Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  Remembering that she’d bought the burgers that afternoon, she carried her wallet into her bedroom. She kept money in a dresser drawer so she always had cash on hand when she was out in the field. She usually kept between sixty to a hundred bucks in her wallet because she never knew what the day would bring.

  She’d had sixty dollars when she’d bought the burgers. She pulled two twenties out of her dresser drawer and then opened her wallet to add the extra money to the forty already there.

  Except it wasn’t there.

  She stared at the place where the money had been and thought back to how long the wallet had been on the console between her and Jacob.

  The little shit.

  Her anger was tempered only by the fact that she was just a little bit impressed. She hadn’t seen him lift the money. She hadn’t even thought that he might steal from her. The kid was good with his sticky fingers and he was definitely a survivor...but one way or another she was going to get her money back.

  Chapter Nine

  Energy sang through Lara’s veins as she walked into the conference room the next morning. She’d already called the warden at the Selden prison and set up a meeting with Lamar Jeffries for three o’clock that afternoon. In the meantime she was hopeful that the morning briefing might give them some new information about the bomber.

  She also hadn’t forgotten her intent to get her money back from Jacob. He needed to learn that lifting money from anyone’s wallet wasn’t acceptable.

  She was vaguely surprised to see not only her other teammates at the table, but also Dr. Luca Oliviero, the staff psychiatrist from down the hall.

  “Good morning, Agent Grant,” he greeted her with a warm smile.

  “Morning, Doc,” she replied. During the case with Moretti, Lara had spoken several times with the distinguished-looking older man. His calm, steady demeanor had been most helpful to her while she’d been in utter turmoil.

  And she had to admit that if they were on a movie set central casting couldn’t have done a better job. Tall and just a bit imposing, the salt-and-pepper-haired man with his dark eyes and silver eyeglasses completely looked the part of an intelligent psychiatrist who also happened to be an excellent profiler.

  James was absent from the group, and Lara realized his brother’s funeral was that morning. Too bad it was such a small, intimate family affair otherwise some of the teammates and Victoria would have been there to show their respects. She hoped he got through it all okay.

  “Another bad day yesterday,” Nick said.

  “And another day of bad headlines,” Ty replied. “Did you all see this one?” He pulled up a news story on his cell phone. The headline read: Can Our Authorities Save Us? “It’s a scathing article about our lack of leads in the bombings.”

  “We’re all doing as much as we can,” Jennifer said.

  “Victoria’s got to be getting her butt chewed by the brass,” Nick added.

  “She can handle the pressure,” Xander said with confidence.

  “Has William’s personal computer been found?” Lara asked.

  “Victoria sent a couple of agents to his home again yesterday, but we still can’t locate it,” Nick said.

  “I hope somebody reminded Elisabetta that if she has it she could face an obstruction of justice charge,” Lara replied.

  “There’s also a story on William’s suicide, too,” Ty said.

  “Yeah, the buzzards are circling,” Xander said with a scowl. “When I got home last night I had three messages on my machine, all from reporters wanting to ask me how my partner, James, was holding up. I’d just like to know how they got my unlisted home phone number.”

  “In this day and age nothing is unlisted,” Jennifer replied ruefully.

  The small talk halted as Victoria walked in and sat at the head of the table. “As you all can see, Dr. Oliviero is here with us this morning and has a profile on the bomber based on what little information we have,” she said. “But before we get to that, our bomb techs let me know this morning that yesterday’s event was just like the other two in that a remote trigger was used rather than a timer.”

  “So he whispers in somebody’s ear, then runs out of the building and detonates the bomb. He doesn’t have to worry about blowing up himself because he has all the control with the trigger in his hand,” Nick said in disgust.

  “We’ve got to get this guy,” Ty said.

  “As of this morning the death count in the hospital bombing stands at fifty,” Victoria said. “Dr. Oliviero, what do you have for us?”

  “Of course we all know that a profile might be helpful, but isn’t always completely correct. Still, I feel comfortable with making the call that our bomber is a male,” Dr. Oliviero began as everyone at the table took notes.

  “The handpicking of survivors suggests that our perpetrator may suffer from a God complex. The MO he uses in telling the survivors about free concerts by Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Kanye West suggests he’s young...possibly in his early to midtwenties.”

  He paused and straightened his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “The interesting fact so far is in the people he’s chosen to save. A young man, a young woman and a child—perhaps he is saving his impression of a family?”

  “Does that mean it’s possible he might have lost his own family in some sort of tragic way?” Xander asked.

  “That’s definitely a possibility,” Dr. Oliviero replied. “Although it’s also conceivable that this is just a coincidence and doesn’t have any deeper meaning at all. Right now we just don’t have enough information to make that kind of call.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Victoria said. She turned and looked at their tech expert. “Christina?”

  “I’ve been running names through a variety of search engines trying to see if we could come up with anything that might connect the bombings. Finally this morning I got some results,” she said.

  Lara leaned forward. A connection? Finally? A new burst of adrenaline surged up inside her.

  “The hospital’s IT director, Matt Walker, was killed in the explosion yesterday. Before he worked for the hospital he worked for a company called BrainWave. A man named Anthony Frank worked as a maintenance man at the police precinct and previously he also worked in the same capacity for BrainWave,” Christina said. “I still haven’t found anything linking BrainWave to the 34th Street bombing, but I’m still looking.”

  “And what do we know about this BrainWave?” Lara asked eagerly.

  “It’s a high-tech company that employs a hundred and twenty-five people. They develop software for a variety of applications. Their top selling software is a security system that is supposed to be impossible to hack and a comms-based platform called TalkTank that their customers use. A year ago they were listed in Forbes Magazine as one of the top ten innovative and up-and-coming businesses.”

  “Where are they located?” Nick asked.

  “The office is in the 4 Times Square building.” She shuffled some papers in front of her. “I have the suite number right here and the names of the three founders of the company.”

  “Nick and Lara, I want the two of you to head over there as soon as we finish up here,” Victoria said. “I’m planning a press conference in the next hour. I’ll be giving out our profile of the bomber, but I’ll withhold the BrainWave information for now to weed out useless leads until we know that particular connection is viable. Christina is going to continue to check the victims of the 34th Street bombing to see if somebody in that event was also connected to BrainWave.” She ran a hand through her short hair. “On another note, Homeland has stepped away from this. There is no indication that the bombings have any foreign involvement and so we’re now lead on this investigation. You all know what that means, the scrutiny will be on us and we can’t have any mistakes.”

  “Wher
e do you want the rest of us?” Xander asked.

  “I’m borrowing a couple of junior agents from down the hall to man the TIPs line. You know how it is when we air a profile...the calls come in fast and furious. Maybe we’ll get lucky and one of those will pay off. Xander, I want you to head back out to the hospital site. James will join you there later this afternoon. Ty and Jennifer, check in with forensics and see if they need anything from us.” Victoria stood. “Make sure you’re all checking in with each other and with me. We don’t want to duplicate efforts, but we also don’t want anything to slip through the cracks.”

  “You ready to take off?” Nick asked Lara once the meeting had broken up and they were walking out of the conference room.

  “I need to speak with Victoria privately for a minute. I’ll meet you in the break room,” she replied. She wanted to tell Victoria she needed a couple of hours off this afternoon to take care of some personal issues.

  She didn’t intend to tell Victoria what those issues were, but she couldn’t just disappear for that amount of time in the middle of a workday without letting her boss know. Especially now that the CMU had been handed the reins on the serial bomber case.

  Lara knocked on Victoria’s office door and then entered. “Can I speak to you for a minute?”

  “Of course.”

  “I need to take care of some personal business this afternoon between about two and five o’clock.”

  Victoria frowned and held Lara’s gaze. “Sit down,” she instructed. Lara sat in the straight-backed chair that faced Victoria’s desk. “Is there a problem? Are you in some sort of trouble, Lara?”

  “No, nothing like that,” Lara hurriedly assured her. “I just need a couple of hours for myself. Once I finish my business I’ll be right back to work.”

  “And you’d come to me if you were in trouble?”

  “Of course I would,” Lara replied.

  Victoria continued to hold her gaze, as if attempting to look into Lara’s mind, into her very soul. Lara knew Victoria wanted more information, but Lara didn’t intend to give any more. This was nobody’s business but her own. She lifted her chin.

  “Okay, fine. Just check in with me when you’re back to work later this afternoon.”

  “Will do.” Lara quickly scrambled out of her chair and left the office, pleased that she hadn’t made the decision to just sneak away.

  Minutes later she and Nick were in his car as he drove down the Avenue of the Americas toward 4 Times Square. “Everything okay?” he asked and slid her a sideways glance.

  She knew he was referring to her private chat with Victoria. “Everything is fine,” she replied. No way she was going to tell Nick anything about her afternoon plans, not after the way he’d looked at her when he’d seen into her office.

  “4 Times Square, pretty fancy digs,” Nick said. “BrainWave must be making tons of money.”

  “According to the information Christina gave us the founders are Paul Prentice, Kai Aoki and Terra Mapson. They’re all in their early thirties. Let’s hope they all come in to work each day so we don’t have to chase them down at their homes.”

  4 Times Square rose up and gleamed in the morning sun. The forty-eight floors made it the twelfth tallest building in New York and the exterior had been used in a handful of movies.

  The building’s northwest corner held a NASDAQ MarketSite. The seven-story cylindrical tower flashed advertisements, market quotes and the latest financial news.

  Once inside the lobby, they studied the plaque on the wall that indicated the businesses. A television station was on the first floor and a prominent law firm was on the second. BrainWave was on the thirty-first floor.

  “Let’s hope this goes smoothly,” Nick said as they rode up in the elevator.

  “Why should it? Nothing about this investigation has gone smoothly,” she replied dryly.

  The elevator door whooshed opened and they stepped into a lush lobby done in whites and cool greens with healthy potted plants dotting the large room. A young, attractive blonde receptionist behind a desk greeted them with a smile. “May I help you?”

  “We’d like to speak with Paul Prentice, Kai Aoki and Terra Mapson,” Lara said.

  “Do you have an appointment with them?” the receptionist asked.

  Lara placed her badge on the desk. “I believe this is our appointment.”

  The woman’s eyes opened wide. “Oh. If you’ll both just have a seat, I’ll see if they’re available.”

  Lara picked up her badge and smiled. “Let them know that it’s in their best interest to be available.”

  As the receptionist picked up a phone, Lara and Nick walked over to one of the plush sofas and sat. As they waited, she couldn’t help her thoughts from going forward in time.

  What would Lamar Jeffries have to tell her? Would he know something valuable about her mother’s murder? Something that might finally give her answers she’d been seeking for so long? God, she couldn’t wait until three o’clock that afternoon. The next few hours couldn’t move fast enough for her.

  A door next to the receptionist’s desk opened and a dark-haired man in a pair of worn jeans and a rumpled light blue pinstriped shirt stepped out.

  She and Nick stood as he approached them with an outstretched hand and an easy smile. “Paul Prentice,” he said as he shook first Lara’s hand and then Nick’s. “If you’ll follow me I have Kai and Terra waiting for you in one of our conference rooms.”

  “Perfect,” Lara replied with a friendly smile. She’d be the good and affable Lara until she fully accessed the situation. But she was never afraid to pull out badass Lara if it was warranted.

  They followed Paul back through the doorway and into a long corridor. On the right they passed several conference rooms. On the left were glass partitions behind which it appeared as if fifty or more men and women sat at desks with computer screens before them.

  “Quite an operation you have here,” Nick said.

  “We definitely stay busy,” Paul replied. “We’re constantly working on new projects and fulfilling and maintaining contracts we have.” He stopped and gestured for them to enter the conference room where Kai Aoku and Terra Mapson awaited them.

  Introductions were made and Nick and Lara sat at the table with the three. Kai Aoki had a Hawaiian look about him and was also dressed casually, but despite the laid-back clothes of the men, Lara couldn’t help but notice that both of them sported gold Rolex watches and Kai wore a thick gold neck chain that had to have cost a fortune.

  In direct contrast to the men’s casual dress, Terra Mapson was sleek and polished in a pencil-thin black skirt, a crisp white blouse and a black-and-white-striped jacket. Her short blond hair was swept back from her face, emphasizing her sharp, intelligent-looking blue eyes and her striking features.

  “What can we do to help you?” she asked briskly.

  “The name of your company has come up in a current investigation,” Lara said.

  “Come up in what way?” Kai asked with a frown.

  “In what investigation?” Terra leaned slightly forward over the table.

  “Two people who used to work for BrainWave were also victims in the bombings that have taken place in the past month,” Lara replied.

  “Oh, God...who?” Paul asked.

  “Matt Walker and Anthony Frank,” Nick replied.

  Paul winced. “I remember Matt. He left us less than a year ago. He was a good man...very bright.” He exchanged glances with his fellow founders. “I don’t remember Anthony Frank?”

  Both Kai and Terra shook their heads. “I don’t remember an Anthony, either,” Terra said.

  “It’s possible he worked in maintenance,” Lara said, hoping that would help.

  “His name still doesn’t ring a bell,” Kai said with a shake of his head. “He
must have worked a night shift.”

  “So this is about the bombings that have been taking place?” Terra asked, a delicate wrinkle appearing across her brow.

  Lara nodded.

  “I’m not sure what you’re looking for here, but I can assure you all of our employees are not only well adjusted, but also very happy working here,” Paul said.

  “We are very generous with our employees,” Terra continued. “We not only pay them a good wage, but we also offer free child care, generous bonuses and long vacations. We’re like a large extended family.”

  “Surely you can’t think somebody who works for us is responsible for the bombs,” Kai asked incredulously.

  “We’re just conducting our investigation and following the leads as they come,” Nick replied. “Having two people involved in the bombings who worked for your company might just be a coincidence, but we have to follow up.”

  “I can tell you right now we don’t have any crazy bombers among our employee,” Terra replied. “We hire brains, not nuts.”

  “No disgruntled employees at all?” Lara asked in disbelief.

  “None,” Terra replied firmly.

  “Can we get a list from HR on all your employees, past and present?” Nick asked.

  “I’ll go see to that right now,” Terra said. She excused herself and left the conference room.

  For the next few minutes Lara listened as Paul and Kai explained to Nick how they had formed the business while still in college, similar to the way Facebook started up. The story was interesting at first, but when they started to talk about algorithms and computer programing Lara found her mind wandering as they waited for Terra’s return.

  A drug dealer and murderer... How in the hell had Lamar Jeffries’s gun gotten into her mother’s hope chest? Who had put it there? The logical answer was her father, but how had he gotten the gun in the first place? And why had he hidden it away? If he’d taken it from a criminal then it should have been in lockup in an evidence room.