Fugitive Chase

by Jenna Night

  The bartender made a scoffing sound. “I keep up with the news. If Darrin Linder showed up in here, I’d call the cops.” His gaze lingered on Ramona for a few seconds and she swallowed thickly. Was it possible the man was lying? Maybe he was part of Darrin’s drug distribution business. As soon as she turned away, would he take out his phone and call Darrin to tell him that Ramona was here?

  Finally, the bartender shook his head slightly. “You look like the woman who used to come in with him once in a while, but now I can see that you aren’t her.”

  That would be my cousin, Ramona thought. But she didn’t say anything.

  “What can you tell me about Darrin?” Harry asked. “Did he ever talk about other places he liked to go or what he liked to do? Was there someone he usually met when he came in?”

  “Look, he didn’t come in and sit at the bar and talk to me. Or even talk in front of me.” The bartender gestured with his chin toward the people settled in the plush chairs near the fireplace. “He was here to talk with the other suits. Network with them and make business contacts. That’s what Thursday night happy hour is designed for. You might want to talk to one of the cocktail servers. They’d be more likely to have overheard something.”

  Harry questioned each of the two cocktail servers as they walked up to the bar to place their orders. Neither one could provide any helpful information about Darrin other than to confirm that he wasn’t in the lounge right now and that neither one had seen him since he quit his job at Earth Movers shortly before he was arrested for selling drugs.

  “Let’s head over to the fireplace,” Harry said to Ramona after he thanked the servers. “And when we get there...normally, I’m an ‘honesty is the best policy’ kind of guy, but sometimes bounty hunters, like cops, need to lie in order to do their job.”

  “So, you’re saying we’re not telling them that you’re a bounty hunter and we’re looking for Darrin?”

  “Not at first. We’ll see how things go.”

  She nodded. “All right, I understand.” Like Harry, she valued honesty. But tracking down Darrin was an extraordinary situation. Not only was her life in danger, but her family’s was, too. Beyond that, there was the potential damage he could do to the community as a result of his drug distribution and his recent expansion into illegal gun sales.

  They walked up to a small table and sat down. Immediately a voice called out, “Hey, it’s the bounty hunter.”

  A dark-haired man walked toward them and Harry blew out a quick puff of air in frustration before whispering, “It’s Karl. The man who followed me out of Earth Movers to talk to me.”

  Ramona kept her eye on the man. This was the guy who’d claimed he’d seen Jasmine with Darrin within the last five days. It was tempting to give him a piece of her mind for lying about her cousin. But now was not the time or place for that. They were here to get information from the people in the lounge, not set them on edge.

  And if she were completely honest with herself, Ramona couldn’t say that she one hundred percent believed Jasmine. Yes, her cousin was working very hard right now to get her life back on track. But Jasmine didn’t have a history of being a completely stable person. And Ramona knew any significant life change usually involved some backsliding before a person could get solidly settled on their new path.

  Maybe Jasmine had backslid with Darrin and gone back to him for a short time. At this point it felt like anything was possible.

  “You two are bounty hunters?” a woman at a nearby table asked with a smile on her face. Her glance took in both Ramona and Harry. Her companions looked intrigued, as did the people at two other nearby tables who’d apparently overheard.

  Before Ramona could explain that she wasn’t actually a bounty hunter, Harry was already taking advantage of the situation. He started asking questions and the happy hour patrons seemed eager to help. A couple of them had actually worked with Darrin, while the rest knew him as a Thursday night regular. And while three or four vocalized their disbelief that Darrin’s life had taken such a dramatic and violent turn, Ramona couldn’t help noticing the others who kept quiet and exchanged subtle glances with one another.

  Maybe they, like Ramona, had sensed something off about Darrin before he got arrested. Maybe they, too, sensed that growing undercurrent of violence in his behavior.

  Jasmine had taken forever to admit to seeing it. By the time she finally got around to telling Ramona that he’d knocked her to the ground—more than once—Ramona hadn’t been at all surprised to hear it. Horrified but not surprised. Thankfully, once Jasmine had taken that first step of admitting the problem out loud, Ramona had been able to convince her to report it to the police. That was the beginning of getting Jasmine out of that horrible relationship and to a safer environment.

  In the weeks since then, Darrin had gone completely off the rails and proven Ramona’s intuition was correct.

  To Ramona’s disappointment, she didn’t hear anyone in the lounge offer a tip for finding Darrin. No one claimed friendship with him or admitted to spending time with him anywhere other than at the bar or at his workplace. So she was all the more surprised to see Harry appearing hopeful as he left behind some of his business cards on their table and at a couple of other spots around the lounge as happy hour came to a close and people started filtering away.

  “I didn’t expect anyone to tell me anything useful with so many other people watching,” he said to her as they approached the front exit. “But there’s a good chance at least one of those people will call me later.”

  He abruptly stopped several feet short of the front door, pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. She could hear him talking to Leon and asking him to drive over and park in a spot where he could see the front door of the Water Grill when they walked out.

  “Just like there’s a chance that one of those people we spoke with might help us later, there’s also the possibility that one of them is friends with Darrin and didn’t admit it,” he explained. “They could have been texting him a warning while they were smiling at us. There are plenty of two-faced people in the world. I want Leon parked outside in case Darrin or one of his accomplices is out there waiting for us.”

  Ramona felt a chill pass over her skin. She glanced at Harry, grateful that he was beside her, looking out for her, and that he was good at his job.

  A few minutes later, Leon sent a text letting Harry know he was in position outside.

  As they left the restaurant, a light rain fell, further intensifying the chill that was lingering in Ramona’s body. Her nerves were on edge every step of the way until they reached the relative safety of Harry’s truck. Driving across town as they headed back toward Cassie’s ranch, she looked at the town lights glowing in the evening’s increasing darkness. She’d spent nearly her entire life in Stone River and had always thought of it as a safe little town inhabited by mostly decent, trustworthy people. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

  About the only thing she did know for certain was that Darrin Linder was a desperate man who wanted her dead. And that he had the will to make that happen.

  * * *

  Harry steered his truck onto the long drive to Cassie’s house, watching his mirrors to see if anyone was following him as he thought about the next steps in his quest to find Linder and his henchmen.

  He’d brought Ramona to the ranch an hour ago after their visit to the Water Grill. Following that, he’d made a quick trip to the house trailer he kept at his parents’ ranch so he could grab some clean clothes. He was hoping and praying for a quick resolution to the capture of Darrin and his crew, but it made sense to be prepared for a longer stay at North Star Ranch, just in case.

  The light rain that had begun falling while he and Ramona were at the lounge was coming down harder now, bringing a bone-deep chill with it. Sometimes when spring officially arrived on the calendar, people around Stone River, Harry included, got so excited about the
upcoming warmer weather that they forgot that there could still be seriously unpleasant days ahead. Even so, he loved it here and had literally dreamed about north Idaho while he was stationed overseas.

  After his last deployment was finally over, he’d been home for a little over four months when the day came that turned his life on end. Harry was at a hardware store in town on a Saturday afternoon, buying replacement parts for his grandparents’ washing machine, when his phone rang. When he answered, his mom immediately asked him where he was. Her voice had sounded wrong. Shaky and hesitant.

  She told him to drive straight to the hospital. Willa had collapsed while doing some chores at the family ranch and an ambulance was already on its way.

  Later that night, one nightmare was over. But another one was just beginning. The damage to Willa’s brain from a ruptured aneurysm was too severe. There was nothing the doctors could do to save her.

  Harry couldn’t help thinking that if he’d been at the ranch with Willa instead of at the hardware store, things might have been different. She might still be alive.

  His family and friends repeatedly told him he was wrong. That when she’d collapsed while cleaning out the tack room in the stables, one of the ranch hands had seen it happen and called 9-1-1 right away. Everything that could have been done had been done.

  Sometimes, when he was beating himself up for not being there, for not saving his wife’s life, Bible verses reminding him that God was ultimately in control would come to mind. But knowing that did not let Harry off the hook. He had a responsibility to protect his wife, and he’d failed.

  He took a deep breath and focused on the driveway in front of him. Up ahead, he saw the warm lights from the sprawling house at North Star Ranch spilling out through the windows. His heartbeat sped up and he felt a little anxious. In a good way. Truth was, he was looking forward to seeing Ramona.

  Willa had been gone for four years now. He’d finally taken off his wedding band a year after she passed away but it hadn’t changed how he felt—still married, still committed.

  But now he’d met Ramona and things felt different. Like some part of his heart that had been lying dormant was beginning to stir to life. It was strange because he barely knew her. Not to mention he’d met her under the worst possible circumstances. Besides, she was scared and vulnerable right now. He needed to respect that.

  He parked his truck and walked up to the front of the house, the frantic barking of Adam’s dogs greeting him before he even opened the door. Since Duke was almost the size of a pony, Harry barely had to lean over to pet him as he walked through the door. Tinker, on the other hand, wasn’t even tall enough to reach the top of Harry’s cowboy boots, so Harry had to squat down to pet him. He didn’t want the little dandelion-puff guy to feel left out.

  “Dinner’s almost ready,” Adam called out. A savory-smelling roast was steaming in a pan on the countertop.

  The front of the house was basically one giant great room, and Sherry called out a greeting from the dining area while she set the table. After exchanging a few words with both of them, Harry headed back toward the spare bedroom he was using to drop off the daypack holding his clothes. He was halfway down the hallway when Ramona stepped out of the home office and beckoned to him.

  “What’s up?” Harry asked, keeping his tone businesslike.

  Ramona held up her phone. “I got a text from Jasmine. She thought of something that might help us track Darrin, but she said it would be easier to explain in an actual call. And she wants to talk to both of us.”

  Harry snapped his wandering thoughts and feelings back under control in an instant. Until Darrin was locked up, Ramona would not be safe. Nothing was more important than that. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s call her.”

  They walked into the office and Harry dropped his daypack into a chair. Ramona set her phone on one of the desks and made the call, putting it on speaker.

  Jasmine answered right away. “Hey, are both of you guys there?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Harry and Ramona answered in unison.

  “Okay, so I didn’t even think of this until just before I texted Ramona, and maybe it’s nothing, but I wanted to tell you that I went with Darrin up to Bridger on a ski trip once. Maybe that’s where he’s hiding out.”

  “At one of the ski resorts?” Harry asked, grabbing a pen from the desktop. He pulled a blank sheet of paper out of a printer tray. “Which one?”

  “Not one of the resorts,” she said. “He’s got a small house in town.”

  “A time-share?” Harry asked. If it was a time-share, it could be occupied by someone else right now, making it an unlikely hideout.

  “No, nothing like that. It’s just a little vacation house, one of those prefab things. It’s owned by some friends of Darrin’s parents. They let Darrin, his parents and some of their other friends use it whenever they want to head over to Idaho to ski in the winter or swim in one of the nearby lakes in summer.”

  Okay, so it sounded like the house was empty a lot of the time. And it wasn’t in Darrin’s name, so there was no paperwork to tie it to him. That would make it a good hideout. “What’s the address?” Harry asked, pen poised over the paper.

  “I don’t know.” Jasmine blew out a puff of air that made it sound like she was frustrated with herself. “Ever since I thought of the ski trip, I’ve been trying to remember some of the landmarks on the way there. I mean, obviously you drive up to Bridger to start, but I’m trying to remember which way you go from there. I’ve looked at some online maps but they’re just confusing me. If you want to go up there, I can try to draw a map for you from memory. It won’t be exact, but I’ll do the best I can.”

  Ramona made eye contact with Harry and he nodded.

  “Okay, we’ll go check it out,” Ramona said. “Shall we come by your office in the morning to talk to you and get your map?”

  “Come by the condo. I’m going into the office a couple of hours late. Alex is finally coming by to install that security system.”

  “Okay, we’ll see you about eight,” Ramona said before disconnecting the call.

  Sherry stepped into the office to let them know dinner was ready.

  After he sat down, Harry glanced around the dining table. Everyone sitting down to eat together made it look as if life was going along like normal, but he knew it wasn’t. He felt uneasy about Jasmine’s sudden memory of the house near the ski resorts.

  Right now, she was the best source of information he had. But he still wasn’t sure how much he could trust her, or how easily she could be manipulated by people with evil intentions.

  SEVEN

  The living room at Jasmine’s condo felt crowded the following morning.

  “Harry, this is Alex Ferrano,” Jasmine said, making the introductions between the bounty hunter and the builder of the condo development. Ramona had already met Alex. He’d been to the condo several times back when Ramona still lived there to make the repairs and take care of all the usual “new building” problems. He was a young, ambitious man who worked hard.

  Ramona watched the two men shake hands. Alex glanced in her direction, smiled and nodded. “Good to see you again, Ramona.” Then his smiled faltered. “But it’s a shame about the circumstances.”

  Indeed. Needing a security system for protection against a violent man who’d lost all reason was definitely a sad circumstance. But Ramona simply nodded in return and said, “Good to see you, too.”

  The two technicians Alex had brought with him were already wandering throughout the condo, checking for the best spots to place cameras and a couple of backup control panels in case Jasmine ever needed to access her system and her phone wasn’t handy.

  There was one more person in the living room. Sitting in a club chair, fidgeting and restless, was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere other than here. That had t
o be the guy Jasmine had texted Ramona about last night, Caleb Petrov.

  The text had come a couple of hours after Ramona finished eating dinner and helping clean up the kitchen. Jasmine had been contacted by a friend of a friend who happened to be at the Water Grill lounge while Ramona and Harry were there. He had information about Darrin that he thought might be helpful.

  But Caleb hadn’t wanted to call Harry directly. He said he was worried that the bounty hunter might record the conversation.

  Jasmine waited until Alex and his workers went back to their trucks to start gathering equipment before she introduced Caleb to Ramona and Harry. Even then, Caleb spoke in low tones. His gazed darted nervously between the three people in the room and the front door, giving Ramona the impression that he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could.

  “What do you have to tell me?” Harry asked.

  Caleb, dressed in a suit and a white shirt, tugged at his tie a couple of times and then smoothed it against his chest before finally speaking. “I sell real estate. Residential and commercial. Darrin Linder came to me about six weeks ago looking for a specific kind of property. He wanted something on Lake Bell, in one of the secluded coves on the backside of the lake where there aren’t many people.” Caleb took a deep breath, blew it out and finally stopped fidgeting with his tie. “He wanted something with a private pier or a dock. He also wanted the property to have a barn or a large storage shed.”

  “Sounds like he wants a place where he can distribute his drugs and guns or whatever else he’s dealing without anyone noticing him,” Jasmine said quietly. “I’ve been to a house in one of those coves that’s only accessible by boat. It would be hard for the police or anyone else to sneak up on a person. That sounds exactly like something Darrin would want.”

  Harry nodded. “Okay. Did he buy anything?”

  “No, not from me. I started doing some research to find what he was looking for, but when I tried to contact him to show him some of the properties, he took forever to get back to me. When he finally did get in touch, he told me he was no longer interested and that I needed to keep my mouth shut about the whole thing.”