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shoved them into a rough stack on the coffee table, and had just time to fold the afghan before the knock came at the door.
    At her first glimpse of the elflike creature standing on the porch, Mia thought Halloween might have sneaked up on her. The woman was tiny, with skin freckled as an overripe banana and a pixie cap of fox-colored curls. Circular spots of rouge decorated her cheeks. Only her eyes, the same emerald green as her dangling earrings, held a note of familiarity.
    â€œMia?” The woman smiled, turning her crow’s feet into ostrich tracks. “I don’t suppose you’d remember me.” The husky voice came from somewhere around her silver belt buckle. “It’s Siobhan McIntire…Siobhan Henry, now.”
    Mia could only gape.
    â€œColin’s half-sister. I was —”
    â€œSiobhan, of course I remember you! It’s just…It’s been so long…nobody knew where…” Mia took a breath and started over. “Come in. Forgive me, I’m only a little…”
    â€œA little shocked at seeing me still alive?” She gave a throaty un-elflike guffaw and entered.
    Mia led her guest into the kitchen, installed her on a chair, and filled the coffeepot. She slid a plate of blackberry-filled cookies onto the table and took a chair opposite. Now that she knew who she was looking at, she realized that the former Siobhan McIntire hadn’t really changed all that much since she’d last seen her, which must have been at least twenty years before. More like twenty-five. Despite its wrinkles, the heart-shaped face maintained its childish tilt, and the eyes still seemed to hold some delicious secret.
    â€œWell,” she tried to begin again, “well, Siobhan…and how have you been?”
    Siobhan’s blood-red talons glittered as she reached for a cookie. “Ooh, let’s see…I had pneumonia in 1932.” Her lumberjack laugh burst out once more, so out of keeping with her appearance that Mia felt she was conversing with a ventriloquist’s puppet. Siobhan chewed and swallowed before going on. “Sorry to barge in on you like this, but I’ve been to Colin’s, and there doesn’t seem to be anybody around. I didn’t want to go all the way back to Chandler. And I wouldn’t want to be sitting there when they get home and give anybody a heart attack! I thought maybe I could wait here? If it wouldn’t be a bother.”
    Mia suppressed a smile. Bothering her, and John, had once been Siobhan’s favorite pastime. But as to that heart attack…
    â€œOf course it’s no trouble. And we have plenty of catching up to do. But…I hate to have to tell you this, Siobhan. Colin is dead. He’s been gone about three years. I know Sophie tried to find you and your mother when it happened, but…”
    â€œOh, God.” The spark left her eyes, and Siobhan McIntire sounded weary. “What happened? How did he die?”
    â€œCame out of Touminen’s sauna and dived in the lake. He died instantly, massive coronary.”
    â€œGood lord! How awful! We didn’t hear anything about it. A heart attack? When I said that, I…Colin? It seems impossible. He was always so…”
    â€œIndestructible.”
    Siobhan took a crushed pack of Winstons from her shoulder bag and shook one into her hand. “I can’t believe I won’t see him again. If I had thought…” She tapped the end of the cigarette against her palm. “So Sophie’s alone?”
    â€œSophie’s moved to Florida. John’s living in the house now.”
    Siobhan paused with the lighter flickering in front of her nose and snatched the cigarette from her mouth. She stared as if Mia had told her the Widow McIntire had eloped with the pope. “John? He actually came back here? To St. Adele? No. I can’t believe it.” She completed the lighting procedure and inhaled deeply. “Good