Lisa Scottoline - Think Twice

Mary took off. Up ahead, the SEPTA bus passed through the intersection, and Judy started moving, keeping a half a block behind Bennie.

Mary slid her cell phone from its holster and speed-dialed Judy on the fly. The call connected and the phone rang, but Judy didn’t pick up or break stride.

Mary slid the phone back, put on the afterburners, and took off, pumping her arms. Bennie kept running, way ahead, and Judy reached Market Street, hot on the trail.

Mary ran harder, closing the gap between her and Judy from a full block, then to half. She lost sight of Bennie but Judy stopped at the corner, blending into the crowd.

“Judy!” Mary yelled, huffing and puffing.

Judy turned around at the sound, and Mary reached her at speed, falling into her arms and almost sending them sprawling.

“Don’t stalk Bennie! You’re gonna get fired and I don’t want to work there without you! I’m sorry for what I said, I am!”

“I’m sorry, too!” Judy hugged her and set her back on her feet. “But this is the weirdest thing ever!”

“Why are you following Bennie?”

“She’s not Bennie!”

“She is!”

“No, trust me. This woman cannot be Bennie Rosato.” Judy gripped Mary by the arms, her blue eyes bright with zeal. “She told me she was going to run an errand, but she went into the Mellon Center!”

“So?”

“What errand can you run in Mellon Center? It’s an office building. There’s no drugstore or anything like that.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. There’s Mellon Bank. Maybe she banks there.”

“No, she’s at USABank. We all are.”

“So maybe she’s meeting a friend. Like you said, there are tons of law firms in there. Ballard, Spahr, and plenty of others. She knows tons of people.”

“That’s not it.” Judy shook her head, her mouth set. “She didn’t say she was meeting a friend. If you’re going to meet a friend, you say that. If you’re going to run an errand, you say that. ”

“I don’t know-”

“Think about it, Mare. She never goes out during the business day if it’s not billable. And guess what else? I gave her a test and she blew it. She forgot the Steere case. How could you forget Steere? It was one of our biggest murder cases.”

“She forgot the case?”

“Well, the name of the case.”

“Jude, that’s not the same thing.”

“She also said she doesn’t remember if she reported Marta to the Disciplinary Board.” Judy’s eyes narrowed. “A second test, flunked! If she were Bennie, she would have remembered that. Admit it. We all hated Marta. We prayed they’d discipline her.”

Mary could understand how it seemed strange, but still. “When did you ask her?”

“When she was leaving.”

“Oh. Then, of course, she was preoccupied. She’s having a rough day, don’t you think?”

There was a voice behind them, and they both froze.

Parting the foot traffic on the sidewalk, her arms folded, stood a very unhappy Bennie Rosato.

Bennie surveyed the living room in Alice’s apartment, which had been ransacked. A TV lay face-down on the floor. Cushions were flipped over on a corduroy couch. A coffee table had been upended, and a ginger lamp lay smashed on the wood floor. File drawers hung open in a small desk, scattering bills and papers. A surge protector lay on its side, its wires unconnected to anything, and an open Mac laptop had been cracked like a clam shell.

“Oh my God!” Kendra’s eyes widened. “It had to be Q.”

“Oh no.” Caitlin shook her head. “I bet he robbed you.”

“Damn it to hell!” Bennie said, not wanting to say more, yet. She followed Caitlin into an adjoining bedroom, which was also destroyed. Shoes and papers lay scattered around, dresser drawers hung out, spilling clothes onto a blue rug. The closet doors stood open, the clothes shoved to one side on the rack, and the shelf on top held shoeboxes that had been opened, their lids off.

Kendra bit her lip. “He was looking for money.”

“Of course he was.” Caitlin was already on her knees, peering under the bed. When she looked up, her expression was resigned. “He found it, too. It’s gone. Ten thousand dollars, and your gun, too.”

My gun. Bennie masked her surprise.

“Told you so.” Caitlin rose, brushing off her knees in disgust. “You take too many chances, Alice. Not only do we have to find another supplier, we only have three grand to buy pills with. He’s trying to put us out of business.”

“She’s right, what were you thinking?” Kendra frowned, and Bennie reacted, as Alice.

“Quit your whining!” she shouted. “I’m the one who’s a sitting duck here! Q’s trying to kill me, not you!”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it,” Kendra said, instantly putting up her hands.

“Yes, you did.” Bennie eyed Kendra, hard. “How do I know it was Q who robbed me, and not you? You knew where I keep the money. You knew I was away. The super loves you, you said so yourself. Did he let you in this week? Did you take the money?”

“Alice, no.” Blood drained from Kendra’s face. “I would never rob you. I would never rob anybody.”

Caitlin interjected, “Alice, come on. It’s not her, it’s Q. You cheated on him with one of his own guys and embarrassed him in front of everyone he knows and everyone who works for him. He’s a thug right, so what did you think was going to happen? You’re lucky to be alive.”

“Screw you!” Bennie shouted at Caitlin, and the words came more quickly than she expected. “Are you working with Q, now? You could be. You talked to him on the phone. Did you tell him I was gone? Did you tell him to come here? Take the money and the gun, then toss the apartment, to make it look like someone else did it?”

“No!”

Suddenly Bennie shoved Caitlin backwards, an explosion of violence she didn’t know was in her, until now. “You didn’t cover for me. You could’ve told him you saw me, that I was sick or something.”

Caitlin backed up, shaken. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think of that. I was worried about you, I just didn’t think.”

“Shut up!” Bennie pointed to the door. “Get out! You’re fired. I don’t need you. I’ll find another, better worker. Suburban housewives are a dime a dozen, and everybody needs Book Sox, right?”

“Alice?” Kendra said.

Bennie turned, and froze.

Kendra was pulling a gun from her purse.

“Walk with me, ladies.” Alice took Carrier and DiNunzio by their arms and got them moving, having mailed the DHL envelope. “We need to talk, since you guys seem to be following me, for some reason.”

“No, we weren’t,” Mary said, quickly.

“I was,” Judy corrected. “I think you’re acting strangely and I’d like to know why.”

“How am I acting strangely, Carrier?” Alice powered them through the businesspeople, who flowed around them in the opposite direction. The sky was darkening, and an older man looked worriedly at the clouds.

“Well, what errand were you running, in Mellon Center?”

“I wasn’t running an errand.”

“You said you were.”

“I lied.”

Mary looked over, in surprise.

“So what’s the truth?” Judy stopped on the sidewalk, and Alice turned to face her.

“I went to meet somebody, a man I’ve been seeing. I didn’t plan on Grady coming back into my life. He did that on impulse. So I had to break up with someone, now that he’s back.”

“Why didn’t you just call him?”

“I don’t dump men on the phone. Do you?”

“But you weren’t gone long enough. I saw you go into the building, like, five minutes ago.”