“Yes, fresh clothes, shoes, and a coupla bucks.”
“No worries.”
“Plus a gun,” Bennie said, surprising even herself.
“For real, Al?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
“Sorry, can’t help you there.”
“Forget it,” Bennie said, but she wouldn’t. She was already taking the splint off her right hand.
Chapter Seventy-two
Alice crossed the reception area, pasting on a smile to meet the Rexco people. “Gentlemen,” she said, reaching out to shake hands. “I’m Bennie Rosato. So glad you could make it.”
“Hans Mescal, good to meet you.” He shook her hand, and he wasn’t how she had pictured him, from the file. He had hooded blue eyes behind his steel-rimmed bifocals, a brushy white mustache, and a gray suit that fit badly, showing that he was a tightwad, for the boss of a Fortune 500 company. He introduced the other men, and they all said a round of hellos, but Hans acted as if he was the only one who counted, and Alice took her cue.
“Hans, everyone, please, come this way.” She led them into the smaller, enclosed conference room, which had been stocked with hot coffee, fresh fruit, and cinnamon buns, and Mary was already waiting with a legal pad.
“Welcome, everybody,” she said, smiling like the first day of school.
“DiNunzio, introduce yourself to Hans and the others, and let’s get started. Hans, please, sit by me.” Alice turned to Hans, gestured him into the seat at her right, and sat down at the head of the table. They all settled, and she began. “Let’s get started. We all know the problem. Your employees made off with your trade secrets and lit out for the West Coast. You went to McGarity & Boston for the complaint, but they’re not up to the task. You’re a big enough company that every law firm in town wants your business, but I want it the most.”
Hans cocked his head, listening.
“In fact, I want it so much that I’m willing to be unconventional in my billing practices.”
The older man next to Hans frowned. “We don’t usually talk fees before we talk substance.”
“Why?” Alice never took her eyes off Hans. “The law is clear. You need a restraining order, and any court would give you one. You’ve probably already interviewed Morgan, Lewis, and Dechert, all the big boys. They’ve told you the same thing, right?”
The older man said, “But do you think the order should—”
Hans lifted an index finger, silencing him. “How unconventional, Bennie?”
“You can buy a restraining order from any of us, but they’re expensive. Generally, a law firm has to drop everything, conduct discovery, and draft papers on the double. Yours would require two lawyers, full-time, for the next three weeks, through the preliminary hearing. It all adds up. The other firms were talking seventy-five to eighty grand for next month, correct?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll do it free. Free,” Alice repeated, when she saw Hans’s eyes widen.
“Why would you do that? What’s the deal?”
“If you’re satisfied with the job we do, then you let us represent you for the next year, on all litigation matters. If you don’t like our work, you walk away.”
“That’s quite a risk.”
“No, it isn’t. We’re the best lawyers in town.” Alice looked over at an astonished Mary. “Right, partner?”
“Right!”
“So what do you say, Hans?” Alice felt a little charge. She wouldn’t be around to pay this debt anyway, and an admiring smile was spreading across the CEO’s face.
“I didn’t expect this, I must say.” Hans stroked his mustache. “You think long-term. You have confidence in your team. I heard you were unorthodox.”
“You heard right. Do we have a deal?” Alice extended her hand, and Hans shook it.
“Done,” he answered, nodding.
“Wonderful.” Alice gestured to Mary. “I should have mentioned that Mary here has just become my new partner, and she’d be more than happy to field any technical questions you may have.”
Mary looked surprised but recovered with a game smile. “I sure would, gentlemen. Any questions?”
After the meeting, Alice led them out to reception, said good-bye to Hans and the others, and had Mary pack them into the elevator while she went back to her office. She saw that Grady wasn’t in his, so maybe he’d gone to the bathroom, which gave her an opening. She hustled into Bennie’s office, shut the door, and called the number for USABank.
“Marla, it’s Bennie,” she said, when the call connected. “I wanted to check in before the day ended. I’ll send the signature cards out tonight. Did you wire the money?”
“Yes, it’s all sent, as were the scanned signature cards. All of your money has been transferred to BSB, and your Bahamian accounts are open, pending receipt of the hard copies.”
“Excellent.”
“By the way, Alice called me earlier but I refused to discuss anything with her, as per our agreement.”
Damn! “Why didn’t you call and tell me?”
“I did. I spoke with Marshall, but she said you were in a meeting.”
“Oh, sorry.” Alice thought a minute. So Bennie had figured out what she was up to, but she didn’t know the details and by the time she figured them out, Alice would be out of town, a step ahead of her, and Q.
“Bennie, you should also know that someone, undoubtedly Alice, tried to access your accounts online. She was denied because she didn’t have the new password. You have to reset it yourself online, and I sent you an email with instructions to that effect.”
“Thanks.” Alice logged on to her email, skimming the boldfaced names until she found one from USABank. “I see, okay. Thanks. Gotta go.”
Chapter Seventy-three
Mary entered the coffee room, where Grady and Judy were standing in front of the Bunn machine, feasting on leftover cinnamon buns. They looked up, and if Judy was still mad at her, it didn’t show because her mouth was full of carbohydrates.
“How’d Rexco go?” she asked. “Apart from the food, which rocks.”
“Amazing. We got ‘em.”
“How?” Judy asked, and Grady leaned against the granite counter with a Styrofoam cup of coffee while Mary told them the story. By the time she was finished, Grady looked charmed, but Judy’s smile flattened.
Mary felt tense all over again. “I think doing it free was a great idea, don’t you, Grady?”
“Brilliant.” He grinned. “I love that woman. She’s so damn smart.”
“Sure is.” Mary felt like he was a kindred spirit. “She’s not afraid to take a risk, either. The client loved her, you could tell.”
“I’m sure.” Grady smiled, sipping coffee. “Do I have to give him a beatdown?”
“No.” Mary laughed, if only to cover Judy’s silence, which Grady didn’t seem to notice.
“I’m glad we got some good news, after that debacle with Alice. Marshall said the clients have been calling all afternoon. Reporters, too.”
“Any word on if the cops got Alice yet?”
“None.”
“Too bad,” Mary said, and Judy seemed to come to life, looking over at Grady.
“Was Bennie upset by that scene with Alice?”
Grady blinked. “Sure she was. Couldn’t you tell?”
“Not really, but I don’t know her as well as you do.”
“She seemed upset to me.”
“She didn’t to me, and she didn’t seem that upset over Bear, either. Was she?” Judy kept her tone light, but Mary knew she was pumping him.
Grady shook it off. “She’s not the type to bleed all over, or in front of you guys. At home, she was a basket case. She cried her eyes out.”
Mary glanced over at Judy, not bothering to hide her triumph. “Bennie doesn’t show her emotions, especially at work. She’s a private person. I respect her for that.”
Judy didn’t appear to be listening, wiping her sticky fingers on a napkin. “Grady, let
me ask you a hypothetical. Is it possible that the woman who made a scene on the sidewalk really was Bennie? And not Alice at all?”
“Pardon?”
Mary felt stricken. “Grady, she’s just kidding.”
“No, I’m not,” Judy shot back, and both women flanked Grady, catching him in the crossfire. “Think about it, Grady. What if we’ve mixed them up? Fiorella thought we had.”
“Fiorella?” Grady set down his cup. “That crazy lady? What does she have to do with anything?”
Judy waved him off. “Forget Fiorella, she’s not the point. What if that woman out there really was Bennie, and that woman in the office down the hall is Alice?”
Grady looked from Judy to Mary and back again, astonished. “Are you serious?”
“Yes,” Judy answered.
“No,” Mary answered, at the same time.
“That’s impossible.” Grady looked nonplussed, his forehead creased, and his eyes were vaguely pained behind his glasses. “Of course it’s Bennie, in her office.”
“How do you know?”
“I know my own girlfriend.”
“Would you?” Judy lifted an eyebrow under her maraschino bangs. “You haven’t seen her in a while. Does she seem different to you, in any way?”
“Judy!” Mary said. “You’re being so inappropriate.”
Judy touched Grady’s arm. “Prove me wrong. Give her a test. Think of something that only you and Bennie know about, something intimate, and ask her about it. See if she knows it. If she does, she’s Bennie. No harm, no foul. But if she doesn’t, she’s Alice.”
“You mean this, don’t you?” Grady released his arm, obviously uncomfortable. “That’s a very strange notion you have there. Is your hair dye sinking into your brain?”
Mary felt as if she didn’t even know Judy anymore. “He’s right, stop it.”
Judy’s head snapped around. “Mary, did you just tell me to ‘stop it’? I thought we were friends.”
“We are.”
“Then why are you ordering me around?”
“You’re being disloyal and unkind, and I want you to cut it out.”
“What if I don’t?” Judy’s blue eyes hardened like ice. “What are you going to do about it? Are you going to fire me?”
“Of course not.”
Grady interjected, “Ladies, stop. Please, don’t fight—”
Ignoring him, Judy asked, “How about telling Bennie on me, Mary? Would you tattle on me?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t?” Judy frowned, raising her voice. “If you’re my friend, you wouldn’t tell. But now that you’re a partner, maybe you would. Choose, Mare. Who are you? Friend or partner?”
“I don’t have to choose.”
“To me, you do. Make a decision—for once.”
Ouch. Mary stood toe-to-toe with Judy, opposed for the first time ever. “Do you want me to tell her?”
“I dare you.”
“Fine!”
“Good!” Judy threw down her napkin and headed for the door. “This time, I’ll walk out on you.”
Chapter Seventy-four
Bennie walked down South Street with Tiffany, on the way to see Caitlin at the shop. They were only ten blocks from the business district, so she kept an eye out for the police and was wearing a disguise, of sorts. She’d borrowed sunglasses, tucked her hair into a Phillies cap, and had on a nondescript gray T-shirt, navy shorts, and old Keds, blending in with the summer tourists thronging to the hip restaurants and trendy shops.
“It’s cool down here.” Tiffany exhaled a cone of Marlboro smoke, acrid in the humidity. “But you can’t park, and it’s way expensive.”
“Right,” Bennie said, rather than say the wrong thing, and Tiffany tossed the cigarette to the curb as they approached an upscale boutique with a preppy pink sign that read PRINCIPESSA, above a ritzy glass entrance.
“There’s Caitlin.” Tiffany grabbed the glass handle.
“Let’s go in.” Bennie started to follow her through the door, but they were stopped at the threshold and pushed out of the shop by an attractive young woman in a striped shirtdress, with short blond hair. Presumably, she was Caitlin, though she looked more suburban house wife than pill pusher, even with a scowl wrinkling her upturned nose.
“Get out, Tiffany!” she hissed. “I told you never to come here.”
“Alice wanted to see you, and I gave her a ride.”
“Where’s Alice?” Caitlin looked over at Bennie, and her eyes widened as if she’d seen a ghost. “Alice? Oh my God! Is that you?”
“Yes, hi.”
“Jeez!” Caitlin glanced over her shoulder, slipped out the shop door, and hurried them both to the side, in front of a restaurant. “I thought you were dead!”
What?
“Where’ve you been? Why are you dressed like that?”
Tiffany interjected, “If she told you, she’d have to kill you.”
Caitlin ignored her. “Alice, wait here. I’ll tell Janey I got a call from Danny’s school.” She turned, ran back inside the shop, and closed the door behind her.
“See what I mean?” Tiffany frowned. “She has a thing against me. Use me, will you?”
“I’ll think about it,” Bennie said, though now that she’d met Caitlin, she could see why Tiffany didn’t fit into Alice’s business plan.
Caitlin reappeared, hoisting a Kate Spade purse to her shoulder and shooing Tiffany away like a roach. “Go, please. I’ll take Alice home.”
“Okay, okay.” Tiffany edged backwards. “See ya, Al.”
“Later,” Bennie said, like Alice.
Caitlin was already hailing a cab, which pulled over immediately, thanks to her cute face and skinny legs. Up close, her eyes were round, an unusual green-brown, and her pretty mouth glossy with pink lipstick. She even smelled expensive, like floral perfume. They climbed inside the cab, and it lurched into traffic as Caitlin gave the driver an address that Bennie remembered was Alice’s.
“So, Alice, where were you?” Caitlin turned to her, tense. “We had no pickup, and we sold out of what we had left. Q called me at the shop looking for you, and he’s furious. He cursed me out when I said I didn’t know where you were. I had to tell Janey he was my brother and I don’t even have a brother.”
Bennie didn’t remember Alice talking about someone named Q. She stayed quiet and absorbed the information.
“I didn’t sign up for that. I don’t want to deal with that. He scared me half to death. I have kids!”
Bennie was already revising what she’d thought earlier. If Alice had to get away from this guy, Q, then that must be why she’d tried to kill Bennie. So it didn’t start out being about the money, but it was ending up that way.
“Where were you? Kendra and I were worried.” Caitlin waited for an answer, and Bennie slipped into Alice’s mindset, which was surprisingly easy. She was already thinking of Caitlin and Kendra as a darker version of DiNunzio and Carrier.
She eyed Caitlin, coolly. “You weren’t worried about me. You were worried about your job.”
Caitlin blinked, one beat of her perfectly lined eyes. “Okay, right. What do you want me to say?”
“Try the truth.”
“I need the money, and I didn’t know what to do, with you gone. I didn’t know whether to take my cut, and you weren’t around to ask, so I did. I gave Kendra hers, too.” Caitlin’s tone turned lecturing. “We’re running a business here, at least you are, and we all need the extra money. But it’s not my life, and I don’t want it to cost me my life. Or jail, or anything like that.”
“Okay.”
“You’re the one who came to me, saying you were ahead of the curve, that you saw this market that wasn’t being served. You said it was like any other business, but it’s not. Not when I have to answer to a gangster like Q, or whatever his real name is.”
Bennie let her talk, and Caitlin wouldn’t be stopped anyway, having a meltdown.
“You said you were a prof
essional. So you can’t disappear for a week or sleep around. You think I don’t hear you on the phone with Jimmy, whoever he is? If you keep fooling around with him, you could both end up dead!”
“You finished yet?”
“One last thing. You pissed off our supplier, so how do you expect us to stay in business?”
“Leave that to me.”
“I can’t deal with this level of stress. I get constant grief from my ex, always late with the payments, and then he gives the kids the check on Sunday, which he’s not supposed to do.” Caitlin rubbed her forehead with French-manicured fingers. “It’s back-to-school time, and I had to take my cut to make a Staples run. You know how much those JanSport backpacks cost? And Book Sox are five bucks a pop.”
“Book Sox?”
“They’re things that cover the kids’ textbooks.”
“We always used paper bags.” Bennie smiled, and so did Caitlin, finally calming down.
“So did we. Anyway, what happened to you last week?”
“I met somebody.”
Caitlin shook her head, disapproving. “Who?”
“Nobody you’d know, obviously.”
“What’d you do?”
Bennie shrugged, offhand. “We partied.”
“Well, did you have a scratch party? Your legs are a mess.”
“Don’t ask.”
“And your hand? It looks cut. Did he cut you or something?”
“Of course not.” Bennie glanced out the cab window, watching the skyscrapers pass, then the tall brick townhomes of Society Hill. “Bottom line, I drank too much, we played some games, and I had such a good time that I don’t remember where I left my wallet, keys, or phone.”
Caitlin snorted. “So how are we going to get into your apartment? The super?”
“Obviously.”
“So you don’t have your car keys, either?”
“No.” Bennie paused a minute. Everybody had an extra set of car keys. “I must have an another set somewhere.”
“You do, in your dresser. Remember, you lent them to me, that time my car was in the shop?”
“Oh, right.” Bennie held on to the handstrap as the cab steered out of town toward I-95, heading north.