“Get behind me,” he whispered to Susan. Susan had just started to get up as the doorknob turned. Archie backed up toward her to get between her and whatever was on the other side of the door. The door creaked opened. Karim and Cooper and two of the buzz cuts stood on the other side. Cooper had a gun leveled at them. Karim held a flashlight. They looked as surprised to see Archie as he was to see them.

“Well,” Karim said in his clipped British accent. “What do we have here?”

“Oh, thank God!” Susan said, brushing whatever had been on the floor off her pants. “You don’t even know what we’ve been through. We need to get out of here, now, before she comes back.”

But Cooper didn’t lower his gun.

Karim swept into the room, and the buzz cuts trotted in after him like trained Rottweilers.

Archie took a step backward, toward Susan. “I don’t think they’re here to rescue us,” Archie said.

Chapter 41

CHAPTER

41

Archie knew it would sound insane, but it was only now that he was realizing how truly insane it sounded.

“Gretchen Lowell is in my basement?” Jack repeated, delighted. He was leaning against the front edge of his office desk, his face flushed with amusement. He had been asleep. His usually neat hair was flattened on one side. The sweatpants, cashmere sweater, and leather slippers he was wearing looked like something that had been chosen hastily. The windows behind him looked out into darkness.

“Yes,” Archie said. He looked at his watch. It was just past four A.M. Gretchen had probably made it off the island by now, and instead of going after her, he was sitting here trying to explain himself to a crime boss. He had cobwebs in his hair, dust and dirt and blood on his clothes, and a three-inch-deep penetrating wound in his abdomen. “We’re wasting time,” Archie said.

But no one moved.

Susan fidgeted in the chair next to him, chewing on her cuticles. Cooper was standing near the wall to Archie’s left, his weapon held loosely at his side, his face impassive. Razor Burn was just behind Susan, arms crossed, his eyes on his boss. Archie twisted around to look at Karim, wincing as his wound stung. Karim was perched on the gold-striped settee in the center of the room, reading a copy of Town & Country magazine, seemingly unaware that Archie had spoken at all.