On July 27, 2021, Chap­ter 30 unfolds as Hol­ly Gib­ney arrives at Avram Welch’s con­do­mini­um in Sun­rise Bay, a space filled with tokens of his past—model ships in bot­tles and a framed pho­to of his late wife, Mary, who trag­i­cal­ly suc­cumbed to lung can­cer despite nev­er smok­ing. Welch reflects on sig­nif­i­cant moments in his life, from under­go­ing a dou­ble knee replace­ment to his final vis­its to the local bowl­ing alley, where he shared time with Cary Dressler and their team, the Gold­en Oldies. He recalls Cary as an eccen­tric but well-liked pres­ence in the group, not­ing how mar­i­jua­na use dur­ing their games seemed to improve per­for­mance for most—except for Rod­dy Har­ris, who always chose to abstain.

As Welch speaks, Hol­ly care­ful­ly observes him, weigh­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that he could be the Red Bank Preda­tor, a the­o­ry that direct­ly con­flicts with her instincts. Despite her inves­tiga­tive train­ing, the notion of Welch as a cold-blood­ed ser­i­al killer doesn’t sit right, his demeanor and rec­ol­lec­tions lack­ing the under­cur­rent of decep­tion she usu­al­ly detects in dan­ger­ous indi­vid­u­als. Still, she knows that even the most unas­sum­ing peo­ple can hide mon­strous secrets, forc­ing her to keep an open mind as she pieces togeth­er the scat­tered clues.

Mean­while, Bar­bara is lost in the depths of Ran­dall Jarrell’s poet­ry, absorbed in the qui­et beau­ty of his words when an unex­pect­ed call from her broth­er, Jerome, inter­rupts her rever­ie. Jerome, full of excite­ment, shares his plans for an upcom­ing week­end in Mon­tauk, a rare break from the inten­si­ty of their ongo­ing dis­cus­sions about Holly’s inves­ti­ga­tion. Their con­ver­sa­tion soon shifts to Barbara’s own lit­er­ary ambi­tions, with her reveal­ing that Olivia Kings­bury had secret­ly sub­mit­ted her work for the pres­ti­gious Pen­ley Prize, a rev­e­la­tion that catch­es even her by sur­prise.

Jerome’s response is one of pure enthu­si­asm, his pride in his sister’s accom­plish­ments evi­dent as he encour­ages her to embrace the oppor­tu­ni­ty. Yet the moment of cel­e­bra­tion is brief, as Jerome piv­ots back to Holly’s case, reveal­ing that her lat­est find­ings may have inad­ver­tent­ly exposed the pres­ence of a ser­i­al killer oper­at­ing near Deer­field Park or the local col­lege. The thought shakes Bar­bara from her lit­er­ary mus­ings, her mind now split between per­son­al suc­cess and the unset­tling mys­tery that seems to be unfold­ing around them.

Sens­ing the urgency in Jerome’s voice, Bar­bara quick­ly shifts gears, now ful­ly engaged in the con­ver­sa­tion about Holly’s inves­ti­ga­tion. Jerome explains that a sud­den real­iza­tion about the case has led him to believe they are deal­ing with some­thing far larg­er than a few miss­ing per­sons, sug­gest­ing a pat­tern that had pre­vi­ous­ly gone unno­ticed. His request for Bar­bara to retrieve an orange flash dri­ve from their father’s study hints at new evi­dence or a cru­cial con­nec­tion that could final­ly bring the case into focus.

The con­trast between Barbara’s lit­er­ary aspi­ra­tions and the dark real­i­ty of a poten­tial ser­i­al killer lurk­ing in their midst adds a sense of ten­sion, bridg­ing the gap between the per­son­al and the inves­tiga­tive. Though she had been pre­pared to cel­e­brate her own suc­cess, she now finds her­self drawn into the com­plex­i­ties of Holly’s case, unable to ignore the grav­i­ty of what her broth­er is sug­gest­ing. As she process­es Jerome’s words, she under­stands that this dis­cov­ery could shift the entire course of the inves­ti­ga­tion, and pos­si­bly their lives, for­ev­er.

With each new rev­e­la­tion, the threads of Holly’s case grow more entan­gled, pulling in those clos­est to her as the stakes rise. Whether Welch is tru­ly a sus­pect or sim­ply an aging man lost in nos­tal­gia remains uncer­tain, but Hol­ly knows bet­ter than to ignore any detail, no mat­ter how small. As she leaves Sun­rise Bay, she can’t shake the feel­ing that the truth is clos­er than ever, wait­ing to be uncov­ered in the places no one dares to look.