As Cybill wrapped her hand around the doorknob, she turned to Charlie and Alice and raised her index finger, aiming for her lips but hitting her nose in a sloppy shushing gesture. Her lipstick was smeared, making her mouth look, Alice thought, weirdly childish. Like she was a little girl playing with her mommy’s makeup. Cybill twisted the knob and the door fell open. They all tumbled through into the dining room, elbows in one another’s ribs, tripping over their own and each other’s feet. Lights had been left on, but only a few, giving the room an abandoned, ghostly look. All traces of the earlier festivities were gone, everything perfectly neat and pristine, plates and silverware laid out on the tables for breakfast in the morning. Like the mess had been cleaned up by invisible little elves, Alice, the daughter of a former caterer, noted sourly.

In a loud drunk-whisper, Cybill said, “I have to pee so bad I can’t feel my feet anymore.”

“I can’t believe they leave the clubhouse unlocked at night,” Charlie said, her drunk-whisper every bit as loud.

“Lucky for us they do. I lack the necessary motor skills right now to fit a teeny tiny key inside a teeny tiny lock. Besides, they don’t leave it unlocked unlocked. The whole club has a massive fence around it, plus a security system and cameras and all that. They just have to leave the clubhouse open at night because of the guest rooms upstairs.”

“So it’s okay for us to be in here?” Alice said.

Cybill nodded loosely, like her head wasn’t screwed tight enough on her neck.

“If we’re not trying to fool anyone then why are we talking in library voices?”

“Because we need to be quiet,” Cybill said, as she hit a tall lamp with her foot, sending it crashing to the floor. “Oopsie. Like I said, there are guest rooms. Five of them, upstairs.”

“But don’t all the members of the Serenity Point Country Club, like, live in Serenity Point?”

“God, so many questions,” Cybill said crossly. “Yes, they mostly do. The rooms are a courtesy. Or a service. Or whatever. Basically, they’re for husbands whose wives have kicked them out for the usual reasons. They stay until they’re forgiven or served with divorce papers.” She turned to Alice and Charlie. “Okay, you two, stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“Hey, where are you going?” said Charlie. And then, off the look Cybill shot her: “What? I have an inquiring mind, too.”

“The locker rooms are locked up at night so I have to use the”—shuddering—“staff bathroom.”