Body Double (6 page)

“I can respect that. Let me see if he’s free.” Sarah picked up her cell phone from the desk.

Andrea sat down and crossed her legs and folded her arms, refusing to be swayed away from her decision.

“Hi, Blake, it’s me... I’m fine, how about you?” Sarah put the phone on speaker.

“Doing great, babe. What’s up?”

Hearing his voice made him a real person in Andrea’s mind, a person with a heart that could be broken. Hearing him made everything real.

“I was wondering if you were free for a late lunch,” Sarah said.

“I’m on the golf course with my mom and your dad. We’re only at hole three, so it’ll be a while before I’m free. I’ve got a couple of appointments this afternoon. Can we meet for dinner? Around seven?”

“Um, let me check my calendar.” Sarah raised her eyebrows questioningly.

Andrea chewed her lip, unsure whether to agree or not. She’d envisioned Sarah introducing them, but Sarah wanted to be on a plane by then.

“Give me one sec,” Sarah said. She pressed a button on her phone. “It’s on mute. One of us is having dinner with Blake tonight. Which one will it be?”

She didn’t want to have dinner with Blake alone—at least, not without first agreeing to this scheme.

“Can you meet us for dinner and catch another flight to Colombia in the morning?”

Sarah shook her head. “Traffickers move the girls every few days to keep the
Policía Nacional
off their trail. Rise Up has eyes on them now, but if we delay too long, we might lose them again. Our best shot at saving those girls is for me to get down there ASAP. They’ve lined me up with a pilot in Mexico who can fly me down more quickly than if I go commercial, but he’s on a tight schedule. If there was any other way, I’d never have brought you into this mess.”

That meant Andrea would have to either talk Blake into it on her own, or bow out now without knowing if he was amenable. And what if he was? She’d be giving up a million dollars, but it wasn’t just the money she would sacrifice. This was her chance to help those girls being groomed for slavery, thinking they were embarking on an exciting new life and new opportunities in America. Could she turn Sarah down, knowing those children would likely be beaten, raped, starved, and perhaps murdered within a matter of weeks?

“Okay,” Andrea said, unsure why her mouth was taking over when her mind wasn’t yet made up. “I’ll do it.”

From the phone, she heard a woman’s voice ask, “Is that Sarah? Tell her I can’t wait to see her at the rehearsal on Friday.” Sarah’s mother-in-law to-be sounded so nice.

And I’m supposed to deceive her too.

Wait,
she started to say. But Sarah had already pressed the button on the phone. “Seven will be fine,” she told him.

“Great. I’ll pick you up at a quarter til.”

Andrea shook her head fervently, waving her hands in a calling-off gesture.

“Um, I’ve got some things to take care of after work,” Sarah said. “How about I meet you at Ruby’s instead?”

“Sure,” Blake said. “See you there.” Sarah was about to punch the end call button when he said, “Love you.”

Sarah stiffened, her finger hovering a fraction of an inch from the phone’s surface. “Um, bye.” Her face turned crimson, and she disconnected. “That was awkward.”

“You’re sure about this?” Charlotte asked.

Sarah nodded. “It’s not too late to say no.”

Andrea took a deep breath. “I’ll do it. For those girls.”

Sarah squealed and reached for Andrea with both hands. Andrea stood, and the two women embraced. “Thank you so very, very much. You can’t know what this means to me. You’re my savior as much as you are those girls’ in Colombia.”

Andrea loved helping others—it was what made her happy—but most of the time, gratitude wasn’t given so effusively. “I’m glad I can help. I’m pretty nervous though.”

“Let me get the paperwork.” Charlotte left the room.

“I can’t thank you enough for agreeing to this crazy plan. Listen, hon, if Blake refuses to go along with this, then go ahead and postpone the wedding. I’ll deal with my father’s wrath when I get back.”

“I hope I can convince him,” Andrea said. “I really could use the bail-out.”

Sarah laughed. “He’s a reasonable fellow. I’m sure you’ll make him see the wisdom of the plan. You’ll be meeting a lot of strangers who know me, so try to keep to general topics in conversation—how excited you are, how happy, and so on. You can claim nervousness if you think you’ve said the wrong thing.”

Andrea thought about her own parents and how they would feel if the situation was reversed. “What about your father? Don’t you hate having to deceive him?”

“The bastard deserves it,” Charlotte said, returning.

Andrea goggled at the VP. For her to say that in front of her boss was bold and disrespectful.

“I didn’t want to tell you this before,” Sarah said, “because I thought it would unfairly influence your decision, but my father is the reason you lost your job at Delmar.”

“What?” That didn’t make sense. What did he have to do with it? Andrea gasped, remembering that Delmar was closed because of a corporate sale. “He bought our parent company?”

“Yep. He’s the one who ordered Delmar be shut down. That sorry bastard is so stingy, he wouldn’t pay a dime to see a pissant pull a freight train. If I died or somehow became incapacitated, he would shut down The Lighthouse without a second thought. He calls organizations like ours ‘financial sink holes.’”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Andrea asked, scowling. Her hands curled into fists, and her upper lip stiffened. She was about to take a job that would bring her face to face with the man who’d put her in the unemployment line and a bunch of runaway teenagers into who-knew-where, and she would have to be civil to that jerk.

“Like I said,” Sarah replied, “I didn’t want to use your personal situation against you. That would’ve been unfair. It’s bad enough I had to tell you about the trip to Colombia. I’d have preferred to offer you the job straight-up and let you take it or leave it on its own merits.”

“I don’t think of myself as a vengeful person, but I’ll tell you, I don’t feel as bad about it now as I did a minute ago.” The three women laughed.

“That’s the spirit,” Sarah said. “Listen, it’s really important that he believes you’re me. If he thinks my marriage to Blake isn’t real, he’ll pull the plug on the business deal, not to mention funding for The Lighthouse.”

“I understand, but won’t he know me for an imposter the second I speak to him? I don’t have your Southern accent or your colorful way of putting things.”

“You won’t really have to talk to him,” Charlotte said. “Sarah calls him Father when she must, but mostly she ignores him.”

“To his face?” Andrea asked, shocked.

With a wry smile, Sarah shrugged one shoulder.

“I know,” Charlotte said with a laugh. “I thought the same thing. She pretends he’s not even there. Doesn’t answer his questions, doesn’t respond to his remarks, doesn’t even look at him.”

“And you get away with that?” Andrea asked.

“Trust me,” Sarah said. “It’s better for both of us that way.”

Andrea’s stomach churned, thinking of all the people she would have to fool into believing she was Sarah. Why had she agreed to this crazy plan? “What about your maid of honor? She’s surely going to know I’m not you.”

“She already does,” Sarah said, nodding her head at Charlotte.

“Don’t worry,” Charlotte said. “I’ll be with you every step of the way, diverting people and questions, making excuses for you. I’ll have your back.”

Andrea breathed her relief. She had the urge to drop to her knees and kiss Charlotte’s hands. “Oh, thank goodness. I don’t know what I’d do if I had to face all those strangers alone.”

“While you were having lunch, I ran out and got a duplicate driver’s license, just in case you said yes. The airline ticket to Hawaii is in my name, so you’ll need it to board the plane. The only problem you might have is that it says my eye color is green.” She handed the card to Andrea. “There’s no mistaking your very blue eyes for my green ones.”

“I’ll need to wear colored contact lenses anyway,” Andrea said, examining the license. “The question is: can I get them before the wedding?” The photo looked enough like her to pass even careful scrutiny.

“I have an eye doctor friend who’ll get you squared away. I’ll call him and get you in tomorrow.”

They went over the contract for payment and the power of attorney itself. Charlotte explained how Andrea should sign the marriage license and staple a copy of the power of attorney to the application for marriage license that she would submit to the county.

Sarah also gave her the information for a small bank account she kept for such things as vacations, toys, and spa visits, along with an ATM card so she could withdraw cash as needed. “Use the money to pay your mortgage or rent, utilities and phone, buy your meals, pay for gas—all that stuff. There’s only about eighteen grand in it, so don’t go crazy, but use what you need.”

“Wow,” Andrea said. “That’s, um...”

“It’s the least I can do. You’re helping me out of a tight spot here. Also, if you can manage it, I’d like you to stay at my house, or at least spend some time there, and drive my car, especially when you go to meet with the wedding planner and to the rehearsal. I’d raise eyebrows showing up in your Ford.”

“Got it,” Andrea said with a grin.

Tracy came in to notarize their signatures on the paperwork. She made twenty-five copies and used her notary seal embosser on each one. “I don’t know if you’ll need all these, but it’s better to have them than not. I’ll keep the original here and make more copies if you need them.”

“Feel free to wear anything in my closet,” Sarah said, offering Andrea a key ring with two keys on it. “This is my house key and the key to the sedan. If I could bother you for a ride to the airport, that’ll make everything easier. You can park your car in my garage. It’ll be safe and out of sight, and when you need to be you, you’ll have it right there.”

“Listen,” Andrea said. “I know I signed the non-disclosure agreement, but my best friend is going to get suspicious if I’m suddenly unavailable and run off to Hawaii. Can I tell her?”

“Does she work for the media?”

“No, and I’ll make her swear not to tell a soul—even her husband.”

Sarah hesitated, a doubtful expression on her face. “All right, as long as she agrees not to tell anyone. It’s not fair for me to make your own life difficult while you make mine easier. If you need to tell your folks, that’s okay too—with the same caveat.”

Charlotte handed her a sheet of paper containing a list of appointments. “Your final dress fitting is tomorrow morning. Thursday, you’ve got an appointment with the wedding planner to walk through the venue and go over the final details, and of course the rehearsal on Friday, and hair and makeup Saturday morning.”

Sarah said, “You’re going to be busier than a one-legged cat in a sandbox these next few days. I can’t wait to see the photos. You’re going to be lovely.”

“Oh, my God,” Andrea said. “I forgot about photos. I’m going to be the bride in your wedding album. Your future children are going to see that.”

“It’s okay,” Sarah said. “Don’t worry about that.”

Charlotte said, “There’ll be two photographers and a videographer. At the reception, they’ll have a room set up where they’ll shoot a ton of portrait shots of you and Blake, the entire wedding party, and shots with their respective parents.”

“Your parents,” Andrea wailed, letting her forehead fall into her palm.

“Try not to think of them as my wedding photos. Just think of it as a practice run for your own wedding and enjoy yourself.”

Andrea shook her head. She would never get married. Ever. “I doubt I’ll ever get married, but even if I do, my wedding won’t be nearly as lavish as yours.”

Sarah grinned. “Oh, I don’t know. Being a millionaire will attract a lot of new people into your life. You might be surprised.”

With their agreement made and the papers signed, Andrea followed Sarah’s white Mercedes coupe to Redwood City and into a neighborhood of luxury homes, some with German cars parked in the driveway. Her own car, the eight-year-old Ford Focus her dad had given her as a graduation present, looked conspicuous here with its sun bleached, green paint and crooked bumper, and she was glad to hide it in Sarah’s garage.

Sarah gave Andrea a tour of her four-thousand-square-foot home and the three-quarter acre manicured lot around it. While the property might have sold for three hundred thousand dollars or so in her parents’ Phoenix neighborhood, she estimated it was worth closer to two million in Redwood City.

On a miniature spiral notepad she kept in her purse, Andrea wrote down what Sarah told her about garbage pick-up and where to put the mail after she brought it in, where to find the cache of toilet paper, and what days the housekeeper, lawn maintenance, and pool crews came. She noted which neighbors were snooty and which were nice, how to access the Internet on Sarah’s WiFi network, how to turn on and off the security alarm, and where to find clean towels and sheets for the bed. While Sarah packed, she ran through the final bits of information Andrea would need to live in the house.