Lisa Scottoline - Think Twice

“Yes, it’s all sent, as were the scanned signature cards. All of your money has been transferred to BSB, and your Bahamian accounts are open, pending receipt of the hard copies.”

“Excellent.”

“By the way, Alice called me earlier but I refused to discuss anything with her, as per our agreement.”

Damn! “Why didn’t you call and tell me?”

“I did. I spoke with Marshall, but she said you were in a meeting.”

“Oh, sorry.” Alice thought a minute. So Bennie had figured out what she was up to, but she didn’t know the details and by the time she figured them out, Alice would be out of town, a step ahead of her, and Q.

“Bennie, you should also know that someone, undoubtedly Alice, tried to access your accounts online. She was denied because she didn’t have the new password. You have to reset it yourself online, and I sent you an email with instructions to that effect.”

“Thanks.” Alice logged on to her email, skimming the boldfaced names until she found one from USABank. “I see, okay. Thanks. Gotta go.”

Mary entered the coffee room, where Grady and Judy were standing in front of the Bunn machine, feasting on leftover cinnamon buns. They looked up, and if Judy was still mad at her, it didn’t show because her mouth was full of carbohydrates.

“How’d Rexco go?” she asked. “Apart from the food, which rocks.”

“Amazing. We got ‘em.”

“How?” Judy asked, and Grady leaned against the granite counter with a Styrofoam cup of coffee while Mary told them the story. By the time she was finished, Grady looked charmed, but Judy’s smile flattened.

Mary felt tense all over again. “I think doing it free was a great idea, don’t you, Grady?”

“Brilliant.” He grinned. “I love that woman. She’s so damn smart.”

“Sure is.” Mary felt like he was a kindred spirit. “She’s not afraid to take a risk, either. The client loved her, you could tell.”

“I’m sure.” Grady smiled, sipping coffee. “Do I have to give him a beatdown?”

“No.” Mary laughed, if only to cover Judy’s silence, which Grady didn’t seem to notice.

“I’m glad we got some good news, after that debacle with Alice. Marshall said the clients have been calling all afternoon. Reporters, too.”

“Any word on if the cops got Alice yet?”

“None.”

“Too bad,” Mary said, and Judy seemed to come to life, looking over at Grady.

“Was Bennie upset by that scene with Alice?”

Grady blinked. “Sure she was. Couldn’t you tell?”

“Not really, but I don’t know her as well as you do.”

“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 .”

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?”