Think Twice

“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!”