by Jessie Cooke
“Chase…”
“Richard Potter is a lieutenant in the 75th Army Brigade. He was a Ranger himself for five years before becoming an instructor at Fort Benning. He teaches the ‘mountain’ phase and according to my buddy, he’s a tough son of a bitch.”
“He’s a woman—biologically, anyways.”
“Excuse me?”
“Richard Potter is actually Roberta Potter. I can only assume that Robert was the one to pass the original physical, the one where a doctor had him strip down and show what God gave him. Somehow, after that, they traded places. They’re identical, except for two things…”
“A vagina and penis?” Chase said with a groan.
Hunter chuckled. “Yeah, I was just going to say gender, but that works too. The other thing is a tattoo they each have on their back. One of them, the killer, has a phoenix, rising from the ashes, on his back. The other has an eagle, carrying a flag. Can you have your friend check that? The tattoo would have been documented when he entered the army and again by the doctor who did the physical.”
Chase sighed loudly. “Yeah. What a fucking mess.”
Hunter chuckled. “Yes, it is. I’m heading up to Foulmouth when I leave here. I’ll check in later.”
“Foulmouth? Really? What the hell for?”
“Another lead. I’ll call you later.” Hunter ended the call and looked at Levi. “You feel like another ride?”
“Always,” Levi said. They left the bar to head up Route 28 to Foulmouth. Hunter had even more questions now than he did answers and his head was pounding. He at least knew he was still chasing the right guy…or at least he thought he was. Chase was right, it was a fucking mess.
The town was small, and quaint, surrounded by hills, trees, and rivers. The air smelled fresh and clean, unlike the air in Boston that was heavy with pollution from the half a million or so people that lived there. Hunter had been surprised at how easily he’d gotten the address for the Potters’ relatives in Foulmouth. They owned a logging company, and the business address and home addresses were one and the same. They had to ride up a windy, narrow mountain road to get to the property, but they couldn’t have asked for more beautiful scenery.
They passed the business first. There were truck scales, portable buildings set up as offices, and about six logging trucks that said “Quentin Potter Loggers, Inc.” on the side. They continued up the same hill for another three miles before the house came into view. It was a log house, but it was huge. It was set in the middle of what looked like a two-acre, grassy lot. It was the kind of house you see on the front cover of magazines, and definitely not the kind of house most people would associate with a serial killer.
Hunter was surprised that such an expensive-looking property didn’t have security. The two men rode their bikes up almost to the front door before parking and looking at each other. “This is a better class of bad guy than I’m used to,” Levi said, with a grin. Hunter chuckled.
“Yeah, me too.” As they were getting off their bikes, the front door opened and a man stepped out. He was probably in his fifties or sixties, with a full head of black hair with silver at the temples and a body that looked like he’d lifted a lot of logs in his lifetime.
“Can I help you?” He was eyeing Hunter and Levi even more suspiciously than the old men in the bar had. Hunter didn’t blame him; they didn’t look like they belonged in a place like this.
“I hope so,” Hunter said. He introduced them and then said, “I’m looking for Robert Potter, or his twin.”
The man raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. “What do you want with my nephew?”
Hunter went with honesty again, just because the man didn’t look like he’d fall for the other story. “I’m a bounty hunter. Robert skipped bail almost a year ago and he’s a wanted man. I’d like to bring him in, safely and quietly,” he lied. He’d like to choke the life out of the piece of crap, but he wasn’t going to tell his uncle that. The man in front of him didn’t change his expression at all. He didn’t look surprised, upset, or even like he’d heard what Hunter had said.
“He’s not here, and I’ve already spoken to the police on more than one occasion.”
“Okay…” Hunter realized he must be talking about the local police and not the F.B.I. Why didn’t the F.B.I. interview these people? “Do you know where Robert is, or his twin?”
The man pulled his brows together. “Why would you want Richard? He’s never been a part of Robert’s shenanigans. He’s an honorable man and I doubt he even knows about any of this.”
The man was avoiding the question about where Robert was, but Hunter went in a different direction. “An honorable man, huh? Would that be the same man who is deceiving the United States Army? The same one that had his brother take his physical?”
An expression of surprise crossed the man’s face before he caught it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Richard is a highly decorated military man.”
“Richard is a biological female. Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against being trans-gender or non-binary…but let’s be honest here, Richard was born Roberta, wasn’t he?”
35
The man sighed and scratched his head. Looking around, almost like he was making sure no one was watching, he said, “Come inside, please.”
Levi looked at Hunter and Hunter nodded at him. When the man turned his back, both Levi and Hunter moved their guns to the front of their waistbands for easy access…just in case. The man pushed open the door and the two men followed him into a massive foyer with thirty-foot ceilings made of thick wooden beams and glass. The floors were polished wood and so shiny and clean that Hunter was almost afraid to walk on them. He saw a camera move in the corner as they were led down the hall. The man must have watched them ride up, which meant if Robert was hiding here, he had a jump on them.
The man turned a corner and stepped down into a formal living room with a stone fireplace covering one wall and furniture that all looked antique. The floor was carpeted in this room, with thick, lush, white carpet. Hunter looked at Levi and almost laughed. The kid was practically tiptoeing across it. “Have a seat. My name is Eddie, by the way.”
“Oh, you’re not Quentin?”
“Quentin was my father. He’s been dead for over a decade. Can I offer you something to drink?”
“Not for me, thanks.”
“No, thank you,” Levi said, still eyeing his surroundings like he was going to be arrested for being there any second.
“Can you tell us where Robert is?”
“First, I’d like to tell you about Richard.”
“Okay.”
“My sister-in-law was…disturbed. When my brother married her, she seemed quite normal. But after the twins were born, she started to go downhill. She refused to live here and insisted he buy her a house in town. She said if anything happened to the children, they’d be so far from a hospital that one of them might die. My brother was easygoing and in order to not rock the boat, he did as she asked. His commute daily to work was over three hours because of it. That put him away from home sometimes twelve, or even sixteen hours a day. Unfortunately, because of that, it took him a while to realize something wasn’t right. His first red flag was getting home one night and finding the two toddlers out on the lawn and their mother asleep inside with the doors locked. When he confronted her, she sobbed and told him that she was overwhelmed with them and needed help. My brother hired a nanny—instead of a divorce lawyer, unfortunately. Things were okay for a while, but when the kids were three, he came home to find Roberta’s hair had been cut off and styled like her brother’s, and she was in the same clothes as him. The nanny told him his wife had ‘made’ her do it. The child’s mother said that Roberta was…and this is a quote…‘Too big and ugly to be a girl.’ Sometimes I wonder about my brother’s sanity because he let her convince him she was doing it for the child’s own good. The nanny quit not long after that and then the neighbors started calling my brother at work, to report t
he abuse that was going on while he wasn’t there. He got one of those calls the day he died. He promised me before he left work that it was the last one. He was going to divorce her and take custody of the children. He never made it home; he turned in front of one of our own logging trucks and was killed instantly. Everything he had passed to that crazy woman. My family and I tried calling child services and getting our own attorney, but she would stay on her medications long enough to sway the courts in her favor. She raised Roberta as a boy. As far as I know, no one outside the family knew otherwise. He was confused and when he came to me at eighteen and asked for my help, I asked him what or who he wanted to be. He told me that Richard was the only identity he ever knew. So I hired a doctor to help him, give him testosterone to finish the transition. Richard is no longer, as you put it, a ‘biological female.’ He is a male, as much as you or I are now.”
“Wow…okay,” Hunter said. Richard Potter had a penis of his own now, and testosterone in his DNA. That could be a game-changer. “So, when he went into the army, he’d already had his surgery?”
“Yes. He lived here until the transition was complete and then he joined. He served honorably and he doesn’t deserve the negative press his brother’s problems have brought down on him over the years. Robert is too much like his mother, I’m afraid. By the time she was finally locked up and I had any influence over him at all, it was too late.”
“You know what Robert is wanted for?”
Eddie nodded and said, “And I have no problem believing he could strangle a woman to death. I also have no problem seeing him behind bars where he belongs. But I honestly don’t know where to find him.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“It’s been several years. Like I said, I told the authorities all of this.”
“Did you talk to the F.B.I.?”
“Only the one agent, Richard’s friend. They assured me they would keep Richard’s name out of this. I am interested to know how you found out about him.”
“I’m interested to know why the F.B.I. would protect Richard,” Hunter said. He was suddenly angry. If they knew about the twin all along, and if it had been in the file, then Hunter wouldn’t have wasted a lot of his time.
“I told you, he is a…”
“Yeah, yeah, highly decorated officer in the army. I get that. But how does that excuse him from an interview that could possibly result in locking up a serial killer and saving lives?”
“He wasn’t excused, as you put it. Richard gave his interview, but he did it privately. There wasn’t much for him to tell, however, as he hadn’t seen his brother in years either.” Hunter’s phone buzzed. He took it out and read the text from Chase that said:
“Richard Potter is semi-retired. He teaches at the Ranger Academy three months out of the year now and in his off time, he teaches wilderness survival classes…in Foulmouth.” Hunter slid the phone back into his pocket and looked at Eddie and said:
“I think he has. I also think he’s here, or at least in Foulmouth.”
The older man looked annoyed and stood up. “And I think it’s time for you to go.”
Hunter made a decision that could land him in jail…but he was finished playing games. As he and Levi stood up, Hunter took out his gun. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Levi had followed his lead. “I’m not leaving until I talk to Richard.”
“I told you…” The quiver in Eddie’s voice and the way he was looking at the gun in Hunter’s hands negated the brave front he was trying to put up. It was a moot point anyway. At that moment, Richard Potter stepped out from another room where he’d obviously been listening and hiding.
“It’s okay, Uncle. I’ll talk to them.”
“I’m afraid there’s not much more I can tell you than my uncle already has,” Richard Potter was saying. Hunter kept staring at him, wondering how he could be so identical to his brother when they weren’t even technically identical twins. Even the way he held his mouth to the side when he talked reminded Hunter of Robert.
“You haven’t seen him…in how long again?” Hunter asked.
“I came home on leave about three years ago and I ran into him. I came back again almost a year later and he was gone. He had been living in an apartment in Boston, but he didn’t tell anyone he was leaving, he just packed up and left. I haven’t heard from him since.”
“You weren’t concerned by that?”
“No. I knew he was on the run from the law. I was actually relieved that he wouldn’t be around, expecting me to help him. He wants to play the same games we played as kids, and we’re both too old for that.”
“The same game? You mean the one where you try and fool people into believing that he’s you and vice versa?”
“That’s one of Robert’s favorites, yes,”
“So, when was the last time he did that?”
“Pretended to be me?”
“Yes, or vice versa.”
Richard chuckled. “I haven’t taken part in that since we were kids. Robert did it a lot, usually for some kind of personal gain. He has taken money out of my bank account, fucked my girlfriends, and all kinds of other mischief. As we grew older, the game grew more than old to me.”
Hunter and Levi had been sitting with this man for twenty minutes. He was cool, calm, and collected, everything you might expect an army hero to be. He spoke articulately and politely and even when talking about his brother the serial killer, he kept it civil. Despite all of that, there was still something about him that was really bothering Hunter.
“Richard, do you know Jon Bridges?”
“Yes, of course. He’s a friend of mine. I taught him in Ranger School.”
“You know then that he’s been convicted of killing his sister…when he was only seventeen years old?”
“Yes,” he said, shaking his head. “Such a shame. Jon did try to go on and be a good man after that horrible incident. But I suppose he should still have to pay…”
“For taking the life of a fifteen-year-old girl? I should think so,” Hunter said. “You know what Jon told me you said when he admitted to you that he killed her?”
Richard cleared his throat. “No, what was that?”
“He said that you told him that there was nothing more satisfying than putting a bitch out of her misery.”
Richard cocked an eyebrow, but he still didn’t break a sweat. “I can assure you, I never said that. When was this?”
“The night the two of you hung out and talked at the alley bar in Boston. Two years ago.”
Richard threw his head back and laughed. “Oh dear, I’m afraid we’ve been taken by my brother once again. I wasn’t even in the country then. I’m sure my army records can prove it.”
“Hmm, …well then, I guess I don’t have anything else…oh, wait, Richard, do you visit your mother often?”
“I haven’t seen Mommy in years. The poor dear is crazy, you know.”
Hunter smiled. “Yeah,” he said as he leveled his gun at Robert’s face. “I do know.”
36
Hunter was coming out of the police station when Claire got out of her car. It was after two a.m. He’d texted her hours ago and told her the bones of what happened. Robert Potter had been fooling everyone for a long time. Hunter figured at that point that he’d been impersonating his brother for years…and the reason no one had noticed, the bounty hunter suspected, was because Richard was dead. When Hunter was talking to him, what really convinced him that he was talking to Robert was when he called his mother “Mommy.” Hunter told Claire the old men at the bar had told him only Robert did that. When Robert was in Richard’s persona, he spoke very formally, like the uncle. A man that spoke like that was very unlikely to call his mother, especially a woman he reportedly despised, “Mother.” Hunter told Claire that he held the other man at gunpoint while Levi called the police, but before they got there, Robert had tried to attack him and Hunter had to kill him. Claire didn’t care about that, right or wrong, all she ca
red about was that Hunter was okay. When she saw him look up at her and grin, she practically sprinted the length of the parking lot and into his arms. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist and kissed him, hard. When they came up for air and he lowered her to her feet he said:
“Wow! What was that for? And what are you doing here?”
“That was because I’m so happy you’re okay and I’m here because I had to see you were okay for myself. I’m sorry…did I overstep?”
Hunter laughed and pulled her into his chest. Kissing the top of her head he said, “No, baby, not at all. I was just surprised to see you.”
She looked up at him. “I went to your apartment first. I thought you’d be home by now. When I couldn’t reach you on your phone I got worried and came here.” Hunter pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it.
“I’m sorry. They confiscated my things for a while. Harley just convinced them to give them back, and let me go.”
“Are you kidding? The man you shot is responsible for over a dozen murders. Surely, they’re not trying to charge you with anything, are they?”
Hunter slid an arm around her shoulders and they started walking toward her car. “Harley says they won’t bring any charges. I have Levi as a witness to what happened. I think they’re just worried about Richard. Apparently, he had some kind of pull with the higher-ups in the F.B.I. and that’s why Robert wasn’t caught a long time ago. They were keeping important testimony sealed and walking on eggshells around this family. I told them now that Robert’s dead, they should start looking for Richard. I don’t think they’ll find him, alive.”