Unless Jasper’s not around to take it. “You should have told me this hours ago,” I said through gritted teeth. Ned Yeboah had been sitting on the motive that explained almost everything, and he’d done it because he didn’t want to upset his lover. But it wasn’t Ned who was causing anger to thrum in my veins. This was the missing piece I’d been hunting for. I’d interrogated everyone else on Tern Island. I should have managed to expose this critical data point long ago.

“If Bebe’s involved in Jasper’s disappearance, you can’t protect her,” I said. “She—”

“Protect her?” Ned’s laugh was chilling. “I’m not protecting that bitch. She used me to make herself feel young. Begged me to tell her how sexy she is.” He said it with revulsion. “Don’t you see? Bebe’s my way out. I made the worst mistake of my life getting together with Flynn, and he refuses to accept it’s over. He texts me in the middle of the night freaking about some picture of me and a friend he saw on Instagram. Two weeks ago he followed me to my parents’ place and yelled up at my window like a fucking psychopath. Those two can go to hell together, for all I care—and I swear, if they did something to Jasper? I’ll send them there myself.”

NINETEEN

The case came down to money: Jasper had it, and his siblings needed it. At least, that’s what Ned wanted me to believe. He’d taken his time with the big reveal, and I was uncomfortable with that, but numerous aspects of his story rang true. Between the delicate state of Camilla’s health and Jasper’s forthcoming engagement, what remained of the Sinclair family fortune was about to be redistributed, and Flynn and Bebe didn’t stand to profit. If they hoped to save the business, they needed another influx of funds. It was now or never. Their last chance to make a change.

It was a believable motive, but did Jasper’s siblings really have it in them to kill their kid brother? I didn’t subscribe to Tim’s utopian ideals—there are bad people everywhere, an island paradise included—but this was an especially heinous crime, one that took grit and a heart cold as a river stone. To pull it off, Flynn and Bebe had to work together. But Bebe was sleeping with Ned, and I had a hunch she didn’t know she was being used. The idea of her partnering up with her brother boggled my mind, as did the notion that Flynn could control his anger long enough to tiptoe while butchering the man he loathed in a full house in the dead of night.

Alone in the library, I took a minute to text Tim the latest news: another witness statement, another motive, this time supported by physical assault. I recapped everything Ned had said. Tim was my investigator, but it was my idea to drag him out here, and I owed it to him to keep him informed. Still, I made a point of leaving out the incident with the gun.