His & Hers

Anna Andrews, a BBC news anchor, leaves for work on her birthday, bringing cupcakes to her colleagues. As she walks to work, she thinks about her alcoholism, her family’s poverty, and her current dream job. Anna landed the job when the original anchor, Cat Jones, went into labor, and her contract has been consistently renewed for the last two years, helped by the fact that Cat Jones had a second child. She expects another renewal soon.

After that day’s program, Anna discovers that Cat Jones will return to work the next day. Anna is relegated back to the correspondent’s desk, and her boss provides her with a new contract indicating so.

Looking at Cat accompanied by her two daughters, Anna wishes the woman were dead.

A text message wakes up Detective Chief Inspector Jack Harper. He’s thrilled to learn about a murder because his job as head of the Major Crime Team in a quiet village has been dull.

Detective Sergeant Priya Patel is already there, eager to please Jack despite his brusque treatment. The victim, an attractive woman in her late thirties, has been stabbed multiple times in the chest. The word “two-faced” is painted on her nails, and something is in her mouth. Jack realizes he knows the victim (later identified as Rachel Hopkins) and was with her the night before.

Anna’s memory returns slowly as she wakes. She recalls Cat’s return and calling her mother afterward. The phone rings, and her boss asks her to come in. Cat has yet to arrive, and no one can reach her. However, when Anna arrives, Cat is there, merely late. At Cat’s suggestion, the news director sends Anna to cover the murder in Blackdown. Maneuvered, Anna accepts the assignment even though she hates the idea of returning to Blackdown.

Mrs. Andrews reflects that killing Rachel was easy. She remembers watching the woman arrive back in Blackdown by the train and drive off in her Audi, a car Rachel had charged to the accounts of the charity she ran. She followed Rachel, shutting her eyes as Jack and Rachel had sex. Savoring the fear in the other woman’s expression, she killed Rachel shortly thereafter.

Jack thinks about his sexual relationship with Rachel. He always felt as though she was out of his league and craved her like a drug. In the present, he dodges calls from his boss, who wants an update, and learns that the techs have found a boot print in the mud. Wishing he’d never come back to Blackdown, he decides that his best course of action is to say nothing, do his job, and prove someone else was the murderer.

Anna drives to Blackdown and discovers her cameraman will be Richard Jones, with whom she had an affair while both were married. Jack shuts them down when they try to film, and Richard suggests they get his name to complain. Anna identifies him and admits that they’ve “met before.” She doesn’t yet disclose that they used to be married.

Jack regrets his careless appearance now that he has to deal with being on TV and seeing Anna again. He sees Anna briefly talking with Priya. When Priya joins him, they discuss the victim, but Jack never identifies Rachel. He also briefly addresses the press in the parking lot, giving them few details. Anna asks about the object in the woman’s mouth. He doesn’t respond but wonders how Anna knew about it.

Anna calls in to report, insisting that she knows it’s a murder, but the director requires proof. Jack suggests that she not report this story and implies that Anna knew the victim. The exchange grows acrimonious, and Anna cries after he walks away. She admits to Richard that Jack is her ex-husband.

Jack believes Anna knows more than she’s telling. Watching her interact with Richard, he instinctively dislikes and distrusts the man. Priya admits that she told Anna about the object in the victim’s mouth.

Mrs. Andrews has trouble sleeping but not because of remorse over killing Rachel. She believes many would consider the murder justified if they knew the truth about Rachel’s character. She contrasts it to the other time she killed, and the victim was someone whom she loved deeply.

Anna goes to her mother’s house for the first time in an extended period. Anna didn’t go home for the holidays. She spent Christmas drinking, taking pills, and sleeping. Afterward, she felt capable of continuing with life, so she decided not to die by suicide, her “plan B.” No one answers her knock, so she retrieves the key from under the mat and lets herself into her mother’s house.

Jack tails Anna to her mother’s. Hungry, he opens his glove box and finds Rachel’s underwear and a Tic Tac box holding Rachel’s fingernail clippings.

Anna can barely navigate the mess in her mother’s house, which always used to be spotless since her mother was a professional house cleaner. Boxes everywhere indicate that her mother has been packing up the house. She sees her mother sleeping in an armchair but mistakes her for dead. She screams.

Jack looks through the windows of Anna’s car and sees a pay-and-display ticket from the parking lot where he spoke to the press, but it is stamped with yesterday’s date. Then he hears Anna scream.

Anna’s mother wakes up. Relieved that her mother isn’t dead, Anna is still horrified at the state of both her and the house.

The first of Anna’s extended recollections is a memory from when she was 15 and her father disappeared. She remembers walking home, resentful, when her mother failed to pick her up from the fancy private school, only to discover her mother had been beaten. She tried to call the police or some neighbors, but her mother refused, ripping the phone from the wall. Anna demanded to know why she couldn’t at least call her father. Her mother responded that he’s the person who put her in this state. 

Though Anna doesn’t know it, this memory is from the hours just after her mother murdered her father.

After he hears Anna scream, Jack approaches the back of the house, stopping when he hears the sounds of the women talking. He returns to his car.

Staring about the house, Anna wonders how her mother tolerates the mess. Her mother worked hard to give her everything, and presentation was always important to her. Jack tried to let her know that her mother had deteriorated, but Anna dismissed his messages as an attempt to get back in touch. 

Her mother is drinking heavily and claims to have dementia. Mrs. Andrews mentions her intention to move into a nearby care facility and encourages Anna to look through her old things to see if she wants any of them. Anna notes that her room is still spotless and looks like it used to.

Anna finds a red-and-white friendship bracelet and a picture of five 15-year-old girls, including her. She puts the bracelet on and slips the photograph into her pocket. Something about the fireplace catches her eye, and she remembers the last time she used it. (The reader later learns that Anna used it to burn a suicide note after deciding not to go through with it.) Mrs. Andrew comes upstairs and appears not to recognize Anna, insisting that her daughter is only 15 and that the adult Anna leave.

Jack waits, knowing that visiting Mrs. Andrews will be difficult for Anna. Angry at his interference in her mother’s affairs, Anna confronts him. Jack reveals that Mrs. Andrews asked him for help, and he now has power of attorney. During the fight, Anna denies coming to Blackdown the day before as the parking lot ticket indicates, and Jack, against his better judgment, tells her that the victim is Rachel.

After Jack leaves, Anna looks down at the picture she found earlier, which also features Rachel. She wishes they had never met.

The next memory Anna shares is when she left her private school after her father’s death. The headmistress called her into the office to tell her that her fees were still unpaid. She also asked about the state of Anna’s home life. Anna lied, claiming that everything was fine.

Jack heads to the mortuary and meets Priya and the forensic pathologist in the room with Rachel’s body. He learns that Rachel lied to him about being divorced. She lived with her 82-year-old, bed-bound husband. Inside her mouth, the pathologist found a red-and-white friendship bracelet (identical to Anna’s) tied around her tongue.

Anna remembers walking home from school the day the headmistress told Anna her school fees hadn’t been paid. When she arrived home, she found people removing their possessions. Her mother, who had to sell nearly everything, told Anna she would have to find a new school. She accused her mother of ruining her life.

Anna decides to break the story of Rachel’s identity and calls Richard to arrange a live report for the noon show. Jack yells at her after the segment for releasing Rachel’s name. He again asks why Anna was in Blackdown the day before, but they discover that the parking lot ticket machine is broken and printing tickets with the wrong date. 

Anna asks after Zoe, the woman with whom Jack lives and another former school friend. Jack wonders why Anna acts as if Jack left her for Zoe and her daughter, who are his sister and niece, respectively. He notices Anna’s friendship bracelet and asks when she last saw Rachel. Anna claims not to have seen her since school, but she inwardly admits to watching her get off a train the day before.

Jack and Priya both work late, and he suspects her of flirting with him. On his way home, he stops in the parking lot of the school Anna, Rachel, and his sister attended and smokes a cigarette. He wishes to hear Rachel’s voice one more time and dials her phone number. He hears a phone ring from his trunk. There he finds both Rachel’s phone and her missing shoes.

Mrs. Andrews watches the coverage of the crime on television. As a child, she had an imaginary friend called Harry she blamed for her mistakes. She uses him as an example of her capacity for self-deception because after blaming Harry long enough, she would start to believe him to be guilty. She can sometimes trick herself into believing she didn’t kill Rachel.

She doesn’t want to get caught and doesn’t think of herself as a real killer because she considers her murders “public service.”

Anna spends the rest of her day doing interviews for various networks and thinking about Jack. The network pays for her and Richard to stay at a hotel overnight. They drink together in the bar, and Anna asks if he’d like another drink in her room. He rejects her, reminding her that he’s married and claiming that having kids changed things. She goes to her room alone and drinks heavily. 

Anna reflects that not long ago, Rachel called her and then showed up at her work, demanding that Anna host an event to help her charity. She hinted at blackmail material, but Anna still said no. In the present, she takes a shower and comes out to find that her empty bottles and wrappers have been put in the trash and the bed covers are pulled back, which surprises her since the hotel doesn’t have a turn-down service.

Jack returns home to a dark house and finds Zoe watching Anna on the news. Zoe questions why he didn’t inform her about her best friend’s murder, and he reminds her that Rachel and Zoe haven’t been friends for a long time. Zoe reveals that she knows about his affair, and they listen to a message Rachel left around midnight. It seems that she called for assistance with a flat tire after their rendezvous. Zoe asks if he killed Rachel; he denies killing her but admits to meeting her. Alone, Jack breaks down, hurt by his sister’s mistrust.