It was the first time I found myself in close proximity to Jade’s screams, and I thought my eardrums might explode. Miles pulled her up and ushered her to the door, near where Norton sat. “Nobody move!” I shouted as Bebe, too, struggled to distance herself from Ned’s motionless body. “Stay where you are!”

“Oh my God,” Jade managed through her sobs. “Oh my God, is he dead?”

“Shoot him!” Miles roared, pointing at Flynn. “That man is an animal!”

I dropped to my knees next to Ned and saw that his eyes had rolled back in his head. I found his pulse with two fingers on his neck, thought, Thank you, Jesus, and took a closer look at his wound. “Bebe. Grab those napkins and put pressure on this. Hurry.” I didn’t like how much the cut was bleeding or the slack, gray look of Ned’s skin.

In her too-tight skirt, Bebe knelt awkwardly beside me and pressed the cloth against Ned’s wound. Tim fastened his cuffs around Flynn’s thick wrists and ground his knee into the man’s back. All the while I was acutely aware of the location of every person in that room. It didn’t surprise me when I glanced up and saw Miles’s expression change. I turned my head just in time to see Norton run for the door.

It was what I was counting on.

What I didn’t expect was that he’d take Jade with him.

THIRTY-ONE

The terrain on the west side of the island was rough and steep, but I heard their feet crushing wet twigs down below, so I knew I was on the right course. They were both in their house shoes, while my boots at least had a suggestion of grip. If they made it to the river without fracturing a bone, I thought, they’d be lucky.

I hadn’t considered Norton’s familiarity with the island. While I took the cliff at an angle, picking my way down with only my flashlight to keep me from wrenching an ankle, his movements were nimble and unfaltering, and the path he forged helped Jade to keep pace. They circumvented deadly outcroppings and evaded near-invisible hollows with ease. Twenty years of caring for Tern gave Philip Norton an edge. Camilla may have owned the island, but nobody understood it like he did. Every patch of moss and goose nest, where to find the best views of the river . . . Norton knew it all. This place was his home, and by the time I was halfway down the bluff, I couldn’t hear them at all.

People kill out of jealousy, fear, and hate. They kill because they want what someone else has. More than anything, though, what drove Norton’s actions was love. His love for Tern Island.

I can’t say exactly when I realized he was covering up Jasper’s murder. There were many moments when I thought, I wonder. As keeper of the house Norton had access to everything and excuses for anything—including hiring Billy Bloom and using him as a stooge. If forensics found Norton’s DNA on Jasper’s sheets, he could remind them he made the beds. He could argue his fingerprints were on Jasper’s bedside table because it was he who did the dusting. Nobody would bat an eye if Norton slipped away to get more wood for the fire, or to snatch a thick, rough rope from the shed.