Chapter 4

It took a lot of convincing from Fiona, Sam, and Jack to get Sasha to go to Sam's house with Fiona and Lucas. When the women were gone, Michael got himself out of bed. Sam sat at the bar poring over the files on the daycare case, looking for something that might tie in to the stalker lady. He heard feet shuffling, his head jerked up, and he stared at Michael as he went around the bar to get a yogurt from the fridge.

"Mike, you should be in bed."

"Later. You find anything in the files?"

"No, at least nothing that would blatantly point to our suspect. This is all just case related stuff." Sam shook his head. "I don't get how a chance meeting on the street could evolve into this. And coming up with that bug idea, that was brilliant. I mean, how many civilians would think of that?"

"Maybe she's not a civilian. Or she was in the military, or a government agency..."

"Good point, but until we have a name, trying to get into personnel records could take forever." Sam scribbled on a pad of paper. "You never gave me a description of her, Mike. What did she look like? That might be a start."

"She was blonde, brown eyes. I think the hair color was natural. She had a clear complexion, and a warm skin tone." Michael gave him a well detailed description, including things that most people would never consider mentioning. "She had a little scar on the top of her lip that she tried to hide with makeup. It didn't work very well. She wore a cheap watch on her right wrist, but she didn't appear to be left handed. Her clothes were clean, not stylish or out of date, just...plain, no patterns or bright colors."

"That's a lot of info, Mike. At least now I can picture her in my head, and if I come across any photographs or anything with her in them, I can point them out to you." He rubbed his tired eyes. "I have a feeling she's known about you long before this one case. Who knows, she may turn up in surveillance photos."

"We need to find her and track her for awhile," Michael said as he dug into his yogurt.

"Great. How do we do that? She knows all of us, so trying to follow her is out of the question." He sighed, closed the folder and pushed it aside. "The longer I look at this file, the more convinced I am that this has nothing to do with your stalker. I just wish we had something that did. I told Fi I would call Jesse for help. It sounds like this is something he could do."

Michael nodded. "I guess it's a good thing he hasn't been able to help us for awhile. Give him a call, Sam. See if he's available. I'll give him what I know about her and hopefully he can go from there."

Sam gazed at Michael with a serious expression. "But you know he's going to have to do this practically on his own. If any one of us starts hanging around with him and she sees us, it'll blow everything."

"Yeah, I know." Michael was thinking. Sam had a bad feeling about what he might be considering. "With Fiona and Sasha over at your house...do you think Yvette might be willing to help out on this one?"

"What?" His brow creased as he replied, "No way, Mike! What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that we let Jesse have a couple of days to get some information on this woman. By then I should be okay enough to get out in the open again. You and I hang out at Carlito's, make it look like we're doing a job, and see if she starts following us. If she does, then Jesse follows her."

"So how does Eve fit into this?"

"Yvette could just meet my stalker somewhere and start up a conversation about me, make her think she's also a fan."

Sam frowned. "I'm not liking this plan, Mike. This could get really dangerous." He closed the file and set it on top of the others. "What if she knows that Eve's my wife? Her cover will get blown immediately."

"We want to find out what her true motive is." He paused and scraped out the bottom of his yogurt cup, pulled out the spoon, and sucked on the remnants before continuing. "I'm afraid it's a risk we have to take."

"No, there's no we about this. It's Eve who would be taking the risk, and I'm not gonna let my wife stick her neck out like that!"

"If she's just a fan, there's no risk, but if there's something else going on..."

"No. I don't like that something else part. It's been awhile since we trained Eve in spy craft, and I don't want her walking into this inexperienced and blind. And besides, if we want this to work, I have to stay away from her for the next few days. How will we be able to brief her and get her ready?"

"I trust Fi will be only too happy." Michael smiled. "She taught Yvette how to shoot, remember?"

"Yeah." Sam let out a deep sigh. "I think we better just sleep on this tonight and maybe in the morning we can come up with a better plan." He got off the stool and made sure the loft door was secure, and he closed and locked the balcony doors. A cool breeze was coming in, and a storm front was brewing. Lightning flashed in the distance. "You better get back to bed, Mike. Get some rest." He checked on Jack, who had more periods of wakefulness since that first time, but he was asleep at the moment. "Night."

"Night, Sam."

Sam took the steps up to Michael's office and crashed on the couch. He was tired but restless, and after hearing Michael's plan, it was no wonder. It didn't help that he missed their evening routine at home, so he called Yvette, hungering to hear her voice.

"Hello, Sam?"

"Hi honey, it's me."

"Is everything okay? Sasha and Fi told me about what happened. How are Michael and Jack?"

"They're going to be okay. You know Mike, he's already been up and around a little. Jack, well, give him another day or so and he'll probably be up too."

"Fi said some woman has been tracking Michael. Sam, I think I've seen her."

"What? What do you mean? Has someone been watching the house?"

"No," he could hear by her tone that she was smiling. "You know Mrs. Petersen would report anything unusual. Shortly after you had that daycare case, I was out with Samuel and saw you all at Carlito's. I was going to stop by and say hello, but I noticed something strange."

"Go on."

"There was a woman hiding behind a huge potted plant, one of those things along the side of the building."

"What did she look like?" He sat up, listening to her give virtually the same description that Michael gave him, only a little less detailed.

"She was just standing there, watching you all, but I think she had her sights on Michael. She was looking right at him. Staring intently. It was weird. So, when I saw her, I just surveyed for awhile. I sat on a bench across the street and helped Samuel eat a slushie, all the while keeping an eye on her. When you and Fi left and she approached Michael, I thought my suspicions were confirmed, that she just wanted an audience with him and that would be that."

"You should have said something."

"I didn't really know what to make of it. I guess I always figured that Michael might have some admirers, people who were grateful for his service to them, and that maybe their admiration might extend to such lengths."

"This has gone beyond just admiration, Eve. She's been giving him gifts, letters...it's crazy."

"Yes, it is, Sam. The woman needs professional help." Yvette sighed. "I'm sorry, honey. I should have said something sooner. I just don't get what Jack and Michael getting beat up had to do with this. She's just a fan."

"Fans do weird things, Eve."

"If she's that dangerous..." She let out another heavy breath. "Be careful, sweetheart."

"I will. Listen, Mike had an idea that I'm not too crazy about, but I'll run it by you anyway and see what you think." He hesitated, not sure he really wanted to go there, but he'd already opened the door.

"You know I'll do whatever I can."

Yes, and that's what scares me the most! Aloud, he said, "Okay, he wants you to make friends with this woman, pretend you're a Michael Westen fan too."

"Intriguing idea, but what if she feels like she has an exclusive right and I would be threatening her special relationship with him?"

"My thoughts exactly." He couldn't help but smile. "You and I think too much alike sometimes, Eve."

She chuckled, but quickly sobered. "We'd have to tread lightly on this. When and where should I be?"

"I have to talk to Jesse and see if he can track her down. In a couple days Mike should be okay to walk around, and we'll get the plan in motion." He told her what Michael proposed, and by the time he was finished, she was as cautious as he, but willing to try.

"I just hope this is all that it seems on the surface, Sam. If he's got another recruiter on his tail...I don't know if Fiona would take it very well."

"I know. None of us wants that."

"Okay, let me know when you need me."

He smiled. "I need you right now, baby. But as far as this case goes..."

"You're so sassy!" She laughed. "I love you, honey. Sleep well."

"Love you too. And you do the same. Let me know if you come up with any ideas."

After he hung up, Sam sat back against the couch and let a wave of weariness pass before he called Jesse. It was late, but he was certain when he told him what was going on, Jesse would be all in. And he was not disappointed.

"I'll start on this tomorrow," he promised Sam. "I can work this the same time I'm doing a case for my boss."

"Are you sure? Don't want you to get into trouble."

"Hey, trouble and I are like best friends." He laughed.

"Okay. Thanks, Jesse. I don't know what Mike'll want to pay you for this..."

"Pay? I don't do this for money, Sam. You all are my friends, and I'll do whatever it takes to get this woman off Mike's back and if the beatings are related, make sure whoever did them is stopped."

"Thanks, Jesse. You're a good man. We miss you."

"Thanks, Sam. I appreciate that. I'll see what I can dig up, and I'll talk to you soon."

"Sounds good, but we better make it over the phone. Don't want to run the risk of this woman seeing you with us and putting two and two together."

"Understood. Night, Sam."

"Night, Jesse."

After he hung up, Sam felt he could finally lay down. He'd done all he could at that point to protect his friends. They had a plan in place to trap the fan, and hopefully that would be all she was. If things ran deeper... He really didn't want to think about that right now. As he settled into the couch, the lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. A quick evening storm passed overhead, and he hoped that the storm in Michael's life would slip by just as quickly with little or no collateral damage.

While they slept, a lone figure crouched under a work table in the courtyard, taking shelter from the rain. She looked up at the stairs, formulating a plan. Michael was vulnerable right now, and the only way to help him was to get his friends out of the way first. She paid those goons good money to take care of the one guy and to hurt Michael just enough so he would need her. But from what she'd seen, that meddling Sam guy got involved and ruined things. She should have thought of that before. They would all have to go. Eliminate every one. Then Michael would be free and she would have him all to herself.