36. July 27, 2021

In this chap­ter, Hol­ly Gib­ney is deep into her inves­ti­ga­tion, her keen sense con­tin­u­ous­ly pulling at threads that might seem irrel­e­vant to many. She begins by receiv­ing an unex­pect­ed call from Randy Hol­sten, who brings up a seem­ing­ly triv­ial detail about Bon­nie, a girl Hol­ly is inves­ti­gat­ing, claim­ing she was a Christ­mas elf dur­ing a par­ty. This minor piece of infor­ma­tion leads Hol­ly down a path of con­nect­ing dots that appear unre­lat­ed at first glance.

Her inves­ti­ga­tion leads her to reach out to Lakeisha Stone, who con­firms Bon­nie’s role as one of San­ta’s elves dur­ing a COVID-era Zoom Christ­mas par­ty host­ed by two retired pro­fes­sors, the Har­ris­es. This con­nec­tion sparks an intu­ition in Hol­ly, dri­ving her to pur­sue the lead fur­ther. Despite try­ing to remain ground­ed in facts rather than sup­po­si­tions, Hol­ly can’t help but fol­low her gut feel­ing that there’s more to Bon­nie’s dis­ap­pear­ance and her con­nec­tion to the Har­ris­es.

Attempt­ing to trace Bon­nie’s steps, Hol­ly learns that Bon­nie had worked for Mrs. Har­ris after the Christ­mas par­ty, aid­ing in admin­is­tra­tive and com­put­er-relat­ed tasks. This piece of infor­ma­tion adds anoth­er lay­er to Hol­ly’s inves­ti­ga­tion, hint­ing at pos­si­ble per­son­al con­nec­tions between Bon­nie and the peo­ple she worked for. As Hol­ly delves deep­er, she becomes increas­ing­ly involved in her work, her thoughts con­sumed by the case.

Amidst her inves­tiga­tive work, Hol­ly receives a call from Tanya Robin­son, updat­ing her on Bar­bara, a mutu­al acquain­tance, and her recent accom­plish­ments and chal­lenges, includ­ing Bar­bara’s close rela­tion­ship with her men­tor, Olivia Kings­bury, who is near­ing the end of her life. This con­ver­sa­tion, while seem­ing­ly detached from Hol­ly’s inves­ti­ga­tion, under­lines the per­son­al con­nec­tions and emo­tion­al depth involved in Hol­ly’s life beyond her work.

The chap­ter clos­es with Hol­ly try­ing to unwind, only to be drawn back into her inves­tiga­tive mind­set by a text from Bar­bara, respond­ing to an inquiry about Cary Dressler, a fig­ure poten­tial­ly relat­ed to her case. Hol­ly’s relent­less pur­suit of truth, her method­i­cal approach to the inves­ti­ga­tion, and the per­son­al inter­ac­tions that inter­sect her pro­fes­sion­al life paint a pic­ture of a deeply involved and com­plex char­ac­ter who is as dri­ven by her intu­itions as she is by the facts of the case.