40. July 30, 2021

On July 30, 2021, Hol­ly Gib­ney is brought into Kin­er Memorial’s con­fer­ence room, where FBI agent Her­bert Beale and oth­ers, includ­ing Dis­trict Attor­ney Albert Tan­tle, are present for a brief­ing relat­ed to a grue­some case involv­ing can­ni­bal­ism. Hol­ly, involved in the inves­ti­ga­tion due to being kid­napped and defend­ing her­self by killing her kid­nap­pers, par­tic­i­pates in the meet­ing via wheel­chair as per hos­pi­tal pro­to­col. Despite the lack of an inter­state angle, the FBI’s involve­ment is attrib­uted to the case’s high-pro­file nature.

Dur­ing the meet­ing, Hol­ly is shown evi­dence and con­firms her actions in self-defense. The meet­ing reveals dis­turb­ing find­ings, includ­ing human remains processed as food and uncon­ven­tion­al uses of human remains, shock­ing every­one involved. Hol­ly recounts her har­row­ing expe­ri­ence, detail­ing how she man­aged to sur­vive and turn the tables on her cap­tors, lead­ing to their deaths and her escape.

In addi­tion to the crim­i­nal aspects, the meet­ing touch­es on the emo­tion­al toll on the vic­tims’ fam­i­lies, high­light­ing Hol­ly’s resolve to ensure they are informed prop­er­ly. The dis­trict attor­ney express­es frus­tra­tion over the lack of pros­e­cutable sus­pects due to Holly’s self-defense actions lead­ing to the deaths of the per­pe­tra­tors.

Lat­er, Hol­ly is request­ed to meet Detec­tive Izzy Jaynes in the hos­pi­tal chapel, where they dis­cuss the chal­leng­ing task of inform­ing the next of kin, reveal­ing the dev­as­tat­ing impact on Pen­ny Dahl, a vic­tim’s rel­a­tive. Hol­ly’s ear­li­er con­fronta­tion with her cap­tors is jux­ta­posed with the cur­rent emo­tion­al con­fronta­tions, illus­trat­ing the wide-reach­ing con­se­quences of the case.

Mean­while, Jerome deals with the emo­tion­al labor of inform­ing Vera Stein­man about her son’s fate, nav­i­gat­ing the com­plex­i­ties of deliv­er­ing trag­ic news with empa­thy and care. The nar­ra­tive con­verges on themes of jus­tice, the psy­cho­log­i­cal impact of vio­lence, and the human capac­i­ty for both cru­el­ty and resilience. The chap­ter con­cludes with Jerome com­fort­ing Vera, lying to ease her pain by assur­ing her son did not suf­fer, despite the uncer­tain­ty sur­round­ing the events.