the Third Twin (1996)

51

IN A COUPLE OF HOURS JEANNIE HAD COME TO LIKE LORRAINE Logan enormously.

She was much heavier than she seemed in the photograph that appeared at the top of her lonelyhearts column in the newspapers. She smiled a lot, causing her chubby face to crease up. To take Jeannie’s mind and her own off their worries, she talked of the problems people wrote to her about: domineering in-laws, violent husbands, impotent boyfriends, bosses with wandering hands, daughters who took drugs. Whatever the subject, Lorraine managed to say something that made Jeannie think, Of course—how come I never saw it that way before?

They sat on the patio as the day cooled, waiting anxiously for Steve and his father to return. Jeannie told Lorraine about the rape of Lisa. “She’ll try for as long as she can to act as if it never happened,” Lorraine said.

“Yes, that’s exactly how she is now.”

“That phase can last six months. But sooner or later she’ll realize she has to stop denying what happened and come to terms with it. That stage often begins when the woman tries to resume normal sex and finds she doesn’t feel the way she used to. That’s when they write to me.”

“What do you advise?”

“Counseling. There isn’t an easy solution. Rape damages a woman’s soul, and it has to be mended.”

“The detective recommended counseling.”

Lorraine raised her eyebrows. “He’s a pretty smart cop.”

Jeannie smiled. “She.”

Lorraine laughed. “We reprove men for making sexist assumptions. I beg you, don’t tell anyone what I just did.”

“I promise.”

There was a short silence, then Lorraine said: “Steve loves you.”

Jeannie nodded. “Yeah, I think he really does.”

“A mother can tell.”

“So he’s been in love before.”

“You don’t miss a trick, do you?” Lorraine smiled. “Yes, he has. But only once.”

“Tell me about her—if you think he wouldn’t mind.”

“Okay. Her name was Fanny Gallaher. She had green eyes and wavy dark red hair. She was vivacious and careless and she was the only girl in high school who wasn’t interested in Steve. He pursued her, and she resisted him, for months. But he won her in the end, and they dated for about a year.”

“Do you think they slept together?”

“I know they did. They used to spend nights together here. I don’t believe in forcing kids to make out in parking lots.”

“What about her parents?”

“I talked to Fanny’s mother. She felt the same way about it.”

“I lost my virginity in the alley behind a punk rock club at the age of fourteen. It was such a depressing experience that I didn’t have sexual intercourse again until I was twenty-one. I wish my mother had been more like you.”

“I don’t think it really matters whether parents are strict or lenient, as long as they’re consistent. Kids can live with more or less any set of rules so long as they know what they are. It’s arbitrary tyranny that gets them mixed up.”

“Why did Steve and Fanny break up?”

“He had a problem.…He should probably tell you about it himself.”

“Are you talking about the fight with Tip Hendricks?”

Lorraine raised her eyebrows. “He told you! My goodness, he really trusts you.”

They heard a car outside. Lorraine got up and went to the corner of the house to look out into the street. “Steve’s come home in a taxicab,” she said in a puzzled tone.

Jeannie stood up. “How does he look?”

Before Lorraine could answer, he appeared on the patio. “Where’s your father?” she asked him.

“Dad got arrested.”

Jeannie said: “Oh, God. Why?”

“I’m not sure. I think the Genetico people somehow found out, or guessed, what we were up to, and pulled some strings. They sent two military police to grab him. But I got away.”

Lorraine said suspiciously: “Stevie, there’s something you aren’t telling me.”

“A guard fired two shots.”

Lorraine gave a small scream.

“I think he was aiming over my head. Anyway, I’m fine.”

Jeannie’s mouth went dry. The thought of bullets being fired at Steve horrified her. He might have died!

“The sweep worked, though.” Steve took a diskette from his back pocket. “Here’s the list. And wait till you hear what’s on it.”

Jeannie swallowed hard. “What?” “There aren’t four clones.” “How come?” “There are eight.”

Jeannie’s jaw dropped. “Eight of you?”

“We found eight identical electrocardiograms.”

Genetico had split the embryo seven times and implanted eight unknowing women with the children of strangers. The arrogance was unbelievable.

But Jeannie’s suspicion had been proved. This was what Berrington was so desperate to conceal. When this news was made public, Genetico would be disgraced and Jeannie would be vindicated.

And Steve would be cleared.

“You did it!” she said. She hugged him. Then a snag occurred to her. “But which of the eight committed the rape?”

“We’ll have to find out,” Steve said. “And that won’t be easy. The addresses we have are the places where their parents lived at the time they were born. They’re almost certainly out-of-date.”

“We can try to track them down. That’s Lisa’s specialty.” Jeannie stood up. “I’d better get back to Baltimore. This is going to take most of the night.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“What about your father? You have to get him out of the hands of the military police.”

Lorraine said: “You’re needed here, Steve. I’m going to call our lawyer right now—I have his home number—but you’ll have to tell him what happened.”

“All right,” he said reluctantly.

“I should call Lisa before I leave, so she can get ready,” Jeannie said. The phone was on the patio table. “May I?”

“Of course.”

She dialed Lisa’s number. The phone rang four times, then there was the characteristic pause of an answering machine kicking in. “Damn,” Jeannie said as she listened to Lisa’s message. When it finished she said: “Lisa, please call me. I’m leaving Washington now, I’ll be home around ten. Something really important has happened.” She hung up.

Steve said: “I’ll walk you to your car.”

She said good-bye to Lorraine, who hugged her warmly.

Outside, Steve handed her the diskette. “Take care of that,” he said. “There’s no copy, and we won’t get another chance.”

She put it in her bag. “Don’t worry. It’s my future, too.” She kissed him hard.

“Oh, boy,” he said after a while. “Could we do a lot of this, quite soon?”

“Yes. But don’t endanger yourself meanwhile. I don’t want to lose you. Be careful.”

He smiled. “I love it that you’re worried about me. It’s almost worth it.”

She kissed him again, softly this time. “I’ll call you.”

She got in the car and pulled away.

She drove fast and got home in under an hour.

She was disappointed to find there was no message from Lisa on her machine. She worried that maybe Lisa was asleep, or watching TV and not listening to her messages. Don’t panic, think. She ran out again and drove to Lisa’s place, an apartment building in Charles Village. She rang the entry phone at the street door, but there was no answer. Where the hell had Lisa gone? She did not have a boyfriend to take her out on a Saturday night. Please God she hasn’t gone to see her mother in Pittsburgh.

Lisa lived in 12B. Jeannie rang the bell of 12A. Again there was no reply. Maybe the damn system was not working. Seething with frustration, she tried 12C.

A grouchy male voice said: “Yeah, who is it?”

“I’m sorry to trouble you, but I’m a friend of Lisa Hoxton next door to you and I need to reach her really urgently. Would you happen to know where she is?”

The voice replied: “Where do you think you are, lady—Hicksville, USA? I don’t even know what my neighbor looks like.” Click.

“Where are you from, New York?” she said angrily to the unheeding loudspeaker.

She went home, driving as if she were in a race, and called Lisa’s answering machine again. “Lisa, please call me the second you get in, no matter what time of night. I’ll be waiting by the phone.”

After that there was no more she could do. Without Lisa she could not even get into Nut House.

She took a shower and wrapped herself in her pink bathrobe. She felt hungry and microwaved a frozen cinnamon bun, but eating nauseated her, so she threw it away and drank coffee with milk in it. She wished she had a TV to distract her.

She got out the picture Charles had given her of Steve. She would have to get a frame for it. She stuck it to the refrigerator door with a fridge magnet.

That started her looking at her photograph albums. She smiled to see Daddy in a brown chalk-stripe suit with broad lapels and flared pants, standing beside the turquoise Thunder-bird. There were several pages of Jeannie in tennis whites, triumphantly holding a series of silver cups and plaques. Here was Mom pushing Patty in an old-fashioned stroller, there was Will Temple in a cowboy hat, cutting up and making Jeannie laugh—

The phone rang.

She leaped up, dropping the album on the floor, and snatched up the handset. “Lisa?”

“Hi, Jeannie, what’s the big emergency?”

She collapsed on the couch, weak with gratitude. “Thank God! I called you hours ago, where have you been?”

“I went to a movie with Catherine and Bill. Is that a crime?”

“I’m sorry, I have no right to cross-examine you—”

“It’s okay. I’m your friend. You can get ratty with me. I’ll do it to you one day.”

Jeannie laughed. “Thanks. Listen, I have a list of five names of people who might be Steve’s double.” She was deliberately understating the case; the truth was too hard to swallow in one lump. “I need to track them down tonight. Will you help me?”

There was a pause. “Jeannie, I almost got into serious trouble when I tried to get into your office. I could have got myself and the security guard fired. I want to help you, but I need this job.”

Jeannie felt coldly fearful. No, you can’t let me down, not when I’m this close. “Please.”

“I’m scared.”

Fear was replaced by fierce determination. Hell, I’m not going to let you get away with this. “Lisa, it’s almost Sunday.” I don’t like doing this to you, but I have to. “A week ago I walked into a burning building to look for you.”

“I know, I know.”

“I was scared then.”

There was a long silence. “You’re right,” Lisa said at last. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

Jeannie suppressed a victory whoop. “How soon can you get there?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“I’ll meet you outside.”

Jeannie hung up. She ran into the bedroom, dropped her robe on the floor, and pulled on black jeans and a turquoise. T-shirt. She threw on a black Levi’s jacket and ran downstairs.

She left the house at midnight.