Hard As Ice (Fortis Series 1) (15 page)

“And, based on the system alerts, Flannigan was on the surveillance video doing his rounds at the time the safe was accessed. So it’s unlikely he ever took possession of them,” Raymond added.

“Agreed. I did a complete search of his place. There was no money, and no sign of him receiving any payment for his role. So, his job was just to provide access to the warehouse. And we have to assume he was going to get paid after the heist,” Tony surmised.

“Explains the timing of his elimination. They tied up a loose end and removed a slice of the pie,” concluded Michael.

“By the way, it looks like his girlfriend is now staying with her parents in Worcester, Massachusetts, about an hour away,” added Tony. “I guess she was pretty spooked by the whole thing.”

“Not surprising,” Evan mumbled. “Keep tabs on her. We can’t rule anything out at this point.”

“What about his friendship with the ops manager and the receptionist? Any meat there?” probed Evan.

“Looks accurate. Morton was visibly upset when we spoke to him on Wednesday. A few other people we talked to confirmed a friendship outside of work,” Michael verified. “Even Flannigan’s supervisor at the security agency mentioned it. They usually move their people around with various clients to managing shifts, but Morton had requested Flannigan as a regular on their account months ago.”

“And he did move from the day to the night shift about a couple of weeks before the robbery,” added Raymond.

“Does that make Morton a viable suspect? What do we have on him?” Evan probed.

Raymond pulled up another screen full of personal data on Chris Morton.

“Thirty-two years old, divorced. Worked for Worthington for about five years, and moved to Boston from New Haven a year ago to take the manager role,” outlined Raymond. “Rents an apartment in Cambridge. Likes to party quite a bit, with a preference for cocaine on the weekends. His finances are basically paycheck to paycheck. But no sign he’s into anything more serious.”

Evan crossed his arms across his chest and rocked back on his heels.

“Where was he the night of the robbery?”

“Security cameras and cell phone data put him in the Mission Hill neighborhood until the morning.”

“With Emma Sterling,” Michael stated with a smirk.

“Yeah, the rumors about their relationship look accurate,” agreed Raymond. “They spend a lot of time together outside of the office.”

“So, neither of them did the robbery. And neither had access to the safe,” concluded Evan. “But the friendship with Flannigan is still a red flag for me . . . I don’t like it. Keep digging on Morton and Sterling, just in case. Check out his drug usage and money problems more, there might be a motive for quick cash that Flannigan was exploiting.”

“Got it,” Raymond acknowledged.

“Is there anyone else at Worthington that looks like a suspect, other than James?” continued Evan.

“We’re halfway through the background checks and all communications by the other employees,” Raymond advised them. “Everything that’s happened in the office or on personal devices going back two months. I haven’t seen any flags yet, other than the stuff on Morton,” Raymond stated.

“So, that brings us right back to James,” Evan stated with a sigh. “But we have to assume that she’s working with someone else, other than Flannigan,” Evan stated. “Let’s go back to St. Clair. Any new activity?”

“None,” Raymond confirmed, and he pulled up St. Clair’s cell phone records over the last four weeks. “All his communications look pretty consistent. There’s the occasional connection to people with some criminal background. But none appear active in the business over the last few years.”

“Maybe he’s using another way of communicating about the robbery?” Michael suggested. “Unregistered phones, some other off-line method?”

“Then why would Nia call him about it on his registered line?” Evan reasoned. “She would call the burner phone. And he would use that same phone to call her back. It doesn’t make sense.”

“There’s only one logical answer, guys,” insisted Tony. “Nia reached out to him for help when she knew she was fingered for the job. She wanted to see if he knew anything about it from his network. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Maybe,” Tony conceded. “But that also suggests she wasn’t involved, right? It blows our whole strategy to hell.”

“We still don’t have enough to draw any concrete conclusion,” replied Evan with a sigh. The case was doing his head in. All of their tangible leads still pointed back to Nia, yet none of the specifics confirmed her culpability. But they were getting close, he could feel it. They just needed to uncover a few key facts and the whole thing would come together.

“It’s been one week since the heist,” he stated. “Assuming Spencer has put us on the right track, we know there is a broker and a buyer. That’s confirmed payment as motive. James as our means to get into the safe, and Flannigan provided the opportunity to access the warehouse undetected. Then someone has to, or will deliver the jewels to Walsh. That’s our window. If it wasn’t James or Flannigan directly, there’s a third party at play. We find Walsh, and we find the buyer, the jewels, and the money trail. The money will lead us back to everyone involved.”

“Maybe we need to dangle a carrot,” Michael suggested. “Like having the new wealthy boyfriend tell James about something that he really wants. Something that he’ll pay well to get? If she’s in any way connected to Walsh directly, she’ll definitely pass on the lead.”

Evan smiled broadly, and slapped the young agent on his back.

“I like it!” he agreed. “I’m meeting her for dinner in less than an hour, so I’ll think of something to bait our hook.”

The team broke up to focus on their individual tasks while Evan went back to his suite to shower and shave off the four days’ worth of beard that he’d grown over the long weekend. During a long hot shower, he combed through all the facts they had on the mission. Some were concrete; others were only tied together in loose, flimsy tendrils. And he added the ones he couldn’t easily articulate to the team.

Like the fact that the character composite he was building about Nia James just wasn’t adding up. From his extensive experience, Evan knew how to read people quickly. He also knew for certain that if it were a woman at the center of this whole scheme, she would fall into a narrow range of profiles. She could be greedy and opportunistic, taking advantage of her position and contacts to make big money. She might be frustrated, angry, or scared about her life situation, and the theft would solve her problems. It could be personal, and stealing from Worthington was the means for revenge, or a reasonable way to right a wrong. Or, perhaps it was for ideology, where stealing the jewels was for the greater good in some way. Whatever it was, the motives weren’t always obvious at first, but one or more of them were almost always there. So were the personality and behavior traits associated with those motives.

Nia just didn’t demonstrate any that he would expect. Sure, she was reserved and aloof, maybe even secretive. But everything else about her seemed genuine. Instinct told him she was being honest and authentic when they were together, particularly in their intimacy. She wasn’t playing him, or using his status and wealth for ulterior motives. Look how pissed she had been about the damn dress.

Or was she? Was his physical attraction to her blocking his objectivity? It was an unpalatable thought. Particularly since the same honed instincts told Evan she was involved in the robbery in some way. He just couldn’t piece it together.

Dressed in a dark gray blazer over a crisp white monogrammed shirt and black slacks, Evan left the hotel a few minutes later. He called Lucas from the car on the way.

“Have you had a chance to review our status update?” Evan asked.

“Yeah, Raymond just sent it through,” confirmed Lucas.

“I’ll bait James tonight, but let’s assign a few analysts to help with the search of the identity of the broker. Walsh is probably not his real name, but there has to be a trail somewhere.”

“Do you think she’ll take the bait?” his friend asked.

“I don’t know,” Evan replied honestly.

There was silence for a few minutes. Lucas’s brain was like a high-capacity computer, so Evan waited patiently for him to run through his process of data analysis.

“You’re questioning whether James is our prime suspect after all,” Lucas finally stated.

Evan let out a breath. There was a reason the two men were so close. They had different methods for getting the job done, but ultimately they usually came to the same conclusion.

“I read her wrong from the beginning,” Evan acknowledged. “She’s not a victim in the plan, but she’s not an opportunist either. It’s just not in her personality.”

“Yeah,” agreed Lucas. “I don’t know many female cons that spend their weekends volunteering with low-income kids.”

“So, what’s her role in all this? That’s what I can’t figure out,” Evan admitted. “And it gets even better. Without telling her, I paid for the dress she wore to the Clement party on Saturday. She flipped when she found the receipt with my credit card on it.”

“Really?”

“Here I was thinking it would be a romantic thing to do for a woman I’m trying to impress. But instead of appreciating it, she all but accused me of trying to buy her, and insisted I take back the money. She even wrote out the check!”

Lucas whistled. “Wow, that’s a first.”

“Tell me about it. You’d think I tried to pay her for the night.”

“Or maybe you’ve just lost your charming touch” his friend teased.

“Yeah, maybe.”

There was a brief silence.

“Or, one thing has nothing to do with the other, Ice. The better question is: If she’s not our suspect, what do you think is going on with her?”

Evan was now parked across the street from Worthington, with about five minutes to spare before he was to meet Nia.

“What do you mean?” he asked Lucas.

“You’ve said she’s a bit cagey, reserved. Like she was hiding something, right?”

“She’s definitely not the chatty type at first, that’s for sure. I can’t say I learned anything about her background that’s material to the case, but she relaxed a bit over the weekend.”

“How relaxed?”

Evan should have known Lucas would have heard what he wasn’t saying.

“Look, the purpose was to get her to lower her guard and provide any insights into what may have happened to the jewels. It worked. If we consider that she may not be actively involved in the robbery, we can redirect our focus and resources.”

“Ice, that’s not what I’m asking.”

“I know what you’re getting at, Luc,” Evan bit back.

“Look, I know you well enough to know you’re struggling with something here. Why did you need me to tell you that James may not be our target?”

“I just needed a second opinion, that’s all. You’re reading too much into it.”

“Don’t give me that bullshit, Ice. You’ve never needed a second opinion in your life,” Lucas retorted sarcastically.

“It’s under control,” Evan shot back, shutting down the conversation. “If she takes the bait on a job for Walsh, it will all be moot anyway. I’ll let you know later how it went.”

He ended the call abruptly just as the topic of their discussion exited the gallery. Evan stepped out of the car, and Nia acknowledged him right away with an upward nod of her head. She started toward him, crossing the street on a green light. He headed down the block toward the intersection to meet her.

Evan heard the aggressive rev of an engine before he saw the vehicle. The sound, angry and predatory, sent chills down his spine. Instinct and seasoned reflexes had him running across the street between stopped cars as soon as the big, black pickup truck pulled out of the alley beside the gallery. The tires squealed as it picked up speed, racing through the red light and aimed directly toward Nia.

Everything was in slow motion. Evan watched the scene unfold even as he rushed toward Nia at breakneck speed. Somewhere in the background, he recognized the muffled sounds around him as horns blared and cars braked. He was aware of shouting her name at the top of his lungs.

Yet the only thing he could hear clearly was the rhythm of his rapid breathing and the pounding of his heart. The only thing he could see was the two tons of speeding metal as it whipped by Nia. Then, the image of her crumbled form lying in the road. He was beside her within seconds.

The details of the situation filled his brain. She was unconscious. There was no blood or obvious signs of major physical damage. The truck was speeding away. Other drivers and pedestrians were watching the situation, unsure of what exactly had happened. Several people shouted that the paramedics should be called. Evan heard someone close to him talking to emergency on their cell phone.

He looked back at Nia, his breathing hard and ragged. Her jacket was torn at the shoulder and the heel of her shoe was broken. She looked so fragile. Her lipstick was smudged.

Evan blinked, and the universe rushed forward into real time.

“Nia,” Evan whispered, gently touching her face.

She didn’t respond. Immediately, he started a slow, thorough inventory of her body, assessing the damage and checking for broken bones. There was nothing obvious. He knew that meant she either moved out of the way in time, perhaps knocked out by her landing on the pavement. Or, the car had hit her dead on in the midsection, in which case the damage was internal and much more worrisome.

The ambulance and police arrived quickly. Instinctively, Evan took on the persona of the average boyfriend. He stepped back so the paramedics could examine and stabilize Nia, and he provided a solid statement to the police, but not so detailed as to raise eyebrows. Within ten minutes, he was riding to the hospital with Nia on a stretcher as the sirens wailed. She was still unconscious.

Evan called Tony to fill him in on the situation. Someone had tried to kill Nia, or at least do some serious damage.

It was amateurish, poorly planned. Opportunistic. The act of someone desperate or scared.

The variables raced around in Evan’s brain while he held Nia’s hand. His thumb brushed the pulse at her wrist, keeping track of the rate despite the beeping machine clipped to her finger.

Someone had targeted Nia, and he hadn’t seen it coming.

At the hospital emergency ward, the doctor on call took her right into an exam room, leaving Evan at the counter to fill out whatever patient information he could provide. He completed the forms, listing himself as her boyfriend and her only close contact, with no next of kin. Without her insurance information, he also provided his credit card to cover any costs.

Tony arrived a few minutes later to find Evan standing outside the exam room, legs spread and arms folded.

“Ice, how’s she doing?”

“They’re still running tests,” he replied in a clipped voice, his gaze fixed on her through the glass window.

“Has she come to at all?”

“No.”

There was an awkward silence. Evan could feel Tony’s stare but ignored it.

“Ice.”

Finally, Evan looked back at him. His anger and frustration was hidden behind a granite-hard expression.

“She’s going to be all right,” the other man assured. “I gave the description of the truck to Raymond. He’s trying to locate it through traffic cameras and other surveillance. We’ll find it.”

Evan nodded, looking back into the exam room. Nia was still motionless, wearing a blue hospital gown and covered with a white sheet. The heart rate machine beeped steadily at regular intervals.

“You’re certain it was deliberate? Not some random accident?” Tony asked.

“Positive. They pulled out of the alley beside the gallery and ran the red light to get to her. No way it’s a coincidence. It’s our guy.”

“You’re saying it was the thief?” Tony clarified.

“The thief or whoever’s our suspect on the inside. They could be one in the same for all we know. For some reason, they want to take Nia out of the equation.”

“Why? What’s changed in the last week?”

“That’s what we need to find out,” affirmed Evan, turning to the agent. “I want the team all over it. Let’s look through everything she did today, again. Inspect all surveillance and communications we can get our hands on.”

“You got it, boss.”

“Thanks.”

“Do you need anything? Coffee?”

“No, I’m good.”

Tony pulled out his cell phone and called the team, relaying the instructions and working out a plan of attack. Evan returned his focus to Nia, resisting the urge to check the time.
How long has she been out?

Finally, the doctor came back to provide an update on her status and the test results.

“Mr. DaCosta? I’m Dr. Gordon. I’ve been overseeing the care of Nia James.”

“Hi, Doc. How is she doing?”

“Well, she has several abrasions and contusions along the right side of her body, likely due to how she landed on the ground. The good news is that we haven’t found any sign that she was hit by the car. X-rays are clear and no fractures that we can find.”

Evan let out a deep breath. He felt a sharp sense of relief.

“But she’s still unconscious,” he stated.

“Yes,” the doctor confirmed. “We’re concerned she may have also hit her head when she landed causing a concussion, and some swelling. It’s still early, so it could also be from the shock of the incident. We’re going to watch her closely for the next couple of hours.”

Evan nodded.

“Thanks, Doc. Can I go see her now?” he asked.

“Yes, that should be fine.”

Now that he knew how Nia was doing and had the team in motion with a plan, Evan was able to turn down the activity in his brain and be in the moment. He sat down in the chair next to her bed, elbows braced on his knees, head hanging low. The reality of what had happened slowly settled, along with a tight knot of dread at the pit of his stomach.

She had almost died. On his watch.

Best-case scenario, she would be in pain for a few days. Worse case? A serious concussion, maybe even a coma. Instead of meeting her at the gallery, being there to protect her, Evan had been on the phone debating her innocence and pretending he had things under control.

Shit!
How had he missed the signs that she was vulnerable and could be in danger? Evan had been so busy trying to control his feelings for her that it had clouded his judgment. And he failed Nia because of it. His stomach sunk deeper, twisting painfully until he felt nauseous. Evan now had a clear sense of how he would feel if anything happened to her, and it hit him hard.

When he finally had the courage to look over at her prone shape, she seemed frighteningly still and lifeless. He reached out to stroke her cheek then froze. Evan could have sworn Nia responded, shifting her head slightly in reaction. He held his breath, heart beating loudly, but nothing further happened. Sitting back in the chair, he took her soft hand into his and began the patient wait for her to wake up.

Less than an hour later, her fingers twitched. Evan was deep in thought and the gesture was so slight that he almost missed it. But she moved again and groaned. He stood up to lean over her bed, squeezing her hand in his.

“Nia? Sweetheart?” whispered Evan.

She blinked, wrinkling her forehead from the effort.

“Evan?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He was so relieved, he felt lightheaded.

“What happened? Where am I?” she asked, looking around.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re in the hospital.”

“What? Why?”

Nia tried to sit up, but Evan gently coaxed her down by the shoulders.

“No, don’t move,” he urged. “There was an accident. A truck ran the red light while you were crossing the street. You were hurt.”

She relaxed back and closed her eyes. Evan roamed his eyes over the length of her body, reevaluating her mobility and checking for signs of other injury.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Weird.” She slowly reached up and touched her forehead.

“You’ve been unconscious for a bit,” he explained. “Are you in pain?”

Nia wrinkled her face again, but her doctor entered the room followed by one of the nurses.

“Nia, we’re glad to see you awake,” the physician stated with a satisfied smile. “I’m Dr. Gordon. How are you feeling?”

She looked around the room, as though finally understanding the situation.

“I don’t know. A little beat up, I guess. Evan said something about a truck while I was crossing the street. What happened?”

Evan gripped her fingers tighter. He was so relieved to see her alert and talking, but hated the confusion and fragility on her face.

“Well, we were hoping you could help us with that,” the doctor replied. “Do you remember anything, Nia?”

“I’m not sure. I saw you across this street,” she explained, looking up into Evan’s eyes. “Then I started across the intersection. You called my name and you were running.”

Evan nodded, encouraging her to continue.

“That’s all I can recall.”

“That’s good, Nia,” stated Dr. Gordon. “The police were concerned it was a hit and run, but your scrapes and bruising suggest you got hurt when you hit the ground, rather than from being hit by the car. So that’s good news. We’re just going to do another exam to make sure we haven’t missed anything.”

“I’ll be right outside,” Evan told her. “Do you need me to call anyone for you?”

She shook her head to say no.

“I’ll call my friend Lianne a little later.”

“Okay.”

He kissed her forehead and left the room.

Outside the door, he looked around feeling a little lost. The nurse had pulled the curtain over the window for privacy so there was nothing to do but wait. Evan walked down the hall where he found a vending machine. Suddenly hungry and thirsty, he bought a sports drink and a protein bar. It was hard to believe it was only after nine o’clock in the evening.

He was back in front of the exam room when his cell phone rang. It was Lucas.

“How’s she doing?” his friend asked right away.

“She’s awake.”

“Good. What’s the doctor saying?”

Evan filled him in on the details.

“Well, I have bad news. Raymond tracked the truck heading toward Cambridge, but lost it after that,” Lucas confirmed.

“Damn it! Any plates?” growled Evan.

“No.”

Evan cursed roughly, his fist clenched tight.

“Tony said you think it was someone at the gallery?”.

“We have two viable scenarios,” explained Evan. “Either she was involved from the beginning and she’s another loose end, like Flannigan. Which means she wasn’t the ringleader. Or she’s not involved, but discovered something about the robbery that puts the plan at risk. Either way, someone wants her out of the picture.”

“By trying to run her over?” Lucas questioned. “Doesn’t have the same M.O. as the person that took out the security guard, Ice. That was at least semiprofessional. This is amateur hour.”

“I agree. They wanted it to look like an accident, but it was sloppy.”

“And why now?” continued Lucas. “We’re still going through her day to figure that out, but I’m sending you an audio file.”

Evan heard a message indicator on the cell phone.

“She definitely spoke with St. Clair on her cell phone in the morning,” continued Lucas.

“Anything valuable?” Evan asked.

“From her side of the conversation, it corroborates your second theory,” explained Lucas. “Nia called St. Clair after the fact, to see if he could find out anything about the robbery.”

“Did he know anything?” Evan asked, rubbing his forehead.

“Hard to say. She’s clearly worried that someone in the office was setting her up for the fall,” Lucas concluded. “Listen to the audio. I don’t think Nia had any involvement in the robbery.”

Evan nodded. After everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, he wasn’t surprised.

“What about Edward? Have we notified him yet? She’ll have to be off work for a few days at least,” suggested Evan.

“Yeah, Mike called him almost immediately,” Lucas confirmed. “We told him that one of our agents was on-site as part of our investigation, and we’re looking into any connection to the theft.”

“Good.”

“Do you need anything”? Lucas added. “Do you want me to come out there? I can take the chopper and be there in a few hours.”

“Nah, I’m good. I need you at headquarters tracking down this asshole,” replied Evan, running a hand through his hair. “He won’t have another opportunity to get her. That, I promise.”

“We’ll get him, Ice. He’s revealed himself and we’ll get him.”

They hung up soon after. Evan then called the team to give them the update on Nia.

“Mr. DaCosta?”

He turned to find the doctor behind him.

“How is she?” he asked.

“Pretty good, considering. There’s no sign of any other injuries so it seems she managed to move out of the way in time.”

Evan sucked in a deep breath and dropped his head in relief.

“We’re still concerned about the possibility of a concussion, so we’d like to keep her overnight for observation,” continued the doctor. “We’re moving her to a more comfortable room. But otherwise, she should be fine to leave in the morning.”

Both men turned as an orderly pulled Nia’s bed out of the exam room and headed down the hall.

“Thank you, Doc. That’s very good news,” Evan stated as he shook the other man’s hand.

They had Nia settled in a hospital room a short while later. Evan managed to talk to her briefly, offering to go to her apartment to grab toiletries and a change of clothes. Tony met him at the hospital to provide a ride to Evan’s car, still parked downtown. Evan then stopped by the hotel to pack a bag before driving to Nia’s place in South Boston.