Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  “Sure, call them, but it’ll take them a couple of days to get to this, maybe a day if we pushed them, and I don’t want to be hanging around here for a day. We need to get back to the team.” She started walking to the door.

  “Copy that, boss.” He held his hand up. “I can drive; you can brief Nick on the way.”

  She threw the keys over her shoulder and saw James pluck them effortlessly out of the air.

  As they left, she took one last look into the video camera. She was going to get him.

  After he revealed what he knew about her mother.

  No!

  What was she thinking? That she’d hold off putting him behind bars until he helped her find her mother’s killer? She stopped dead in her tracks. The breeze from the mountains blew on her face as she looked blankly at the car. Then back toward the store.

  This was the moment that she could tell James what had just happened. It was reasonable that she hadn’t told him with Halpert watching. She could turn to him and show him the phone, and everything would be fine. Even as she had the thought, she knew she was thinking about a road not taken.

  “You can tell me anything, you know,” James said, coming to stand beside her.

  She knew it was true. Knew it in her bones. But she wasn’t going to expose him to her...she didn’t know what it was, but the guilt of what she’d already done weighed on her like a million lead fishing weights.

  A tiny voice in her head taunted her. You think you’re protecting him, but you’re only protecting yourself. You think James wouldn’t want to grab that phone and have Christina trace it? Maybe even let her Upper East Side schoolgirl have a crack at it? You’re scared that if you tell him, he’ll never trust you again, never have your back.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, frowning.

  She blinked and realized that they’d been staring at each other while she was thinking.

  “Nothing. I’m fine. Let’s get going.”

  She tried to concentrate on Nick as she briefed him, and tried to send him the email that she’d sent herself from the store with the footage of Halpert, but the cell reception was so bad she figured it wouldn’t even go through until they hit the city. She told him that they’d bring it in with them. Nick sounded tense, almost as if he could divine what had happened at the store.

  Or was she paranoid?

  As she hung up with Nick, her phone vibrated again. It was Child Protective Services.

  “Agent Grant,” Lara said as she accepted the call. It could only be about Jacob.

  “Lara, honey,” Sally said. “I have good news.”

  “I’m not going to lie, I could use some right about now,” she replied, plucking at a loose thread from a snag on her pants.

  “Jacob’s back with his mother.” Her soothing tone did nothing to stop alarm flooding through her.

  Lara sat up straight. “Wait, what? That’s not good news.”

  “It is. She’s at a day-release rehab, and she’s getting daily checks from our field team. She seems honestly committed to getting clean for Jacob. There is undoubtedly love between them. He seems happy to be back—or at least happy to see his mom sober. We’re monitoring the situation, but I thought I should let you know in case you need to talk to Jacob as a witness for your case.”

  If we ever have a case.

  “Thank you very much, Sally,” she said.

  “You did the right thing. I want you to know that,” Sally said. “Jacob’s in a much better situation now.”

  Gratitude flushed her face. It had been a very long time since anyone had told her that she’d made a good decision, a good judgment call. It surprised her how much she needed to hear it. Especially when all her other decisions were going to shit. She hung up.

  “Everything okay?” James asked.

  “Yes. I think it is,” she murmured, gazing out the window.

  Was it though? Just because one small decision she made—about someone else—went well, it definitely didn’t mean that any other decision was sound, that was for sure.

  How could she...wait. Yes! She had an idea which might just get her both out of this hole, and a step closer to Halpert. She’d have to trust someone probably untrustworthy, though. And then she was going to get him to slip up. Reveal something about himself. She was going to get him with the cell phone that was burning a hole in her pocket, as well as her soul.

  God only knew what would happen to her if this didn’t work out. No, that wasn’t true. She knew as well.

  Someone would probably die, and she would probably be fired.

  Chapter Five

  Nick was trying to keep the rest of the team together. Time was counting down fast to deadline. Every second he was in the conference room, he could see the flashing countdown clock and it was making him insane. His headache still pounded every time he tried to think. They were losing minutes and hours. They were getting closer to the team’s own Armageddon. Tick-tock, Tick-tock.

  Without Lara there it felt like herding cats in zero gravity. Harder. It was easier when she was here. She was the one who always seemed to direct the conversation or the tasks in the right direction to get everyone working together. He didn’t even know if she realized she was doing it.

  He’d ordered in a bunch of sandwiches to keep everyone together and brainstorming, but with Xander still wrangling his girlfriend in what appeared to be a long and emotional conversation, and Ty being overly solicitous of Jennifer, and Christina and her teenage protégée bashing keyboards, he wasn’t entirely sure how he could brainstorm solo. But whatever it was he was supposed to be doing, he was sick of watching the countdown clock.

  Sick of rehashing what his father had casually dropped in his lap.

  His brother had killed someone? His father had covered it up? If he were honest, that was the reason he wasn’t corralling everyone. This new, rank information had rocked his world. Would he ever be able to look at either of them again? Or himself in the mirror for not telling the team? Or at least Lara.

  He’d have to hope they could find Halpert before his father decided to take matters into his own hands, and to ruin Nick’s career, which Nick knew his father wouldn’t hesitate to do.

  That thought struck a nerve with Nick. Maybe that’s why his father seemed to favor Jason? Jason was pretty much totally dependent on his father to keep him alive and out of jail. Maybe he wanted Nick that way, too. Maybe his father just wanted to be needed?

  He snorted to himself. Nope. The only rational reason was that his father wanted to be in total control over his sons. He already had total control over Jason, and by telling Nick his story, he also had exerted some control over him, too. If Nick kept his secret, he could easily be accused of aiding and abetting after the fact. A career-ender, obviously.

  For now, he had to keep his father away from this case, and everyone involved in it. And God knew, he was sick and tired of dealing with his father. Being an orphan would feel pretty good around about now.

  He was also sick of staring at photos of people of interest, especially those that had been shelved with thick black lines crossing them out. Terra Mapson, Dan Smith, Beckett Clarke—they all had lines through them. They’d done James the courtesy of just removing his brother’s photo. The alternative had been too awful for anyone to contemplate.

  When Lara and James returned, everyone gravitated back to the conference room, as Nick figured they would. She was like the sun—everything revolved around her, even though things—and people—invariably got burned.

  “Look at that. Your email just came in,” Xander said.

  “We were out of cell phone reception for ages,” she explained.

  They all took their seats to examine the footage.

  James looked pale as he watched the man who was responsible for his brother’s death. Nick
still doubted the decision to keep him on the team, in many situations it would have been the exact wrong thing to do, but James was a Boy Scout. He would always do the right thing. They’d all automatically trusted that he’d do the right thing, and he had. Kid had balls, that was for sure.

  They watched the footage three times before Christina spoke. “So do we think this was directed at us, or someone else he knew would be looking at the security footage?”

  Everyone looked at Lara questioningly.

  * * *

  Lara bit her tongue. She couldn’t say that she was sure it was for her, without tipping her hand. Goddamn her hand.

  “I think it’s safe to assume it was for us,” she said. “Who else is going to come looking for him?” She hated this. She felt like she was lying to her team. You are lying to your team.

  “I don’t think it’s safe to assume anything,” Nick said. “He could have an accomplice.”

  Oh, God, no. Don’t let them go down a rabbit hole. If they spent their precious hours looking for an accomplice, she would actively be derailing the investigation.

  “Let’s not look for ghosts. Even if he has an accomplice, we need to find Halpert. He is responsible for this. If there’s someone else helping, then trust me—I’ll get it out of Halpert,” she said, rising from her seat. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  She left the room and took a deep breath. Time for her Hail Mary plan. She hurried to Christina’s office and checked no one was watching as she went in.

  “S’up?” Eloise said, not even looking up.

  “I need a favor. A secret favor,” Lara said, reaching for the burner cell.

  That got Eloise’s interest. Her head popped up and tipped to one side. “Keep talking.”

  Lara waved the phone at her. “I need you to trace anything you can about the SIM in this phone. Calls to it, calls made. When it was bought, where it’s been. I’ll pay you on the side.”

  Eloise picked up her cell phone and pressed a button.

  “You want me to call you so you have the number? I can’t take the SIM out of the phone or anything,” Lara said.

  “Don’t need to.” She waved her cell phone. “I already got all the information I need right here.”

  “You brought a phone sweeper into the FBI office?” Lara exploded. “Who authorized that?” It was the worst breach of security she’d ever heard of. “And in Christina’s office?”

  “Calm down,” Eloise shushed, making Lara’s anger only escalate.

  “Calm down?” she repeated.

  “So what? Are you going to report me now?” She dipped her gaze meaningfully to the phone in Lara’s hand. “How are you going to say you found out?” She didn’t seem concerned at all, merely amused.

  Lara was at a loss for words.

  It was Eloise who de-escalated the tension in the room. “Look,” she said, propping the heels of her hands on the top of her head. “Remember? I’m the white hat. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

  “So you won’t tell anyone about this?” She held up the phone again.

  “Of course not. You don’t get to be as good as me if you have a blabby mouth. Everything I see or hear is secret. Otherwise I’d be a black hat.” She shrugged. “Maybe a gray one, but I’m squeaky clean, I prom.”

  “You prom...? Oh, you promise.” Lara shook her head to clear it of the alternate reality she suddenly felt herself spiraling into. “Okay. Call me as soon as you have anything. You want my number?”

  Eloise just looked at her.

  “Oh, right, you just...” Lara patted her rear pocket where her cell phone was. “I’m still not comfortable with that, you know.”

  “You’re old, so I don’t mind that you’re scared of technology,” she said, already back to the key pounding.

  “Awesome,” was all Lara could say as she left. As soon as the door shut behind her, she felt as if she was back in the real world again. She was getting old.

  But she felt better, as if a few pounds of her burden had been lifted from her shoulders. She was keeping a secret from the team, but she wasn’t entirely stalling the investigation with her omission either. Maybe Eloise could find his location, or a clue. And in the meantime, maybe having him on the end of a text would distract him, make him mess up somehow. Keep him on guard for once. Lara silently prayed for it to be so.

  Back in the conference room, they were arguing about their next step. Xander’s girlfriend had left and his expression was bleak. Lara sat next to him as the discussion around them became more heated.

  “How did it go?” she asked quietly.

  He looked at her for a second, as if he was wondering whether or not she was being genuine. It hurt. “About as well as you would imagine,” he said. “I still don’t know what she’s planning to do, but if she tries to take Maddy away from me because of her DNA, then I’ll fight. Although I don’t really know if I have a leg to stand on in court.”

  There was silence in the room. Lara looked up to find everyone staring at her. “What? What did I miss?”

  “We’re wondering where the SIM went,” Nick said, settling his gaze on her.

  She stiffened in her chair. “Where do you think it is?” She wished she’d been paying attention to the general conversation.

  Ty stood up. “It’s strange though, right? That he’d go to the trouble of making himself visible to the camera and show that he’s leaving something for us to find? Only for it to disappear? It wouldn’t have been easier to wear a baseball cap and avoid the camera all together? Wear a disguise? We’d still be in the same place.”

  Lara pulled herself together. “Those are really good points, Ty. Maybe we should ask Dr. Oliviero? He might have some insights.” She tried to casually catch everyone’s expressions. She felt like a spy. She was a spy, pretty much.

  No one looked relaxed and open to her suggestion. They all had varying degrees of suspicion or hostility on their faces. Except James. He just watched her with a studied blank expression. Mental note: don’t play poker with him.

  Nick reached Dr. Oliviero on his first attempt. The conversation was fast. “He’s stopping by.”

  Dammit. All she needed was a professional debunking any of the team’s theories, and pointing the finger directly at her. She looked at her hands. While they didn’t have blood on them, they may as well have.

  * * *

  Nick barely listened to the conversations in the conference room. He wasn’t too keen on the good doctor coming at this moment, but didn’t feel like he could refuse once Lara suggested it. And what he really, really, didn’t want was Dr. Oliviero taking one look at him and realizing he was hiding a pretty large secret. And there was a good possibility that he would figure that out, as he’d never been able to hide anything from him. Nick guessed that was why he was the FBI’s resident profiling consultant and forensic psychologist. No one could get anything past him.

  Thankfully, the bickering caused by the lack of leads ceased when Dr. Oliviero stepped into the conference room. “How may I help you?” he said.

  Xander pushed out a chair with his foot, but stayed silent.

  “We have some new evidence that might help you round out Halpert’s profile. We’re struggling trying to figure out what it means,” Nick said as he cued up the footage.

  The doctor watched in silence, and listened to Nick’s explanation of what Lara and James had found—or rather hadn’t found—upstate.

  “So he was in this store, what, three months ago?” the doctor asked as he eyed the timeline on the murder board.

  “No, this was just a few days ago.” James frowned at him. “Why would you say it’s three months ago?”

  Dr. Oliviero looked around the table. “Well for the past few months, he’s been on point every step he’s taken, hasn’t he? He hasn’t put a
foot wrong. He’s gathered exactly the right amount of explosives that he’s needed for each specific bombing, covered his tracks with multiple layers of camouflage, and indeed, hasn’t hesitated in killing anyone who he thinks may offer you a lead. My question for you is why would he put on this song and dance for you, and then go change his mind. If he went back to get the chip—”

  “SIM card,” Xander said.

  Dr. Oliviero continued as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Why didn’t he kill the owner of the store? If he’d changed his mind, he could have gone back, killed the owner and taken the footage and no one would have been the wiser.” He sat back in his chair with his elbows on its metal arms and his hands relaxed in his lap. “So why leave you half a clue?”

  “Maybe he liked the owner?”

  “The Grundys. The owner and his son,” James said. “They both knew him. Both recognized him instantly.”

  “Maybe he liked them, and didn’t think that we’d get to the store so quickly?” Jenn said with a half shrug. “The point is, there are too many variables. We just don’t know what he’s doing and what his next move is.”

  All eyes were on Dr. Oliviero. “I’m sorry. This doesn’t fit into any pattern I’m familiar with. He made a mistake and he didn’t have the inclination to fix it. Maybe he’s rushing toward an endgame. Maybe he couldn’t be bothered to drive over a hundred miles. Maybe he meant to fix it, but had food poisoning. There’s not enough evidence for me to give you anything reasonably solid here. All I can tell you is that it’s way outside of his normal pattern of behavior.” He stood. “Is that all?”

  “But where did the SIM card go if he didn’t go back to fix his mistake?” Jenn asked, throwing her pen on the table.

  He turned in her direction. “You’re the investigators. I’m just the guy who’ll tell you that your display of frustration is masking something deeper.”

  Jennifer rolled her eyes. “No kidding.”

  Ty cracked a smile and scooted his chair infinitesimally closer to her.