the big fridge by putting the money in the empty can on the top. The chairs were a mismatched bunch, comfortable but sturdy.
She saw Mary and Louis coming toward her. Louis was limping for some reason, but Mary was talking a mile a minute to the person with her. They were both in chains, wrists and ankles, but neither of them seemed to be talking to each other. She wondered at that until they sat down.
“Why is he here?” Piper didn’t answer Mary because she didn’t know the answer. Looking at the guard who had brought her here, she put to him the same question. “He’s a bad influence. I don’t want to be seen associating with him anymore.”
“You either do this now, Mary, or you go back to your cell until tomorrow. Your sister has come all the way here to talk to you at your request, so talk or not. It’s up to you.” The trip had taken her only fifteen minutes because she’d walked. Smiling to herself, Piper looked at Louis.
“Did you want something from me, Louis?” He looked at her, and she smiled. At that moment, he looked like the teenager she remembered when they were still living at home. “Louis, you wanted to speak to me. What is it you want me to do for you before you leave?”
“Did you know about the money?” She said she’d been the one to find it. “Then why did you make sure that Bonny knew about it? Mom put that away for me to have. Not my wife. I was going to invest it in things that might well have gotten me out of here.”
“I doubt that any amount of money would have gotten you out of here, Louis. You’re being sentenced on mail fraud. That’s a serious crime. Not to mention, you took all those people’s money and didn’t have it to return to them.” He said it was his money that Mom had wanted him to have. “I understand that. But your family is in need of it more than you’re going to be where you’re going. Just chalk it up to, since you didn’t know about it, they have a nice nest egg to start over with.”
He turned his back to her as well as he could, she supposed, being in chains.
Piper looked at Mary. Mary was glaring at her as if she’d done something terribly wrong, when in fact, Piper had had nothing at all to do with either of them being arrested or held.
“You have money, don’t you?” She nodded, not really wanting to get into any kind of discussion about how much money Fisher told her they both had now. “I don’t understand how you turned out to be the one with all the money, and Louis and I are ruined. You should have just given us what we wanted, and we wouldn’t be here. It’s not fair. You understand that, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean by saying it’s not fair. I met and fell in love with someone who just happened to have money. He’s a wonderful person. I’d like to have you meet him sometime.” Mary told her no. “Suit yourself. But you’re not going to drag me down with you in this. You’ve made your bed, and now you’re going to have to learn to lie in it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, sitting there in your beautiful clothes and your hair all pretty. While I’m sitting here in a jumpsuit that has been worn by god only knows how many other people, and awaiting trial for trying to get something that should have been mine in the first place.” Piper asked her if she meant the money. “Of course, I mean the money. Don’t be obtuse. Money is what makes the world go around. I don’t have any, so I’m stuck here. I want you to try and get me a good attorney. Paddy told me I’m on my own. He actually filed for divorce.”
“I would have too had I been married to you. You nearly made him lose his company by taking what you did from it. Have you no shame for even taking Peter’s scholarship from him?” Mary told her it wasn’t any of her business. “No, I guess it’s not. None of this is. But you asked to see me, and here I am. If all you wanted to do was to rehash the things you both did to put yourself here, then