Cooper produced a cell phone and lifted it to his ear. He said something into it, but Susan couldn’t make it out. She was too far away. She took a few uneasy steps toward him across the stone patio, but by the time she was close enough to hear, he had already put the cell phone back in his pocket.

He didn’t say anything. She hated that. He made her ask.

“Now what?” she asked.

“Want to skinny-dip?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

He shrugged. “Then I guess we wait.”

“I know Archie Sheridan,” Susan said. “He’s a personal friend of mine. He’s caught serial killers. So he could catch you guys, if something happened to me. I’ve called him and told him I’m here.”

Cooper crossed his arms and gave her an amused look. “Have you, really?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you check and see if he’s called back?” Cooper said. He gave her a nod. “Go ahead. We have a minute. Check. You might have a voice mail.”

Susan tucked the bejeweled mask under her arm, and got her phone out of her evening bag and checked it. No voice mails. She scrolled through her texts to see if Leo had gotten back to her, but saw only red exclamation marks next to the texts she had sent him. She tried to hide her growing alarm. None of them had gone through.

“The elder Mr. Reynolds is not a fan of cell phones,” Cooper said. “He finds them rude. If you ask me, he’s fighting a losing battle, but he’s the boss, right? He’s had cell phone blockers installed. You can’t get reception anywhere on the island.”

He held up the cell phone he had been talking on and Susan realized that it wasn’t a cell phone at all—it was a walkie-talkie.

She was on an island with a bunch of masked criminals and no way to call for help. The lake was very black and very cold and the lights on the other side were very far away. The gravity of the situation was dawning on her. “I shouldn’t have come, should I?” she asked.

Cooper’s face looked grave in the lamplight.