As she drove, Alice snuck glances at her sister out of the tail of her eye. Charlie was looking out the window, bundled up inside her hoodie sweatshirt as she blasted the air-conditioning, probing the nearly invisible blond down on her upper lip with the tip of her tongue. She seemed different lately in a way that was hard for Alice to put her finger on: quieter, calmer, more preoccupied, as if her mind was always someplace else. The manic running around with Jude and Cybill had stopped. Who knew how she spent her time now? It was almost like, Alice thought, she had a secret. Not that Alice could ask what it was. Not when she was keeping so many of her own. Okay, maybe she was being a bit tough on herself with the so many. After all, she had shared with Charlie most of her suspicions about Richard and their mom. She’d just never bothered telling Charlie that they’d officially been confirmed. The impression she got was that Charlie didn’t want to hear it, anyway. And the stuff about Jude being Camilla’s on-the-sly guy didn’t really count either since she wasn’t at liberty to discuss it, as Tommy had told her in strictest confidence. Thankfully, Jude seemed to be in the rearview mirror as far as Charlie was concerned, so Alice didn’t have to feel too guilty on that score. And, finally, if she was acting hush-hush about her relationship with Tommy, well, that couldn’t be helped either. Again, he had his reasons for insisting on discretion that she felt she had to respect even if she wasn’t entirely clear on what exactly those reasons were.

A sign welcomed them to Darien. Alice didn’t have faith in the map application on Charlie’s iPhone, so she’d printed out directions from randmcnally.com before they’d left. Fortunately, Mrs. Flood’s house was easy to find, just past town center, a great big sprawling Victorian on a street full of great big sprawling Victorians. Alice parked at the foot of the driveway, and she and Charlie walked across the lush green lawn, past the brightly colored flower beds, and up to the door. As Alice leaned forward to ring the bell, Charlie said under her breath, “Remind me, why are we doing this again?”

Alice didn’t give Charlie an answer because she didn’t have one, not a specific one, at least. To learn more about Camilla, was the big-picture answer. But what exactly she was hoping to learn, she had no idea. All her questions should have been laid to rest after her late-night conversation with her mother.

Only they weren’t.