“Not hard enough,” I said. “I couldn’t imagine he wanted anything to do with me again. But it was more than that. I was just so ashamed and so badly equipped to handle that much emotion.” I’d been staring into space. I looked at her. “I guess I thought putting everything behind us was best for both our sakes.”

“Did you put it behind you?”

“When I was a kid, whenever I got angry or had any strong feeling, my mother would tell me to go off and be by myself until I calmed down. That’s how we deal with emotions in my family. We leave until we can pretend we don’t feel anything. Everybody’s happier that way. I guess that’s what happened when I walked away from Teo. I went away until I thought it would be safe to see him again.”

“So is it safe now?”

I started to change the subject, but I realized that was exactly the way I’d been trained to react. I flashed on my nieces, who, judging from my interactions with them, were receiving the same training from their mother.

“No, it’s not safe,” I said, and it felt good to say the words. “I’ve missed him every single day.”

“Well, that’s encouraging. If nothing else, maybe the two of you can finally work through the past. Whatever the outcome.”

“Strictly one day at a time. At least we’re talking.”

“And you have his dog.”

Bismarck was lying at my feet, in case Sophie turned out to be another serial killer. I reached down and scratched his head. “Are we going to giggle over guys the whole time you’re here? That would be fun, but is there another reason for this visit?”

“News, of sorts. I found somebody who had access to the guest registry at the Golden Aspen Resort.”

Sophie’s good at what she does, but this was surprising. “How?”

“Sometimes the simplest way to get things done is the best. I called late last night and asked to be put through to your sister’s room. The desk clerk handed me on to the hotel operator, who sounded very young and bored. That was my lucky break. She said there was no guest registered by that name. I told her Wendy was waiting for my call. I asked her to check and see if Wendy might have switched rooms, or if that wasn’t true, when she had checked out. She shouldn’t have done the latter, I’m sure, but she did. She said nobody named Wendy Wainwright had been registered in the previous weeks.”

“Maybe she checked in under Gracey?”

“She checked that, and Gracey Group, too. I told her that the paper I’d written this on was all smudged, and this must be the wrong hotel. I thanked her for her patience, and that was that.”

“Are we back to square one?”

“I don’t know. Either your sister was never there, or she was there under an assumed name.”

“Why would she pretend to be somebody she’s not?”