Opening
These chapters yank the past into the present as Chloe’s private suspicions collide with real danger. A copycat theory hardens into a name, a stranger crosses her threshold, and a confession at the police station flips suspicion back onto her. The tension shifts from psychological unease to immediate physical threat—and institutional doubt.
What Happens
Chapter 21
The narrative cuts between a flashback and the present. In the past, a twelve-year-old Chloe Davis and her mother hand the police a box of jewelry stolen by Richard Davis. Ignoring the sheriff’s warning, Mona insists on going home—ostensibly for Cooper Davis, but also to stand her ground against her husband. At the house, Richard waits, worn out and watchful. He presses a cold beer bottle to Chloe’s neck, senses the panic in the room, and asks Mona, “Is there something you need to tell me?”
In the present, Aaron Jansen / Tyler Price confronts Chloe with the same question as he shows her a photo from Aubrey Gravino’s search party, challenging her story about Cypress Cemetery. Chloe evades, then softens as she remembers Lena Rhodes—magnetic, rebellious—once trying to break into Cooper’s room. That opening pushes Chloe to confide her theory: the new killer takes jewelry trophies like her father. She names Bert Rhodes as a suspect—he knew about the trophies and nursed a ferocious grudge against Richard. The chapter crystallizes The Lingering Trauma of the Past as Chloe links today’s murders to yesterday’s wounds.
Chapter 22
Chloe recalls the summer’s ugly undercurrent: her mother’s affair with Bert; the charged silence when their families sat near each other at a school play; the rumor that Richard killed Lena out of personal revenge. After Richard’s arrest, Bert’s grief turns violent—stalking the Davis home, screaming threats, hurling a rock through a window until Cooper steps in. The family’s web of betrayal cements the theme of Family Secrets and Dysfunctional Loyalty.
In the present, Chloe digs online and finds Bert in Baton Rouge, now running Alarm Security Systems. When her fiancé Daniel Briggs walks in, she slams the laptop shut—too late. He sees the company site and, misreading everything, urges her to call for protection. The irony bites: his well-meaning move invites danger into their home, embodying Deception and Appearance vs. Reality.
Chapter 23
After Daniel rushes off on a work trip, Chloe texts Aaron. He calls back with Bert’s rap sheet: assault, public drunkenness, and a domestic violence charge for strangling his ex-wife—the same method used on Lena and the current victims. To Chloe, this confirms Bert as a prime suspect with escalating violence; Aaron pushes her to go to the police. She refuses, haunted by the fallout from a past mistake.
Their call turns intimate, then snaps off when a car pulls into Chloe’s driveway. She assumes it’s Daniel and opens the door with a smile that dies on her lips. Bert stands there, and the abstract threat becomes immediate.
Chapter 24
Chloe freezes as Bert explains he’s there because Daniel requested a rush installation. Hoping he doesn’t recognize her, she lets him in and lies that Daniel is upstairs. While he studies the house, her fear spikes—Is he casing the place? Testing her?—until he reveals he’s known exactly who she is ever since Daniel gave him her name.
Bert unloads years of rage, accusing Chloe of profiting from her father’s crimes while his daughter is dead. His fixation blurs the line between bereaved parent and predator, sharpening The Nature of Evil and Monstrosity. He leaves her with a chilling, pointed threat that makes past and present indistinguishable.
Chapter 25
Shaken, Chloe calls Detective Thomas and heads to the station. She checks a detail: Aubrey’s body is missing the matching necklace. When he confirms it, she reveals who she is—Richard Davis’s daughter—and lays out her copycat case against Bert: motive, means, M.O., criminal history, and the threat he just delivered in her home.
Thomas listens, but skepticism creeps in. When he asks how Chloe connects to the first victim and she admits she doesn’t, the suspicion subtly shifts—from Bert to Chloe. Her dread of being disbelieved resurfaces, underscoring Memory, Paranoia, and Unreliable Narration.
Character Development
Chloe’s private fear hardens into action, but speaking up costs her authority. As she steps forward—trusting, investigating, confessing—others step back, questioning her credibility.
- Chloe Davis: Moves from secrecy to decisive disclosure, confiding in Aaron and confronting the police. The encounter with Bert validates her fear but exposes her to public suspicion.
- Bert Rhodes: Shifts from a haunted memory to an active antagonist. His obsession curdles into menacing presence and a direct threat.
- Daniel Briggs: Acts to protect yet inadvertently endangers Chloe, revealing the fragile trust in their relationship and the limits of good intentions.
- Aaron Jansen / Tyler Price: Crosses from detached reporter to collaborator, supplying records and urging official action while forming a personal connection.
Themes & Symbols
Trauma governs the present. The murders mirror Richard’s trophies, and Chloe’s flashbacks dictate her decisions—proof that the past hasn’t faded; it strategizes. Family betrayals—Mona’s affair, Bert’s vendetta—warp grief into fixation, feeding cycles of violence.
The gap between appearances and reality widens. A security company meant to safeguard becomes the conduit of danger; a well-intended fiancé becomes an unwitting accomplice; a grieving father may be a hunter. The “security system” itself becomes a symbol of false control: the tighter Chloe tries to lock out history, the more it slips in through sanctioned doors.
Institutional doubt compounds personal fear. Once Chloe goes public, her trauma becomes grounds to distrust her, placing her in the classic bind of a damaged witness—compelled to solve the case even as she’s recast as suspect.
Key Quotes
“Is there something you need to tell me?”
Richard’s question to Mona in the flashback echoes in Aaron’s present-day confrontation. The repetition collapses time, signaling that past dynamics—secrets, lies, surveillance—rule the present and cue Chloe’s instinct to deflect before she finally confides.
“I’m not talking about her. Not Lena. I never wondered what it was like to lose my life... I’m talking about your father. I’m talking about taking one.”
Bert’s threat is both confession and challenge. It reframes his grief as appetite, hinting at retaliation and the possibility of a broader vendetta that targets not just victims but the legacy of Richard himself—and by extension, Chloe.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
This stretch marks a pivot from eerie resemblance to direct confrontation. Naming Bert, inviting him in by accident, and facing him in her living room break the illusion that Chloe can out-think danger from a distance. Her disclosure at the station raises the stakes further: she trades anonymity for action and finds the system ready to question her instead. The plot narrows to a final conflict where Chloe must prove both the truth and herself—while the past presses at every lock.