Free Blue Steele - Box Set - Captures 1-6 by Donald Wells Page A

weapon or wearing a shirt with a number on it, but one of them turned out to be Joe Cordell, who the dead crook had named as an accomplice.
    Deke Thomas, a Texas Ranger, and family friend, arrived on the scene and laid one of his massive hands on my shoulder.
    “Hey Blue, how you doing, girl?”
    “I’m good Deke, but the guard that got shot, how is he?”
    “He’s hanging in there; the paramedic says he thinks he’ll make it.”
    He then gave me a good look and stared down his nose at me.
    “That’s some dress, Blue,”
    “I was just trying to blend in while I was playing bodyguard.”
    “Bodyguard?”
    I explained to Deke why I was there and how the robbery went down. When I was done, he told me something that shocked me.
    “Missing? How could the bags be missing?”
    “Not the bags, we found two blue duffle bags down in the garage. What we can’t locate is the wallets and jewelry that was in them.”
    It was then that I remembered the dying man’s last words.
    “The one that I shot in the leg, he said that the money was hidden in car three, near the brakes.”
    “Yeah, that feller you were guarding, Ernesto Roberts, he said the same thing. We figured car number three must belong to the one that had the number three on his chest. We found nothing, but the car they were using to get away is headed to the police lab. If the goods are stowed away in that car somewhere, they’ll find it; we’re also searching every inch of that parking garage.”
    Ernesto was driven home by an officer while I went to the station to make out a statement. By the time I got home, I was so drained that I took a quick shower and went right to bed.
    ***
    W hen I awoke the next morning, I got dressed and met my boyfriend Gary for breakfast at a local bistro. It was Saturday, and the weather was beautiful, so we sat outside and ate.
    Although Gary was twelve years older than I was, we still meshed well and were seeing more of each other. Besides being a lawyer, Gary was also a pilot, and last month he had flown us out to the ranch he owned along with his brother and sister. I got along well with the family and his ranch was beautiful, just the kind of spread I hoped to own one day. The one point of contention between us was my work.
    “So, once again you were shot at. There’s got to be a safer way to make a living Blue, no?”
    “The last time I was shot at it had nothing to do with my work as a bounty hunter and neither did this robbery. I can take care of myself Gary, believe me.”
    The last time I’d been fired at, I was attempting to get my best friend Becca’s young daughter back from a gang of bank robbers that had taken her as a hostage. With the help of a man named Ramón, I not only got little Amy back, but also captured the bank robbers.
    Gary reached across the table and took my hand.
    “I know you can take care of yourself, but I still worry.”
    I smiled.
    “It’s nice to know you care so much.”
    My phone rang; it was Deke.
    “We still haven’t found the loot and the lab boys stripped that car down to its frame. We’ve also gone over the parking garage three times and come up empty.”
    “That’s weird Deke, where could they have hidden it?”
    “We’re still questioning them, but they’re both playing dumb, which they’re not. They both came back positive as having gunshot residue on them, and they claimed it was because they went target shooting yesterday. Get this, they weren’t lying, the guys at the gun club confirmed that they were there yesterday afternoon.”
    “They thought of everything, but if they hid that money then you’ll find it eventually.”
    “We’re beginning to think that there was a fourth man, one that got away.”
    “I never saw a fourth man.”
    “One of the robbers, the one that died, has a younger brother with a record. We’ve brought him in for questioning and his apartment is being searched right now.”
    “Where does he say he was last night?”
    “At home, with