Truly Devious

The police question Stevie and Nate about their day and what they were doing in the tunnel, and Larry returns them to Minerva. The other students have learned about Hayes’s death and are all confused and distraught. When Stevie returns to her room, David comes to talk to her. She explains that she couldn’t speak to him earlier because she was trying to remember what she saw because eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.

Suddenly, David and Stevie start kissing. Stevie reminds herself that she doesn’t trust David, and it doesn’t seem right to be making out after their classmate just died, but she doesn’t stop until they are interrupted by Pix. David returns to his room, and the scene shifts to an interrogation room back in 1936.

Agent Samuel Arnold of the FBI questions Flora Robinson about the night of the kidnapping, and he asks Flora how she met Iris Ellingham and became the best friend of one of the richest women in the country. Flora reluctantly admits that she met Iris at a speakeasy, and on the night of the kidnappings, Iris asked Flora to join her and Alice on the car ride, but Flora stayed at the house. The agent mentions that Flora was found in Mrs. Ellingham’s room, and even though people were calling for her, Flora didn’t come out immediately. Flora insists that she simply wanted to get a good look at the front of the house where all the action was happening, and Iris’s windows offered the perfect view. The agent accuses Flora of taking something during that time because Iris had many expensive things in her room. Flora is offended, and she claims that she would “go to the ends of the earth for [Iris] and for Alice” (253).

The following day, Stevie wonders about the future of Ellingham Academy. She feels a combination of “terror and shakes and queasiness and embarrassment” (255), and she starts to wonder why Hayes would have gone back to the tunnel alone. She remembers the strange message she saw on her wall, and although she tells herself that she must have dreamed it, she can’t shake the memory. At breakfast, all the Minerva students are somber, and Ellie seems to be taking the loss of Hayes especially hard. David doesn’t acknowledge his makeout session with Stevie, and Stevie is again brought in for questioning. She is interviewed by Detective Fatima Agiter, and Stevie confesses that they got into the tunnel because she picked the lock. When she mentions that they used fog machines, Detective Agiter asks if they used anything other than the fog machines. Stevie is confused, but she confirms they only used the fog machines. As Stevie is dismissed and the interview is terminated, Stevie suddenly remembers that Janelle’s ID was stolen and showed up outside Minerva. She mentions this detail to the detective.

As Stevie leaves, she remembers there was dry ice in the art barn, which can be dangerous. She is overcome with a “dreamlike feeling” (266) that motivates her to sneak into the art barn after the investigators and listen in on their discussion. She hears Larry and the detective looking for dry ice, and someone confirms that Janelle’s ID was used to tap into the art barn in the middle of the night. All of the dry ice was taken. As Stevie listens, her parents call her, and her phone starts ringing, giving away her hiding place.

Larry scolds Stevie for sneaking around the art barn while they are trying to investigate, and Stevie’s parents try to call her again. She answers the phone, and her parents declare that they are coming to get her and bring her home because the school called and told them about Hayes’s death. Stevie begs them to reconsider, and they reach a compromise: They will discuss the matter when her parents arrive. Helicopters descend on the school, and Larry says that the news of Hayes’s death has hit the press.

 Larry tells Stevie that she shouldn’t play detective because he used to be a detective, and he “opened too many doors and saw too many terrible things” (270). Larry sends Stevie back to Minerva, and on her way back, Stevie’s mind is full of thoughts of being expelled, her parents taking her away, or the school being shut down. She wonders if Hayes stole Janelle’s pass and tries to understand why he moved dry ice into the tunnel. Back at Minerva, Larry comes to take Janelle in for questioning and asks her to bring her ID card. David pushes Stevie to tell them something about what is going on, but she refuses. Stevie is seized with an abrupt urge to kiss David “in front of Nate and the moose head” (274) in the common room, but she resists. Instead, Stevie thanks Nate for being an understanding friend through all of this. Janelle returns and explains that the police are confiscating her ID card and will search Hayes’s room.

The Ellingham students gather in the yurt for Hayes’s vigil. Stevie notices that people are staring at her because she was with Hayes the day he died and saw his body when it was discovered. Maris is inconsolable, and Dash is pretty shaken. Dash believed that Hayes was on the road to fame, and Maris claims that Hayes was “the most honest person [she] ever met” (278). Germaine Batt posts a news report and mentions the importance of dry ice in the investigation, and Janelle explains that a person can be killed if dry ice displaces enough oxygen in a small space, like in the tunnel. Stevie tells the group that she might be leaving Ellingham, and Ellie arrives drunk and starts playing Roota, much to the chagrin of the other students.

Larry and Charles arrive and tell the students to return to their houses because the students need to be questioned by the police. The Minerva students drag an intoxicated Ellie back to the house, and she claims that no one can make her talk to the cops without violating her rights. Despite Ellie’s bold statement, she tells the police that she was with David the night Hayes died. In 1936, Leonard Holmes Nair is interviewed by Agent Samuel Arnold. He tells the investigator that he was once recruited to teach an art class at Ellingham’s school, and he vaguely remembers Dottie Epstein because she was a bright student. He also mentions two other students—a boy and a girl—and although he forgets their names, they were bright students who wanted to know about the poet Dorothy Parker. The detective asks why Flora Robinson entered Mrs. Ellingham’s room on the night of the kidnapping, and Leo replies that he has no knowledge of this. However, he points out that “[Flora] loves Iris like a sister and Alice like a daughter” (289), implying that Flora couldn’t have been involved in the crimes.