Lisa Scottoline - Think Twice

“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 knew it!”

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 click.

“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.

“ You have a gun, counselor? You gonna shoot me ?”

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 you. ”

“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.

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, its black water choppy with wind and rain, its reflection of the city lights a dark kaleidoscope.

“Let her go!” Bennie advanced slowly, her gun raised. “This is between you and me.”

“Stop!” Alice moved farther backwards, out of the security light and into the shadows beyond. “One more step and she’s dead!”

“If you hurt her, you’re dead!” Bennie left the light, blinking rain from her eyes, and followed Alice onto the pier.

Suddenly, the security light went off, plunging them all in total darkness. She could see Alice and Judy only in silhouette, against the fog of the sky and the brightness of the opposite shore.

“Stop or I’ll kill her!” Alice shouted, but the time for talk was over.

Bennie raised her gun, aiming at the silhouettes in the black and the rain. She was a decent shot but couldn’t take a chance, not yet.

In the next instant, there was a scuffle on the dock.

A gun went off, and Judy screamed.

And all hell broke loose.

Alice was dragging Judy off when all of a sudden, the girl kicked her in the shin with her clog.

The gun fired, and the bullet found its target.

Judy screamed, and hot blood spattered everywhere.

Alice shoved her off the dock, sending her over the side, her arms pinwheeling. The girl screamed all the way into the darkness until she hit the water with a splash.

Alice tore down the dock in the rain, the messenger bag thumping at her side. She heard shouting behind her. She heard another splash. She knew what it was. Bennie had gone after the kid. She’d save Judy rather than catch Alice. They all would. Fine with her.

She ran harder. She spotted another pier to the right. She could run that way and double back to the Boulevard. But the cops would be searching there in no time. Her heart was pounding, her chest hurt.

She was almost at the end of the pier, which pointed at the dark water like a finger.

She ran to the very end, took a deep breath, and jumped into thin air.

Mary screamed, anguished. She ran to the pier, tears streaming down her face. She reached the spot where Judy had gone over the side and almost fell in looking for her in the gloom. Grady caught her from behind and stopped her.

“Stay back!” he shouted, but Mary was hysterical.

“She got shot! Alice shot her!”

“I know, calm down. Bennie’s down there! Stay here! I’ll go!”

“Grady, help!” Bennie called from the depths, her frantic cry drowned by the rain.

Grady dove into the blackness beside the ship, disappearing.

Mary heard a splash. She kept watching. She could make out three heads below in black water.

“ Maria, Maria! ” her mother cried, hurrying up from behind her, and Mary held her close, heaving a great sob.

“Oh, Ma. It’s Judy. Judy, Ma.”

“Oh, no, Deo, Maria .” Her mother hugged her, and Mary tried to shield her from the rain, cradling her tight.

Fiorella stood behind them, soaked. “Your father ran to the restaurant to call 911.”

“Thank God.” Mary tried to control herself, hanging on to her mother like a little girl, not sure who was comforting whom. She looked down, watching the heads in the water, scared to death.

Then she heard her mother praying and joined her.

Until the sirens came.

Bennie kept Carrier afloat by treading water and holding her under the arm on one side, with Grady helping on the other. Still the girl had lost consciousness. Her head fell back, her eyes closed, and her mouth flopped open, her jaw slack.