Since the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic reshaped dai­ly life, Zoom has evolved from a fre­quent­ly unre­li­able video con­fer­enc­ing tool into an indis­pens­able plat­form with advanced fea­tures and pro­fes­sion­al-grade pro­duc­tion qual­i­ty. In Chap­ter 2, Hol­ly Gib­ney expe­ri­ences this trans­for­ma­tion first­hand when she attends a vir­tu­al funer­al for a loved one, a moment that high­lights how dig­i­tal tools have become a vital part of mod­ern com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Despite being present in the call, she choos­es to keep her cam­era off, a deci­sion dri­ven by her deeply pri­vate nature and dis­com­fort with pub­lic dis­plays of emo­tion, even in moments of shared grief.

Fol­low­ing the ser­vice, Hol­ly receives an incom­ing call from Bar­bara Robin­son but ini­tial­ly ignores it, hes­i­tant to engage in con­ver­sa­tion while still pro­cess­ing the weight of the moment. Even­tu­al­ly, she picks up, reveal­ing her ongo­ing strug­gle to nav­i­gate a world that feels increas­ing­ly unfa­mil­iar and unset­tling. The call expos­es the emo­tion­al toll that the pan­dem­ic has tak­en on Hol­ly, not only through the loss of those she loved but also in the way it has altered her per­cep­tion of nor­mal­cy and sta­bil­i­ty.

Hol­ly’s grief is inten­si­fied by the painful con­trast between the fate of her Uncle Hen­ry and her moth­er, Char­lotte. Uncle Hen­ry, who resides in a nurs­ing home, con­tracts Covid but recov­ers after receiv­ing the vac­cine, while Char­lotte refus­es vac­ci­na­tion and ulti­mate­ly suc­cumbs to the virus after attend­ing an anti-mask ral­ly. This trag­ic irony weighs heav­i­ly on Hol­ly, as she strug­gles to rec­on­cile her mother’s choic­es with the dev­as­tat­ing con­se­quences they brought, ampli­fy­ing an already strained and com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship.

The loss of her moth­er leaves Hol­ly emo­tion­al­ly raw, push­ing her into a state of pro­found mourn­ing where sor­row is com­pound­ed by lin­ger­ing resent­ment. Unlike her Uncle Hen­ry, who chose to pro­tect him­self, Charlotte’s defi­ant stance against safe­ty mea­sures led to a pre­ventable tragedy, forc­ing Hol­ly to con­front feel­ings of frus­tra­tion along­side her grief. Even as she mourns, she can­not escape the emo­tion­al bur­den of unre­solved con­flicts, mak­ing her loss even more dif­fi­cult to process.

Despite her per­son­al tur­moil, Hol­ly remains teth­ered to her work, unable to dis­con­nect from her role as an inves­ti­ga­tor even when over­whelmed by her emo­tions. This instinct kicks in when she receives a dis­tress­ing request for help regard­ing Bon­nie Dahl, a miss­ing per­son whose dis­ap­pear­ance deeply trou­bles her moth­er. Though still griev­ing, Hol­ly finds her­self com­pelled to respond, feel­ing a moral oblig­a­tion to those in need, rein­forc­ing her unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to jus­tice.

Her con­ver­sa­tion with Pete Hunt­ley, her busi­ness part­ner, fur­ther illus­trates her relent­less com­mit­ment to their detec­tive work, even as he recov­ers from a mild case of Covid. Pete, rec­og­niz­ing Holly’s frag­ile emo­tion­al state, sug­gests that she take a step back and refrain from tak­ing on new cas­es. How­ev­er, Hol­ly strug­gles with the idea of paus­ing, unable to ignore the des­per­a­tion in Bon­nie Dahl’s mother’s voice, which res­onates with her own expe­ri­ences of loss and help­less­ness.

As Hol­ly weighs her deci­sion, she finds her­self caught between the per­son­al need to heal and the pro­fes­sion­al instinct to help oth­ers. The ongo­ing pan­dem­ic has left scars on every­one, but for Hol­ly, the wounds are even deep­er, as they inter­twine with her unre­solved grief and unre­lent­ing sense of duty. Despite the emo­tion­al exhaus­tion, she agrees to meet with Bonnie’s moth­er, an act that under­scores both her resilience and her pro­found empa­thy for those endur­ing their own suf­fer­ing.

The chap­ter explores Holly’s inter­nal con­flict as she wres­tles with sor­row, respon­si­bil­i­ty, and an unshak­able dri­ve to seek jus­tice. Her will­ing­ness to push through her pain to assist a griev­ing moth­er reflects her core nature—someone who can­not turn away from peo­ple in need, no mat­ter her per­son­al strug­gles. Along­side Holly’s emo­tion­al jour­ney, the nar­ra­tive also delves into broad­er themes, includ­ing society’s increas­ing reliance on tech­nol­o­gy, the far-reach­ing impact of the pan­dem­ic, and the human capac­i­ty to per­se­vere in the face of adver­si­ty.