If it did, she gave no sign. “I’m sure you and Mom are keeping them entertained. How’s Dad?”

“Worried about you.”

Her expression softened. “I was always his favorite, wasn’t I? The businesswoman willing to do whatever it takes to finish a deal. A chip off the old block.”

“I don’t think you’re a chip off anybody’s block. I think you’re one of a kind.”

I signaled our server, and when she came to the table, I asked for a mushroom calzone, since I no longer had to make my meal last for hours. Instead of ordering, Wendy asked the woman about her son, who had broken a leg while cross-country skiing. Wendy seemed riveted as the woman described everything the poor boy had endured. Not until she had finished did my sister finally order a house salad without dressing and a glass of red wine.

“Do you know you have to order food to get wine in this godforsaken place?” she said when we were alone again. “Give me your purse.”

“Why?”

“So I can be sure you’re not recording.”

I handed her the purse, and when she’d finished searching it, I lifted up my shirt for a quick glimpse. “No wire.”

“Coat, hat, scarf. Stand up and let me see your pockets.”

I played along until she was satisfied. “And don’t think I won’t check my car for bugs,” she said. “In case that’s why you wanted to move it for me.”

“A girl can’t be too careful.”

“So what turned you into James Bond? You say you found Milton Kearns? Want to tell me where?”

The last thing I was going to tell her was where to find Ex. She would be much happier and, in her mind, safer, if he turned up dead. “Let’s play a game. You tell me how you really know him, and I’ll tell you if you’ve scored a point.”

“You’re trying to catch me in a lie.”

“You could be honest and win the big prize.”

“I was afraid if I told you that I knew Milt, you wouldn’t believe I didn’t kill Vítor Calvo.”

I nodded patiently. “And there’s your excuse. But that’s not the same as how you knew him.”

“He was a bartender at Gracey Group’s Autumn Mountain Club. And yes, we had an affair. With Bryce gone so much, it was the only sex I got. I’m not proud of it, but that’s how it happened.”

“Poor old Frank wasn’t delivering?” I held up my hand to stave off her reply. “Sorry. He was probably in Afghanistan by then.”

“You think this is funny?”

“I’m going to laugh until I cry.”

Her expression darkened. “You’re a lot like Sean, your real father. You wouldn’t know since you never met him, but he had a great sense of humor, even if he was stupid enough to get himself killed.”

I absorbed that blow, too. “So, back to sex. You and Kearns had an affair. How did the three of you end up together at Golden Aspen? You, Calvo, Kearns. And please don’t expect me to believe you just ran into Calvo.”