Curvy Girls: The Big Girl and the Bounty Hunter

by Georgette St. Clair

  “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m in Colorado, looking for him. I’m pretty sure that I’ve got confirmation that he’s been spotted up here, but he’s not alone.”

  “What’s he doing in Colorado?” Trent couldn’t hide the interest in his voice.

  “It’s a long story. I’d rather not get into it right now. Among other things that are curious – someone was squatting at a cabin out in the woods. They left behind a Burger King receipt, from Bitter Valley – but Josephine’s telling me that he’s a vegetarian. Makes me think maybe he had a room-mate with him.”

  “Oh, he’s not a vegetarian,” Trent scoffed. “I’ve seen him eat meat plenty of times. I don’t know of him having any companions. So…you’re in contact with his sister? What else has she told you?”

  “She’s not really sharing much information.” Cooper suddenly felt cold.

  Josephine had lied to him – about something so simple? Why? They both already knew that her brother was in town. Compared to the other crimes that her brother had been accused of, trespassing was a relatively minor crime – so why pretend he hadn’t been the one staying at that cabin?

  He knew she’d do anything for her brother, but her casual dishonesty stung him nonetheless. “I’ve got to go,” he said abruptly, and hung up.

  He called Benny Beningo to give him a quick update.

  “So if you guys scared him off from staying in that cabin, he’ll have to resurface somewhere. He can’t live in the woods forever. He’s got to be paying for everything with cash, and he’ll run out sooner or later. The cops tell me he hasn’t used his credit cards or cell phone since he disappeared,” Benny said thoughtfully.

  “I didn’t think he would. Jason Sawyer may be many things, but he’s not stupid,” Cooper said. “I’ll keep you posted.” And he hung up and stared at the cabin door, a heaviness weighing on him.

  Jason might not be stupid, but Cooper certainly was, sticking around and hoping against hope that Josephine wasn’t in on this whole thing with her brother.

  She’d lied about her brother being a vegetarian. And that handsome Hispanic guy she kept flirting with…was she making a complete fool of him? How deep did the lies run?

  He knew the smart thing to do at this point would be to walk away…at least emotionally. But the more time he spent with her, the harder it was for him to do it.

  Finally, with an aching in his heart, he went back into the room. Josephine was still sleeping, her dark hair fanned out on the pillow. Even in sleep, he could tell that she was troubled, her forehead creased, her face pinched with worry.

  Cooper leaned back in his chair and watched the slow rise and fall of her chest. He resisted the urge to run his fingers through that hair, to trace kisses on the soft white curve of her neck, to hold her and comfort her and kiss her worries away.

  What secret truths did Josephine know? Why was he losing his heart to this woman?

  Tired and frustrated, he grabbed a book from the top of the bureau and tried to read, but couldn’t concentrate.

  Around noon, Josephine finally woke up, and after she showered and changed, they walked to the Daily Grind café for lunch. Distracted by the events of the night before, the two barely spoke.

  Cooper’s cell phone rang as the waitress set their plates in front of them, and he glanced at Josephine and then walked outside without a word, so that he could answer his phone.

  Because he didn’t trust her enough to talk on the phone in front of her.

  “Cooper, I ran those prints,” Lorenzo told him. “You sure do have some interesting acquaintainces, I’ll give you that.”

  He listened to what Lorenzo told him with increasing concern…and bafflement.

  Lorenzo had run the prints from the glass that he’d swiped from Manuel’s table…and they came back to a man who was reputed to be an enforcer with the Columbian mob out of Miami.

  How in the hell did that fit in with this situation? There was no way it was just a coincidence that this guy was in town…but he’d never heard of Jason having any connection with the mob.

  Should he tell Josephine? Was there any point? She already thought he was acting irrational and jealous. And for all he knew, she already knew this guy. She might know everything about him. She, her brother, and this guy could all be in on the treasure hunt. The thought made him burn with frustration and anger.

  “What is it?” Josephine asked when he walked back into the restaurant.

  He shook his head; his expression was a million miles away. “You’ve got your secrets, I’ve got mine.”

  “Aren’t you in a lovely mood.” She set down her fork, reached into her pocketbook, and pulled out a twenty, which she tossed on the table. Cooper pushed it back at her; she ignored it.

  “I’m going to sightsee,” she said coolly.

  “You do that,” Cooper said. When she left, he didn’t even try to follow her. She looked back through the restaurant’s picture window to see him sitting in his chair still, reading the newspaper. As if she didn’t exist.

  She walked all the way to the end of the boardwalk, sat down on a bench, and called Cheyenne. “I know I have the day off, but do you need me?” she asked.

  “We always need you, babe. See you at, oh, 4:30ish?”

  “4:30ish works for me. I’ll be there. With my cowboy hat on.” Josephine hung up, and leaned back on her bench, feeling entirely unsettled.

  She’d gotten used to having Cooper glued to her side from the minute she woke up until the minute he dropped her off at work, and then again from the minute she walked out the door of the Dry Gulch Saloon. She’d cursed at him, railed at him, tried to come up with every way possible to ditch him…

  And now she’d gotten what she wanted. And she didn’t like it one bit.

  Wow, she thought. I actually miss having him stalk me. How pathetic is that?

  With nothing else to do, she grabbed her cell phone again and called Betsy. “Cooper and I got in an argument, or something, and now he’s not following me any more,” she said. “Is there anything I could be doing at this point, to find Jason, or the treasure?”

  There was a pause on the other end of the phone. “There’s nothing that you can do right now,” Betsy said. “I’ve got some more research I’ve got to do after work tonight, and a friend that might have some final answers. I think that we’ll have things wrapped up one way or another within a few days. You’ll have your answers.”

  “But what about my brother? I still don’t feel like I’m any closer to finding him.”

  Again Betsy paused. “I’ve got some ideas,” she said. “I can’t tell you anything else right now.”

  “Have you seen him? You have, haven’t you?” Josephine tried to quell her excitement.

  “I really have to go. I swear to you, everything’s going to work out all right one way or the other,” Betsy added cryptically, and then hung up.

  Josephine leaned back on the bench with a sigh of relief. Somehow, although she hardly knew Betsy, she trusted her.

  But her relief was short-lived when she went back to the cabin and found it empty. Cooper still wasn’t following her. Well, that was fine, she thought, with a dull ache in her heart. She’d always known she was going back to Bitter Valley on her own.

  She tried to paste a cheerful smile on her face at work that night, but it was hard. The dull roar of shouted conversation and blaring country music grated on her nerves. Every happy couple that she saw was a sharp stab in the heart, reminding her of what she’d lost…what she’d never really had.

  “Hey, mopey face,” Cheyenne said to her finally.

  “Oh, sorry. Man troubles.” She managed a half-smile.

  “Men. Aren’t they just all total douchebags, with the exception of my husband? Oh, speaking of douchebags, look behind you.”

  Josephine spun around; Cooper was standing there, holding a bouquet of pink roses wrapped in a dripping paper cone. Her heart leaped in her chest, and she felt as if light were shining
on her in the dark, smoky room.

  “You’re off work,” Cheyenne said, as she walked away. “Go clock out.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going anywhere,” Cooper said.

  After Cheyenne clocked out, she found him by the front door, still holding the roses.

  “You’re here,” she said, trying not to sound incredibly relieved or pitifully grateful.

  “You sound surprised. Don’t I always walk you home from work?”

  “You disappeared today. I pretty much assumed you weren’t coming back.”

  “First you’re telling me to get lost, then when I do, you get mad at me…women. I tell you.” He handed her the roses as they walked outside.

  She buried her nose in the bouquet and inhaled deeply. The rich, sweet scent swirled in her nostrils. “What are these for?”

  “An apology for being a moody jerk earlier. I get frustrated because…honestly, I have feelings for you that I’ve never felt for anyone before, and it scares the hell out of me.”

  “You do?” She was taken aback.

  “Of course I do. Can’t you tell?”

  “I…no, I honestly can’t.”

  He paused, looking at her as they walked down the boardwalk.

  “Uh…anything that you want to say to me? Like about your feelings for me?”

  She stared at him. Was he actually feeling insecure? Him? Handsome, swaggering, confident Cooper?

  “Of course I have feelings for you, you big moron.”

  “Really?” he stopped and turned towards her, a grin flashing across his face. “What kind of feelings? Describe them.”

  “I have feelings ranging from all-consuming rage to a mixture of lust, infatuation and affection…depending on what time of day it is and how much of an ass you’re being.”

  “Interesting. Ve-ry interesting. I’ll take that, for now.”

  He bent down to kiss her, and as if in counterpoint, far away, they heard the wail of a lone wolf.

  As his warm lips pressed against hers, bright lights flashed at them, and Cheyenne pulled up next to them in her sedan.

  “Get in,” she said. “I just got a call from Carlotta. Betsy’s in the hospital. Someone attacked her.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Betsy’s hospital room was crowded with a dozen people, including Deputy Mancini and a silver haired man with a sheriff’s patch on his uniform. Sheriff Garfield, Josephine recalled.

  Betsy was sitting up on her bed, wearing a blue cotton hospital gown, the right side of her face puffy and swollen.

  “Good God,” Josephine gasped. “What happened to you?”

  “I’ll tell you what happened. Your brother attacked her, and she’s covering for him,” Mancini said, eyes blazing with anger.

  Josephine gasped and took a step backward as if she’d been slapped.

  Her brother?

  “Don’t call me a liar, Lorenzo,” Betsy snapped. “I told you exactly what happened. I got a very clear look at the man who attacked me. And you showed me the picture of Jason Sawyer. And the man who attacked me wasn’t Jason Sawyer.”

  “Betsy was at the newspaper museum doing research after hours when somebody broke in and attacked her. We found his wallet outside on the walkway,” Lorenzo said to Josephine.

  Her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach, and sudden tears burned her eyes. This couldn’t be happening.

  Betsy’s parents, four brothers, and what were likely assorted aunts and uncles, were crowded around her bed, hovering over Betsy like vengeful angels. They glared at Josephine; Their anger, their contempt, blazed from their eyes, scorching her.

  “Don’t look at Josephine like that; she has nothing to do with this,” Betsy hissed.

  Lorenzo gestured at Josephine and Cooper, and led them outside into the hallway.

  “She gave us a false report. She’s lying,” he said in a low voice. “And, even when we catch your brother, I’m going to have a very hard time prosecuting him if she continues to cover for him.”

  “But she just said that the man who attacked her wasn’t my brother!” Josephine protested. “You both know my brother’s history. For him to violently assault a woman? That is completely out of character for him.”

  “According to you, so is robbing a store, and so is jumping parole,” Cooper said evenly. “You may have to face the fact that you don’t know your brother as well as you think you do.”

  “It makes perfect sense that he would have been at the museum doing research. You already know he’s looking into what happened to our ancestor’s gold. He could have dropped his wallet when he was at the museum,” Josephine argued.

  “I haven’t told Betsy this yet, but there’s no way she saw her attacker’s face. Security cameras were recently installed in the building next to the museum, and they show a man walking down the boardwalk towards the museum…wearing a ski mask.”

  “Did you see this person go into the museum?”

  “No, the camera only had a view of the sidewalk directly in front of it. But she called 911 about two minutes after he walked by the camera.” He looked at her pointedly. “Betsy’s a good person. She’s fiercely loyal to her friends. She’s lying to protect you; maybe you could talk her out of it. Tell her you don’t want her to protect him. Because if you don’t…he may never be punished for this.”

  Shock rolled over Josephine. Was Betsy actually lying for her sake?

  Stunned, she turned and pushed her way back into the room, to find a dozen pairs of eyes boring into her angrily.

  “I need to talk to Josephine alone,” Betsy said.

  “No way!” “No!” came a chorus of denial from her family.

  Betsy swung her feet over the side of the bed and stood up. “I am legally an adult. If you don’t get out and let me talk to Josephine, I will check out of this hospital against the doctor’s orders, and you can not stop me.”

  “Damn straight I can stop you.” Her father drew himself up to his full height and stood in her pathway. With his glasses, thick eyebrows and stopped shoulders, he looked like a tall, angry college professor.

  “You can’t hold me prisoner here. You want to physically restrain me? That might not be good for me, in my injured condition,” Betsy spit through puffy, swollen lips.

  Josephine turned to him. “Mr. Finkelstein, let me talk to her. Two minutes. I am telling you, if my brother did this, I will never speak to him again. He would be dead to me.”

  “Let Betsy talk to her. Maybe it’ll help,” Lorenzo said. His tone was calm, but his eyes bored right through Josephine, telegraphing a message: do the right thing.

  Reginald Finkelstein shot Josephine a look that told her he didn’t trust her at all, but he reluctantly ushered the group outside of the room…but they stood in the hallway with Lorenzo, watching her narrow-eyed as if they expected Josephine to abscond with Betsy and flee into the night.

  “They need to leave,” Betsy said, glowering at them, but neither of them budged.

  “This is as good as we’re going to get, so hurry up. What happened? Don’t cover for my brother.”

  “I’m not,” Betsy insisted stubbornly.

  Josephine spoke in a low voice. “Betsy, god damn it, security cameras on the building next to the museum showed a man in a ski mask walking down the boardwalk. They know that you didn’t see your attacker’s face.”

  Betsy let out a sigh of frustration.

  “I’ve been in contact with your brother,” she said quietly. “He came to the museum late at night a few days ago and I’ve been in touch with him ever since, on a throwaway cell phone that he bought. He didn’t attack me last night; he and I were in there together, he’d gone to the bathroom when this guy broke in and attacked me and yelled “Where’s the treasure?” I screamed for help and your brother came running, and the guy ran out the door and your brother chased him outside. They fought out there; that’s why his wallet’s in the alleyway.”

  Josephine felt an overwhelming sense of relief roll over her.


  “Who is this guy who attacked you?”

  “I have no idea, and neither does Jason! The guy was wearing a mask, and he and Jason didn’t stop to chat. Jason wrestled with him, the guy ran off. Listen. You need to go to Edna Vale; she’s been helping me with this, and for the time being, I’m trapped in here with everybody watching my every move.”

  “I thought she was the biggest gossip in town?”

  “When it comes to trivial gossip, she is. But she’s the best friend a person could have and when it comes to matters of importance, she keeps her lip zipped better than a priest at confession. I’m supposed to meet Jason tomorrow afternoon back at the Hellhole. Tell Edna. She knows where it is and she can figure out a way to ditch whoever’s tailing you.”

  “What happened to the treasure? Does it still exist?”

  “Well, that’s the-“

  “That’s it. You’re done. Betsy needs her rest.” Her father strode in.

  Betsy glared up at him. “I’m not a baby,” she snapped, sounding very childish when she said it.

  “It’s okay. Get your rest.” Josephine walked out of the room with Cheyenne, Cooper, Deputy Mancini and the sheriff.

  “It wasn’t my brother,” she said firmly. “And I can’t tell you anything more than that.”

  Cooper stared at her, incredulous. “You’d let your brother get away with assault? You’d exploit your friend’s loyalty to you, to cover up a crime like that?”

  He moved away from her like he’d never known her at all. Like he’d never held her in his arms and told her how much she meant to him.

  Josephine felt her heart shattering like a glass vase dropped to the floor, with sharp little shards spreading through her whole body, stabbing her everywhere. “You don’t have to believe me.”

  “Glad to hear it. Because I don’t.” His voice was distant and icy, and he looked at her once and then looked away, far away, at something that wasn’t there.

  Josephine blinked back tears. She would not cry in front of him. She wouldn’t.

  She turned to Cheyenne. “Cheyenne, do you have a couch I can sleep on tonight?” she asked in a voice choked with emotion.