On July 30, 2021, Chap­ter 40 unfolds as Hol­ly Gib­ney is sum­moned to a meet­ing at Kin­er Memo­r­i­al Hos­pi­tal, where she is escort­ed into a con­fer­ence room occu­pied by FBI Agent Her­bert Beale, Dis­trict Attor­ney Albert Tan­tle, and sev­er­al oth­er law enforce­ment offi­cials. The dis­cus­sion cen­ters on the grue­some can­ni­bal­is­tic crimes that have dom­i­nat­ed nation­al head­lines, with Hol­ly play­ing a key role in the case after bare­ly escap­ing cap­tiv­i­ty. Seat­ed in a wheel­chair per hos­pi­tal pro­to­col, she is still recov­er­ing from her injuries, yet her mind remains sharp, ready to deliv­er a first­hand account of the har­row­ing events.

Despite the crime lack­ing an inter­state jurisdiction—a com­mon rea­son for FBI intervention—federal agents are involved due to the case’s noto­ri­ety, its dis­turb­ing nature, and the evi­dence point­ing to rit­u­al­is­tic and method­i­cal vio­lence. As the brief­ing begins, Hol­ly is pre­sent­ed with dis­turb­ing pho­tographs and doc­u­ments, con­firm­ing that human remains were processed, stored, and repur­posed in unimag­in­able ways. The foren­sic reports sug­gest that the vic­tims were not mere­ly killed, but sub­ject­ed to a dehu­man­iz­ing process, fuel­ing the sus­pi­cions that their cap­tors may have engaged in their grue­some acts for far longer than pre­vi­ous­ly believed.

Hol­ly, still haunt­ed by her ordeal, details her cap­tiv­i­ty and how she man­aged to turn the tables on her kid­nap­pers, empha­siz­ing that her actions were pure­ly in self-defense. She recounts the painstak­ing psy­cho­log­i­cal bat­tle she endured while trapped, know­ing that hes­i­ta­tion would cost her life. The offi­cials lis­ten as she describes how, when the oppor­tu­ni­ty arose, she over­pow­ered her cap­tors and elim­i­nat­ed them—a feat that, while jus­ti­fied, has left law enforce­ment with­out liv­ing sus­pects to pros­e­cute. The dis­trict attor­ney voic­es frus­tra­tion over the inabil­i­ty to bring any­one to tri­al, as both per­pe­tra­tors per­ished, leav­ing behind only their grotesque crimes as evi­dence.

Beyond the foren­sic and legal aspects, the meet­ing delves into the per­son­al toll the case has tak­en on the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, par­tic­u­lar­ly those who had been search­ing for their loved ones with false hopes of their return. The sor­row and dev­as­ta­tion rip­ple out­ward, a grim reminder that vio­lence extends far beyond the direct vic­tims. While Hol­ly remains com­posed, she is deeply aware that her actions, while nec­es­sary, have left many ques­tions unanswered—especially for the rel­a­tives who will nev­er have full clo­sure.

Lat­er, Detec­tive Izzy Jaynes requests a pri­vate meet­ing with Hol­ly in the hos­pi­tal chapel, a loca­tion cho­sen for its qui­et and solemn atmos­phere. Jaynes, tasked with the heart-wrench­ing duty of noti­fy­ing next of kin, seeks Holly’s insight on how to best con­vey the painful truth to Pen­ny Dahl, a woman des­per­ate­ly await­ing word on her miss­ing loved one. Hol­ly reflects on how deliv­er­ing such news is its own kind of tor­ment, requir­ing a bal­ance between hon­esty and sen­si­tiv­i­ty, ensur­ing that the truth doesn’t break those already bur­dened by loss.

Mean­while, Holly’s friend Jerome Robin­son shoul­ders a sim­i­lar bur­den, tak­ing on the task of inform­ing Vera Stein­man about the fate of her son, a vic­tim in the hor­ri­fy­ing series of crimes. As he pre­pares to break the news, he strug­gles with the eth­i­cal dilem­ma of how much to reveal—should he be entire­ly truth­ful about the atroc­i­ties or pro­vide a soft­ened ver­sion of events to spare a griev­ing moth­er? In the end, Jerome choos­es com­pas­sion over stark real­i­ty, gen­tly reas­sur­ing Vera that her son did not suf­fer, even though the truth remains uncer­tain.

The chap­ter clos­es on a poignant note, with Hol­ly, Izzy, and Jerome bear­ing the emo­tion­al weight of their roles in the after­math of the case. While jus­tice may have been served in the elim­i­na­tion of the per­pe­tra­tors, the lin­ger­ing scars—both phys­i­cal and emotional—remain. In the wake of so much cru­el­ty, they find them­selves ques­tion­ing how much dark­ness a per­son can face before it leaves a per­ma­nent imprint on their soul.