Page 105 of Tightrope

But she wasn’t alone, she reminded herself. Hazel was upstairs. It wouldn’t be long before Matthias returned from his meeting with Luther. She was looking forward to spending the evening with him. Things had been moving so quickly in the past few days that they had not had much time to simply be together. Time to get to know each other. Time to talk.

On second thought, maybe talking was not such a good idea. Whatif the conversation did not go well? What if Matthias told her that his work in Burning Cove was done? What if he hung around for a while, got bored, packed his bag, and drove away? Maybe forever.

She really did not want to contemplate that possibility. She refused to consider it. He had said he wanted to stay in Burning Cove. She would take him at his word. She trusted him.

And in that moment the reality of what had happened slammed across her senses.

I love him.

Her glance fell on the grocery receipt. She needed to distract herself, and there was work to be done. She finished the tea, picked up the receipt, and left the kitchen. She went down the hall to the front desk.

The door to the small office was ajar. She pushed it open, walked into the shadowed space, and leaned down to switch on the desk lamp.

The light came on, illuminating the top of the desk.

The necklace of black beads was coiled like a snake on the green blotter.

Chapter 57

Luther dropped the receiver back into the cradle.

“You probably heard enough from my end of the conversation to know that Grainger is not happy,” he said.

“Can’t blame him.” Matthias propped his elbows on the arms of the leather chair and put his fingers together. “No self-respecting director of a clandestine government agency would be thrilled with the press that the Burning Cove Police Department is getting this week. Detective Brandon and his officers are making headlines as the heroes who recovered a top secret encryption device and shut down a ring of gunrunners.”

They were in Luther’s private quarters above the Paradise Club. He had listened to Luther’s side of the conversation with Grainger because Luther had insisted he remain in the room while he took the call.

“He knows it’s too late to do anything about the story,” Luther said. “He’s just lucky that his people managed to collect Lorraine Pierce and the Ares machine from the FBI in Los Angeles this morning. The Bureau was probably not happy about that turn of events.”

“Maybe J. Edgar Hoover didn’t put up much of a fight,” Matthias said.

Luther’s mouth twisted in a wry smile. “You may be right. Hoover probably figured out right away that this situation wouldn’t reflect well on the FBI. The fact that a rogue spy turned gunrunner was able to operate for years without drawing the Bureau’s attention is a trifle embarrassing.”

“True. As Amalie said, no agency comes out of this mess looking good.”

Luther got to his feet and went to stand at the open French doors. He contemplated the sun-warmed gardens below the terrace.

“Grainger is, of course, relieved that Failure Analysis recovered the Ares machine, but he’s annoyed because Smith is dead and, therefore, not available for questioning.”

“What about Lorraine Pierce?”

“Grainger is afraid she won’t be of much use to him.”

“She’s a professional killer. There’s no telling how many people she took out over the years. But it’s true that Grainger won’t get a lot of information about Smith from her. As far as she was concerned he was just her number one client. She never realized that he was actually her boss.”

“Smith was good,” Luther said. “Very, very good.”

“Not as good as you,” Matthias said. “He didn’t see through your cover until the very end.”

“Or yours. Most people, even former spies, see what they expect to see. In our case that happens to be a nightclub owner who is a mob boss and his associate who is also an underworld figure. Why look deeper?”

Matthias pushed himself up out of the chair and went to stand beside Luther. The golden sun warmed the land and sparkled on the Pacific. Just another perfect day in the fantasy that was California.

So why was he suddenly feeling so uneasy?

“Considering that Grainger is personally responsible for destroyingyour career and taking over the department that you created,” he said, “I don’t think he has any right to criticize the outcome of the Ares case.”

“Oddly enough, that did not stop him from making his irritation known,” Luther said.

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