I went to work on my pants, then pulled off my long-sleeved top. Bra and underwear, too; I was leaving nothing to chance. I threw it all at Shana. The fabric was probably bloodstained by my mutilated fingertips, and I was happy I’d gone with dark colors, which would help minimize the stains. Soon enough, a little blood would hardly matter.

Shana was moving. Whether giving way from shock or bewilderment, she drew on my dark-brown slacks, even as I made my first attempt with prison orange.

“Don’t go to my apartment or my office,” I instructed now. “Those are the first places they’ll look. Find someplace to hole up, sit tight. There’s a bag of fresh clothes, as well as some tools and scissors. Change outfits, cut your hair, dye it, do what you need to do. When the dust settles, I’ll bring you home.”

“All this to catch a killer?” Shana grunted.

“No.”

“Then why?”

“Because I need you.”

“Why?”

I stopped moving. In the dark, smelling blood, my sister’s nervousness, I felt a deep calm set over me. This was it. The conclusion of the dance. The place we’d always been heading toward.

My sister and I together again, as shouting men once more pounded against the door.

“Dressed?” I asked.

“Yes.”

I handed her my medic alert bracelet, slipped from my wrist onto hers.

Next my hair tie. “Pull it back, tight as you can.”

Then, while she struggled on the floor with her hair, I attended to the final detail of Shana’s disguise, finding her face with my bloody fingertips. Gently, tentatively, I drew wet lines across her nose, down her cheeks. Eradicating my sister. Creating a new, blood-covered Adeline in her place.

It occurred to me this was the first time I’d touched my sister, truly touched her, in forty years. We’d talked. We’d sat across tables from each other. But the planes of her face, the bump in the bridge of her nose . . . She felt both alien and familiar. The nature of family.

The first crack as the window began to give way. Not much time left.

“You are Adeline,” I informed her. “You are a successful, well-educated woman who was just violently attacked by your older sister. Hence, the blood on your face, your uneven steps. When Superintendent McKinnon questions you, keep your answers short, while modulating your voice the best you can. Just remember it all happened so fast. You don’t know what set your sister off, you didn’t expect the attack. No, you’re not that injured. You simply want to go home and rest. Flash the MedicAlert bracelet a lot. It’s a detail they associate with me and will lend your disguise that much more credibility, whether they’re aware of it or not.”