She looked out the window. Time had slipped away, and the sun was now setting. Her sister was dead, her body resting on a slab of cold metal in the basement of the mortuary while the mortician worked to make her appear lifelike. As least, that was what Eileen imagined. The memorial service would be an open casket. Surely someone had determined that this would be appropriate, given Clare’s wounds.

Because where had Clare shot herself? Through the temple? Through the heart? Or had her once-vivacious and beautiful older sister wrapped her full lips around the barrel of her 9mm and blown her gifted and intelligent brains out the back of her head? Certainly, their mother never imagined the day might come when her gift meant to protect her daughter would be used in her own hand, against her.

Maybe it was best that her mother not know that Clare was gone. Maybe she need not ever know. In her time warp of dementia, trapped somewhere between now and the 1990s, Clare would always outlive her, as she should have. Maybe, in her brief moments of clarity, she might wonder why her eldest daughter hadn’t been to see her, but she would never need to know the abhorrent details.

Eileen stood up and walked out of the room. She was tired. She was sad. She was in need of a full-bodied glass of wine.

She made her way to her sister’s kitchen. Past the marble and expensive professional-grade appliances, there was a short, whitewashed, plank oak door at the very back of the room. Set in the corner, it would be easy to not notice. The entrance to the wine cellar was an oddity, designed by Clare to be that way, a personal touch that combined the old European styles with a modern flair. Eileen pulled the brushed nickel handle in the center of the door and ran her hand along the wall until she felt the switch for the light. With a flick, the small Italian chandelier reflected an array of light from its every handcrafted crystal and lit the way for Eileen to begin the descent down the tightly wound circular staircase that led to the cellar twenty feet below.