Twelve Nights (23 page)

Angela found Aggie and Andrew at opposite ends of the small
living room, glaring. She shooed Aggie into the bedroom to dress and turned on
the erstwhile boyfriend.

“Andrew,” she began.

“You look terrific,” he interrupted. “You know, I don’t like
you, but you do know how to dress.”

“You don’t,” Angela told Andrew bluntly. “Go home.”

“I’m not giving up my woman without a fight.”

“Aggie is not and never was your woman,” Angela pointed out.
Maybe rudeness would work. “You are in the way here. We both want you to go
back to Cincinnati.”

For answer, Andrew sat on the couch and opened the
newspaper.

“I’m ready,” Aggie announced. She looked nice in an
Aggie-way. Slim pants and a long tunic. Casually elegant if you liked simple.

“Enjoy your evening,” Andrew called from the sofa as they
walked to the door.

“You’re right,” Angela admitted to her twin. “He won’t budge.”

Angela found she almost looked forward to confronting Jimmy
as two people. At least the one deception would be done. He and Aggie could get
on with their obvious love affair. She would disappear with the statue and
never bother them again. She thought of never seeing her twin and her eyes
glazed. Maybe Jimmy would eventually forgive her. She could pawn the statue,
invest the money, make a mint, redeem the statue and return it to him. She
smiled at her foolishness. Maybe by the end of the evening, she’d have thought
of an alternative to larceny.

Jimmy greeted the two women with a huge smile at the door to
the apartment building. He walked unerringly up to Aggie and kissed her hard.

“How can you tell?” Angela asked.

Jimmy shrugged. “I just know. I always did. Aggie, introduce
your sister.”

Angela wondered why he continued the charade. He must know
they knew that he knew their father. Whew. What a tangle.

“Jimmy, this is my twin sister, Angela,” Aggie obeyed
Jimmy’s superfluous instruction.

“The evil twin,” Angela reminded Jimmy with a smile as she
held out her hand.

“What?” Aggie asked.

“Jimmy thinks I’m the evil twin,” Angela explained. And
tonight I’ll prove him right.

“Only when you pretended to be Aggie,” Jimmy amended. “Come
upstairs. I’ve ordered in from the Four Seasons.”

“Ever heard of Chinese?” Aggie teased.

Upstairs the trio toasted their newfound understanding with
champagne. Then Jimmy unveiled a many course meal with enough food for ten sets
of twins. By the time they finished the quails in aspic, they had also consumed
several glasses of wine. The tarte aux framboises found them all tipsy and in
good humor. Angela had to struggle to hang onto her resolve to become a
criminal. Jimmy was nice, really nice, when he was with Aggie.

At last the meal was over and Jimmy suggested they take
their coffee into the library. He handed Angela into a seat with a direct view
of the Giacometti. Could he possibly know? She dragged her eyes away from the
statue. She and Aggie continued to regale him with tales of growing up in rural
Alabama. Decorating the yard all out for Halloween and Christmas. Auburn
football games and the steady stream of blue and orange festooned cars carrying
eighty-five thousand rabid fans from all over the south to Jordan-Hare Stadium.

He told them in turn of growing up in Vancouver. Of pick-up
ice hockey games at the local rink. A quiet Thanksgiving in October, laughing
at all the fuss the Yankees made in November. To Canadians, everyone who lived
in the U.S., even in Alabama, was a Yankee. The Canucks liked their southern neighbors, but found them
rather strange. They couldn’t even spell. Kept dropping the u’s. And what about
that ‘eh’, eh?

Suddenly the mellow evening turned on Angela. The
conversation was too easy, the smiles too pleasant. Life was basically tough,
and Jimmy and Aggie didn’t seem to know that. She couldn’t stand to be around
their happiness any longer.

“I’m going to leave you two lovebirds,” she stood up and
announced.

Aggie and Jimmy exchanged a glance. Angela realized they had
been waiting for her to go and she flushed. They walked with her out to the
lobby and Jimmy pushed the elevator button. Now or never. Angela pulled one
glove out of her pocket.

“Oops,” she announced. “I think the other glove must have
fallen out of my pocket in the library.”

She turned back to the door and sighed in relief when
neither followed. They were probably too absorbed in each other to notice her
absence. She slipped into the library but was afraid to close the door. She
walked straight up to the statue, stood sideways to the door, put it in her
pocket and wrapped it as best she could in the scarf. It fit. The folds of the
full pants hid the bulge. It was done. Angela wondered if she looked as pale as
she felt. She definitely was not cut out for a life of crime. She picked up the
glove she had dropped in her chair.

“Found it,” she announced, waving the glove as she walked
out into the lobby.

She was surprised to see that Jimmy and Aggie had their
coats on.

“Jimmy wants to show us the terrace,” Aggie explained.

“Isn’t it raining?” Angela asked. She wanted to get out of
the apartment fast.

“It cleared up while we were talking,” Jimmy smiled. “Come
on out. It’s a lovely view.”

Aggie linked her arm in Angela’s and walked with her through
the lobby and dining room and out onto the terrace. The statue bumped awkwardly
against Angela’s leg. She struggled not to wince or stumble as it hit again and
again in the same soon-sensitive spot. Jimmy walked behind them and Angela
prayed there was no visible lump. Eventually they made it to the railing.

Jimmy was right. The view was breathtaking. A shimmer of
lights dusted the far shore, with a broad ribbon of flat black water between.
The boats in the harbor made their own display of lights like a Christmas show,
each doubled by its reflection in the calm bay. Angela relaxed against Aggie’s
side. The statue bumped painfully into her other leg and she jerked.

“Are you all right?” Aggie asked. “Jimmy, I think Angela’s
hurt.”

“No,” Angela assured her. “I’m fine.”

“Come inside,” Aggie urged and took Angela’s arm.

Angela couldn’t walk straight now; the pain was too intense.
It felt more like a cut than a bruise.

“There’s blood on your pants,” Aggie exclaimed when they
reentered the light.

Angela thought fast. It was over. She was caught. A limb of
the statue must have cut through the thin fabric of the pocket and then into
her skin. Somehow now that the moment was here, she couldn’t bear to admit the
depth of her depravity to her sister. She would do anything, go to jail, go
back to hooking, anything so Aggie wouldn’t know. Her eyes met Jimmy’s and she
realized that he understood.

“I’ll get Angela into the bathroom,” he took command.
“Aggie, you boil some water for tea.”

He picked Angela up in his arms, carefully avoiding the
statue and the injured leg. He carried her into the bathroom and started to put
her down on the edge of the huge circular bathtub.

“No,” Angela warned him “You might hurt the statue.”

She stood holding onto his arm with one hand and pulled out
the bloodied gauze-wrapped bronze with the other. She held it out to Jimmy.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized.

At least he didn’t say it was all right. He didn’t say it
was nothing. Angela knew it wasn’t all right and it wasn’t nothing. What he did
say was, “Let’s look at that leg.”

He put the statue on the counter and lifted the full leg of
Angela’s pants. She looked down to see a jagged bloody gash. No wonder her leg
had hurt. She heard footsteps. Jimmy put the statue behind the toilet and put
his finger to his lips. Angela could have kissed him.

“Are you okay?” Aggie asked.

“She must have brushed against something on the terrace,”
Jimmy explained.

“Let’s see.” Aggie looked at the ugly wound and her eyes
became moist. “Oh, Boo.”

“It’s okay,” Angela said hastily, her own eyes damp. The cut
was the least punishment she deserved for what she’d tried to do. She couldn’t
stand that her twin felt sorry for her, a criminal.

Jimmy wiped the cut with a warm washcloth. He was gentle,
Angela noticed, and the cleansing barely hurt. The cut was more like a scratch,
though jagged and ugly. By the time he finished cleaning it, the bleeding had
stopped. He pulled a sterile bandage from a drawer and taped it to her thigh.

“Good as new,” he commented, looking up into her face.

“Thank you,” she said aloud.

“For everything,” she mouthed behind Aggie’s back.

Though all her problems still remained, Angela felt as
though she had won a lottery. She felt free and happy as she hadn’t since the
night she’d written the letter to answer the ad. She wasn’t a criminal. She
wasn’t a swindler. She wasn’t a prostitute any more. Somehow, she would be
okay.

Like clockwork, the buzzer rang. Jimmy pushed the button to
release the elevator to the lobby. Damn, he was good. He had hoped the terrace
diversion would keep Angela in the apartment till the rest of his guests
arrived. Her attempt at larceny had added the few extra moments he needed.
Jimmy realized now that Angela was more desperate than he had thought. They
would have a long conversation soon.

The elevator doors opened just as Aggie and Angela emerged
from the bathroom. Gordon and Mary Trout stepped into Jimmy’s lobby and Gordon
greeted his daughters casually.

“Hi Blossom, Peach Fuzz.” Jimmy stored away the nicknames.
Peach Fuzz?

The twins looked stunned. Aggie turned to Jimmy and glared.

“You knew. You knew everything. How soon? What did you do,
spy on us?”

Jimmy watched in glee as Aggie’s anger rose with each
question. Her hands were on her hips now. She looked about ready to take a
swing. As Jimmy braced himself to ward off the blow, Aggie startled him by
bursting into loud laughter.

“You should see your face,” she choked. She turned abruptly
to her father, “Dad?”

The single word held interrogation and menace.

“What did you tell him?” she continued, her voice deep.

“I didn’t tell Jimmy anything,” he protested. “I didn’t need
to. You girls have been up to some naughty tricks.”

Jimmy noticed Angela wince. He walked to her side and put
his arm around her shoulder.

“Nothing a good spanking won’t solve,” he chuckled, unable
to resist the tease. Angela’s cheeks blushed to a rosy pink.

“Come on in,” he urged the older Trouts. “Let me show you
around.”

While Jimmy took Gordon and Mary on a tour of the apartment,
he kept half an eye on the furiously consulting Aggie and Angela. They must be
wondering how much their father really knew. He’d let them stew a little
longer. Midway through the tour, the buzzer rang again. That must be Richard.
He left his guests in the library and pressed the release button in the lobby.
He waited by the elevator to greet his friend.

An unknown young man emerged instead, carrying a flat box
and waving a long pistol in the air. Jimmy gave the youngster a long look,
pointedly ignoring the pistol.

“Aggie,” he called into the library. “I think you have
company.”

Aggie poked her head into the lobby and her reaction was
everything Jimmy could have imagined.

“Andrew!” she yelled and charged forward. She shoved him
back with both hands on his chest. “Go home!”

As she readied another charge, Jimmy reached out an arm and
snagged her around the waist.

“I’m here to take you back,” Andrew stammered. He lifted the
gun. “This man has you bewitched.”

“The other way around,” Jimmy murmured.

“I challenge you to a duel,” Andrew said bravely and held
out the box. Jimmy pinned the struggling Aggie to his side and covered her
mouth with his other hand.

“How would you like a job working on the new x99B chip?”
Jimmy offered.

“What?” The gun wobbled.

“I understand you’re a computer expert.” Aggie stilled at
his side and he released her. “One of my companies is working on the x99B.”

“The x99B?” Andrew echoed. The gun dropped to his side.
“Wow! That’s the prototype for the next generation.”

“So you’d like the job?”

“Sure!”

“You’re hired.” Jimmy pulled the gun and the flat box from
Andrew’s unresisting hands. “Now that you’re my employee, you aren’t allowed to
shoot me.”

Andrew flushed deep purple.

“I…I…I …” he stuttered.

“That’s okay.” Jimmy put an arm around his shoulder and
guided him through the library door and into a chair. “I agree that Aggie’s
worth fighting for, as long as you understand that I just won.”

Andrew nodded and sank into the chair. Jimmy caught Aggie’s
eye in time to stifle her giggles. He sat on the sofa and pulled her down
beside him.

“So,” Gordon spoke. Jimmy felt Aggie tense beside him. “You
girls answered a personal ad.”

Aggie stared up into Jimmy’s eyes, her own asking a
multitude of questions. How much had he told their father? Did he know about
the money? What was going to happen now? Jimmy shrugged. She and Angela had dug
a pit. He would enjoy watching them climb out. Aggie’s eyes swerved to
Angela’s. The older twin lifted her little finger in a crook.

“Jimmy put an ad in the New York Times,” Angela explained.
“Didn’t you Jimmy?”

He wondered where she was going. He nodded to Gordon and
waited.

“I sent the ad to Aggie.” The little minx. “I just sensed
something about it. Aggie felt the same way, so she answered it.”

“You sensed something?” Gordon asked.

“Like an aura,” Angela agreed.

“What did the ad say?” Gordon asked.

Angela nodded to her sister and Aggie took over. Now that
she knew that her father hadn’t read the ad, Jimmy expected the story to be a
good one.