But the video didn’t have any sound. It had been Susan’s gasp.

Gretchen lifted her head and gazed at the camera with a serene smile. Then she stood up, and let the dress fall around her legs as she stepped away from Archie’s body, leaving him unconscious on the ground.

Archie heard Susan moving away from the kitchen bar, stumbling backward. He couldn’t move, couldn’t turn his head after her. He stared at the screen, the impact of what he was seeing too overwhelming for him to respond.

Susan gasped again, although now Archie recognized the sound for what it was—a retch.

He closed his eyes, blocking it all out. This wasn’t happening.

“I’m going to throw up,” Susan said.

Chapter 31

CHAPTER

31

Henry was pacing. His broad face was tense, jaw muscles bulging, his cheeks flushed. Archie sat on the couch, his legs and arms crossed, wishing he could be somewhere else. Susan sat curled up on the opposite end. The space between them felt impenetrable.

Their laptops, in contrast, sat snugly next to each other on the kitchen bar—Susan’s sleek silver Mac, covered in old stickers, and Archie’s stoic department-issue black PC. The image on Archie’s laptop screen was paused at the point where Gretchen had left the frame and Archie’s body lay prone on the ground. Henry had watched the footage when he’d arrived, while Archie and Susan sat on the couch not talking. Susan’s green eyes were wide and her lips were half their normal size. She sat cross-legged, her yellow sneakers on the couch, her arms around a red throw pillow she’d pulled onto her lap. She had worried a loose thread at the corner of the pillow until it had formed a puddle of string in her palm, and the pillow’s piping had come completely off one side. Archie had liked that pillow, but he hadn’t asked her to stop.

Henry stopped pacing and turned to Archie. “Are you sure it’s her?” Henry asked.

Archie gave him a tired look.

Henry lowered his head and returned to pacing. “Okay, it’s her.” He glanced back at Archie. “I guess we know where that hair came from.”

“She was on the island,” Archie said. He’d known it. He’d said as much to Henry, but he decided that now might not be a good I-told-you-so moment.

Henry put his hands together. “We have all the video files?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Archie said. “I think so.” He tried to catch Susan’s eye, but she remained focused on deconstructing his throw pillow.

“We’ll get Ngyun to review them all,” Henry said. “See if she appears on any of the others. See if there’s any footage of Lisa Watson in there, while we’re at it.”