Mary leaned back. “It means the killer is watching. They seem to like what they see.”
A chill moved through the room. No one spoke again.
By late afternoon, the plaza felt like a pressure cooker. Interviews became rumor, rumors became spectacle. When Hale and Vega emerged from the council chambers, the crowd surged, desperate for answers they weren’t getting.
A deputy lifted his hands. “Back up!”
“Where were you the night Candy died, Torie?” someone shouted.
“Where were you, Leo?” she fired back. “Playing pool with excuses.”
Tosh stepped up. “Everyone needs to chill.”
“Don’t you dare tell me to chill,” Torie shot back. “You lied about Candy. You always lie.”
“Not about this.”
“Liar,” she spat. “You were with her on the same days you were with me.”
“You spent time with her, too,” Cass said.
Torie spun. “Itriedbeing her friend. It didn’t work.”
Harmony stepped forward. “Candy was scared. She told me she felt watched.”
Mary’s gaze cut to Harmony. “She was probably scared of you.”
Harmony didn’t blink. “She said she was scared of someone whoenjoys the view.”
Hale stepped closer. “We’ve heard a lot about your notes.”
“I take notes. That’s not a crime,” Harmony said, losing some of her composure.
“Yeah, you’re innocent. All you do isobserve,” Mary said, emphasizing the last word.
Hale watched her, unreadable. “Observers sometimes nudge the scene. They push people into roles they don’t realize they’re playing.”
Harmony’s laugh was brittle. “Sometimes scenes beg to be nudged.”
“Did younudgeCandy, Lisa, and Heidi?” Hale asked.
Hale watched her like someone who knew a performance when she saw one, and was simply waiting for the mask to slip.
Harmony’s gaze was steady. “I don’t kill my characters, Detective. I let them reveal themselves.”
A commotion broke out on the far side of the plaza.
“Janie’s gone,” a woman from boutique row cried. “She’s been gone for three days, which isn’t like her. I just found her purse with her phone in it.”
The crowd shifted and quieted. Was there another murder?
“Lock this island down,” Hale demanded. “Nobody leaves. I want eyes on the harbor, the heliport, and the back roads right now!”
Deputy Ciscel was already moving before she finished the sentence, jaw tight, eyes scanning the hills like he expected the island itself to answer.
“If anyone has seen Janie in the past forty-eight hours, I want them to speak up now.” Vega looked around. No one spoke.
Mary was already moving, her gaze narrowing. “She could be the killer. Maybe she’s on the run, and she left her things so people would think she’s dead.”
