“There are easier ways to kill yourself on an island.”

“And why risk alerting someone to your plan?”

“Unless he wanted her to know,” said Tim. “Who’s to say what kind of relationship they had?”

“Some people are messed up,” I agreed. “But the caretaker said murder.”

“And if they aren’t suggesting suicide, there’s a reason for that.”

“Eight people.” I rubbed my nose, numb now from the cold. “This is going to take some time.”

“We’ll have help,” Tim reminded me as the boat arced left. “We’ll need it. Made it. Whew.”

I didn’t know what Tern Island would look like. I wouldn’t have been able to find it on a map. When it finally emerged from the mist, it was like the peak of a mountain had busted through the water and rumbled skyward.

“Would you look at this place?” Tim said as we tipped back our heads to take it all in. Though he’d seen it a million times before, he was as awestruck as I was.

Tern was all jagged gray rock crowned by a massive Victorian house with a jumble of stories pockmarked by windows of various shapes and sizes. A turret thrust into the sky like a fist. The siding was forest green, as if the house was trying to blend in with the thick trees that surrounded it. As if it could. There was a matching boathouse at the river’s edge, and the entire island was bordered by a high stone wall that might as well have been painted with the words Keep Out. A staircase so steep it was nearly vertical extended from the boathouse all the way to the island’s summit. The house’s foundation was stonework, too.

A nor’easter was no match for this place. No storm was. Someone had invested a fortune in masonry work to make sure Tern Island could withstand anything. But from that house a man was missing, possibly dead. I wasn’t sure the island would withstand that.

TWO

There’s history here—real-life aristocracy. This is where America’s elite come to play.

These words, Carson’s words, swam to the surface of my memory as Tim navigated the boat toward the island’s shore. My fiancé hoped the romance of the place and its extreme wealth would woo me. He wanted to make sure I was on board with the idea of moving here, so he kept trying to convince me, even as I rode next to him in the rental van that contained everything we owned. “It’s peaceful,” Carson said, squeezing my knee and flashing a smile. When I twined my fingers with his he added, “You’ll love it, Shay. People come here to leave their worries behind. We can do the same. You’ll see.”

If only it was that easy. We’d been here a handful of months, he and I, and already I was causing Carson more consternation than I had throughout the whole of our relationship. If he knew what I was about to do, I thought as I craned my neck to see the house atop Tern Island, he might wonder if coming upstate was such a good idea after all.