Page 12 of Double Take

Amity scowled. “He was mean to animals?”

He’d once kicked a stray cat outside of a restaurant—and laughed. His actions had so horrified her, it had flipped the script of their marriage, killing her love for him and opening her eyes to other red flags she’d ignored. She’d said something to him, and he’d claimed it had been an accident—the cat had darted in front of his feet. But no. He’d approached the cat with deliberate intent.

After the incident, she’d noticed how dogs and cats would slink away from him.

What kind of person went out of his way to hurt an animal? If there had been any indication he would do that, she never would have married him. She wouldn’t have married him if she’d known a lot of things. Another late-breaking realization—she hadn’t been unobservant; he’d deliberately misled her.

“I never knew that.” Amity’s mouth turned downward in disapproval.

“But John liked Rusty.”

“Ifhe’s John. Why would Mark have himself cloned?”

“He didn’t. Dark Ops did. It’s some sort of secret government agency he supposedly worked for.”

“Again, why?”

“We didn’t get into it.”

Amity pursed her lips. “You weren’t happy together, were you?”

Faith had maintained a façade of being a happy couple, first assuming she had imagined the flashes of meanness then naively hoping with love and patience, he would change. She’d wised up but had been too embarrassed to admit what a huge mistake she’d made. And he still had everyone else snowed. Who would believe such a mild-mannered, nice guy was a nasty human being? How could she admit to her friends she’d lied to them, her marriage was a sham, and she’d been pretending to be happy? And then he’d died—well,maybe—and etiquette said you didn’t speak ill of the dead.

She wearied of the pretense, of lying to her best friend, to everyone. “Mark turned out to be a different person than I thought.”

“You two seemed so loving, but I had doubts.” Amity surprised her.

“You did?”

She nodded. “The PDA seemed over the top. Couples confident of their relationship are too busy living their lives to engage in showy public displays. He seemed to need people to notice his affection—and yours sometimes looked forced.”

“I guess I wasn’t as good an actress as I thought.”

“No, you were. I doubt anyone but me noticed. We’ve been friends a long time. I could tell when your affection shifted from genuine to”—her mouth twisted ruefully—“fake.”

The bell over the door tinkled, and they both turned as the subject of the conversation entered.

He’s the one.He’s the one you’ve been waiting for.

Her inner wisdom had gone nuts.

“Wow,” Amity whispered. “I’ll be a two-headed alien dog.”

In rough canvas pants and a relaxed brown pullover, “John” dressed more casually than her ex/late husband, but then he had been pretending to be an accountant. Another day’s worth ofbeard darkened his jaw, and his hair was combed differently, but he was still the spitting image of her late husband.

“You remember Amity Landers, don’t you?” She gestured to her friend. Her eyes had narrowed, and she seemed to be giving him a thorough scan.

“Remember, no. But I know of her.” He stepped forward to extend his hand. “I’m John Bragg.”

“The body double.” Doubt ladened her tone, but she shook his hand.

“Faith filled you in.”

“It’s a pretty tall tale.”

“I guess it is,” he agreed before turning to Faith. “I don’t want to interrupt your work, but I hope maybe we can talk.” Interrupting her work had never bothered him before. He’d had little respect for her time or her art, considering it a self-indulgent, frivolous hobby.

As it happened, she had no new pottery pieces in the works, and it would take weeks for the new pieces to dry before they could be fired. No customers arrived yet. “No time like the present…I suppose.”

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