'Oh. Right. Don't even know what I'm talking about. Right.'
'Mindy, are you…feeling okay?'
'What's going on here, Jeff? You give me your solemn word that today you'll take care of her, and then you don't do it.'
'Take care of whom?'
'Of whom? Whom the hell do you think? Jenny, of course. Dear little Jenny.'
'Mindy, I still don't have a clue as to what you're talking about. How was I supposed to take care of Jenny?'
'Holy shit, Jeff! She's done it again, hasn't she?'
'Done what?'
'Played with your mind. Taken away all of your memories. You don't remember anything about last night, do you?'
'Last night?'
Snow. Naked. Brook Crash. Diane.
'You know what she's doing, don't you?'
'Jenny, you mean-'
'Yes, dear heart-Jenny, I mean. She's playing with us. Pitting us against each other.'
'Jenny?'
Mindy sighed. 'Well, if you won't do it, I will.'
He wondered if Mindy had snapped. Ever since the day they'd put Mindy in that box in the rear of the BMW-'Do what?' he said.
'Kill her.'
'Kill Jenny?'
'Strangle the little bitch with my bare hands. Or at least give it the old college try.'
'But she's just-'
'Just what, sweetie?'
'Just an innocent little girl.'
'Right.' She coughed. 'God, she must have wiped your slate clean. Entirely. You don't remember anything, do you?'
'I don't know what you're talking about, Mindy, I admit, but before we say anything else, I want you to promise me that you won't lay a finger on Jenny.'
'You didn't say it.'
'I didn't say what?'
'Innocent little girl. She loves when you say stuff like that. It makes her laugh. But you wouldn't remember that, would you? Boy, she really did a number on your memory, Jeff. She really did.'
'You've neatly evaded the issue.'
Mindy sighed again. 'Oh, okay, I promise I won't lay a hand on her. Not until you're here. Maybe I can bring you back up to speed again.'
'You promise you won't hurt her in any way?' He wondered whom he should call: Police? Priest? Shrink?
'I promise.' Her tone grew nasty. 'You don't remember about my dog Ringo, then, do you?'
'What about Ringo?'
'You never did like him.'
'I like Ringo all right.'
'Listen to you. 'I like Ringo all right.' Now there's enthusiasm.' Pause. 'You don't remember, do you?'
'Remember what?'
'What you did to Ringo?'
'I didn't do anything to Ringo.'
'Of course you did. And you weren't sorry about it, either.'
'Sorry about what?'
'Not only won't you remember it, but you won't believe it when I tell you.'
'Tell you what?'
'What you did to Ringo.'
'Which was?'
Another sigh. 'You tore him apart with your bare hands and then you ate him. You sat right at the kitchen table and ate him. You had a pile of entrails in front of you and you'd scoop up a handful and just…eat them. You even made slurping sounds. I just kept sobbing, thinking of poor Ringo.'
'You're insane, Mindy. I've been needing to tell you this for some time. You are insane.'
'Of course, I don't blame you for what you did. I mean, she made you. She took off her glasses and made you stare into her eyes and-' She coughed again. 'Any way you could come home early?'
'Around five would be the earliest.'
'Tonight's going to be the night. Tonight we're going to take care of her, Jeff. Or she'll take care of us.'
'Mindy, I wish you'd please lie down.'
'Oh, now, that would do a fat lot of good, wouldn't it?'
'Lie down. Take two of your tranquilizers.'
'And just get some rest?'
'Exactly. Get some rest.'
'You're the one who should get some rest, Jeffie-poo. You're going to need it for tonight.'
'What's tonight?'
'We're going to kill Jenny. And this time do it the right way.'
With that, she hung up.
It was by accident that Jeff ran into-literally-Brenda Kohl.
Out of coffee in his office, and his secretary having gone home early because her oldest boy was ill, Jeff carried his Mr. Coffee pot down to the lunchroom for more water and to see if there was any Danish left from that morning. Jeff liked Danish just as it started to turn stale.
Finished with his task, carrying both pot filled with water and peach Danish, he came around the corner and slammed directly into Brenda, dousing the front of her white linen suit with water.
Jeff made all the expected noises of apology and regret. He had not been in the Hubba-Hubba Room with Brenda in more than three months. Not that he hadn't asked her. He did so regularly, at least once a week. She always turned him down. Having finally gotten her promotion to Art Director-thanks to Jeff's intervening-it soon became obvious that she wanted no more to do with him. There was even talk that she had a new boyfriend, an intense, swarthy young man in the television production department named Gillian.
Finished daubing at her with several pieces of paper towels, he took her elbow and led her away, to an alcove in the hallway.
'You don't know how badly I feel,' he said.
'It's not that big a deal. It's just water.' She glanced at her diamond-studded watch, obviously eager to be gone.
'That's not what I mean. I mean-' He knew he was whining again. He couldn't help himself. 'I mean, you're all I've been thinking about, and I finally get a chance to see you and I end up doing something stupid like this.'
'It's all right, Jeff. It's really all right.' This time she looked at her watch in a dramatic, unmistakable fashion so he'd get the point.
She started walking past him, but he stopped her with the hand carrying the Mr. Coffee.
'How about going-you know-downstairs?'
She seemed startled. 'God, Jeff, don't be pathetic. You know it's over between us.'
He had never seen a woman with less compassion in her eyes than Brenda displayed at this moment.
'I just want to talk to you for a few minutes.'
Pretending not to hear him, she waved at two men passing by. One of them winked at her. Jeff's failed love for her was common knowledge in this pitiless hallway.
'A few minutes. In my office. We don't even have to go downstairs, then. In my office? How would that
