Irish Throwdown (What Happens In Vegas Book 4) by Matt Lincoln (short books for teens .TXT) 📕

Clive nodded. “I thought it was weird at the time, but the liquidation company never said anything about being based in the US, so I just kinda brushed it off. Seems stupid now in hindsight.”

Well, at least now, we could be sure that the bottles hadn’t come from the factory on the east coast that their serial numbers seemed to imply. It was becoming evident that these were complete counterfeits shipped here from overseas.

“You stay here with him,” I instructed Junior before heading off to the backroom of the store. It was about the size of a walk-in closet. Shelves laden with boxes and packages lined every wall of the room.

The box that Clive had been talking about was tucked into a far corner of the room, and I could see from a distance that it was filled with bandages, cotton balls, and other medical supplies, just as Clive had mentioned. A quarter of the box was also filled with stacks of cough syrup bottles. I turned the box around in an attempt to find the mailing label and froze when my eyes landed on a shockingly familiar symbol.

“There’s no way,” I muttered angrily to myself. Just to the side of the mailing label, stamped on the box in clear, black ink, was the infamous flower symbol we’d run into time and time again.

12

Junior

“It’s like some kind of sick, twisted joke at this point,” Charlie growled as he buried his head in his hands.

We were back at the office, and we’d brought the rest of the bottles back so Fiona could examine them, but they’d all turned up the same. We’d also handed the other medical supplies over to Howard so he could check them from anything suspicious, but so far, it seemed that only the cough syrup was affected. We’d reported what we’d discovered about the flower symbol and the return address in Ireland to Wallace, and he’d been holed up in his office making preparations ever since. Charlie had been furious upon discovering the symbol, and his rage hadn’t let up since.

“It really does seem like a twisted joke, actually,” I mused aloud. Miranda, Naomi, Charlie, and I had gathered around in the bullpen, trading our thoughts and theories on the case. “I mean, doesn’t it seem a bit too obvious? It’s not like they’ve been very subtle so far, leaving that mark all over everything, but plastering it on the side of a box like that? It almost seems like they’re taunting us.”

“I think they are,” Naomi frowned. “Well, perhaps not us, specifically, but maybe law enforcement in general? Think about it. Whoever did this went through a lot of effort to ensure that the laced drugs would make it to that store. Why would they leave such an obvious sign unless it was deliberate?”

“Maybe they’re just stupid,” Miranda scoffed. “I’ve been asking myself that same question ever since we became aware of them. What kind of moron leaves their mark all over the evidence of their crimes? It’s like admitting you did it.”

“Someone who thinks they’ll never be caught,” I responded. “It’s been a year since they first fell onto our radar, and we still haven’t tracked them down, despite constantly finding evidence of their crimes. They’re clearly not that stupid if they can keep leaving that stupid symbol everywhere while still evading us.”

I could tell that everyone was on edge. We felt angry and humiliated that we’d been bested once again. Somehow, this suspect had released a deadly drug into our own home city without us even realizing it. There was no way this wasn’t some kind of taunt.

“Agent Chapman, Agent Hills!” Wallace called from the entrance to his office. “Could I speak with you, please?”

I stood tiredly and headed into his office, Charlie trailing closely behind me. I felt a little uncomfortable, as if I’d just been summoned to the principal’s office. I’d never felt that way around Wallace before, not even when I’d gotten in trouble for stepping into the line of fire during a hostage negotiation. It was just a testament to how tense everyone was that everything felt so different now.

“You’ll be heading to Ireland tomorrow,” he announced without preamble almost as soon as we’d stepped into the office. I hadn’t even sat down yet before he’d begun speaking. “I’m sorry, but I won’t be able to allow you the usual day off before a large-scale mission this time. This situation has grown worse.”

I wasn’t disappointed, but I was surprised. Wallace always made a point of having us prioritize spending time with our families and not overworking ourselves. The fact that he was shipping us out on such short notice was cause for alarm.

“What happened?” Charlie asked seriously.

“There have been three new attacks in the last twelve hours,” he answered gravely. “And the police have been able to connect an additional four attacks that occurred in the last three months to the current case. Even though we’ve collected all the bottles from the store they were originating from, we can’t be certain that whoever did this won’t try again with a different store or a different product. We need to catch this guy as quickly as possible.”

“Of course,” I nodded.

“Thank you for understanding,” Wallace replied, looking genuinely sorry. “It’s not much, but I’ll let you two have the rest of the day off. You’ll be leaving tomorrow at around mid-day, so try to get some rest. Agents Patel and Castillo will remain here to assist the police as we get new cases.”

“Understood,” I responded as I stood to take my leave. Charlie followed me out, and together we returned to the bullpen where everyone else was gathered.

“What did he say?” Miranda asked as soon as I’d sat back down. She’d sat up straight the moment she’d noticed us approaching, obviously eager for an update. “He sounded upset.”

“We’re heading to Ireland tomorrow,” I explained. “I think he was upset because there have been three more attacks just today.”

“Seriously?” Miranda gasped.