Bounty Hunter Ransom

by Kara Lennox

As her heartbeat returned to something like normal, she peeked over the culvert and tried to see what had snagged his attention. The vegetation on the opposite side of the narrow lane where the limo was parked had moved. It moved again.

  The limo door opened and David got out. He was holding the briefcase.

  David! She screamed mentally. Don’t make yourself a target. But no one fired at him.

  The bushes wiggled again, and a man emerged. It took Aubrey all of two seconds to recognize him. Just the sight of him caused a shiver of revulsion to shimmy up her spine.

  “It’s Cory.” She hardly breathed the words.

  “I know.”

  “What are you waiting for? Do something. Shoot him.”

  “I can’t shoot an unarmed man.”

  Oh, right. Those super ethics. She had to bite her tongue to keep from saying it aloud. First Strike indeed. “Can’t you come up behind him? Disarm him?”

  “I’m hoping Rex is in position behind him,” Beau said, never taking his gaze off the two men near the limo. “But if we take Cory now, he might not lead us to Sara.”

  “Do you think he has Sara?” she asked hopefully.

  He didn’t answer. David and Cory, standing a few feet apart, were talking in voices too low to carry. Cory made a gesture like, Hey, I’m a nice guy. You can trust me.

  She hoped David wouldn’t trust him. Cory reached for the briefcase, then froze. That was when Aubrey realized David was the one with the gun.

  “Oh, Christ,” Beau muttered.

  There was more talk. More negotiating, it looked like. David opened the briefcase, fumbling as he tried to keep the gun trained on Cory. Aubrey realized he was leaving himself vulnerable. But Cory didn’t try to take the gun away. He seemed too interested in the contents of the briefcase.

  Aubrey couldn’t see inside, but she assumed it contained great wads of cash, because Cory smiled and nodded with satisfaction. Both men relaxed their stances slightly. David pointed his gun toward the ground.

  To her surprise, Cory turned and disappeared once again into the vegetation.

  “What’s he doing?” Aubrey whispered. “Do you think Rex will be able to catch him?”

  “Shh. If Rex wants to catch him, he will. But I hope he doesn’t. Not if Cory is going where I think he’s going.”

  “Where?”

  Beau didn’t answer. They watched in tense silence as David waited. Aubrey became intensely aware of her wet clothes and the terrible smell of stagnant water, trash, and dead things the recent rain had no doubt washed to this area. Bugs started to bite her, but she couldn’t even slap them away for fear the movement or noise would alert Cory to their presence.

  She heard a rustling noise nearby and almost fainted when she saw a snake about ten feet away, moving through some weeds. She tapped Beau on the arm and pointed frantically at the slithering reptile as it approached.

  He looked, then shrugged and returned to his vigil. “It’s a harmless racer, probably more scared of us than we are of him.”

  Aubrey didn’t think that was possible, as her heart was already trying to pound its way out of her chest and she’d broken out in a cold sweat. But when she threw a stick at the snake, it froze for several long seconds, then turned and headed back the way it had come.

  Aubrey allowed herself to breathe. She returned her attention to David and the limo just as Cory emerged from the trees again. And when Aubrey realized what was dangling from one hand, she almost cried out with joy.

  Cory was carrying a child’s car seat. Sara’s car seat. And though she couldn’t see what was inside, as it was bundled up in blankets, she could only pray it was really Sara, safe and sound.

  Cory set the child seat on the ground and stepped away from it. David did the same with the briefcase.

  “Make sure it’s really Sara,” Beau murmured.

  Then Aubrey realized that David might not be able to recognize his niece. He hadn’t seen her in months, and babies her age changed quickly.

  Cory darted forward, grabbed the briefcase, and hightailed it into the woods. Beau reacted instantly.

  “Stay here!” he ordered Aubrey. “I’m going after him.”

  He ran into the open, but he managed to stay behind David, and his footsteps made no sound. How did he do that? Aubrey wondered. Then he ducked behind the limo. David never saw him.

  David reached into the car seat and pulled the blankets back. The baby—and yes, it was definitely a baby—cried, and Aubrey knew it was Sara. And she absolutely couldn’t stay hidden in the disgusting culvert any longer. Her baby—Sara was hers now—was crying, and she needed comfort. David, clueless male that he was, just squatted down, staring at the baby as if it were a space alien.

  Aubrey climbed out of the culvert. “David?”

  David whirled around, and she realized too late the gun was still in his hand. She ducked and covered her head, for all the good it would do.

  “Don’t shoot, it’s me, Aubrey!”

  He didn’t shoot. He ran over to her and helped her to her feet. “Aubrey, what are you doing here?”

  But Aubrey had no time for explanations now. She had tunnel vision for that baby, who was now squalling mad. Aubrey ran to her, unbuckled the safety strap and drew the baby out of her car seat. She held Sara out at arm’s length, trying to see if there were any injuries.

  “Is she okay?” David asked.

  Sara’s little yellow romper and matching T-shirt were filthy and it looked as if her diaper hadn’t been changed in a long while, but there weren’t any obvious injuries. “I think so. But we better take her to a hospital.”

  “What are you doing here?” David asked again. “Where’s your car?”

  “I came with Beau. We followed you from the cemetery. He went after Cory.”

  David sagged against the limo. “Oh, hell, Aubrey, why couldn’t you just let me do this? I wasn’t supposed to involve anyone else. That guy—Cory, you said?—promised he’d kill me if anyone came after him.”

  “He’s already wanted. He’s the one who assaulted me at least once, probably twice.”

  “You mean he’s that drug dealer?”

  “Yeah.” She hugged Sara to her, and the baby quieted and began sucking her thumb. “We can sort all this out later. Right now, I think we should get Sara checked out by a doctor. But I don’t want to just leave Beau and Rex out there in the woods. What if something happens to them?”

  “Who’s Rex?”

  “Another bounty hunter.”

  “Nice company you’re keeping.” But then David put his arms around both her and Sara. “I’m sorry I almost shot you. You scared me to death.”

  “I scared you?”

  A rustling in the woods halted their conversation. David gallantly placed his body in front of Aubrey and Sara, and the gun appeared in his hand again. But it was Beau, winded and a little worse for wear. He had a scratch oozing blood across his cheek and nose.

  “He got away,” Beau said, still breathing hard. “He had a car parked just on the other side of this hill. He got to it before I could catch him. Is that Sara? Is she okay?”

  “We think so,” Aubrey said. “But we need to take her to the hospital.”

  “I need to stay here and hook up with Rex,” he said. He looked at Aubrey. “Call the cops. Bring them up to speed. Cory fled in a white Firebird with a red pinstripe. The license plate had been removed.”

  David stuck out his hand to Beau. “Thanks for trying, man.”

  Beau shook the proffered hand, but Aubrey thought his eyes looked angry. “You shouldn’t have done this on your own.”

  “Hey, I got Sara back, didn’t I? What was I supposed to do? He said he’d kill Sara if I let the cops know. I couldn’t risk it. Wayne has a lot more money than he has grandchildren.”

  Aubrey wasn’t a hundred percent sure she wouldn’t have done the same thing in David’s place. She said an uneasy goodbye to Beau. Then she buckled Sara into the back seat of the limo and climbed in beside her.
As David got the limo underway, she got on her cell phone and tried to explain the recent turn of events to the first detective she got on the line. Unfortunately, the ones most familiar with the case were at the funeral.

  Pandemonium reigned at Baptist Medical Center where they took Sara. It seemed as if the whole police department was there. They had evidence people who would take charge of Sara’s clothing and car seat and comb them for trace evidence. Several uniforms kept the public and the press at bay. And a group of detectives each took David and Aubrey to separate rooms to question them.

  Aubrey knew it was standard procedure. The cops had to make sure that Sara’s sudden reappearance wasn’t the result of some scheme between the two cousins to defraud Wayne Clarendon out of a million dollars—which, it turns out, was the amount Cory demanded, based on the reward offered, and the amount David had given him. But she still resented being treated like a suspect. But cops, she knew, did not appreciate being left out, and they didn’t hold back their frustration and disapproval.

  Still, she told herself to just let it wash over her. Sara was back, she was safe—a nurse told her the baby had been hungry and thirsty but otherwise fine.

  The whole ordeal took several hours, after which Aubrey was not a little hungry and thirsty herself. A couple of cups of hospital coffee hadn’t done much but make her stomach burn. But finally—finally—Sara was turned over to Aubrey’s care. She guessed hers and David’s stories had meshed close enough that the cops didn’t suspect them of anything.

  Everyone gathered at the Clarendon home, a little later than planned, but Beronica had prepared plenty of food. What had been anticipated as a somber occasion took on a slightly festive atmosphere, due to everyone’s joy over baby Sara’s return. The baby got passed from relative to friend to relative, everyone anxious to hold the baby and feel her solid little body and be reassured that she actually was fine.

  Aubrey silently apologized to Patti for the high spirits, but she figured Patti would be happy, too, that her baby was safe.

  Lyle Palmer, who’d been strutting around as if he’d had something to do with Sara’s return, took Aubrey aside to the library once people started leaving and the media frenzy was abating.

  “So, where’s Maddox?” he asked casually.

  Aubrey shrugged, trying to act casual herself. But Beau’s continued absence was puzzling. “I don’t know. He said he had to hook up with Rex, who was presumably still in the woods somewhere.”

  “Since he’s not entitled to any reward, do you think he’s washed his hands of the whole case?”

  “Well, the case is solved. I guess he doesn’t have any reason to hang around.” Except for me. But he no doubt had wanted to avoid the throngs of cops at the hospital and here, at the house. It had to be really awkward for him to interact with his former co-workers, all of whom felt strongly about him, one way or another. Many of them thought he’d betrayed them by turning Gavin in, though in the end Gavin’s testimony hadn’t put anyone but himself behind bars.

  She tried to tell herself that was why Beau stayed away now. She didn’t want to believe it was because, with the reward a moot point, he no longer wanted to spend time with her.

  “Do you believe he was telling the truth?” Lyle asked. “That Cory got away?”

  “Of course I do.”

  “You don’t think it’s barely possible that Maddox and his cohort…Rex, did you say?”

  “Yes, Rex Bettencourt,” she repeated for the umpteenth time. Hell, Lyle knew perfectly well who it was.

  “You don’t think it’s barely possible that Maddox and Rex Bettencourt caught up with Cory in the woods, killed him or left him for dead, and took his briefcase?”

  “That’s preposterous. They’re bounty hunters. Not cold-blooded killers.”

  “A million dollars could turn just about anyone into a killer. And Rex Bettencourt, former Special Forces, mind you, is a killer.”

  “I can’t speak for Rex, I don’t know him. But Beau Maddox would not do what you’re suggesting.”

  “Hell, Aubrey, he shot your brother. His best friend. And,” he added when Aubrey said nothing, “Cory Silvan drives a green Explorer. We can’t find any evidence that the white Firebird even exists.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lyle was clearly trying to get Aubrey to say something that would implicate Beau. He wheedled, he cajoled and he bullied, but Aubrey wouldn’t oblige him.

  “He didn’t do anything wrong,” she said with finality. “If you want to continue this conversation, you’ll have to haul me into the station. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go find Sara.”

  She swept out of the library, hoping she’d sounded completely positive.

  Because she wasn’t.

  Oh, not that Beau would kill someone in cold blood for money. But what if he and Rex had caught up with Cory? They could have taken the money, and what recourse did Cory have? He couldn’t exactly go to the authorities and make a complaint. “Hey, these two bounty hunters stole my ransom money.” They could have given him a portion, enough to shut him up, enough that he could make a new start someplace. And they could have provided the white Firebird story as a bogus tip, to give Cory more time to get away. Because if Cory were to be apprehended, a couple of bounty hunters would have their butts in a sling.

  Aubrey didn’t like it that her mind had come up with this scenario. But what if Beau felt like he’d earned it? He’d risked his life on this case. He’d saved Aubrey’s life, more than once.

  She found Sara sitting in Wayne’s lap. She’d never seen Wayne looking so besotted. Her uncle, who had always been a bit stern when she was a child, was babbling at his granddaughter like an idiot. The sight made her smile—perhaps for the first time that day.

  The doorbell rang, and Aubrey didn’t think much of it at first. People had been coming and going for hours. Wayne had left the front gates open, figuring it was safe with a bazillion cops around. But now most of the cops were gone. Still, it seemed unlikely that Cory remained a threat. Now that he’d gotten what he wanted, he would be long gone. Beronica went to see who it was.

  Moments later she returned with Charlie Soffit at her side. A charged silence fell on the living room, but it was quickly broken by David’s angry outburst.

  “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing here?” David started to move toward the other man, but Aubrey grabbed his sleeve and stopped him. Charlie’s gaze had fixed on his daughter, and the emotions reflected there just about broke her heart—regret, love, grief, and a profound hunger.

  “Easy,” she said. “His daughter’s just been found alive. Give him a break.”

  “Aubrey, he threatened to kill you,” David reminded her.

  “He was drunk and overwrought,” she said. “He’s calm and sober now. Let’s let him see his daughter.”

  “Some father,” David murmured.

  Charlie spared a look to Aubrey. “Thanks. I know you don’t owe me nothing. But I never had a choice with Sara, you know. Patti just took her away. I signed them papers because she said if I did, she’d let me visit sometimes.”

  He stepped a bit closer to the baby. “My God, she’s beautiful. She looks like her mama, don’t she?” He leaned down even closer. “Gonna be a heartbreaker. Like Patti.” His eyes glistened with tears.

  Wayne’s face had gone stiff with disapproval, but he didn’t object. Then Sara reached toward her father as if she wanted him to pick her up.

  Charlie looked to Aubrey, since she appeared to be the only ally he had. “Could I? Just for a minute?”

  The thought of giving Charlie even this fleeting contact with Sara made Aubrey uneasy. But so much of her negative image of the man had come from Patti, and she now knew that Patti had been lying about that, along with a lot of other things.

  Aubrey pushed a chair toward Charlie and invited him to sit. Then she picked Sara up from Wayne’s lap and eased her gently into Charlie’s. At least if he was sitting down, he couldn’t do anything
crazy, like run out the door with the baby.

  But Charlie didn’t seem interested in anything but his daughter. He held Sara like a fragile piece of china, running one index finger gently over her little mouth, her nose, her downy gold hair and her perfect, tiny hands.

  When Sara grabbed his finger and held on, he looked like he’d just won the Texas Lotto. Everyone else was quiet, and Aubrey hoped they were as moved by the sight as she was.

  Craig had told her Charlie had no criminal record before his arrest two days ago. He might be poor and uneducated, but if those were the worst of his crimes, it hardly seemed fair to deny him access to his daughter. Much as she didn’t like the idea, Aubrey decided, as she watched Charlie watch Sara with rapt adoration, that she would investigate the possibility of letting Charlie have visitation—maybe after he’d taken a parenting course.

  The phone rang. Since Beronica made no move to answer it, Aubrey slipped away from the group in the living room and answered the extension in the hallway.

  It was Lyle Palmer. “Aubrey. I’m glad it’s you. Listen, I want to apologize for my earlier behavior. I guess I was letting my distrust of Maddox rule my common sense.”

  “Has something happened?”

  “Twenty minutes ago we arrested Cory Silvan. He was in his Explorer, not the white Firebird, but he did have the briefcase. Unfortunately, he had only a small portion of the ransom. He insists that’s all there is, but we think he stashed the rest someplace because he knew he might get caught.”

  Aubrey felt a tremendous sense of relief. Her nightmare was well and truly over. But then she realized that the fact Cory only had a portion of the money—and no white Firebird—coincided a little too neatly with her theory about Beau.

  She brushed that aside, because Lyle was giving her more information. “Cory has a bite mark on his right forearm, almost definitely human. And he was carrying a gun of the same caliber used by the sniper who shot at you. Of course, we’ll have to do some lab tests, but my gut feeling is that he’s our man.”

  “Thank God. Maybe I can actually sleep tonight. Lyle, thank you. I know we haven’t always gotten along, but I do appreciate the work you put in on this case.” Even if he wasn’t the brightest bulb in the investigative world.