Nell put her foot in the door, the way she'd seen it done in the movies, and then stuck her shoulder in there, too, for good measure. "I'm from the McKennas," she said, smiling brightly. "We seem to be missing some funds. Thought you might have them."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lynnie said. "But if you don't get out, I'll call the police."
"Good idea," Nell said. "I'll wait here. That way I can show them the checks you forged when they get here." She patted her bag which did not have the checks in it, and Lynnie thought fast. Nell could practically see the wheels turning behind her eyes.
"Look, I'll call Gabe later-"
"No," Nell said. "If Gabe wanted to handle this, he'd be here. He wants the money back, and he doesn't particularly want the police involved, but if it's a choice of no money or the police, he'll invite them right in. If you give me the money, nobody gets arrested. I think it's pretty simple, don't you?"
Lynnie opened the door. "Why don't you come in?"
Her duplex was sparsely furnished with plain pieces that looked temporary and a few personal pieces that looked expensive, but it also had hardwood floors, and big old windows that let in lots of light, and space, lots of space, room to move, and for a minute, Nell envied her.
"The thing is," Lynnie said, when they were sitting down, her voice softer, prettier without the edge, "I've been sick, and there were medical bills. I didn't mean to hurt anybody, I just wanted to pay my bills."
She looked imploringly at Nell, her eyes huge and beseeching, and Nell thought, If I were a guy, that might even work. The red sweater she was wearing would have been particularly effective, and Nell wished for a minute she was the kind of woman who could wear a tight, bright sweater instead of gray suits.
"You can understand that, can't you?" Lynnie said. "A woman alone?"
I must really look pathetic, Nell thought. She can tell I'm alone. She gave Lynnie a brisk smile. "Oh, sure, but now that you're all better, we'd like the money back."
Lynnie shook her head, as if in disbelief. "I can't believe that Gabe would care about a couple hundred dollars."
"Five thousand eight hundred and seventy-five," Nell enunciated clearly. "At least, that's what we've found so far. We'd like it in cash."
"That's impossible," Lynnie said, widening her eyes. "I couldn't possibly have borrowed that much."
"Cute," Nell said. "Come across with the cash, or I'm calling the cops."
Lynnie looked startled for a nanosecond, and then she smiled at Nell, her lower lip quivering a little. "You don't look like a cruel person."
"I've had a very rough week," Nell said. "Forget cruel, I'm vicious."
Lynnie met her eyes, and then she transformed in front of Nell from a helpless, soft girl into a tough, tired woman.
"You've had a rough week." Lynnie laughed. "Don't get me started."
"Yeah, it must really take a lot out of you, ripping off the innocent," Nell said.
"What innocent?" Lynnie sat back. "Honey, there are no innocent men. Just guys who haven't been caught." She lifted her chin and said, "So I pay them back. I'm a one-woman justice squad."
"What did Gabe ever do to you?"
"Gabe?" Lynnie shrugged. "Gabe's okay. That my-way-or-the-highway bit got old fast, but he's basically all right."
She had a point. Nell tried to resist it because she didn't want to bond with Lynnie. "That doesn't justify trying to destroy his business."
Lynnie looked surprised. "I wasn't trying to destroy him." She leaned forward. "Look, what did I take? The cleaning money? I cleaned."
Not very well, Nell thought, but Lynnie was on a roll.
"I was underpaid in that job. Hell, I've been underpaid in every job I've ever had. If I was a guy, I wouldn't be just a secretary, I'd be an administrative assistant at twice the salary. I worked for this guy once who was a lawyer, and I did all his work. Every guy I've ever worked for has been big on sacrifice and service." Her mouth twisted. "My sacrifice and service."
"Well, then, go after them," Nell said, trying hard not to say damn right. "Look, torture the bastards in your life all you want, I'll stand on the sidelines and cheer. I even have a bastard of my own you can have. But I need Gabe's money back. That wasn't fair, he didn't deserve it."
"They all deserve it. You were married, right?" Lynnie said, zeroing in on her. "You've got that I-used-to-be-married look. How long? Twenty years?"
"Twenty- two," Nell said, feeling sick.
"Let me guess," Lynnie said. "You worked for him and built a life for him and invested all yourself in him and sacrificed for a future when it would be your turn. Only he changed his mind, and now you're working for Gabe. How are you doing financially?"
"I'm okay," Nell said. "That's not the point-"
"Just okay," Lynnie said. "But he's doing better than that, isn't he? You're back at minimum wage, but your ex, he's still living like you used to, maybe better."
"He's had to cut some corners," Nell said.
"And he's got the future you built for him, only it's with a new woman, probably younger," Lynnie went on, and Nell flinched. "Honey, I've been there. It'd be different if they let you go and said, 'Here, take back that great skin you used to have, take back those high boobs and that flat stomach and all that energy, you just start all over again, honey, we'll give you a second chance.' But they don't. You get older and all your assets are spent, and they leave you broken and there's not a damn thing you can do about it."
Nell swallowed hard. "I'm not broken. I don't care. Just give me Gabe's money and I'll go."
Lynnie leaned forward. "You don't have to be a victim. You can get even. You can make them pay. You would not believe how good it feels to make them pay."
"I don't want to make him pay," Nell lied. "I just want Gabe's money back."
"I could help you," Lynnie said. "You could help me." She leaned closer, intent and sincere. "Your problem is, you're afraid to play dirty." She spread her hands. "Why? They do. You have to cheat like they do. Take them for everything they've got and keep moving so they can't slow you down."
"I'm moving," Nell said. I trashed his office. And a fat lot of good that had done her. "And I know it's no good to just move against them. That's not getting me anywhere. I have to move toward something."
"Exactly," Lynnie said. "You are exactly right. That's what I'm doing."
"By ripping off Gabe?" Nell shook her head. "If exactly what you want is five thousand bucks, you don't want much."
"I want it all," Lynnie said. "Gabe can spare what I took. And the rest is coming from somebody who can spare a lot more." She sat back. "I don't trust him, but I've got him. I have trusted enough men." She met Nell's eyes. "You know?"
"Yes," Nell said. "But I still want Gabe's money back."
Lynnie took a deep breath and sat back, defeated. "Okay. But first I need to call…my lawyer." She went to the phone and dialed, looking back at Nell over her shoulder. "It's me," she said after a minute. "There's a woman here from the McKennas and she's accusing me of taking some money. I was thinking-" She stopped and flushed, growing redder as she listened. "I stopped letting you tell me what to do a long time ago. I'm not going to hand over-" She stopped again, and then she said, "Six thousand dollars." She waited again, and evidently she liked what she heard this time better because she started to nod and her voice lightened and became pretty again. "All right, then. What?" She looked around the apartment and then said, "Sure, why not? As soon as I get back. Where? Fine."
She hung up and turned back to Nell, smiling. "So. My lawyer advises me to give you the money."
"Your lawyer's no dummy," Nell said, standing up.
"But the money's not here. It's in the bank. So I'll go-"
"We'll go," Nell said, and Lynnie lost her smile for a moment.
"I'm not your enemy," Lynnie said, taking a step closer. "They are."
"Just give me the money," Nell said, trying not to listen.
Lynnie closed in. "You know, if women just wised up and stuck together, they couldn't get away with this stuff."
"Some of them don't cheat," Nell said. "Okay, Gabe's a little controlling, but he doesn't deserve to be ripped off for it."
Lynnie closed her eyes and shook her head. "So that's it. You've got it for him."
"Got what?" Nell frowned at her and then understood. "Oh. No, I just met him a week ago."
"It only takes a minute, honey," Lynnie said. "You've got your work cut out for you with that one. He'll use you without even noticing he's doing it. Look at poor dumb Chloe."
"I just want the money back," Nell said.
"Yeah, I got that," Lynnie said. "I'll just follow you in my car.
"I walked," Nell said. "So I'll just ride with you. Friendlier that way."
At the bank, a small branch office in the Village, Lynnie cashed a check and turned the money over to Nell.
"Thank you," Nell said and turned and walked out of the bank, leaving Lynnie as far behind as possible-Get thee behind me, Satan-but when she got outside, Lynnie called to her from the bank's concrete porch.
"You've just made a mistake," Lynnie told her calmly, and Nell blinked at her.
"Is that a threat?"
"No," Lynnie said. "You're fighting for the wrong side.
You're tough and you're smart and you're giving it all to Gabe. Didn't you just do that for your ex?" Nell swallowed. "This is different."
Lynnie shook her head. "It's the same. Listen, if you and I got together, we could really do some damage." She smiled at Nell, a smile that held more rue than anger. "My problem is that I've always been good with money but not with plans. I've needed somebody smart to handle the details, you know? I thought I found somebody once, but he took off." Her face fell a little at the memory. "He said he was going to get a divorce and marry me, and I believed him. Never get involved with your boss."
"Tell me about it," Nell said, thinking of Tim.
"Gabe would be the worst," Lynnie went on, watching her. "You just can't work with a man like that, you can only work for him." She leaned a little closer to Nell. "But you could work with me. You look like you'd know how to plan, and I'd never cheat you."
She wouldn't, Nell thought and walked back to her.
"Listen, I'm sorry men have been lousy to you. I really am. I hope you get what you want. Preferably without maiming somebody else, of course, but I hope you get it anyway."
"The maiming is the best part." Lynnie leaned on the wrought-iron balustrade. "Look, I'm working on this thing. You'd be all for it, this guy is such a user even I can't believe it. And I've got the goods on him, he's paying, and we can get more. He deserves everything we could do to him. We're talking justice with a profit here." Lynnie smiled at her, and Nell smiled back. "But he's tricky. I could use some backup. How about it? You and me, payback time, full speed ahead."
For a moment, Nell considered it, the two of them wreaking vengeance for all womankind, but it was a fantasy. "I can't do it, Lynnie," Nell said. "I'm just not built that way." She stuck out her hand, and after a moment, Lynnie took it. "Best of luck, really."
Then she walked out onto the street, not looking back, and headed for the McKennas, full speed ahead on her own.
Nell was in the office an hour later when Suze came in carrying a box of gourmet dog biscuits and a wicker basket that held a black short-haired dachshund in a red sweater.
"You've got to take SugarPie," she said to Nell. "Jack just called and he wants to have lunch. Do you suppose he heard about the dognapping? Maybe that Farnsworth guy recognized me."
"No," Nell said, not sure. "But give me the dog and go." She took the basket and eyed the dog. "What did you do to her?"
"Clip and a dye job," Suze said. "The clip didn't go too well, but the dye looks great. It's that gentle, wash-out stuff, so I figured it wouldn't hurt her, but I washed her twice afterward with dog shampoo to make sure."
SugarPie looked up at Nell, her eyes as pitiful as ever over her still-brown nose. "It's okay," Nell told her. "I have no shampoo. Your washing days are over." She put the basket under her desk where it was hidden from the door. Once the basket was down, SugarPie stood up. She was wearing a red sweater with a white turtleneck collar and cuffs and a white heart centered on her back.
"Cute sweater," Nell said doubtfully.
"It's cashmere," Suze said, peering under the desk at the dog. "Not scratchy at all."
"It's also September, not January," Nell said.
"She needs something to cover up the bad clip," Suze said. "That was the lightest outfit I could find. I've got more in the car so she can change outfits."
"Change outfits," Nell said.
"You should see the leather bomber jacket I bought her," Suze said. "Fleece lined. Come winter, she's going to look very butch."
Nell looked back down at SugarPie. She looked like a miserable anorexic cheerleader. "Thank you," she said to Suze. "That was very nice of you."
Suze put the box of gourmet dog biscuits on the desk and then faded toward the door. "She loves those biscuits. Really, she's so pathetic that she's no trouble at all. It's just that Jack-"