Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set

by Carla Cassidy

  Jennifer checked her gun, too, and sighed. “I guess evil doesn’t care about zip codes,” she said.

  Ty shook his head. “No, it doesn’t.”

  They got out of the car and walked briskly up to Brenda Halpert’s front door. Her lights were on, so they knew she was awake at this late hour. Before either one of them could knock, Ty turned to his partner. All of the levity they’d shared in the car was over. There was no time for it now.

  “We need to break her,” he said, cutting right to the chase. “And we need to do it as fast as we can.”

  While the urgency was in part to avoid their secrets being exposed, Ty knew even if there was no deadline he’d want to stop the man known as Mitchell Halpert at all costs. Even if that meant tearing down his mother to do it. While he could admire a parent for being fiercely loyal to their child, there had to be a line.

  Especially after over one hundred people had lost their lives because of that child.

  Jennifer’s blue eyes had a crispness to them, an edge like his, when they met Ty’s stare. She cracked her neck side to side and then gave one curt nod.

  “No holding back,” she agreed. “Are you ready?”

  “Yeah. Let’s get some answers.”

  Jennifer rang the doorbell. They each stood tall and as straight as a board as the automated chimes played out a short song. It sounded eerie, echoing through the house, muffled by the front door.

  Ty waited for the sound of footsteps against the hardwood, coming closer. But they didn’t come. Jennifer rang the doorbell one more time. Again, they listened as the chimes belted out an almost haunting rhythm.

  Neither one of them spoke as they waited in silence. When thirty seconds had passed Jennifer pressed her ear to the door.

  “I can’t hear anything,” she whispered. Her hand flitted to the top of her gun. Ty followed suit.

  “Let’s give a knock or two,” he suggested. “Maybe the chimes don’t do it for her.”

  He rapped his knuckle against the door three times before pausing so Jennifer could listen again.

  She shook her head. “If she’s in there, she isn’t moving around,” she said. “Or at least, not toward the front door.”

  Ty swore under his breath. “Uniforms said she was home and no one had visited or entered the residence,” he said. “At least that they know of.”

  “Do you think he’d come back here?” Jennifer asked the question but she was already pulling out her gun. Her entire frame shifted as she took a more defensive stance. There was no doubt, she was good at her job and intuitive when it came to him, her partner.

  “Who’s to say our bomber isn’t as loyal to his mother as she is to him?”

  As a way of answering her further, Ty flattened to the wall left of the door. He waited for Jennifer to do the same. When she gave him a nod, gun down and ready, from the opposite side of the door, he reached for the knob. Again those blue eyes were sharp as they watched him, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  Ty couldn’t turn the knob. It was locked.

  “We could knock it down?” Jennifer suggested in a whisper.

  Ty shook his head. “Let’s try to be stealthy first and see if the back door is unlocked.”

  “So we don’t give her, or them, time to do something,” she guessed. “We can try to surprise them first.”

  “Bingo. Now, let’s go around back,” he said, already moving. “Keep up your guard.”

  Jennifer followed, head on a swivel. He was right there with her, scanning the yard as they moved to the side of the house. Ty spotted the uniforms that had been assigned to watch Mrs. Halpert and the house. They were parked across the street but in plain view. They had been called ahead of time about the CMU sending two agents over to question Mrs. Halpert and had agreed to keep their distance. Having two agents dressed in somewhat normal attire verses two agents plus two cops in uniforms coming up to the front door might spook the woman, or her son, before they’d even have a chance to get inside the house. She might not have been aggressive the first time the CMU had combed the place but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t kick up a fuss now.

  So when the uniform in the driver’s seat rolled down his window Ty was quick to put his finger over his mouth. He then pointed to the cop then to his eyes and finally back to the front of the house.

  “Watch the front,” he hoped his silent message said.

  He didn’t wait to see if the uniform understood the direction.

  The gate wasn’t as well kept as the rest of the house. Its handle was broken from force rather than age. Ty found himself wondering if Mitchell Halpert, or whatever his real name was, helped clean the house or even bothered to take care of the yard. Did he mow the grass? Did he mop floors or unload the dishwasher? Or did he just come home and go right to his secret room and let others deal with the reality? Out of sight from the real world, out of mind?

  Ty killed this string of thought as they hurried to the back door. They resumed their earlier positions on either side of it. This time Jennifer tried the door knob. Unlike the front door, it was unlocked.

  Ty shared a quick look with his partner. She nodded and slowly opened the door. Ty was inside with his gun raised before it even swung wide. Jennifer was on his heels.

  The house was as quiet on the inside as it had been on the outside. Ty moved as quickly as he could, as silently as he could, into the kitchen and then the living room. The lights were all on but there was no Mrs. Halpert.

  “Look,” Jennifer whispered. She motioned into the dining room. Mrs. Halpert wasn’t there either. However, there was a cup of coffee on the table. “It’s warm,” Jennifer said after she went ahead to feel it.

  “So our lady of the house is probably still here.”

  Ty led them to the stairs after clearing the bottom floor. He paused to listen. Again, he heard nothing.

  “I don’t like this,” Jennifer whispered so close to his ear that he felt her breath.

  “I don’t like it either.”

  They made their ascent with extreme caution. While he had mentioned the possibility that Halpert would come back to his house and his mother, Ty didn’t really believe the young man would. He was too smart to do that. Especially after Benjamin, his almost victim, had survived.

  Still, as Victoria had pointed out, their bomber was arrogant and arrogance could take down anyone. Genius or not.

  Ty and Jennifer went to and through Mrs. Halpert’s bedroom and bathroom. When she wasn’t in either they headed to her son’s bedroom. Ty tightened his grip on his gun. He tried to loosen his body as best he could without losing any of his alertness. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jennifer roll her shoulders back one at a time, getting limber.

  “Ready?” he mouthed to her.

  She gave a quick nod.

  Ty pushed the bedroom door open enough so they could pass through. They hurried into the room. It was empty.

  However, the closet door was open.

  “You don’t think...” Jennifer whispered. She motioned to the door.

  Ty shrugged. “Let’s see.”

  He moved to the closet housing the door to Mitchell Halpert’s hidden room. The one his mother had claimed she had known nothing about the first time they’d been there. Had that been a lie?

  Ty felt the familiar surge of adrenaline start to run through his veins the closer he got to the hidden door. It was closed. Mrs. Halpert could be alone on the other side. Her son could be with her. Neither could be there. Or, worst case, a bomb could be just on the other side.

  That thought was what really got his heartbeat galloping. Opening the door could potentially close the Chapter of both of their lives.

  Ty hesitated at the thought. Jennifer was quick to pick up on it.

  “I trust you,” she whispered at his shoulder.
He glanced over to catch her smile.

  It was one simple phrase that meant much more to him than he realized. After everything the team had been through, after everything that had happened, after the way he’d treated Jennifer during the last year... Well, he had to admit to himself that her words provided a blanket of calm he hadn’t realized he could obtain when the idea of being blown sky high had entered his mind. He was grateful for it.

  And it was enough to make him grab the door’s handle.

  “On the count of three then,” he said, back to her. Her body tensed again, ready. “One, two, three!”

  Ty threw open the door and hoped he hadn’t just killed him and his partner.

  Chapter Three

  They didn’t meet their ends in a fiery explosion. In fact, there wasn’t even a threat when the door to Halpert’s secret room opened all of the way. Instead Ty and Jennifer were pointing their guns at a very surprised Mrs. Halpert.

  “What are you doing?” she screeched.

  “What are you doing?” Ty shot back. “We rang the doorbell and knocked. You didn’t answer.”

  A range of emotions crossed over Brenda Halpert’s face. From shock to fear to anger to...regret?

  Ty lowered his gun in tandem with Jennifer. Though he noted his partner didn’t holster hers yet. They had no reason to trust Brenda.

  “What are you doing in here?” Jennifer amended. “Why didn’t you answer the door?”

  Ty saw it then. Before she even answered.

  The weight. Whether or not she was helping her son, lying for him or covering up anything he’d done, or even if she hadn’t known anything at all about what he’d been doing in his spare time, it was there. The heaviness of burden.

  Every CMU agent knew that force. That weight. The invisible hand that tightened around each of them like a vise, slowly wringing them out. It never left. Some days were just easier than others.

  But it was a life they’d chosen and in the end it was one they had all proven they could handle. At least he hoped.

  However, while he and the team had experience fighting against the grain of the bad that came with their job, Brenda Halpert didn’t. That much he could tell.

  Standing in the middle of the room, she looked like she could crack any second.

  Which is exactly what they needed.

  “I didn’t hear you,” Mrs. Halpert finally answered. She was hugging her arms to her chest but kept her chin high. Ty recognized the opposing gestures for what they were, the beginning of the road leading to the answers they’d come to get. “I was too busy thinking.”

  “And why are you in this room?” Ty asked.

  The secret room had already been cleaned out, all the contents taken to be closer inspected. Now, the three of them were standing in an empty room that just happened to have harbored the orchestration of hundreds of innocent people losing their lives.

  Ty didn’t like the room one bit.

  * * *

  “You sure like to talk a lot.”

  During Lara’s career she’d encountered many a criminal whom she remembered wishing would talk instead of pulling the silent, give-me-a-lawyer crap. Now? Well, now she just wanted Mitchell Halpert to shut up.

  “What can I say? It’s been a while since I’ve had such good company,” he said with a grin. Once again the laptop screen went momentarily black before his face was filling the entirety of it. Halpert wasn’t a man who liked being minimized, she supposed.

  “I’m sure if you left your house to do things other than kill people, you might have found better companionship.” Lara tossed her own grin back at him. “But let me guess, you have issues playing with others, don’t you? I’m also going to go out on a limb and say you probably are lacking something fierce in the friend department.”

  Halpert’s smugness wavered.

  Lara wondered how long it had been since someone had busted his chops like she was. Pushing his buttons, testing his boundaries. Although she knew it wasn’t the best idea to taunt a snake, she was also trying to draw out their conversation as long as possible. If she could anger him enough to make him want to prove himself rather than agree with everything he said, then maybe she’d buy the team enough time to find and get rid of the bomb... Not to mention, realize where she’d gone and send someone to find her.

  And then maybe finding Halpert wouldn’t be too hard.

  “It seems I’m not the only one who likes to talk a lot,” he finally responded. “But I guess that’s part of the job description. Talking to others, trying to weed out the truth. However, you know what isn’t on par with an FBI agent like Lara Grant’s work ethic? And in fact is a little unprofessional?”

  Halpert was grinning again.

  Lara wished she could crack her chair up against his head. Screw just taking out the laptop with it.

  But then again, she also wasn’t fond of the idea of blowing up in the middle of her apartment.

  “I don’t follow,” she said, trying to ignore how her shoulders and back were beginning to ache as the time passed. She’d never been one to care about perfect posture but trying to sit as still as possible was starting to hurt. Lara absently wondered if she’d taken an etiquette class if the ache of sitting as still as a statue would have been less than it was. Isn’t that what they taught there? Put a book on their heads and try with all their might to keep their backs straight?

  Halpert, on the other hand, didn’t look any less comfortable on the other side of this screen than he would if he was watching football on the couch. Not that Lara thought for a second that Halpert cared about touchdowns or even knew the differences between NFL and college conferences. If anything he probably only watched a minute or two just to curse the whole institution of team sports. He probably had gone through countless cycles of getting picked way last for any and all teams in school. Just another rut in the loner cog. Just more ammo for a sociopath.

  The fact that even the ideas of an etiquette class and football were crossing her mind at a time like this made Lara nervous. She was distracting herself when she needed to focus on the man across from her.

  “This obsession you seem to have with the case about your mother,” he explained. “It seems counterproductive to your job and, not to mention, a little unhealthy to your mental health.”

  “Last time I checked, investigation was part of the job description.”

  Halpert held up his index finger. “Investigating a case is one thing but the level of intensity you’ve been using could be referred to as obsessing.”

  Lara had to pull a smile from her arsenal. It was harder than it should have been.

  “Some would call that determination,” she said.

  Halpert wagged his finger, still held up in front of him. “Determination that stretches over years? Making you erect a secret board filled with dead ends and more questions than answers, hidden in your room?” He tilted his head to the side, a judgmental look if Lara ever did see one. “And let’s not forget the fat cherry on top.”

  “And that is?” she bit out. Her fake smile had taken a hit at his every word.

  She needed to distract him as long as she could. Yet, he was getting the upper hand by breaking her calm.

  Get it together, Lara.

  Halpert looked absolutely smug as he answered.

  “You coming here, Agent. Alone. Or, tell me, is that some kind of special FBI protocol? To leave your team behind and walk into a trap. If so, I gotta say, that’s a flawed procedure. One that probably doesn’t get you the results you want, huh?”

  The cat that ate the mouse.

  That’s what Halpert reminded Lara of in that moment.

  But he wasn’t completely wrong.

  And that’s why Lara had to do everything in her power not to squirm before she responded.

&n
bsp; “I came here to talk,” she hedged. “Something, up until now, that you seemed to have had an issue with. Forcing people to make a choice but not at least giving them the decency to meet face-to-face to talk. Even now you’re hiding behind a screen. Though, look at you. You’re absolutely chatty. I guess the anonymity of cyberspace really is a loner’s paradise.”

  Even with the lack of resolution, Lara could see a muscle in the young man’s jaw twitch.

  “Big words for someone so out of options,” he said. “But after your press conference I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything less from you. You talk big but only because you’re so small.”

  Lara ignored that jab.

  “Out of options? But I thought that was your wheelhouse, your specialty,” Lara pointed out. “Now you’re saying I have none?”

  Halpert took a beat to collect his next words. When he spoke it was a man trying to regain control of a situation.

  “You’re right, Agent Grant. This—” He motioned to the area around him and then to her. “This is about your choices. Your options. So, let’s get back on track.”

  He leaned forward. It was enough that Lara got a better look into his eyes.

  Apathy, by the very definition.

  It made Lara angry.

  “First, I want you to tell me why you can’t get over the murder of Anna Grant,” he said. “And then I want you to tell me about your father.”

  Lara snorted. There was no humor in it.

  “Are you really asking me why I can’t get over my mother’s murder?” she asked, ignoring the second half of his commands.

  Halpert nodded, nonchalant.

  “How about the fact that she was my mother and murdered?” Lara said, her voice betraying the raw anger that had spread rapidly within her. “Or do you not understand how that’s enough to make me want to find her killer?”

  “Agent Grant, the case is twenty-one years old,” he said. “If it was a person it could legally drink by now.”