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siblings, with me the oldest and Nick and our other brother, Paul, in between. She’d been lucky in inheriting our mother’s looks, but she’d come up short on Audrey’s grace and canniness; she was good-natured but self-involved, in many ways like an adolescent without much on her mind beyond shopping and partying, although recently she’d gotten engaged to a guy from another wealthy family, and that seemed to be a grounding influence. He was obviously smitten by her looks and probably some quality sack time, but I wondered how much he knew about her otherwise.
    Erica had her quirks, including a penchant for inappropriateness, with a case in point being the way she was dressed right now—clingy tank top, a bra that must have been made of gauze, and a very short skirt. Maybe she hadn’t known that the mayor and his police escort would be coming by here, but more likely she had. She also liked to sunbathe in the buff around the pool, and she wasn’t always careful about it; there’d been a couple of occasions when I’d been here visiting, wandered over that way without realizing she was there, and had to spin an about-face.
    â€œWhat’s going on, Rikki?” I said.
    â€œI’m really, really sorry about Nick. I mean, you know we weren’t getting along, but I’d never want anything bad to happen to him.”
    â€œSure, I know that.” It was true, although to say the two of them weren’t getting along was an understatement. They’d never been close, and the rift had widened over the past years to the point where both of them acted as if the other didn’t exist.
    â€œHe called me, like, two weeks ago,” she said, still whispering. “Then I got this in the mail. The return address is bogus. I checked it.” She dug a mailer envelope out of her purse and showed me a DVD disk inside. “It’s—” Her hands fluttered like she was trying to catch the right words. “I can’t explain. Just look at it—but only like the first minute, okay? And please keep it secret.” She pushed it at me and hurried away, practically fleeing.
    I frowned at it, trying to imagine what this was about. Why would Nick abruptly breach their cold war and contact her? What could make her so upset and furtive? But now wasn’t the time to worry about it. I shoved the envelope in a pocket and walked to the dining room with its rosewood banquet table and gaudy chandelier.
    My mother was talking on her cell phone, and Hap was at the far end of the room on the house line; no doubt there were calls coming in from well-wishers. Audrey waved me toward the sideboard, spread with fresh pineapple and mangoes, lox and bagels, silver carafes of coffee and hot milk for café au lait. She usually lived a fairly modest lifestyle compared to her peers, but she had no hesitations about amping things up if she felt the need. I’d noticed that she tended to do it when she got anxious, which made perfect sense psychologically. A lot of people found reassurance in spending money, especially if they had plenty of it.
    I poured a mug of black coffee and sank into a chair. It felt like the first time I’d stopped moving since this whole thing had started.
    â€œI’ve left three messages for Paul—nothing back yet,” Audrey said to me, putting down her phone with an acerbic look that I was relieved to see. Annoyance meant that her strength was coming to the fore.
    Then I set my coffee mug down hard, abruptly remembering that I did have an appointment to cancel. I’d spaced it out, but the mention of Paul jarred it loose.
    â€œHe’s probably at the Lodge,” I said.
    â€œHe could still return a call from his mother about his brother falling off a cliff and almost dying.”
    She was right, and it rankled with me, too, but it was just what I’d have expected from Paul. Like Erica, he was on the outs with Nick—the more