Lieutenant Jack O. Henderson folded his hands on his desk and awaited my response. My direct superior’s fingers were thick, his knuckles swollen. They were hands that could crush a windpipe like a straw. I pulled my gaze away from them and looked up.

“I knew there were two people involved in Jasper’s murder,” I said. “Tough to get a grown man’s deadweight out of the house without help. I suspected Norton early on, but narrowing down the others to find his partner was harder. Abella’s death sent me back to the beginning of the day, and my dominant memories of our suspects. In those first minutes I spent on Tern Island, Norton explained how the family searched for Jasper. Flynn, Bebe, and Ned looked in the house. Norton took the grounds, with Miles.

“It was their chance to get their stories straight and confirm their game plan. Norton would point the finger at the trapper. Miles would make a case for Ned. The more suspects, the better—and they had plenty of blameworthy people to choose from. Miles must have thought he hit the jackpot when Flynn came after Abella, and again later on when Ned assaulted me and Flynn went after Ned. They all played right into Miles’s hands. His plan was ambitious on every level, but so much worked in his favor.” The only thing Miles didn’t account for, I thought, was Tim and me.

“After everything I learned about the family’s financial situation and Camilla’s attitude toward Jasper and Norton, I was pretty sure Norton was in the will as the beneficiary of the island. I just didn’t see him stabbing someone. As for Miles, he grated on me. He’d made numerous comments about Bebe’s dubious financial state. At one point Bebe even accused him of marrying her for money. They were through well before Bebe slept with Ned, yet Miles stuck around and even came out to the island for what should have been a family affair. Miles was stalling. Waiting for something. I just didn’t know what.”

I wiped my palms on my pants and was startled by the fine wool twill I found covering my thighs. I’d splurged on a new outfit for my visit to the New York State Police Troop D headquarters, the command center for my county and six others. If ever there was a day when I needed to look professional, this was it.

The BCI lieutenant watched me, unblinking. “You gleaned a lot of information from stories and interactions most people would consider irrelevant.”

“Women’s intuition?” I offered, smiling.

He didn’t laugh.

“There was something else,” I said. “It was obvious Jade had a close relationship with Jasper. The prior day, during cocktail hour, Miles watched Jasper ply his smitten daughter with wine. When I questioned Miles in the kitchen, Jade implied she planned to continue seeing Jasper even after Miles and Bebe divorced. I don’t know any father who’d be cool with his teenage daughter doling out that kind of attention to a twenty-six-year-old man, let alone one related to a wanton soon-to-be ex-wife. But Miles never said a bad word about Jasper. The man exhibited heroic restraint. That didn’t sit right with me. Plus, there was the issue of where he slept.”