Chapter Twelve
Beau set the last dish he’d dried in the cabinet, then raised the black-out blinds on the kitchen window over the sink, confirming what the time on his watch had indicated.
The sun was coming up. Behind him, the sound of Sierra shifting in her chair at the table had him tossing the dishrag over the faucet and turning around.
“If you want more eggs, I can fire up the skillet again.”
She shook her head. “I’m stuffed. That was the best egg-only breakfast I’ve ever had.
Actually, it’s the only egg-only breakfast I’ve ever had.
But your expert seasoning made them delicious.
I still can’t believe you raided a neighbor’s chicken coop to feed us.
I’ll bet that’s the first law you’ve ever broken in your life. ”
“If we don’t count the occasional speeding and foolish underage drinking in my misspent youth, you might be right.
But I’ll figure out a way to reimburse them later rather than leave money in the coop that would advertise that we’re up here.
Hopefully they’ll figure a bear or something else in the woods scared their hens and that’s why they don’t have as many eggs to gather this morning.
” He motioned toward his laptop he’d set on the table earlier.
“We don’t have internet. But you can still document what you remember about the investigation you’ve done so far.
And I’ve got a flash drive I loaded up in my office before we left yesterday.
It lists all the drownings, boating accidents and people who’ve gone missing in the past few years.
A hard copy of your brother’s file is in my backpack too.
We can compare notes and figure out our next steps in the investigation into his death. ”
“That would be hard to do since we both know he’s not dead.”
He stared at her in surprise. How long had she known? And why hadn’t she said something earlier? Suspicions about her true intentions in involving him in all of this began to rear themselves again, suspicions he’d thought were already settled. Apparently not. “Your brother is alive?”
“Don’t pretend you don’t know. You recognized me from one of your law enforcement photographs after I told you my father’s name.
I’m sure you recognized Esteban too on the road.
I saw him lift his shield up on the top of his helmet when he had his back to me and was facing you.
You knew it was him. But you didn’t tell me. ”
He shrugged, no longer bothering to deny it.
“I never had a chance to tell you. We were on the run, then both of us crashed from near exhaustion after reaching the cabin. I was going to tell you today, rather than hit you with it last night. But I hadn’t figured out how to tell you just yet.
At this point, the real question is how long have you known?
Hell, did you ever really think he was dead? ”
“Seriously? I’ve been searching for his killer for months and you have the gall to ask me that?”
“Then, how did you know? You never saw his face on the road. He had his helmet on the whole time and his back turned to you when he lifted the face shield, as you said.”
“I figured it out after we got here, at the safe house. I knew the guy with the motorcycle helmet seemed familiar, even thought of Esteban when I first saw him. But I discarded that idea as wishful thinking because I knew he was dead. But when I saw how he moved, how he ran, and heard him yelling at the men in that second SUV not to shoot, all the puzzle pieces started coming together in my mind. It wasn’t until we got here and had a moment of peace to really think it through that I realized it had to be him, that the man in the motorcycle helmet is my brother.
So I’ll ask you again. What’s the point of investigating anymore when we both know that he’s alive? Why the pretense this morning?”
He blew out a long breath, then sat in the chair across from her. “Look, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I probably should have and—”
“Probably?”
“Definitely should have. I’m sorry.”
She crossed her arms defiantly but seemed a little less aggravated at him.
“Can we chalk it up to it being a really, really bad day for both of us and move on?”
She rolled her eyes and uncrossed her arms. “Move on how? Where? I don’t even see the point of an investigation now. I might as well find my brother and talk it out. That would be the quickest and easiest way to get the answers I want.”
“And the most dangerous. Neither of us knows his involvement in the shootings yesterday. But he’s definitely involved in some way, no question.
He was one of the men picking up the gunmen from my cabin.
And don’t forget that he didn’t exactly run out of the woods to call a halt to the shooting when his men in that SUV tried to kill us.
The last guy, the one you transfused, was his friend.
Randy. Remember? They were his friends, his men. Explain that.”
She looked away. “I can’t. But if I talk to Esteban—”
“And discover that Esteban is actually trying to kill you, you’re dead.”
Her eyes widened incredulously. “Why would you think he’s trying to kill me?”
“I can’t believe you even said that. He faked his death. You came here to look into it and suddenly people are shooting at you, the same people he knows well enough to transfuse in the middle of the road. Why would you think he isn’t trying to kill you, or have you killed?”
“I don’t have the facts to explain whatever is going on. But I know my brother. He’s taken care of Rafael and me all our lives. He would never, ever hurt either one of us.”
“And yet he always seems to be around when the bullets start flying.”
Her eyes narrowed ominously. Before she could let loose with a tirade of words he probably wouldn’t understand, he held up his hands.
“Let’s start over, all right? Obviously instead of investigating your brother’s death, we now need to investigate why he faked it, who died in his place, and why someone’s trying to kill us. ”
She crossed her arms again. “Fair enough. I guess.”
“We need to compare notes. Decide our next steps. How long do you think it will take you to type up what you’ve investigated so far?”
“You’re kidding, right? I’ve been here several months.
There’s no way I’ll remember every place I’ve been, every person I’ve spoken to or eavesdropped on and what they said.
It would be much easier, and faster, to sneak into my rental and download the files from my server.
Or hook up to the internet somewhere to access my data in the cloud.
It’s a shame you don’t have a satellite dish at the cabin or we could download my files right now. ”
“We can’t risk leaving an electronic trail of any kind. No internet. Period. Someone could have already broken into your rental by now and is watching your cloud storage to trace any attempts at retrieval.”
“It would take a computer genius to do that, don’t you think?”
“I’ve done it before. Do you consider me to be a genius?”
The corner of her mouth lifted in a half smile.
“Don’t answer that,” he said. “I don’t think my ego could handle whatever you’re about to say. My point is that if I can do it, I imagine the men after us could as well. All it takes is a little digging on the internet to find out how. It’s not that difficult.”
“Then, it’s going to be a long, tedious day of me having to rely solely on my memory to create a list of everything I’ve looked into.”
“We’ve got the time. One of my former officers is going to bring us supplies today.
They’re coming up the mountain from the opposite direction that we did and will leave everything at a prearranged spot for me to retrieve later.
Which reminds me, I need to tell them to include some soda for you.
I didn’t anticipate having a non-coffee-drinker in the safe house. ”
She scrunched up her nose. “Coffee is highly overrated. I don’t understand the appeal.”
He smiled and took a phone out of his jeans pocket.
She blinked. “I, uh, thought you threw your phone out when you tossed mine.”
“I did. This is a cheap phone without a registered owner or contract, the type law enforcement calls a burner phone. I put some in my backpack at my old office yesterday. As long as we don’t call someone whom the bad guys might try to trace back to us, it’s safe to use.”
He frowned at the screen. “That’s odd. No cell service. I had service last night when I called Collier. I suppose a tower could be down. Then again, these phones are no frills, not always reliable. I’ll try another one.” He crossed to his backpack that he’d set on the table earlier and unzipped it.
“Ah, maybe this one will work,” she said.
He looked up as she set one of the burner phones on the table. Her chin took on a defiant tilt. “Don’t be mad. I was frustrated yesterday when you wouldn’t share much information. I took it when you were standing on the road talking to… Esteban.”
“When?” His voice was slightly hoarse as he tried to keep his anger from showing. He cleared his throat before continuing in a calmer tone. “When did you use it? Who did you call?” He took her phone and checked for cell service.
“Last night, right before bed after we snacked on peanut butter crackers.”
He shook his head and checked the phone she’d given him. No bars on the screen. No service. He grabbed one more burner from the bag, the last of the three he had, and turned it on.
“Who did you call?” he repeated as the phone came to life. “Esteban?”
“Of course not. I don’t know what phone number he’s using after faking his death. I, uh…” She tapped her fingers on the table, broadcasting her nervousness. “I called Rafael, my other biological brother.”
He jerked his head up, swearing.