The person talking drew closer. Lauren realized it was the guy who’d yelled earlier when Jason was pounding on Matt’s door. He was a short, heavyset man wearing a thick coat.
He shone his light on each person’s face until he got to Jason. “Hey, where have you been?” he demanded. “I’m tired of all these people looking for you. You owe ’em money or something?”
“I’m not Matt,” Jason said. “I’m his twin brother.”
The guy stared at him for a minute. Finally Lauren jumped in, assuring the guy that Jason was not Matt.
“Well, I’m your brother’s landlord,” the guy said. “I’ve been waiting for him to show up for two weeks now. As soon as he does, I’m giving him notice to move out. Too many creeps hang out around the building when he’s here, and now he’s got some scary-looking people coming by asking about him. That’s why I yelled at you to go away when I first heard you knocking on his door. I thought you were one of them.”
“What can you tell me about those people?” Lauren asked.
The landlord shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest. Now that the sun was gone, the temperature was dropping fast. “Just that they showed up a few times looking for him. They asked the other tenants if they’d seen him. They were polite enough, but kind of intense.”
“Could we have a look in his apartment?” Jason asked. “That might give us an idea of where he is. Or if anything happened to him. We talked earlier today and agreed to meet here tonight.”
When he agreed to meet with you, he was lying to you, Lauren thought. Jason didn’t want to face the obvious truth that his brother had lied to him. She knew how that felt. Her dad had lied to her all the time. But she resisted the temptation to feel bad for him. He wasn’t her friend. She was standing here beside him because they were working a case together.
“I won’t let you into his apartment,” the manager said. “I could get sued or lose my job. But I might accidentally leave his door unlocked.” He shook his finger at Jason. “I will be watching, though. I don’t want anybody stealing from any of my tenants. So if I see anybody carrying anything out, I’m calling the cops.”
Jason nodded. “Understood.”
The manager took some keys out of his pocket and headed back toward the front of the building, presumably to go unlock Matt’s door.
“I’m leaving,” Tim said as soon as the manager was out of earshot. He glanced at Toby, who nodded in agreement, then he looked at Lauren. “You know I’m all about getting the job done, but what they’re talking about is too close to breaking and entering. I’m not going to risk getting busted for that.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” she said. The fee she earned for tracking down Matt would help pay the rent this month, but at the end of the day, it was just one case. There would be others.
They all started walking around the building. When they reached the front, Tim and Toby said their goodbyes and walked toward their SUV.
Jason was already headed for his brother’s apartment.
“I’m waiting out here,” Lauren called to him, standing outside the door. “Let me know what you find in there.”
It sounded like he said, “Right,” as he disappeared into the apartment, closing the door behind him. But did he mean it sarcastically, as in fat chance he’d tell her? Or did he mean he really would tell her?
She wrestled with the temptation to go in there with him and see for herself. But Jason was Matt’s family. She obviously was not. He was checking on his brother’s welfare. That was not exactly her motivation. There was a line there that she couldn’t cross.
She should have told Jason to leave the apartment door open. Although now that she knew him better, she realized that he might not have done it.
* * *
“Dear Lord, please let Matt be okay.” Jason whispered the prayer as he walked quickly through the apartment, searching the rooms, dreading the moment when he would find his brother’s lifeless body. It was the fear that he’d lived with over the last few years as his brother had fallen deeper into his criminal lifestyle.
But Matt was not in the apartment. The thermostat for the heater had been turned down, and the place was cold. There was no recent mail on the countertop with the unopened bills. The sliced turkey and potato salad in the fridge were definitely beyond their expiration dates. Everything in the smelly kitchen trash can had obviously been there for a while.
It looked like the landlord’s story was true and that Matt hadn’t been here for days. He’d lied to Jason when they were on the phone and he’d confirmed he was home. But why? He could have just told Jason it wasn’t a good time for him to stop by. He hadn’t been shy about doing that in the past.
Jason walked through the apartment again, looking for signs of a break-in or a struggle, but he didn’t see anything. There were still clothes hanging in the closet and an expensive pair of cowboy boots sitting on the closet floor. Matt hadn’t skipped out to avoid paying rent. It wouldn’t make sense to do that and leave everything behind. And money was not usually a problem for Matt. He always found a way to get some.
“Hey, what do you see?” Lauren hollered through the front door.
“Nobody’s here,” he hollered back.
There were a few empty beer bottles on the coffee table and the place reeked of weed. The strong smell saturated the upholstered furniture and the drapes. Otherwise things looked normal. There was no sign that Matt was using harder drugs, so that was encouraging. There was nothing flashy or expensive in sight. Whatever money he got from his criminal enterprises seemed to disappear pretty fast. It was hard to believe Matt would break the law and risk prison time for such an average kind of life.
“Any idea where your brother went?” Lauren called out to him.
“He didn’t leave a note,” Jason called back.
“Funny.” She didn’t sound genuinely amused.
Jason walked over to the door and pulled it open. “It looks like he’s been gone for at least a few days,” he said. “But it also looks like he plans on coming back.”
He walked out and pulled the door shut behind him, making sure it was locked. From the other side of the building, the manager opened his door and gave him a quick wave before closing the door again.
“Where do you think we should go look for him?” Lauren asked as they crossed the lawn heading back toward her SUV. “You must know some of his friends.”
You’d think he would. They’d had a few friends in common when they were younger, but he had no idea who Matt spent time with these days.
A shotgun blast echoed across the front of the apartment building.
Jason threw himself on top of Lauren as shards of glass from nearby light fixtures rained down on them. A second blast followed. And then a third. His heart pounded while at the same time his senses sharpened and his attention focused on his surroundings, on what might be moving in the shadows and on making sure Lauren didn’t get hurt.
The sudden darkness following the destruction of the lights was a blessing. Now whoever was shooting at them couldn’t see them as clearly.
The shots had come from the direction of the street. Full night had fallen while they were checking out Matt’s apartment, and there were no streetlights on this stretch of road. There were only a couple of other light fixtures attached to the building and still functioning, but the light they cast didn’t come anywhere near to illuminating the road. They offered just enough light to disrupt Jason’s night vision. Even so, he could tell there was a vehicle idling out there. Its lights were off, but he could hear it.
“Are you all right?” Jason asked, his lips not far from Lauren’s ear. “Were you hit?”
“I’m fine.” She reached for the gun on her hip and tried to roll to her side. “You can get off me.”
He started to move, and two more shotgun blasts boomed in the darkness. More glass rain
ed down on them as an upstairs window shattered.
He shifted his weight so that Lauren could reach her gun. She lifted her head, propped up on her elbows and pointed her weapon toward the direction where the shots had come from.
Sirens blared in the distance.
A car engine growled, followed by the screeching sound of quick acceleration as the vehicle peeled off down the street. Jason couldn’t get a clear look at it, but he had the impression that it was not the sedan they’d seen earlier today. This was something bigger, like a large SUV or a van.
They got to their feet, and Lauren holstered her pistol.
“We need to go our separate ways,” Jason said. “It’s too dangerous for anyone to be around me. Obviously, these thugs haven’t figured out that I’m not Matt.”
“No,” she said. “This just makes me that much more determined to get him off the streets. For his own safety. For yours. For the general public. And we’ll be more successful if we work together.”
The sirens he’d heard were getting closer.
“We need to get you a gun,” she said.
Jason had already thought about that. “No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I could end up shooting and killing my brother.”
“I understand how you feel,” Lauren said. “But that’s not a smart decision.”
“Maybe it isn’t,” he said. But he wasn’t going to debate the point with her.
Blue and red flashing lights spilled over them as four cop cars pulled up on the scene. Jason and Lauren raised their hands high, just to be safe, as the officers opened their patrol car doors. There’d be plenty of time to explain the fact that they were the people who’d been shot at after the scene was secure and the tension level dropped.
Behind them, Jason heard apartment doors opening and neighbors calling out to one another, asking if they were okay.
“The vehicle the shooters were in wasn’t here when we arrived,” Jason said to Lauren as a couple of the officers, guns drawn, started walking toward them, yelling at them to keep their hands up and warning them not to move.
“Agreed,” Lauren said. “I would have noticed it. Maybe the bad guys have some kind of surveillance camera set up in the apartment that we didn’t notice. Or they could have paid someone to watch the place and give them a heads-up when they saw Matt. Or thought they saw Matt.”
The officers drew closer. “Just to let you know, I’m carrying a firearm,” Lauren said.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your backs,” the nearest officer barked at the two of them.
They complied and were handcuffed.
Jason hoped the process of dealing with the police wouldn’t take long. Because he needed to find his brother before the bad guys did. Unfortunately, he had no idea where to look for him.
FOUR
Lauren turned the key in the ignition while Jason shut the passenger door and buckled his seat belt. After talking to the police and explaining everything that had happened, they’d been allowed to leave the crime scene at Matt’s apartment building. She was still a little shaky from the surge in adrenaline after nearly being killed, but she was steady enough to drive. She just wasn’t certain where she wanted to drive to.
She’d been shot at more than once today. Well, technically, Jason was the one who’d been shot at. But she’d been close enough to him to practically feel the ripple in the air as the bullets and shotgun pellets blew by.
Prior to today, she’d only been fired at once before. The fugitives she tracked might hide, lie and get other people to cover for them, but when she finally caught up with them, they typically gave up without trying to kill her.
Today had been a whole new ball game. And now that she finally had a quiet moment, the seesawing emotions of fear and relief were getting to her. Her hands were trembling. And her mouth felt dry. She’d gotten up very early this morning, and now it was well into the evening hours. She was tired.
Not that she would let Jason Cortez know that. Not a chance. A certain level of bravado was part of the necessary equipment for being a successful bounty hunter. She couldn’t appear fainthearted or hesitant and expect to get her job done.
Good thing she had lots of experience making certain she appeared stronger than she felt. And good thing she had experience taking her worry and uncertainty and turning them into prayer.
Thank You, Lord, for Your protection, she prayed silently. Please help me with this case. And I pray for the safest and most peaceful outcome.
“Drop me off at a hotel anywhere on your way home,” Jason said as she put the SUV in gear and pulled away from the curb.
Lauren chewed her bottom lip for a few seconds, thinking. “I’m not sure I’m going home.”
Jason turned toward her. “Does that mean you have an idea of how we can find Matt?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m concerned that it might not be safe for me to go home tonight. The people who are after your brother are still out there. For all we know, they might have had someone watching us the whole time we were at your brother’s apartment. They could be following us right now.”
Jason turned to look at his side mirror.
“Nobody pulled away from the curb behind us,” she said. “I’ve been watching. But since it’s dark, and all I can see are headlights, it’s hard to tell if we’re being followed. Plus it’s possible they could have put a tracker on my car.”
Her experience had involved trying to find people. She’d never before been in the position of having someone hunting her while she did her job. Well, the bad guys were actually hunting Jason, because they thought he was Matt. But the experiences they’d been through today had sort of turned them into a package deal. They needed to stay together until the mission was completed.
“I don’t want to risk leading the bad guys to my home,” she said. “I don’t want to put anybody else in danger.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “So you have a family? A husband?”
Was it her imagination, or did he sound disappointed?
“My mom and I share a house,” she said. “She has rheumatoid arthritis and doesn’t get around very easily. Spends a lot of time in a wheelchair.” Lauren could hear her own voice turning husky with emotion. The thought of the dangerous, violent thugs intent on murdering Matt Cortez showing up at the house, with her mother there, vulnerable, sometimes barely able to move at all, was too awful to consider. And she would not risk having it happen.
She cleared her throat. “I’m staying in a hotel tonight, too. Someplace downtown with top-notch security and video cameras in the parking garage and common areas. That would probably be the safest option. Tomorrow we’ll find your brother and get the case wrapped up.”
“Works for me.” Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll try to call Matt again.”
This had to be the fifth time he’d called since they’d hit the apartment and found out his brother wasn’t there. The first three times she’d heard him leave a message for Matt to call him back. After that, he didn’t bother. But he still kept calling.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to give it up. That his brother was playing him. That the last shred of genuine connection that he believed still existed between the two of them was gone.
But she knew from her own experience that it could take a long time for reality to set in. Accepting the fact that someone you cared about did not care about you came in stages. How long had it taken for Lauren to realize her father didn’t really care that much about her and her mom? Her earliest memories were of him being around intermittently. For years she believed his excuses. He always had believable reasons for why he didn’t show up for school events or birthday parties or even on Christmas Day.
Then her mom started having health problems. The fever and pain in her joints interfered with h
er ability to work. And money, which was never abundant, became even scarcer. At that point, she and her mom had really needed him. But he didn’t step up. Finally, her mom filed for divorce. She asked for child support. The support payments never came, and Lauren’s dad disappeared altogether.
Finally, Lauren understood. She’d felt sorrow for her mom, for the sad reality that she’d fallen in love with a charming con man. For herself, she’d mostly felt bitter for wasting love and concern and loyalty on her dad for as long as she had.
Jason took his phone from his ear, hit the disconnect button and slid the phone back into his pocket without saying anything. Obviously his brother hadn’t answered the call, and Jason hadn’t left a message.
“Do you have a plan for tomorrow?” he asked, his voice sounding flat and grim.
They were in downtown Denver now, near the secure high-rise hotels she was looking for.
“I figure we’ll head for the bond office and look through Matt’s file. Speak with Al or Barb, whichever of them talked to him and wrote the bond for him. We can work up some ideas based on what they say.”
“Isn’t all of that information digitized? Can’t they send it to you?”
“Facts in a digital file are important. But there’s nothing like talking to someone who’s actually met the person you’re looking for. Sometimes a small detail leads to the capture.”
She pulled into the garage attached to a hotel, drove up a couple of levels and parked.
“How’d you become a bounty hunter?” Jason asked.
They exited the SUV cautiously, each of them looking around to see if they’d been followed.
“My mom’s friends Barb and Al own the bail bond company I work for most of the time. I do occasional work for other companies, as well. When I graduated from high school, they hired me to help with skip tracing. I’d do some research online, make a few phone calls and track down people who’d skipped out on bills, given fraudulent information when applying for loans, intentionally destroyed rental property before they’d moved out, that kind of thing.”
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