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“Put her on the phone with me. Now.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”
“You can’t? Or you won’t?” she asked. It didn’t matter which. She was a toxic cocktail of ferocity and fear, and the girl was in trouble, no matter what.
“It’s not that simple.”
“She isn’t answering my texts.”
“No, I wouldn’t suppose she was,” he said cryptically.
“We’re done, you know. You know that, don’t you? This is over. No matter what. There is no coming back from this.”
“Betsy—”
Over the thrum of the air-conditioning, she heard a vehicle in the parking lot. Ever hopeful, she went to the window, but it was only a UPS truck. The abduction of her daughter was punitive. They were using the child to punish her.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll go tonight—”
“And be on your best behavior.”
“Yes. I’ll go. But when I get home, Marisa better be at the apartment. Am I clear?”
“She might be a few minutes behind you.”
“Am I clear?” she asked again.
“Perfectly. But Betsy? We can get past this.”
“No fucking way. You kidnapped—”
“No one kidnapped anyone.”
“She will tell me where she was and what you did to her. You realize that, don’t you?”
“She’s having a great time.”
Betsy wanted to believe that. Desperately, she wanted to believe that. It allowed her to justify her own miscalculations and humiliations.
“We’ll send someone over to your apartment right now,” he went on. “A makeup person—you know, a stylist—and someone with a dress. She should be there in about fifteen minutes.”
“Is there anything special I need to say or do at this party?”
“The guy who had that big crush on Diana will be there. Oliver Davies from Grand Cayman. Just use that lovely British accent of yours and pretend you’re Crissy doing that Diana playacting bullshit.”
“I don’t know Diana the way Crissy does, and I don’t have a lovely British accent. It’s one thing to pose at Red Rocks. But it’s a whole other thing to act like the woman in front of real entertainers who know my sister.”
“Most don’t know your sister. They know of your sister. But Crissy is not exactly a social butterfly. And she sort of condescends to the city’s other tribute performers. That’s her reputation, you know. She thinks she’s better than they are.”
“That’s because she is. And what if someone does know her and recognizes that I’m not her?”
Which was when he dropped his last bombshell, disguised, once more, as reassurance. “Oh, you won’t have to worry about that. Rory and Damon will be there. One of them will pick you up and bring you home, and keep an eye on you when you’re there. If someone seems to know Crissy? They’ll whisk you to someone else. Super easy, super clean. The senator—”
“You mentioned him at my apartment this morning. Why the hell does Senator Aldred want to meet my sister?”
“Maybe he’s a fan,” said Frankie.
She recalled what Ayobami had told her: the man had seen the show a couple of times.
