Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen

Bennie bounced in the backseat of the Jeep as it jostled down one dirt road, then another, heading toward town. The pilot and the driver were talking in low tones, and she leaned over, dug in her purse, and pulled out her bag of pills, then swallowed the last one dry. She tossed the baggie aside.

“Here comes another,” the driver said, pulling over as a car sped past. “Woohoo. Lots o’ excitement. Something actually happening, besides the friggin’ cruise ships.”

“Breaking news,” the pilot said, and they laughed.

Honk! Honk! beeped a horn, from a car behind them, then it flashed its high beams and zoomed past. Cars and trucks had been flying by all evening, speeding toward the airport, reservists and volunteers going to help.

“Can you put on the radio?” Bennie asked. “I’m curious what’s going on.”

The driver accelerated onto the road behind the red taillights, which were disappearing into the distance. The radio came on, the stations being scanned, then song fragments, and the news.

The male announcer said, “The status of the fire has been upgraded, and many of the first responders have been taken to the hospital, suffering from heat exhaustion. Authorities report that nine private jets and a truck loaded with jet fuel have been destroyed in a series of explosions. However, police decline to speculate that terrorists may be the culprit-”

“What a joke.” The driver flicked off the radio, chuckling. “Al Qaeda, in Nassau?”

“They come for the Cuban cigars,” the pilot said, and they both laughed.

Bennie kept her head to the plastic window of the Jeep, reading the lighted signs. Esso, Dream’s Liquor, the Hibiscus Inn Hotel, only $29.99 a night. Grassy fields gave way to suburbs and houses, with all the windows dark and dogs barking in the yards.

“Almost there,” the pilot said. “We’re taking Blue Hill.”

“The scenic route,” the driver added, and they laughed again.

Bennie tuned them out, trying to guess where Alice would go. She’d have to stay at a hotel for the night. She couldn’t present herself at the bank until morning. “Hey guys,” she said, after a moment. “Do you know where the BSB bank is?”

“Sure,” the driver answered. “Right in town, on Bay Street.”

“Is there a hotel or two, near it?”

“Plenty. The Sheraton and the Hilton are at the head of Bay Street, then there’s smaller ones, in town. Is that where we’re dropping you?”

“Yes. The Sheraton.”

“Sure you don’t wanna come party?”

“Nah, thanks.”

“Smart girl,” the pilot said, over his shoulder. “When Tommy parties, he ends up in jail.”

The driver laughed. “Not tonight. They’ve got their hands full, with this fire. You wanna knock over a liquor store, this would be the time.”

His words struck Bennie as true. The cops would be completely distracted tonight. If Alice had started the fire, that could be the reason. But why, exactly? To keep the cops from the bank? To get past immigration, in case the FBI had called down?

They drove around a rotary, and another car flew by, then a blue van that read TRUST IN GOD. They passed a law school and the College of the Bahamas, reaching the fringe of the city and a string of houses, grocery stores, and a hair salon that read Home of the Instant Weave, Whole Cap. People sat on the stoops and stood in groups on the sidewalk, talking and smoking.

Bennie eyed them. She wouldn’t have a hard time finding a six-foot blonde who dressed like a lawyer.

It wouldn’t be long now.

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty

Alice steered the Town Car down the dirt road, with Knox in the passenger seat and Julie in the back. It had taken a while to get in from the suburbs, but ahead she could see the tall hotels and lights of Nassau. A car behind them flashed its high beams.

“I think that car wants to pass,” Julie said, tense. “Probably another one, going to the airport.”

“Too bad, we’re in a hurry, too.” Alice wasn’t kidding. Sooner or later, the limo driver would notice that his car was gone. She glanced over at Knox, who was looking out the open window. He had gotten too expensive and she knew he’d ask for more money, later. He’d outlived his usefulness, anyway.

The high beams flashed again, and Alice pulled over in front of a bright pink house and let the car speed past. She steered back onto the road, then hit the horn at the same time as she pulled her gun from her waistband, aimed it at Knox’s head, and pulled the trigger.

HONK! Knox slumped instantly to the right, his blood and brain spattered over his shirt, and the car horn muted the sound of the gunshot and Julie’s cry of shock.

“Shut up!” Alice grabbed the wheel and checked the rearview, where Julie had covered her mouth with her hand. “One more word, and you’ll get the same. Here’s what happens next. We stick to the plan, right?”

Julie remained silent, terrified.

“Say right for me.”

“Right,” Julie answered, her voice tremulous.

“Now, let’s review.” Alice tugged Knox forward by his shirt, and his body flopped over at the waist, his head bobbling in the well, his neck gone slack. She pushed the button to close the window on his side. “Julie, listen up. You there?”

“Yes.”

“You and I go to the bank. You introduce me as your friend from the States. We tell the guard you left your house keys at work by accident. You were at the hospital, then out with friends, that’s why we’re so late. Are you with me?”

“Yes.”

“We go to your office, you delete the email from USABank and do whatever else you have to do on the computer. When I know you transferred the money correctly, I’ll send you your cut, and we both walk away, right? You shut up, forever.”

“Yes.”

“If you call the cops, at any point, even after I’m gone, I say you killed Knox, your old high-school crush. I say you were part of the bank thing, and the airport.”

“The airport?”

Alice let it go. “If you talk, you go to jail, and they take your kid away from you. It’s all on you.”

Tears filled Julie’s eyes.

“You’re in deep now, but you’ll get out of it if you stay quiet. Understood?”

“Understood.”

“Good girl.” Alice accelerated, wiping a teardrop of blood from her cheek. She checked her clothes and she was pretty clean. The only blowback was on her right hand and forearm, which she could wash off. It was lucky that Knox’s window was open or it would have been a mess. “Julie?”

“Yes?”

“Tell me where we can dump this body, before he takes a shit.”

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-one

Bennie entered the glistening lobby of the Sheraton, which was empty, and she walked to the reception desk as a young desk clerk emerged from a door behind the counter.

“Checking in?” he asked, pleasantly.

“No, I’m looking for someone named Bennie Rosato. She looks like me, she’s my identical twin. Did she check in tonight? It would have been in the past few hours.”

“I can’t give you that information. It’s confidential.”

“But it’s important that I see her. I have some medicine she needs and I forget where she told me she was staying.”

“Hmm.” The desk clerk glanced around. “Between us, I haven’t seen her and I’m the only one on.”

“Where are the other hotels, the chains and the smaller ones? She could be at any one of them.”

“The Hilton is right next door, and there’s a few others on Charlotte and Cumberland Streets. Our business district is only about ten blocks square, starting behind me.” The desk clerk pointed backwards, and Bennie thanked him and left.

Outside, she scanned the street for Alice, but no luck. No one was on the sidewalk. There was almost no traffic, and it flowed one-way on Bay Street, downhill and to the left. Next door, the Hilton was huge and well-lit, and she walked toward it, passing only a group of rowdy teenagers in oversized T-shirts. She made her way through the Hilton’s parking lot and entered the lobby, which was brown, gold, and empty except for a gaggle of women in fuchsia dresses, chattering away.