Bennie ducked down in the driver’s seat and peeked above the steering wheel. Rain ran in jagged rivulets down the windshield. She could barely make out Alice and Carrier, walking together, approaching the deserted stretch in front of the empty parking lot, with the dark loading dock.
She felt a tingle of alarm, without knowing why. Alice had an oddly close hold on Carrier’s left arm. Carrier’s right arm was up, waving for a cab. Then Carrier and Alice appeared to be talking under the umbrella, and in the next second, Carrier’s hand went down and Alice seemed to be pressing her toward the loading dock.
Something was wrong.
Carrier was in trouble.
Bennie grabbed the gun, cracked the door, and sneaked out, crouching so she couldn’t be seen. A van whizzed by and sprayed her with dirty water and gravel. She scrambled forward, still crouching along the side of the parked cars, and in four more cars, she’d reach Alice and Carrier.
Chapter Eighty-seven
“Ouch!” Alice pretended to stumble on the sidewalk, hanging on to the heavy messenger bag while she reached down toward her soggy foot. “I slipped, my ankle hurts! I think I twisted my ankle.”
“Oh no!”
“Ouch, help!” Alice fumbled the umbrella, which dipped suddenly. Cold rain drenched them. “Take the umbrella, quick! I need to sit down.”
“Got it!” Judy grabbed the umbrella and covered them. A stiff wind whipped off the river, blowing rain everywhere. “Let’s go back to the restaurant. We can get help there.”
“No, I can’t walk that far.” Alice looped an arm around Judy’s shoulder and gestured toward the loading dock. “Go, there, please, ow! I can’t walk another minute. It’s killing me. Help me get over there and sit down.”
“Where?”
“Over there, on that ledge, at that loading dock.” Alice pointed. “Then you can go back to the restaurant and get help. Carrier, hurry, I need to get weight off this thing!”
“There, you sure? It’s so dark back there.”
“So what? I’m in pain. Ow!” Alice cried out, then slid her hand in her pocket for the gun. “Carrier, hurry. It’s killing me!”
“Okay, hang on.” Judy hustled them across the slick asphalt lot, juggling the umbrella while Alice weighed down her other arm. They staggered to the loading dock, but suddenly a security light went on, probably a motion detector, drenching them in a pool of brightness.
“Oh, ouch!” Alice howled in fake pain. She hadn’t planned on the light shining directly on them, but they were still shielded from the street by the parked cars and trucks. She eased onto the concrete ledge, holding Judy for support with one hand, and with the other, sliding her gun from her pocket. “Here, right here! Judy, help!”
Judy paused. “What? You called me Judy. You never call me Judy.”
“So what? Help me!”
“You’re not Bennie!” Judy’s expression changed, her eyes widening with the realization. “I
Suddenly there came a shout from the street, and they both turned to see a tall silhouette running toward them, out of the rain and darkness.
It was Bennie.
Alice seized Judy, yanked her backwards off her feet, and drilled the muzzle of the gun into her forehead. “Stay still and shut up!”
“Help!” Judy cried out, but Alice pressed the trigger, making a fateful
“I said, shut up!”
“Please, no!” Judy went rigid just as Bennie ran into the light, raising a gun.
“Let her go!” Bennie shouted, and Alice laughed.
“
Judy whimpered, the gun at her temple, her terrified eyes shifting from one look-alike to the other.
“Let her go!” Bennie shouted again, but Alice only laughed again.
“Drop the gun or I’ll shoot her.”
“No!” Bennie looked down the barrel and saw her own face. “Drop the gun, Alice. Or I’ll shoot
Chapter Eighty-eight
“Please, faster!” Mary said to the driver as they sped down Columbus Boulevard. She sat on the edge of the passenger’s seat, with Grady and her parents in the back. Rain pelted the windshield, but Mary finally spotted the red awning of Roux. “There it is! Pull up. Hurry!”
“Okay.” The driver slowed behind another cab, and all of a sudden its back door opened. Fiorella scooted out and scurried toward an empty lot next to Roux.
“Fiorella!” Mary pointed. “Where the hell is she going?”
“That’s her!” her father cried, as Mary flung open her door, blinking against the rain.
“Stop! Let me out! Let me out!”
“Hold on!” The cab lurched to a halt, and Mary jumped out and ran after Fiorella. The cold rain hit her like an ice shower and she could barely see where she was going. There were lights down to the right, toward a loading dock, and Fiorella hustled toward it like a much younger woman, her stilettos stutter-stepping across the shiny asphalt.
“Fiorella!” Mary yelled, into the storm. Rain drenched her face and clothes. Grady and her parents were shouting, behind her.
Mary plunged into a dark aisle between two tractor trailers, running through it like a cattle chute, using her hands against the wet steel to keep her balance. She heard shouting from the loading dock, where she could barely make out Fiorella and some dark figures beyond her, illuminated by a pool of light.
Mary froze when the figures came into focus. Bennie had a gun on Judy, and Alice had a gun on Bennie, in a terrifying stand-off. Time slowed down, and Mary heard her heart thudding in her ears. Grady and her parents stopped next to her, making a horrified tableau.
Mary looked again, in confusion. Suddenly she didn’t know which woman was Bennie. Her brain struggled to process it on the spot. Both of the women looked like Bennie, but neither could be Bennie, because Bennie would never pull a gun on anybody.
Then she realized one of the women had to be Bennie, and one had to be Alice, and she knew exactly who was who.
Because Bennie would never pull a gun on Judy. Ever.
So Bennie was really Alice.
Judy had been right, all along. And now she was about to die for it.
Chapter Eighty-nine
Bennie kept her gun aimed at Alice, who was dragging Judy backwards, away from the loading dock and toward the pier. An immense ship sat anchored next to them in the darkness, and beyond it glimmered the Delaware River,
