Dead Ringer

been a foreigner-hater.

And realizing that the road ahead would get even bumpier.

Bennie had no idea what time it was when she slid finally into bed, too exhausted to perform all those good-girl tasks like washing her face, much less flossing. She had showered when she came out of the river, which was basically the same thing, even if it did seem like ages ago. She turned over in bed, wondering why things always went like that for her. Nice and even, except for periods of life-threatening drama. Why couldn’t she be more like the other girl lawyers?

She tossed under the light quilt, feeling a slight grittiness. It told her that her sheets were entering week three. So what. She’d been a little busy lately, and Bear didn’t mind. She threw an arm over the dog, snoring beside her in bed, where a man would usually be. In an alternate reality.

Bennie felt a twinge of guilt. She should have called Robert’s brother, introduced herself and offered condolences, inquired after the son at Harvard. But she’d been too preoccupied. Hot on the trail of a terrified homosexual with really bad taste in bathrobes. Bennie found her mind wandering to “Night by Night,” the Steely Dan song that had been playing in David’s Jeep.

She squeezed her eyes tighter. She had screwed up so much lately, and now everything had gone wrong. She’d have to find Robert’s successor and hope he wanted to continue to press the claim. It was a legal wrong to the corporation, not merely personal to Robert, so it could survive Robert’s death, as a technical matter. But figuring it out could take weeks she didn’t have. In the meantime, Rosato amp; Associates could go completely under. She’d have to let the bank foreclose on the house. She had no idea how she’d get another place, much less start over, with a bankruptcy on her record and her credit already so messed up, thanks to Alice.

Alice. Bennie shifted on her scratchy sheets. She had completely forgotten about her twin in the awful events of the night. Alice was still out there. She had tried to kill Bear. She had broken into her house. She could still be following Bennie, even to the crime scene. And before that. Bennie thought back. Had Alice followed her down to Delaware, to the place where her father used to live? Did Alice even know their father was dead?

Oh my God. Bennie’s eyes flew open. She couldn’t see anything but darkness. She couldn’t hear any sound but the dog. She knew there was no way she’d get to sleep tonight. Her brain had made a connection she hadn’t. She’d been so exhausted, her subconscious had done the work for her. She lay still on the pillow, as if paralyzed by the thought itself:

What if it was Alice who killed Robert?

21

No comment, no comment, no comment!” Bennie shouted to the reporters thronging in front of her office building the next morning. The sky was clear and the day pretty, but her mood was predictably grim. The morning newspaper headlines read: SECOND EUROPEAN TOURIST SLAIN. Today Bennie had to get busy and find Alice, not for her own account, but for Robert’s. If Alice had killed him, she would pay for it.

Bennie kept her head down through the reporters, since she didn’t have a free hand to flip the bird with. She carried her briefcase, her Coach bag, two newspapers, and a medium cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. She had taken the precaution of hiding Bear in the cellar at home, which he liked anyway because of its coolness, and nailing boards over the windows on the French doors. Her house looked like a war zone, or at least a fire code violation, but it would do until she could get the windows and doors fixed.

The reporters kept shouting their questions, but Bennie powered her way to the building’s entrance, then shoved through the double doors, crossed the lobby, and went upstairs. When the doors opened, she got off the elevator into the reception area. At the desk, Marshall looked drawn, not to mention extra large, in her baby blue maternity dress.

“I’m just so sorry about Robert, I know you liked him.”

“Thanks. It’s terrible, isn’t it?”

“Awful.” Marshall handed her a flurry of phone messages, and the one on top was from David Holland. “I hate to deal with business, but so much is going on this morning.”

“I’ll say.” Bennie thumbed through her messages, almost as many as in the old days. Another call was from David with his cell number, one from Sam, and Hattie, her mother’s old caretaker. She flipped through the remaining messages, all reporters and creditors. “Look at all my new best friends.”

“And you’re not going to believe who’s in your office. He didn’t want to wait in the reception area, where he could be seen.” Marshall made little quote marks in the air. “He insisted I show him in.”

“Who?” Bennie asked, and when Marshall told her, she decided she was completely sick of getting caught by surprise every time she came back to her own office. This time the surprise wasn’t an Italian wedding, a tower of boxes, or even an eviction notice.

But it was basically the same thing.

“We need to talk, Bennie,” he began, and seated himself uninvited at the conference table in her office. A large man, he took up more space than Robert had in the same seat, not so long ago. Or maybe he just seemed bigger because his visit was unwelcome and his presence an intrusion. “Sorry about St. Amien.”

“Me, too.” Bennie remained standing and sipped her coffee, but didn’t bother to make him any because she wasn’t his professional. His face had its ruddy sunburn, and he wore a light houndstooth suit with a custom cut. His hair retained the wetness from a morning shower, darkening its reddish shade, and Bennie could still smell his too spicy shaving cream, a bit of which was stuck in his left ear. Her phone began ringing but she ignored it. “What do we need to talk about?”

“Well, maybe what I meant was that we should talk.”

“We should? I don’t see why. Our marriage is over. You keep the house in Stone Harbor and the starter Range Rover. I’ll take the running shoes and the golden.”

“Listen, I don’t want to fight anymore.” Linette flashed a peace sign, and Bennie took a mental snapshot, to be filed under Purely Ironic Moments.

“You’re kidding, right? You’ve been trying to muscle me out of the picture since this case began, and now that it’s over, only because poor Robert is dead, you want to kiss and make up?”

“I haven’t been trying to-”

“I don’t get why you’re here, and in the mood I’m in today, I’m not mincing words. I don’t have a client, so I’m out of the lawsuit, at least for the time being. I wish you lotsa luck, but we don’t have to be friends, you and me. It’s time for you to go.”

“I heard you paid a visit to my client last night.”

“Sue me.” Bennie took a bigger slug of coffee. It was doing her good. Maybe her testosterone/caffeine theory wasn’t so crazy after all. Only Dunkin’ Donuts knew for sure, and they weren’t telling.

“Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hold it against you, and neither does Herm.” Linette waved a hand like the Pope, if the Pope had been president of the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association. “I understand, I know you were distraught. I know you liked Robert personally, I could tell. And you had a lot depending on him, professionally. On his case.”

“Robert’s death is a loss as a friend and as a client. One loss is far greater than the other, but I don’t have to justify which to you.” Bennie set her coffee on the conference table, strode to the door, and put a hand on the knob. “See ya.” She was adult enough not to add, Wouldn’t want to be ya. But just barely.

“One last thing. It’s the main reason I came.” Linette stood up, but didn’t move toward the door. “Bennie, I’ll just say this right out. I want to buy your law firm. With you in it, of course. You’d be the key man. Er, woman.”

Bennie stood dumbstruck. Buy my firm, with no clients, from the brink of bankruptcy?

“I’ll give you a lump sum for the business. I’m ballparking two million bucks, in structured payments. And that