Dead Ringer

34

I’m sorry, but you have to go,” one of the nurses told Be

“I hate to leave her alone,” Be

“Husbands can stay, but you can’t.” The nurse’s brown eyes softened. “We’ll take good care of her and the baby. She’s getting blood now. The baby’s on the monitor. The doctor will be right here. He’s dealing with another emergency.”

“What’s the matter with her? She’s in so much pain.”

“We think it’s placenta abruptio,” she said, and Be

Oh my God. “How did she get that? She was fine.”

“No one knows why it happens, but it does.”

“Is there a phone, so I can call her husband? I left my cell phone.”

“You couldn’t use a cell here anyway. Use our L and D phone.” The nurse pointed to the station behind them, covered with baby photos and thank-you notes, but another nurse in a puffy scrub hat was already on the phone. “There’s a pay phone, but it’s quite a ways, because the new labor wing is under construction. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but take the shortcut.”

“Where?”

The nurse pointed down the hall and to her right, at a makeshift plywood door with a handmade sign that read NO ADMITTANCE! CONTRACTION SITE. “Take that door, go through the double doors, take a right at the sign for the elevators, and you’ll see the pay phones. I think they’re still there. But tell Dad to get here quick. We go in five minutes.”

“Five minutes?” Be

Shit! There were no double doors. Just another makeshift corridor. A trash bag against one wall overflowed with empty Mountain Dew cans, Tastykake wrappers, and bunched-up paper bags. There were no workmen around to ask for directions. It was after five, and they would have cut out by four.

Be

She ducked under the tarp and came out the other side, into another drywall corridor, almost finished and painted with white prime coat. The floor was bare cement, spotted with drips of paint. What had the nurse said?

Damn. Go! She ran down the corridor, which angled into another corridor, less finished than the first, partly unpainted. She ran down it, too, and it was longer, some twenty-five feet. The drywall was completely unpainted in the corridor, and the air smelled like something burning. It didn’t seem more finished, it was obviously less so, and Be

Fuck! She must have gone the wrong way. It was like a maze of drywall! She didn’t have the time to run back, but this couldn’t be right. She heard a sound and spun around on her pumps.

And came face-to-face with herself.

35

Alice!” Be

“Scream and I’ll shoot you dead.” Alice’s voice had the same tone and timbre as Be

Stay calm. At least Marshall is being cared for. Be

“Why what?”

There are three two-by-fours on the cement floor, by the drywall. “Are you kidding? The whole thing.”

“This is a hard one? To take everything from you.” Alice’s lips-Be

The lumber is about ten feet away, slightly behind Alice and to the right. Be

“And I didn’t know you either. But it doesn’t mean you didn’t take from me.” Alice cocked the gun, and it made a mechanical clik. “Every day you lived in the nice house, with the boyfriend and the furry doggie, those were days that belonged to me. Things that I would have had, but you got instead. And once I knew that you had it all, I wanted it, too.”

I have to get close enough to dive for the wood, then swing it at her. Be

“You didn’t do it for me. You did it for yourself. You’re the famous one. You’re the one with the degrees and the cool job. You were the one who got the glory.” Alice’s eyes narrowed, and Be

It’s true. Be

“You’ve thought about me since we met, haven’t you? You’ve tried to find me, I know. I heard.”

Be

“So it’s true. That guilt tells you something. It tells you how wrong you are, and how right I am. You want justice? I’ll give you justice.” Alice took aim.

“Did you know that Dad died?”

Alice blinked behind the gun.

“Obviously not.”

“You’re lying.”

“No. I went to see him, to find you. He’s gone. I found out.”

“When?” Alice seemed to falter. “I was… going to see him.”

Just like me. “You waited too long. Too bad. I guess you were too busy wreaking havoc.”

Alice’s lip twitched. “When did he… when did this happen?”

This could work. I know how to get to her, because she is me. Be

“I do, too.”

“You didn’t even know the man.”

“I knew him better than you.” Alice’s tone echoed a child’s. “He knew me better than you. He knew that I was the one who cared about him, not you. You were Mommy’s girl.”

Be