Chapter 31
Though returning to her house that night felt a bit creepy, Lynn decided there was no other way to do it. What she’d just gone through was a traumatic event, yes, and she planned to pursue the appropriate therapy, but for now she needed to find a way to feel safe in her own home.
She declined Mike’s offers for further security, and though it looked like it pained him to hear her say no, he respected her choice. In Lynn’s mind, there was a fine line between being safe and choosing to live in fear. Lynn was determined to never live in fear.
She slept surprisingly well that night, with no dreams or nightmares to disrupt her slumber. In the morning, she was awakened by a call from Mike. He offered again to set up security measures for her, and she assured him again that she was fine.
“None of those things would’ve prevented what Lenny did,” she told him.
“But I could’ve found you sooner.”
She smiled. The only security measure she needed was him. “You found me all the same.”
He didn’t have a response to this, and said he’d let her get on with her day.
Unfortunately for Lynn, the story broke that night on the evening news. They talked about the pension scheme, the connection to the mob stretching all the way to New York City, and how an unfortunate artist had been kidnapped.
Thankfully, Lynn wasn’t named in the story, but everyone who knew her knew exactly what had happened.
Not at first, of course. Apparently when she didn’t get to her art show on time, people theorized that she had cold feet or that she was being purposefully dramatic.
But Lynn’s friends, who were eagerly waiting for her there, knew that wasn’t the case. They knew that she would never do something so inconsiderate, no matter how nervous she was.
They tried calling her phone, and when they couldn’t get through to her, they asked police to do a wellness check on her home. The officers found her front door open, but that her car and purse had been left behind. They’d been looking for her, too. Lynn couldn’t believe how lucky she was.
Her phone was constantly abuzz with messages and calls. She felt bad, but her instinct was to ignore them all for now. It was too overwhelming, and she needed to talk to her daughter before anyone else told her what had happened.
She gave June a call first thing and started with, “Everything is fine, but I need to tell you about something odd that happened.”
Despite her careful explanation, June still started crying and insisted on coming out to see her.
Lynn told her it wasn’t necessary, but she wasn’t going to argue against a visit. June said she’d pack and get in the car, and true to her word, she arrived a short four hours later.
They had a wonderful weekend together. Mike called her again on Sunday to check in, but insisted that he didn’t want to take up her family time. This, of course, piqued June’s interest.
“First you don’t tell me about your kidnapping, and now you don’t tell me that you have a male caller?”
Lynn laughed. “What is there to tell? He’s an old friend from the FBI.”
“An old friend.” June smiled. “Well, I’d like to meet him some time.”
“Perhaps you will.”
June debated taking Monday off to spend more time with her, but after Lynn promised to keep herself out of any further trouble, she decided to go home.
“But,” she added, “I’ll come and visit again soon.”
Lynn was happy with that, though for the next visit, she wanted to see her son-in-law, too.
On Monday, Lynn got a call from the investigators. They wanted to reassure her that she was no longer in any danger. She wasn’t sure how much they knew about Mike, so she didn’t bring him up, but they said that Lenny essentially blabbed everything to them.
“It was almost a race,” the agent told her, “to see which of them would rat the others out fastest.”
Apparently, when her art started being noticed by Stormy Gallery, Jared thought she could be a useful new tool for laundering money. He planned to involve her in a scheme by hyper-inflating the price of her paintings and offering her the usual small cut of the sales.
But after looking into her background and finding out that she was ex-FBI, he got worried. He went to Benzini, who assured him that he’d take care of it. Then Benzini made the unfortunate mistake of trusting Lenny with the task of getting rid of her.
Unfortunate for them, but not for Lynn. She didn’t want to know what would’ve happened if all of Benzini’s “best” guys weren’t busy with the state treasurer deal. She doubted she would’ve survived.
