On the eighth day since Chase Andrews’s body was found in the swamp, Deputy Pur­due and Sher­iff Ed indulged in a morn­ing treat of cof­fee and donuts from Park­er’s, a rit­u­al that set the tone for their day. Amidst the famil­iar com­fort of their rou­tine, both men revealed they had stum­bled upon poten­tial leads in Chase’s case. Deputy Pur­due relayed infor­ma­tion from sources around town and the Dog-Gone bar indi­cat­ing that Chase had been secret­ly vis­it­ing the marsh­lands alone for the past four years. This behav­ior marked a depar­ture from his usu­al out­ings with friends, spark­ing spec­u­la­tion that he might have been involved in illic­it activ­i­ties, pos­si­bly with dan­ger­ous indi­vid­u­als in drug cir­cles or an undis­closed rela­tion­ship. Despite Chase’s rep­u­ta­tion as an ath­lete and a mem­ber of the Barkley elite, this new angle sug­gest­ed a hid­den aspect of his life that defied his pub­lic per­sona.

Sher­iff Ed expressed skep­ti­cism about Chase’s involve­ment with drugs, giv­en his ath­let­ic back­ground, but acknowl­edged the pos­si­bil­i­ty that Chase was seek­ing excite­ment beyond his glo­ry days. The notion of an affair with a woman from the marsh­lands, though ini­tial­ly dis­missed due to Chase’s social cir­cles, gained some cred­i­bil­i­ty as they con­sid­ered his secre­tive behav­ior might have been moti­vat­ed by a desire to main­tain appear­ances while engag­ing in affairs deemed slum­ming.

The con­ver­sa­tion about Chase’s clan­des­tine activ­i­ties in the marsh opened up a new inves­tiga­tive path for the deputies, prompt­ing them to con­sid­er explor­ing this angle fur­ther. Adding to the intrigue, Chase’s moth­er con­tact­ed the sher­if­f’s office, hint­ing at a vital piece of evi­dence relat­ed to a shell neck­lace Chase wore con­sis­tent­ly. She believed it was cru­cial to the case and planned to dis­cuss it with them that after­noon. This infor­ma­tion pre­sent­ed a new lead, sug­gest­ing that per­son­al items and rela­tion­ships might hold the key to unrav­el­ing the mys­tery sur­round­ing Chase Andrews’s life and death. The chap­ter clos­es with antic­i­pa­tion of Chase’s moth­er’s rev­e­la­tions, set­ting the stage for poten­tial break­throughs in the inves­ti­ga­tion.