“And I can’t afford to die the painful death coming to me the minute Big Tag realizes I could have handed this off to someone smarter than me and I didn’t.”
He wasn’t doing this. Not now. He glanced around, looking for a restaurant he could haul Hutch into, and he saw it. There was a park across the street from the bank. It was a tiny thing, but had a couple of benches and some pretty landscaping. It was the perfect place to sit and drink some coffee and plan a robbery.
“Hey, where are you…” Hutch’s question died out as Case took off toward the park.
He jogged across the street, careful to avoid traffic, but he needed to be there. Needed to be where he was sure Theo had sat and planned and plotted. Theo would have gone about it in a methodical fashion. He was a great planner. He wasn’t always great at executing the plan and could definitely make mistakes in the field, but his brother had been excellent at planning an op. He would have had that studious expression on his face that Case joked he had when he was either planning something or constipated. Then Theo would send Case his happy middle finger and they would both laugh.
He wasn’t laughing now.
“What’s going on?” Hutch asked as he caught up. “I’m sorry about what I said back there. I will get this done.”
“Ah, you come back,” a feminine voice said. “You like your usual? I have…missed you.”
Case turned and saw a young woman, likely around twenty, standing next to an ice cream cart. She was dressed in a white T-shirt with an ice cream on the front, her dark hair in a ponytail. “You know me?”
He knew the answer before she said a word, before her eyes flared in obvious confusion.
She shook her head. “No. I’m sorry. I was mistaken. You look like someone who used to…what is the word? Uhm, he would relax here in the afternoons. He was nice American man.”
And she was into him. It had been there in the way her smile had dimmed when she’d realized he wasn’t Theo. It had always been like that. Women flocked to Theo and his good-natured charm. It was good to know his brother still had some charm, that it hadn’t been burned away by whatever Hope had done to him.
“He was my brother and he and I got separated. There must be something wrong with his cell because he was supposed to meet me at the hotel yesterday, but he didn’t get there. I’m worried about him. He’s been down here for a while, but I just got in. I thought I might find him here. He talked about how much he liked this park.”
The girl blushed and Case knew he had her. She’d had a thing for his sunny, happy brother.
“He’s such a nice man,” she said in her thick Colombian accent, her lips curling up. “I mean he’s not all soft or anything. But was nice to me.” She frowned a little. “I think he might have been involved with someone rough.”
“What do you mean?”
She glanced behind her as though trying to make sure no one was there. When she turned back, her voice was hushed. “He had one friend who seemed nice, but then another one showed up and they argued. The other man was very short with him. I don’t think Tomas wanted to go with him. I didn’t see him again after that. Do you think he’s in trouble?”
Tomas? Was that the name Hope had given him? Kai had warned Case that Hope would likely have tried to rewire Theo’s entire life. Case didn’t understand the technology, but Kai had explained that through a combination of drugs, torture, and reconditioning therapy, Theo would forget his old life and believe whatever Hope told him.
It seemed to Case that Theo was bucking her training a bit, but his brother was definitely in trouble.
He couldn’t scare the crap out of the girl though. “I’m not sure. I need to find him though. Is there anything you can remember? Did he tell you where he was staying?”
“He just said he was staying around. At first I thought he was probably at one of the big hotels, but I saw him on the bus one day.” She blushed.
He couldn’t have her too embarrassed to speak. “It’s okay if you followed him. My brother is a good-looking kid. Rather like myself.” He could turn on some charm. “I’m sure he would be flattered that you liked him enough to follow him.”
“I’m not into guys, but even I know he’s pretty hot,” Hutch said with a grin. He pulled out some cash. “Could I get a cone? Chocolate.”
She laughed, her shoulders relaxing as she went about her work. It was obvious they’d put her back at ease. “Of course. It was a silly thing to do, but I was curious. He got out in an industrial part of the city. I stayed on the bus, but the building he went into looked like a clinic of some kind. He told me he worked security. I assumed he was a guard at the clinic. You might look there. He hasn’t come back here for a week. I think perhaps that bank robbery scared him off. I know I was scared. Please tell him it’s peaceful here again.” She held out the cone. “Sal?”