Tough Justice: Burned (Part 3 Of 8). Carol Ericson
words on the display socked her in the gut.
No way. Victoria would’ve never sent random agents to pick up her only child. She would’ve been there herself, in person, to verify her daughter’s safety. And why was Anna texting her instead of her mother? That made no sense...unless someone else sent that text from Anna’s phone.
She called Victoria again, and the call went straight to voice mail.
Her boots scuffing against the pavement, Lara exited the prison walls and headed to the car.
As she settled against the seat, she tapped the display for Victoria’s name and closed her eyes. Please, answer this time.
Victoria answered halfway through the first ring. “She’s gone, Lara. Someone took my daughter.”
“What?” Lara’s eyelids flew open. Her fears about the text had just been realized. “You don’t have her?”
“I called and texted her as soon as I got off the phone with you, but she didn’t answer. I thought maybe she was in class and had her phone turned off. I continued to call her as I took a car to campus, fully intending to take her away with me and place her in a safe house—no matter how much she protested.” Victoria’s voice ended on a sob.
“No other agents contacted you?” She told Victoria about the text she’d received from Anna’s phone.
Victoria’s response to that bit of information came fast and hard. “Anna would’ve contacted me, not you, if some agents had picked her up.”
Lara took a deep breath and flattened the emotion out of her own voice. “Are you sure no other agents picked her up?”
If someone had told her a year ago that she’d be soothing Victoria for a change, she would’ve laughed hysterically.
“I’m sure, Lara. After your call, I only notified our task force, and I happened to be the closest one to Columbia. But by the time I got to her philosophy class, she’d left. What did he say? What did that bastard tell you?”
Lara pressed a hand against the butterflies in her belly. “He told me Anna was a target, a special target.”
Victoria growled. “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill him myself.”
She knew the feeling.
“Did you question anyone in the class?” Lara massaged her right temple. “Did you talk to her friends?”
“I flashed my badge and pulled her professor aside. He could only tell me that a woman entered the classroom, showed him a badge similar to my own and asked to speak to Anna. He pointed her out, and Anna left with the woman.”
“And her friends? Did you see any of her friends?”
“I didn’t recognize anyone in the classroom. I don’t know where she hangs out on campus. I’m back at the office. Where are you? Are you on your way? I need you here, Lara.”
As far as Lara knew, her boss had never needed anyone in her entire life, at least not since her husband died.
“I’m on my way. Take a deep breath, Victoria. We don’t know enough to panic.” She spewed that lie with all the practice she’d cultivated working undercover.
But Victoria wasn’t swallowing any of it.
“He has her, or at least the bastard’s crew has her.”
* * *
Controlled chaos greeted Lara when she slipped inside the taskforce office.
Cass, stationed at a computer, tapped away at the keyboard as if attacking it. Ty on the phone, smiling, charming, cajoling information out of some unsuspecting criminal grunt.
Mei hunched over a laptop, her long, black hair creating a veil around the display. Xander on the phone in the corner, arguing with someone and jabbing the air with his finger.
And Nick. Nick keeping up with Victoria as she paced the room, her usually impeccably styled hair sticking up in all directions, her eye makeup smudged across her face.
Nick met Lara’s gaze as she walked into the office, cocking his head, a quizzical look in his dark eyes.
She raised her eyebrows at him. “What are you doing here? You should be at home taking it easy.”
He patted his arm. “Because of this little scratch? Don’t think so.”
Lara shrugged out of her jacket and tossed it over the back of a chair.
The activity in the room ceased when they realized she was back. Nick tilted his chin toward her. “Did Moretti tell you anything?”
“Only that Anna was a special target.”
The room erupted again in chatter, and the team pummeled her with questions, snatches of words and phrases assaulting her.
“Hold on.” She crossed one index finger over the other, holding them in front of her face. “That’s all I know. That’s all he told me.”
“You were there a long time for that bit of information.” Nick scratched his stubble, and Lara felt the suspicion beneath his words.
“He wanted something in return.”
A muscle jumped in Nick’s jaw. “They always do.”
“Are we still granting that piece of crap favors? I’ve got a better way of getting intel out of him,” Xander added.
Crossing her arms, Lara wandered to the whiteboard that sported a diagram of Moretti’s organization. “He wanted to know how we’d gotten a line on his business, how he got on our radar.”
A soft sigh escaped Cass’s lips. “Did you tell him?”
“I did.” Lara’s gaze darted to Victoria. “We want to get Anna back. That’s all that matters right now. Besides, we’d never made a secret about how we got a bead on Moretti.”
Victoria nodded. “It’s not classified information.”
“And in exchange for that, all he told you was that Anna was a special target?” Mei tossed her long hair over one shoulder. “Generous, isn’t he?”
Ty spread his hands in front of him. “Sounds like he’s playing you, Lara. How can we trust anything this guy says?”
“It’s all we’ve got right now.” Victoria laced her fidgeting fingers in front of her. “He said Anna was a target, and Anna went missing, supposedly going with some agents. If he says she’s a special target, I believe him—on this point, anyway.”
“We need to find out more about these so-called agents,” Nick added. “Columbia is a busy campus. Someone had to have seen something. I think we should all go back and canvas the area, get a roster of students in that class and find out if Anna told one of them something before she split.”
Cass interrupted. “I’m working on that right now, and I think I’d be more useful here in front of my computer than running around Columbia.”
“Mei and I will take one car and hit up the professor.” Ty plucked his jacket from the back of his chair. “Mei still looks like a student herself, so she’ll fit right in.”
“I’m going, too.” Victoria held up her phone. “I’ve been in touch with a couple of Anna’s friends, and I’m going to meet them on campus.”
Xander ran a hand through his blond hair so that it matched Victoria’s errant strands. “C’mon, boss. I’ll drive you over.”
Nick grabbed his leather jacket and eased his wounded arm into the sleeve. “I guess that leaves us, partner.”
“One second.” Lara crossed the room and hovered over Cass’s shoulder.