"You sent him out alone on his first case?" Kendra asked.
“I asked him if he wanted to wait until you returned to the office, but he said he could do it on his own. It’s an easy case.”
“What’s the address?” Kendra asked, sounding as if she didn’t think Ivan could handle his first case on his own.
George gave them the address, and then they took off to meet up with Ivan, just in case he got himself into trouble.
“Okay, so the fugitive, Baldwyn, hasn’t been working when he’s supposed to be; he’s staying with his girlfriend when he has to be living at a different location. He is supposed to be working at the job for a year. He'd better be off drugs. He is supposed to have a daily check-in, but he hasn’t been checking in for weeks. He has a curfew every night. But according to the paperwork, he’s not doing anything he should do,” Kendra said, reading the case as Grayson drove them to Baldwyn’s girlfriend’s house.
“Who put up the bond?” Grayson asked.
“Jacob Ryerson, Baldwyn’s friend, put up his car for the $20,000 bond.” She called Ivan and put it on speaker. “Hey, it’s Kendra. We’re on our way to your location to assist you.”
“I just got here. You didn’t tell George I need help, did you?” Ivan sounded a little bit peeved.
“He shouldn’t have sent you on your first job without backup.”
“So you’re done with your other capture?”
“Yeah.”
Ivan didn’t say anything for a moment, then said, “He’s not with you, is he?”
Even though Kendra had said we’re on our way to your location, Grayson figured Ivan was still hopeful she was on her own. No way. They were a team.
"Do you think Ivan can't handle the job on his own?" Grayson asked when Kendra ended the call.
"I don't know. But I just think he should have support when he's on his first case. Now, someone like Marty is a pretty safe bet, though I have a good relationship with him, and you've made a friend out of him. But I don't know about this case. Baldwyn might be a real problem, or not. There's no telling. Even if someone is usually good about being taken in, they might react differently in another situation, or if they have had a particularly bad day."
"Yeah, I hear you. I've had cases like that where I've had to take a fugitive numerous times, and he has been fine most of the times, but the one time I went to take him into custody, he'd been drinking, which he wasn't supposed to be doing. And he'd taken drugs. I ended up having to put him in a chokehold until I could get him to calm down. He was a big, muscular dude, but on drugs and alcohol, he was really mean and practically impossible to take down."
Kendra smiled and squeezed his bicep. "That's hard to believe."
"Hell, yeah. One time, my brother and I went to get a guy like that, and the local sheriff sent two of his officers because the bail jumper was always a real problem if he’d been drinking and using. It took all four of us to get him down. He was on something that made him like the Incredible Hulk. Plus, he was sweaty and naked, and we had a hell of a time just keeping hold of him."
She laughed. "I'm glad I never had any cases like that."
"Yeah, the two of us couldn't have taken him down. Though maybe if he had seen you, he would have calmed down. Sometimes a woman can calm a fugitive more than a male can."
"Sometimes a female makes the fugitive go off, especially if they hate female authority figures."
"That's true."
They finally arrived at the house and saw Ivan standing by his vehicle in the driveway, waiting for them. She was glad he hadn't tried to do this on his own and had waited for them to arrive.
They parked curbside and got out of Grayson's vehicle. She hoped Baldwyn hadn't left the house because he had seen Ivan out there, ready to take him in.
"Okay, since this is your case, we'll let you knock on the door," Kendra said.
"I'll go around back to make sure he doesn't run off," Grayson said.
"Oh, good idea," Ivan said. "I hope he didn't already leave the house while I was here."
"It's okay. We'll get him even if he has already left the house," Kendra reassured him.
In the meantime, Grayson went through the gate and into the backyard to watch the back side of the house.
Kendra thought of going to the side of the house, but she wanted to be there for Ivan.
