“She’s a murderer,” Susan said. “She murders people. She doesn’t need a reason. You talk about her like she has rules. Let’s not forget that she’s a psycho bitch. She made that little tape to prove to you, to all of us, that she can get to you. Anytime she wants. Even on an island crawling with private security guards and cameras mounted everywhere and an FBI surveillance van parked out front. Maybe she wanted to kill someone, and instead of killing you, she killed the first person she came across. It’s called bloodlust. She was horny for it.” Susan’s cheeks were scarlet. “You made her horny. So she murdered Lisa Watson. Maybe she didn’t have time to make it”—she paused and her eyes darkened—“fancy. She didn’t have time to get creative. Maybe she just wasn’t feeling her artistic muse that day. So she just killed her.” Susan looked from Archie to Henry. “In the end it doesn’t matter how she did it, does it? Lisa Watson is still dead.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Archie said. He had put Susan through enough; he didn’t want to argue with her about this.

“What did you do after we watched that tape?” Susan asked evenly. “You called Henry. He dropped everything and came right over. You showed him the footage. And you two have been wringing your hands ever since.”

“So?” Archie said.

“There’s a task force out there hunting Gretchen,” Susan asked. “Why didn’t you call them?”

Archie fumbled for an answer. “I wanted Henry’s take on this first.”

“It’s been forty minutes since we saw proof that she was on that island last night,” Susan said. “That’s forty minutes that the cops trying to catch her won’t have. Maybe she’s long gone by now, I don’t know. But I do know that when you see a deranged escaped criminal, you call the police. So they can start looking. So they can set up roadblocks. So they can warn the public. You don’t call your friend. You don’t sit there like an idiot.” Susan peered at him intently. “You do want her caught, right, Archie?”

Archie looked to Henry for support. Henry’s eyes went from Susan to Archie. He smoothed his mustache and raised his eyebrows at Archie.

Archie sank back in the sofa. “The video is sort of compromising,” he said.

“The serial killer humping your face?” Susan said. “Yeah, I’d say so. But you’re already compromised, if you hadn’t noticed. Now you need to decide what you’re going to do about it.”

“Do you want to make the call, or should I?” Henry asked Archie.

The truth was Archie didn’t think they had a chance of catching Gretchen. She was smarter than all of them. But he wasn’t going to admit it.