“I remember your brother working here a couple of years ago. That’s all I’m willing to tell you. If you want to see any of his old employee records, you’ll have to come back with a warrant. We don’t give out information to just anybody. A company can get sued for doing that.” The manager of High Mountain Transport crossed his arms over his chest and stared defiantly at Jason.
Jason stared back.
“Could you point us toward somebody else here who worked with him?” Lauren asked hopefully. She could practically feel the frustration radiating off Jason as she stood beside him. She understood that he didn’t care if the trucking company got sued for giving out personal information. He just wanted to find his brother. Alive.
But there was a time and place for everything. Sometimes intimidation tactics worked. Sometimes they didn’t. Experience told Lauren that the stare down she was witnessing wasn’t going to get them anywhere.
“If we could talk to someone who knew him, we wouldn’t take much of their time,” she added in the most chipper tone she could muster. If they could get the name of a place where Matt liked to hang out after work, or maybe the name of a friend or girlfriend, that might lead to something more.
The assistant manager spared her a glance without turning his face away from Jason. “I don’t remember who he hung out with. And it’s time for the two of you to go.”
“Well, at least we tried,” she said to Jason as they walked from the warehouse out into the cold, sunny morning. This was the second of the two former employers listed on Matt’s bond application that they’d visited. The guy at the first trucking company had been every bit as closemouthed, too. “And both places let us leave flyers behind. Somebody might call us later.”
“I know you’re right,” Jason said tightly as they got into the rental car. He’d insisted on paying for the rental, even though Lauren told him she could do it and that it would be a business expense for her. It turned out he was determined to be the one who rented the car because he wanted to drive.
Her initial reaction had been to push back on that. She should be the one to drive. She liked to be in control of a situation as much as any bounty hunter. But then she’d thought about the horrible situation he was in. His brother had jumped bail, and people were out to kill Matt. And those killers kept mistaking Jason for his brother and taking shots at him. That was a lot of stress to be managing. So if he wanted to drive, she was okay with that. As long as he didn’t think he was taking over anything else.
“Let’s head on over to Boulder,” she said.
Before they got to the freeway, Lauren spotted one of the big stores that sold everything from groceries to tires. “Let’s make a quick stop here,” she said, gesturing toward the store. “We need to get you some dark glasses and a hat so you’re not such an obvious target while we’re walking around in Boulder.”
Jason nodded. “Good idea.”
They were in and out of the store within a half hour. Along with a baseball cap and wraparound sunglasses for Jason, both of them purchased things they’d need if they were going to be away from home for another few days. Then they got on the highway headed north.
Lauren’s phone chimed with a message from Kevin, letting her know his dad was home and doing well and asking if she needed any help.
She glanced over at Jason, who was focused on the highway ahead of them. She didn’t know him nearly well enough to know what his normal demeanor was over a long stretch of time, but since they’d met up at the breakfast table in Al and Barb’s house this morning, he’d seemed more subdued than usual. Maybe she did need Kevin’s help. Maybe it was time for Jason to stand down. It could be that this chase for his brother was too much for him, whether he wanted to admit it or not.
She cleared her throat. “If you’ve changed your mind and you want to stay back when we get closer to apprehending your brother, I’d understand.”
He cut her a quick sideways glance. “Why do you want to get rid of me?”
The bantering tone he usually worked into his conversation was gone. “You all right?” she asked, anticipating that he would tell her to mind her own business. “Because it doesn’t seem like you are.”
“People are trying to kill me,” he said. “That tends to take the sunshine out of my smile.”
She exhaled a quiet sigh of relief. Now he sounded like himself. Even though she barely knew him, she liked him. Underneath his inclination toward dark humor and his tendency to try to wrestle control of a situation away from her, he seemed to be a kind and compassionate man. She’d seen that in the way he’d looked out for the people at the diner during the gunfight in Sweetwater. In the way he’d interacted with Al and Barb. And in the way he’d treated her and tried to protect her each time they’d been attacked.
So it didn’t necessarily mean anything if she wanted to look out for him, too. They were just temporary partners watching each other’s backs.
“I won’t pretend to understand your relationship with your brother,” she said, “but I know you don’t want to hurt him. You don’t want to have to shoot him.”
“I’ve changed my mind. Right now I do want to shoot him.”
He shook his head and glanced her direction, a half smile playing across his lips and then quickly vanishing. But even before that, she’d known he was kidding. More dark humor. More trying to find a way to cope with a horrible situation.
“If you don’t want to be there when your brother is arrested, you don’t have to be,” she continued doggedly, because she could tell she’d struck a nerve. She could call Toby and Tim again. They always came through in a pinch.
The ugly truth was that Matt had a significant drug history. He might be strung out when they found him, appearing and behaving in a way that would make him nearly unrecognizable to Jason.
“You don’t have to stick with this until the bitter end,” she said. “I’ll look out for your brother. I’ll make sure things are done right.”
Jason rubbed his hand over his bristly black hair and then dropped it back down onto the steering wheel. “You sound like you’re sure you’re going to find him.”
“I have to think positive. That’s how I get the job done.”
“If it’s that simple, why haven’t the cops already found him?”
“Active, dangerous situations are their priority. It’s one of the reasons why bounty hunters exist. We make tracking down a fugitive our priority. Lieutenant Walker at the Denver PD told me when I spoke with him after the shooting yesterday that tracking down the members of your brother’s old criminal gang is his main goal.
“Beyond that, the cops have their advantages, and we have ours. They have access to governmental and financial databases. If Matt tries to take a plane, a train or a bus out of town, they’ll find him. They can track him if he uses his credit card. They can locate him through his cell phone if he leaves the battery in it. Now that his case has heated up, they’ll dedicate more of their technological resources to catching him. We have the advantage that people who won’t talk to the cops will talk to us. And if your brother gets word that we’re looking for him, he might step forward and give himself up to us. Whereas he might not turn himself in to the police.”
“Are you ready if Matt doesn’t want to give himself up and he turns violent?” Jason asked grimly.
“If things get bad, I’ll call the police, without hesitation. Ideally, I’d like to call for reinforcements before the actual capture. Maybe get Kevin to help. He’s good at keeping people calm.”
“Doesn’t that Kevin guy have some other bounty hunter he can work with?” Jason snapped. The jealous tone to his voice made her heart skip an extra beat.
“The goal is to arrest the fugitive myself rather than have the cops do it,” Lauren said, feeling her cheeks warm as she ignored the jab about Kevin. “Because that’s how I earn my fugitive recovery fee.”
They drove a few more miles in silence. “I keep thinking about what I could have done differently so that Matt wouldn’t have turned out the way he has,” Jason said.
The raw emotion in his voice told Lauren that this was something that had been eating at him for a while.
“He’s a grown man,” she said. “And you’re his brother, not his dad. You aren’t responsible for how he lives his life.”
She knew that their father had passed away six years ago. And that he’d never quite been able to pull himself back together emotionally after his wife died when the twins were twelve.
“Of course I’m responsible for Matt. He’s my twin brother. I should have done a better job of looking out for him.”
Lauren had no idea what to say in response to that. The world sometimes seemed to be divided into two kinds of people. Those who felt a sense of responsibility to others, like Jason did to his brother, like she did to her mom. And those who thought only of themselves, like her dad—and like Matt.
At least Lauren’s dad hadn’t ever made her the target of vicious gunmen intent on killing her. She supposed she should be grateful for that.
Twenty minutes later they were driving into Boulder.
Conversation between them had trailed off into comfortable silence, and Jason was glad. Because he’d revealed more of himself than he’d intended to when he’d told her he felt responsible for Matt. And that had left him emotionally exposed. A feeling he didn’t particularly care for.
He knew that his brother was responsible for his own decisions. But sometimes logic and reason just didn’t seem to matter.
Despite the uncomfortableness of their conversation, he’d found himself wanting to ask Lauren some questions about herself. Not anything deep or profound, just simple stuff. What did she do for fun when she wasn’t working? Did she like horses?
Did she have a boyfriend?
He’d started to ask her the first question, and then he’d clamped his mouth shut. Because what was the point? They weren’t friends; they weren’t going to be friends. The only reason that they were in this car together was because his brother was a wanted criminal and she was a bounty hunter tracking him down. It was her job. That was not a personal relationship.
Today, tomorrow or maybe a few days after that, they’d find Matt. She’d haul him off to jail, and Jason would head back to Sweetwater. He had a neglected ranch that he was trying to build back up. Horses he needed to tend to. And he had his welding business to manage.
Lauren would stay around Denver, moving on to capture the next bail jumper who needed to be tracked down.
There was no possibility of a future between them, and he knew that.
Jason hadn’t been in an emotionally close relationship with a woman for a long time. He was out of practice. And he was taking her polite concern a little too seriously.
“I thought of a couple of bars in Boulder where Matt liked to hang out a few years ago,” he said as they rolled into town. “After that, we should probably look online to see where the most popular nightspots are and then go there. Matt definitely likes to be where the action is.”
“Sounds good,” Lauren said. “But before we do that, check your phone and see if any of his friends have gotten back to you.”
Jason parked the car and then checked his phone. Years ago, before he’d gone into the military, Jason had hung out with Matt in Boulder a few times and had met some of his friends. Last night he’d tried to think of the names of some of those people. He’d managed to find three people who he thought might be them and he’d left messages on their social media sites. As of right now, he hadn’t heard back from any of them. Maybe he never would.
“Nothing,” he said to Lauren, shaking his head.
“Don’t worry, we aren’t giving up.”
Her confidence and optimism were encouraging.
They both got out of the car. He pulled the tags off his newly purchased baseball cap and sunglasses and put them on.
Lauren grabbed some of the flyers with Matt’s picture from the box in the back seat.
Jason pulled his phone back out of his pocket, planning to call Matt again and leave another message. If nothing else, maybe irritation from Jason’s constant calls would motivate Matt to finally call him back. He hesitated before he tapped Matt’s name on the screen. “Should I tell him I’m in Boulder? He might agree to meet with me. But he also might skip town.”
“Tell him you’re here,” she said decisively. “If he is in town and he bolts, there’s a decent chance the police will find him. They’ll either see his car on the road or track him by credit card activity. On the other hand, if he’s in town and decides to meet with you, well, then our problem is solved.”
Jason made the call, and of course it went to voice mail. He left a message asking his brother to meet up with him.
They went to the first bar on Jason’s list of places where Matt used to hang out. The bartender they spoke with wouldn’t accept the flyer that Lauren tried to hand to him. He barely glanced at the picture of Matt, said they hadn’t seen him before and asked them to leave.
“Do you think that guy’s refusal to help us is a sign that he’s covering for Matt?” Jason asked Lauren when they stepped back outside. He figured she’d had enough experience to know if that was odd behavior.
“Not necessarily. Most people are helpful,” she said. “Some just aren’t.”
They arrived at the second bar on Jason’s list. Business was slow. A guy was sweeping the floor, and the bartender was stacking clean glasses on the back bar. She noticed them as they drew closer. When Jason took off his sunglasses, she did a double take. And then stared at him, eyebrows raised, uncertainty written on her face.
“The bartender thinks you look familiar, but she’s not sure,” Lauren said quietly. “I think it would be best if you talked to her.”
Jason drew in a deep breath. Maybe this was his shot, his only shot, at finding someone who could connect him with Matt.
“Ease into asking her about your brother,” Lauren added. “Keep your tone conversational so she doesn’t get defensive. People don’t like to answer questions when they feel like they’re being grilled.”
“Got it.”
The bartender placed a couple of cocktail napkins on the bar as they stepped up. “What’ll you have?” she asked, her gaze resting on Jason.
“Do I look familiar to you?” he asked. The bartender had long blond hair and looked like she was in her late twenties.
“As a matter of fact, you do.”
“Maybe you know my brother. His name is Matt Cortez.”
She smiled broadly. “You sure do look like him.”
“We’re identical twins.”
“Huh. So, what are you drinking?”
“Do you know where my brother is staying these days?” Jason asked. “We’re trying to meet up with him, and we can’t seem to get connected.”
“Sorry, I can’t help you. I don’t know him that well. I just know him because he’s a regular here.”
“Has he been in here lately?” Jason asked, cautiously hoping that they finally might be catching up with him.
“He was here two or three nights ago.”
Jason exhaled a deep sigh of relief. There was no guarantee that Matt was still in town. But at least there was a chance.
“My name’s Jason. And this is Lauren.”
“Katie,” the bartender said, reaching across the bar and extending her hand first to Jason and then to Lauren. “Nice to meet you.”
“Can we leave a flyer with you?” Lauren asked, setting one down on the bar. “It has a couple of contact phone numbers on it. Maybe you could show it to some of the other employees here or to your regular customers. And if anybody knows anything, we’d sure appreciate a call.”
“Is Matt in some kind of trouble?” Katie asked, raising an eyebrow.
“We’re trying to help him,” Lauren said.
As they left the bar a few minutes later, Jason thought about the sad truth that Matt probably didn’t have any real friends. Just his criminal cohorts. Or people like Katie, who barely knew him.
Matt needed Jason whether he realized it or not. Unfortunately, by coming to Boulder, Jason may have just pointed a large arrow toward his brother’s location. Which meant his search here needed to produce results quickly, before it was too late.