Hol­ly Gib­ney remains com­plete­ly absorbed in her inves­ti­ga­tion, her sharp instincts guid­ing her toward details that oth­ers might dis­miss as irrel­e­vant. In Chap­ter 36, a call from Randy Hol­sten shifts her focus, as he casu­al­ly men­tions that Bon­nie, the girl at the cen­ter of Holly’s case, once played the role of a Christ­mas elf at a hol­i­day gath­er­ing. While this detail seems insignif­i­cant at first, Holly’s inves­tiga­tive mind rec­og­nizes the poten­tial for con­nec­tions hid­den beneath the sur­face, prompt­ing her to dig deep­er into its mean­ing.

Fol­low­ing the lead, she reach­es out to Lakeisha Stone, who ver­i­fies that Bon­nie had indeed tak­en part in a vir­tu­al Christ­mas par­ty dur­ing the COVID-19 lock­down. The event, host­ed by retired pro­fes­sors Har­ris and his wife, had fea­tured a hand­ful of par­tic­i­pants, includ­ing Bon­nie, play­ing fes­tive roles like Santa’s elves. Though the infor­ma­tion appears triv­ial, some­thing about the con­nec­tion unset­tles Hol­ly, urg­ing her to inves­ti­gate whether Bonnie’s asso­ci­a­tion with the cou­ple was mere­ly coin­ci­den­tal or if it played a larg­er role in her mys­te­ri­ous dis­ap­pear­ance.

Deter­mined to explore every pos­si­ble link, Hol­ly dis­cov­ers that Bon­nie con­tin­ued work­ing for Mrs. Har­ris beyond the hol­i­day sea­son, assist­ing her with var­i­ous admin­is­tra­tive and tech­ni­cal tasks. This rev­e­la­tion adds a new lay­er of com­plex­i­ty to the case, sug­gest­ing that Bonnie’s rela­tion­ship with the Har­ris­es extend­ed beyond a fleet­ing hol­i­day event. Hol­ly begins to won­der whether the cou­ple might have had deep­er ties to Bonnie’s per­son­al life, mak­ing them more than just casu­al acquain­tances in the young woman’s time­line.

As she con­tin­ues unrav­el­ing the details, Hol­ly finds her­self increas­ing­ly con­sumed by the inves­ti­ga­tion, fol­low­ing every clue with unwa­ver­ing deter­mi­na­tion. The deep­er she digs, the more she real­izes that Bonnie’s van­ish­ing act might not be as sim­ple as it ini­tial­ly seemed—perhaps some­one with­in the Har­ris­es’ cir­cle holds answers that no one has yet uncov­ered. Every step for­ward rein­forces Holly’s belief that even the most insignif­i­cant details can serve as the key to unlock­ing an entire mys­tery wait­ing to be exposed.

Amid her relent­less pur­suit of answers, Hol­ly receives an unex­pect­ed call from Tanya Robin­son, who brings news about Bar­bara, a mutu­al friend, and Olivia Kings­bury, Barbara’s aging men­tor who is near­ing the end of her life. The con­ver­sa­tion briefly pulls Hol­ly out of her inves­tiga­tive mind­set, remind­ing her of the emo­tion­al con­nec­tions she main­tains beyond her work. How­ev­er, even as Tanya speaks, Holly’s mind con­tin­ues to process the case, strug­gling to shift her focus away from the tan­gled web she is deter­mined to untan­gle.

The brief per­son­al moment only high­lights how deeply embed­ded Hol­ly is in her role as an inves­ti­ga­tor, con­stant­ly bal­anc­ing her per­son­al life with the demands of her relent­less pur­suit of truth. Though she val­ues her friend­ships, she can­not help but feel that every minute spent away from the case might be a lost oppor­tu­ni­ty to uncov­er cru­cial evi­dence. This inter­nal strug­gle defines much of Holly’s character—her dri­ve to seek jus­tice often eclipses her abil­i­ty to ful­ly engage with the rela­tion­ships around her, leav­ing her torn between oblig­a­tion and obses­sion.

Just as she attempts to unwind and momen­tar­i­ly detach from her work, a text mes­sage from Bar­bara dis­rupts her attempt at relax­ation. The mes­sage con­tains a response to Holly’s ear­li­er inquiry about Cary Dressler, a name that might hold rel­e­vance to the inves­ti­ga­tion. This sin­gle mes­sage reignites Holly’s relent­less pur­suit, pulling her back into the depths of the mys­tery, prov­ing once again that her ded­i­ca­tion to uncov­er­ing the truth is not some­thing she can eas­i­ly set aside.

As the chap­ter con­cludes, the weight of Holly’s deter­mi­na­tion is palpable—her mind is con­stant­ly work­ing, piec­ing togeth­er frag­ments of infor­ma­tion in hopes of form­ing a com­plete pic­ture. She under­stands that every clue, no mat­ter how minor, could be the miss­ing puz­zle piece need­ed to crack the case wide open. Though exhaus­tion lingers at the edges of her thoughts, she push­es for­ward, dri­ven by an unshak­able instinct that tells her she is on the brink of a rev­e­la­tion that could change every­thing.