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in front of the house and studied it in daylight. Richard had kept it up nicely, from the careful paint job to the well-tended lawn. I’d let mine go to weeds, hoping snow would cover the worst offenders at some point, but Richard’s looked like it was ready to green up at the slightest encouragement.
    Maddy looked over at me, then asked, “Are you ready to do this?”
    “No.”
    “We don’t have to, you know,” she said softly.
    “We both know that’s not true, though, don’t we? Let’s go. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and Sheila won’t be home.”
    We walked up the steps, and as we neared the door, I saw that it was ajar.
    “What should we do?” Maddy asked.
    Instead of answering her, I called out, “Sheila, it’s us. Are you there? Is everything all right?”
    I saw that the carpet where Richard had lain was gone, and someone had cleaned up the blood that had spilled around it. Nothing else looked out of place.
    “Hello?” I called out again.
    There was no answer, so I took a step forward.
    “What are you doing?” Maddy asked me. “We can’t just walk in.”
    “We can be bold, or we can be gone. I don’t see any other options,” I said. “She could be in trouble. That’s a two-car garage, so there’s room for her car as well as her brother’s inside. We don’t know she’s not in there, helpless or in trouble.”
    Taking a deep breath, I walked in. To my sister’s credit, she didn’t even hesitate.
    As she stared down at the naked hardwood floor, Maddy asked, “Is this where it happened?”
    “As far as I can tell. There wasn’t a whole lot of light coming in, so I didn’t get a clear look, but that seems to be right.”
    I knew I’d come in looking for clues, but I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the freshly scrubbed floor. The image of Richard Olsen’s body kept superimposing itself on the floor in flashes, no matter how much I willed it to disappear.
    I don’t know how long I stood staring at the spot, but Maddy gave me all the time I needed.
    I was about to suggest that we start looking further into the house when a car drove up and stopped in the street.
    It appeared that someone besides Joanna was keeping tabs on us.
    Chief Hurley got out of his squad car, and from the expression on his face, I prepared myself for the worst.

Chapter 4
    “E leanor, have you completely lost your mind? Do you want me to lock you up?” Chief Hurley asked as he approached us.
    “We’re not doing anything wrong,” I said, though I knew we hadn’t had permission to cross the Olsen threshold. I just hoped he didn’t know that.
    “Breaking and entering is still a crime, in case you hadn’t heard,” he said.
    “The door was open,” Maddy explained.
    “Then that makes it unlawful trespass,” Kevin said. “I can’t believe you’d be this foolish.”
    “Then you really don’t know me all that well at all,” I said. “I’ve done things a lot more foolish than this.”
    Maddy said, “It’s true. Would you like a list?”
    “Spare me your vaudeville act. Do I need to handcuff you both, or will you come with me quietly?”
    I was about to say something I knew I’d regret when Sheila came out of the back of the house, obviously startled to see us all standing there.
    “What’s going on?” she asked, carefully avoiding our glares.
    “Don’t worry, ma’am. I caught these two trespassing. I’m handling it.”
    Sheila said, “How can they be trespassing if I invited them here, Sheriff?”
    “It’s Chief,” Kevin explained automatically. “Are you trying to tell me you knew they were here? Don’t lie; I saw the look on your face when you turned the corner.”
    “I admit I was startled to see you all standing there.” She turned to me and said, “I wasn’t expecting you two until tonight.”
    “We decided to close early today,” I said. “Thanks for having us over.”
    “Why exactly did you invite them here?” Kevin asked, a perfectly legitimate question that