Holly

Holly arrives at her mother’s home. She once again goes over the events leading up to her inheritance. Holly met detective Bill Hodges at the funeral of Elizabeth Wharton, Janey’s mother. Bill treated her with kindness and respect despite her emotionally unstable state. He gave her the confidence to “be her own person” (137) despite her family’s doubts. After Brady Hartsfield killed Janey, Holly worked with Bill to catch him.

When Bill died of pancreatic cancer in 2016, he left Holly his investigative agency. Shortly after Bill died, Charlotte called Holly to tell her that Daniel Hailey had absconded with the money, including Holly’s trust fund. Now, Holly realizes that this lie was a ploy to get her to give up her newfound independence and leave the agency.

The estate lawyer Emerson arrives with a witness and notary, and they enter the house. Looking around, Holly hears her mother’s voice in her head, constantly reminding her about unfinished household chores. She signs a stack of papers. Emerson shows her itemized photos of Charlotte’s extensive jewelry collection, which she kept hidden from Holly.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, Holly recalls how her mother barred her from attending the state university by claiming that she was too fragile. Instead, Holly attended community college and worked at a local real estate company. When her boss sexually harassed her, Charlotte told her to ignore it because “what cannot be cured must be endured” (144). As a result, Holly suffered a mental breakdown and defaced his office, resulting in her being sent to a mental health facility.

Holly enters her mother’s bedroom. In Charlotte’s bedside drawer, she finds poems Holly wrote as a teenager. Holly is overwhelmed with emotion at the thought of her mother keeping these poems for so many years. On her way out of the house, she gathers her mother’s prized ceramic figurines and throws them into the fireplace, where they shatter. Then she drives toward Upsala Village.

Barbara asks Emily to introduce her to the poet Olivia Kingsbury, who is Emily’s former colleague at Bell. Barbara is a budding poet and is seeking mentorship for her writing. Privately, Emily resents Olivia for not attending last year’s Christmas party. She asks for one of Barbara’s poems to read. Barbara selects one called “Faces Change,” written about her experience with a shapeshifting entity in King’s novella If It Bleeds (2020).

Emily is impressed by the poem. She asks if it is about Barbara’s experiences as a Black woman, which Barbara denies. Emily offers to mentor Barbara herself if Olivia isn’t interested. As she watches her leave, Emily thinks to herself that Barbara is “indecently talented for someone so young” (159) and calls Barbara a racist slur in her mind. Emily knows this thought would ruin her reputation if spoken aloud; she dismisses it as a part of her upbringing during a time when racism was commonplace.

Holly arrives in Upsala and meets Keisha at the Kannonsionni Campground. Keisha tears up talking about how Bonnie seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. She describes Penny’s controlling parenting style but emphasizes that the two still loved each other deeply. Keisha is sure Bonnie wouldn’t run away, and suspects that she was killed after her abduction.

Though Keisha is glad Bonnie’s disappearance is being investigated, she laments that Black victims aren’t given the same level of care, citing Maleek Dutton and someone named Ellen Craslow. Ellen was around 28 years old and worked as a janitor at Bell College. A transplant from Georgia, Ellen kept mostly to herself. She seemed to enjoy her quiet life working at the school and living in the local trailer park on the edge of Lowtown. Keisha was on friendly terms with her, but when Ellen stopped showing up for work one day, she didn’t look for her. Everyone assumed Ellen moved away.

Holly checks into a Days Inn for the night and calls Barbara (whom she knows from If It Bleeds), then Pete, asking each for assistance in digging up information on Ellen. As she gets ready for bed, she is suddenly struck by a new idea. Holly calls Keisha and confirms that Ellen, like Pete and Bonnie, didn’t have a car.

Barbara nervously enters Olivia’s house, finding her frail but good-natured. Olivia introduces Barbara to her home aide, Marie Duchamp. Barbara gives Olivia several poems to read. Olivia is impressed by Barbara’s precocious talent but points out a clunky correction suggested by Emily.

Olivia tactfully advises Barbara to stay away from the Harrises. She characterizes Rodney as mentally unstable; when he worked at Bell, he was known for his obsession with meat, once teaching a class called “Meat Is Life” (185). She also warns Barbara against further contact with Emily, who will be a negative influence on Barbara’s gift for writing. At the end of their visit, Olivia offers to mentor Barbara three days out of the week.

Holly dreams she enters her office at Finders Keepers to find the room completely bare and Charlotte standing at the window. Charlotte says, “now you can come home” (189). On waking up, Holly reviews the security footage from the Jet Mart again. This time, she notices a van with a dark blue stripe driving past the store. She forwards the video to Jerome and Pete, then heads back to the city and pulls up at the purported address of Tom Higgins, Bonnie’s ex-boyfriend. The address is a fraternity house near Bell. There, a man named Randy Holsten reports that Tom took off for Vegas, leaving $500 in outstanding rent.

Tom calls Holly from Vegas. When she asks him about Bonnie’s whereabouts, Tom says that he dumped her the previous year. He claims that Penny hated Bonnie and that she probably ran away to escape her domineering mother. Returning home, Holly locates several people with the last name Craslow on Twitter; she reaches out to each of them asking if they know of Ellen’s whereabouts.

Barbara and Olivia have been meeting for several months, establishing a friendship and a good working rapport. During one of their sessions, they discuss the relationship between poetry and race. Barbara believes poetry transcends race, but not racism. She would like to write about Maleek Dutton but doesn’t feel ready yet.

Whenever Barbara tries to share traumatic events from her life, Olivia stops her, advising her to use that pain to fuel her art instead. She describes talent as “a dead engine” (206) that runs on trauma.

One day in March, Olivia talks about the dissolution of Bell College’s poetry program. She recalls that Emily Harris spearheaded the motion to shut down the program, while Professor Jorge Castro tried to save it despite being a fiction writer himself. Olivia had always liked Jorge and was distraught when he vanished in 2012.

In late March, Olivia calls Barbara and admits that she may have made “a bad mistake” (208). She asks Barbara to come visit her so she can explain.