On July 27, 2021, in Chap­ter 32, Hol­ly Gib­ney dri­ves down Ridge Road, her mind filled with the tan­gled pieces of her ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion. She pulls into a two-hour park­ing zone, tak­ing a deep breath before dial­ing the Har­ris house­hold, intent on ques­tion­ing Pro­fes­sor Har­ris about Cary Dressler. The name has sur­faced in con­nec­tion with a series of auto thefts, and after spot­ting Dressler in a team pho­to at Strike Em Out Lanes, Hol­ly is deter­mined to explore any poten­tial con­nec­tions.

Pro­fes­sor Har­ris answers the call with a tone of mild indif­fer­ence, not imme­di­ate­ly rec­og­niz­ing the impor­tance of Holly’s inquiry. She care­ful­ly explains her inter­est in Dressler, strate­gi­cal­ly reveal­ing just enough to pique his curios­i­ty while keep­ing her true inten­tions hid­den. Although ini­tial­ly dis­mis­sive, Har­ris even­tu­al­ly agrees to meet with her, sug­gest­ing a brief con­ver­sa­tion at his home, though his tone betrays lit­tle enthu­si­asm for the dis­cus­sion.

As Hol­ly final­izes her plan to vis­it, Har­ris relays the con­ver­sa­tion to his wife, Emi­ly, who remains con­fined to bed due to severe sci­at­i­ca. The cou­ple shares a moment of con­tem­pla­tion, ques­tion­ing whether it is mere­ly coin­ci­dence that Hol­ly has now inquired about two peo­ple with­in their imme­di­ate cir­cle. Emi­ly, always more cau­tious, sens­es the poten­tial for dan­ger, while Har­ris, despite his grow­ing for­get­ful­ness, reas­sures her that he can han­dle the con­ver­sa­tion with­out rais­ing sus­pi­cion.

Emi­ly, though suf­fer­ing from phys­i­cal pain, remains acute­ly aware of the risks posed by Holly’s sud­den inter­est in their affairs. Her husband’s men­tal state has been show­ing signs of decline, a fact that she has tried to ignore but can no longer deny. As Har­ris pre­pares for the meet­ing, she urges him to be care­ful with his words, know­ing full well that his habit of ram­bling might reveal more than they can afford to share.

When Hol­ly arrives at the Har­ris res­i­dence, she is greet­ed by a casu­al­ly dressed Pro­fes­sor Har­ris, who car­ries him­self with a relaxed demeanor despite the under­cur­rents of ten­sion. He leads her into a clut­tered study, where stacks of books and papers cre­ate an atmos­phere of con­trolled chaos, his mind seem­ing­ly pre­oc­cu­pied with any­thing but the con­ver­sa­tion at hand. As they talk, Har­ris down­plays con­cerns about COVID-19 and insists on con­tin­u­ing his work while they speak, cit­ing Emily’s migraine as a rea­son for keep­ing their con­ver­sa­tion brief.

Unbe­knownst to Hol­ly, Emi­ly watch­es the exchange from the bed­room through a hid­den cam­era, her eyes fixed on the screen with a mix of anx­i­ety and frus­tra­tion. She knows her hus­band well enough to rec­og­nize when his focus is slip­ping, and every pause in his speech makes her grip the blan­ket a lit­tle tighter. While she can­not hear every word, she observes his expres­sions care­ful­ly, dread­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that he might let some­thing slip in his absent­mind­ed­ness.

Hol­ly skill­ful­ly steers the con­ver­sa­tion toward Dressler, craft­ing a believ­able sto­ry about his alleged involve­ment in a car theft ring. Har­ris lis­tens with­out much inter­est, offer­ing only sparse rec­ol­lec­tions about Dressler’s past, describ­ing him as some­one who once showed poten­tial but was ulti­mate­ly lost to bad habits. He does, how­ev­er, men­tion some­thing curious—Dressler was known to asso­ciate with a group called the “Hot Witch­es,” a name that sends a rip­ple of intrigue through Holly’s mind.

Else­where, Bar­bara sits in deep con­cen­tra­tion, flip­ping through pages of her broth­er Jerome’s man­u­script, absorb­ing his lat­est lit­er­ary efforts. Her focus shifts as she comes across infor­ma­tion rel­e­vant to Holly’s inves­ti­ga­tion, real­iz­ing that a spe­cif­ic loca­tion she had pre­vi­ous­ly over­looked might hold more sig­nif­i­cance than she ini­tial­ly thought. She marks the area on a map, plan­ning to revis­it the details lat­er, but her thoughts are inter­rupt­ed by a call about a hos­pi­tal­ized friend, remind­ing her of the way life’s urgent real­i­ties often col­lide with per­son­al ambi­tions.

As the meet­ing between Hol­ly and Har­ris comes to a close, she finds her­self walk­ing away with more ques­tions than answers. Harris’s rec­ol­lec­tions offer lit­tle in terms of direct leads, but the men­tion of the “Hot Witch­es” lingers in her mind, sug­gest­ing an avenue worth explor­ing. Though she sens­es that Har­ris is hold­ing some­thing back, it is Emily’s unseen vig­i­lance that tru­ly unset­tles her, leav­ing her with the feel­ing that she is tread­ing dan­ger­ous­ly close to some­thing much big­ger than a sim­ple case of auto theft.

Dri­ving away, Hol­ly process­es the day’s events, weigh­ing the frus­tra­tion of yet anoth­er uncer­tain lead against the pos­si­bil­i­ty that she is slow­ly unrav­el­ing a larg­er truth. The peo­ple she encoun­ters in her search all seem to be con­nect­ed in ways that feel too delib­er­ate to be coin­ci­dence, each inter­ac­tion adding anoth­er lay­er of com­plex­i­ty to her case. Though the answers remain elu­sive, one thing is clear—she is inch­ing clos­er to some­thing sig­nif­i­cant, and those involved are begin­ning to take notice.