Today was going to be the day they found a lead worth following. They had to put an end to this case and fast. The little yellow house stuck in her mind’s eye as she locked up her apartment and made her way downstairs.
They just had to finish it.
Jerry, the doorman, was already off of work, probably exhausted at having been extensively questioned about the package the night before. He’d given them nothing that could be used to find out the who, why or when. Because that would have been too easy. Now he was replaced by Ron, who worked the day shift. Ron knew all tenants by name, even hers, despite only being there for a short amount of time.
“Have a good day, Ms. Grant,” he said as she walked past. She smiled and paused.
“Thank you, Ron.” She pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down her cell number. “Can you do me a huge favor and call me if anything or anyone comes in or asks for me?” He nodded and took the number. “It’s very, very important that you not open whatever package it may be and, if it’s someone asking for me, that you don’t tell them you’re calling me. Jerry already has the same instructions. Got it?”
Ron gave her a small salute in absolute sincerity. “You got it.”
She thanked him again and made her way to the subway. Her eyes searched the crowd of people dotting the sidewalks and the tops of the buildings. If she’d been followed to the family in the little yellow house, what made her think she wasn’t being followed now?
* * *
Nick and Cass were in the conference room when Lara got to 26 Federal Plaza. A box of bagels was sitting on the table. It made her stomach growl in greeting.
“You’re here early,” Nick said. His current conversation with Cass had his brows still drawn together in concentration. Lara suspected that he wasn’t even focused on what he’d just said as way of good morning. It made her instantly intrigued.
“Trouble sleeping,” she dismissed. “What’s up?”
“I found a new Dunst-related lead,” Cass answered. Nick handed Lara a sticky note with an address. “One of the crime scene techs found two separate receipts at Dunst’s apartment with the same address on it. I checked it out, and it’s a Laundromat that he apparently used to frequent.”
Lara raised her eyebrow.
“Okay...” She didn’t see the connection to a lead.
“That’s what I just said,” Nick added.
Cass let out a sigh. She pinched the bridge of her nose before answering.
“Geez, guys, have more faith in me, okay?” she deadpanned. “That Laundromat is twenty minutes—on a good day—away from his apartment. To go there he’d have to hop two different buses, passing three other Laundromats. Including one a block away from his apartment.”
Lara and Nick’s eyes widened in unison.
“So why would our guy go that far out of his way?”
Cass snapped her fingers. “Looks like that’s what the two of you need to find out.” She started to leave. “And while you do that, I’ll continue searching through Dunst’s electronic life. Be careful.”
“We’ll try,” Nick said. He turned and pushed the bagel box over to Lara before pulling one out for himself. He wore a pair of jeans that looked as if they’d come straight out of a ’90s Levi’s ad. They were a faded navy and fit him nicely. Coupled with a gray shirt and his leather jacket, Nick Delano was the perfect cross between street and agent. “What do you think it’s all about?” he asked when they’d gotten into the car. Nick had taken to the driver’s side without question. That was fine by Lara. She’d have more freedom to eat her bagel.
“What? The Laundromat?” she asked, taking in a considerably larger bite than she’d meant to. Apparently she was hungrier than she’d thought. After receiving the box with the pictures, she hadn’t even thought about eating dinner the night before.
“Yeah. Why would a lowlife truck it that far away to do clothes? You think it’s a cover for something?”
Lara shrugged. “I can’t say until I see the place and the people who frequent it. All we can safely bet is that it isn’t human trafficking. Sean Dunst killed Tina Cole to save the little girl, remember?” Even as she said it, Lara squirmed in her seat, uncomfortable at the thought that, in his mind, Dunst had been merciful.
Nick nodded. “It could be a meeting place for whoever he was trying to work for.” That perked her up. “Which means, if this lead pans out, we could take down more than just one bad guy. Something I hear you’re good at.” He cast her a sly look. One that told her he was teasing her.
It pushed her earlier dream to the forefront of her mind. She tensed, trying to get away from the memory. Nick must have taken her silence as a sign that he’d overstepped. He changed the subject to the weather. It carried them to a handful of blocks lined with crumbling brick storefronts and the occasional run-down apartment complex. No high-rises here.
“Park there so we can scope the place before we get out,” Lara said when they were a block over from Dunst’s apparently favorite Laundromat, the Fluff-N-Fold. Nick pulled into an empty spot between a beat-up Buick and a rusted Honda. He cut the engine with a grunt.
“No wonder Dunst liked coming here.” He peered through the windshield at the Laundromat in the distance. “It’s just his style.”
They pushed out into the crisp morning air with the knowledge that all bystanders would pick up on the fact that they were law enforcement of some kind. It was simply inevitable. Even if they hadn’t been wearing jackets that were styled to hide their guns and badges, Lara knew they had the posture ingrained within them. One that she had taken pains to strip before going undercover.
It didn’t matter how good your cover story was, if your body language said a different thing.
Pedestrians walked up and down the sidewalks. Few gave them wary looks while fewer let their glance stick. Lara preferred it that way. She’d never valued lack of attention until she had been undercover.
“You ready for whatever we find?” Nick asked, moving his jacket a fraction to get better flexibility if he needed to pull his gun. His eyes caught on a few people leaving the Laundromat. They stopped at the curb while one pulled out a cigarette.
“Yeah.” She covertly unsnapped the strap from her holster. If she needed to pull her piece, it would be easy. The Laundromat might have had a slightly goofy name, but the fact remained that the Fluff-N-Fold had been interesting to Dunst.
And they had no idea why or what was behind its doors.
“Let’s go,” Nick said, picking up the pace.
They were a block away, moving closer to their target, while keeping their eyes on their surroundings for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary. That’s when Lara really took in every detail of the two men who had exited the Laundromat moments before.
“Wait.” She grabbed Nick’s arm, stopping and turning him to face her. She angled her body so his partially hid her from plain view.
“What is it?”
Lara did a quick mental slideshow of faces from her past.
Recognition flared.
“There,” Lara said, voice dipping low. She nodded to the two men standing in front of the Laundromat. One had a cigarette between his lips while the other eyed a woman talking on the phone on the other side of the street. “I know them.”
Nick coolly turned his head for a better view, knowing not to be obvious. She knew he was cataloging each man’s details.
The one with the cigarette was the younger of the two. Short dreads, a thick brow, and spotty facial hair, he wore baggy dark jeans and a graphic tee with a cartoon woman in a tank top across the front. His body wasn’t lean but skinny. The man next to him was a different story. His stomach extended outward, barely contained by his own shirt. He wore a red beanie and dark, dark sunglasses. Between the two, Lara knew he was the more aggressive one.
“They were a part of the Moretti syndicate,” she explained. “Two low-level lookouts that came and went without making any real noise. Never gave their actual names, just cyc
led through a list of dumbass nicknames like ‘Beat’ and ‘Snoop.’”
“They weren’t rounded up with the rest, I see,” Nick commented.
She shook her head.
“No. When the bust went down at the Chicago warehouse Moretti was running, they were nowhere to be found.”
“You figure they’re still working for Moretti?”
Lara didn’t think on that too much. Once again she shook her head.
“If Moretti was a big fish, they were a small patch of dirt on the ocean floor. He barely used them when he was thriving. I doubt he’d reach out to them when he’s behind bars. But, that doesn’t mean they don’t know about our buddy Dunst.”
Nick’s lips quirked up into a sly smile. Lara couldn’t deny it was attractive.
“Then why don’t we go say hi?”
CHAPTER TWO
“You think they’ll recognize you?” Nick asked. Though his tone was easy she could tell his demeanor had shifted as they walked toward the men. He was getting ready for whatever might happen next. Whether or not the men ran or fought, which were both likely responses. She, too, rolled her shoulders back, gearing up.
“Which me?” she joked. “Undercover me or FBI agent caught on the news me?”
Nick snorted but didn’t have time to answer. Beanie lost interest in the woman across the street and turned back to his friend. He whispered something, and soon both men were looking their way. Dreads dropped his cigarette.
“Looks like they recognize you,” Nick said.
Lara felt her leg muscles tighten. They were about to take off, and her partner knew it. Normally she would have felt excited—ready for a chase, ready for the thrill—but now...the stakes were different. They were higher. This case wasn’t like the ones from her past. Each new move left her tense, each new development left her anxious. The two men and the chase they were about engage in gave her, in no way, any thrills. Being undercover for so long had shattered her self-confidence. Now was the time to get it back.
In unison the two men turned on their heels.
“I’ll take Dreads,” Lara said. “And you—”
A heavy pop pierced the air.
The man she’d just planned to chase tipped backwards and fell hard against the sidewalk.
Nick yelled something unintelligible and threw his weight into Lara, pushing her into the wall of the storefront they’d been passing. Another pop sliced through the air.
Lara watched as Beanie was shot right between the eyes.
“Fuck,” Nick roared, using the hand that didn’t have Lara’s shoulder in it to pull out his gun. Lara shrugged out of his protective hold and pulled her gun out and up, as well. She spun on her heel as Nick shouted something to the bystanders screaming on the street.
Lara wasn’t listening. Her focus had shifted to the once-again elusive sniper, following what she guessed to be his trajectory. Had he been following her?
The buildings around and behind them were all between one to five stories, each varying. Lara mentally pulled up an aerial view of the two blocks behind her, thanks to the map of the surrounding location Cass had blasted to their phones on the ride over. Lara tried to remember which building had roof access. But, then again, the sniper could have easily done it from a window.
She inclined her head up, keeping her gun low. Nick yelled something, but she didn’t listen. Two blocks away someone was standing on a rooftop, an unmistakable gun at his side.
Whoever he was, he must have realized Lara could see him.
He waved.
And then Lara was running.
“Sniper, roof,” she yelled back to her partner as an afterthought. Her hands were firmly around the grip of her gun, her eyes on the figure in the distance. The unknown shooter hadn’t readied his gun on her but instead squatted down out of sight. Most likely breaking it down for an easier escape.
“Lara,” Nick yelled after her, but she didn’t stop. She needed to catch the son of a bitch who kept taking out their leads. Was the sniper the top of the food chain or just an enforcer for the person at the top? So many questions flooded her mind as she tore down the sidewalks, yelling at bystanders to move out of the way and get back inside.
Why people were rushing outside with their phones in hand after shots were fired was beyond her.
The sniper was out of view still as Lara made it to a five-story, decrepit apartment building. An internal war quickly waged within her. She hesitated. Which way would the sniper try to flee? Coming down the apartment’s internal stairs or elevator and leaving through the lobby would be the easiest but, then again, most obvious. What would Lara do? She ran around to the alleyway to the left of the building.
The fire escape.
Hesitation gone, she ran to the middle of the alley to the ladder. It hung halfway down, forcing her to put her gun back in her holster and jump for it.
“Come on,” she wheezed out, an inch too short to grab the bottom bar.
A clattering made her pause. She looked up through all of the metal to see her perp rushing down the escape. From her vantage point she couldn’t make out any details. Or if he had the gun with him.
A surge of energy went through her. She took a few steps back and ran and jumped for the ladder. Her palms connected with the metal. Lara let her adrenaline course through her as her training from the academy kicked in. Using her upper arm strength, she grabbed the next rung with her hand and started to pull herself up. Her arms shook, burning as she moved to the third and then fourth step. She’d always been diligent with her training, even more so in lockdown, but still she struggled.
The clattering above her stopped just as she made it to the first landing. She looked up to see the sniper paused at the fourth one before turning around to run back up.
She’d been made.
“FBI, stop or I’ll shoot,” Lara yelled. She pulled out her gun as she ran the length of the landing and swung around to the stairs leading to the next one. Glancing up, she knew her command had been ignored. It was also a lie. She didn’t have a clear view of the perp and especially not a clear shot.
Her boots were loud against the metal, no longer trying to be stealthy. As she rounded the second floor landing, an elderly man popped his head out of his window with wide eyes.
“I’m calling the cops,” he yelled after her, disgruntled.
“Good,” she yelled back, breathing heavy.
The sound of her perp’s footfalls ceased while she was running up the next set of stairs. He was back on the roof and, if he wanted, could easily take her out as soon as she made it up there, too.
But as Lara climbed higher, she realized she didn’t believe he’d kill her. At least, not yet. When Dunst was killed, he could have done the same to her easily. Dreads and Beanie hadn’t been too far from her and her partner and in clear view of the apartment building she was currently scaling. The sniper could have put a bullet in them both, before they would have even known what was going on.
Why spare her life in those two instances only to take her out now?
Still, when she made it to the top of the fire escape, Lara slowed and steadied her gun. She might have believed her life wasn’t in danger, but that didn’t mean she was going to be stupid. With every intention of shooting the perp down if needed, Lara popped up to survey the rooftop.
The door to the building was centered to the left while a half wall enclosed a relatively empty space, save a few beer bottles and trash. Lara didn’t care about the litter. She scanned the roof for her sniper.
But he was gone.
Cautious yet quick, Lara ran to the door leading into the building and searched around it to make sure her perp wasn’t hiding. When she found nothing, she went back to the door, ready to continue the foot race through the apartment complex.
Lara cursed loudly.
The door was unlocked but not budging.
“Dammit,” she bit out. Moving a few steps back, she took a deep breath and ran at the door, throwing her shoulde
r into it at the last second. Pain burst in her arm, but the impact did nothing to the door. Whatever was on the other side was heavy and stationary. She’d have to hit it a lot harder to get it to move. With another deep breath she walked back even farther and turned, ready to make another go, when she heard a commotion on the other side of the door.
On a reflex she barely noticed anymore, she raised her gun and planted her feet apart, ready. She didn’t want to kill the sniper, but she could put him out of commission so he couldn’t escape.
The sound of scraping preceded the doorknob turning. Lara’s body was almost vibrating, every part of her keyed up in anticipation.
Finally the door swung wide.
“Lara?” Nick held the door open, his own gun in hand. He pointed it away from her at the same time she moved her aim away from him. It was a good thing neither partner had itchy trigger fingers.
“I chased him up the fire escape,” she rushed. “He escaped through there.”
“He didn’t take the stairs, and the elevator is out of service,” he called back to her as she followed him into the stairwell.
“He’s either hiding or trying to move around us,” she surmised. He nodded.
“Let’s go to the lobby and cut off his escape routes until backup gets here.”
Lara wanted to complain—she wanted to scour every inch of the building for the sniper right then—but knew Nick was right. The building was too big. If they went floor by floor looking for their perp, then chances were if he was on another floor he could just as easily leave without notice.
So she followed Nick down the stairwell, tight-lipped and equipped with razor-sharp focus.
Not once did someone enter the stairwell with them, and not once did they hear any other shots or yells.
When they got to the small lobby they found a woman and her teenaged son checking their mail at the boxes. They were understandably startled by the two plain-clothed FBI agents and their guns but managed to answer Nick’s questions.
“No, I haven’t see anyone come through here,” the mom said. “It’s just been us.”
“There’s a back door down there,” the teen answered next and pointed beyond the door to the staircase. “And then the front door.”
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