Holly

Emily’s sciatica has made her bedridden. Rodney serves Emily a pudding made of Peter Steinman’s fat, then rubs it over her legs, hoping that it will restore her strength so that she can help him dispose of Bonnie.

In the basement, Bonnie wakes naked and shackled to Rodney’s worktable. Rodney and Emily are standing by wearing butchers’ aprons. Bonnie observes that Emily’s face is “little more than a skull” (333). Bonnie asks if they are going to rape her, but Emily gleefully tells Bonnie that they are going to eat her.

Early in the morning, Emily stands at her bedroom window angrily contemplating Holly’s progress. She knows that Holly is aware of Ellen Craslow, Bonnie Dahl, and Cary Dressler. She enters the bathroom and retrieves a brown bottle containing two cyanide pills. Returning to the bedroom, she looks down at Rodney and realizes that he looks old.

Holly wakes to a voicemail from Pete’s daughter Shauna, informing her that Pete is in the hospital after fainting the previous day. Holly thinks of Althea Haverty and wishes she were in the hospital instead.

Holly drives to Rolling Hills Elder Care to visit Vic Anderson. Vic has suffered from a stroke which impairs his speech, so his wife Evelyn translates for him. Holly is pleased to observe that Evelyn and Vic still appear deeply in love. Vic says that Rodney and Cary were friends and would sometimes drink together at a bar near the bowling alley. He also shares that Rodney drives a Subaru van.

Stepping outside for a smoke break, Holly tries to synthesize the details of the case. She believes that Rodney might be covering for the Red Bank Predator; she still thinks he is too elderly and frail to be the prime suspect himself. Holly checks Facebook and notices that Penny has posted a status outing her as a P.I. She wonders if Rodney knew this during their interview.

Holly returns to the care facility and visits her elderly uncle, Henry, who is suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s. Holly confronts him about letting Charlotte control her life. In a moment of lucidity, Henry argues that no one could stand up to his sister. Holly thinks proudly that she is the exception.

At Kiner Memorial, Marie summons Barbara to Olivia’s room to say goodbye. Barbara and Marie each hold one of Olivia’s hands. Olivia smiles at them, then dies peacefully.

On the drive back to the city, Holly stops for a cigarette. Barbara has texted her, describing her brief and unpleasant encounter with the Harrises. Back at home, Holly googles Jorge Castro and finds an article about his disappearance, which includes a note left behind, reading “I’ve had all I can take” (349). Holly believes that this note is fabricated.

Holly considers the related disappearances and the fact that the Harrises were in the background of each one. She calls Imani and has her pull up a picture of Emily. Imani confirms that Emily is the woman who picked up Ellen’s belongings. Holly writes out a preliminary case report, but decides not to send it along to anyone. Deep down, she still doesn’t quite trust her own abilities and worries that people will mock her if she’s wrong. Holly decides to return to the Harris house and confirm that Rodney’s van is the one seen in Bonnie’s security footage. She retrieves a Smith & Wesson pistol from her gun safe.

Barbara and Marie plan a celebration-of-life memorial ceremony for Olivia. Over 100 people turn out for the event, where they read Olivia’s poetry and share anecdotes from her life. Barbara doesn’t realize that she has left her phone in the living room of Olivia’s house.

Rodney goes for a walk in Deerfield Park. He laments that, despite having eaten large quantities of Bonnie’s brains in the past few weeks, he continues to suffer from lapses in memory, which he hides from Emily. He has long believed that eating healthy young brains could cure Alzheimer’s, but he’s beginning to doubt himself. Emily calls to relay good news—Olivia Kingsbury is dead—and bad news: Holly suspects them. She urges Rodney to come home soon so they can talk.

At 7 PM, Holly parks at a playground near the Harrises’ house and waits. Around 8 PM, Rodney, returning from his walk, spots her smoking outside her car. He calls Emily to warn her, then begins to follow Holly. Emily sets up the security alarm system in the house and waits for Holly.

Sneaking around back the Harrises’ house, Holly picks the lock on their garage. Inside she finds the Subaru van, along with a wheelchair. She realizes that the Harrises must be using it to lure victims. As she turns to go, Emily calls out for help from the front steps, where she has faked a fall. As Holly bends down to her, Emily tases her. Holly breaks Emily’s wrist with Bill’s gun before collapsing.

Sitting on her front porch, Penny calls Holly, but gets her voicemail. She concludes that Holly has given up on the case.

Holly awakes in the Harrises’ basement cell. Reaching under the futon, she locates Bonnie’s missing triangular gold earring. When Rodney and Emily come down, she asks them point-blank if they eat their victims, and they confirm this. Emily offers Holly a bottle of water in exchange for a promise of silence, but Holly knows that the Harrises plan to kill her no matter what.

After calling Holly several times and getting no answer, Penny contacts Finders Keepers. She gets Barbara’s number and leaves several voicemails expressing her concern. When Barbara returns to Olivia’s house to retrieve her phone, she decides to check on Holly.

Emily rifles through Holly’s purse and retrieves her Finders Keepers key card. She plans to locate and delete the Bonnie Dahl case file before killing Holly. She instructs Rodney not to go into the basement while she is gone. If the police arrive to search the house, they will each take a cyanide pill, suicide being a preferable alternative to seeing their reputations ruined. Ruefully, Emily acknowledges that this is her fault because she is the one who pushed Rodney to cross the line from theorizing into murder and cannibalism.

At Finders Keepers, Emily uses Holly’s keycard to enter her office, but can’t find a report. On her way out, she passes Barbara, who has come to look for Holly. Barbara recognizes signs of trespassing in Holly’s office. She is unable to unlock Holly’s computer, but calls Jerome, who promises to board the next flight home. Exhausted, Barbara returns home and falls asleep.

Forgetting Emily’s instructions, Rodney enters the basement. As he waxes poetic about the virtues of cannibalism, Holly tells him that all the effects he claims to experience are down to the placebo effect. In fact, he is suffering from rapidly advancing Alzheimer’s. Furious, Rodney lunges at her, whereupon she uses Bonnie’s earring to slice his jugular vein through the bars. Rodney stumbles for a few yards before collapsing, dead.

Emily returns home and enters the basement to check on Holly, who points out Rodney’s dead body. Furious and heartbroken, Emily goes back upstairs and retrieves Holly’s Smith & Wesson gun. She shoots Holly several times from a distance before approaching the cage to press the pistol against Holly’s head. When she pulls the trigger, the chamber is empty. Holly grabs Emily through the bars and breaks her neck. She manages to wrap her gunshot wound before passing out.

Holly dreams that she is back at Rolling Hills Elder Care, in a room with her mother and uncle, who are drinking glasses of cold iced tea. They tell Holly that they lied about the money to protect her; she is too fragile to handle an inheritance of millions. Holly asks for a drink, and they each hold out a glass, chanting in unison that Holly can have a drink if she promises to come home. Holly wakes parched and aching, still in the Harris’ basement. She tells herself that she has no regrets and thinks, “I need to learn to trust myself more” (412).

Barbara is wakes to a phone call from her mother. During their conversation, an innocuous phrase triggers her memory of Holly’s text message. Opening the photo again, she focuses on Rodney Harris. She finally connects the dots between the Harrises and their victims. Arming herself with a pistol, Barbara makes her way to the Harris home. She locates Holly in the basement and brings her water before calling the police. EMTs arrive to cut the bars on the cage, and Holly is taken to Kiner Memorial.

Holly is interviewed about the Harrises’ crimes and the circumstances of their deaths by incredulous police officers. Though she is relieved to be free, Holly dreads informing Penny about her daughter’s fate.

Over the following days, the Harrises’ twisted crimes become national news. Izzy tells Penny about her daughter’s fate, sparing Holly. Meanwhile, Jerome informs Vera about her son Peter’s murder. He urges her to honor her son’s memory by committing to sobriety, and Vera agrees to try.

As Holly recuperates at home, Izzy calls to inform her that the police have found Emily Harris’s diaries. In them, she wrote long screeds about her victims, peppered with racist and homophobic slurs. The police have concluded that Emily was the driving force behind the couple’s crimes.

Holly returns to her office at Finders Keepers. Barbara calls to announce that she has won the Penley Prize. Holly is glad that Barbara can use her poetry as a coping mechanism.

Reflecting on the depths of evil she’s witnessed in her short time as a P.I., Holly contemplates retiring and living off her savings. Just then, the office phone rings. Holly knows that if she ignores it, she is giving up on Finders Keepers for good. She wonders what Bill would want her to do. After several moments of hesitation, Holly picks up the phone.