Page 68 of The Unknown

“What if it was Pete we saw on Susie’s video?” I say.

Ronan’s brow crinkles. “Who’s Pete?”

“The boat guy,” Violet answers.

“He knows we’re here,” I add. “He obviously knows how to get here. He might even know that Loretta and Bradaren’there.”

That part of Loretta’s continued absence has been bothering me. If, God forbid, Brad did die and she was forced to deal with the fallout, she has a phone. She easily could have called someone to come to the island, make sure we’re okay, and take us back to the mainland. Maybe there’s a reason that hasn’t happened yet.

“You think she asked Pete to check on us?” Ronan says.

“Maybe? Perhaps he showed up last night, found us all here stranded, and—”

“Decided to kill Susie?” Heather says.

Ronan runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. “No one is saying she’s dead.”

But it’s what we’re all thinking. What else could have happened to her? We’ve looked everywhere, and there’s no sign she’s still on New Avalon. Yet there’s also no way she could have left on her own. Especially if that video is real. Someone else was there with her. Someone else made her vanish into thin air.

“Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it was Pete,” Violet says. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s crazy?” Ronan suggests.

I didn’t get that vibe from Pete. Grizzled and ornery, yes. But not psychotic. So I tell the others about his grandfather’s role in the story of New Avalon, the mentions of him in the diary, the fact that Daisy was still writing in it the day before he allegedly found all of them missing. Those last five pages torn from the diary suggest more was written—and that whoever took them did so because they were incriminating.

“Maybe his grandfatherwascrazy and killed the original group of women,” I say. “Pete somehow knows he did it, and now he’s worried that, by spending time on New Avalon, we’ll learn the truth.”

I realize it’s a stretch even as I’m saying it. There are so many ways in which it doesn’t make sense, starting with the idea that Pete’s grandfather was some insane thrill killer. Even if he had been, there’s nothing to suggest Pete knew about it and would then try to hide the truth by killing someone else. Especially someone as famous as Susie.

Then there are the logistics to consider, as Violet points out. “We’re at the top of the island. If Pete had come during the night, one of us would have seen or heard his boat approaching.”

“Not in the dark,” Heather says. “Not if its motor and lights were both turned off.”

“Then how wouldtheysee?” I ask.

“Maybe no one came to the island.” Julianne says it, a spooky look inher eyes. A madness resides just behind them, barely kept in check. “Maybe whatever those women summoned a century ago, maybe it’s still here. Maybe it never left.”

“This island is not haunted,” Ronan says. “Every spring and summer, teams of scientists spend weeks here without incident. No one’s ever reported anything supernatural. No one’s been hurt. And no one’s gone missing.”

“Then why is it happening now?” Julianne says. “That séance the other night changed something. This place has felt strange ever since. I know you all feel it.”

I don’t dare mention that I (maybe? possibly?) saw Molly during the night. Especially with Julianne sounding utterly unhinged. The others have already started to tune her out, even though she keeps talking.

“There are too many similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now to ignore. First, there was the séance in which something unexpected took place.”

“Which could have been any number of things,” Heather says, even though it didn’t feel that way then and still doesn’t now.

“But now Susie has disappeared, which is exactly what happens to her character,” Julianne says. “If Azra took Katrina, then maybe they took Susie as well. Why can’t you all just admit that history is repeating itself?”

Seeing no good reason to stay—or to listen to Julianne—Heather starts walking to her cottage. “Because it’s not.”

“It feels like it,” Julianne insists, trailing after her. “Either it’s that or—”

A thought chimes through my skull. Another theory about what might be happening. “Someone is trying to act out Ronan’s script before filming can begin.”

Heather, about to step onto her porch, stops and spins around. “Why would someone do that?”

“I don’t know,” I say with a shrug. “Maybe to derail production?”