Page 83 of Tightrope

“Just to be clear,” Matthias said, “Luther and me getting killed isn’t part of the plan.”

“Wow. I’m really happy to hear that, of course. Tell me, what makes you think that Smith will fall for this scheme you and Luther have concocted?”

“There is every reason to believe that Smith is a desperate man.”

“You don’t know that.” Amalie spread her hands apart. “You don’t even know who he is.”

“We don’t know his identity, but we know a lot about him,” Matthias said. “It’s a little like understanding how a cipher machine is wired. Once you figure it out, you’ve got a shot at deciphering a message that is encrypted by the device.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Amalie asked quietly.

“If we’re wrong, Smith won’t take the bait,” Matthias said. “He’ll disappear again.”

Amalie contemplated the moonlit ocean. “You think he’ll take the bait, don’t you?”

“If Luther is right about him, he won’t be able to resist,” Matthias said.

“Desperate men are very dangerous. Also unpredictable.”

“I feel like a walk on the beach. How about you?”

She did not want to let him out of her sight, not until she knew he was safe, and maybe not then, either. The more she thought about it the more certain she was that she wanted him close for as long as she could hold on to him.

“A walk sounds good,” she said.

He got out from behind the wheel, went to the back of the car, and opened the trunk. When he came around to her side of the vehicle to open her door, she saw that he had a blanket tucked under one arm.

“I thought we were going to walk,” she said, indicating the blanket.

“This is just in case we find ourselves exhausted by the hike.”

“Must be the engineer in you,” she said, slipping out of the seat.

His fingers closed firmly around her hand. “We are trained to plan ahead for all possible eventualities.”

They walked across the sand to the water’s edge. There they turned and made their way toward the rocky outcropping at the far end of the beach. The soft breeze stirred Amalie’s hair and played with the hemof her trousers. She did not want to talk about the past. The present, with its dangerous scheme to draw Smith out of hiding, had already been discussed. That left the most uncertain topic of all—the future.

“When this situation involving the missing cipher machine is over, will you continue to do consulting work for Luther Pell’s company?” she asked.

“My parents, especially my mother, are pushing me to go home to Seattle and join the family firm.”

“You really don’t want to do that, do you?”

“The thing about my consulting work is that when I’m in the field I am my own boss. I make my own decisions. All Luther cares about is results. If I take the position at my family’s firm, it will be different. I won’t be able to use my talent the way I do now.”

“So you’ll continue taking assignments from Luther?”

“I like the kind of work I do for Luther but I’m tired of being on the road all the time. I’ve spent the past few years living out of suitcases and sleeping in hotel rooms. Some of those hotels were very nice but none of them feels like a home.”

“I spent most of my life on the road, too. I bunked in train cars, not in nice hotels, but it was fine. It was a life that allowed me to fly. I had friends and a family. It wasn’t until I bought the villa and turned it into an inn that I finally discovered what it was like to have a real home. Somewhere along the way I’ve come to realize that even if I could fly again I wouldn’t go back to the circus life. Burning Cove is where I want to be.”

“I love my Dad and I respect him, but it would not be a good idea for me to go to work for him,” Matthias said. “I think he knows that as well as I do. Pretty sure Mom knows it isn’t a good plan, too, but, well, she’s my mom.”

“Does she know that the consulting work you do is sometimes dangerous?”

“She knows and she understands but it makes her nervous. She’s more concerned about my talent, though. She’s afraid that it has madeit impossible for me to ever find someone I can really trust, someone I can love. Someone with whom I can have a family. She’s afraid I’ll become a paranoid recluse.”

“Does she have a particular reason for believing that might happen?”

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