Think Twice

“Quiet.” Bennie raised a palm like a traffic cop. “I can’t talk right now. If I said I’ll get to it in September, I will.”

Mary felt nonplussed. Bennie wasn’t usually this abrupt, and she sensed that something was wrong, though she wasn’t about to ask. She rose and walked to the door. “Okay, well, I guess we’ll talk next month.”

“Wait. DiNunzio?”

“Yes?” Mary turned back, and Bennie’s expression had changed, her features softening.

“Listen, I hate to get personal, but I should mention that I just heard from Karen Wise that Alice Connelly-you know, my twin-quit her job at PLG. It’s just bothersome. I’m so disappointed in her.”

“I see,” Mary said, concerned. “I knew something was bothering you.”

“You did? How?”

“I could just tell. I’ve worked for you for a long time now.”

“Worked with me, not for me.”

Mary blushed. Maybe she really would make partner. “So, do you think you’ll hear from her? If she has no job, she’ll be needing money.”

“That may be true, but it’s not my problem, anymore. I haven’t seen her in a year or so, and I’m so tired of her expecting me to put her life back together, after she messes it up.”

“Remember, she gave you trouble before and she may do it again. She’s resentful of you, and you’re so successful now.”

“I didn’t think of that.” Bennie looked concerned. “You know, Karen told me that she stole money from petty cash.”

“She stole from a nonprofit? That’s low.” Mary was a twin herself, and she knew from experience that being one wasn’t always easy. She and her sister Angie loved each other, but it could be tricky to establish your own identity when somebody else was wearing your face. “Remember, I’m a twin, even though we haven’t really talked about it much. So I’ve been there, to a certain extent.”

“Right. I had forgotten.”

“People do, since Angie’s off always doing missionary work, now that she left the convent.” Mary didn’t add that she’d never talked to Bennie about her twin because the boss wasn’t exactly down with girl talk. “Anyway, I noticed that, in the past, Alice seems to come to you when she needs money, help, or a favor. If she came by on Monday with Rexco here, it might be a problem.”

“Then let’s cancel the meeting.”

“We can’t. It took three weeks to get it scheduled. You should see the emails I had to send, back and forth.” Mary hesitated, then went for it. She was showing initiative all over the place. “Can I make a suggestion?”

“Sure.”

“Maybe we should tell building security to call you if she wants to come upstairs?”

“Do you really think that’s necessary?”

“Yes. I’ll call Steve and tell him to let us know if Alice shows up, and he’ll tell the other guys.” Mary felt good, advising Bennie instead of always the other way around. “And, since Alice has been known to be a little… rough around the edges, shall we say, maybe you should get a restraining order, just in case.”

“Against her?” Bennie scoffed. “Aren’t you overreacting?”

“Better to be safe than sorry, that’s what you always say.”

“But she hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“She has in the past.”

“But she’s changed. She’s at PLG now and-” Bennie’s face fell, and Mary realized that the boss wasn’t so different from her, after all. They both tended to see the best in people.

“Let me draft the papers. You’ll be good to go, if she acts up. You have to let people take care of you, instead of taking care of them all the time.”

“I’ll call Steve. I don’t need taking care of.”

“Don’t worry.” Mary knew Bennie would say that. “I got your back.”

“I’m counting on that, DiNunzio.” Bennie smiled. “I don’t say it enough, but I really do appreciate you.”

“Back at you.” Mary turned and left, before she got choked up or otherwise leaked estrogen. It was as if she was seeing her boss with new eyes, understanding her not as a superior, but as another woman.

And on the walk back to her office, she felt, for the first time, that she and Bennie could be partners.

Chapter Twenty

Bennie opened her eyes into pitch blackness. The vision was gone. Her mother had vanished. The good feeling had evaporated. She wasn’t sure if she was alive or dead. She felt sick, broken, confused, like she was falling to pieces, her very self shattering and splintering, the center flying apart. There was no sound. The blackness around her was as empty as space. She would have imagined she was floating but for the pain in her body and the stench that brought her back to earth.

She moved her hands, and they hit something hard. She moaned. She was alive and back inside the box. She felt for the wood sides, and they were still there. She was dizzy and faint. Her chest heaved, and a weird sound came out of her, emitted from starved lungs, and she was hiccupping, then spasming until she finally got a breath.

She had to get out of here. She had to save her own life. She slammed the lid with her palm, but it felt different. She raked it with her fingertips and touched something new. There was a ridge in the wood of the lid, that hadn’t been there before.

She ran her index finger along the line, tracing it like a route on a map, her sense of touch more acute because of the dark, the pain in her raw finger making it more sensitive. The lid now had a definite crack, running lengthwise, maybe from the shaking. She started banging on it with all her might, and she didn’t stop, even when the scratching noise started again.

Chapter Twenty-one

Alice kicked off her sandals, crossed her legs, and took a sip of Diet Coke, which she had with a turkey sandwich from the office refrigerator. Things were going better than she expected, and she could see Mary would be a useful ally. The associate had such an obvious girl crush on Bennie that she could be made to do anything. Mary craved approval, so all Alice had to do to manipulate her was to give her some, but a little at a time. Even now the girl was slaving away on the brief that they’d never need, because Bennie was probably dead by now.

Alice picked up Bennie’s phone, skimmed the address list for Building Security, and pressed CALL, which was answered immediately, “Front desk. Hey, Bennie.”

“Hi, Steve.” Alice remembered how Mary had said the name. “My twin Alice Connelly might come around the office, sometime in the next few days. Let me know if she shows up, would you?”

“Mary already told me, and I sent an email to the guys, and if we see her, we’ll call. Too bad Lou’s on vacation.”

“I know, right?” Alice guessed he meant Lou Jacobs, the firm’s investigator, whom she remembered from the trial. Good thing he was out of town, because she didn’t need another problem. “Okay, I gotta go.”

“You worry about the law, and let us worry about the order.” Steve laughed, then they hung up.

Now it was time to set her plan in motion. She hit a key on Bennie’s laptop, and it came to life, asking for the password. She took a quick look at the Rolodex card in her bag, found the right password under Office Laptop, and opened Bennie’s email. She remembered the name of Bennie’s private banker at USABank, Marla Stone, which she’d come across in the email last night, so she clicked CREATE EMAIL and typed in the first few letters. The program filled in the rest of the email address, and she typed EMERGENCY, CONFIDENTIAL in the re line and continued:

Dear Marla, We have an emergency situation. My identical twin, Alice Connelly, has quit her job, stolen money,