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wondered.
    It had a few more stages to go.
    The second Cassandra raised her right hand. The first one raised hers, the movement a duplicate.
    With a repressed smile, the second suddenly produced a scarlet handkerchief from the air—a minor “appearance”; sleeve concealment.
    The first Cassandra stared at her. The second chuckled, on the verge of triumph.
    At which the first, with a duplicate chuckle, produced the same scarlet handkerchief.
    The second threw her head back with a startled laugh. So did the first.
    Impasse, the twins regarding one another.
    Until the second Cassandra tossed her handkerchief into the air.
    As did the first.
    The second, though, grabbed at hers abruptly as it fell, causing it to vanish.
    Despite her efforts to do likewise, the first Cassandra wasunable to prevent her handkerchief from fluttering to the floor.
    The second made a sound of victory and pointed at the first—who made a sound which might have been translated as,
“Oh, well, you can’t win them all.”
    The second clearly examined the first. “Not bad,” she allowed.
    “Damn perfect,” said the first, still with Cassandra’s voice.
    The smile of the second Cassandra disappeared. “Are you sure he’s still out walking?” she demanded.
    “Would I be doing this if he weren’t?” asked the first, now in his own voice.
    “Well, we can’t take any risks,” Cassandra told him disapprovingly. “You’d better go upstairs and change.”
    By now, a chill had begun to settle in my stomach as I stared at them.
    What are they up to?
    “I have to set it up first,” Brian was saying, gesturing vaguely toward the room.
    Cassandra frowned. “You should have done that earlier,” she said.
    “With all I had to do?”
he answered; again, the coldness in my vitals.
    Cassandra grimaced with impatience. “Well, get it over with, but
fast,”
she ordered him.
    She started to turn away when Brian grabbed her arm, restraining her. Cassandra looked around in irritation. “What?”
    “You’re determined to do this?” Brian asked.
    Now I really felt disturbed.
    “Brian, we have gone through this already—
endlessly.”
Her tone was coldly critical, making it obvious that whatever was going on, it was her idea, not his. “Now come
on,
”she said. “You have to get out of here.” She looked around uncomfortably. “Harry could get here any moment.”
    “All right.” He looked at her, a distressed Cassandra appraising her calmer twin.
    Seeing this, Cassandra put her hands on his arms and smiled with reassurance. “Brian.
Darling,”
she said. “It’s going to be all right. Fear not!”
    He did not respond, and
she
looked concerned now. “I can depend on you, can’t I?” she asked.
    His look and voice were gravity itself.
    “Haven’t you always?” he said.
    She squeezed his arms. “Get
on
with it then,” she told him.
    She turned and moved to the doorway, shoe heels clicking on the oak floor.
    There she turned. “And if you hear Harry’s car drive up, or the doorbell rings, for God’s sake, get upstairs right away.”
    “All
right,”
he said. He sounded almost angry now. It was the most he could manage with his sister. Anger, he could not permit himself.
    He loved her too much.
    Before she left, Cassandra did something which intensified the chill inside me.
    She looked at me directly—something she never did—and stuck out her tongue. A childish gesture which dismayed me far more than a scowl or a snarl might have done.
    “Why don’t you leave him alone?” Brian said.
    She didn’t reply, only gave him a look.
    Then she was gone, and Brian was picking up his fallen handkerchief and moving to the fireplace. As Max’s assistant, he was expected to complete the preparation of the room. No detail could be overlooked.
    The feeling of gratitude I had for Brian’s sympathy wasundone by the coldly venomous look he gave to Max’s replica as he passed the upright casket.
    Cassandra and he had some dark plan with