The Confidence Woman Read Free Page B

Her life was pretty miserable. We had a couple of drinks one night and she told me she’d developed a major crush on her boss, who didn’t reciprocate. He was married, of course. She got fired and she couldn’t find another job. I think she was also suffering from a hormonal imbalance. We’re at that age, aren’t we? I told Evie she ought to start taking Premarin. Are you?” Ginny focused on Claire over the rim of her glass.
    â€œNo. Are you?”
    â€œSure. I’ll take whatever helps. Evie told me she had enough money to retire on, but she had to have been lying about that. Did she send you a nightgown from Victoria’s Secret?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œI suppose that was some kind of message that she’d been in our house and had the goods on us. I didn’t pick up on it, did you?”
    â€œNo. I found it hard to believe that someone I knew in college would rip me off.”
    â€œMe, too, especially Evie. She was too boring to be a thief. My nightgown was shocking pink. It was a size fourteen. Did you try yours on?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œI did. It made me look like a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. How did Evie know I wore a size fourteen?”
    Claire wondered about that since the flowered dress concealed the details of Ginny’s figure. “She looked in your closet?”
    â€œOf course. You always were smart. What color was your nightgown?”
    â€œBlack.”
    â€œDid you notice the turquoise blue dress Evie wore in the police photo? Awful color with that bleached hair. She’d gone ethnic. A lot of women do that when they come to Santa Fe.”
    â€œI didn’t pay much attention. I was so appalled by the state of the body.”
    â€œGruesome,” Ginny agreed and lit another cigarette.
    â€œDid you know Evelyn was living in Santa Fe?”
    Ginny shook her head and the ice in her glass trilled an arpeggio. “No. When she visited me about a year ago, she told me she was thinking of moving here. Then I never heard from her again. It was months before she started using my credit cards. I didn’t connect her with the theft until I talked to Dante.”
    â€œYou didn’t tell me that Evelyn had visited.”
    â€œYou didn’t tell me either, did you?” she asked. “Actually I did call you, but you didn’t call me back. I suppose you were busy with your job and your life in Albuquerque. What was to talk about anyway? It was all so depressing. Having Evie in my house was like spending the winter in Seattle.” Ginny shivered. “My ex and I lived there. It was grim—always raining, always gray. If you ask me Evie was always depressing and she wouldn’t do anything about it either. I think she liked being miserable. But then what did she have to be happy about? No job, no money, no children, no love life.”
    â€œShe didn’t have much self-esteem,” Claire agreed. It was easy enough for a woman to fall into that trap in a society where women were encouraged to dwell on their age and their weight, convinced they needed to buy more to feel better.
    â€œMe, when I get depressed, I pop a Prozac,” Ginny said.
    Claire recognized this as the moment to give a lecture saying Prozac wasn’t meant to be popped whenever you were in a bad mood. To be effective it had to be taken every day, and it should never be taken with alcohol, the mother in her wanted to scold. But she kept quiet and the moment passed.
    â€œDid Dante tell you who else she stole from?” Ginny asked.
    â€œLynn Granger and Elizabeth Best. Why the four of us?”
    â€œWe all lived in the same corridor back then. Maybe she felt closer to us than we thought. It could also be that she intended to rip off all the sisters and got to us first. Then someone ended that little plan. You’re still friends with Lynn, aren’t you?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œShe’s too nice to kill anyone, don’t you