Twelve Nights (20 page)

Angela blanched. She hadn’t thought of the photos and their
father’s pride in his identical daughters. Her spirit wilted for a brief
instant with the growing complications. Then she rebounded.

“I’ll get the photos out of Dad’s wallet,” she offered.

“I bet he already knows,” Aggie lay back on the bed. “I bet
Dad introduced himself as Gordon Trout.”

“Jimmy would have picked it up in a second.”

“Maybe they didn’t give last names,” Aggie said weakly.

“Dad knew Jimmy’s was Buko.”

“Maybe the wind blew Dad’s last name away. It’s always
windy.”

“Sure,” Angela agreed.

It was hopeless. Jimmy and their father had met. Aggie’s
weak-kneed boyfriend had deposited himself in their suite. Aggie was the one
Jimmy wanted and she was too sick to go to him. Angela mentally threw up her
hands. Visions of the money, of the Giacometti, of prison bars, flitted across
her vision. Aggie must have sensed her defeat.

“Let’s try one more time,” her quiet law-abiding librarian
sister suggested. “You go tonight and see what happens.”

“I feel like a lamb trotting off to the slaughterhouse.”

“We don’t know that,” Aggie argued. “We’re only guessing. Go
one more night, and then I’ll take over.”

“If I survive,” Angela added.

She dropped her head into her hands and tried to think.
Maybe her sister was right. Maybe Jimmy didn’t know the man he met was their
father. Maybe ….There were too many maybe’s. She looked into her sister’s
swollen but gleaming eyes. Aggie really wanted one more chance with Jimmy.

“All right,” Angela agreed. “One more night.”

“But,” Aggie began then stopped.

“But what?”

“I probably don’t need to say this,” Aggie apologized in
advance.

“Then don’t,” Angela agreed, knowing what her sister would
say. “Jimmy is in for a dry night, I’m afraid.”

“How will you …?”

“I have no idea,” Angela admitted. “Maybe Richard will burst
in and they’ll fight a duel.”

She flopped back on the bed beside her twin.

“Swords or dueling pistols?” Aggie asked seriously.

“Both!”

The twins erupted into identical giggles, distinguishable
only by the occasional sneeze.

Jimmy allowed the hangdog Richard to continue his
resignation speech. Perhaps it was cruel of him, but the lawyer had after all
knowingly intended to betray him. That he hadn’t was a circumstance beyond
fate, a twist that cast Jimmy’s own recent misery into comic relief. Finally he
took pity on the demoralized man and halted him in mid-sentence.

“Stop.” He held up a hand. “Sit down, Richard.”

The lawyer looked bewildered but he dropped into the nearest
chair.

“The woman you fucked … made love to,” he amended at
Richard’s glare, “last night wasn’t Aggie. She was her identical twin, Angela.”

“What?”

“You know I usually walk on the seawall early in the
morning,” Jimmy reminded Richard, who nodded. “I met an interesting couple this
morning, Gordon and his new wife, Mary.”

Richard looked too confused to form a question so Jimmy continued.

“Gordon and Mary Trout.”

“Holy shit,” Richard whispered.

“The proud papa whipped out a photo of his daughters.”

“And you could see….”

“That there were two of them, carbon copies for looks, both
gorgeous. Our two Aggies”

“What are the parents doing in Vancouver?”

“A surprise visit to Dad’s vacationing twins to announce
their marriage. This is their honeymoon.”

Richard shook his head. “That’s an amazing coincidence.”

“Not really, when you think about it,” Jimmy argued.
“Besides, I already knew everything.”

“How?”

Jimmy handed Richard a color photocopy of a high school
yearbook page. A casual reader might have thought the student doing paste-up
had made a mistake and inserted the same photo twice. However, close inspection
revealed an upward twist of the mouth on one face and a slight lift of the left
eyebrow on the other.

“It’s uncanny,” Richard marveled.

At first Jimmy was surprised how calmly the lawyer accepted
the strange but logical explanation for their recent confusion. Then he
remembered that this was the man who had steered him around reefs and through
narrow legal passages to immense profits. Richard’s mind was razor sharp and
accustomed to rapid rethinking. He wondered how the lawyer would take his next
proposal. Jimmy rubbed his hands together and gazed speculatively at his
attorney, but Richard preempted his sentence.

“How did you figure out which was the one you liked?” he
asked. “I mean whether she was really Aggie or Angela.”

“I looked in the back of the book where they list the
activities. Angela was a cheerleader and a member of the art club. Remember the
Modigliani book? And Aggie was a library assistant. My hunch is that Angela
hatched up the scheme and somehow persuaded her sister to help her out.”

“Why not answer the ad as herself?”

“Unfortunately, I know the answer to your question,” Jimmy
admitted reluctantly.

“And…” Richard prompted.

Jimmy thought for a moment. The lawyer would find out soon
anyway.

“Angela is a high class hooker in New York City. She goes by
the name Angel.”

Richard looked stunned. He dropped his head into his hands.
Jimmy could imagine the unwanted pictures that were flashing in the lawyer’s
head. Richard never dated, not since the accident. His first night of sex in
God knows how long, and she turns out to be a prostitute. He gave him a few
minutes to recover.

“I think she’s trying to get out of the life,” he commented
eventually. “That’s why she wants the money.”

“How did you figure all this out?” Richard asked, his head
still bowed. “The man I sent didn’t get anywhere.”

“He wasn’t local. The people in the South are pretty
close-mouthed to strangers. Before I left for Auburn, I hired the one local
detective agency to snoop around the Trout father. The agent got the family’s
former address from a bank loan record. While the mother was alive, they had
lived in a small town outside Auburn named Waverly. The detective and I went
together and interviewed a few neighbors. From there it was easy.”

“And Angela is a prostitute.” Richard winced as he said the
word. Then he straightened in his chair and looked Jimmy in the eye.

“Was. I called a New York detective agency and gave them her
real name. We already had the box number. They got me the rest of the
information within a couple of hours. She started out as a secretary for one of
the top call girl outfits and moved up from there.”

“What makes you think she’s quitting?”

“She’s here for one thing,” Jimmy said. “She could be making
three hundred an hour in New York but she’s not.”

The lawyer winced again.

“You’re hardly the person to scoff at second chances,
Richard,” Jimmy reminded him.

The lawyer was pale now.

“I know that,” he admitted. “But prostitution?”

Jimmy dropped
the topic. If Richard couldn’t grab happiness, then let him wallow. He recalled
the plan the lawyer had momentarily distracted him from. He stood up and leaned
forward across the desk.

“What do you say we give the girls a run for their money?”
he offered.

“What do you mean?”

“Revenge.”

The single word floated across the silence between the two
men. Jimmy watched as the sense penetrated Richard’s ears and a slow broad
smile creased his face. The lawyer leaned back.

“What do you propose?”

“Let’s see how far they are willing to go,” Jimmy suggested.
Richard nodded and he continued. “We won’t tell them we’ve figured out their
plot.”

“You need to at least hint that you know something,” Richard
amended. “Give them something to worry about.”

“I imagine Dad has told them about the man he met on the
beach. They should be shaking in their beautiful little shoes.”

“Are you clear on your goals?” Richard asked lawyer-like.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you want to punish them? Void the contract?” Richard
thought for a moment. “That should be easy.”

Jimmy shook his head.

“I want Aggie,” he explained. “I could happily strangle the Angela
twin, but I have different plans for my Aggie.”

Richard looked thoughtful. When he spoke, it was quietly.

“What do you plan for tonight?”

“If Aggie comes, I’ll tease her a little, but I’m not going
to waste the night. We’ll end up in bed screwing our brains out.”

“And if Angela comes?”

Jimmy shrugged.

“I have a thought,” Richard offered with a sly smile.

“Go ahead.”

“Say you think she’s unbalanced, a dual personality. Pretend
to try to get the real Aggie to come out.”

Jimmy chuckled and then his trademark belly laugh rumbled
out. He walked around the desk and clapped Richard on the back.

“You ought to be writing sitcoms, my boy,” he boomed.
“That’s perfect.”

Jimmy wasn’t sure he’d be able to tell at a glance which
sister arrived for the evening. As the young woman stepped from the taxi, he
thought perhaps she was Aggie and his lips turned up in a lascivious smile. She
was dressed Aggie-style in a long corduroy skirt and stylish boots. She greeted
him with a smile and a peck on the cheek. When he helped her out of her coat in
the elevator, he saw that her blouse was a peasant style with colorful
embroidery. She looked nothing like a hooker. His hopes rose another notch.
When they stepped out of the elevator and into the lobby of his apartment, he
pulled her into his arms.

The moment their mouths touched he knew she was Angela.
Instead of softening and flattening, her lips remained cool and aloof. Hot
anger boiled up in Jimmy at the deception but before it broke through, the
humor of the situation overtook him. So, he had just kissed his future
sister-in-law. The thought took him by surprise. The word ‘marriage’ hadn’t
entered his mind until that errant thought. He pushed it aside for later
consideration. He put his hands on Angela’s shoulders and held her away from
his body. Then he took her hand and led her toward the living room.

“Can’t we sit in the library?” Angela asked.

“Aggie,” he murmured. “My sweet.”

He ignored her request and pulled her down beside him on the
sofa. She inched her leg away from his thigh. Jimmy smiled.

“Aggie,” he murmured lovingly again. “Aggie, I know you’re
in there somewhere. Send the evil twin away and come out.”

Angela bridled as though struck and Jimmy grinned inside.
‘Evil twin’ was a masterful touch.

“What evil twin?” Angela asked coldly. The real Aggie would
have attacked him by now.

“My poor dear,” Jimmy continued as he lifted Angela across
his lap and held her like a child. He smoothed back her hair. “I understand.”

“You understand what?”

His odd words were beginning to crack Angela’s cool facade.

“I understand your disorder,” Jimmy explained. “Aggie,
sweetheart, I consulted a doctor from the psychiatric unit at Vancouver General
Hospital. He explained…”

“You what?” Angela interrupted. She sat up rigid in his
arms. Then her face stilled and she relaxed back into his embrace. She
continued sweetly. “What did he tell you?”

Jimmy saluted her quick thinking. Maybe Angela had promised
Aggie she would try to avoid sex tonight. Feigning insanity would work. But
then why had Angela been the one to come? Had something happened to the real
Aggie? Jimmy pushed the worry aside. She was probably scared, he decided. After
last night and Angela sleeping with Richard thinking she was Aggie, she
probably thought he would kill her. If it had been true, he would have. Since
he hadn’t brought it up, Angela must think he didn’t know she had captivated
his lawyer. Good.

“He told me you probably suffer from a disorder called
multiple personality syndrome,” Jimmy belatedly answered Angela’s question. He
hoped the psycho-babble sounded authentic. “You must have had a dreadful
childhood, my poor sweetheart.”

“No,” Angela protested. “I love my parents. I had a good
childhood.”

“Maybe an early death?” Jimmy suggested. “Maybe you were
born a twin and the other one died when you were young and the trauma left
psychic scars.”

Jimmy regretted his words when he noticed the pallor that
swept Angela’s face. The death of her twin was too awful for her to
contemplate. They must be very close. Or maybe she was just worried that he had
strayed so close to the truth.

“No,” she whispered.

“Are you aware that you have two personalities?” Jimmy
prodded. A devil prompted him to add, “One’s an angel.”

Color flared back into Angela’s face with Jimmy’s use of her
hooker name. Good. Though he wanted to punish her, he didn’t like to see her so
pale.

“Tell me about my two personalities,” she challenged.

“One is fiery hot. She’s the one I think of as the real
Aggie,” Jimmy explained. “She’s the one I like.”

“And the other?”

“The other is cool and collected. I’m afraid I don’t like
this persona, the one you are now, nearly as well.”

“I’m sorry.” Tears shimmered in Angela’s eyes. Jimmy
wondered how good an actress she really was. Could this be part of the act?

“I’m only one person,” she continued and a tear slid down
her cheek. “I’m sorry you don’t like me.”

Maybe he had hurt her feelings. Jimmy wiped away the tear
with the flat of his index finger.

“I’d like you if you weren’t hiding the real Aggie,” he
offered. The devil egged him on. “I want to help you, sweetheart. Let me book
an appointment with the psychiatrist.”

Angela stood and shook her head. She was again the cool, in
charge twin.

“I don’t need a psychiatrist.” The words came out clipped, a
trace of New York slipping through. She must have realized the slip because she
added in a southern drawl, “Jimmy, sweetheart, I appreciate you being concerned
about me.”