The Thursday Murder Club

Karen recalls the date that she had with Jason and all his rapid-fire questions. He asked if she had been there the morning Ian was killed, if her dad was refusing to sell the land to Ian, how she must have wanted her dad to sell so she could get money, and how she works in IT so she could get fentanyl off the black market. Karen laughed in his face, telling Jason that she “was a database administrator for a secondary school” so she did not know a lot about the dark web (243). She adds that she would rather live happily with her dad than live in some expensive place bought with the money. Jason believes her. They sit in a living room explaining it all to Ron. Noticing a photograph in a newsletter, she confirms with the two men that the “police wanted someone who was here in the seventies” (243), and is still there now, before showing the image to Ron and Jason. Ron says that he needs to go and talk to Elizabeth after seeing it for himself.

Chris and Donna go to Steve’s Gym, owned by Steve Georgiou, because they realized he was Gianni’s contact. There is an apartment that Steve has above the gym, available for anyone who needs it, and Chris asks who was staying in it on June 17; Steve denies having contact with Gianni, saying that he has not seen him in 20 years, and he cannot remember who was staying in the flat—maybe a kid, maybe no one, he says. Before Donna and Chris leave, Steve asks if they could put something into the Lost Property at the station, adding that someone must have dropped it a couple weeks ago. It is a “clear plastic wallet, filled with cash” (248). They knew it wouldn’t have prints on it, but it was Steve’s way of letting them know that they are right about Gianni. In Chapter 106, Elizabeth leaves her apartment in the evening. Ron comes to see her and show her the photograph that Karen pointed out to him. She says that the “case is solved and only justice remains,” and goes to meet the others in the Jigsaw room. Chapter 107 opens with Chris being granted an international warrant for the arrest of Gianni for “questioning over the murder of Tony Curran” because the Euros in the wallet were taken out three days before his murder (250).

The Thursday Murder Club walks into Penny’s hospital room to speak to John. He is the one that Karen recognized in the photo. He is not surprised to see them, knowing it was coming. John starts to tell his story to the group, saying that it started in 1967, when he killed an old farmer who was in great distress. John says he put him out of his misery, giving the man a deadly shot under the ruse of a free flu shot. He buried the man in the graveyard at the church. Forty years later, when their development was built, he came back to keep an eye on things. He could not dig the body up himself, so “in a panic” he “slid a syringe into [Ian’s] arm” and killed him (253). Elizabeth says that they will have to tell the police, but they will wait a little bit. She says that she does not believe John would kill Ian simply to save his own skin, arguing that she thinks he “committed an act [John] knew to be unforgivable” for love (254). Elizabeth pulls out one of Penny’s files and says it will help them get to the truth.

Elizabeth opens Chapter 110 by explaining a case Penny worked on in 1973. A girl was stabbed during a burglary and bled to death in front of the boyfriend, but the crime was suspicious. Penny and John believed that the boyfriend did it. It is the same case that Elizabeth first asked Joyce about when they met in the opening chapters. The boyfriend had been a soldier, so he would have had the medical training that Joyce stated could have saved the girl; however, the boyfriend disappeared not long after the girl died. Penny had killed Peter Mercer, the boyfriend, and only confessed it to John after her sickness had taken over her mind, not noticing her own confession because of her delusions.

Elizabeth says that she is “going to get the others to take [John] home” so that he can sleep in his own bed, and that she will “come with the police in the morning,” before the group leaves the room for John to say his goodbyes to Penny (259). Chapter 111 opens in Donna’s flat, where Chris is there visiting. Donna is trying to set him up with her mom, a teacher who sings in a choir and checks off the fantasy list he has for his perfect woman. Donna gets a text from Elizabeth asking if they are free the next day, with Chris guessing they solved the case. Elizabeth is in Penny’s room, saying goodbye, in Chapter 112. She is asking her friend if any of the guilty people they studied over the years ever got away with it, or if Penny was doling out justice for them all. Elizabeth had seen the syringe that John had injected Penny with earlier when saying his goodbyes, so she knows that her friend will soon die, but is at peace with it. Chapter 113 has Chris opening an email from an unknown account, with the contents detailing a forwarded correspondence from Costas, Gianni’s father. The message from the man saying that his son did come back in 2000, but he has not seen him since and has always been looking for Gianni. He asks that Chris help him find out what happened to his son.

Stephan sits with Bogdan in Chapter 114 playing chess in his home. Stephan says that he believes Bogdan killed Tony, and the man admits he did do the crime. Bogdan says the reason that he killed Tony is because, years ago, his best friend Kazimir drove a taxi in England, and one day the driver saw Tony kill a young boy. Gianni later killed Kazimir because “Tony told him to” (265). Bogdan goes on to say that he killed Gianni as well, but he did that pretty much right after his friend was murdered years ago. He told Gianni that they would help him escape but had plans to shoot him all along, throwing him overboard after weighing him down with bricks. Bogdan had to take his time with Tony, he says, waiting for the right moment so that he would not get caught. When he installed the surveillance system, he did not do it properly, so that he could go back and kill Tony. Bogdan says that if they “catch [him], they catch [him]” but that he had created a good false trail (265). When Stephan asks what false trail, Bogdan begins speaking about a camera he found but is interrupted by Elizabeth coming home. The two men do not reveal their conversation to her.

The final chapter of the novel is written as a diary entry from Joyce. Penny and John have been buried, and Elizabeth never went to the funeral. The police are still looking for Gianni, but Bogdan told her the other day that “Gianni is too smart for that” (271). Joyce reveals that she thinks that Bogdan killed Tony but doesn’t want to ask him right away in case he takes offense. Joyce finally discovers the connection she has to Bramley Holdings: “Bramley” is a name her daughter gave a childhood toy. Joanna and her work partner are the ones who bought the retirement home from Ian’s widow. Father Matthew is in tears over hearing that Maggie now has a safe spot in the cemetery because the development is not happening anymore, and her grave is now taken care of. The diary entry ends with Joyce’s excitement of Elizabeth having told her they have a new case. It being Thursday, Joyce leaves on her way to another Thursday Murder Club meeting.