Mirror, Mirror

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  “That’s easy. I expect to gain your life,” Darcy explained. “Of course, I’ll be mourning the tragedy that happened here. Alice Madison killed by Darcy Madison, who will be sent back to that hospital since she is quite hopelessly insane.” She ignored Harriet’s shocked cry. “And the housekeeper who is fatally injured as she tries to save her employer and dear friend.”

  “You can’t kill us all,” Dana insisted, desperate to keep the fatal needle away from her mother’s throat. She glanced in the nurse’s direction.

  “Barbara won’t help you, Dana.” Darcy flicked an imaginary speck of dust off her collar. “She’s been wonderful in helping me see Alice. Poor Barbara. She has a little problem.” She mimed holding a bottle. “I help her. She helps me.”

  “You didn’t say anything about killing anyone,” Barbara exclaimed. “I won’t go along with that.”

  “Just keep your mouth shut and everything will be fine,” Darcy ordered. She turned back to Dana. “Twins should share lives, Dana. That’s why I want you to share mine.” Her eyes were hard as marbles. “You’ll be in that ugly little room, and I’ll be here with Mac. I don’t think he’ll have anything to complain about.”

  It’s not fair! The word screamed inside Dana’s head.

  She couldn’t allow Darcy to get away with this atrocity. But what could she do? She didn’t have a weapon at hand.

  Who says it has to be at hand?

  Her toes searched for her shoes. As she found one loafer, she started to inch her foot inside. Once it reached halfway, she didn’t stop to think—she just acted. She kicked upward. The shoe flew off her foot and headed straight for Darcy’s head. Dana took off the moment the shoe started flying. She launched herself at the other woman, hitting Darcy and knocking the hypodermic out of her hand.

  If she hoped that would be it, she was sadly mistaken. Darcy’s cry of rage deafened her as the woman slapped her hard across the face. Dana ignored the burning sensation on her skin and pushed Darcy away from the bed.

  Harriet screamed as the two women ended up on the floor. When a shadow appeared in the doorway, she jumped up and ran to the figure.

  “She came to kill Alice. I thought she was Dana,” she babbled, grabbing hold of Mac’s hands. “Stop her before she kills Dana!”

  “Mac!”

  The voice was Dana’s. But both women were identically dressed. The expression on both faces, the same.

  Damn.

  “Mac, stop her!’ one of them said.

  “She’s the one you have to stop!”

  It was a nightmare come true as he looked from one to the other. “Dana,” he started to say. Then one hit the other so hard, her head snapped back and she fell backward onto the floor. The other woman ran into his arms.

  “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come,” she cried, clutching him. “She made me change into clothes that matched hers so no one could tell us part.”

  “I noticed.” Mac studied her for any signs of cuts or bruises.

  She refused to let him go. “She told me how she did everything. I think she would have killed me, too. I was so scared, Mac.”

  His eyes still traveled over her. Was there a chance Darcy had succeeded, and Dana hadn’t?

  “Maybe you should have brought Duffy with you,” she babbled. “He could have stood guard.”

  Mac started to relax. He doubted Darcy knew his dog’s name.

  He held on to her so tightly that she protested she couldn’t breathe. He didn’t want to let her go. He had come so close to losing her. He carefully put her to one side before walking over to the unconscious woman. He reached behind himself and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his back pocket. He snapped them on her wrists.

  “Harriet, call the police,” he said crisply.

  Harriet ran for the telephone near Alice’s bed, while Barbara headed for Alice.

  “I’m so sorry,” Barbara whispered to her charge as she quickly checked blood pressure and pulse. “I am so sorry.”

  It was a blur after that as they waited for the police to arrive. Mac helped a groggy Darcy out of the room, after warning the nurse to stay put. Barbara was so upset about what had happened, she would have promised anything.

  Harriet took Dana downstairs for a cup of tea, while Mac dealt with the police. They guaranteed they would drive Darcy up to the hospital and deliver her into her doctor’s hands. Mac called the hospital immediately and told Darcy’s doctor what had happened and that Darcy was on her way back. He wanted her away from Dana as quickly as possible.

  The doctor was upset that his patient had managed to fool him. He asked that Dana be told that from then on extra precautions would be taken with Darcy.

  Mac stood near the front door as Darcy was escorted outside to the waiting police car.

  “Please, Mac, you can’t do this,” she pleaded. “You have the wrong one.”

  He looked at the woman who did look like Dana. But she’d lied to him so many other times that he knew he couldn’t believe her now.

  “Don’t let her succeed,” she cried out before the car door closed after her.

  He stood outside, watching the patrol car make its way down the winding driveway until it was out of sight.

  He headed back into the house. He needed to feast his eyes on Dana.

  When he walked into the kitchen he found her sitting at the breakfast bar with a cup of steaming hot tea and one of Harriet’s muffins in front of her. The housekeeper alternately babbled and cried. None of Dana’s assurances that she was all right soothed the still-frightened woman.

  “It was horrible to see a woman with my sweet Dana’s face but such an evil nature,” she told Mac as she poured him a cup of coffee and warmed a muffin in the microwave.

  “Angelic face, evil nature,” Dana murmured. “Quite a combination, don’t you think?”

  “Interesting way of putting it.” He looked at her strangely. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  “I feel much better knowing that Darcy’s going back to where she belongs.” She tore off a piece of muffin and popped it into her mouth.

  “I’m just glad it’s over,” Harriet said, handing Mac the plate with the warmed muffin.

  He sat down next to Dana. She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder.

  “I was so frightened,” she said in a small voice.

  “What made you come by?” Harriet asked Mac.

  “Pure luck,” he replied. “I got back to Dana’s house and found some pages her controller had faxed to her. She’d left them on the bed. It seems Darcy was trying to bleed the company dry, too. I didn’t find a note saying where she’d gone so I took a chance she’d gotten a phone call and did the star sixty-nine routine. The answering machine here picked up. I left right away. Now I’m glad I did.”

  “I am, too,” Dana said, then whispered, “I need to go home, Mac.”

  “Let’s first make sure Harriet and your mother are all right before we think of leaving,” he said.

  “I called Alice’s doctor,” Harriet told him. “He promised to leave immediately, so he should be here any moment. Now about Barbara—” She looked at Dana.

  “I’ll talk to her,” Dana said. “I think she was a victim in this as much as any of us. We’ll leave her fate up to my mother.”

  Mac kept close to Dana, and Harriet kept close to both of them as they waited for the doctor to arrive and then examine Alice.

  “Naturally, her blood pressure is elevated, but I can’t see anything harmful,” he pronounced when he returned downstairs. “She’s had a bad shock, and I think the best thing for her would be a good night’s sleep. I did give her a mild sedative so she’d get that sleep.”

  “Then she’ll be all right?” Dana pressed.

  “Other than being badly frightened, yes she will.”

  Harriet saw the doctor out, then turned to them. “You two go on now.” She pushed them toward the door. “As soon as we try to put this out of our minds, the better off we�
�ll be.” She hugged them both.

  Dana shook her head. “It will never be out of my mind,” she said softly as she followed Mac outside.

  “Want to drive back with me, and we’ll come by tomorrow for your car?”

  She looked relieved by his suggestion. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  All the way back to Dana’s house, Mac kept picturing the scene he’d intruded upon. His mouth had gone dry, and his biggest fear had been that the woman he cared about would be badly hurt.

  When they arrived, he activated the garage door opener and pulled the Explorer inside. He could hear Duffy barking from the backyard.

  “You’d think we’d been gone for months,” Mac muttered, as they walked into the kitchen. Duffy stood yelping at the patio door, and Mac gestured for the dog to be quiet.

  Suddenly, Duffy’s entire demeanor changed. His hackles rose and his teeth bared as he gave a growl that was more than a warning.

  “Knock it off,” Mac growled back. The dog backed away but his low growls didn’t subside.

  Dana looked downward. “Maybe these clothes smell like Darcy. I’m going to shower and change,” she told him. “I’ll feel better when I’m in my own clothes.”

  “All right.”

  She started to leave the kitchen, then spun around and hugged him tightly. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come when you did,” she whispered before kissing him with the hunger of a woman who’d almost lost her life. She quickly left.

  “I don’t know what I’d have done, either,” he murmured. With narrowed eyes, he watched her departing figure.

  After Dana left the room, Mac called the hospital to see if Darcy had arrived yet. He was informed that at that time, the doctor was meeting with her. Mac left a message that he would call the next day.

  Darcy was caught and Dana was safe.

  He stood at the kitchen sink with a glass of water in his hand. As he drank the water, he looked out the window and watched Duffy roam the backyard. The dog had finally calmed down, but Mac put it down to the dog being put outside.

  He was still standing at the sink looking out the window at his dog, when Dana returned to the kitchen.

  “There, now I feel human again.” She now wore a robe, her wet hair slicked back.

  Within moments, Duffy barked and scrambled against the patio door.

  “Down, Duffy!” Mac ordered.

  The dog dropped down to all fours, but he didn’t stop barking.

  Dana kept her distance from the glass door. “He’s not happy at all.”

  “Yeah.” Mac emptied his glass and set it on the counter. “Are you going to be all right if I go out for a while?”

  “Where are you going?” She was alarmed by his announcement.

  He picked up his keys. “I need to get to my office. I’ve got some things I need to check out on another case of mine.”

  She glided over to him and rested her hands on his chest. “Can’t you check them out here?”

  Mac shook his head. “I need my files.”

  Dana wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his face down for a kiss. “Hurry back,” she whispered.

  Mac nodded and headed for the garage. He opened the back door and whistled for Duffy. The dog ran over to him and eagerly jumped into the Explorer’s back seat.

  As he backed down the driveway, four words kept echoing inside his head.

  It doesn’t feel right.

  Chapter 15

  Mac was convinced he did his best thinking when he was sitting back in his battered desk chair with his feet propped up on the desk. He used to do some of his best sleeping there, too.

  Right now, he was doing some serious thinking.

  A sleeping Duffy was sprawled under the desk.

  The friend he’d sent up to Dana’s birthplace had left a message he’d been successful in digging up information about the Madison family. Mac called him back immediately. He learned that the Madison’s neighbors had moved away, but he lucked out in finding a woman who remembered the Madison twins. The politest thing she could say about Darcy Madison was that she was “spawn of the devil.” Apparently, everyone was relieved when Darcy was hospitalized.

  The man’s next words were an unexpected surprise for Mac. He thanked the caller profusely and even promised him a bonus. He had more information than he needed. He didn’t mind because he knew all of it was going to come in handy.

  After he finished the call, he looked over all his notes. No wonder the family had moved after Dana’s accident. Everyone was so afraid that Dana could become like Darcy that the children weren’t allowed to play with her. A great deal of speculation swept among the neighbors about Darcy, most of which was that she was just plain evil. And Dana was the one to pay for her sister’s terrorizing.

  Mac also called Harriet to check on her and Alice.

  “We’re fine,” she told him. “In fact, Alice has come out of this a bit stronger. She feels guilty that she hadn’t told Dana years ago about Darcy. She’s determined to do whatever is necessary to get healthy again. She even talked to Dr. Fredericks and gave him authorization to talk to you about Darcy. He told her that after this, Darcy would never be allowed to leave the hospital.”

  “It seems Mrs. Madison bounced back better than the rest of us did,” he said, surprised by the news.

  “Maybe it’s what she needed. She’s finally realized that even though Jeremy’s gone, she’s still alive. She told me the reason she was always asleep when Dana came to see her was because she never knew if it was Dana or Darcy. I had no idea some of the times I thought Dana was here that it was actually Darcy,” she said sadly. “How is Dana doing after everything? She did such a brave thing, Mac. I have no doubt Darcy would have killed us all so she could take over Dana’s life.”

  Mac felt a chill.

  “She’s doing fine.” He tapped a pencil against the edge of the desk. Something is not right.

  “That poor girl,” Harriet murmured. “We don’t know what made her the way she was, and it’s a shame because she never had a chance at a normal life.”

  “I think she would say that she was the one who deserved everything Dana had.” Mac said goodbye and replaced the phone in the cradle, then leaned back in his chair.

  It was over. He should be back at Dana’s house now, because he didn’t want her out of his sight. He was even hoping to talk her into marrying him.

  Hell, that’s all he’d thought about lately. Except right now, he wasn’t thinking of proposing.

  He looked down at Duffy, who took up the entire area under the desk.

  “I wish you could talk, boy,” Mac said out loud. “You know the truth, don’t you? Trouble is, I don’t think your testimony would be accepted.”

  He reached for the phone and tapped out a number that he was fast becoming familiar with. “Dr. Fredericks, please.”

  He doodled on a piece of paper as he waited for the man to come on the line.

  “This is Dr. Fredericks.”

  “John McKenna, Doctor. I was wondering how Darcy is doing.”

  “She’s been distressed since she was returned. I had no choice but to give her a sedative. We find it best to leave them alone for a while so they can calm down on their own. I will be meeting with Darcy tomorrow and doing my evaluation at that time. What I don’t like is her insistence she isn’t Darcy, but that she’s Dana.”

  Good going, McKenna. You screwed up.

  “I can’t give you any opinion until I have evaluated her,” the doctor went on. “Before, she only talked about wanting her sister’s face to disappear. I think because she’d been so determined to take over Dana’s life, it was easy for her to believe her own fiction.”

  “Unless it isn’t fiction,” Mac muttered. The uneasy feeling had escalated until he felt downright sick.

  “Excuse me?”

  “What if Darcy succeeded with her plan?” he asked. “What if you really do have Dana and not Darcy?”

  “Then I wou
ld say we have a serious problem, Mr. McKenna,” the doctor said sharply. “Do you realize what you are saying? What this means?”

  “Unfortunately, I do.”

  “Mr. McKenna, Darcy Madison is a very smart and dangerous woman. This kind of statement cannot be taken lightly,” the doctor told him.

  Mac closed his eyes and replayed the past few hours he’d spent with Dana. Then he thought about Dana yesterday and the day before.

  “Dr. Fredericks, you’re the only one who knows Darcy Madison,” he said. “What I’d like to do is drive up there with her sister. Maybe this time they’ll talk instead of fight.”

  “At this time, your request is impossible, Mr. McKenna. We have very strict procedures that we follow. They’re necessary for our patients’ mental health. The young woman is extremely agitated now. We need the time to help her settle back in her routine here.”

  “Your strict procedures didn’t do all that much good when Darcy Madison managed to walk away from your hospital,” Mac cut in angrily. “Didn’t you even think to call Mrs. Madison and enquire about Darcy? She’d been locked up there since she was six. Didn’t you think it was odd that her mother would suddenly want her staying with her? Especially with Darcy Madison’s medical history.”

  “As I said before, Ms. Madison is a very clever woman. I was told another doctor would be overseeing her care and that he would contact me,” the doctor said stiffly.

  “I’d suggest you revise your procedures regarding patients leaving the hospital,” Mac said in a hard voice. “Now, as I said, we’ll be up there in a couple hours.”

  “I repeat, it is impossible. I will be reevaluating Ms. Madison in the morning,” the doctor pointed out. “If you insist on seeing her so soon, you can see her tomorrow afternoon.”

  “No, I think this needs to be settled right away.” He hung up while the man was still arguing.

  Mac took several deep breaths to compose himself. When he felt a little better, he pulled out his phone book. He had some other calls to make.

  Duffy whined and rolled over. Mac looked down and smiled.

  “It took me a little while to figure it out, but you knew right away, didn’t you,” he told the dog. “Duffy, you deserve a steak.”