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.”