Lisa Scottoline - Lady Killer

“STOP THAT!” came a shout from down the hall, and Mary looked up from Giulia’s chokehold to see Bennie running toward them like a superhero, her suit jacket flying. Giulia only tightened her grip, but in the next moment Mary felt Bennie’s powerful hand clamp down on her arm and yank her out of harm’s way.

“STOP RIGHT NOW!” Bennie hollered.

“You’re scum!” Giulia yelled, pointing a lethal fingernail at Mary, who staggered to her feet and watched Bennie bring order to chaos. The boss grabbed Judy by the T-shirt, extricating her from the melee, and shielded Anne as she scrambled to her Blahniks and scooted from the fracas.

“STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!” Bennie shouted, stepping forward and grabbing Giulia by her padded leather shoulder. “HOW DARE YOU!”

“Who’re you?” Giulia practically spat. “A freakin’ Amazon?”

“Go.” Bennie released Giulia, who tottered slightly on her stilettos. “Get out of my office before I call the police.”

“Call them,” Giulia shot back “They’re good for nothin’.”

“Wrong, crazy.” Bennie towered over the Mean Girls, who seemed surprisingly intimidated. “They’re good for charging people with crimes. I’ll make sure they charge you with assault, battery, terroristic threats, and trespassing. Now get out of my office and don’t you ever, ever touch one of these girls again.”

“Ha!” Giulia erupted in a laugh. “You should know that your girl turned her back on our best friend-and now she’s gone.”

“You mean Trish?” Mary felt sick.

“Yeah, she’s gone.” Giulia’s mascared eyes burned with outrage. “And so’s he. All because you couldn’t be bothered.”

“How you live with yourself?” Missy yelled, and Yolanda glowered.

“I bet she’s dead right now because a you.”

Mary was stricken. Judy caught her eye. Anne cowered in the rear.

Bennie turned, her cheeks flushed. “DiNunzio, are these women speaking a language you understand, or are they merely delusional?”

“I understand,” Mary answered, miserably. Trish. Gone. “Don’t throw them out. I know them from high school.”

“You feel safe with them?” Bennie frowned. “Fine. DiNunzio, I leave this situation to you. I have a case to try.”

“Okay, sorry, thanks.” Mary nodded, and Bennie turned to Giulia.

“You. Go to the reception area. She’ll call you when she’s ready. Do what I say or leave.”

“Whatever.” Giulia turned away and pivoted on her spike heel, and Missy and Yolanda followed suit, all of them stalking off, trailing a crowd of perfume and adrenaline. Bennie and the associates watched them reach the reception area.

Judy couldn’t hold it in any longer. “Those girls are wack.”

“They’re girls?” Anne finger-combed her hair back into place.

“Sorry.” Mary picked up Judy’s clog and handed it to her. “Thanks for the help.”

Bennie shook her head. “Is everybody okay?”

“Fine,” Judy and Anne answered.

“Thanks.” Mary scooped up her purse, while Judy retrieved her briefcase. Anne got the Dunkin’ Donuts cup, mopping up the spilled coffee with the newspaper.

“DiNunzio, I’m surprised you agreed to meet with them.” Bennie frowned. “I wouldn’t reward that behavior. I’m still not sure you’ll be safe.”

“I’ll be fine. They’re just emotional.”

“Hormonal,” Judy said.

“Certifiable.” Anne looked up from the wet rug. “You shouldn’t be around them. You could catch really bad taste.”

“They’ll settle down.”

Bennie motioned to Judy. “Stay with her, Carrier. Don’t leave her alone with them.”

“Okay.”

Bennie put a soft hand on Mary’s shoulder and looked at her in a way that was almost maternal. “Don’t let them push you around, understand? They’re not worth one ounce of you.”

The boss never talked that way, and Judy and Anne looked over in surprise. But Mary barely heard the praise, engulfed by guilt. She flashed on Trish, crying in the office, her life dependent on a gun and the Pink Sisters.

Gone.

T he Mean Girls were no longer homicidal by the time they all sat down at the conference table, and Mary could see the individual differences in them that she’d missed when they were trying to kill her. Giulia looked Italian, with large, warm brown eyes, a biggish nose, and full lips, each feature a bold stroke on an olive-skinned canvas, like Botticelli on acid. Missy Toohey had small, light blue eyes, a little nose with the tiniest bump, and heavy foundation that obliterated a freckled complexion, as if she were erasing her Irishness. Yolanda Varlecki looked like a working-class Angelina Jolie, with round brown eyes in perfect symmetry with a lovely nose and lips like hot dogs.

Mary began, “So tell me why you say she’s missing.”

“How about you tell us why you blew her off?” Giulia’s eyes flashed with anger. “She came to you for help, Mare. You’re from the neighborhood. You too good for us now?”

Mary’s mouth went dry. “I didn’t blow her off. I told her I’d take her to court but she didn’t want to go.”

“She was worried he’d kill her. Now maybe he did. Ya happy?”

Judy raised a warning hand. “That’s enough. Whatever happened, it’s not Mary’s fault and you know it.”

Giulia shot back, “Shut up, you don’t know me at all.” Then she fixed her dark gaze on Mary. “Alls I know is, my best friend’s missing and I don’t know what to do about it. Her mother’s outta her mind from worryin’. We’re all sick about it.” She glanced irritably around the conference room. “What’s the deal? Can I smoke in here?”

“No,” Judy answered, and Giulia’s eyes glittered.

“I don’t like you, girl.”

“Love is all around.” Judy flashed her a peace sign.

“Giulia,” Mary broke in, “tell me what happened, as best you know. It was Trish’s birthday, right? And he had some kind of surprise?”

“Yeh. We thought he was gonna propose, and she was afraid because she didn’t want to say yes. The only way she’d accept is if he put a gun to her head.”

Mary felt a chill, bone deep. “Do you know if he was taking her out to give her the surprise? Or was he bringing it home?”

“They never shopped for a ring, but I dunno. Wait. Lemme think.” Giulia calmed down as she sorted out her confusion. “She called me at seven o’clock, all nervous that he’d be home any minute. Now that I think about it, she did mention they were going out.”

“Okay. Did she say anything else?”

“We set it up so she’d call me after the surprise, to let me know if she could go out to celebrate.”

“Would he let her do that?” Mary asked, surprised.

“No way, never. We only said it so she had an excuse to call me after she got the surprise, so I’d know she was okay.”

Mary’s heart ached at the scheme set up by these women, desperate to protect themselves.

“But she never showed up and she never called. We called her cell about a million times and her house. Then we went and stopped by her house and she wasn’t home. Neither was he. We chilled there awhile and-”

“Where? At her house?”

“Yeah, I have keys. I used to go over there a lot, borrowin’ clothes. So anyway we went to T’s house but she never showed up, and then we went home. She never even went on the computer. We IM each other at night but I didn’t get nothin’ from her. No e-mail, no IMs. Nothin’.”

Mary understood why the Mean Girls had behaved the way they had. This was the worst-case scenario.

“None of us slep’ a wink.” Giulia turned to the others for confirmation, and they nodded unhappily. “So we went back over her house this morning, and she still wasn’t home, so we called the cops.”