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“In your father’s sketches, he had ones of him and Collin, as boys, exchanging toy cars. But that’s not the same. They were in different places, but the same time. You were in the same place, but different times.”

“If I could bring this back, doesn’t it mean I could bring something else back?”

“Like the rings.”

“Yes, yes! Like the rings. Somehow get them from her, or get there before she takes them. I don’t know. But I think I felt compelled to try to pick this up off the floor because I needed to see I could. I had to go through at that time so I could see what happened.”

“We know why Patricia closed the manor, refused to go back into it.”

“The thing is, Dobbs didn’t see me. She did before, even spoke to me when Marianne died. Knocked me on my ass when I tried to get to Lisbeth in the ballroom.”

“More than that. Yeah, you were awake when you went through with Owen, but you hadn’t been. And every other time, you haven’t been aware.”

Puzzling it out brought a light throb to her temple. Rubbing at it, Sonya puzzled more. “So maybe deliberate—awake, aware the whole time. I don’t know. It’s a lot to think about. But I have this.”

She looked down at the compact, ran her hand over the raised design in the gold. “And we know Dobbs scared off Patricia from moving into the manor. From having her wedding reception here, from being mistress of the manor.”

She turned the compact so the sunlight caught the gold and the raised Art Deco design on the top. “It is beautiful. I’m taking it with me when I go to see Gretta Poole. I’m going to call the memory center and make arrangements.”

“I’m going with you. I’m not taking no this time,” Cleo insisted. “I really don’t think you should make the trip alone. Look, I doubt they’ll give you much time with her. If it’s an hour, I’ll be surprised. Yoda and Pye will be fine while we’re gone.”

“Okay, all right, I just hate taking you away from your work when you’re close to finishing.”

“I’m going to be done in a day or two, ahead of deadline, so taking a morning or afternoon off is fine. And I hope it’s afternoon.”

“I’ll go up and call now. And you need your coffee.”

“All this gave me a wake-up jolt that beats the hell out of coffee. But I still want it. Oh! Look!”

Cleo pointed out to sea where a whale sounded.

“That’s never going to be aSo whatfor me. And I’m taking it as a sign,” Sonya decided. “A good omen.”

“Now you sound like me.”

After its strange start, the rest of the day ran smooth. So smoothly, Sonya worked past her usual hour, and only surfaced when Yoda raced downstairs barking his greeting.

“I was going to change.” But the clock told her she’d missed that opportunity. “Oh well.”

She saved her work, shut down.

Clover played “It’s Raining Men,” and made her laugh.

“Fun, but it should be only two of them.”

As she went down, it occurred to her she hadn’t heard anyone come in. Since Yoda didn’t sit, wagging, by the front door, she assumed Trey or Owen or both of them went around back for the dogs.

She found Cleo in the kitchen. “You’re already cooking. I got caught up.”

“Under control. Main’s in the oven, and I’m going to mash these potatoes, do some peas—but not the mushy kind. I let Yoda and Pye out because I saw Mookie there. Trey didn’t come in?”

“Not yet.” Curious, she walked to the door herself. When she opened it, she squealed and ran out.

“What? What is it?” Cleo followed after her.

“Yoda’s house!”

She watched Trey and Owen, and the ever-obliging John Dee, muscle it around the corner.