Ronin’s shoulders sagged and he scratched at a ruddy patch on his cheek. “Lisa,” he said. “Said she grew up here. Said she graduated from Lake Oswego High. Said she’d always wanted to get on the island.” He leaned forward a little and lowered his voice. “But if you ask me, I think she was just interested in hooking up with someone important. Some girls? You can smell their desperation.”

“I paid to have the list vetted,” Jack said, shaking his head in disgust. “I paid for the headsets, the earpieces. And you let her in because she batted her eyelashes at you?” He looked down at Karim. “Did you know about this?”

Karim returned his cup soundlessly to its saucer. “No,” he said.

Archie studied Ronin. Ronin wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, and yet he’d managed to gather a lot about the victim from a very brief encounter. Archie wasn’t convinced that Ronin’s powers of observation were that potent.

“You’d met her before last night,” Archie said.

Ronin’s mouth twitched. “Outside the grocery store, in town,” he said. “We talked a little. She was a flirt. I told her I was in town for a job on the island. She said that thing about always wanting to see the place.”

Archie felt a stab of pain, as a father. “You invited her to the party,” he said, shaking his head.

Ronin drew his head back defensively. “Hey, I didn’t think she’d show up.”

“And when she did?” Archie asked.

“I had a job to do,” Ronin said, glancing at Karim. “She thought it was some kind of date.” He grunted and flashed a world-class asshole smirk. “That little bitch was lucky she got into the party at all.”

Archie could imagine Ronin’s surprise when the girl he’d talked up in town had shown up in her pretty dress, flush with excitement at the prospective evening. She would have wanted to avoid the humiliation of him sending her away. She would have seen the dazzling guests streaming up the path, the torches lighting their way, seen the tuxedos, the magical landscape, the Tudor mansion, straight from a storybook. It was the kind of party little girls dreamed of. At that point, she would have done anything to get past the metaphorical velvet rope. Archie had seen enough to know what that meant. “You made her pay for her ticket, though, didn’t you?” Archie asked Ronin.

Ronin stabbed at some eggs with his fork. Without a commander to order him in no uncertain terms to reveal what he knew, he’d hem and haw all day about this. Men like him were incapable of taking responsibility unless someone with more power told them to. Archie had to force the situation. He put his hand on Ronin’s shoulder and gripped it hard. “What did you do?” Archie demanded.

The room went still and silent.