Series star Justin Hartley’s wife, Sofia Pernas, reprises her role as fellow rewardist Billie Matalon on CBS’s Tracker season two episode three. The episode finds Billie calling on Colter for a little help when Eric Dobbs, a talented high school pitcher, goes missing. The Barnes, Nebraska baseball star’s been missing for two days and was last seen practicing by himself. Eric’s expected to sign a Southern Nebraska University letter of intent, so his parents haven’t called the cops yet. They don’t want any publicity to ruin his shot at a baseball career.
Colter reveals he used to play a little ball, but his dad didn’t approve so he stopped playing.
The SNU booster group, led by a guy named Shane, posted the $50,000 reward and wants constant updates. Colter has no idea why Billie needs his help, and she reluctantly admits she’s from this town – not Miami like she previously told him. Lots of townsfolk dislike her, and it would probably be helpful to have Colter running interference. Billie also admits her mom screwed over plenty of people, including Eric’s mom.
Colter agrees to the partnership, but only after she agrees to a 60-40 split. Eric’s bag and phone were found at the field, but Billie claims there’s nothing helpful on his cell. Eric’s girlfriend, Ashley, won’t answer Billie’s calls, and Billie hasn’t spoken to Eric’s parents. Colter will have to handle that.
Colter gets to work the following day, and Velma (Abby McEnany) isn’t happy he’s teaming up with Billie. Colter meets with Eric’s parents and checks out their garage where Eric spends most of his time. He’s never taken off before, and his dad explains Ashley’s a few years older and works in a diner. He’s not thrilled they’re dating and claims Ashley messed up his priorities. Eric’s focus shifted to her and away from baseball, and that’s screwing with all their plans. They’ve spent lots of money getting him to this point and don’t want to see Eric mess it all up.
Colter realizes the dad’s pushed Eric really hard and thinks maybe Eric pushed back. The dad has bruises on his arm and admits he and Eric got into a physical tussle. But he swears he has nothing to do with his son’s disappearance and continues to place the blame on Ashley.
Colter looks around and discovers a wad of cash and OxyContin hidden in one of Eric’s mitts. Eric’s dad insists it can’t be his son’s.
Next, Colter meets with Eric’s coach, who claims he runs a clean program. Coach Perez has been coaching Eric since Little League and believes he’s a rare talent. Colter then talks to Hunter, Eric’s catcher, who confirms he texted Eric dozens of times without getting a reply. When Colter brings up the oxy, Hunter reveals he thinks that it’s Ashley’s. He thinks she has a drug problem and could have dragged Eric into it.
Bobby (Eric Graise) is on the case and has already started looking into Eric Dobbs and Ashley Wallace. Ashley’s phone went offline yesterday, and he texts Colter its last known location. Colter and Billie head there, and Billie recalls an old railyard nearby that used to be a place to hook up. They look through the cars and discover someone’s been there recently. Colter draws his weapon when he spots blood, and they follow its path. They find Ashley barely alive and covered with blood.
Detective Penny Bullard arrives with an ambulance and cops, and she gives Billie an icy hello. This is the first Penny’s heard that Eric Dobbs is missing, and Billie confirms his parents didn’t want anyone to know. Detective Bullard warns Billie not to interfere with her case, and Billie wisely decides to leave the scene. Colter hangs around and learns Penny believes Eric did this to Ashley. He points out there’s too much fresh blood for one person, and Penny suggests Ashley might have fought back and wounded Eric.
Before she puts out an APB, Colter walks her through what he found. There are three sets of footprints and Ashley’s handprints are on the wall. Colter thinks a third person attacked Eric and Ashley, and left Ashley for dead. Ashley managed to use the wall to get out of the train car but only reached a nearby ditch before collapsing.
The unknown third person probably took Eric. Colter spots a spilled blood donation bag and snaps a photo with Penny’s permission. He sends Bobby the photo, hoping to find out where it came from.
Meanwhile, Billie gets another icy reception, this time from Roger, the owner of the diner where Ashley works. He refuses to say anything until Billie grabs him and bends his arm. Roger reveals Ashley developed an oxy problem after a car accident and was trying to raise $10,000 to go to rehab.
Colter informs Billie that the lab shows most of the blood in the train car was Eric’s. It was oxy-free but did have acid citrus dextrose, an anticoagulant used in blood donation bags. Colter thinks Eric is selling his plasma to help Ashley.
Bobby’s research reveals the blood donation bag was shipped to a commercial building, not a hospital. Colter and Billie check out the location and the building’s empty, but the specific suite’s door is locked. Colter busts it down and they discover a backroom blood bank. There are refrigerators with full blood bags and boxes of empty ones. They also discover the frozen dead body of a 17-year-old named Randy H in a closed crate.
Colter sends a photo of Randy’s wristband to Bobby to see if he can figure out what the numbers mean.
A short while later, Colter learns Randy was a runaway from Lincoln, Nebraska. The ME says his body was drained of blood. Bobby calls with news that the numbers are blood serum electrolyte levels that not even hospitals put on wristbands. Colter and Bobby wonder if it’s some grey-market, biohacker anti-aging thing. Eric might have gotten caught up in it to earn money for Ashley. Bobby confirms elite athletes could make $1,000 per bag of blood. If Eric’s still alive, he’s probably in pretty bad shape.
Bobby will keep trying to trace who rented the office space while Billie meets with Shane to update him on the case. Shane informs Billie that he has to pull the reward offer now that the police are involved. SNU is also pulling its scholarship offer.
Shane gives her $10,000 and apologizes for calling off the search.
Colter tells Eric’s parents what they’ve learned thus far. Asked about all the nutritional supplements Eric’s taking, the parents confirm they were all supplied by Coach Perez. Someone recruited Eric but Colter still hasn’t narrowed it down to who. After what he said to Eric about Ashley, Eric’s dad thinks this is all his fault.
Colter assures them he’ll do what he can to bring Eric home.
Billie breaks the news about the reward money and Colter’s undeterred. He thinks Coach Perez might be involved but he’s not answering his phone. Billie, on the other hand, is done. She doesn’t work for free and recommends that Colter pass on the job of finding Eric to the cops. Billie’s sorry she came back to Barnes and claims this is all just a job to her.
As she’s leaving town, a truck T-bones her car.
Colter asks Detective Bullard if she’s seen Coach Perez. She hasn’t, and Colter shares his concerns. She also hasn’t seen Billie who was supposed to drop off some files before leaving town. Penny advises Colter to steer clear of Billie. “Trust me, she’s just like her mother,” says Detective Bullard.
Colter heads to Billie’s hotel room and when no one answers, he steals a housekeeping key and looks around. Billie’s computer is still there and Colter rings up Bobby with what’s on the screen. Billie was trying to break into encrypted files containing info on the clients and investors in Everlife Innovations. Colter sends him the file and admits he believes something happened to Billie.
The next scene confirms Eric and Billie are, in fact, being held by Everlife, and Eric reveals they’re about to be moved, which is bad news. They agreed to pay him $10,000 for his blood and then said he needed to come in one more time. They grabbed him at the field and that’s why his stuff was left behind.
They gave him something to keep him calm, which is what they’ve done before, but it wore off before they were finished. He saw a dead kid and took off running. That’s how he ended up at the train car with Ashley. He brought the blood bag with him and panicked because he didn’t want to lose his scholarship.
Billie delivers the news that Ashley survived and suggests they both need to be fighters like Ashley.
Colter visits Shane and introduces himself as an associate of Billie. Shane confirms he saw Billie earlier and agrees to allow Colter to look at his security footage. Shane’s security guy shows Colter the footage as Colter notices Shane has a lot of books on anti-ageing and performance enhancements.
Colter calls him out but doesn’t notice that Shane signals for his guy to wait. At just that very second, Bobby broke the encryption and texts Colter that Shane is Everlife’s primary investor. Colter accuses Shane of being the one who bought Eric’s blood, which is why he announced himself as the school’s point man in the hunt for Eric when he went missing.
Colter pieces together the clues and they all lead to Shane wanting to find Eric before Eric could go to the cops. That’s why once the cops became involved, Shane pulled the reward. The security guy attacks Colter, but he’s no match for the rewardist.
Shane makes a run for it while Colter’s engaged in a fight. Colter sees him escape and gives chase, gun drawn. Shane beats Colter to where Billie and Eric are tied up and holds Billie hostage with a pair of scissors to her throat. Colter doesn’t flinch and shoots Shane, causing him to release Billie who reacts by kneeing her injured abductor in the face.
Case closed.
Before leaving Barnes, Colter finds Eric and his dad playing catch. Eric’s dad hands over what reward they could get together and thanks Colter for rescuing his son. Colter informs him that Billie was equally responsible and, even though their families have a history, Eric wouldn’t be free without her.
It turns out SNU didn’t pull Eric’s scholarship. He’s signing his letter of intent tomorrow. Eric’s dad admits he made mistakes and is ready to give Ashley a second chance since Eric loves her.
Colter joins the game of catch and shows off his arm. It’s an impressive throw, even though Colter’s rusty. Colter leaves the father and son but not before telling them to be good to each other.
The episode ends with Billie explaining that her mom was a grifter who got a job at city hall as a bookkeeper and stole half a million. That’s why the town hates her family. People were incredibly cruel to her, even though she had nothing to do with her mom’s theft. She only returned because she wanted to do something positive for the town.
Colter attempts to help Billie heal by revealing that Detective Penny Bullard sent him a text instructing him to thank her. Billie confesses she knew what her mom was doing was wrong, but she didn’t stop her. Both Billie and Colter know what it is like to love and hate a parent simultaneously.
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