Chapter 15

“I’m home!” He calls, opening the door to his modest apartment. When no one replies him, he only sighs, removes his shoes, placing them neatly at the side, and walks into the apartment. It, like always, is kept in its perfect and neat condition –just as how he would like it.

He places his groceries on the counter in the middle of the kitchen, and removes his coat, hanging it on the rack at the corridor leading towards the living area. He finds the living area empty, and raises a brow. His housemate has always met him here.

He turned down another corridor from the living area, towards the bedrooms and finds light emanating from one of the rooms. He smiles faintly to himself, walking towards the lit-up room. The door is open, and he stands at the doorway, watching another man hunched over the desk, seemingly to be engrossed.

“This would be a perfect time for me to catch you red-handed doing a crime.” He cleared his throat loudly, lips tilted up slightly in amusement as he watched the man at the desk jump up in shock, spinning around to glare at him.

Baby blue translucent eyes with shape extremely similar to his shot through him like a bullet from a gun, then the man at the desk turned back to his work.

“I almost have it done. Leave me alone, Rain.”

“You don’t want dinner?”

“Not until I finish, so leave me alone. And close the door behind you.”

“You’re being awfully rude and secretive. Are you planning a con?” The man at the doorway asked suspiciously.

Again, he was glared at, this time with more incredulousy than actual anger. The man at the desk with blue eyes of a lighter shade shook his head in exasperation.

“Turn off your FBI mode, Mr. Clarke, and leave me to my official work. I don’t have to con for a living, you know.”

He rolled his eyes, leaning against the door frame. “Well, you were a con. And you did help me in many cases, which had me wondering if you regained your con skills again.” He explained.

The man at the desk sighed in exasperation this time, then turned back to his paper, grabbing his pen with his left hand –the only hand he had left. It was mostly dark in the room –save the desk lamp turned on –but even from the doorway, Rainer could see the missing limb of his housemate. The man at the desk had no right arm –lost by a painful accident that they were better off forgetting. He was also wheelchair-bound for life, having had injured his head substantially during the accident, and causing the loss of use of his legs.

Constant physiotherapy had regained only very minimal usage of his legs, and so far, he could stand only with heavy support. Both men had been disheartened by this knowledge, but neither had given up hope so far. They believed, with faith, that one day, he would be standing and walking again.

“Are you really that free? Go on, make me dinner!” The guy at the desk hadn’t heard any shuffling of feet, which meant that Rainer Clarke hadn’t moved from the doorway.

“Since I was late, I decided to pick up take-outs. How do you like Chinese dry noodles for the night?”

“Chinese dry noodles are lousy excuse for noodles doused in oil and fats, Rain. Do you want me to die of heart disease?”

Rainer laughed at the disgust in that tone of voice. There had been countless of times which his housemate would complain and proclaim that he would never eat oily, unhealthy food, but end up craving for them all.

“Trust me, you would have died long ago if it was that easy. Come out quick, or the noodle will turn cold.” He informed, returning to his daily household chores of keeping the place clean. It was stereotypical to think FBI agents and investigators as messy people who found their inspiration from their mountains of messiness, but it had never applied to Rainer. Rainer could never stand any form of messiness and tended to get a little OCD sometimes with overall house cleanliness. Of course, he had to make the environment friendly to his wheel-chaired friend, but most of the reasons he cleaned up was just because of his OCD setting in.

While he unpacked the grocery, his mind could not help but drift away to a recent memory.

She was on the phone, flashing him a pissed off look. She was discussing the help a con artist would lend her. He found it funny how FBI agents –especially from New York’s White Collar Division –were always tied up with never-ending rounds of cons. He thought he was the special agent with dealings with cons every other day. Turned out Annabel Francis won him in that sector.

The fact that he lived with an ex-con was now overshadowed by the fact that her boyfriend was an ex-con, also his CI, and the one taking care of her right now was a con that stood proudly at the top of New York’s FBI’s most-wanted list. He knew it mattered none to him that Jeremy was out in the open, for Jeremy had never been part of his case, but he knew a bunch of colleagues who would be willing to kill to hunt down Jeremy.

Annabel Francis. She had spoken of her past with such shame. It was initially hard to believe that an FBI agent like her –someone as efficient in closing cases as her –used to be a con. But the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Only cons thought with the efficiency and clarity as cons do. How else does Hayden and Annabel close cases so quickly and efficiently? They had the con mindset; the mindset which most FBI agents like they needed.

It was understandable why she so desperately wanted to keep a secret, and it struck him weird why she would confess it to him. Did she really need his help? He still could not shake the feeling that there was something Hayden and Anna were hiding from him. Whatever it was, Jeremy most probably was part of it. The problem of Hayley Seyfried did not seem as simple to him.

But why Anna? Why an ex-con? What did she have to do with everything? From what evidence he has already gotten about her past as a con, it appeared to him that she was just a simple low-leveled con. Annabel had once tried her hand at a large con, but seemed to back out last minute. The only reason she joined FBI was that she pissed the wrong people off. She was just a normal con, met with the wrong people, and changed her profession.

Why Anna? Why was she pulled in the middle of Hayden-Hayley conflict? Was it purely coincidence that their relationship came out in the open when Hayley returned to New York? Was it purely coincidence that they fell in love when Hayley returned to New York? Was it purely coincidence that Hayden fell in love with Annabel a few weeks after she came in –coincidentally, around the period of time Hayley made herself known to Hayden?

He left his grocery at the counter, half unpacked and took his house phone off the wall, punching a few buttons.

“Hey, Kendal? This is Rainer. Rainer Clarke.” He almost forgot to call his agent by first names. He had been so used to thinking Kendal as agent Ryan, that he almost called him by last name through the phone. It would be rude, but Rainer Clarke was not the best of a socialite.

“Boss? Why are you calling at this time? And not by your work phone?”

“I need a favor. Can you help me find details on Jeremy Stiles? I need a tap on his latest phone conversation. Something is going down with Hayden, and I don’t like it.”

“Off the radar, Boss?” Kendal Ryan was always ready to help on research, no matter the time of the day. That was why Ryan had been on his team for as long as he could remember. Ryan was meticulous, and efficient, something Rainer needed desperately in many agents.

“Yes. I don’t want to alert anyone.”

“But what as Stiles to do with Hayden?”

“I don’t know. That’s what I need to know.”

“You got it, Boss. When do you need it by?”

“ASAP.”

“No problem. I’ll send it over once I have it done.”

“Thanks, Kendal.”

“No problem, Boss.”

He hung the phone back on the cradle on the wall, wondering if he should be doing this. Hayden was his friend. Much as a close friendship between CI and agent were discouraged (just in case the CI went rogue), he had made close friendship with Hayden. Should he be doing this, betraying Hayden’s trust in him? But knowing Hayden, Seyfried would most probably blow his top if he suggested that his sister was trying to kill his girlfriend.

There was nothing more than his family that Hayden was sensitive about. And in the entire Seyfried family, there was only him and Hayley left.

“Tapping in on Jeremy Stiles? Did he not leave New York already?” His housemate surprised him, and he spun around –feeling strangely guilty, for no apparent reason at all –to see the man already wheeled out of his room, at the doorway of the kitchen with a pleasantly curious look.

“Apparently not. I met him today, talked to him; even.” He replied, rushing back to his groceries and putting everything in their rightful place. His housemate watched him with careful eyes as he put away the items, and he felt as if he were on surveillance. Trying not to portray a guilty side of him, he made his movements as natural as possible, but it was hard to do it while keeping in mind to actually keep his movements natural.

“Stop shaking like a god-damned leaf, Rain. I’m not your boss Barrett, and I’m certainly not a con planning to steal your goodies. Not like you have any goodies worthy of my stealing anway.” His housemate scolded all of a sudden, and he stopped midway of transfering the chinese takeout from it’s box to a plate.

“I’m not shaking.” He lied, but FBI agents were not good at lying, and they both knew it.

“Lying is what I’m good at, Rain. Don’t try to do it. Now can I have my food?” His housemate wheeled over to his side with a now-trained strong left arm spinning the wheel strongly. His housemate reached to the counter and grabbed the edge of the plate meant for him, sliding it across the counter and finally down on his lap in a practiced movement.

“I’ll be waiting for you patiently at the living room for you to come out and explain to me what’s happening that has gotten you so worked up, Rain.” His housemate wheeled away without a second word, leaving him staring at the head of dark black hair slowly disappearing around the corner.

He took his time making his own bowl of salad, and finally plucked up enough courage, finally pulled his thoughts together enough and walked into the living area, finding his housemate already finished with his own meal. Silence chewed them as he walked to sit across his housemate, leaning forwards.

“Not eating a full dinner?” His housemate raised a brow at the contents in his bowl.

“I had it outside.” He replied, thinking of the spaghetti that Jeremy had made for him. The number one con of New York had made dinner for him. He realised that he should feel honored.

“Right. Now tell me everything. It has to have something to do with your current case. It always is.”

He looks up at his housemate in surprise, eyes of dark blue widening in shock.

“I don’t have a case now, Nick.”

The now-named housemate only grinned. “Then it must be about Hayden.”

He slapped a hand on his forehead. He should have known. Nick was a con. Once a con, always a con. But he could trust Nick. He knew he could trust Nick. Nick only trusted him, and he knew Nick was one of the very few people he could trust. Even handicapped, Nick could do many things with just that mouth. But he knew he could trust this man in his life.

“Yes, it’s about Hayden. You got me.”

“Go on. You have my interest.”

“Hayden’s sister is back in New York. Annabel Francis and Hayden are a couple now –they announced it only a few days ago –and Anna wants to work with me behind Hayden’s back to get his sister away from him. We think she wants to get Hayden back into conning, and Anna in the perfect line of sight for her.”

Nick put on a thoughtful face. “Get Anna to betray Hayden, and make Hayden hate FBI. Seems like something Hayley Seyfried would do.”

He gave his handicapped housemate another surprised look. “You know Hayden’s sister?”

Nick nodded cryptically. “When I was a con. But you shouldn’t deviate from your confession. Go on.”

“I was dropped by Anna’s place. Turns out she isn’t the perfect FBI. You were also curious as to how she could solve so many cases in such quick timing. You thought she was rogue, or she had deffered. But turns out she used to be a con –like you. She turned CI years ago, then signed herself to FBI afterwards. That’s how she solves these cases. She has a mind of cons.”

“Once a con… always a con.”

“You can’t believe that. You’re not a con anymore.”

Nick laughed, a laughter that was missed for quite sometime now since he began working as a temporary lawyer. Rainer had not seen much of a smile since the conman took to a law firm, much less heard a single bit of laughter. It made him warm inside to know that no matter what, Rainer was still the one to make Nick laugh.

“Rain, once a con, always a con. I’m a lawyer, but I am still a con inside. Hayden may claim to have abstained, but I know you’ve closed one eye over some of his not-so-legal activities. Cons don’t quit willingly. We all have our ways of diverting our skills elsewhere, but we still think, move and talk like con. I’m sure this Annabel of yours is no different.”

“But Annabel is the only one who became a FBI after turning over a new leaf.” He protested.

“So is Hayden.”

“Hayden is different. Hayden was forced to be a CI.”

“I’m sure you’ve heard of a million CI cases gone bad, Rainer. What makes Hayden and you different? Friendship. Annabel found her own way of staying in the FBI, but deep down, we are all still cons.”

“Say she is still a con. She cannot get past FBI’s checks. We’re bound to find something off about her.”

“But cons can work through other cons. Say that Hayley works through Anna. You never know –Hayley might have placed Anna there to make Hayden regain his conning skills, to make Hayden realise how he still love to con. I’m sure if someone forces me to con –giving me a good reason and excuse to –I’ll switch right back to being a con instantly.”

“You wouldn’t, Nick. You wouldn’t switch.”

The man with one arm and no use of his legs smiled and shook his head sadly.

“Conning is like a disease. It’s like a drug. You can take yourself off it once in a while, you can force yourself to go in rehabilitation. But if someone forces it into you again, you’re hooked again. You can’t stop it. Someone bumps into you by their own fault, and the next thing you know –you have their wallet in your hands. Someone asks you for your personal information –the next thing you know, you’ve crafted a new identity for yourself, and you have a perfect backstory for this new identity. You can’t stop cons from conning, Rain. You can only take them off it temporarily.”

“So you’re saying that Anna could have been placed there by Hayley. Why would she approach me for help and protection from Hayley then?” He nodded at the sudden enlightenment of the situations all conmen and conwomen faced. Was conning really so addictive? He hardly thought conning being akin to taking drugs. Drugs and cons were different things… but could they be on the same level of addictions?

“She could be taking the chance to get close to you. She could have gotting on bad terms with Hayley after she got together with Hayden. She could have really fallen in love with Hayden, and respects his idea of staying FBI. Either that, or she really doesn’t know Hayley and needs severe help.”

He mentally jotted down the inner workings of a con’s mind, keeping all the options open at the moment. He thanked the stars that he decided to tell Nick about his situation. Cons naturally thought of every single possibility, and Nick was no different no matter how changed he was.

“Thanks. You’ve given me good basis for research.” He said, beginning on his untouched salad. Nick watched him in silence for a long moment, watching him wolf down the vegetable, then spoke up after a long while.

“Hayley wouldn’t.”

“Pardon?” He asked, surprised at the sudden concession from Nick.

“I said, Hayley wouldn’t. Hayley loves Hayden more than her own life. She is willing to die for him. She will never crush him so heartlessly.” Nick’s light blue eyes were looking far away, staring into space, but the words were still coming. He wasn’t sure if Nick was still with him, but he took the chance to ask questions.

“How do you know? Then what would Hayley do?”

“Hayley would… get down personally to know what Hayden wants. She betrayed him seven years ago and left him alone. She’s back to apologise and she’s back to stay by Hayden’s side. She would want to know if Hayden has it in him to accept her again. She would get to him personally to ask. If Hayden truly wants to stay in the FBI, Anna and you are both safe. If Hayden wants to return…… they will have worked together to get him out of FBI legally before making him disappear. They will come back with a bang.”

He returned his next mouthful of uneaten vegetable back in the bowl, looking in shock deep into the eyes of light blue, far away eyes.

“Nick? How do you know all this? How do you know about Hayley and how she left Hayden?”

Suddenly, blue eyes snapped back into reality, meeting his without fear. A million colours flashed past those scary eyes, and he saw many emotions there, all mixed and pent up.

“I was a close acquaintance of Hayley’s before the accident. I was with her when she left Hayden. But I lost contact with her after the accident. We never talked.”

Before he could ask more, Nick set the plate down on the low table at his side and rolled himself away. It was an obvious sign that there was nothing more he would confess, and Rainer knew more than to chase and ask for more. Nick rolled himself into his room and the door closed gently, leaving Rainer confused.

He knew Nick had things to hide, but since six and a half years ago, there had never been anyone or anything of Nick’s past chasing up to them. Six and a half years ago, he had found that Nick had been in an accident. He made a reluctant trip down to St Louis, but after he reached, and saw the state that Nick was in, there was no more reservations on his side. He took Nick in, and since they only had each other left, they took care of each other.

He never asked about Nick’s past, Nick’s life as a con. He knew Nick would never tell him anything, and he had not wanted to know everything –until now. He didn’t know Nick was such a big player in the con circle. To have been acquainted with Hayley Seyfried –it was playing the big game already. Of course, he knew Nick was going under another alias while playing a con, but never –for the life of him –known what alias Nick had been under.

He sighed, finished his salad, and brought the dishes to wash. He wanted to talk to Nick again, but heard Nick’s voice through the door, most probably on the phone. Finally deciding that they were better off talking the next day, he left a note on Nick’s closed door, then retired to his room too.

On the note, it held a sentence.

‘I’m sorry, my brother, I will not ask of your past again.’