Tough Justice: Countdown Box Set
Page 71
Epilogue
One week later Lara was stopped by Freddy, her doorman, who brought out a package as soon as he saw Lara walk through the door.
“Ms. Grant, this came for you today around lunchtime. A hand delivery.”
Lara looked at the small box. There was no return address on it. “Do you know where it came from?”
“I don’t know where the package originated, but I was sure to get the info of the courier service that was used. I knew you would want that.”
“Yes, thank you, Freddy. I do want that information.”
He brought out the paper where he’d written the info. “I also made sure the guy looked up at the security camera. I feel bad about what happened last week.”
Lara touched the older man’s arm. Halpert getting by the doorman and trapping her in her apartment wasn’t something that anyone would be trying again, hopefully. “That wasn’t your fault. And I appreciate what you did today.”
The tension in Freddy’s posture eased a bit. “The guy looked like a regular courier and didn’t give me any problems. So it was probably nothing.”
Lara nodded and smiled, although an unmarked package always made her nervous. “I’m sure you’re right. I’ll let you know if I need any more info.”
She waited until she was in her apartment to open the package and once she did she stood staring at it for many long minutes.
A USB drive.
The only thing she could think was Mitchell Halpert.
But she knew for a fact he was dead. How could this be arriving from him now?
Lara got out the paper Freddy had given her and called the courier service that had delivered the package.
“Yes, this is Special Agent Lara Grant with the FBI. I had a package delivered today and need to confirm it was from your company.” She gave the woman her address. “It came around noon.”
Lara waited as the woman looked up the info.
“Yes, ma’am. That package is being shown as delivered from us to that address today. Is there a problem you need to report with it?”
“I was wondering if you could give me any information about the sender.” Lara crossed her fingers that this didn’t become an argument about privacy. There was no way Lara would get a court order forcing the company to provide the info.
“I’ll check what the privacy listing is. If it’s marked as private, I won’t be able to give you any info.”
Lara waited again, staring at the USB drive the whole time.
“Actually ma’am, the info was marked as available. But unfortunately, there’s not much info to be had.”
“Was it given to you today to be delivered?”
“No, it was given to us ten days ago with instructions for it to be delivered to your address right at noon today.”
So it could’ve been Halpert before he died.
“Was there a name or payment info on the person who gave it to you?”
“No, ma’am, I’m sorry.”
Lara talked to the woman a few more minutes but there were no other useful details she could provide. Lara disconnected the call still staring at the USB drive as if it might bite her at any second.
Lara was quite afraid it might.
It had to be from Halpert. But given his computer abilities, there was no telling what it may be. Could even be a tiny explosive device. Small enough just to kill Lara.
But she didn’t think it was. If Halpert had wanted to kill her he could’ve done it before now.
She knew she wasn’t going to put that USB into any of her computers, that was for damn sure. Just because he didn’t want to kill her didn’t mean he wouldn’t destroy every piece of computerized equipment she had, given the chance.
Two minutes later she was out the door and headed toward the nearest computer store to find the cheapest laptop she could buy. Since she didn’t need any of the bells and whistles people normally wanted to create her air gap computer, she was able to get one for less than two hundred dollars.
She considered it a small price to pay to see what Mitchell Halpert had to say in his last words.
Not connected to any other system or network, the new computer would be a safety gap for whatever was on that USB. Just in case Halpert’s last wish was for Lara to be stupid enough to plug the USB into an FBI computer and plant a virus take down the whole system.
She turned the computer on and let it run its initial settings then plugged in the USB.
She waited, knowing this was Halpert’s way of calling her a worthy opponent. Of stating his respect for her.
He was still a sociopath who had killed over a hundred people and almost blown up one of the world’s greatest monuments, but he had a code. Lara had lived within that code.
She expected a video, a memoir of some sort, that told the world why he did what he did. After all, he would’ve had to deliver this package to the courier service before the day at the park when he’d died. So as far as he would’ve known then, he would have succeeded in blowing up the Statue of Liberty.
So a final statement would’ve been proper and justified in his mind. Lara rolled her eyes at the thought of having to hear Halpert monologue again. She’d heard enough of his excuses at the park.
But instead her jaw dropped as a single folder with sets of files popped onto the screen when she plugged in the USB.
This wasn’t his recorded manifesto.
This was the evidence he’d processed, dangled in front of her, then snatched away.
Everything from the ten cases that were linked to her mother through the trace evidence on that bat. Lara had been trying to remember as much as she could from the brief moments she had them on her screen before. Now she didn’t have to. Now they were here in their entirety.
Halpert’s final gift.
“You son of a bitch,” Lara muttered. Then smiled.
This was the first step to unraveling what really happened to her mother that night.
And Lara was more than ready for some answers.
* * * * *
Have you read the first series of Tough Justice?
A woman’s body is found, branded with the ritual Moretti tattoo. Someone knows who Lara is…and exactly how to make her pay...
FBI Agent Lara Grant has finally put her life as an undercover operative behind her and started a new assignment in New York City. But her past and present collide and become ever more twisted as a spate of murders send a message that is cruelly, chillingly personal …
All 8 parts of this first gripping serial are available in this box set!
Comprising:
Tough Justice: Exposed (Part 1 of 8) by New York Times bestselling author Carla Cassidy
Tough Justice: Watched (Part 2 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Burned (Part 3 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Trapped (Part 4 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Twisted (Part 5 of 8) by Gail Barrett
Tough Justice: Ambushed (Part 6 of 8) by Carol Ericson
Tough Justice: Betrayed (Part 7 of 8) by Tyler Anne Snell
Tough Justice: Hunted (Part 8 of 8) by Carla Cassidy
ISBN-13: 9781488026195
Tough Justice: Countdown Complete Collection
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Carla Cassidy, Tyler Anne Snell, Emmy Curtis and Janie Crouch for their contributions to the Tough Justice: Countdown series.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 1 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 2 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 3 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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bsp; Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 4 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 5 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 6 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 7 of 8)
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Tough Justice: Countdown (Part 8 of 8)
Copyright © Harlequin Books S.A.
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