I opened my jacket to let the cool air flow through me and cleanse me. I wanted to go home, but my car was at my apartment on Chicago’s North Side. I scanned the street: as I’d feared, Cuthbert and Mallory had long since disappeared. While I looked doubtfully around me, wondering whether I could find a cab or possibly walk to a train station in high heels, a young woman joined me. She was small and tidy, with dark hair falling straight just below her ears, and honey-colored eyes. She wore a pale gray silk shantung suit with a full skirt and a bolero jacket fastened by large mother-of-pearl buttons. She looked elegant, perfect, and vaguely familiar.

“Wherever Boom Boom is, I’m sure he’d rather be there than here.” She jerked her head toward the house and gave a quick, sardonic smile.

“Me too.”

“You’re his cousin, aren’t you … I’m Paige Carrington.”

“I thought I recognized you. I’ve seen you a few times, but only onstage.” Carrington was a dancer who had created a comic one-woman show with the Windy City Balletworks.

She gave the triangular smile audiences loved. “I’ve been seeing a lot of your cousin the last few months. We kept it quiet because we didn’t want Herguth or Greta splashing it around the gossip columns—your cousin was news even when he stopped skating.”

She was right. I was always seeing my cousin’s name in print. It’s funny being close to someone famous. You read a lot about them, but the person in print’s never the one you know.

“I think Boom Boom cared more for you than anyone.” She frowned, thinking about the statement. Even her frown was perfect, giving her an absorbed, considering look. Then she smiled, a bit wistfully. “I think we were in love, but I don’t know. I’ll never be sure now.”

I mumbled something soothing.

“I wanted to meet you. Boom Boom talked about you all the time. He loved you very much. I’m sorry he never introduced us.”

“Yes. I hadn’t seen him for several months.… Are you driving back to the city? Can I beg a ride? I had to come out with the procession and my car is on the North Side.”

She pushed the white silk cuff emerging from her jacket sleeve and looked at her watch. “I have to be at a rehearsal in an hour. Okay if I drop you downtown?”

“That’d be great. I feel like Br’er Rabbit out here in suburbia—I need to get back to my brier patch.”

She laughed at that. “I know what you mean. I grew up in Lake Bluff myself. But now when I go out there to visit I feel like my oxygen’s been cut off.”