Mistaken Identity by Lisa Scottoline Read Free Book Online Page B

nothin’ to the dude Star fought Golden Gloves, was the next Tyson. Nigger could never get over. Star twisted the Caddy to the curb and jerked open the passenger door. “Get out, freak!”
    “What? In this neighborhood?” the dude said, his voice panicky.
    “I said, get out!” Star shoved the asshole onto the sidewalk and slammed the door closed. “Better run, motherfucker! It’s gettin’ dark out.”

9
     
    “I ’ll represent you, on two conditions.” Bennie set her briefcase on the Formica counter, yanked out a metal chair, and faced Connolly. The inmate was smiling, though her eyes remained icy, and Bennie tried to ignore the resemblance between them. “Number one, you have to tell me the truth. I have to know more about you than anyone else in that courtroom.”
    “That should be easy,” Connolly said, standing on her side of the counter. “You already do. We’re twins.”
    “Which brings me to condition number two. The only way I can represent you is if we keep the case, and only the case, in focus.” Bennie unzipped her briefcase and retrieved a legal pad. “Table the twin issue. I have to prepare your defense. That has to be paramount.”
    “Does this mean the photos convinced you?”
    “It means it doesn’t matter to the court case. Now, sit down and let’s get the facts.” Bennie gestured to Connolly, who sank slowly into the chair opposite her, her brow knit in disappointment.
    “It matters to me,” she said. “I still want to meet my mother. My real mother.”
    “Look, if we take time talking about personal issues, you won’t be alive to meet anybody. You answer my questions and we’ll do fine. It’s Tuesday already. We have less than a week until trial unless I can get a continuance. I have a hundred things to do on this case, in addition to my other cases.”
    “Just tell me one thing. What is our—my—our—mother like?”
    Bennie glared her into silence. “I have some background questions for you. Ever been addicted to drugs or alcohol?”
    “No.”
    “Any prior convictions, or been arrested or questioned for any reason?”
    “No.”
    “You were raised where?”
    “New Jersey. Vineland.”
    Bennie made a note. “Went to Vineland public schools?”
    “Yes.”
    “Quick rundown of your childhood.”
    Connolly nodded. “Okay. Strictly business, I get it. I was an okay student, not great, a B, C student. I lived with my parents, at least I thought they were my parents. They never told me I was adopted. They were weird, no friends or anything, real quiet. I don’t remember a lot about my childhood except that we had a great dog. I love dogs, crazy about them.”
    Bennie thought of her golden retriever. “Go on.”
    “That’s it, basically. I wasn’t that close to my parents, and my mother, not my real mother, was sick a lot. She had multiple sclerosis. They both died in a car crash when I was nineteen. I was about to start college, at Rutgers, on full scholarship.”
    Bennie couldn’t help but notice that Connolly’s youth echoed hers. “How’d you get a full scholarship? They’re hard to come by.”
    “Basketball.”
    “Athletic?” Bennie hid her surprise. Her own scholarship to Penn had been academic, but if they’d been giving them out for women’s rowing she would have gotten one. “How’d you do?”
    “Lousy. I blew out my knee. Never lived up to potential, that was what the coach said. I dropped out when the scholarship wasn’t renewed. I was an English major.”
    So had Bennie been, but she wasn’t about to mention that. “Ever been married or divorced?”
    “No.”
    “Ever lived with anybody?”
    “Not before Anthony.”
    Bennie made a note. “Okay. Tell me how you met Della Porta.”
    “In a laundromat in town, when I first came to Philly. He was washing towels, tons of towels, and drinking coffee. I’m a coffee freak, so we started talking.”
    Bennie didn’t say anything. She was a coffee fanatic. The similarities were impossible to