“That’s suspicious right there,” Josie said.
“Is he mean to you?” Diana asked.
“No, he’s mostly very nice. In his gruff way.”
“Is he harder on you than on everybody else?”
“He actually tends to use me as an example of how everybody should be doing things.”
“Does he like you?”
“I don’t know that I’d go that far.”
“But he admires your work?”
“Frequently.”
“Does he realize that you’re a woman?”
“He says I’m the exception that proves the rule.”
“Whatever that means,” Diana said.
“If he knows you’re onto him,” Josie suggested, “he could fire you.”
“He’s not going to fire me,” I said.
Josie smiled at me. “You’re adorable. Yes, he is.”
Diana nodded in agreement. “Yeah, he’s probably going to fire you. If it was him.”
“Who else could it have been?” Josie asked.
I shrugged. “It could have been anyone, really. Six-Pack has lost a ton of money—hundreds—betting against me. I absolutely annihilated Tiny in a game of hoops one time. DeStasio and Case were never thrilled to have a woman around. But there’s no obvious villain. They’ve all been surprisingly nice to me.”
“They underestimate you,” Diana pointed out.
“But not in a vicious way,” Josie said. “In a chivalrous, slightly patronizing way. Not mean-spirited.”
“Maybe it was the rookie,” I said then, and they both lowered their crochet.
“Absolutely not,” Josie said.
Diana shook her head, too. “Impossible.”
“Why not? It’s the perfect alibi. Pretend to be allies and then do a double cross. Oldest trick in the book.”
“He’s not pretending. I saw the way he looked at you.”
True enough.
“Why do you want to work with these guys, anyway?” Josie asked. “They seem very high maintenance.”
I shrugged. “I love the job.”
“And she’s good at it,” Diana added.
“I love the jobbecauseI’m good at it.”
