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Owens had thanked them both several more times, and they had reassured her that they’d been glad to help and they hoped she recovered completely, they were all able to part ways with ill-concealed relief.
    Manfred climbed into Fiji’s car and leaned back, heaving a sigh. He didn’t feel like talking about Francine Owens again. It was simple to think of another topic of conversation.
    “So how come your sister showed up, after all this time?” he asked. “Didn’t you tell me none of your family had come to visit you in Midnight, since you inherited?”
    “Truth. Kiki says she’s here now because she’s broken up with her second husband. And also, my dad has Alzheimer’s. So she doesn’t want to stay with Mom and Dad.”
    “Two reasons, huh? One wouldn’t do? You don’t have a telephone, she couldn’t call ahead?”
    “Yeah, it seems pretty weak to me, too,” Fiji told him. “I can sort of see her not wanting to go to my mom and dad’s if Dad is getting hard to handle. She never has liked to take responsibility for someone else. But the split with her husband—that seems pretty hinky to me.”
    “I don’t know what ‘hinky’ means, but the situation does seem kind of suspicious. More explanation called for.”
    “Right.”
    “Doesn’t she have a job?”
    “Good point, Manfred. Yes, last I heard, she was working at a Banana Republic or something. A mall clothing store. And even if she and her husband split up, it seems like she’d need to work. Maybe especially.”
    Manfred didn’t know a lot about conventional families, since he’d never known the name of his father and he’d spent a bit of his childhood and almost all his adolescence with his psychic grandmother, Xylda Bernardo, who’d never met a camera she didn’t like. “So are you thinking she’s come here for some other reason entirely? Or that she’s got bad news about your mother, too? Or what?” He glanced over at Fiji, who was clearly mulling over possibilities. “I’ll find out, I’m sure,” Fiji said. “Even if I’d rather not.”
    “And your parents picked a theme to name their children?” It was time to lighten the atmosphere.
    “Beach people,” Fiji said, with a shrug.
    “They actually went to Fiji?”
    “On their seventh anniversary. Saved for four years. Mom got pregnant with me while they were there.”
    “And Waikiki?”
    “Third anniversary.”
    He choked back a laugh. “Really?”
    She tried not to smile. “Really.”
    “I never had a sibling—one I knew of, anyway.” Maybe he had six brothers by his unknown father. Just with other women. “But it’s got to be weird to be obliged to stick by someone you didn’t pick as a friend. Or am I crazy?”
    He glanced over to see that Fiji looked taken aback.
    “I never thought of it that way,” she said slowly. “You have to stick by family, unless they’ve done something truly terrible to you. I know there are families who are sadistic or neglectful. I suspect Olivia’s was.”
    Manfred was careful just to nod, because he didn’t want to interrupt the flow of Fiji’s thoughts.
    “There’s a bond when you’ve been brought up in the same household together,” she said finally. “Whether you want there to be or not. There are times, growing up, when you get into trouble together. When it’s kids versus parents. I love Kiki, but that love is tempered with . . . a lot of wariness.”
    “Interesting,” was all he could think of to say. After they drove a few more miles, he said, “We have to tell everyone about Francine Owens.”
    “Yeah,” she said, without enthusiasm. “Maybe you could take care of that?”
    Again, Manfred was surprised, and not in a good way. Keeping everyone in town on the same page was a Fiji thing. Something was going on with his friend, something beyond the unexpected arrival of her sister. Cautiously, he said, “There anything you want to talk about?” He half-hoped she’d say there wasn’t.
    “I think having my