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But Vesta’s face spelled storm, and Scarlett’s own face sagged, in spite of the fancy treatments she paid to keep it scaffolded in place. “I want a word with you,” said Vesta, and stomped in without waiting for an invitation.

Scarlett rolled her eyes, and muttered,“Here we go again.” She closed the door and followed her surprise guest into the living room. “What is it this time?” she asked. “Let me guess. Dan decided to give me a raise and not you and now you’re upset.”

“You’ve been sabotaging me,” said Vesta, wagging a pointy finger in her face. “And you thought I wouldn’t notice. Huh!”

“Sabotaging you? I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I can already tell you I don’t like to be accused of stuff I didn’t do.”

“You’ve been answering my family’s letters, pretending that these answers came from me, and giving them asinine advice.”

Scarlett shrugged.“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Here. Listen to this,” said Vesta, and took out her phone. “My daughter wrote asking about a trip to Europe she’d like to take with her husband. Your response? ‘Screw your trip to Europe. Why are you being so selfish? Your brother wants to run for mayor and your job should be to help himsince he’s not doing a damn thing about it himself.’”

Scarlett smiled. She couldn’t help it. It had the effect of a red flag on a bull, though.

“You did it on purpose! You tried to push me out! Admit it!”

Scarlett held up her hands.“Okay, all right! Dan told me he was hiring a second Gabi and when I discovered it was you I figured I needed to get rid of you as fast as I could!”

“But you told me two days ago you didn’t know he’d hired a second Gabi!”

“I lied, all right. He told me so I got nervous. And then I happened to look at his computer one day and saw your name and got even more nervous.”

“But why? There’s plenty of work for the two of us.”

“I panicked, okay! I just figured that if you came on board and Dan saw the quality of your responses, he’d soon realize you were the better Gabi and can my ass. So I decided to get rid of you before you got rid of me. Call it self-defense, but yeah, basically I tried to screw you over.”

She was standing, arms across her chest, nostrils flaring and eyes blazing. For some reason Vesta always managed to get a rise out of her.

“You tried to get me canned because you thought I was better than you? That’s just crazy!”

“Yeah, well, I read some of your stuff and it was pretty darn good.”

“I thought the same thing when I saw your stuff. I thought I could never beat you, so I did my best to live up to the standard you set.”

Scarlett looked up at this.“You thought my stuff was good?”

“Of course I did! The things you told Mrs. Baumgartner about her hypochondria was brilliant. And it worked! She hasn’t been in for days now. Used to be she was there every single day.”

“Yeah, I was kinda proud of that one,” said Scarlett.

“You’re good, Scarlett, so there really was no need to go after me.”

“Well, to be honest, I haven’t gone after you since we started working together on the Kirk Weaver case. Those answers were all written when I still hated your guts.”

“And when I still hated your guts,” said Vesta.

They stared at each other for a moment, then both burst out laughing.“We’re two crazy old bitches, aren’t we?” said Scarlett.

“Speak for yourself, you crazy old bitch,” said Vesta, and added, “You know I’ve enjoyed these last two days, working this case together. I’d forgotten how much fun we used to have, before Jack came between us.”

“Yeah, I should never have gotten involved with that loser,” said Scarlett. “He was a no-good jerk for cheating on you. Did you know he actually told me you were on a break?”

“Yeah, you told me about a million times. Only I never believed you.”

“But you do now, don’t you?”

Vesta hesitated.“The thing is, even if we were on a break, that still didn’t give you the right to bone my husband.”

“I know. That wasn’t my finest hour. He was crying, you know, and telling him how much he missed you, and how sad he was, and so I decided to comfort him and then one thing led to another and then you came in.”

“I know. I was there, remember?”

“Vividly.”

Vesta smiled.“Jack was an asshole.”

“He was an asshole.”

“Come here,” said Vesta, and then they hugged. It felt good.

“I missed you,” said Scarlett, in a choky voice.

“Me, too. Though I enjoyed our tussles.”

“Does this mean we’re not going to fight anymore?”

“I don’t know. We could, for old times’ sakes. But right now I feel like I need a friend more than I need an enemy.”

They let go and took a seat at the table.

“We’re both of us not getting any younger, Scarlett,” said Vesta. “So maybe it’s time to bury the hatchet and be friends again?”

“I would like that,” said Scarlett, wiping away a tear.

Vesta studied her for a moment.“Also, I don’t think I’ve seen you without the face paint these last couple of decades.”

“And? I probably look as if I walked out a tomb, right?”

“Nah, actually you look a lot better without makeup. More natural.”

“Yeah, right.”

“No, really.”