“I think we can start approaching Twist’s death as a homicide,” Mia said, even if it was a bit reluctant. She’d been slowly watching her chance of getting off the island quickly fade with each interview.

Izzy rocked back on her heels. “Yeah, I think so.” Her eyes narrowed on Mia’s face, then she clicked her tongue and pointed. “It was the plane ticket, huh?”

Among other things. “Yes.”

“Same,” Izzy agreed.

It wasn’t unheard of for someone to make plans for the future and then kill themselves anyway. The thoughts could have been triggered by any number of things. But he’d bought a ticket to San Sebastian. His cabin was messy, as if he’d been stepping out for an evening. There was no suicide note. Those weren’t the actions of a man about to end his life.

In fact, the only thing that made it seem like a suicide was the bullet trajectory. And that could be easily faked.

Beyond that, there was the fact that Earl Bishop was the last man he’d talked to before he’d disappeared. There was the fact that Cash Bishop kept coming up. So did Jimmy Roarke, Earl’s best friend. There was the fact that a lot of people on this island would go a long way to protect the Bishop family.

But that was conjecture.

“Hey, where was Cash that night?” Izzy asked. “Why wasn’t he there with you guys? If the four of you were all buddy-buddy.”

“Says he got in trouble, wasn’t allowed out,” Mia said, knowing her voice lacked conviction.

“You don’t believe him.”

“It’s not out of the realm of possibility. His dad was strict with him.” Mia shrugged. “But we went out the night before—it was our six-month anniversary.” So silly, now that she thought about it. He’d packed a picnic with candles and unbearable sparkling wine that they’d drunk out of red Solo cups. It was hard to fathom that she’d ever been so young, so in love.

“Was he allowed out for a special occasion?” Izzy pressed. “Or does that mean whatever kept him away from the lighthouse happened the day of?”

Mia shook her head. “Earl Bishop didn’t care about our anniversary.”

Izzy was staring at the door where Ellen had disappeared, but it didn’t seem like she was actually looking at it. Her mind was somewhere else. Mia waited.

Finally, Izzy turned to her. “What did he do?”

“He didn’t say,” Mia said slowly, but she was following where Izzy was going. There were only so many things Cash could have gotten up to in daylight hours that would have been bad enough for him to be grounded that night.

“So either something pretty extreme happened or . . .”

Mia swallowed. “Or he’s lying about not being there.”