“Emily? You here? You okay?” Sister walked through the open door with me right behind her.

The foyer in these apartments is formed by the kitchen wall. One has to turn right into an L-shaped eating area and living room with a wall of windows opening onto a balcony.

“Emily?” Sister called again. And then we were in the living room and Emily Peacock was slouched against the end of the sofa, her head turned as if she were looking at the water and the sun. But she was looking at nothing; the hole in her right temple guaranteed that.

“Oh, God!” Sister said. She rushed past me, and I could hear her being sick in the kitchen. But I walked the length of the room, opened the balcony doors and walked out into the fading sunlight. I sat in a plastic, stackable chair and watched parents herding tired children in from the beach, sailboats headed toward the pass, and gulls walking along the sand. The body behind me on the sofa was as unreal as the body on the beach had been.

Sister came onto the balcony. “I need a mint or a piece of gum.” I reached in my purse and handed her a package of Certs. “We need to call 911.” she said. “Go call them, Mouse.”

“You know what I’ve been thinking?” I asked. “I’ve been thinking that Fred and I need to take a long vacation. Maybe a cruise to Alaska. If he really closes this deal on Metal Fab, we can do a little traveling and I think we should. Don’t you?”

Sister’s normally olive skin was pale green. “Go call 911, Patricia Anne.”

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’? There’s a dead woman, a very dead woman, sitting in there.”

“I’m not going back in there,” I said. “I’m just going to sit here and think about Alaska. I’ve given myself permission not to be drawn into any more of your traumas.”

“My traumas?” Sister’s hand went for my upper arm. When we were children, she perfected a pinch that is very painful but doesn’t leave a bruise. The secret is in the twist. She hasn’t used it in a long time, but with Mary Alice, one always has to be prepared.

I jerked my arm back just in time. “That’s childish.”

She sank down onto a chair and put her head in her hands. “I’m sick,” she said, rocking back and forth.