“Don’t whisper, Gigi,” Mel advises. “Everybody walks around talking to their phones at the top of their lungs. Whispering will make you look suspicious.”

“Got it,” Rose whispers. She drops her own cell phone into the fanny pack and zips it closed. “Got it,” she repeats firmly.

“Don’t press your palm to your ear,” Mel says. “Again, suspicious.”

Rose lowers her hand. “Can you hear me now?” she asks Marion.

“Is that a joke?” Marion snaps.

“Not a joke,” Rose replies.

“Well, don’t ask it out loud.”

Rose wonders how else she could ask it. “It’s on,” Rose says, turning the camera on. “Can you see anything?”

“Boxes and dark corners,” Marion replies.

“Hi, Great-Aunt Marion.” Grinning, Mel sticks her head in front of the hole in the tissue box.

“Yeah, okay, hi,” Marion says. “Turn it off to save the battery. Turn it back on before you go in. This isn’t going to be instantaneous.”

Rose does as she is told. Marion has routed the whole process through one of her addresses in Croatia, or some off-the-wall little country, so the transmission from Mel’s phone can’t be tracked back to her.

Mel carefully replaces the tissues into the box while Rose runs upstairs. She returns with a good-sized shoulder bag, shell shaped and beachy. Reverently, Mel stows the tissue box containing her social life into the bag. Rose returns to the art supplies and drags out a clipboard. She tears a couple of blank pages from a sketchbook and snaps them under the clip.

“What was that click?” Marion demands.

“A clipboard,” Rose tells her. “I thought I’d look more professional if I carried something.”

“Okay,” Marion says grudgingly.

“Will you stay with me while I do this?” Rose asks her sister.

“Do you promise if hospital security catches you, you will eat that phone before they can press redial?”

Marion really is paranoid.

Rose worries that she has good reasons for it.

CHAPTER 16

Regarding the ride with Rose to Longwood’s MCU, Mel will not negotiate. Shortly after seven P.M. Rose is deposited half a block from the entrance. Sufficient light remains in the evening sky to see clearly. Rose does a quick search of the bush where she’d discarded the cola nurse’s keycard. Odds are against it working a second time. Though Rose doesn’t know how it is done, she knows electronic keycards at hotels are nullified if lost. Still, if it works, life will be easier.

The card, on its snipped lanyard, is caught in the spiky arms of the shrub a couple of inches down. Rose retrieves it.

With Mel’s assistance, Rose turned on the camera during the ride from Applegarth to Longwood. Taking her cell from the fanny pack, she calls Marion.

“Here,” Marion answers curtly.

“Are you ready?” Rose asks, resisting the urge to press her palm against the ear device.