Death in a Funhouse Mirror by Kate Flora

was the corresponding file from Suzanne's computer. I had no idea why she wanted them, but they were none of her business.
    I held out my hand. "Let me see your purse."
    She clutched it tightly to her side. "No way," she said, "that's personal."
    "That's what you said about the papers. I'll give you a choice. You can let me look in the purse, or I can call the police, and we can wait here until they come and then I will look in your purse. They will back me up. I guarantee it. Employers do have rights with respect to employees like you."
    "Oh, all right. You can look. But you're going to be sorry you treated me like this. Very, very sorry." She opened her purse, took out her wallet, checkbook, car keys, and makeup bag, and tucked them into the baggy pockets of her jacket. Then she took her purse, aimed it at me with the top open, and heaved. A heavy shower of stuff bounced off my shirt and pants and landed on the floor by my feet. I didn't look at it. I was watching Valeria. She marched up to Bobby, holding her breath, and croaked, "Out of my way, queer." He looked at me. I nodded, and he let Valeria go. We all stood in a stunned circle, listening to the clackity clack of her high heels until she disappeared down the stairs.
    "Boy howdy," Sarah said, "are we ever lucky to be rid of that little witch. She tried to steal half the office." She looked down at the floor by my feet. Among the loot Valeria had stuffed in her purse were four packets of computer disks, five dozen pens, six printer cartridges, eight rolls of stamps, and the elegant, expensive pen Paul's mother had given Suzanne as an engagement present. "I wonder what else she took."
    Magda shook her head sadly. "There have been other things," she said in her slightly accented English. "I was trying to decide whether to bring it up. But Suzanne has been so busy. I didn't want to trouble her just now."
    "Didn't want to trouble me with what?" Suzanne said. She stared at the mess on the floor and Valeria's collapsed pocketbook. "What's this mess?"
    "I fired Valeria."
    "And she tried to steal half the office when she left," Sarah said.
    "Worse yet, she tried to take your pen, that you had from Paul's mother," Magda added.
    "And worse than that, she tried to steal our client lists, our reports, and our personal correspondence disks, and she has threatened to sue us for firing her, claiming that it was a retaliatory firing."
    "Retaliating for what?" Suzanne said. "Incompetence? Since when is that forbidden?"
    I figured I might as well let the whole staff in on the problem, so I didn't wait until we were in her office to tell her. "She claims that she will say I made advances to her, and when she complained to you, you refused to act and I fired her." Magda made a disgusted face and started picking up the stuff on the floor. Sarah bent to help her. Bobby, looking extremely confused, wandered back to his desk. "Let's get some coffee, take it into your office, and talk."
    "I'll get the coffee," Sarah said. "You'd better sit down, Thea, you don't look so good."
    I hadn't realized, until I sank into a chair in Suzanne's office, how much of a strain the last hour had been. It didn't help that it was after three, and I hadn't had any lunch. Suzanne stayed behind to give some instructions to Magda. I waited for her, my head in my hands, experiencing a crisis of conscience. Suzanne didn't need this kind of aggravation right now. Why hadn't I waited until next week? Had I really needed to fire her at all? How messy were things going to get if she really did file a complaint? All the questions that hadn't bothered me before, when I'd been so certain I was right, hammered at me now, and I wasn't sure I knew the answers.
    She came in quietly, shut the door behind her, and handed me some coffee. "Come on," she said, "it's not that bad. We would have had to do this sooner or later. She was hopeless."
    "I know that." I showed her the list I'd made. "I called my father. Got some free legal