“The closest and primary 24-hour border crossing from Kalispell, Montana, to Canada is the Roosville crossing. That’s located about 60 miles north via US-93,” Grayson said.
They got a call from Rowland. “We’ve got men up at the Roosville crossing, and also at Chief Mountain crossing, but we haven’t seen any sign of the vehicle.”
Which could mean that Younger and Billy ditched the car. They might even have had a car elsewhere, and they switched to it.
“Border Patrol has been made aware of Younger and his stepson possibly trying to cross the border, but that they might have another vehicle by now,” Rowland said. “They know the car he had been driving was stolen, so if he ditched it and stole another vehicle, I told them to be aware of it and ask for the vehicle registration, car insurance, anything that would prove that Younger isn’t the owner.”
Kendra motioned toward an apartment complex with covered parking. Grayson drove into the parking lot and saw the red car they had been following. “Hey, Rowland, we found the red car at one of the apartment complexes.”
“I’ll send a couple of officers over to check it out. Do you think Younger actually has an apartment there?”
“Not sure. We’re going to park and see if we can smell their scents when they left the vehicle.”
“Okay, good luck. Stay safe.”
Grayson parked in the guest parking, and he and Kendra got out of his vehicle. They headed over to the car. He knew that if Younger was living at the complex, he could be watching the car. But he suspected they had ditched it there and either had found another to steal, had parked another vehicle there that Younger and the boy had left in, or were on foot, heading to another location.
He felt the car’s hood. “Hot.” So they hadn’t left the car there that long.
A black Mercedes-Benz drove into the parking lot and parked behind the red car. The driver, a white-haired man in a black business suit, left his vehicle, looking angry, as if he was ready to slug Grayson. Grayson suspected the stolen car was in the man’s designated parking space.
Grayson offered his hand to the man. “I’m a bounty hunter, trying to track down the individual who left the car here. The police are on their way, and they’ll have it towed and impounded. It was stolen.”
The man shook his hand, the scowl on his face evaporating. “Oh, good.”
“Yeah, it might take a while though.” Kendra showed him a picture of the two people they were after—Younger and Billy. “Have you seen them in this complex before?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Do you have a live-in manager here?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah, on the other side of the complex.”
“Okay, thanks. Sorry about all this,” Kendra said.
“No, it’s understandable. We all have problems with guests coming and parking their cars in designated covered parking spots, so it’s a sore subject.”
“Totally agree with you,” Kendra said. “We need to talk to the manager to make sure that Younger hadn’t rented a place here,” she said to Grayson.
“Yeah, hope your day gets better,” Grayson said to the man as a couple of patrol cars pulled up.
They recognized Kendra right away and greeted her.
“Are you a witness?” the one officer asked the white-haired man.
“No, the car thief stole my parking space.”
“We’re going to see the manager,” Grayson said, since the officers were here to take care of the stolen car.
Then he and Kendra started to walk around the complex, following Younger’s scent, but the teen wasn’t there.
“They split up. Younger must have dropped Billy off somewhere,” Kendra said.
“It’s smart of them. And they can meet up somewhere else and take off again.”
Grayson and Kendra kept following Younger’s scent trail. He sure wished that the dad and stepson hadn’t split up. It just made it harder for them to grab both unless they ended up together again.
He wondered if the mother had been interrogated. Probably. He called Rowland and put it on speakerphone. “Hey, Rowland, Billy’s scent isn’t here. Just Younger’s.”
