Page 30 of My Wife

That’s right. How could I have forgotten? A gift from his dad right before we came to Halo Island for that fateful seniors’ weekend, Tommy always keeps it in his right hand back pocket.

As if proving my point, he dips his hand into that exact pocket, removing his switchblade. It’s folded, and with a press of the button on the side, the knife springs open. It’s about five inches long from tip to hilt, and while it could do some pretty wicked damage, it’s absolutely pristine.

Does that mean he couldn’t have stabbed Tyler and cleaned it off? No. I don’t know what he did in the bathroom last night when he said he had to pee and changed from his daytime clothes to a pair of sweats and a t-shirt to sleep in. But, holy hell… this isTommy. He couldn’t have killed Tyler.

Summer didn’t.

Madison was with Chase, so they couldn’t have.

Vee’s dead.

And I knowIdidn’t do it.

So what now?

I rub my forehead, trying to make sense of this. Around me, Summer chides Madison for even suggesting Tommy would ever hurt one of us. Too little, too late, in my opinion, but I hear him murmur his appreciation for trusting him. Chase is already in lawyer mode, trying to keep everyone as calm as humanly possible. Like with Vee, he doesn’t want us to touch anything, and I get that.

I also think that’s the least of our concerns right now.

Vee. It all started with Violet Lee’s death. But if hers was an accident, what the hell happened to Tyler?

Could he have stabbed himself? Despite the fact that Summer insists there was no knife, the scene makes it pretty fucking clear what happened: Tyler was asleep when he was stabbed for the first time. He flailed, knocking shit off the nightstand, but he was already dead; he just didn’t know it yet. The added stab wounds were for insurance—or to send a message.

Vee…

I think back to the night at the lake. About how she was so adamant that she saw a stranger in the trees that she had to go searching for him.

Did she find him?

What about Tyler? He found Vee’s body, and was also the only one of us who took her seriously. What did she tell him? What did he know?

Is that why he’s dead now?

Who killed him?

We all have an alibi. It can’t be any of us who did it—and that means only one thing.

And since no one else is saying it, I do.

“Guys, I don’t think we’re alone on the island anymore.”

No one wantsto believe we have some psycho killer on Halo Island with us barely a week before Halloween. It sounds crazy, but after the initial denial dies down, we have to accept the obvious: if we didn’t kill Tyler and he didn’t stab himself to death, someone else must’ve done it.

It all goes back to the lake. Vee thought she saw someone and most of us thought she was full of it. The ferry brought seven of us over. No other ferry will stop here or risk a hell of a fine. Cottonwood Harbor is small. Word would get back if they got caught and they could lose their livelihood. It wasn’t worth it.

Tommy also said that a cleaning crew came out after every visit to spruce up the cabins and reset them for the next set of guests. Those crews were counted—because the new owners were reportedly very serious about not allowing any strays on the island to bother their guests—and it would’ve been impossible for someone to be on Halo Island without someone else knowing about it.

But what other explanation was there?

Right when I could tell that the crew would rather stay in denial than protect ourselves, I made sure to mention that I swore I saw a shadowy figure walking along the shore last night.

It’s a fib. A tiny one. If I actually said the figure was leaving Summer and Tyler’s cabin—that odds are I saw thekiller—I could only imagine Tommy’s overprotective reaction. He’d probably toss me on his back, dive into the Pacific, and swim the fifteen miles back to shore while racing sharks if he knew that.

So I don’t tell him. What would it help? We already know we have a killer. At least, this way, the others know that the killer was close enough he could get to Tyler.

He could get toanyof us.

Tommy did give me a strange look when I did, but instead of acting like I’d probably imagined that, he used that as further proof that we weren’t alone. And though he doesn’t go so far as to suggest we try to outswim a great white shark, he does have a different plan.

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