Chap­ter 6: Frank Sza­tows­ki returned to Black­bird cot­tage, greet­ed by the lin­ger­ing heav­i­ness of the recent tragedy involv­ing the death of Gwen­dolyn. His sis­ter, Tam­my, and niece, Abi­gail, were gear­ing up for a hike in an attempt to move on from the events, while Frank found him­self caught in the pull of grief. Despite Tammy’s insis­tence that they press on with the wed­ding-relat­ed activ­i­ties, Frank was over­whelmed by the emo­tion­al toll of the sit­u­a­tion and opt­ed to stay behind to rest. As they left for their hike, Frank qui­et­ly pre­pared a snack, hop­ing to avoid fur­ther encoun­ters and the emo­tion­al strain that accom­pa­nied the unfold­ing events, leav­ing him with the need for soli­tude.

While alone in the qui­et of the cot­tage, Frank made the deci­sion to head toward the beach, seek­ing some space from the crowd. He had heard that Gwendolyn’s body had been dragged to shore, and he felt com­pelled to wit­ness the after­math first­hand. As he walked along the shore, the pre­vi­ous­ly chaot­ic and fran­tic atmos­phere had set­tled into eerie silence, with only faint traces of the tragedy left behind. The sense of grief that had weighed on the area still hung in the air, and Frank’s mind was filled with an unset­tling quiet­ness as he reached the entrance to the camp.

Upon arrival, Frank encoun­tered Hugo, who seemed unfazed by the events, main­tain­ing an upbeat atti­tude. Hugo offered to help Frank retrieve his car, though Frank insist­ed he could han­dle it him­self. Nev­er­the­less, Hugo remained per­sis­tent and promised to take care of the Jeep’s deliv­ery, main­tain­ing a cheer­ful dis­po­si­tion, which felt out of place against the somber back­drop of the tragedy. As the two spoke briefly, Hugo casu­al­ly men­tioned his ongo­ing role in man­ag­ing the camp, deal­ing with main­te­nance tasks through­out the year. This rou­tine glimpse into the work­ings of the camp seemed to con­trast sharply with the chaos sur­round­ing the death and the height­ened emo­tions of the day.

After their con­ver­sa­tion, Frank made his way into town with a deep sense of unease. He stopped at a local restau­rant, the hum of activ­i­ty around him only serv­ing to height­en his inter­nal tur­moil. As he walked away from the bustling area, he took a wood­ed path lead­ing to Brody Taggart’s home, where he hoped to gain clar­i­ty on the details sur­round­ing Gwendolyn’s trag­ic death. Upon arriv­ing, Frank was star­tled by the bark­ing dog and was tak­en aback when Brody appeared, hold­ing an AR-15 and point­ing it in his direc­tion. The con­fronta­tion was tense, and Frank tried to main­tain his com­po­sure as he explained his urgent need for answers regard­ing Gwendolyn’s death. After a brief, tense silence, Brody’s sis­ter, Lin­da, came out­side, offer­ing a more wel­com­ing atti­tude that helped dif­fuse the sit­u­a­tion.

Lin­da and Frank quick­ly found com­mon ground in dis­cussing her daugh­ter, Dawn, and the com­plex­i­ties of her rela­tion­ship with Aidan Gard­ner. Lin­da expressed her con­cerns about what she called “Gard­ner Stan­dard Time,” a manip­u­lat­ed real­i­ty con­trolled by Aidan and his fam­i­ly. This, she explained, was part of the web of influ­ence Aidan had woven around her daugh­ter, lead­ing to a dif­fi­cult, often con­fus­ing rela­tion­ship that had no clear bound­aries. Linda’s rev­e­la­tions about Aidan’s manip­u­la­tive tac­tics shed light on the dynam­ics between him and Dawn, mak­ing it evi­dent that their rela­tion­ship was far more com­pli­cat­ed than it appeared on the sur­face.

The con­ver­sa­tion soon took an even dark­er turn when Lin­da shared unset­tling details about Dawn’s final days. She revealed that Dawn had found a preg­nan­cy test, which had sparked fur­ther anx­i­ety, and that a phone call from her daugh­ter just before her dis­ap­pear­ance had raised alarms. Lin­da voiced her deep mis­trust of the police’s inves­ti­ga­tion into Dawn’s dis­ap­pear­ance, sug­gest­ing that cru­cial evi­dence had either been over­looked or delib­er­ate­ly ignored. As Lin­da spoke about the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a cov­er-up, Frank felt a ris­ing sense of dread. The chap­ter end­ed on a note of sus­pi­cion and uncer­tain­ty, with Frank’s grow­ing con­cerns about the poten­tial dan­gers fac­ing his own daugh­ter, Mag­gie. The mys­ter­ies sur­round­ing Gwendolyn’s death and Aidan’s influ­ence on those around him cre­at­ed a web of ques­tions that left Frank feel­ing trapped in a sit­u­a­tion far beyond his con­trol.