She was frozen. Lou, sitting in her car on the road, killed her lights. Just to be sure, she poked the body one more time. Nothing.

She put all the windows down, opened her door and held it open with one foot. Then she gunned the engine, popped the car into gear and shot into the lake. There was hardly a splash as the big Lincoln floated right in. As an afterthought, she unclasped Ivan’s seat belt—if they did find him, he couldn’t be strapped in to the passenger side of the car. She rolled out of the car and made her way slowly toward shore while the Lincoln floated on top of the water.

She stared at it for only a few seconds, then she got in Lou’s car.

“It’s not sinking,” Lou said.

“That’s all right. If someone sees it they’ll think he had an accident. If they find him they’ll think he drowned in whiskey. Let’s just leave, please.”

“But what if it doesn’t sink?” Lou asked.

“There’s nothing we can do! Want me to swim out there and jump on it?”

Lou didn’t answer. She sat there, staring.

“Lou, I swear he was smiling,” Jo said.

Lou gasped. “Look! What’s that? Is that his body?”

“Is there a current?” Jo asked. “There’s no current to pull him away!”

“I bet he was smiling, the bastard.”

“Just hurry and go!” Jo said. “I’d rather not know!”

Lou drove slowly down the road away from Winslett Lake.

Jo showered and they both got into the big bed they shared when their husbands weren’t around. They barely talked, though neither of them slept. They were terrified and shocked by what had happened and there were just little whispers between them. We’re going to hell. No, we’re going to jail on our way to hell. There’s no coming back from this. He was a bad person. But should he have died? I didn’t mean to kill him, just stop him! We meant to sink him, though. It was self-defense. We’re going to hell. I’m so afraid.

They were awake at dawn because they’d never been to sleep. Corky, as usual, was very slow to rise. Of course she had a miserable headache. She didn’t say anything to the women and finally Jo urged the children to the lake so Lou could handle Corky.

“Where’s Ivan?” she finally asked.

“Guess,” Lou said. “We found you out. Did Roy tell you our father is a superior court judge? He has tons of influence and resources. I bet there is no investment property, is there? No company, either? I told Ivan he could have a head start—I’m going to call my father.”

“He wouldn’t leave me!”

“Wouldn’t he?” Louise asked. “It must be difficult to seduce rich women with your girlfriend tagging along. He said to put you on a bus—you’d know where to find him.” Corky looked panicked. “Oh, dear, you’re not sure where he is, are you? Maybe you should call that mobile phone...”

Without another word, the young woman turned and left the kitchen. She was back in less than five minutes with two suitcases. They were mighty big suitcases for such a little girl but Lou didn’t offer to help.

The drive to the bus station was silent and far too long. When Lou got back to the lake house after the best piece of acting she’d ever done, Jo was waiting for her. “What did she say?”

“Not a word. Not even thanks for the ride.”

“God, what if she talks to someone?”

Lou shook her head. “You think she’s going to report him missing?”

“What about Roy?” Jo asked.

Lou’s lips twisted. “I knew he took advantage of us. I knew he tried to lie his way out of messes. But throwing me to that wolf? His own brother’s wife? His own wife’s sister? How low can a man go? The real question is—did you know?”

“You can’t be serious!”

“But I am! Did you know Roy was sending a con man in to strip me of whatever I had? No matter how much Roy does, no matter how bad he is, you not only forgive him, you defend him.”

“Lou, I wouldn’t hurt you.”

“Well, you certainly could,” Lou said. “You’ve got something on me now, something big. You could get back all that stuff from our inheritance you signed away. While I rot in jail.”

Jo looked at her sister with horrible disappointment and anger. “I’d rather starve,” Jo finally said.

Six days later Bunny drowned. Lou was so cold, so angry. She believed she was being punished. “We’ll leave and never come back,” she pronounced.

* * *

The sisters talked till four in the morning, sitting in Lou’s big king-size bed not even acknowledging that this was how they’d been that night. It was that night that everything changed. At some point they both dozed off, then woke before eight because it was in both their natures.

“I hope you got what you wanted,” Louise said. “I have a miserable headache and that summer is all in my head again like it was yesterday.”

“Well, I never got over it, did you?”

“No, of course not. But I managed to not think about it most of the time. After the first couple of years.”

“I want you to know I’m going to talk to Krista about it.”

“Oh, damn, I knew it—you have to make a confession!”

“Sort of. Krista went to prison for killing a man. She had to do it. He was coming at her. But they didn’t really believe her. She paid the debt for herself and for everyone else. I will ask myself until I die if we just lost our minds that night.”

“Do whatever you want, Josephine,” Louise said. “I’m too tired to argue.”

“Krista will keep it in confidence,” Jo said. She started making up the bed out of habit. “God knows I can’t tell Hope. And Beverly just doesn’t deserve that burden—she’s been so happy the last dozen years or so. You should consider telling Charley—see if you can have a conversation with her about why things were the way they were at the time she needed you. Really, think about it. I just wanted you to know what I’m going to do. I don’t want you to be confused—it’s not to punish you. I think you did what you had to do. I think your decision in the one second you had to think about it was the right one. I know you did it to protect me, and believe me, I was in danger.”

“There’s something you never made clear,” Lou said. “Roy. You wouldn’t divorce him. You said he ran off. Did you never hear from him again?”

“Oh, I heard from him. Not very long after. I imagine Corky found him. I was so furious I could barely speak and it’s a wonder he understood my blabbering. I raged at him for putting Ivan on us, to use me and con you. And in our family home. I told him I would never forgive him. He said he was sorry. And asked me to tell the girls he said goodbye.”

“Why in God’s name didn’t you divorce him?”

“I did,” she said, straightening up. “I wasn’t going to let Daddy hunt him down and find out what kind of business he was caught up in. Besides, I wanted to do it myself. It took a while, but I finally pulled the money together.”

“Do you know where he is?”

She shook her head. “I had to place ads to try to locate him before my divorce could be made final but there was never a response. He would be sixty-seven now if he’s alive. With his high-risk behavior, what are the odds?” Jo looked around, plucking the nightgown that she’d borrowed. “Thanks for the loan of a gown. Louise...look at all this stuff. Have you turned into some kind of hoarder?”

“You think I enjoy this? I’ve been saving it.”

“What the hell for?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “For us. For our retirement. For something urgent or otherwise unaffordable.”

“Us?” Jo asked. “What us? We’ve been in a feud for almost thirty years!”

“Yes,” Louise said. “But if something happened to you, who was going to take care of you? One kid chose herself a new family. One moved to Philly to be a princess who never even called home. One was in prison. There was only me.”

Jo put a hand on her hip. “Louise, if you were planning to take care of me in my declining years, why the fuck wouldn’t you talk to me at church?”

“I find that language very offensive,” Lou said. “And I don’t know why. I did my best. Everyone seemed mad at me when I had done my best.”

Jo looked at her and just shook her head wearily. “You giant pain in the ass.”

* * *

Four days after the sinking of the Lincoln, Lou spotted a small piece in the weekly Winslett News. A man had been found wandering the back roads of Winslett disoriented, injured and soaking wet, though he was a few miles from the lake. He was admitted to the hospital with a head injury and amnesia. He couldn’t tell anyone his name. Then he wandered away from the hospital without being released. Anyone knowing the identity of the man was asked to call the local police. They printed a picture.

It was Ivan.

Chapter Fourteen

After several cups of coffee and a long, sobering shower, Jo headed for the hospital. She visited with the girls briefly; they were going to be discharged later in the day and hoped to go home. Frank was unsure if he should go so soon. Leaving the girls to shower and dress, she went with Frank to the hospital cafeteria.

“I’m sorry about the misunderstanding, Jo,” he said. “You should have had more time with the girls.”

“It wasn’t a misunderstanding, Frank,” she said. “Hope left me behind when she was a teenager. She knew what she was doing. She didn’t want me to be their grandmother.”

“It was wrong,” he said.

“I’m not sure she could help herself,” Jo said.

“I have an appointment with the psychiatrist at one o’clock,” he said.

“She’s not your responsibility anymore, Frank.”