“Nice try.” Alice fake-laughed. “More mind games, eh?”
“Exactly.”
Marshall laughed. “You’d think if she was going to try to be Bennie, she’d at least dress the part.”
Grady nodded, smiling crookedly. “What, you never saw my girl in a bra, in public?”
They all laughed, including Mary. “Grady, she went ballistic when she heard you were up here. She must think you’re hot.”
Grady nodded. “Of course she does. She has good taste. It’s in the DNA.”
“Very funny.” Alice faked a final smile. “As if she could fool you, or any of you, for that matter.”
“Not me, I’m smarter than I look.” Mary squared her shoulders, and Alice gave her a pat.
“DiNunzio, it’s just what you said. She’s trying to run a scam that she’s me, and your restraining order worked like a charm. Thanks, partner.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Now let’s go get ready for Rexco. They’ll be here in twenty minutes. We have a big client to reel in, yes?” Alice got Mary moving toward the offices, with Grady following. Marshall went to the reception desk to answer a ringing phone.
Judy brought up the rear, dragging her feet. “The only thing I don’t get is what Alice gains by making a scene in front of our building.”
“You’re right, Carrier.” Alice kept moving, her tone casual. “She gains nothing.”
“Then why does she do it?”
“She just wants to jerk me around, and that’s enough for her. She’s so jealous, she can’t control herself or forward her own agenda, like find a job on her own, or get a life. She thinks everything I have, I got at her expense.”
Mary shook her head. “Plus, it does hurt us. Wait until what happened out there hits the TV news and the Internet. It’s such bad publicity for the firm. I bet we get calls from the clients.”
“You’re right.” Alice gave her another pat on the back. “But don’t worry about it, DiNunzio. She can’t keep us down. Let’s go get ready for Rexco.”
“Let’s do it!”
Alice could feel everybody cheer up as they walked back to their offices.
Everybody, that is, except Judy.
Chapter Seventy
Mary went back to her office with Judy on her heels, closing the door behind them. She had a million things to do and they had discussed this already in the elevator, but Judy stood in front of her desk like a dog with a bone.
“Mare, don’t you get it? Fiorella said, ‘That is a good woman,’ and she pointed to Alice, outside. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“No, like I said, Fiorella’s Italian. She’s dramatic. Ever hear of Verdi? Rossini? Puccini? See a pattern? I should know, I have the same infection.”
“No.” Judy shook her head. “It’s amazing that she said that, and she was looking right at Alice, or Bennie. Nobody out there would’ve said that was ‘a good woman.’ Every single person thought Alice was crazy.”
“Fiorella’s the crazy one.” Mary rubbed her eyes irritably. She’d never even disagreed with Judy, much less argued with her.
“Listen, I hear you. I didn’t think anything of it, either, at first.” Judy shrugged. “I mean, I know that Fiorella isn’t a witch queen, even if she cured me.”
“Good, we agree on something.”
“But she is intuitive.”
“She’s a woman. It comes with the ovaries.”
Judy didn’t laugh. “So it got me thinking. What if?”
“ ‘What if’ is meaningless. You’re smarter than what if.”
Judy frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means this is speculation, not fact. You’re usually the logical one, not me.”
“Hear me out, one last time.”
“Fine, shoot.” Mary glanced at the phone messages scattered in a sliding pile on her desk. All of them were from her clients, individuals with small matters, and on these child-size blocks, she had built a client base that had made her a partner. None of the messages was from Anthony, nor had he called on her cell.
“Let’s say something happened over the weekend, something we don’t know. Bennie, or Alice, or whoever was out there, said that Alice tried to kill her. I heard that, you heard that.”
“Yes, I heard it. It’s part of her scam. It’s a lie.”
“No, assume for these purposes, that’s not a lie. Assume it’s the truth.”
“Okay.” Mary’s gaze fell on her stack of correspondence, all the tri-folded letters neatly opened and paper-clipped to their envelopes, a three-inch stack of tasks that needed her attention. She could work all day and night and never do them all.
“So what if Alice tried to kill Bennie over the weekend, but she didn’t succeed and then she came back to take her place?”
“Who came back to take whose place?”
“Alice. Alice came back to take Bennie’s place.”
“First question.” Mary didn’t have time for this. Rexco would be here in fifteen minutes. The phones at reception were ringing nonstop. “Bennie has all her stuff. Messenger bag, phone, clothes, keys.”
“Alice could’ve taken it from her, and did you notice she doesn’t seem all that sad about Bear?”
“Bennie’s not the type to blubber all over at the office. It would be unprofessional.” Mary couldn’t take the conversation seriously when there was so much real work to be done, and she felt the weight of her new responsibilities. “Look, of course she’s Bennie. She looks like Bennie, she walks like Bennie, she talks like Bennie.”
“Sometimes your own mother can’t tell the difference between you and Angie.”
“Grady would know the difference. Do we need to go there?”
“He hasn’t seen her in a while, so it wouldn’t be that hard to trick him.” Judy’s eyes narrowed. “What if Alice is taking Bennie’s place, right here, before our eyes?”
“Second question. Why would Alice do that? Why would she want to be a lawyer? Nobody wants to be a lawyer. Lawyers don’t even want to be lawyers!”
“I don’t know, but neither do I know why Alice would be outside, trying to ruin Bennie’s business. I don’t know anybody who would risk arrest just to destroy somebody else.”
“I do. Alice. She’s self-destructive.”
“Not really. Alice is all about self preservation. She fought tooth and nail not to be convicted of murder. Besides, she and Bennie had reconciled. So why would she give Bennie a hard time now? Did you ever think about that?” Judy leaned farther over the desk. “You know what I saw on her face, out there? Desperation. Didn’t you see it, too?”
“Yes, I did. Alice is desperate to ruin Bennie.” Mary started when the intercom buzzed on her phone, a signal that Rexco had arrived. She grabbed a fresh legal pad. “I have to go.”
“How about if we think of a test?”
“What you mean?” Mary searched on her desk for a pen without teethmarks. Partners didn’t chew their pens. She could tell Rexco that she had a puppy.
“There’s years of things that Bennie knows about and Alice wouldn’t. We all have a history, a shared history, and it excludes Alice.”
“So what?” Mary went to the door, her chest tightening with impatience.
“So let’s think of something that would test her. A case we had, a client we loved or hated, or a point of law. There are so many possibilities.” Judy’s eyes lit up, but Mary couldn’t join her enthusiasm, which suddenly seemed childish.
“It’s not a game.”
“I know that. I didn’t mean it that way.” Judy’s forehead creased. “Look, it’s a good idea. We should think of some reference that only Bennie would know, then we wait for the chance to spring it on her and see if she knows what we’re talking about. If she does, it’s Bennie. If she doesn’t, it’s Alice.”
“I don’t have time to do that, and I don’t want to.” Mary put her hand on the doorknob. “Hasn’t Bennie been through enough? Her sister is terrorizing her and her
dog is dead. Cut her a break.”
Judy looked mystified. “Why are you acting so weird?”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Judy, really!” Mary threw up her hands. “There are real clients out there that we have to sign and real dollars we have to bring in. All of us.”
“Whoa. You’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid.” Judy edged back, frowning, and Mary felt stung.
“That’s not fair.”
“Did you ever think that if she’s Alice, she’s co-opted you? All those compliments she’s dropping, like ‘great idea’ this and ‘great idea’ that? She doesn’t really mean it.”
“Thanks.” Mary started to go, but Judy touched her arm, her face reddening.
“I’m sorry. I’m not saying you don’t deserve it, I’m saying she could be manipulating you, if she’s Alice.”
“No, she’s not. She’s Bennie.”
“You said so yourself, on the phone, how strange it was that she complimented you. Then she made you a partner, and overnight, you got so far on her side, you won’t even consider there’s another side.”
“On this, there’s only one side,” Mary shot back, and Judy recoiled, confused.
“Really?”
“Yes,” Mary answered, and through the open door she could hear Bennie greeting the Rexco people in the lobby. “I really have to go.”
“Okay, whatever. Go.”
Mary walked out, feeling a wrench in her chest. Wondering if she were leaving her best friend, as well as her boyfriend, behind.
Chapter Seventy-one
Bennie followed Tiffany into a basement apartment that reeked of stale cigarette smoke. The living room, stifling and windowless, contained a worn brown couch, a plaid fabric chair, and an old TV. A wrinkled Bon Jovi poster hung over a café table that held a black laptop, magazines, and gum wrappers. Empty glasses and full ashtrays dotted cheap end tables.
“Sorry it’s so hot.” Tiffany climbed up on the couch and turned on an air conditioner installed into the wall, then jumped down, with a grin. “Better, huh?”
“Yes, good.”
“It’ll be cold fast, you’ll see. I got Bud Light, okay?”
“Fine.” Bennie didn’t thank her, because Alice wouldn’t have.
“Sit down, make yourself comfortable. Want a sandwich, too? I got ham and cheese, okay?”
“Fine.” Bennie sat down on the couch, taking a load off her feet, which throbbed, dirty, swollen, and cut. Her hand ached from hitting the guard. “You got any Advil?”
“Yep, sure. How’d you get so busted up?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“Ha!” Tiffany laughed too loudly, as if she were sucking up, and Bennie wondered why.
“I could use some Band-Aids or gauze, for my feet.”
“I got that. I even have the expensive kind, with the goop.” Tiffany scurried out of the room. “Be right back.”
The air conditioner rattled away, and Bennie felt like herself again, or at least, the new normal. She suppressed thoughts of Grady, Bear, and the associates, and focused on Alice. If the girl wanted to take over her life, she might be able to do it for a short while, with all the ID, checkbooks, and house keys. She probably still had the Lexus, too. But Bennie didn’t understand why. Alice couldn’t fake being a lawyer for long and she wouldn’t want to, because that was work. The only thing the girl really cared about was money.
Bennie rose, went to the laptop, cleared the clutter, and sat down. She palmed the mouse as best as she could, clicked to the Internet, and typed in USABank .com. The bank’s splash page came on, and she logged in with her username and password. The screen changed with a message that read, Invalid username and password. She hoped it was a typo, then retyped her username and password. The screen changed again, and she got the same error message. She typed in the information one more time. The new screen read, Sorry, you have been locked out of this account. Please contact customer service to reset your password.
She put it together, keeping a lid on her fears. Alice must have found the passwords in the Rolodex and gained access to the bank accounts. Bennie ran the numbers in her head. She kept roughly three million dollars liquid, more than usual, but sensible given the economy, and she had a substantial retirement account which couldn’t be liquidated easily. Alice could do anything she wanted with the money, including withdraw or move it, but she wouldn’t have much time, now that Bennie was back.
“You got a cell phone?” she called out to the kitchen.
“Yeah, sure.” Tiffany returned with a can of beer, and a white-bread sandwich on a flimsy paper plate. She set the food on the beat-up coffee table and pulled a cell phone from her pocket, handing it over. “Be my guest. I’ll get you the Advil and the Band-Aids, I couldn’t carry it all.”
“It can wait.” Bennie rose and flipped open the phone. “Can I have some privacy?”
“Sure, I’ll go outside, catch a smoke or somethin’.” Tiffany fetched her purse and left the apartment as Bennie pressed in the phone number for Marla Stone, her contact at USABank.
“Hello, Marla? It’s Bennie Rosato.”
“Oh, hello.” Marla sounded cold and distant. “I didn’t recognize the phone number.”
“It’s not my phone and—”
“As you know, I can’t discuss this account with you over the phone, unless you send me an email with written authorization and the password.”
Oh no. “Marla, this is me, Bennie. We don’t have a password on this account. We talk on the phone all the time about my accounts.”
“I’m sorry, I cannot discuss your account with you without email authorization and password.”
“Marla, we didn’t agree to anything. My sister Alice is impersonating me. You’ve been dealing with her, not me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Marla, this really is Bennie. I know—” Suddenly the line went dead, and she redialed. The phone rang and rang, but the call wasn’t answered. She had to try another tack. She called information for the main number of the bank, let the call connect, and asked the operator for the head of private banking. “I need to speak with Russ Baxter, please,” she said. “This is Bennie Rosato.”
“I’m sorry, but he’s on vacation this week.”
“Who else can I speak to? I have an emergency problem with my account. My sister is gaining unauthorized access—”
“Ms. Rosato, I have instructions to transfer all calls regarding your accounts to Marla Stone. Would you like to speak with her?”
“I’ve already spoken with Marla and she hasn’t been able to help. Who does Baxter report to?”
“Mr. Baxter heads our private banking unit. We all report to him.”
“Who’s the president of the bank, then? I met him once at a benefit. Isn’t his name Ron Engel?”
“I’m sorry.” The operator paused. “I have been instructed that if you call, to transfer you to Marla and only to Marla.”
Bennie hung up, her thoughts racing. Alice must not have emptied her accounts yet, because she’d be gone if she had. It would probably take her two or three days to get that accomplished, and Bennie had to stop her, but was stumped. She couldn’t go to the cops or the bank. She couldn’t rely on the law for justice. She was on her own. If Alice was crime, then Bennie was punishment.
Suddenly Tiffany opened the door and walked inside, wreathed in cigarette smoke. “Sorry, you done your call?”
“Sure.” Bennie handed her back the phone.
“Thanks.” Tiffany flopped onto the couch, crossing slim legs, both with ankle tattoos of blue butterflies. “I’m surprised to see you on the run, Al. I heard you got a regular job, and all. You really come up in the world since the joint.”
“I know, right?” Bennie picked up her can of beer, popped the top, and took an icy-cold swig, sitting down. She wanted to keep Tiffany talking because more information might help. “It sucked, inside, huh?”
“Totally
. ’Course you ran the show, even then. I was happy for you when you got off on that murder rap. You really didn’t do it, huh?”
“I didn’t. Imagine that.”
“Go figure.” Tiffany laughed. “I went by the shop and saw Caitlin, and she asked me had I seen you. She said Kendra didn’t see you and you didn’t come by the shop, neither. Said she was lookin’ for you all week, callin’ for you everywhere. Didn’t she call you?”
“Don’t know.” Bennie wolfed down her sandwich. “I left my cell somewhere. That’s why I needed yours.”
“I can take you to see Caitlin at the shop. You know how she is. High maintenance.”
“Good.”
Tiffany hesitated. “Listen, Al, I would really love to come work for you. I swear, I could do a good job. You got Caitlin at the shop and Kendra at the gym, but you can have me at the lunch truck. Who cares where the money comes from? It’s all green.”
“How do you see yourself, working for me?”
“Easy. You’d be surprised at how many guys come to the truck, looking to score. Construction guys, painters, masons, all the trades. Men need Oxys, too. Not just housewives.”
“You think?”
“Sure! The guys who come to me, they got aches and pains, from real work. They talk about it all the time, rotator cuff this, pulled whatever, that. You think they can’t use a Vike or an Oxy? They can, sure as shit. None of ’em sleep that good. They need Ambien, Xanax, whatever. I could make you a killing.”
Bennie listened, drawing conclusions on the fly. Alice and her cop boyfriend used to run a drug business, selling crack through boxers’ girlfriends out of a boxing gym. She had sworn to Bennie that she’d changed, but her only change had been to sell prescription drugs, where the addicts were better-dressed.
“Will you think about it? Caitlin said no, but she’s not the boss. So, will you?”
“Yes.” Bennie rose. She had to get to Alice, and now she had a next step. “Lemme grab a quick shower before we go see Caitlin.”
“Sure.” Tiffany got up. “I’ll show you the bathroom. Advil and Band-Aids are there, too. Anything else I can get you?”