the name of this organization?”
“They call themselves Ordnance Inc.,” Kate Barlow said. “They hire out to whomever will pay as long as there is no conflict of interests between clients. Right now, they have a client who wants to know all there is to know about the assassin named Tanner. They contracted with us to gain that information. It’s why we’re here to see you, Mr. Martinez.”
Martinez stood and walked over to the wet bar in the corner of his living room.
“Would either of you like a drink?”
The couple declined Martinez’s offer. Martinez returned to his recliner with a whisky on the rocks. He hadn’t really wanted the drink. He had wanted time to think. His ruminations had led him to the conclusion that he had information that was valuable and of greater worth than the pittance he had earlier agreed to accept.
After taking a sip of his drink, Martinez smiled at his guests.
“I know a lot about Tanner, including his real name. If you want me to talk, I’ll need more money.”
Kate Barlow rose from her seat, walked over to Martinez’s chair, then leaned over to stare into his eyes.
“My husband and I are carrots.”
“What?”
“We’re carrots. We come to see you, act polite, mind our manners, and when we leave you’ll still be healthy and your home will be intact. There are other people that Ordnance Inc. might send to see you. Those people will be sticks. The sticks will hurt you in ways you’ve never imagined, then they’ll burn your home to the ground for the hell of it. In either case, Mr. Martinez, you will reveal what you know about Tanner.”
Martinez looked into Kate Barlow’s gray eyes, before glancing over at her husband and meeting Michael Barlow’s penetrating gaze. He was more certain than ever that the couple’s outward appearance was a façade they put on for the world.
While they might not be violent, Michael and Kate Barlow were ruthless professionals. They would brook no nonsense from him.
Martinez downed his drink as Kate resettled herself beside her husband. He then stood, poured himself a double whisky neat, and sat back in his recliner.
“I’ll tell you everything I know about Tanner.”
Kate Barlow smiled.
“How nice.”
“What do you mean he’s dead?” Michael Barlow asked.
Martinez held up a hand.
“Believed to have died, along with his whole family. It was Alonso Alvarado who murdered them.”
“So, this boy, Cody Parker, he survived and grew up to become the assassin Tanner. Then, as Tanner, he went after Alvarado for killing his family?”
“Yes.”
“How sure are you that any of the family is dead?”
Martinez shrugged.
“Alvarado told me that his men fired thousands of rounds into the Parker home, then firebombed it.”
“Yes,” Kate Barlow said. “But if the boy survived, perhaps his family did as well. If so, they could have gone into hiding under new identities.”
“I guess anything is possible, but I doubt that’s what happened,” Martinez said. “Cody Parker survived his wounds, yes, but he was also spared the firebomb. Alvarado left him for dead outside the house.”
Michael Barlow stood and paced for a few moments behind the sofa he had been sitting on. When he stopped walking, he leaned his elbows on the back of the sofa and spoke to Martinez.
“What about the mother, Cody’s birth mother? What do you know about her?”
“Very little. Her name was Mary… Marilyn, something like that. She died in a car accident when Tanner was a boy.”
“That’s all you know about her? What about her maiden name?”
“Her maiden name was Gant. I only remember that because her father was that cult leader William Gant.”
“I don’t know that name,” Michael said.
“I have a vague memory of hearing about William Gant,” Kate said. “I may be wrong, but I think the serial killer Jeffrey Mitchell was his grandson.”
Michael Barlow laughed.
“A cult leader and a serial killer. This Tanner has some genes in him. No wonder he’s an assassin.”
“What about Tanner’s personal life?” Kate asked. “We understand that he’s involved with an ex-FBI agent, but there must be someone in his past.”
“Tanner killed Alvarado with the help of a woman named Alexa Lucia. One of Alvarado’s investigators uncovered the fact that Tanner once went by another name, Xavier Zane. He was in his late-teens when he had that name and already working as an assassin. Under that identity, he was involved with a young woman, but we never learned her name or her fate.”
“Was there any evidence that Tanner had ever married or had any children?” Michael Barlow asked.
“No, if he had a wife or a child Alvarado would have used them against him. However, Tanner and a woman named Laurel Ivy were lovers once. This occurred while the woman was married. Ivy is a medical doctor who had her license suspended because of a cocaine addiction. I also came across a rumor that Tanner sacrificed himself to save Laurel Ivy, but I never heard any details involving that. I do know Laurel Ivy is now married to the mobster Joe Pullo. Pullo and Tanner are also friends.”
