Page 85 of The Five Year Lie

That’s why nobody will notice Brainz—in a beat-up canvas fishing hat—rolling to a stop in the quiet gravel turnaround of a public boat launch on the outskirts of Auburn. Even if his luxury car is a little shiny for this part of Maine.

He waits, air-conditioning blasting, until a familiar Ford truck with a canoe on the roof pulls in beside him ten minutes later. Then he kills the engine and steps out of the car.

The off-duty cop gets out of his truck and walks around to shake his hand. “Nice day, yeah?”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “Hope the fish have been biting.”

The cop snorts. “Oh, they’re biting. That’s the stupid thing about fish. They never learn.”

“I hear that. How’s work, otherwise?” He parks his ass against the car and assesses the cop. His name is Chuck Ward, but they never use names when they meet up. That was one of Ward’s many conditions. He also picked this meeting place, a remote spot outside his jurisdiction.

“Work is good. Almost too good. Chief said that if my conviction rate goes up any more I’m going to get an award from the governor.”

“Whoa, now. Let’s not get carried away.”

Ward laughs. “Don’t worry. I’ll step it back a notch. Can’t help it if your new product makes my job a lot easier. Saves gas, too—don’t even have to drive around looking for the perps. I always know where they are. When are you gonna roll it out statewide?”

“Not sure. Could be a while.” His answer is a dodge, because LiveMatch isn’t meant to become a regular feature at Chime Co. anytime soon. It’s too edgy. And frankly too valuable.

He and TheBoss have bigger plans for it. A spin-off company. As a matter of fact, these fishing trips to meet Ward are funding his half of the start-up investment.

But Ward doesn’t need to know any of that.

“I’m out of town next weekend,” the cop says. “Training mission at the state barracks.”

“Cool. No bragging about our little collaboration.Eitherof our collaborations.”

He chuckles. “Not born yesterday, man. I read my NDA. Not looking to get sued by your asshole partner.”

“Corporate spies are everywhere,” he says, sounding like a nag. He often reminds the cops on the beta program about the threat of corporate spies. The irony being that it was just a convenient lie until Drew Miller turned up at Chime Co.

But Brainz and TheBoss have other reasons for keeping LiveMatch quiet. They don’t want to get blasted by the right-to-privacy crowd, for starters.

And there’s also the delicate matter of moonlighting. It’s not cool to use one successful corporation’s private database to beta test your new start-up’s tech.

“Help me with the canoe?” Ward says.

“Of course.” He hops up onto the tailgate to lift the boat off its custom rack. He helps Ward maneuver it off the back of the truck and over to the little beach.

There’s nobody in sight except a couple of kayakers out on the water.

Perfect.

They walk back to the vehicles. Brainz opens the back door of his Mercedes and pulls out his yellow tackle box. “Let’s do this.”

“Good plan.” Ward pulls an identical yellow tackle box out of his truck’s cab and carries it around to the truck’s tailgate.

They trade positions. Brainz pops open the top of Ward’s tackle box and peeks inside. It’s lined with baggies, some containing powder and some containing pills. “Anything I need to know?”

“Naw. It’s exactly like I said.” Ward pops the top of the other box, which is full of bundles of cash in small bills. “Looks good.” He riffles one of the packs with his thumb, but he doesn’t need to count the money. They’ve been doing this for a year, and it’s mutually beneficial to both their health and their safety if nobody gets fucked over.

“One more thing,” Ward says. “I’m retiring at the end of the year. You’re gonna have to find someone else to fish with.”

“What?” He snaps the box closed. “You’re pulling my chain.” Ward is in his early fifties. Too young to retire.

“Nah, I’m past my twenty years. And the fishing has been so good this year that I don’t need to chase assholes forever.”

Fuckity fuck.Is this guy even real? Who walks away from the best side hustle ever?