Those Empty Eyes

Tracy Carr, the journalist who first broke the story of the Quinlan murders, has seen her career blossom in 10 years since then. In addition to a career writing for the Times, she maintains a true crime hobby in which she continues to investigate cases like the Quinlan murders. Tracy uploads a video for her many followers in that casts doubt on the verdict of Alex Quinlan’s innocence and asks her followers to help her find Alex.

Alex Quinlan, now living as Alex Armstrong, has a job as an investigator for Garrett’s firm. She works closely with Buck Jordan, one of Garrett’s partners at the firm. Together, they’re gathering information about a new client, Byron Zell.

Zell approached the firm for a wrongful termination suit, and Buck and Garrett, wanting to do their due diligence to determine their client’s innocence, are using Alex to gather information on Zell. As Buck watches from a car outside, Alex breaks into Zell’s apartment. She accesses his financial records on his laptop and emails the records to Garrett, using Zell’s account. Buck warns Alex that Zell just entered the building, and Alex narrowly escapes without him seeing her.

Laura McAllister, a student at McCormack University who runs a small but popular gossip-channel-turned-reporting-outlet, arrives at NBC, where famed news anchor Dante Campbell interviews her. Dante praises her for her work spearheading programs to help improve safety for female students on college campuses.

An unnamed female college student, debilitated by a date rape drug at a frat party, is raped by a frat boy. The next morning, she goes to the hospital and reports the crime.

Larry Chadwick, the presumptive nominee to fill a recent vacancy in the Supreme Court, meets with Annette Packard, an FBI agent tasked with vetting him and digging up any potential blemishes in his history that would affect his nomination. Larry is convinced that his life is superficially perfect and that Annette will have to work very hard to uncover any “dirt.”

Alex, now 10 years removed from her family’s massacre, has uncovered new evidence thanks to Leo’s leveraging of Drew Estes. She discovered that the bank statements in her parents’ closet belonged to Roland Glazer, a businessman convicted of trafficking teen girls who died by suicide in jail before his trial could start. Glazer is now the focal point of Alex’s investigation.

Garrett makes a surprise visit to Alex’s apartment. He asks her if the files sent from Zell’s computer could be traced back to the firm in any way; Alex assures him that she covered her tracks. Garrett tells her that while the files showed no fiscal wrongdoing, they contained child pornography, so Garrett reported Zell and the files to the police.

Annette Packard’s assistant informs her of a major issue that arose during the investigation of Larry Chadwick.

Laura McAllister considers the investigation she spent the past month working on: a deep dive into allegations of rape at McCormack that the university’s administration systematically covered up. As she’s thinking about the ramifications of releasing her work, she receives a call from Duncan Chadwick and realizes that her story must have leaked.

Annette arrives at Larry Chadwick’s residence. She reflects on how her team uncovered Larry’s covering up his son Duncan’s DUI. However, the new revelation that her team discovered will be much worse for Larry.

Annette informs Larry and his wife that Laura McAllister is about to release a report on the rape cover-up at McCormack. The report connects the rape to the frat that Duncan pledged to. Annette informs Larry that to get ahead of this, he, his wife, and Duncan must release a statement before the report is published.

The Chadwick family delivers remarks at McCormack, strongly denouncing sexual violence. Larry dodges questions about whether the brewing scandal will affect his nomination.

Even though her story was leaked, Laura decides that she must publish her report. Rather than publishing it using the University’s media platform, however, she decides to use her own media accounts. Laura pockets the USB drive with her report and leaves campus to head to her apartment; this walk is “the last time anyone would see Laura McAllister alive” (175).