Twelve Nights (16 page)

Still, she deserved compensation. The contract was all or
nothing. Twelve nights or no money. Angela knew she had earned payment and she
saw in her mind’s eye what she felt would be a just recompense. She had to get
back into the apartment one more time. Angela kicked herself mentally for her
failure to seize tonight’s opportunity. Jimmy had been asleep. She could easily
have lifted the small Giacometti statue that sat almost hidden in a niche in
the library. But her eyes had been blinded by tears and her brain by remorse.
No more. She would take the statue the next time she was in the apartment and
then she and her sister would leave Vancouver forever.

All traces of Angela’s tears had dried by the time she
walked through the door of the hotel suite. She greeted her surprised sister
calmly.

Aggie looked at her watch. “It’s only ten o’clock.”

“He let me leave early.”

“Did something go wrong?”

“He just wanted me to jerk him off,” Angela told Aggie
bluntly.

Her sister winced.

“He’s got balls of steel,” Angela added. “He came three
times without deflating. A regular he-man.”

Aggie stood up from the sofa, her face pale, and walked out
of the room. Angela followed her to the bathroom and stood in the door as Aggie
splashed cold water on her face.

“He’s really confused,” Angela tried to explain. “I think he
likes you a lot. He knows somehow that I’m not you.”

Aggie scrubbed her face in a towel.

“I think he thinks I’m crazy,” Angela continued. “A split
personality. I swear sometimes tonight I thought he was trying to get me to
turn into you.”

Aggie walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.
Angela followed her twin again. Why didn’t she say something?

“You should go tomorrow night,” Angela tried again to get a
response.

“We’ve been through that. I’m not going.”

Angela wrapped her arms around the stiff torso of her twin.
She toppled them both onto the bed and hugged her until her limbs softened. She
shifted their bodies so Aggie’s head rested on her shoulder.

“Oh, Boo,” she sighed. “I think I’ve made a big mess.”

Aggie nodded into her shoulder.

“What should I do?”

“We should both get on the first plane out tomorrow
morning.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I promised Jimmy I’d come back tomorrow night.”

Aggie lifted her head and looked at Angela.

“After all you’ve, we’ve done, you feel bound by a simple
promise?”

“He’s hurting, Aggie. Besides, if we leave now, we walk out
with nothing.”

“Nothing but a little self-respect.”

“Mine’s not real high anyway, Boo. I need to stay and fix
things if I can.”

Angela pulled her sister’s head back onto her shoulder so
she wouldn’t have to look into her eyes. She did want to fix things somehow.
She also wanted the Giacometti.

The next morning Angela awakened fully dressed, her sister’s
head still resting on her shoulder. Someone was pounding on the door to the
suite.

“Aggie,” she shook her twin. “Wake up.”

“Wha…?”

“There’s someone at the door.” Angela shook her again. “You
have to wake up.”

“Why would anyone knock on our door?” Aggie asked as she sat
up and stretched.

“Maybe Jimmy found us.”

“Oh, God.”

“I’m going to go answer the door.”

“We’ll go together.”

“No,” Angela contrived. “You wait in here, in case it’s
Jimmy or the lawyer.”

She smoothed her hair back from sleep encrusted eyes and
walked down the hall. When she opened the door, she was momentarily speechless.

“Hi, Blossom,” her father greeted her. Mary smiled nervously
behind his shoulder. “You are Blossom, aren’t you?”

“Yes, I’m Angela,” she agreed and walked into her father’s
embrace. “What on earth are you doing here? How did you find us?”

“I called him last Saturday.” Aggie’s voice drifted down the
hall from the bedroom door. “Hi, Dad.”

Angela’s father released her and walked to his other daughter.

“Peach Fuzz.” He pulled her into his arms.

“Hi, Mary,” Angela greeted her father’s friend. “Come in out
of the hall.”

She noted the older woman’s hesitation and reached out to
pull her in. The grab turned into an tentative hug that quickly melted into a
genuine embrace.

“It’s good to see you, Angela,” Mary said softly. “I warned
your father not to come by so early.”

“Like trying to stop a steam engine,” Angela laughed. “Where
are you staying?”

“Right down the hall. We have a lovely suite with a view of
the water.”

By now, the four had moved into the living room and stood
awkwardly silent.

“Sit down,” Angela motioned. “I’ll put on some coffee.”

Her comment broke the tension and the three sat, their Dad
and Mary on the sofa and Aggie in an armchair. When Angela came back from the
kitchen, she dropped into the other armchair and spoke.

“What are you doing in Vancouver, Dad?” she asked then
appended, “and Mary.”

“You two are on my twelve steps,” their father explained.

The import of his words reached Angela slowly. Her twin
caught on faster and jumped from her chair to her father’s arms.

“Twelve steps?” Angela echoed.

“He’s joined AA,” her sister explained.

Angela sat rooted to her chair though tears misted her eyes.
She looked at Mary, who nodded.

“Wow,” Angela sighed.

Her father lifted Aggie from his lap and sat her back down
in the armchair. He stood looking nervous and yet dignified in the center of
the room.

“I have to apologize to you two,” he began.

“You don’t have to,” Aggie protested.

“Yes, I do.” He held up his hand to stop further argument.
“I haven’t always been a good father, especially since your mother died. I know
you’ve both been worried about me for a long time.”

“We’ve been worried, Dad,” Angela admitted. “But you are a
good father. Aggie and I always knew you loved us.”

“I could have done a lot more,” he insisted.

“Dad,” Aggie interrupted, this time successfully. “Do you
have a certain number of sentences you have to get out to make it to the next
step?”

Her teasing worked. Their father chuckled and sat down.

“No,” he admitted. “But you know me.”

“A steam engine,” the three women chorused.

“I have some more news,” he announced. “Mary and I are
married.”

Angela jumped up and hugged first her father and then Mary.

“That’s great news, you guys!”

Aggie followed her sister into their embrace.

“I just wish you’d waited so we could be there,” she
protested.

“I wasn’t sure you approved,” Mary commented, her eyes
intent on Angela’s.

“I’ve grown up a little,” Angela explained. “I’m sorry if I
was a brat before.”

“You were a young woman who had just lost her mother,
Angela,” Mary smiled. “I never blamed you for resenting me.”

“Well, I don’t now.”

“Let’s all go out for breakfast,” her father offered. “I’ll
take my three women to that fancy place downtown, the Vancouver Hotel.”

Angela looked at Aggie. They couldn’t possibly go out for
breakfast together, especially not to the Vancouver Hotel.

“I have a headache, Dad,” Aggie said. “I’m going to take a
aspirin and lie down for awhile. You and Angela and Mary go ahead.”

It was a solution, if not perfect. Their father and Mary’s
arrival intensified an already complicated situation. Angela thought about the
coming evening. How on earth could she pull it off? Leave the hotel at 5:30,
have sex or whatever with Jimmy, steal the statue, get back to the hotel and
leave town. All without tipping off her observant parent that anything was
going on. Well, she would go enjoy breakfast somewhere other than the Vancouver
Hotel. She would figure out a way to make it all work later.

In the end, the evening began more easily than she had
expected. She had spent the morning and early afternoon with her father and
Mary, then Aggie had taken over for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Angela had explained that she had a dinner date and they had accepted the
explanation without comment. She was the flirty twin, after all. Her going on a
date was hardly a shock.

She dressed carefully for the evening in black stirrup
pants, a black cashmere sweater, flat shoes and a large black leather shoulder
bag. If she succeeded in getting the Giacometti, she wanted to be able to fade
into the darkness of the waterfront, just in case. She checked herself one last
time in the mirror and decided this was a good look for her, arty and a bit European.
She smiled at her reflection. Maybe she could pull it all off after all.

When she arrived at the apartment building, Jimmy wasn’t in
the lobby. She almost brushed by the strange man who stood silently by the
window but she recognized him at the last moment from Aggie’s description. Mr.
Urbano. The lawyer. She turned and held out her hand with a smile.

“Mr. Urbano.”

His hand wrapped around hers in a grip that was almost a
caress. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt each individual finger
press into her giving flesh.

“Where’s Jimmy?” The words emerged softly, the impetus
stolen by their still joined hands.

“He asked me to meet you tonight,” the man explained.
“Please call me Richard.”

He looked as awestruck as she felt.

“I don’t understand.” Angela finally withdrew her hand from
the lawyer’s grasp.

“He’s still suspicious,” he explained.

Angela tried to remember the details Aggie had told her of
her two meetings with the lawyer.

“I thought I convinced you two nights ago.”

“You did. Both of us. But Jimmy thought you were different
again last night.”

“Oh.” Angela didn’t know what to do or say so she shrugged.
“Well, here I am.”

“Shall we go upstairs?”

“Sure,” Angela agreed. Maybe it would be easier to steal the
statue without Jimmy there. At least she wouldn’t end up in bed with the
lawyer. Aggie had said he was all business.

As they went up in the elevator, Angela studied Richard’s
reflection in the mirrored wall. He was Jimmy’s opposite in almost every way.
Where Jimmy was shorter than she, Richard topped her by half a head at least.
He must be six foot two or three. His face was lean, not fleshy, his neatly
groomed hair was brown with distinguishing gray wings. He had warm blue eyes
and a small scar in his left eyebrow. The tiny flaw somehow made the overall
features perfect. He was one of the most appealing men she had ever met. She
wondered briefly why Aggie hadn’t liked him.

Angela had been too enthralled to watch which button Richard
pushed, and she was surprised when he ushered her into an unfamiliar office
lobby. She almost asked where they were, but remembered that Aggie must have
come here for the interviews. She started to take off her coat and Richard
moved to help her. A sentence from downstairs snapped into her brain and she
stopped in her tracks.

“You said both of you,” she looked up at Richard, almost in
his arms as the coat entangled them both. “You said both of you were convinced,
but Jimmy wasn’t there.”

Richard finished helping her out of her coat and laid it
across his arm.

“I videotaped us,” he admitted.

Angela saw red. As usual, anger made her icy calm.

“That was inexcusable.”

“It worked.” Richard spread his hands. “The tape convinced
Jimmy to continue the contract. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“What else have you videotaped?”

Richard reared back as though she had slapped him.

“Nothing!” he exclaimed. His eyes narrowed and turned
suspicious. “You’re cold tonight. I see now what Jimmy means. There are two of
you.”

“I’m only one person,” Angela lied. “I’m just more in
control tonight. Don’t ever videotape me again.”

“Would you like a drink?” Richard asked.

The abrupt change of subject startled Angela back into
awareness of her purpose tonight. She wanted the Giacometti. She had earned it.

“Is Jimmy upstairs?” she asked.

Richard nodded. So much for sneaking into the apartment
tonight. She would weather the evening and come back tomorrow to steal the
statue. It was only night four of twelve. There were still lots of chances.
Besides, Richard was a handsome companion, probably charming when he wasn’t
busy being a lawyer.

“I’ll take that drink you offered,” she smiled.

If he was confused by her abrupt about-face, he didn’t show
it. He escorted her into a large office with a treed terrace outside the
window. It didn’t look like Aggie’s description of Jimmy’s office and Angela
hazarded a careful comment.

“Nice.”

“It’s my office,” Richard obligingly clarified. “We were in
Jimmy’s before.”

Angela nodded as the lawyer handed her a glass.

“I hope Scotch is okay. It’s all I have in my office.”

“Scotch is fine.” In fact, it was Angela’s drink of choice.
She took a sip. The blend was a smooth whisper with a bite in the tail.
Glenfiddich?

Richard motioned her to a chair then sat opposite, not
behind a desk but just across, knees almost touching. The proximity without
contact ignited the scotch in Angela’s belly. He was an amazingly handsome man.

Angela noticed Richard’s empty hands. “You’re not drinking?”

“Not tonight. How have you and Jimmy gotten into such a
mess?” he asked. The change of subject was smooth, his voice no more than
mildly curious.

Angela shrugged and took another sip of scotch. At the
moment, Jimmy was far from her thoughts.

“He’s crazy about you, you know.”

Angela frowned. Jimmy was crazy about Aggie, not her.

“What?” Richard probed.

“Nothing.” Angela swallowed the rest of the drink. She put
down the glass and walked to the window. “Can we go outside?”