“No thanks. I ate already.”
Bennie laughed. “You’re so nice today, and very talkative. What happened?”
“I feel bad for you, and frankly, I’m worried about you.”
“Me, why?”
“Because somebody got killed. Somebody close to you.” David’s smile vanished, and his jaw set. “I did a little research online last night about your twin. I read all the newspaper articles from the murder trial, and all the information about her. We don’t know how long she’s been back in town, but if you look at her moves in a series, a logical series, it’s a very dangerous scenario.”
“What do you mean?”
“Alice is on the attack, and her attacks are escalating. She has attacked your reputation, your home, and an animal you love. And now possibly your client.” David’s eyes turned dark and bored into her. “You see where I’m going with this?”
Bennie nodded. It was bad and good to have her suspicion confirmed. Ambivalent falling short, again. “You think Alice killed Robert.”
David shook his head. “Not only that.”
“What?”
“I think you’re next.”
Whoa. Bennie’s heart stopped. Maybe it was the gravity behind his eyes or the authority in his voice. Or maybe his words just rang true. She felt a tingle of fear.
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility, and you have to take measures to protect yourself.”
“But I’m not sure she’s the one who killed Robert.”
“You can’t take any chances. You have to behave as though she did. You have to protect yourself, and you can’t let it go just because so much else is going on.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“I don’t mean to, and I know this isn’t my business.” David leaned forward. “I’m just saying that last night, when you found out about the murder, you flew out of the house. It was like everything else went out of your head, including Alice. You didn’t think twice about the danger to yourself, even though we had just found out how she’d broken in. Even though she had just tried to kill Bear.”
Bennie remembered. She had barely said good-bye.
“I bet you didn’t think about her this morning, either, in the aftermath of last night.”
“I thought about her,” Bennie told him, defensive.
“What I’m saying is, you have to end this. You have to stop her. You have to get her. You can’t afford to keep disregarding your enemy because your friend was killed, or because you have a law firm to run.” David gestured at her wall of fame. “I read about you last night. You’ve accomplished a lot in your life, and you have too much on your plate. I can’t even begin to imagine what it takes to run a law firm. It isn’t my expertise.”
Mine either, she almost said.
“My expertise lies in another area. This area. I teach how to wage war, and how to win. I believe it’s the same whether it’s a real battle, a simulated battle, or any other conflict. War is war. It can be everywhere and anywhere.”
Bennie had always believed as much. Litigation was war. She had thought it yesterday in the courtroom, when she had declared on Linette. And look what had happened.
“I can tell you, from my experience, that you have an enemy who isn’t distracted. Alice is following a plan of attack, and she’s acting without hesitation or remorse. She’s aggressive and she’s going forward. And you’re directly in the line of fire.”
Bennie was quiet a moment.
“I’m concerned. I like you, and I wouldn’t feel so great if you got yourself killed.”
Bennie felt a rush of warmth even she couldn’t deny.
“It’s your cooking I would miss. Also your dog, who loves me, I can tell.”
Bennie felt her cheeks flushing. It was the L word that did it.
“My point isn’t that I can and should help.” David raised a finger like the instructor he was. “That isn’t my point. Even though I am the best man for the job, come completely free, and have nothing better to do.”
“Nothing?”
“All I have to do is work out.”
“No job? What do you live on?” Bennie was so curious about him. David had come out of the blue and was entering her life in a very intimate way. Talking about her getting killed. What if he was working with Alice somehow? Even he had said that Alice could have an accomplice. Bennie couldn’t help feeling suspicious. She was a lawyer, after all.
“I’m still drawing my pay, and I’m a saver.”
Now that was suspicious. “Did you always want to be in the military?”
“Yes. I was ROTC in high school, a battalion commander.”
“Why did you want to do that?”
“It suited me.”
Okay. Bennie had wanted to be a lawyer for about the same reason. “Where do you live?”
“You’re getting in a lot of personal questions here. Don’t think I don’t notice.”
“Where you live is personal? Then what’s your weight?”
He smiled. “I live on Spruce, at Twentieth, in an apartment I rent month to month. I don’t know how long this break will be. Long enough to help you through this.”
Bennie considered the proposition. “And you think I need help, that I can’t do it myself.”
“I know you can’t.”
Bennie bristled. Anything you can do I can do better. “Why the hell not?”
“Because Alice knows what you look like.”
Oh. Bennie hadn’t thought of that. She put her gun back in its holster.
“She can see you coming. In fact, she’s been following you. And, since you and your law firm represented her, she knows what all of your associates look like. She’s met them, hasn’t she? They were in photos together in the newspapers, taken on the courthouse steps.”
“Yes. She knows all of us but Murphy, and I bet she’s seen a picture of her on our website.”
“And she even knows your investigator. The one you mentioned, I forget his name.”
“Lou Jacobs. He’s sick anyway.”
“And you don’t have the money to rent a cop.”
“Not really.”
Bennie mulled it over. She didn’t have a lot of choices. And he did seem like a normal, sane man, acting selflessly. She’d just never met anyone like him. She really could use the help. It might be time to admit it. “Well, I do have an idea.”
“What is it?”
“The way I see, the problem is simple. Alice is following me, but I don’t know where she is.”
“True. I did some searching last night and she’s not listed anywhere in the city or the suburbs.”
“She’s made herself invisible, except that she’s following me. And that’s how I can find her. You follow her, following me.” Bennie tried to explain. She knew it sounded bizarre. Phones rang in the background. “Be my bodyguard, just like a rent-a-cop, but undercover. Sooner or later, she’s got to show herself. And you know what she looks like. Me.”
David was listening. “So I track you, that’s the plan?”
“Yes. It shouldn’t last too long, maybe three days at most. I hate to take so much of your time, but if you’re offering, it’s a plan.”
David nodded. “I have plenty of time, and it won’t take long. Then we turn her in and they question her for the murder of St. Amien, and prosecute her for the theft of your wallet and the diamonds. I assume once we have her out in the open, you can tie her up pretty good in legal red tape.”
“That would be my expertise.” Bennie smiled. She was feeling safer already, more in control of the situation, even if their arrangement was a little strange. If it worked, this nightmare would be over. Maybe the firm could stay afloat until then. The charges against her would be dropped, and people would know she wasn’t a thief or a drunk. She couldn’t wait for the day.