Chapter 8
Tanner - Chapter 8
Tanner made a bid on the buildings downtown twenty minutes before the closing. He didn't have any idea if there were other bids, but was told to wait for a few minutes and that they'd get back to him. He sat on one of the benches just outside the offices and pulled out his cell. Tanner was happy now that he'd made sure that he could get to his email through his phone.
Half an hour later, he was called into the office. Chloe was there, as well as the mayor, and he had his envelope in his hand. Not sure what was going on, Chloe winked at him and he felt better. Then the mayor spoke.
"You were the only bid on the building. And I'm sure that you're aware that it was to be both the buildings, the one to the right of it as well." Tanner said that it was. "I'm glad that he's getting them, Tanner, but I don't suppose you can tell me what Mr. Noah is going to do with them. It would help me to know that there is some kind of development going in. We're doing so much now to the area, and I'm very pleased with it."
"I can tell you that he plans to hire as many as ten people to start, and all the construction will be local." Smiling, the mayor nodded. "Also, once the second building is started on, I believe that too will hire as many as a dozen people. He has plans for both of them."
"Good, that's what I like to hear. Growth is going on, and we'll just keep adding to it every week and we'll be a viable town again. I heard that your brother is expanding his pack too." He nodded, and told him that the pack had purchased seven hundred more acres to use and were building homes. "I don't know what we'd do without the Calhouns around. You all are good people, and good to the town."
"Thank you very much. I'll tell my grandparents and parents what you said. They're very proud of the way things are going too." He still wasn't sure what this was about until he was handed the envelope. "It's my bid. And it's been marked out."
"Yes, well, I had a little talk with Chloe here, and we decided that since no one else bid on the building that you could take it off the city's hands for a buck. Which you can pay as you leave. With him hiring twenty or so people, that'll make it easier on a lot of the local shelters, as well as food banks." Tanner thanked them both. "No worries on that. I'm just glad to have it off our books. I know that with the income of taxes and things we're doing better, but you can never have enough so far as I'm concerned."
When the mayor left, Chloe asked him if he had a minute. He followed her to her office and sat down when she asked him to. This was going to be bad, he just knew it.
"Your wife went to see Rogan today." He said that he was aware that she had. "He confessed to everything. Including trying to kill his wife, as well as her and Tyrrell. And if one more body turns up—and from what I'm to understand, it will—then he'll get life without the chance for parole."
"I can't say that I'm not happy about that. I've not heard from Giyanna yet. Did she have a hard time of it?" Chloe told him how she'd ended up at his grandma's. "They have a special bond. I noticed that right away. I didn't hear from her, so I assumed that she was either still there or it went all right. What else is going on?"
Chloe sat down and pulled a photo out of a file. He noticed right away that the file was thin, and was worried either that it was just the beginning of an investigation or the end of one on a missing child. She handed him the picture of a couple.
"This is their parents. I think that Giyanna looks a great deal like her mother, and Rogan looks like his father. Tyrrell is a cross between the two of them." He asked her to stop beating around the bush. "They're dead. Both of them. Their bodies were found, along with three others, on the back end of pack property."
"Rogan." Even though it wasn't a question, she said that he'd done it. "What happened, do you know?"
"They're running an autopsy on them both. The women, they're in the same shape as the ones on the property where they all lived. This man is a sick pervert, in case you didn't know that. The things that were done to these women is sadistic." He asked about the parents, her thoughts. "They were both robbed. The father still had his wallet, about the only way we were able to identify him. His head had been bashed in by a mallet. The mother had her neck broken. Her purse was with her body, but it was devoid of anything other than a set of car keys. We're still looking for more of its contents. Joe has a system that beats anything I could use."
"Who knows about this?" He said he did. "You okay with me telling Giyanna? I mean, I can do that for you. I think she has an idea that they're gone anyway."
"I figured as much too. She had to know something was up when she asked me if I could find them." He'd not known that, but she had been out as much as he'd been lately. "She said she thought that the last time she spoke to either of them was about four or five years ago. I'm only married into this family, and I can't go ten minutes without talking to one of you. But I can understand it too. The coroner says it's been about five years give or take, so that fits."
"What's going to happen now? I mean with Rogan. You said that he confessed to the murders." She said yes, as well as the plans of murdering his sister and brother. "Yes, that scares me like you cannot believe."
"He has a court date in two days. I'm not sure who will be working on his side of the table. I'm to understand you have taken yourself off the list?" He told her what he'd told the judge. The family ties were just too great. "I don't blame you a bit for this. Rogan seems to think that someone is going to bail him out, or that Tyrrell is going to confess. That part confuses me, but then this entire case does. He's been living here all his life, getting away with murder, and we had no idea. Or, and this is more than likely it, people were afraid of him and the police force here was shit."
"I think a combination of both, if you ask me. He does make a good argument for leaving him the fuck alone." Chloe laughed when he did. "I'll talk to Giyanna when she gets home tonight. And then Tyrrell is coming over for dinner too. I'll tell them both what we've found out."
"They'll be able to bury them, if they want in, about a month. We'll keep them in the morgue for that long in the event that there are questions about their murders when this thing goes to trial." He nodded and stood up. "You going by your buildings?"
"Yes. Noah said that there is a man, and he believes his daughter, living in it. He wants me to get them housing, money, and then he's offering the man a job. He has spoken to them, I guess." She walked out with him into the wonderful sunshine. He needed it after that conversation. "Do you have the transcripts or does Giyanna still have them?"
"I have a faxed copy of them. I guess she gave them my number when she left. My buddy up there said she was sick afterwards. He suggested that she not return." He said that was her plan. "If you get a chance, bring her copies to me, please. It would be nice to have a good copy to give to the judge when it goes to court."
He walked to the building from her office and saw that it did have a great deal of potential. The front curved glass was still intact, and he thought that the display shelves behind the counter were perfect for what Noah had in mind. He went up the stairs, calling for not just the man but the woman as well. They met him at the top of the staircase with a ball bat.
"Noah sent me." The man nodded but didn't put it down. "I'm to get you housing and money. He said that he talked to you about working for him."
"He did something to me, didn't he? I haven't felt this good in ten years or more." Tanner told him what Noah had told him. "Yes, I was dying. And I lost all I had when this doctor told me that he had this cure for me. Wasn't nothing but sugar pills, I found out too late. Mortgaged my home and just about everything else I had."
"I'm sorry about that. Do you think you could put the bat down?" He flushed red, and Tanner would bet that he'd forgotten he had it. "My name is Tanner Calhoun. And he told me your first names but nothing more."
"I'm Rich Farley, and this is my granddaughter, Jenny. Jenny and I have been staying up here since just after Christmas. We were doing all right but for the fact that it's been cold. But we managed." He congratulated him on not getting sicker. "Yes, well, it wasn't like we had much in the way of choices. What is it that he wants us to do?"
"He wants me to find you both housing. There are several that you can take; Noah owns a few properties here and about anyway. There is furniture in one of them, that's the one he suggests that you take, and if it doesn't suit you, then he'll fill the house that you do want." Rich asked why this man would do that for strangers. "He's a very nice man, but he doesn't want that to get around. And as you know, he's a vampire. A very old and powerful one. Sometimes, as one might when they've seen it all, he gets bored and needs to stretch his mind a little."
"And if he gets bored with this shop that I'm supposed to run, then what do I do? I need to take care of Jenny here."
Tanner nodded and looked at the young woman. She looked familiar, but he wasn't sure from where.
"When he makes a commitment to something, he sticks to it until the end. Not the end of it, but the end of it being useful to him. This place that you're going to run, it's primarily for other men like him. Older gentlemen that like a certain kind of dress. He'll supply all that you need to make it work." Rich asked him if he'd be doing the tailoring. "I'm not sure. Do you know how to do that?"
"I do. I've been a tailor for a great many years, up until my son and his wife were killed. I've been caring for my granddaughter since. I don't think she needs this old man anymore, but she keeps me going." They hugged, and he could see the love and respect between them. "I can't go out of here without her."
"No, and you won't have to. There's a house, as I said, and the one that he wants you to look at first, it's three bedrooms and three baths. He thinks you might need the extra room." Rich and Jenny followed him out of the building. "Noah owns this building now, and he'll begin work on it today if possible. That's why I've been told to come by and see that you're settled, and that you have everything that you need."
They chose the house that Noah had thought they would. It was a very nice house, and had a big yard. As he was leaving, Jenny followed him out to the sidewalk. He knew that he'd seen her someplace before, but just couldn't place it.
"I'm looking for a job as well. If you hear of any, I'd like to apply for it. I can do most anything." He asked her how she felt about plants. "Plants? They're all right. You mean work in the greenhouse? I'd love that."
When he left them, Tanner felt good. He'd won the bid on the buildings, and the couple there was now housed and working. The only thing left for him to do was to talk to Tyrrell and Giyanna. And that would be the hardest thing he thought he'd ever done.
~*~
Tyrrell had already figured that his parents were both gone. But what he'd not thought of was how they had died. While Tanner didn't give them much in the way of details, Tyrrell knew that it had been Rogan, and he'd not been quick about it. He looked over at his sister as she sat next to Tanner. He asked him if he had any questions.
"Did Rogan do it?" He nodded, and he felt like he'd been sucker punched. Lying back on the couch, he let that settle over him. "If I ask you how he did it, will you tell me?"
"Yes, if you wish, but I'm sure you don't want to know." He nodded and told him that he did. "All right. According to Chloe, who was there when they were found, your father's face would have been unrecognizable. They believe that he was killed with the mallet that they found, along with the shovel that had dug their graves. Your mother's suffering was shorter—her neck was broken. But there is an autopsy being performed now, and it'll show more than what she has now on them."
"What else did you find there?" He looked at Giyanna when she spoke. "Were there others with them? Other women?"
"Yes." When she nodded that she understood, Tyrrell was glad that Tanner didn't tell them anything else. "There was a wallet found with your father. Your mom only had her purse, and it was empty except for a set of car keys."
"She wouldn't have had anything in it." Tanner asked him if he knew why. "I don't know. She'd take Dad's wallet when he was driving and put it in the purse. The only thing she ever carried in there that I can remember is a package of tissues and car keys. We never understood why she even bothered."
"That'll help Chloe in not searching for any more contents for it. There was a car too, we suppose. Do either of you know where it might be?" Giyanna looked at him, then at Tanner. "We're searching for it now, but not having much luck. The last license plates were renewed about ten or so years ago."
Giyanna said she might know. "It should be in the parking garage that the housing development used. It's the one that Bridgett used too, to keep a bunch of cars off the yard. Rogan, as far as I know, never had his driver's license. Not to say that he didn't drive, but the last time I knew that's where the car was." Tanner said he'd have someone look at it. She told him the make and the model. "That's going to really be helpful. Anything else that you can think of? The state has a good solid case against him; he'll be in prison for a very long time, if not forever. But anything that you can think of, that'll go a long way in helping them have all the information at once."
Tyrrell didn't want to think about anything anymore. It was too much, all this information that was going around and around in his head. Rogan had been a murderer, and he could have killed them too. And he'd killed his mom and dad. That alone made him want to go to Rogan and ask him why he'd do such a thing.
Tanner and Giyanna talked softly on the couch, so Tyrrell closed his eyes and let the day just wash over him. It was the way he'd been dealing with stress since he'd had a slight heart attack when he'd been only twenty-two years old. Not only was it a wakeup call for him, but it also made him realize how much he hated Rogan. All he could get his mind to center on, however, was what had happened one day when he'd been about ten.
"You're going to go and help me with something." Tyrrell had told him no, he had homework to do. "It's not like it's going to do you a shit load of good, Ty. You're not going to need it soon enough. Besides, look at what I've gotten, and I'm only fifteen. You won't need it. Trust me."
He didn't have any idea what his brother was talking about, and argued again that he was going to do it and not go with him. In the end, Rogan hit Tyrrell in the head hard enough to knock him off his seat. He also had to get a dozen stitches in his head after his parents had returned. But he'd never forget his brother when he came home before Mom and Dad had.
Rogan was covered in blood. His face looked like it had rained down on him—his hair was matted into knots too. The white shirt that he had on when he'd left looked pink now, with big splotches of a darker pink. Even his pants were nasty, and Tyrrell was afraid.
"What are you looking at?" He said nothing to Rogan. "You damned right you don't. And if you breathe a word about this, to anybody, I'll do that same to you that I did to her. You hear me?"
"Yes."
After his brother left him in the kitchen, he sat there staring at nothing for a long time. When Rogan came back through and went out the door, cleaned up this time, Tyrrell heard the car start in the yard and his brother left.
Tyrrell had waited until he counted to fifty before getting up from his chair. He'd gone to his brother's room and looked around. He wasn't sure how much time he had, but he wanted to find something that he could show someone. Anything at all. Stepping into the closet, thinking he was not going to find anything, he found one of the floorboards moved. Pulling it up, he found more than he was looking for.
"Tanner, I just thought of something that might help." He nodded. "Tell Chloe that I give her permission to go through our old house. I had to pay the back taxes a few years ago. I didn't know whether or not it should have been sold or not, so I've been keeping up on them now. As far as I know, there hasn't been anyone living in the house in years. Rogan was in jail for something else when I was contacted about it."
"What is it, Tyrrell? You said it would help the case—what is she going to find there?"
Tyrrell felt his belly churn up while he remembered what he'd found that day. And until that moment, he'd not thought of it at all.
"Souvenirs." Giyanna asked him what he'd said. Tyrrell raised his voice a little more. "Souvenirs from women, I think. Hair and jewelry. Pictures. He has it in a cigar box under the floorboard in the back bedroom, in front of the closet, at our old house. He more than likely has one where he's living now. I don't know how you can check there."
Tanner left them, saying that he was going to make the call. Giyanna came to sit next to Tyrrell, and he was glad, for now, that she didn't touch him. All of a sudden, he felt dirty. She asked him when he'd found it.
"You were at a school thing. I don't remember what now. He wanted me to go with him. Told me that I didn't have to do my homework because something was going to happen to me so it mattered little. Then a couple hours later, I was still at the table when he came in the house. Covered from head to toe in blood." She put her hand over her mouth as he continued. "When he left the second time, I went to find the clothing that he'd worn, to see if I could make Mom and Dad believe us when we told him that he was mean to us. But I found that instead. I never thought of it again until just now."
"Oh, Tyrrell, it must have been horrible for you. and you should have told me." He asked her what she might have done if he had. "I don't know, but I could have helped in some way."
"It would have gotten us both killed if he had found out. Seeing it in there, hidden away like that, all I could think about was what I'd seen on the television the night before. That television show that Rogan used to watch, remember it?" She told him she did. "He more than likely watched it to get ideas or something. I don't know. But don't you think he'd do it again if he was still killing?"
Tanner came into the room, and he looked grim. Tyrrell felt his pain and thought perhaps he might not sleep well tonight. He sat down across from them and told him what Chloe had said.
"She wants me to go too? Why?" He told him. "Okay, I guess I can see where she'd have to have me on camera saying that I gave her permission. The house—I want it leveled after this is done. I don't care if you use it for the fire department or what, it needs to be gone."
"I agree." Tanner said that Chloe was on her way with her crew, and that Noah was going to go to the other house to have a sniff around for her. "You'll need to be there at both houses, I'm afraid. I told Chloe that I didn't think you'd want to be there when they took it out, and she agreed."
"Thank you for that. No, I'd just as soon not be there." Tyrrell thought of what he would have done if he'd been older back then. "I wanted to follow him the next time. But going through my mind was the things that he'd taken, all the stuff that was there. Then I wondered if he would have put anything of Giyanna's and mine in there when he murdered us. I was so sure that he was going to kill us after that, I took to putting bells on the door so I'd hear it when he tried to come in."
"That's why you did that." Giyanna smiled at him, but it was not a happy one. "I wondered about that for years when I thought about it. I thought you just liked the sound of them. Oh, Tyrrell, the things that we had to endure just to survive."
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you two separate when you left the house?" Tyrrell looked at his sister before answering Tanner. "I mean, if it's too painful, I understand."
"When we decided to leave, we both wrote out what we had seen and things that we knew. Neither of us read the others, but I had hers and she had mine. If either of us were to come up missing, we were to mail it to the newspaper." Tyrrell continued when he drank the tea that was just brought into the room for them. "Being separate meant to us that it would have been harder for him to kill us both. This way, one of us, either of us, would have been able to avenge the other one. We were only just kids then. I think now that our logic was a little screwy."
Tanner spoke just as the sirens sounded in his driveway. "I think that you two are the bravest people I know. Hands down. And the fact that you turned out to be upstanding citizens is a miracle in and of itself. You should be very proud of yourselves. I know that I am."
Tyrrell didn't feel that he should be proud of himself. He had let a killer go on for years, over a decade, without telling anyone. The way he felt, he should be in prison right alongside his brother.