Dead Ringer

“The day you left me off at the train station, I knew I’d made enemies in town. I was framed for murder, if you remember. And then you didn’t matter to me. Now, you do. We’re family.”

“We’ve never been family!”

“Of course we were, and we still are. You and I, we have the same parents, Bill and Carmella. So what if we never lived together or even knew each other? In the world, there’s only us now. You and me. Sisters. Twins.”

“So what?” Bennie ignored the wrench in her heart. “What follows from that? Nothing!”

“Really?” Alice’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not what you used to think, when you defended me on that murder rap.”

“And look where it got me! You tried to kill me! You tried to kill my dog!” Even if Bennie could forgive Alice for trying to kill her, she could never forgive her for trying to kill Bear. She wasn’t about to parse her own reasoning; she knew only that it was true. “What about my dog?”

“I said I’m sorry, for everything. It seems like a very nice dog.”

“He’s a great dog! He’s one of the greatest dogs of all time! He never did anything to you, and you tried to run him into traffic!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re damn right you’re sorry! You’d better be sorry!” Bennie grabbed the phone and shoved it at her across the desk. “You said you wanna call the cops? Do it! Why wait?”

“Hold on a minute.” Alice reached into a purse on the floor, pulled out Bennie’s black Filofax, and set it on the desk. “This belongs to you. Your ID’s inside, and credit cards. I sent the earrings back to Tiffany too.”

“What a gal.” Bennie hoped that Carrier had called the DA about her indictment. She made a mental to-do list: Get acquitted. “They’ll still prosecute you, you know. It’s a felony and you assaulted the guard.”

“I know. I’m ready to take what comes. And I’ll never pretend to be you again, I swear.” Alice’s eyes narrowed. “I do have a question, though. If I really don’t mean anything to you, why did you save my life?”

Ouch. “Everybody makes mistakes.”

“You didn’t make a mistake. You stepped in front of a bullet. For me. I’d like to know why.”

“None of your business.”

“How can it not be?” Alice laughed, Bennie’s own laugh. “It’s my life, it has to be my business.”

“Well, it’s my reason, so it isn’t.”

“Thank you for it, whatever the reason.” Alice gestured at Bennie’s wall of fame, behind her. “You know, I learned something that day, at the hospital. I used to be so jealous of you. I used to want what you had. But I got to see myself, when Georges pulled that gun. He killed his own brother, and I didn’t want to become him. I don’t want to become you, either. I want to become me.” Alice shook her head, musing. “See, you saved my life, and now I have a second one, because of you. From now on, I want to get it right, if you can understand that.” Alice’s face softened, her lips curving into a sweet smile that Bennie had seen on only one other person in the world. Her mother.

My God. Bennie found herself wondering. Is there any of my mother in Alice? Any of her sweetness, her goodness of heart? It stood to reason that there would be. Alice was her full-blooded child, just like Bennie. And before Bennie had met Alice, she had believed that blood was all. It was only afterward she’d concluded that blood meant nothing. But maybe the answer lay somewhere in the middle ground.

“Do you believe in redemption? Well, I’m redeeming myself. You’ll see. I’m starting by turning myself in. I figure I’ll get maybe probation or county time for the earrings. When I get out, I’m going to stay in Philly.”

“Philly? Why?”

“I have family here,” Alice answered with a smile, but Bennie didn’t see the humor. Her hometown wasn’t the middle ground she’d had in mind. She was thinking Timbuktu.

“But what would you do here?”

“I thought I’d get a job.”

“What, in sales? Cocaine or crack?”

“No. A legitimate job, a straight job. I went to college, I majored in criminal justice. I could do something in a law office.”

“You asking me for a job?” Bennie asked in disbelief.

“No, not at all. It’s too weird, with us being twins and all, but I think it wouldn’t be the worst thing if we got to know each other. I’ve been staying in a little efficiency in town, on Bainbridge, nice and clean, and I take care of it. I bought curtains with ruffles and ordered HBO. It’s a cute place. Sunny, nice.” The faint pride in her voice made her sound oddly vulnerable, and believable.

Do you believe in redemption? Bennie couldn’t deny that she did. That was why she had saved Alice’s life. For her, and for her mother. The weight Bennie had carried over being chosen had been lifted. And her mother could never be happy, had never been happy, until now.

“I’m changing, I really am. I’m going to change, whether I’m in the joint or out. So let’s call the cops.”

Bennie turned the telephone back to her, picked up the receiver, and punched in the number. Her whole legal career had been about finding justice, and she was going to see that justice was served, right now. “This is Bennie Rosato,” she said when the call connected. “Can I speak to the boss?”

Alice watched her in silence, her expression turning grave.

“This you?” Bennie said into the phone when the familiar voice came on. It wasn’t Detective Needleman; it was Karen Wise, the director of the Public Law Group. Alice didn’t know that, yet she still didn’t get up and run away, which confirmed to Bennie the correctness of her decision. It was the right decision, even if it was a little, well, unorthodox. But then again, Bennie always was a maverick.

“Karen,” Bennie said, “I have a woman you might want to interview, sitting here in my office. She’s about to serve some county time, about eighteen months, but she says she wants to change when she gets out. You guys believe that’s possible over there, right? That people can redeem themselves? That good can triumph over evil, even when lawyers are involved?”

Alice straightened in her chair, and an incredulous smile spread across her face.

“She’s smart and resourceful and I think she’d work hard. She says she wants to change, and I’m fool enough to believe her. She hasn’t been given a lot of chances in her life. I think I’d bet on her this one time. You might recognize her when you meet her. Who is she?” Bennie eyed the blonde on the other side of the desk, and when she answered, she chose her words carefully:

“Her name is Alice Connelly, and she’s my twin sister.”

***