Chapter 5
Mike was glad that Lynn agreed to see him again, and frankly, a bit surprised. Years ago, when he found out that he’d missed her retirement while he was on an assignment, it felt like a punch in the gut.
At the same time, he’d known that it was probably for the best. She’d put in her time, twenty years of it, and deserved the pension and the break. Only idiots like Mike kept coming back for more, year after year, each assignment more dangerous than the last. Lincoln once told Mike that he couldn’t decide if he was insane or an idiot. Mike told him it was a mix of both.
Lynn deserved a better life than that. Mike always knew that she was interested in doing undercover assignments – mostly in the world of fine art crime – but he did his best to dissuade her. It was dangerous, and it just wasn’t an easy life. She had a daughter to think about. The Bureau had ended up cutting funding for art crime, too. The glamour wasn’t in it, at least not for the Neds of the world.
At the same time, he understood that her undercover aspirations were probably the only reason she ever talked to him, so he was happy to tell her about his misadventures as long as it kept her interested.
He would do anything to keep her interested. Mike loved spending time with her, almost to the point of making a fool of himself. He made excuses, insisting they needed to work together on projects. He worried at times that she might catch on to him, but it wasn’t his fault that Lynn was utterly enchanting.
Mike was convinced that she held a key to the universe – she could make time disappear. An hour with her passed more quickly than popping a bag of popcorn. He was completely lost in her presence. It was something that had puzzled him for years.
He tried to remind himself that despite that fact – and maybe because of it – Lynn didn’t deserve to have his clumsy attentions thrust onto her.
Beyond that, his life had never been suitable for any woman. Most of the long-haul undercover agents didn’t have families, or they didn’t manage to keep them together long.
And yet…
There was thatonetime. They were pulling an all-nighter, working on forged transcripts for an undercover operation. The lack of sleep had gotten to him. Or maybe it was just the way that she looked after they left the building, the way the rising sun had reflected off of her hair…
He didn’t know what got into him. He kissed her. He knew that she was seeing someone, and he did it anyway.
He immediately regretted it, and when an undercover assignment was offered to him the next week, he took it.
When she retired, it really was the perfect end. He should’ve left it at that, but he just couldn’t. She was constantly on his mind, filling his thoughts and his dreams. He sent her a card, to which she never responded. He took the hint.
Until now, that is.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have asked to see her again. But if she’d wanted to avoid him, she could’ve just said so. She had no issue with making fun of his wig. Surely she had no issue telling him to buzz off if she couldn’t stand him.
They had a nice time at dinner that night, and, he reminded himself, she trusted him enough to safely get her back across the pitch-black sea.
That was a big thing, trust. The first time that he worked with her on a case, there was no trust between them. Mike was arrogant then, young and full of untested skill and folly. He had insisted that the replica pendant she was making should be gold-plated to save time and money.
He was wrong, of course – her fourteen-karat creation ended up being perfect, and indistinguishable from the original – and boy did she let him know how wrong he was. She made a second replica to his specifications, just to show him how bad it looked.
Lynn had an eye for that sort of detail. She could make anything, even counterfeit money or handwritten notes with perfectly replicated handwriting. Lynn was an expert. He quickly learned that he could trust her, and trust any documents or identifications that she made, with his life.
When he got back home that night after dropping her off, he couldn’t resist. He did the FBI agent equivalent of snooping – he ran a background check. While he didn’t have access to the same systems he used to have at the FBI, it did the trick.
June, her daughter, was married and living in Portland in a modest home. Her wedding pictures were all over the internet. Lynn looked nice at the ceremony. She’d worn flowers in her hair.
After her retirement, it seemed that Lynn had lived with someone for a short six months – a man named Frances.
Mike looked into him extensively. He was a wealthy business owner, originally from Idaho, who made his fortune after creating a company that manufactured conductive materials.
Not the most exciting guy. No wonder Lynn broke up with him. That didn’t show up on the background check, of course, but Mike assumed as much. Lynn was a restless spirit, like him. They’d connected on that.
Or at least, that’s what Mike liked to think. After many hours spent together, combing over details or creating realistic replicas, he started to feel confused. Did they really share something, or did her warm and easy-going manner trick him into believing that?
Nottrickedhim – Lynn was not a deceitful person. But it messed with his head, to be sure. When he had gotten his first undercover assignment, he didn’t see or hear from her for months.
He thought that it might help him straighten out his head to focus on work, to focus on the job. But she was in and out of his thoughts the entire time, and as soon as he was back in the office, all he could think about was an excuse to work with her again.
They spent a lot of time together between his assignments. Unfortunately, when he got back from his second undercover assignment, Lynn had a new boyfriend, a guy also at the FBI, working as an accountant.
Not a thrilling occupation, to be sure, but Mike got the hint. She wasn’t interested in him. She probably never was. He tried to keep his distance.
But now? Fate had brought them together again, it seemed. It was nice to catch up. And she told him that there was a gallery she wanted to visit in Seattle – there was a new show that weekend. He offered to pick her up in Bellingham and fly into the city so that they’d miss the traffic. She had liked the sound of that and agreed.
Lynn did have one condition for him, though. He wasn’t allowed to come in disguise. “I don’t want to just be used as part of one of your ploys again,” she’d said.
What did she mean, “again”? Mike was caught off guard at the time, but the phrase had been repeating in his head ever since.
Mike had never used her, not once. If anything, he looked for excuses to be near her. She made him feel illogical, irrational. It wasn’t her fault. It was entirely his. Lynn was always professional.
But he agreed to her terms, and that Saturday, in a small seaplane he borrowed from his friend Marcus, undisguised Mike Grady took off from Friday Harbor.
