“He was playing freaking Columbo, I swear to God.” Izzy shook her head. “Robert couldn’t make a trip to the island until December, and Peter was worried the evidence would get destroyed by then. By Lacey, obviously.”

“It would be hard to break a serial killer story without any proof.”

“Right.” Izzy nodded, acknowledging the truth of that. “But this time Peter wasn’t so lucky.”

“Handed to her on a silver platter.” Mia sighed. “Jesus, she didn’t even have to work for that one.”

“Nope,” Izzy agreed. “She held him for a bit, probably trying to decide what to do. I think the torture thing is new for her. There were two other deaths marked down in the notebook that we didn’t know about from her time on the mainland, but from a quick glance at the files, those women hadn’t been kidnapped like Peter.”

“She was escalating, then.”

“Seems like,” Izzy said. “Especially with the state Robert was in, for how short of a time he was held.”

“Peter was her trigger.” Mia met Izzy’s eyes from across the room. They both knew the implications of that, what would have happened if Lacey had been left unchecked. She had never been violent quite like that before, but then had tortured two victims in the span of a few months. How many more would have died if they hadn’t stopped her?

“So Robert starts getting worried,” Izzy continued. “He hadn’t heard from Peter in a while, but also sometimes the guy would get flaky like that, so he’s not ready to call in the cops quite yet.”

Mia smiled, but it was small and tired. “I think you’re right about that book deal. He’ll probably still get one.”

“I’m still thinking of charges for him,” Izzy muttered, and Mia shook her head.

“He was in intense pain,” Mia said. “Turning on me was the only out he saw.”

Izzy grumbled but dropped it. “Robert goes to the island, makes a big show about writing the isolation-suicide article. He figures it will make good B matter in the serial killer story anyway.”

“Lacey figures everything out,” Mia filled in.

“Yup. He seems to have thought he could withstand her persuasion, so he actively sought her out to talk to.” Izzy shook her head. “Then what followed was what you’d expect. Lacey kidnaps Robert, gets Peter to eat a gun, and then lobs him off the cliff.”

“It was a risk, having Peter identified as Robert,” Mia said.

It did seem like one, an unnecessary risk at that. So many things had gone wrong. But then Izzy thought about the way Lacey had smiled when she’d thought her plan was coming together. “Did she tell you why she did it?”