Staying

Mags and Amy start following a lead — not because it’s the strongest one, but because it’s the one that moved.

As they trace Nora Chen’s movements across Tilakwa County, a pattern begins to emerge — one built on contingency, timing, and the kind of preparation you only make when you know something is coming.

But what Nora left behind isn’t just absence.

It’s intention.

As pieces shift into place, the case starts to stretch beyond the present. Beyond the murder. Into something older, quieter, and far more difficult to see all at once.

Because some answers don’t arrive cleanly.

They wait.

Transcript

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Murder Girls is created, written and produced by Eternal Teenager. Content Warning. This episode contains references to murder and an ongoing criminal investigation. Themes of grief, loss and community displacement. Discussion of housing insecurity. References to past institutional abuse, unethical medical practices, and historical child welfare misconduct. Mentions of infant records and systemic cover-ups. Corporate environmental harm. References to physical assault and intimidation. A vehicular incident and road danger. Brief discussion of prescription medication and seizure disorder. Non-supernatural hallucinations related to grief and profanity throughout. Listener discretion is advised.

Previously on Murder Girls.

Nora climbs into a silver Honda and starts the engine and pulls away from the curb. We're tailing her. Let's book. She's heading away from downtown toward the highway that leads to Cedar Brook. She's pulling into that storage place.

Secure store, secure self-storage. Nora yanks out a big duffel bag, heads for a smaller unit halfway down the row, punches in a code on the keypad, and disappears inside. Nora emerges. No more giant duffel. Just a small backpack slung casual over one shoulder.

This isn't a storage unit. It's a hideout. There's a bed in the corner, a desk drowning in papers and folders, boxes stacked along the walls, Dylan's handwriting on the sides. This is where he was living, or hiding, or both.

I'm being pressured to make another arrest.

Nora Chen.

She agreed to come in for an interview. Then she disappeared.

And the Holtz want you to arrest her.

They want the case closed, not necessarily solved.

You don't think she did it.

I'm not saying that. I'm saying the people telling me she did it are the same people who don't want me looking anywhere else.

There was a man that come round. He sat there talking to her, like it was more for him than her. He said one of the strangest things to me. He looked at me and said, some things don't stop just because you locked the door behind you, demolished the house and salt the land. I'll tell you that for free.

I haven't decided anything. If I did sell, I assumed we would just take the money and do something together.

But what do you wanna do?

I don't know, I really don't. There hasn't been time to think. Med school didn't work. Loose ends was an asset. I told myself coming back here was research. Like I was evaluating whether this place still fit.

Okay, so what happened?

You, Amethyst Emily O'Connell, you fucking happened. Whoa, what's this?

That's a USB.

One file, no name, video created just over a month before she died.

Hi, if you're watching this, then a few things have happened. One, I was right about you. Two, you found what I hoped you'd find. And three, you're ready. That said, this is not a burden I am handing to you. It's not a quest, it's not a mission. This was my work, my choice. It mattered to me. You do not owe this system your lives. You do not owe this town your lives. You are allowed to walk away from this. You are allowed to shut it down, unplug the servers, erase every drive, and go live in some bright and ridiculous place where nothing interesting ever happens.

Hello?

You're late.

Oh, whoa, it's the caller.

Late? What do you mean, late?

She's already in danger.

Who is?

Nora Chen.

Nora, what do you mean?

If they get to her first, you don't just lose her, you lose everything.

Murder Girls, episode 26, staying.

If they get to her first, you don't just lose her, you lose everything.

Lose her, we can't even find her.

Yeah, no one even knows where she is.

She moved, that was a mistake.

Moved, moved where?

You've already seen where she goes when she runs. Better hurry, they've released the dogs. Or should I say, wolves?

Oh my god, that is so rad.

Dude.

Come on man, a mysterious caller is giving us tips. I just want to appreciate that.

So, Nora moved.

You've already seen where she goes when she runs. The storage unit?

Outside Cedar Brook.

Go bag, prepped, in and out.

She hasn't been back though.

No, but it sounds like she hasn't left the county.

So where is she?

And, like, why is she still here?

What?

If she's running, like, actually running, why is she still in the county and not, like, anywhere else on the planet?

Yeah, this is definitely the worst place for her.

You don't hide in the place the Holtz are looking for you.

Unless there's a reason to stay here. We need to find her.

How?

The zip codes we found from that pencil rubbing at her office.

Yeah, they're all from the county.

That's the only lead on her we have unless we start digging.

Yeah, it could be options, contingencies.

Places she thought she might need or places Dylan did.

Okay, so we don't guess. We crowd source.

The weirdos.

The weirdos.

Let's go.

I'm bringing the soup pot.

You are not bringing that. Why not? You're driving.

Dude, the fact that you think this is my first time driving while eating a pot of soup wounds me a little. Truly it does.

I'm hurt.

Yeah, nothing I can do but eat my way through the pain and betrayal. Whatever happens next, that's all on you, dog.

Oh my God, there's a fucking overwhelming fucking time pressure, man. Let's go.

This pot holds so much, if I pace myself with care, dog willing, I could be eating this all day.

Yeah, dream big.

Amethyst, Emily O'Connell.

Oh no.

I have been trying to reach you since yesterday. I left four voicemails, two texts, a voice memo. And yeah, I went and made a collage in my notes app just to organize my feelings about not hearing back. Just when was the last time that happened? Kathy, I'm not finished. I'm in the middle of a thought. And girl, why are you carrying around a giant gold pot full of soup?

If you have to ask that question, then you're just not ready to know the answer, Kathy.

Mags, oh my God, look at you. You look exhausted. That's a compliment by the way.

Okay, well thank you, Kathy.

Kathy, we can't stay long. We're looking for Walter.

Oh, he's here all right. I mean, he can't go very far with the broken hoof right? Listen, while I have both of y'all here.

The hardest of passes.

Just hear me out.

Last time you said that, I ended up selling homemade salves at the farmer's market for three hours. I smelled like a drum circle for a week.

Those salves moved, Amy. People loved them. We changed lives.

Look, I'm just saying, Hear Me Out has a bit of a track record with you, right?

They finalized it.

Finalized what?

The sale. The sale of Sunset Shores. The county approved the Environmental Impact Exemption last week, which means the development agreement goes through, and the park... We have 12 months, probably six. Then they break ground on whatever they're building where we're standing right now. Peter, Mayrick, Barb, Old Peter, the Hendersons, Chandra, people who've been living here for years, Amy, decades. Kathy. I know what you're going to say, that I always knew this was coming, that we all did, that the Holtz have been circling this place since before I even got here.

I wasn't going to say that. I was going to say that's not okay.

No, it is not okay. And I want you to know, I am organizing. We're doing a demonstration, a major demonstration. I've already been in contact with Daniel Siaya's office and Lily, absolutely love those two. And I'm planning a meditation to march on the county building steps.

A meditation to march?

You start seated, breath work, then you march. It's very powerful. The contrast alone should get some press.

What does the sign say?

Still working on the wording. Right now, it says, not our omnia. But I'm also considering, halt your horses.

You know, that's actually do not encourage her.

This is my home, Amy. I know you know that, but I want to say it out loud. This is my home.

I know.

It's mine too.

Okay, anyway, I have 47 things to do before sundown, including drafting a petition and tracking down the woman who borrowed my good folding table in 2019. I need it.

Good luck with the march, Kathy.

Thanks. And I'll be seeing you both there.

12 months.

Yeah, or six maybe.

Not helping, bestie.

You know, on that note, loose ends has, as you know, it has the apartment above it. And like, you're already basically...

I'm not basically anything.

Look, I'm just saying it's, you know, it's there, it's already there, and you're like, you're already basically...

As I previously mentioned, I'm not basically anything. I just sleep there sometimes.

Sometimes, or like six out of the last six nights.

You counted?

Oh, I didn't have to count. You just haven't gone home.

You don't even know if you're staying in town.

I know, I know. Look, it's there. That's all I'm saying. It's there, and you're welcome in it. Full stop.

Full stop?

Full stop.

Ooh, sounds so fancy in British.

Full stop, in it.

Okay, okay, okay, cool. Love this emotional spiral for us. Let's go see the weirdos.

You're not bringing the pot.

I am absolutely bringing the pot, and there's not a damn thing anybody can do about it. What's up, degenerates?

Hey, that's uncalled for.

It's more inaccurate than anything else.

It's still hurtful.

Why are you carrying that pot of angry-looking soup?

Don't ask, my dude.

Very well. Thank you for texting first, the smell is almost gone.

Uh, hi, Walter.

Walter.

Hi, Amy, hello, Ms. Park.

Hi.

Seriously, though, what's the smell from?

Don't ask, I know that smell, don't ask.

Hot sauce test incident, we're past it.

Not emotionally, man.

Walter's trailer is the same as it always is. Controlled chaos made legible only by Walter himself, who navigates it the way old fishermen navigate fog. Not by seeing through it, but by knowing where everything dangerous is. He looks tired, more than usual. I notice it before Amy does, which is rare. Normally, she reads a room before I finished walking into it. But Amy's eyes go to the monitors first, mine go to Walter, and Walter's eyes haven't left the window. Hey, buddy, you okay?

Oh, yeah, I guess you heard, huh, big guy?

About the park? Yeah, 12 months or less, that's what the notice says.

Walter...

I'm fine. I've been here 14 years. Bought this trailer off a guy who swore it was haunted. It was not haunted, although there was a pretty aggressive raccoon situation in year two, so...

I'm sorry.

I'll figure it out. I always figure it out. Don't make it weird.

Cathy's already organizing and, like, going full Cathy. Daniel's office is involved. We're going to fight this.

And I was just getting the sauce business rolling, too.

Oh, huh. Um, and well, you know, hot sauce is something you can, like, make anywhere, uh, when you think about it, um, right?

That's true. It's as versatile a trade as it is an inspiring one.

See? Just goes to show you it's not where you make the sauce, but it's more, uh, it's more about the sauce in, like, you know...

No, please do go on. The sauce in where?

Yes, I want to know the end of your wise words.

Ugh, fine. I was gonna say it's not where you make the sauce, but it's more about the sauce you make in your heart, okay? Laugh all you want, whatever.

That would be blood.

The best sauce slingers say that if you're not putting your life, soul, and blood into your work, you're just making pepper juice and not real sauce. Those are wise words indeed, Ms. Park.

I need to lie down.

I need to say something about Minerva. Uh, my mom. What she did, using us, me, to get leverage on you, I didn't know that was the plan, and I'm-

Pipes.

I'm really pissed off about it, actually. And embarrassed, both at once, which is a very fun combination.

Definitely been there.

Hey, this isn't on you.

She does this. She finds the angle and she works it, and then she acts like the information was always the point, and the leverage was just adjacent. But it wasn't adjacent. It was the whole thing.

Listen, your mom is extremely good at her job, and also, for a while now, like, kind of our nemesis.

Yeah, antagonist at the very least.

My point is, those two things can both be true. None of that is about you.

Thank you. Okay, what do we have?

Two things, parallel.

We need to find Nora Chen.

She's still in the county?

Really? That's dumb.

Unless she has to stay close for whatever reason?

Yeah, that's what we think she's doing, actually. The caller...

The caller called again?

Yeah, said Nora's already in danger.

That's not good.

She had this written on a notepad. Five zip codes, all Tlaquah County. All jotted on a secure store letterhead.

Tlaquah County towns are small enough that they each have one zip code.

Two if you're Cedarbrook.

Still, those are for Avalon Falls, Cedarbrook, Bearview, Tlaquah Ridge and Holloway.

And the secure store branding at the top of the notepad? She was mapping locations.

Backup locations? Maybe Dylan set up more than one.

So let's check if there's secure store locations in those zip codes.

Already on it. Cedarbrook. That's the one you know. Avalon Falls. There's a mini storage on industrial road under a different brand but secure store parent company. Yeah, looks like there are locations in each zip code.

Okay, okay, let's get those addresses printed up. Mags and I can follow those up after this.

Printing.

Any idea why she's staying around?

Nothing backed up with facts at this point. She could just be running for her life but not able to leave for all we know.

Got the printout. Okay, other track. What do we know about Nora?

Checking her Rate My Prof page now.

Nice.

Looking like, yeah, extremely positive reviews. Rigorous but fair. Actually cares. Gives feedback that changes how you think. One person wrote, makes environmental law feel like it matters. Which, okay, it does matter, but you know what they mean.

She's good at her job.

Academic side is mostly collaborative. A lot of co-authored papers. She's been on three or four with Daniels Ciaia even. Environmental monitoring, watershed contamination, legacy sites in Pacific Northwest coastal counties.

Dylan's world through the front door.

She introduced him to all of this.

Or at least cultivated it. He was her student.

Still inappropriate.

Yes.

So, she also got arrested twice. Anti-logging protests. Once in 2019, once in 2021.

Charges dropped both times. She wasn't hiding it. She listed it on a departmental transparency disclosure.

She listed her own arrest record on a transparency form. Nice.

And then there's this. About a year ago. Some kind of originals club function. Fundraiser for the Coastal Heritage Trust, which is...

An organization that sounds environmental and yet is not particularly environmental.

Dylan and Nora are in the photo. He's in a suit. She looks like she's being very polite about being there.

She's doing the face.

What face?

The face you make when you're at a rich person's thing and you've decided to be an anthropologist about it.

And then this. Her personal Instagram. She made it private a few months ago, but I have a cached version from before. There are three photos of her and Dillon at a cabin. No location tagged. But the background has...

Specific trees. That canopy is Sitka spruce, higher elevation, east side of the county, light angles west-northwest, cabins older, pre-1980 based on the window trim.

How do you know the window trim guy?

My grandfather was a carpenter. Don't make it a whole thing. There are three areas in East Tlaquah County with that canopy profile at that elevation.

That's a possible hideout.

We check on the storage units first. If they come up dry, we can worry about this cabin.

Okay, before we go, how are things going on your end?

Piper is still in Dylan's emails.

Whoa!

The access window never fully closed, technically.

Pipes.

What? There was a vulnerability. I didn't create the vulnerability.

I love you so much and please never change, but also you have to be careful, girl.

Found something yesterday I wanted to wait to show you in person. He was corresponding with his father and grandfather. The chain starts about 14 months ago. Dylan writes to Richard. Subject line is phase three site assessment. It's all dull, reads like a corporate memo. But he's writing that he has outstanding concerns about legacy liabilities in the newly included parcels. And that he'd recommend delaying expansion until unresolved site history is fully documented.

Unresolved site history.

The contaminated land.

So we did some digging thanks to the exploit. Richard's original Omnia proposal, the one from two years ago, was smaller. It didn't include certain parcels on the edges.

It was Victor who pushed to expand the footprint at the last minute to sweeten the deal for Omnia.

Dylan is flagging that the new parcels were never properly remediated. He uses the phrase materials that were never properly disclosed. He mentions exposure if due diligence is broadened.

Okay, so not saying anything directly because it's email?

Then Victor replies, this is not a matter for email. We'll speak in person.

That's it? That's the whole reply?

That's the whole reply. Then six days later, another email from Dylan. He says he's been thinking about expansion before remediation and that any meaningful due diligence process would surface information that could create material complications for all parties involved. He says he wants to discuss this before the county approval stage.

He's trying to slow it down without saying why, without saying anything that could be used against him.

Victor replies again. I'd advise more care in how you characterize family business in writing.

He told the kid to shut up without saying it.

And Dylan didn't shut up.

Two more emails over the next month. Dylan escalates slightly each time. He never accuses. He just keeps using words like remediation timeline, undisclosed infrastructure, broadened scope. The last one says, and this is the last one in the chain. I'd like to resolve this before it resolves itself.

He knew it was going to come out.

Or he was going to be the one to force it out.

And Victor was making sure there was no paper trail.

Can you preserve those?

Already done. Air-gapped copy, nothing cloud-adjacent.

Dylan was a good kid. Didn't seem like it. Not at first. Seemed like a dick, actually. Seemed like a spoiled, rich dick. But I guess he was a good kid.

Okay, here's where we land. Miles, Val, and Walter. Pull everything you can on Secure Store franchise ownership into Laquah County. Piper?

Already have a thread on the Victor Richard correspondence going back further. There might be more.

You guys keep digging. Anything Nora related? Anything Dylan related?

On it.

If you find anything on Nora, send it. Let's go.

Nora Chen didn't run. Not really. There was a plan. Fallbacks, options, places to go when things got bad. Dylan did the same thing, just differently. He tried to fix it before it broke, before anyone else noticed. But the thing about systems like this, they don't break all at once. They just keep going until someone gets in the way.

The machine sounds different when you're down here alone. When Mags is here, it's just background, static, white noise, but alone, it's something new, present, like it's always doing something and you're only interrupting. I've been taking my meds, I want that on record. It's only been two days, sure, but still, it's different this time. It means he shows up less, which is the deal, which I agreed to, which was the right call. I know that.

You're buzzing.

I'm focused.

That's one word for it.

The case is breaking open. I can feel it. That's not a bad thing.

No, it's not.

It's all...

Converging.

Yes, converging, exactly.

Which is when people get sloppy.

I'm not being sloppy. I'm like never sloppy.

You're doing that thing where you sprint the last 100 meters because you can see the finish line.

That is literally how races work, dad.

It's also how people blow out a knee.

You look, you look different. Is, is that me or...

I mean, in the end, this is all you, right? But you've been consistent, so that's probably why there's a difference if you're noticing one.

Early days, but yeah.

Good for you, kiddo.

I like when you come around, though.

That's not why you take them.

No.

She asked you to stay.

She offered the apartment, which is different.

Is it?

She didn't think twice about it. Just said it. Full stop.

Yeah, she did.

I know what that means. I'm not dense.

You're the least dense person I know. You're also very good at standing in a doorway.

Is that a metaphor?

I'm the metaphor. That was an observation.

Correction. You're a coping mechanism. Mags doesn't know if she's staying in town yet.

Neither do you.

No.

Seems like something to solve together, maybe, yeah?

Maybe.

You're gonna figure it all out, Ames.

Yeah, I know.

I know you know. I just wanted to say it.

Thanks, Dad. Oh.

Okay, coffee, and full disclosure, we have essentially nothing to go with it.

Define nothing.

The last of Dee Dee's granola bars, 2019 vintage.

Oh no, what flavors? You know, just asking Prada Una Amiga?

Mint Choco Ordeal and Nut. Nut. Just nut, they didn't commit to a type.

Why are these the ones that survived?

Because you kept eating around them, you ate every other flavor in this building since the break-in and these two just outlasted everything.

Since you confiscated my ramyun pot, I'm forced to survive on whatever provisions remain.

Oh, wait, you're not going to... Amy.

It's not great.

Was there any doubt?

Yeah, it's like mint toothpaste had a fight with a granola bar from 2019 and I lost.

This is your own fault.

We really need to go grocery shopping.

That is the least controversial sentence you have ever said. Okay, let's look at the other secure store locations. Let's see what Dee Dee had.

On it.

Okay.

Cedarbrook, we know. Tlaqua Ridge and nothing.

Moving on.

Bearview. Oh, she's got one in Bearview. Dee Dee had a camera there.

Pull it up.

Okay, going back to Tuesday. There, that's her, Nora.

Okay, scan ahead and see if she's still there.

She's been there two other times since Tuesday. Last visit was two, maybe three days ago.

She's burned it.

She knows to keep moving or she felt watched.

Or she finished whatever she needed from that location.

We know what unit it is. We could still try the access code Dylan had. See if it works on the Bearview unit.

Is that worth the trip?

Probably not. She's not there and whatever she needed, she took. If we're just going to drop in somewhere, Holloway feels right.

Yeah, she goes as far from Avalon Falls as possible while staying in the county.

Dee Dee didn't have a camera there, but we can check it out.

Okay, we check Holloway.

Fucking Holloway.

Okay, well, I have you in a corner.

Ooh.

The machine. In the video, Dee Dee said, not in so many words, but she was asking us to decide what to do with it, the whole thing. I know. So what do we actually want to do with it?

I don't know. And that's a real answer, not a deflection.

Same. Like, keep running it? That's a lot. That's basically Dee Dee's whole second life, years of this.

And the ethical thing of it. We've already used it in ways that, I mean, we've heard things people didn't know anyone could hear.

I know.

That's not nothing.

No. But also, she built it because she knew something was wrong and nobody else was looking. And she was right. She was completely right.

So do we shut it down because it feels uncomfortable while the thing it was watching is still happening?

That's the question.

Walter needs somewhere to go. He's losing the trailer. That means that's the weirdo's little base that's going to. They know the town. They care about the town.

Are you saying what I think you're saying?

I'm saying there's a third option. We don't take it on and we don't shut it down. We find it the right people. Walter gets a home and a purpose. He can run loose ends even and you can still own it but aren't forced to stay here.

Neither are you.

And the machine gets a caretaker. Actually four of them. Huh.

I mean, I guess Walter is a curiosity himself.

Exactly. The weirdos could still work out of here. They'd have a proper base.

A proper operation.

Right, a proper operation with adults nominally in charge.

I'm not sure Walter counts as an adult in the way we need him to be in this case.

He counts more than we do.

To that point, we'd be asking him, and three minors, I might add, to take on something that is staggeringly illegal on just so many fronts.

I know. They may even turn us in when they see this. I wouldn't blame them, honestly. Anyway, anyway, it's just a thought.

I mean, it's something to think about. I don't know, though.

Yeah, I don't know either. Add it to the pile.

Okay, moving on. Victor Holt.

Victor Holt.

Dylan's emails weren't just about contaminated land. They were about Victor, specifically. The expansion was his call. Richard's proposal was smaller. Sleazy, but smaller. Victor blew it up.

Offered Omnia more land for the same price to close the deal.

Land he knew was contaminated.

And Dylan figured it out.

And Dylan tried to be careful about saying so.

Right up until the last email. I'd like to resolve this before it resolves itself.

And then someone resolved it.

Then there's Victor's secret Aldrich Street apartment.

The one that looks like the set of Mad Men if it was just fucking cursed. And with a portrait of Victor himself as a younger man painted by Bella Harper hanging over his bed.

The girl in the red ribbon. Driftwood School's finest.

But also an obvious radical who hates capitalists based on that other piece we saw.

So why would she go and paint the county's greatest capitalist then?

She's also a Calhoun and knew she was based on that massacre mural in the otter.

And also based on the mural, definitely had no love for the Holtz.

Or any of the other originals, for obvious reasons.

She ended up in Pine Ridge.

Committed and contained.

There's definitely more to this.

Plus, let's not forget the skulls.

Fuck.

Four of them under bell jars like some kind of fucking steampunk villains collection.

We don't know what those are. I mean, they're skulls, obviously. But, like, we don't know how old they are or, you know, where they came from. Was it from a crypt? Or, um, from, like, from a barrow? Or isn't there, like, a black market skull trade thing going on somewhere? Feels like that is probably a thing in this day and age, right?

We don't know who they belong to. That is probably the most important thing to figure out in all of this.

But we know Victor Holt has a secret apartment full of a dead activist's art and four human skulls, which is not what a normal person has in a secret apartment. What does a normal person have in a secret apartment?

A bad television, golf clubs, regrets.

Not skulls.

Not skulls.

Do we think he killed Dylan?

Do I think Victor killed Dylan? No. Do I think he could order Thomas to do it? Right. Still, all of that's developing. But the caller pointed us at Nora first, and I think we follow that.

Agreed. Nora leads somewhere.

Oh.

Who is it?

Andre Whitaker.

From the Gazette?

Yeah, he says he has time today. Basically now, he runs a B&B, says we can go by there.

He mentioned your dad at all?

Your father was a good man and a good journalist. Tell him I said that whenever you next speak to him. I'd like to help his daughter if I can.

That's nice. Super long text, but nice.

Yeah. Journalists.

Okay. So Andre Whitaker, then Holloway. We had a direction, which felt like progress. That's the tricky part. Sometimes progress just means you finally know where the dark is.

The harbor light doesn't announce itself. It doesn't have a security camera above the door or a family crest above the fireplace. It just is what it says it is. A warm, welcoming place near the water, a light on. Andre Whitaker opens the door before we can knock a second time, which means he was already close. He's in his late 50s, tall. The kind of still that isn't stillness at all, it's attention. He looks at us the way a very good editor reads a first paragraph, quickly, completely, with an opinion already forming that he isn't going to share until he's sure.

Marguerite Park, Amy O'Connell.

Mr. Whitaker, thank you for seeing us.

Of course. Please come in. My husband wanted to make sure I let you know that there is coffee. There is coffee.

Amazing. Thank you. Oh, and I detect cookies. I want to say oatmeal raisin. No, no, just oatmeal.

That is correct. Raisins insist upon themselves.

They do indeed.

We settle at the small table near the window that faces the harbor. Andre sits with his coffee and says nothing. He is clearly someone who has conducted many interviews and learned that silence is the best opener. Amy lasts approximately four seconds.

You remember us, from the original case.

I do. You were 12. You came into the newsroom once with Diane, Dee Dee. Your father wasn't there, Amy. I think he was at a county meeting. You told Jim, Marguerite's father, that you had actionable intelligence. You were wearing a backpack that had a cartoon dog on it.

Jake, he was from a show.

I know who Jake the dog is. I have a nephew.

I love you, sir.

That seems premature. Marguerite. Jim is well?

He is. He says you taught him how to structure a lead.

He taught himself. I just told him to stop putting the good sentence third. He was a fine journalist. I was sorry to lose him to communications.

He was sorry too, I think. He just doesn't say it.

Before we begin, I wanted to ask you something. Are you investigating the Dylan Holt murder? Is that what this is about?

Uh, I mean, we're trying to stay as low-key about it as possible, but yeah, we are.

I won't openly condone what you were doing, but I did thoroughly enjoy your adventures when you were children. It was like something out of a book, wasn't it?

Yeah, sometimes like a cartoon also.

So you wanted to ask about the Holt's?

The piece you wrote eight years ago.

The profile, yes. I've written better.

It's a puff piece.

It's a puff piece. The Gazette wanted access, and access has a price. I negotiated the price down as far as I could, and still came away feeling that I'd left something on the table.

What did you leave on the table?

Victor Holt.

That's where we want to go to, actually. But first, Thomas Holt. Can you tell us why he ended up at Cedarbrook High?

Thomas. What do you know about him?

Nothing before Cedarbrook, really.

Thomas attended a private school in Switzerland, the same one his brother attended. In his freshman year, he was expelled. With some digging, I found out he put two boys in the hospital, one quite seriously. The story I heard was that he was on liquids for six weeks. Thomas had discovered that this particular group had been systematically bullying Richard for two years. He addressed the situation.

Comprehensively.

Indeed. Victor was embarrassed, not because Thomas had done it. If you understand Victor Holt, and I believe you're beginning to, but because it became visible. Victor had spent years placing the role of Richard's protector on Thomas' shoulders. That was a private arrangement. Thomas made it public. And so Victor made Thomas public in a different way. Cedarbrook High, no appeal.

And Thomas just accepted that?

He did more than accept it. He thrived. Varsity Lacrosse, scholarship offers from three Division One programs, which Victor also made him decline.

Why?

Because Victor didn't build a dynasty to watch his pieces leave the board. Thomas went into the Marines instead. Did well there too, apparently. And then came home and went to work for the family.

As a fixer.

As a point of resolution. For situations that required discretion. There was an incident in San Francisco. A man at a function who behaved badly toward Eleanor and Dillon. Very vague details. Very large settlement. Very thorough NDA.

Could Thomas have killed Dillon?

If Victor or Richard ordered it, yes. Though the Thomas Holt I observed had a code. It's a broken code, I think. Warped by the family he was raised in. But it existed. Dillon was family. And I think Thomas did love Dillon in his own way.

What about Richard?

Richard Holt is the more interesting case in some ways. Because he is, was, genuinely competent. He has a real instinct for business. He built relationships well. Read rooms well. Structured deals well. But his ideas were routinely overridden. Not always, not even often, but enough. Enough for it to cost him something.

Victor.

Yes, Victor gave Richard the title and withheld the authority. Pressure without self-determination. It's a very specific kind of cruelty, dressed as mentorship.

And so Richard let it off, elsewhere.

The marriage to Elizabeth Venering ended for several reasons. The version that reached me, and I couldn't verify this to a standard I'd print, was that Richard found it difficult as he became less able to impress his father, or to remain impressive to his wife. And Elizabeth had a particular talent for choosing what to be impressed by. So, while Richard became distracted by a certain former Hollywood sea-lister, over time Elizabeth's attention migrated. Toward the work, toward her own success in the art business, toward Victor, who recognized that success and rewarded it openly.

So Victor and Elizabeth.

They have always had a close relationship. Not romantic, more mentorship. She runs the Holt Art Holdings. She expanded it considerably, essentially creating that sector of their business on her own, almost out of thin air. And Victor has, in my observation, used her presence quite deliberately as a way to keep his sons arranged the way he wants them.

He likes her better than his own kids.

He's more interested in her than his own kids. Whether that's affection or strategy, I genuinely cannot tell you. Possibly both. Possibly neither. She refused every interview request I made. Every single one. And at some point, I received a note, unsigned, suggesting I redirect my attention.

Subtle.

Victor is not a subtle man. He's a precise one. There's a difference.

The art business. We've been looking at the Driftwood School.

Yes. Local. Radical. The federal government took that personally in the early 70s. I'm not an expert in that area. My own art interests run elsewhere entirely. But I know their reputation. Political work. Land. Environment. Indigenous rights before that language was normalized. Targeted, eventually. Several arrested. Several disappeared from the record.

But you don't know any of the individual artists.

I don't.

No.

If you're following that thread, I'd look at auction records from the last 30 years. There's been a quiet re-emergence of driftwood work on the private market. Someone opened a door. You know more about this than you're saying.

We're trying to connect some things.

Then let's move on to Victor.

Okay.

I took that profile assignment because I believed, correctly, as it turned out, that it would give me access. Access I intended to build on for a deeper piece. An investigative piece. On Victor specifically. The Gazette never green-lit it. And after a certain point, I stopped pressing.

Because of the risk?

Because the risk became personal. There are things I can say and things I choose not to say. And the line between them is my husband in the next room. What I can tell you is that Victor Holt is not simply a powerful man protecting his interests. That's common. That's Tuesday. Victor is something older than that. He is the kind of man around whom things tend to resolve themselves in his favor. His rivals encounter misfortune. His enemies stop being visible. It doesn't happen loudly. It happens in the negative space, in the absence of things that should still be there. How so? Take his dearly departed wife, for instance. Johanna. Johanna Bergman Holt. She died in 1974. A small plane crash. Richard was four. Thomas was two.

We didn't know anything about her, really. Just that she died.

Most people don't hold on to it. On the surface, it's a tragedy. Two great families had united. Victor and Johanna. It was the kind of marriage that got written about. And then she died young, and it became a sad chapter in the county's history. And it stayed there. If you look more carefully, and I did up to a point, the investigation was brief. The safety records around the plane have discrepancies that no one has formally addressed. I stopped looking when it became clear that looking was being noticed. How do you mean? I made a call to the FAA Regional Office requesting records. Two days later, I received a visit at my home. Not the newsroom, my home. From a man I did not recognize who expressed what he described as concern for my work-life balance. In that very calm way that means something else entirely.

That tone.

Yes. Actually, I have something that may interest you. I never used this, never shared it, never knew quite what to do with it. Part of the profile sessions. This is Richard. I'm asking about the family's future plans. And then Victor comes into the room.

So really, when you break it down into its basic parts, the Foundation's focus has always been the long-term stewardship of... Andre. I don't think Richard has anything further for you today. You have what you came for. I'd say you've been more than generously accommodated.

Well, Victor, I still had a few questions about that.

I know what you still have. You're a careful man. That's admirable. But you need to be more careful. I'll tell you that for free.

You recognize something.

It's a distinctive phrase.

Andre, thank you, genuinely. We've taken up enough of your time.

I enjoyed it, truly. Marguerite, I was sorry to hear about your aunt, Diane. Dee Dee, she always knew how to make me laugh.

Oh, is that actually possible?

Of course. I am currently smiling, am I not?

So, well, I mean, yes.

Be careful with whatever you're following. Victor Holt does not have a temper. Men with tempers are predictable. He has patience. That's much worse. Be careful. Both of you.

I'll tell you that for free.

It was Victor.

He visited her. Victor visited Bella Harper in that hospital multiple times.

We don't know that for sure.

We know that for almost sure, dude. And Bella painted a fucking portrait of him before that.

We need to go to Holloway.

Yeah, yeah. Urgency first.

Victor Holt could wait. That's what made him dangerous. Nora Chen couldn't, so we didn't either.

Holloway is about 40 minutes out, which is just far enough to feel like you're leaving, but not far enough to actually be gone. Being this close to the mountain makes it seem like you've traveled so far, like you're someplace new altogether, but like everything about Holloway, it's an illusion. You think you've gone somewhere new, but you've never been more trapped. Okay, we check out Secure Store, deal with that. Then if there's time and there isn't a Nora emergency, we could swing by the spa on the way back, the one Richard Holt was apparently staying at while his son was getting murdered.

Richard's alibi tour. Yeah, sounds good.

I want to check in on Kenzie too when we get back to AF. Also ask her some Thomas Holt related questions. Ugh, I can't believe I'm going to fucking Holloway two times in one week.

Yeah, it's such a shithole. How will we ever stand it?

Tell me you're in a cult without telling me you're in a cult.

What?

Nothing. So, uh, we're moving in together, huh?

That's one way to describe it.

Is it not accurate?

It's, uh, I mean, well, you'd be in the apartment and I would be in the apartment as well. So technically...

Technically, we're moving in together, and the distinction you're trying to make is not a real distinction, Mags.

No, it's not.

Great. So we're agreed.

I don't actually know how long I'm staying.

I know.

I came back for the estate stuff, for the shop, and then the case happened, and it's been six days, and I haven't...

You haven't called anyone in Seattle?

No.

You haven't listed the shop?

No.

You made us a grocery list, a real one, with categories.

That's just how my brain works. It's not a declaration of...

You alphabetized the spice rack.

There was no system. Like, okay, Dee Dee, let's mix the herbs with the baking spices, like it's some kind of fucking free-for-all couples cooking class down at the community center.

Mags, there was no spice rack. You built one.

It's temporary. I mean, obviously. I fashioned it out of coat hangers.

I'm not trying to trap you into anything. I'm just saying...

No. Hey, I know that.

That's not how I feel.

Like, at all.

I'm sorry. What I'm doing, it's...

As your friend? I feel it's my duty to tell you that what you've been doing for six days looks a lot more like staying than leaving.

I know. When I think about all of that, the estate and then what comes after, it's really overwhelming.

Uh, okay.

That's not about you.

You are great. Obviously. And us together again. I think the last time I felt this good was... Well, honestly, it was the last time we were together. When, when we were kids.

So what does that version look like? The one where you stay?

I don't know what I'm doing instead of medicine. I don't have a plan for the shop. I don't know if I can actually run a curiosity shop. I don't even know what a curiosity shop does day to day. Like, do people just come in and buy weird stuff? Or is it more of a...

I don't know either, but it seems like it's more of a vibe situation. Dee Dee ran it on Pure Vibes and the occasional estate sales score. You'd be fine.

That's not a business plan.

No, it's not. Did I not just mention that it's vibes? Lucens runs on vibes and the occasional mood.

So what does your version look like if I stay?

Honestly, I've been here my whole life, and I've spent most of it waiting for something to change. Waiting to finally figure out what happened to my dad. Waiting for the town to stop being what it is. Just waiting.

And then you came back, Chica.

And we've been doing something for six days, and it's the first time I haven't felt like I was waiting. So I guess, I guess that's what my version looks like. Not waiting anymore.

Yeah.

That's a version I can see myself in.

Yeah? Yeah.

So roommates?

Yes, roommates.

You still get the bed, obviously. It's your place.

We need to figure out where to put your stuff.

I don't have that many things. The airstream is like nine feet wide.

I've been in it. I'm aware.

Then you know I can consolidate.

You have a lot of shoes. Not that I'm judging. I get it. I too have a lot of shoes. That's the problem. Like, you have three pairs of the same boots.

Okay. I mean, they're slightly different, though. You see that, right?

How?

One pair is for rain, one pair is for heavy rain, and one pair is for when I want to feel like I have my life together.

Those are the same boots.

Right? But they're different energetically, Mags. There it is. That's the one. The laugh my best friend only does when she isn't thinking about doing it. Here's the thing about Mags Park I forgot and then remembered. She makes decisions the way she makes everything. Quietly, thoroughly, and without a lot of announcement. She organizes spices logically and then builds a spice rack. She writes up a grocery list with categories and like subcategories. She tells you an apartment is there and you're welcome in it.

Full stop.

She doesn't say I'm staying like it's a declaration. She just stays. And honestly, that's better. Declarations are easy. Staying? Staying is the whole thing.

Holloway is objectively a pleasant place. It has a functioning farmer's market, a well-maintained community garden, reasonable parking, a coffee shop that doesn't pretend artisanal means unfriendly. The mountain behind it is extraordinary. The air smells like pine and moss and ambition. Like most people in Tlaquah County, Amy has hated Holloway her entire life and cannot explain why.

It's so, I mean, look at it.

I am looking at it, it's lovely.

It's too lovely. It's suspicious, lovely. It's the kind of lovely that's doing something like stealing our data or identity or innocence or all of the above.

It's a college town, Amy. The lovely is just infrastructure.

That's exactly what it wants you to think, because twist, it's a cult town, not a college town.

Just drive. The Holloway Secure Store is smaller than the one in Cedarbrook, newer too. The signage is fresher, the asphalt less cracked. It hasn't had time to accumulate the particular exhaustion of a facility that's seen things. Barry Lockjaw, the mascot on the signage, no statue this time, grins from the entrance board. A cartoon bear in a security uniform and gas station shades holding a comically oversized padlock.

There he is, Barry Lockjaw.

He does have kind eyes, presumably.

He has the eyes of a bear who has made choices and is fine with them. If this doesn't work, it was a very long drive for nothing.

And if it does work, it feels a little contrived.

Yeah, lazy too, but I'll take contrived.

Okay, here goes.

Yes, marry me, Mags.

Don't celebrate yet. Unit 14, same numbering convention as the Cedarbrook space. Dylan was methodical about his systems even when he was hiding them, especially then.

Okay, yeah, another safe house.

Smaller than the other one.

Less set up, but same feel.

Yeah, a cot, a lantern, water filter, boxes.

Nora was here. Definitely looks a bit cleared out recently, too.

And she left in a hurry, or at least she left with a purpose and didn't come back.

Yeah, there's a pile of random scattered papers. Very survival horror lore dive.

Love it.

Yeah, photocopies, a lot of them, nothing jumping out.

Whoa, look at this.

An envelope with Marion Caldwell written on it in red ink.

Holy shit, really? That feels big.

Let's see what's inside. Mags, look at this note Dylan wrote.

Marion, Dee Dee suggested I bring this to you. I'm trying to figure out if there's a legal path to follow the transfer. There's no destination listed. Dylan, Dee Dee sent him to Marion.

Okay, so he was asking for help.

For what? What's in there?

Looks like old hospital records. PDFs of photocopies of old files, Medical Center letterhead, Tlaquah Regional. We know that place.

Intake form, October 26, 1972.

Foundling, no guardian present, date of birth unknown, estimated October 16.

Intake coordinator, M. Beals.

Mavis Beals, holy shit.

Dylan flagged her, her employee file, Bella Harper's cousin.

And here she is again.

Looking at the newborns medical chart, standard vitals, feeding schedule, no complications observed. Nurse signature, blank, huh, weird.

Transfer discharge form, October 27, 1972.

One day later.

Transferred per request, no destination listed.

No follow-up field completed.

No names, no signatures on the transfer, just gone.

One day is fast, even for a foster transfer.

Shouldn't the paperwork alone take longer than that?

This didn't move fast, it moved clean.

This isn't normal, right?

No.

Dee Dee. Dylan talked to Dee Dee. She sent him to Marion.

She was already looking. That's what Dylan wrote under her photo.

She pointed him toward the one lawyer she trusted.

He was going to deliver this in person, no address, just her name. He wanted a lawyer outside the Holt family ecosystem.

Smart.

Okay, so we close the loop. We bring this to Marion.

We bring this to her.

Why do you think she left it?

Nora?

She clearly went through this stuff. She's sharp. She's meticulous. We know that. She doesn't miss things.

Good question. Maybe she already had it. Dylan backed everything up. There could have been copies in the Cedarbrook unit or somewhere else.

Could she have left it for someone?

Seems a little far-fetched given where we found it. I doubt she was leaving it for us or for anyone.

Okay, let's get out of here.

You're doing the thing.

What thing?

The hypervigilance thing. The scanning thing. Your shoulders are up.

Last time we left one of these, there were wolves. We got belted last time. That is not a thing I want to relive.

Completely valid. I'm also doing the thing. Okay, looks clear.

Yes, yeah.

Holloway. Being completely normal, as always.

Maybe you could make peace with it.

I will never make peace with it. That will never happen. Have I not been clear about that?

It's a beautiful mountain.

It's showing off and you know it. There's a version of Leaving Holloway where nothing follows you. This was not that version.

Texting Marion, asking if she can see us tonight.

Good, she needs to see those documents before we overthink what they even mean.

Why, what do you think they mean?

Still formulating theories, but here's a hint, Superman is an orphan.

Yeah, maybe keep formulating their jerky. And when you think you're done, just continue to formulate. Okay, text sent. And the spa, still wanna swing by?

We're already out here. It's what, 20 minutes off the route?

15 if we take the Sentinel Pass turnoff.

We're doing it. Richard was cleared by the surveillance footage, but I still wanna see this place. Maybe we learn something?

Like if he prefers a mud or seaweed wrap?

Sure. Also, I just wanna look at that place.

Me too. It looks so nice.

Hmm. That car's been behind us for a bit.

It's a road, Amy.

I'm being serious. What do you make of the Silver SUV?

The Kia Sportage?

Yeah.

Oh, was it in the secure store lot?

It was, right?

Could be nothing. Holloway to Avalon Falls is the county road. Everyone uses it.

Could be nothing.

They're keeping distance.

Consistent distance.

That could still be nothing.

It could. Okay.

I guess just fly casual for now?

Makes sense.

So, the spa, what do we think a hult does when he wants to get away from his family?

Something that uses both a flotation tank and a wine cellar.

And a staff who knows better than to ask questions.

Obviously.

Do you think he charges it to the business?

I mean, he probably owns the place somewhere down the line, right?

You know what?

I think you're right.

They turned off the Sportage.

Yeah?

Bearview Exit. They're gone.

God. I'm sorry. I sent us both into a whole thing.

No, you were right to flag it.

It was probably just someone from Bearview who happened to park at the same storage facility.

Right. Yeah. On a Sunday afternoon in Holloway.

Holloway has a very active weekend storage space scene. I don't know what people do there, but they are clearly doing it.

You hate it so much.

So much, but in a loving way now. A little bit.

What are you thinking for dinner?

Well, we could pick up groceries, and I thought I could make us dinner. You know, got to start pulling my own weight as a roomie.

Oh, so so fancy. What are you going to make?

How about?

Yeah. How about what?

Mags.

I see it.

That's not the same car.

No, it's not.

That's been back there since the Bearview Junction.

Which means?

The first car was a flag, a diversion, to get us to relax. I'm going to slow down.

What? Why? Just... Okay, okay.

They're slowing down, too.

How far to the Sentinel Pass turnoff?

Four minutes, maybe three.

There are cars there. People.

Yeah.

Amy?

I see it, they're speeding up.

They're gonna try to cut us off from the turnoff.

Hang on!

They're gaining! Amy?

Amy?

The Yaris is a Yaris! She's doing her best!

Turnoff is coming up.

I see it.

They're coming up beside us.

Okay. Hold on.

Whoa!

Look out!

I see it!

They're gonna run us off the road!