Tough Justice Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  “Sure.” She followed him to the bench, and they sat side by side. “Can you tell me what time you saw the young woman from the poster?”

  She already had some of the details on the sheet of paper Victoria had given her, but she liked hearing the information straight from the witness’s own mouth in case something changed.

  “I think I saw her this morning in line for the first ferry. She looked just like the picture on the flyer.”

  “Was she alone? With someone?”

  “She was with a man and another woman.”

  Lara’s heart picked up speed. “Did she look uncomfortable? Anything stand out to you?”

  He scrunched up his face. “She was laughing with the other two. That’s why I didn’t think anything of it at first, but then I saw the flyer of the missing woman at the ticket booth, and I could’ve sworn it was her.”

  Anna probably wouldn’t have been laughing under the circumstances, but who knew what the situation was at the time?

  She tilted her head back and studied the ferry boarding area. “Mr. Fernandez, are those cameras?”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “Do you have the footage here, or do I need to go somewhere else to look at it?

  He jumped up from the bench. “We have it here. I was going to tell you about it.”

  “Great. That will help a lot.” She’d pulled up the photos on her phone and enlarged one of Anna. “Was this the woman you saw this morning?”

  Tugging on his ear, he peered at her phone. “I’m not sure. The woman I saw was maybe older.”

  “Okay, well let’s have a look at the footage.”

  He led her to a small building near the ticket booth and introduced her to the security team for the park. She thanked Mr. Fernandez and sat down in front of one of the video screens.

  Ten minutes later, she was looking at a woman, similar in appearance to Anna, but older, shorter and laughing with her companions.

  “Not her.” She collapsed against the back of her chair. God, she hoped the others were having better luck, but it was always a long shot. These kinds of sightings generally were—until they weren’t.

  “Thank you, gentlemen. Please, continue to keep an eye out for this woman.” She snapped her business card on the table. “And call me if you see her.”

  They assured her they would, and she stepped outside, blinking in the weak sunlight. She waved to Mr. Fernandez, shaking her head, and he shrugged.

  She still had her phone out and was about to send a text when two women caught her eye. Cass, her red hair glinting in the sun, had her head bent toward a pretty, dark-haired woman, both deep in conversation. Victoria had said Cass was working at home. The brunette looked familiar. One of Cass’s friends?

  That didn’t look like a discussion between friends. It looked like a...meeting. The tips of Lara’s fingers tingled as a burst of adrenaline coursed through her veins, making her light-headed.

  With her phone clutched in her hand, Lara raised it and snapped a picture of the two women. With her tongue lodged in the corner of her mouth, Lara tapped the picture and enlarged it to get a better view of the woman’s face. Where had she seen her before?

  Her thumb hovered over the trash can, and then she sensed movement from the corner of her eye. Tucking her phone in her pocket, she lifted her head to catch what looked like the tail end of Cass’s conversation with the woman.

  Lara almost called out to Cass, but Cass’s demeanor stopped her cold. Her mouth drooped in sadness, but her stance was stiff, aggressive almost, as if what the brunette was saying angered her.

  Lara shuffled toward a tree. She didn’t want Cass to think she was spying on her, but she didn’t take her eyes off the two women—couldn’t take her eyes off the two women.

  Then they dipped toward each other and embraced, and Lara let out a breath she’d been holding. So, Cass hadn’t been angry with the other woman, after all.

  Lara stepped away from the tree, ready to reveal herself to Cass, but Cass rushed off in the other direction.

  Where the hell had she seen that woman before?

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket, and she withdrew it. Ty’s text brought bad news—the sighting at the coffee house was a bust. Lara sighed and input her own dead end.

  Would anyone get lucky today?

  CHAPTER FIVE

  At lunchtime, the team, minus Victoria, assembled in the office. Lara studied each team member’s face and saw disappointment and frustration etched there. Even Cass slumped in her seat as she tapped away on her keyboard.

  Lara glanced at Cass from the corner of her eye. Cass had given no sign that she’d seen Lara—or anyone else—at Battery Park, so Lara decided to keep mum. Even in times of crisis like this, the team members were allowed a personal life.

  Her gaze bounced to Nick, drumming the eraser edge of a pencil on the table. God knew, she and Nick had theirs.

  James Walsh, a junior FBI agent, had already ordered the Moretti files to be delivered to the team’s office, on Victoria’s orders, and a neat row of boxes lined one wall.

  Victoria wanted them to comb through the material to see if the sketches of the kidnappers matched any photos they had on file for the case.

  “This is what we have, folks.” Lara pinned the sketches to the bulletin board—front and center. “Maybe they’re low-level thugs, maybe we questioned them before. The woman has a tat of a bird on her left, outside ankle.”

  “Do they look familiar to you?” Nick’s dark eyes flicked over her face. “I mean, from your time undercover?”

  Lara licked her dry lips. “No. I don’t recognize either one—of course, they’re probably in disguise.”

  Shrugging, Nick kicked one of the boxes. “Everyone take a box or we split one box six ways?”

  “How is the information organized?” Mei crouched next to the first box and ran her finger across the label. “Looks like date and time.”

  Lara raised her hand. “Then I vote for one box at a time, so we’re all looking at the same time line.”

  “I agree.” Xander poked his head out the door. “Anyone interested in lunch? I’m starving.”

  “Is Victoria coming?” Cass shoved her glasses on top of her head and rubbed her eyes.

  “She’s in a meeting.”

  Ty pointed through the door Xander had left open at James with a brown paper bag in each hand. “But she even made sure we had lunch.”

  Xander rubbed his hands together before taking a bag from the overburdened James. “And from my favorite deli.”

  “Can you think of something besides food right now?” Mei poked Xander in the side.

  He placed the bag on the floor and started pulling out sandwiches and placing them on a credenza in the corner. “Have you seen those boxes? We need sustenance to keep going.”

  “And I’m here to make sure you don’t have dibs on all the good sustenance before the rest of us have a chance to snag a sandwich.” Ty joined Xander at the credenza, nudging him aside.

  Mei rolled her eyes at Lara, but bellied up to the credenza with the boys.

  James returned with an armful of canned sodas and a hopeful look on his baby face. “I picked up some drinks from the fridge in the lunchroom. Do you need any help in here?”

  Nick crooked his finger. “Get in here, help yourself to a sandwich, and I’ll give you a stack from our first box.”

  James’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, and he nearly dropped all the sodas. “Yes, sir.”

  Nick came across like a tough guy, but deep down, Lara knew he had a soft heart. So, why couldn’t she trust him?

  Lara opened her sandwich and spread a paper napkin on her lap as she delved into her first file folder. She thumbed through papers, sketches and photos in between bites of her turkey sandwich.

  “Here’s a guy.” Xander dangled a photo from his fingertips. “Whaddya think?”

  Mei snatched it from his hand and pinned it next to their sketch. “Looks too old.”

 
“Leave it up there, anyway.” Xander crumpled his sandwich paper and shot it at the wastebasket. “You know, I’m not so sure Moretti is behind Anna’s kidnapping. He’s a nasty SOB—trafficking children and murdering a couple of innocent people who happened to be named Lara and Grant—but isn’t kidnapping Victoria’s daughter small-time for him?”

  “Small-time?” Mei asked. “What are you talking about? Anna’s kidnapping is not small potatoes, and don’t you ever suggest that to Victoria.”

  “I wouldn’t say that to the boss.” Xander took a gulp of soda. “But Moretti’s style would be to have her shot in the classroom in a big, bloody show, or to have her turn up next to a dumpster with the MM tattoo prominently displayed on her hip.” Xander shot a quick glance at Cass and then hunched forward. “But we haven’t heard a thing yet, so I gotta believe she’s still alive, and the kidnappers are going to hit Victoria with a ransom request or something only a person in her position can get them.”

  Lara shoved aside the file folder she’d just gone through and tagged it with a pink Post-it.

  “Good point.” Ty pushed back from the table and stretched. “But don’t think you have Moretti figured out from what he’s done before. The kidnapping might be a blip for him, but maybe that’s the point.”

  “How so, partner?” Mei crunched into a chip as she kept her eyes on Ty pacing in front of the bulletin board.

  “Moretti’s a puppet master, no doubt about it, and now he’s playing us like marionettes, jerking us this way and that. Maybe he’s doing this for his own amusement. Who knows what the guy wants and why he wants it?”

  Lara could feel Nick’s gaze practically scorching her flesh. She felt like screaming out that she didn’t have a clue what the man wanted. Instead, she grabbed another file folder and took a sip from her can. “Interesting idea, Ty.”

  Nick pushed back from the table, and Lara gripped the edge of it, but he veered away from her toward the row of boxes. “Maybe it’s not Moretti pulling the strings but the tier below him, the different commanders that Lara brought down along with Moretti.”

  Ty had stopped pacing and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Motive?”

  “Same as Moretti’s. Lara ruined their lives, too. They want payback. They want to return the favor and ruin hers and the lives of everyone around her.” He hovered over the boxes and dragged one away from the wall.

  A shiver rippled across Lara’s skin, and she crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders. How far would Moretti or whoever was working for him go for retribution?

  Nick hoisted the box he’d picked from the pack onto the table and dug inside. Yanking a file folder free, he waved it in the air. “Eric Gunstler, that nasty piece of work who was Moretti’s second in command, was murdered in prison his second day in the joint by the Albanian Boys.”

  The chill that had settled in Lara’s bones just reached freezing when she thought about Gunstler’s icy blue eyes—cold, dead.

  Cass came up for air from behind her computer and brushed her hands together. “Good riddance.”

  “But—” Nick held up two other folders “—his drug guy, Johnny Fletch, and his trafficking broker, the lovely Olivia Conner, are still locked up and being closely monitored. They may be behind this recent rash of mayhem, and Moretti may have told Lara about Anna because he knows what they’re up to but isn’t necessarily involved.”

  “Sounds like it’s time for another visit.” Ty picked up one folder Nick had dropped to the table and shoved the other one toward Lara.

  Lara flipped open the file and met the empty gaze of Olivia Conner. She looked as if she was posing for a fashion magazine instead of her mug shot. Lara tapped the photo. “You can give Olivia another go, but forget about Johnny. He’ll never talk. He worshipped Moretti and the ground he walked on.”

  “I don’t know about Olivia, either.” Mei shoved her half-eaten bag of chips toward James who’d been following the conversation intently and even taking notes. “When we talked to the high-level members the first time, they said they’d be dead like that—” she snapped her fingers “—if they spilled about Moretti.”

  “Then let’s get the word out that I’m talking to Olivia. Maybe she’ll figure she’s a dead woman anyway and start cooperating. But first—” Nick drew a circle in the air around the boxes “—let’s finish going through any photos to look for a match with the sketches.”

  Lara had Olivia’s file in her hand, so she began shuffling through the pages of notes and printouts and pictures. Knots formed in her belly as she scanned through the photos of the victims Olivia had collected during her time as Moretti’s trafficking broker.

  As the young faces swam in front of her eyes, Lara clenched her teeth. How could a woman do this to other women? Victimize them? Exploit them?

  One photo of a dark-haired woman jumped into focus, and Lara pulled it closer. She sucked in a breath and stole a glance at Cass, still stationed behind her laptop.

  It was the brunette Cass had been talking to in the park this morning.

  As Lara skimmed the woman’s dossier, her heart clenched. Katya Auerman had been a trafficking victim from Pennsylvania. Moretti’s organization had lured her in at the tender age of seventeen and had held her for almost six years. Six horrific years.

  Lara did a little calculation with her fingers and realized Katya must’ve known Cass’s sister, Allie. Lara ran her knuckle across Katya’s updated bio, discovering that she lived in the East Village now and worked as a hostess at an upscale restaurant, Pandora.

  Lara let out a breath when she didn’t see a criminal record for Katya. Good for her. Sometimes women who’d been enslaved and pimped out had a tough time adjusting to their freedom.

  Lara snuck another look at Cass, but this time Cass caught her eye. “You need something, Lara?”

  “No, just wondering if you had anything to eat.” She jerked her thumb toward the credenza. “I think Xander and Ty might’ve even left a few crumbs.”

  Xander’s head shot up. “I offered.”

  Cass smiled and pushed her hair back from her face. “I ate at home before I came in.”

  Lara nodded and returned to Katya’s dossier. But you weren’t at home, Cass.

  Cass had always been closemouthed about her sister and the devastation her murder had wreaked on Cass’s own life, but she must’ve connected with Katya somehow to learn more about Allie and what she’d gone through. She probably just wanted some closure, wanted to reach out to someone who’d known Allie at the end.

  Lara stuffed Katya’s file back into the box and pushed it away. Cass deserved that closure—and she deserved to find it in private, in her own way.

  Looking up from his phone, Nick said, “I just had a back-and-forth with Victoria. It’s on. I’m going out to the Decatur Correctional Center to interview Olivia Conner.”

  Ty whistled. “She’s one tough broad. You used to play baseball, didn’t you, Nick?”

  “Yeah, I did.”

  “You’d better wear a cup.”

  Mei reached across the table and smacked Ty on the head with a folder. “Why is it any powerful woman is automatically a ball breaker?”

  “Are you actually defending Olivia Conner?” Xander’s eyebrows disappeared beneath the shock of blond hair on his forehead.

  “No.” Mei bit her lip and cast a glance at Lara.

  Lara held up her hands. “I don’t know about every powerful woman, but you’ve backed the wrong filly here, Mei. Olivia Conner is a ball buster.”

  “Okay, okay.” Mei twisted her long hair into a bun. “I may have overreacted.”

  Ty fluffed the top of his short Afro. “You don’t have to get violent.”

  Nick snorted. “Are you done, children? I’m heading out in an hour, and I could use a good brainstorming session about how to approach Olivia. I’m especially looking for ideas from you, Lara, since you knew the woman on a social level.”

  “Social?” Lara splayed her hands on the table in front of her. �
�I’d hardly call our relationship social.”

  “What would you call it?” Nick turned to face her, his eyes locking on hers.

  “Professional. Purely professional. And I’d be happy to give you a few hints for handling Olivia the ball breaker—with or without your cup.”

  The rest of the team erupted in laughter while Nick lifted one side of his mouth in a tight smile. “Let’s do this.”

  Lara dipped her chin to her chest, her eyes never leaving Nick’s.

  What exactly did Nick want to do? Did he want to question Olivia about her possible involvement in Anna’s kidnapping? Or did he really want to question Olivia about Lara’s time with the Moretti gang?

  CHAPTER SIX

  With Nick winging his way to Chicago, the team exhausting all its leads after many hours of poring through witness testimony and still no word about Anna, Lara headed home to her empty place. She’d given Nick all the info she could think of on Olivia, but she didn’t know if it would help. Olivia had always been stone-cold and determined.

  Grabbing a frozen dinner she stuck it in the microwave. She plugged her phone into the charger while checking for messages. Nick had sent her a short text from the airport, one more question about Olivia Conner, but nothing since—not that she expected him to keep in touch with her at every moment.

  Victoria had been wise to send Nick out to Decatur to interview Olivia. Olivia would respond to a man like Nick—street tough but charming. Hadn’t Moretti held the same kind of allure for Olivia?

  According to the gossip among the grunts who worked for Olivia in trafficking, she’d been angling for some personal face time with Moretti to convince him she, instead of Gunstler, should be his right hand. They’d claimed she had more than a professional interest in Moretti and saw herself as the queen on Moretti’s chessboard.

  Lara snorted as the timer on the microwave buzzed. That would be a match made in hell.

  Pinching the warm plate between her fingertips, she placed it on the counter next to a glass of water. She took one bite of food, and then her phone buzzed.