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"Good." She jumps up from the couch. "Are we going to the penthouse to see what's in the safe?"

"It's just some papers." I laugh. "You're welcome to come, but you might have more fun doing something else."

"I have a fun night at home planned with my vibrator, Josie. It won't mind if I'm late."

"Did you get the new one last week?" I ask. She was telling me how excited she was to try a new one she'd ordered.

She grins. "You have no idea. Maybe I'll get you your own as a celebration gift when this nightmare is over." Winking, she glances over at Florence. "We'll talk about it again when Miss Prim-and-Proper isn't around."

"Miss Prim-and-Proper has been single most of her adult life," Florence says wryly. "I'll bet you a quarter million that my collection is better than yours."

"Who gets to be the judge of this contest of yours?" she teases. "Josie hasn't seen my collection, but she's heard enough about it." She sighs softly. "I don't have money for a high-stakes gamble like that. Besides, if you're bragging about it, you probably have all the expensive stuff. You've got the cash for it."

I give Tilly a hard look. "You've got one more year. You're almost there."

"You're missing the point," she laughs. "I'm satisfied, trust me. I just can't compete with what she has. I'm nottryingto compete with her."

26

Florence

I climb into Tilly's old beat-up Toyota. She and Josie decided I would ride with Tilly to the penthouse, although I haven't exactly puzzled out why.

"Don't judge my twenty-year-old Camry. Some of us don't come from money," she says, shifting into reverse and peeling out of the parking lot before I have the chance to put my seatbelt on.

"Maybe don't judge me, either," I snap. We had enough when I was growing up, but we certainly didn't have everything handed to us. "I've worked hard for what I have." My brothers and sisters and I all have. Well, Hettie married money, but she's successful in her own right.

"Yeah," she mutters.

I realize it must be hard for her, being in her final year of residency and barely making ends meet. Fifteen years of education is a long time. "You'll be official in less than a year, right?"

"In August." She's quiet, her eyes focused on the road.

"You know," I muse, "if this is about toys, I could probably spot you enough to improve your collection." I'm not sure what makes me offer, but I get the feeling that Tilly is lonely—and hypersexual.

She snorts. "I keep myself satisfied, Florence, trust me. But it's nice of you to offer." She chuckles low in her throat. "I'd say you should offer that to Josie, but she's not that into toys."

"Oh?" I'm curious how she knows this. "You know this from experience?"

She pulls into the parking lot behind Vanderveen Tower and turns to me, grinning. "Are you jealous?"

Her phone buzzes, and her eyes light up in amusement at whatever she sees. "Josie's here, too. Over there." She nods toward Josie, a few cars down.

"The penthouse is in the Tower?" I ask in surprise.

"Apparently, there was beef between Josie's grandpa and the Vanderveens, way back. They're the ones who get his fortune if Josie doesn't come up with the money."

I frown. I don't remember Hettie ever mentioning anything about this. Her father-in-law and her husband own the place. I'll have to ask her about it one of these days.

Josie joins us as we head into a door on the side of the building. "There's a separate entrance for the penthouse. You can get to it from the fifty-fourth floor from the main entrance, but almost no one ever goes that way. I think the Vanderveens have forgotten the penthouse even exists."

I raise an eyebrow. Maybe I shouldn't ask Hettie about it, then. "Maybe then you won't need to come up with the money."

She hits the elevator button before she shakes her head. "No. The lawyer said that doesn't matter. If I don't settle the estate before the ten months is up, their lawyer will be notified. But until then, they might not even know."

"But if they're watching for it, they would see his obituary," I point out.

Tilly rolls her eyes. "I think after thirty years, they've probably given up on the guy. Not to mention, his name isn't that uncommon. Even if they had a search alert set, they'd have to sort through too much to make sense of it."