Kill for Me, Kill for You

Amanda White, devastated by the deaths of her six-year-old daughter Jess and, a week later, her husband Luis, sterilizes a .22-caliber revolver in Jess's old baby-bottle sterilizer and prepares to kill Wallace Crone. Amanda believes Crone killed Jess, and she has already practiced with the gun and repeatedly studied his subway routine. She plans the shooting in precise steps, intending to fire as the train doors open and disappear in the rush of passengers.

Amanda follows Crone into the Ninety-Sixth Street station and boards the same downtown train. She stays behind him, uses preprogrammed timers based on the travel times between stops, and waits until the approach to Seventy-Ninth Street to draw the gun from her coat pocket. Just before she acts, Crone looks up, recognizes her, and rises. Amanda hesitates because his attention could expose her to witnesses.

Crone grabs Amanda by the lapels and calls for police. As a transit officer approaches, Amanda drops the revolver unnoticed into the half-open golf umbrella of a nearby businessman. She and Crone fall during the struggle, and the officer begins pulling Crone away. The chapter ends with Crone repeating a denial Amanda has heard many times: he says he did not kill her daughter.

Ruth Gelman pours the last of one bottle of wine while having dinner with her husband, Scott, who is preparing for his regular Friday night out with friends. Ruth has had a difficult day as a Manhattan real estate agent, but Scott does not ask about it. Their conversation also carries tension over their efforts to have a child: they have been trying for several months, and Ruth resents Scott's disapproval of her drinking while she still wants more stability at work before taking time away for a family.

Scott apologizes for his behavior and offers to skip the night out, but Ruth tells him to go. His affection reminds her why she values the safety and security she associates with their marriage, including a second date when he refused to take advantage of her after she became high and made sure she got home safely. After Scott leaves, Ruth drinks more wine and smokes a joint, which she says helps with her anxiety. She thinks about the negative pregnancy tests in their bathroom and about eventually having a child in a stable home.

Ruth later wakes at 11:45 p.m. and hears glass breaking downstairs. Because Scott is not in bed, she initially assumes he has returned drunk. In the kitchen she discovers that a small pane in the back door has been smashed. She then sees the reflection of a tall man with fierce blue eyes behind her. He clamps an arm around her throat and holds something soft with a chemical odor over her face. Ruth loses consciousness after hearing his raspy voice say, "Hello there, sweetheart..."

Amanda waits at Manhattan Criminal Courthouse two weeks after the subway incident. She had been arraigned on harassment and contempt-of-court charges after violating the restraining order that kept her away from Wallace Crone. Her public defender, Gail Sweet, negotiates a plea agreement. The assault complaints by Amanda and Crone are both withdrawn, and Amanda pleads guilty to breaching the restraining order. The judge sentences her to one year of probation and trauma counseling while reminding her that, in the eyes of the law, Crone is innocent of Jess's murder.

Leaving court, Amanda remembers the last ordinary evening she spent with Jess and Luis. The next morning Luis took Jess to the park. He later called Amanda in panic after Jess ran ahead and was seen with a dark-haired man who took her away. Detectives Andrew Farrow and Karen Hernandez investigated. Jess's body was found three days later in a dumpster in Queens, and Luis, blaming himself, died by suicide a week afterward. Amanda was hospitalized and sedated and missed their funeral.

Farrow later told Amanda that security footage showed a man believed to be Wallace Crone leading a girl believed to be Jess away from the park. Crone had prior offenses involving a thirteen-year-old girl and indecent images of children, and Farrow also suspected him in the earlier murder of nine-year-old Emily Dryer. Police arrested and charged Crone in Jess's case, but the charges were dismissed before trial because the footage was unclear and Crone's father supplied an alibi. Afterward Amanda began surveilling Crone herself, eventually violating a restraining order. When Farrow told her Jess's case had effectively been shelved, Amanda bought a gun and decided that if the law would not punish Crone, she would kill him.

After the failed subway plan and the court hearing, Amanda walks home believing she cannot get close enough to Crone. She buys vodka and refills her sleeping-pill prescription, intending to end her life. Before taking the full bottle, she opens a letter from Crone's lawyers announcing a $500,000 harassment lawsuit. The demand revives her anger. With only $412 left and no family, job, or justice, Amanda decides she will not let Crone take anything more. Holding Jess's stuffed unicorn, Sparkles, in her daughter's unchanged bedroom, she ends the chapter determined to find another way to kill him.

Ruth has been in Mount Sinai Hospital for three days before doctors allow detectives to interview her. After the attack she had awakened in her hallway, badly injured and covered in blood, crawled to the house phone, called 911, and lost consciousness again. In the hospital she repeatedly relives the attack in dreams. During one awakening she panics so severely that nurses intervene, one saying she is going into shock, before medication sends her back to sleep.

When Ruth next wakes, Scott is beside her and tries to reassure her that the attacker is gone. Dr. Mosley explains that Ruth was admitted early Saturday morning with multiple stab wounds and lacerations and had lost a large amount of blood. The wounds were deep but treatable. He says that, as far as they know, she was not sexually assaulted, and asks whether she feels able to speak briefly with police.

Detectives Andrew Farrow and Karen Hernandez interview Ruth. She recalls the broken pane in the back door and describes the attacker as a dark-haired man with bright blue eyes, high cheekbones, and a square jaw. She remembers that he put a chemical-smelling substance over her mouth and said something like, "Hi there, sweetheart" before she blacked out. Ruth says she believes she could recognize him if she saw him again.

When Scott demands to know whether the attacker has been found, Hernandez says Ruth is lucky to be alive because two other women were not. The detectives say every available resource is being used, but Farrow later acknowledges that they have little to work with and no forensic evidence from the crime scenes. Ruth asks why the attacker let her live. Farrow says only that they are working on it and that her description will help.

Exiting the hospital, Farrow and Hernandez discuss the details of Ruth Gelman's attack. Farrow notes that the attacker knocked Ruth out before starting to cut her, suggesting the use of chemicals like chloroform. They agree to check for traces of chloroform in the bodies of the first two victims to see if there's a connection.

Hernandez drives them back to the precinct, and Farrow reflects on his chronic back pain and his reluctance to take painkillers that might dull his cognitive abilities. Their partnership is likened to a good marriage, with mutual understanding and respect. Farrow ponders why the attacker didn’t finish the job with Ruth, unlike the first two victims who were killed with precision.

At the precinct, they review the reports from the neighborhood canvass. A neighbor remembers a cardiac arrest incident that night, which likely spooked the attacker due to the sirens and flashing lights. They also have a description of a tall man in black seen running from the scene. Farrow and Hernandez discuss Scott Gelman's behavior, with Hernandez expressing skepticism about his motives and demeanor, while Farrow suggests a more empathetic view of his protective instincts.

Amanda arrives for her court-mandated Parental Trauma and Bereavement group after delaying counseling until November. Farrow drives her to the Forty-Third Street building and reminds her that attending is part of the court order. Inside, the counselor, Matt, explains that members use pseudonyms and avoid identifying details so they can speak anonymously. Amanda first suggests the name Wendy, then chooses Jane after learning that another member already uses Wendy.

Amanda tries to remain silent, saying she is not ready to discuss her loss. Matt encourages her to see the group as a place for people still fighting through grief. Wendy, a thin blond woman who refuses to participate that night, openly mocks some of Matt's language and lights cigarettes despite his objections. Betty then recounts forgiving the young man who killed her sixteen-year-old son. Wendy challenges the idea that forgiveness is necessary, saying that some people do not want to forgive and that some offenders never deserve it. Other members briefly identify the losses that brought them to the group.

After the session, Amanda follows Wendy to a nearby dive bar. Wendy is suspicious that Amanda might be a journalist who infiltrated the support group, so she asks for Amanda's driver's license and searches her name online. The search exposes Wendy to information about Amanda's family tragedy, and she immediately apologizes. Amanda accepts a vodka tonic from her, and the two sit quietly for a time.

Amanda tells Wendy that her comments about forgiveness interested her. Wendy agrees to discuss it, but only after they have both had more to drink. The chapter ends with the two women clinking glasses and Wendy proposing that they get drunk before talking further.

In her windowless private room at the hospital, Ruth struggles with the disorienting effects of her medications and the uncertainty of time. She tries to adjust her bed and discovers a catheter and a bag of dark orange liquid with red flecks, which adds to her distress. Scott, who has been sleeping, wakes up and helps her adjust the bed, reassuring her that he will never leave her again.

Scott’s reassurance brings back memories of their relationship, particularly a pivotal moment when he proposed to her at a small restaurant in Chinatown. He had quit his job as a prosecutor to take a higher-paying position at a top law firm, all to provide for their future together. Ruth reflects on Scott’s commitment and feels grateful for his support, believing he will help her through her current nightmare.

Dr. Mosley interrupts their moment, requesting to speak with Ruth about her surgery. Despite Scott’s reluctance, Ruth agrees to hear the doctor out. Mosley explains the severity of her injuries and reveals that one of the stab wounds caused significant uterine damage, making it unlikely and potentially dangerous for her to conceive and carry a child naturally. Ruth is devastated by this news, feeling as though a part of her future has been cruelly taken away. Scott holds her hand, offering comfort, but the weight of the news is overwhelming, and Ruth begins to cry uncontrollably.

After the bar staff decide Amanda and Wendy have had enough to drink, the two women continue drinking at Wendy's apartment. Amanda tells Wendy that Jess and Luis died six months earlier. Wendy says her fifteen-year-old daughter, Rebecca, disappeared almost four years ago and was later found strangled in an abandoned lot.

Wendy explains that she found a journal in Rebecca's room stating that Rebecca was involved with her music teacher, Mr. Quinn, and that he threatened Rebecca and Wendy if Rebecca told anyone. Wendy believes the journal was truthful and believes Quinn killed Rebecca. Police questioned Quinn, but he denied the allegations. The district attorney concluded that there was not enough corroborating evidence to prosecute him. Wendy says Quinn still teaches at the school and explains that this is why she rejects the idea that every offender should be forgiven.

Amanda embraces Wendy, and Wendy lets her sleep on the couch. During the night Amanda has a recurring dream based on one of Jess's storybooks. In the dream she tries to reach Luis and Jess on an island but cannot get through the storm. After waking, Amanda reflects that she associates reaching them with killing Wallace Crone.

The next morning Amanda enters a room Wendy had told her not to enter. She finds an office with a corkboard containing articles about Saint Patrick's High School, photographs of a man she believes is Quinn entering a car and a house, an annotated map of Manhattan, a photograph of Rebecca, and Rebecca's death notice. Amanda leaves without telling Wendy that she entered the room. Wendy hugs her goodbye and suggests they meet again. Outside the building, Amanda thinks about whether to tell Wendy what she saw and concludes that their situations are more similar than Wendy realizes.

Ruth stands naked in front of the hotel-room mirror and counts seventeen scars from the attack and the surgery that saved her. She has not returned to work and has not left the hotel room since leaving the hospital. Nearly six weeks have passed since September 14, but Ruth still thinks about the attack every day and sees the attacker in recurring dreams.

Scott wants them to return to their house, but Ruth is afraid to go back. They had planned to raise a family there, and after learning that her uterine injuries may prevent her from carrying a child, she no longer sees the house as the future they had planned. At the same time, she does not want the attacker to take the house from her too.

When Scott suggests getting snacks from the vending machine, Ruth decides to go herself. It is her first time leaving the hotel room in about a month. She puts a book in the doorway so the door cannot close, then walks slowly down the hall while managing her fear and keeping the room in sight.

Ruth reaches the vending machine and buys snacks and a drink. When she bends down to collect her change, she sees a man's distorted face reflected in the glass behind her. She freezes, turns, and screams.

Amanda spends three days thinking about what she found in Wendy's apartment, then goes to a Starbucks near Grand Central to research Rebecca's case. She finds a USA Today article reporting that fifteen-year-old Rebecca Cotton was found dead in a vacant lot after being reported missing by her mother, Naomi Cotton. The article records Naomi's accusation that Rebecca was raped and killed by her teacher, Frank Quinn, and also records Quinn's denial. Amanda realizes that Wendy's real name is Naomi Cotton.

Amanda finds similar coverage in other newspapers and a later article about Naomi posting on Saint Patrick's Facebook page that Quinn was a pedophile and murderer and should be shot. Police did not charge Naomi, but she agreed not to make similar social-media posts. The articles confirm names, dates, Rebecca's death, Naomi's accusations, and Quinn's denial. They do not establish that Quinn committed the crimes Naomi attributes to him.

At about 1:20 p.m., Amanda sees Wallace Crone leave Grand Central and enter the building across from the Starbucks. She already knows that he visits the building at the same time each week. Because the building has many tenants and Crone sometimes arrives in gym clothes, Amanda guesses that he may be seeing a psychiatrist, but she has no proof of that.

Seeing Crone reminds Amanda that he is still living freely while Jess and Luis are dead. She remembers a happy summer day when she, Luis, and Jess walked to the Mary Arnold toy store and spent time there together. After Crone enters the building, Amanda closes her laptop and texts Wendy asking whether she wants to meet for coffee or a drink. Amanda has an idea that she thinks might work, but the chapter does not yet explain it.

Ruth screams in the hotel hallway after seeing a man's face reflected in the vending machine. When she turns, she realizes the man is Mr. Perkins, an elderly guest using a walking frame. Scott reaches her as she begins to collapse. Hotel staff and other guests gather, and smelling salts help her regain focus. Ruth apologizes to Mr. Perkins, who tells her he understands that she was frightened.

Later, Detectives Farrow and Hernandez meet Ruth and Scott in their room at the Paramount Hotel. It is November 14, exactly two months after the attack. Ruth says she still has nightmares, sleeps poorly, feels anxious, and rarely leaves the room. She has had one psychiatric appointment and is taking medication but does not want regular therapy yet. Farrow offers therapist recommendations, and Scott asks him to send them.

The detectives explain that investigators found no forensic material they could attribute to the attacker and no useful security-camera footage. They believe the attacker surveils victims before entering their homes and knows how to avoid cameras. Tests found chloroform in the first two victims, confirming that the attacks are connected. Ruth has already worked with a sketch artist, and police are considering releasing the composite image but are concerned that it could produce many false leads.

Scott objects to the lack of suspects and questions why the sketch has not been released. Farrow says police do not yet have a suspect and warns that identification evidence alone might not support a conviction. Ruth says she is terrified because the attacker is still free and tells the detectives that she will not feel safe until the man who tried to kill her is caught and imprisoned.

After leaving the Paramount Hotel, Farrow and Hernandez discuss the lack of physical evidence from the attacks. Farrow says investigators have not found even a fiber or hair from the attacker despite the amount of blood at the crime scenes. Hernandez suggests that he might change into a hazmat suit after incapacitating his victims with chloroform. Farrow says the theory is plausible, although Ruth did not describe a hazmat suit and the suits are too widely available to provide a useful lead.

Hernandez says she is worried about Ruth and hopes she recovers. Farrow says he does not think Ruth will ever recover fully from being attacked and mutilated in her own home.

Hernandez then says that if police identified the attacker, knew he was guilty, and still could not prosecute him, she would kill him rather than let him attack someone else. Farrow asks whether she would apply the same reasoning to Wallace Crone. Hernandez says she would.

When Hernandez asks whether Farrow would do the same, he says he has already asked himself that question. He does not know the answer, whether the target is the attacker they call Mr. Blue Eyes or Wallace Crone.

Amanda and Wendy meet for drinks at the rooftop bar at Pod 39. Amanda tells Wendy that Wallace Crone is suing her for harassment and explains that she had been following him before deciding to kill him. She describes the failed subway attempt, including how Crone recognized her, called for police, and forced her to abandon the plan before she could fire.

Wendy realizes that Amanda entered the private office in her apartment. Amanda admits that she saw the map, photographs, and articles about Frank Quinn and concluded that Wendy had been watching him and might be planning to kill him. Wendy says she has thought about killing Quinn but describes it as a revenge fantasy. After hearing how close Amanda came to killing Crone, Wendy asks whether Amanda really would have pulled the trigger. Amanda says yes.

Amanda and Wendy discuss how neither believes she can begin to move past her child's death while the man she blames remains free. Amanda proposes that they help each other kill Quinn and Crone. Wendy points out that each woman would immediately be suspected if her own target died, then introduces the plot of Strangers on a Train: two people kill each other's targets so each can have an alibi and there is no obvious connection between killer and victim.

Amanda says they could use the same arrangement in real life. She proposes killing Quinn while Wendy is elsewhere with witnesses, while Wendy would kill Crone while Amanda has an alibi. Wendy says the plan could work if they do it correctly. She tells Amanda to stop using the name Wendy because Amanda already knows her real name, Naomi, and asks Amanda to tell her everything she knows about Crone. The chapter ends with the two women continuing to discuss the proposed murder swap rather than formally completing the plan.

Scott returns to the district attorney's office, where he once worked as a prosecutor, to discuss Ruth's case. He remembers that prosecution had become important to him because sending violent offenders to prison gave him a sense of power after years of being bullied when he was younger. He left the DA's office only after deciding that a higher-paying private-sector job would help him build a future with Ruth.

Scott meets David O. Rush, the assistant district attorney handling Ruth's case. Scott argues that Farrow and Hernandez may have given up too quickly. Rush rejects that criticism, describes Farrow as a highly dedicated detective, and says he has reviewed the case himself. He explains that Ruth saw the attacker only briefly and in reflection, that her description could match many people, and that even a future identification would need corroborating evidence.

When Scott asks whether Ruth can get justice if police find the attacker, Rush says there is currently no prosecutable case. Before Scott leaves, Rush agrees to release the composite sketch through local news outlets, newspapers, and the department website to see whether it produces a useful lead.

Outside, Scott thinks about the helplessness he felt when he was bullied and beaten in high school. He recognizes the same feeling now because Ruth's attacker remains free and Ruth is afraid to leave the hotel room. As he walks back toward the subway, Scott studies men passing on the street and wishes he could find the blue-eyed man who attacked Ruth.

A week after the detectives' visit, Ruth and Scott take the hotel elevator down for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Ruth is afraid to leave the room, but with Scott beside her she manages to cross the lobby and enter the restaurant. They sit at a corner table with Ruth's back to the wall so she can see the room. She declines alcohol because she has not drunk since the night of the attack and does not want it to interfere with her medication.

Scott tries to keep the evening normal and suggests that they might return for Thanksgiving. Ruth says she no longer believes her life can return to what it was before September 14. She remains afraid of other people and of being alone because the man who attacked her is still free.

Ruth notices a man sitting alone four tables away. He has dark hair, prominent cheekbones, a square jaw, and blue eyes. When he looks at her and later says "Thank you, sweetheart" to a waitress, Ruth becomes certain that he is the man who attacked her. She goes to the women's bathroom with Scott, locks herself in a stall, and tries breathing exercises, but she cannot control her panic.

Ruth tells Scott they need to leave immediately. She takes him into the hallway where the man is visible from the restaurant and points him out. Scott says he does not recognize him. The chapter ends with Ruth stating with certainty that the man is the person who attacked her.

Amanda arrives at her support-group meeting and speaks briefly with Farrow, who had called to make sure she attended. She saves a seat for Naomi, the real name of the woman who uses Wendy as her group pseudonym, but Naomi texts that something has come up and she cannot attend.

Amanda thinks back to the night three days earlier after their rooftop-bar conversation. She and Naomi continued talking about Crone late into the night. Naomi questioned Amanda about Crone's routine, background, and the evidence against him. Amanda admitted that she was not certain she could kill Quinn, but after further discussion she made Naomi promise that neither of them would back out of the murder swap. Naomi explicitly promised, and the two embraced before separating.

Because Naomi has not contacted her since then, Amanda begins to think the agreement may have been the result of alcohol and that Naomi regrets it. Amanda attends the support group, goes home, and has the same recurring dream of trying and failing to reach Luis and Jess across the water.

The next morning Amanda watches for Crone at the Ninety-Sixth Street subway station, but he does not appear. That afternoon she waits at the Starbucks from which she normally watches his weekly appointment, but he again fails to appear. Naomi then calls Amanda from inside the same coffee shop and asks to speak face-to-face.

Naomi tells Amanda that she still intends to carry out the murder swap. She says Crone did not go to work and will not attend his appointment because she killed him the previous night while Amanda was at the support-group meeting. Naomi says she has kept her promise and tells Amanda that it is now her turn.

Ruth tells Scott that she is certain the man in the restaurant is the person who attacked her. When she says she was there during the attack and Scott was not, she immediately regrets hurting him. Ruth tells the waiter that she feels unwell, and she and Scott leave the restaurant. As they go, Ruth keeps Scott between herself and the man. Just before they reach the door, she looks back and sees the man watching them while licking his steak knife.

In the hotel lobby, Ruth says they should call the police. Scott refuses because he believes the police will not act without evidence connecting the man to the crime. They return to their room, where Ruth closes the door and jams a desk chair under the handle.

Scott says he wants to find out why the man is at the hotel and who he is. Ruth tells him not to approach the man because she believes he is dangerous. Scott says he will only watch him, learn where he goes, and see whether he can find information that might help the police.

Scott gives Ruth a sleeping pill, an antianxiety pill, and water. Ruth asks him not to go and says she does not know what she would do if he were hurt. Scott promises that he will be careful and that he will not let anyone hurt her. As the medication takes effect, Ruth falls asleep.

Naomi tells Amanda how she killed Wallace Crone. She followed him to his apartment building after seeing a young call girl leave, then entered wearing a red wig, short black leather skirt, halter top, boots, and gloves so the doorman would take her for another sex worker. When Crone opened his apartment door, Naomi sprayed him in the face with pepper spray, took a large knife from his kitchen, stabbed him in the back near the neck, then turned him over and stabbed him in the throat.

Naomi says the building's cameras will show a disguised woman entering and leaving Crone's apartment and that the doorman is unlikely to identify her. Amanda's actual alibi is separate: she was at the support-group meeting with witnesses during the time Naomi says Crone was killed. Naomi expects police to question Amanda once Crone's body is discovered because of Amanda's known history with him.

Naomi tells Amanda that she must kill Frank Quinn that night. She says the timing matters because once police discover Crone's body, Amanda may be watched closely for weeks or months, making it much harder for her to approach Quinn. Naomi also says she wants Amanda to have blood on her hands so she can trust that Amanda will not report her to police.

Amanda says she is relieved that Crone is dead but is also frightened. She says she is not ready and no longer has a gun. Naomi insists that they can use another method and repeats that Amanda must act during Naomi's bereavement-group meeting that evening, which will give Naomi an alibi.

Naomi argues that Quinn will hurt another girl if he remains free and tells Amanda that killing Crone made her feel better after years of grief over Rebecca. Amanda says she is scared and is not sure she can kill Quinn. Naomi asks her to do it for Rebecca just as Naomi killed Crone for Jess and Luis. The chapter ends with Amanda nodding while Naomi urges her to be brave and to think of Jess and Luis.

Scott waits until Ruth is asleep, then leaves the hotel room and returns to the restaurant. The man Ruth identified is still there. Scott uses the excuse of checking the gratuity on his wine bill so he can remain nearby, then waits in the lobby until the man leaves the restaurant and heads for the elevators.

Scott follows the man into an elevator. He notices the man's height, pale skin, dark hair, blue eyes, expensive clothing, and New York accent. Scott makes brief conversation, but the man does not identify himself or explain why he is staying at the hotel. As the elevator reaches the twelfth floor, the man says that he hopes Scott's wife feels better and calls her a "sweetheart." Scott interprets the remark as deliberate because Ruth told him her attacker used the same word.

Scott follows the man down the twelfth-floor hallway. As he does, Scott becomes convinced that Ruth identified the right person and begins to believe that the man is staying at the hotel so he can find and kill Ruth, the only surviving victim who can identify him. These are Scott's conclusions; the man does not state his purpose.

The man stops at room 1248 and unlocks the door. Scott sees an empty wine bottle on a room-service tray outside another room, picks it up, and swings it at the man's head.

Amanda spends two hours with Naomi reviewing Frank Quinn's routine and the rear layout of his house. Naomi has already surveilled the property and tells Amanda to enter through an unlocked alley, climb the backyard wall, take an axe from Quinn's toolshed, break the kitchen window, and use two burner phones to draw Quinn toward the shed so Amanda can strike him from behind.

Amanda parks three blocks from Quinn's house and drives past it twice before beginning the approach. During one pass she notices a man sitting in a dark Chevrolet Escalade about fifty feet from Quinn's front door, but she assumes he may be a neighbor and continues. Naomi is at a support-group meeting from nine to ten, giving her an alibi while Amanda acts.

At the alley, Amanda decides not to move the nearby dumpster because it is full of glass and would make too much noise. Instead she runs at the eight-foot backyard wall, pulls herself over, and injures her right knee. At the toolshed, she does not open the padlock. She uses a screwdriver to pry the rusted slide-bar hardware out of the old wood, opens the shed, and retrieves the axe. She leaves one burner phone inside as part of Naomi's plan.

Amanda hesitates before breaking the kitchen window because she is confronting the fact that she is about to kill a person she does not know. She tries to make herself act by imagining that Quinn is Crone and by telling herself that killing Quinn would prevent future victims. She breaks the window, hides behind the shed, and calls the first burner phone from the second phone after Quinn comes outside carrying a baseball bat.

Quinn approaches the shed and turns his back to Amanda, giving her the opening Naomi planned. Amanda raises the axe but cannot strike him. She realizes that Quinn is not Crone and that she cannot kill a stranger in cold blood. Quinn turns, sees her, and advances. When Amanda tries to retreat, Quinn knocks the axe from her hands with the baseball bat, tackles her, pins her to the ground, and begins choking her.

Scott strikes the man Ruth identified with an empty wine bottle as he enters room 1248. The first blow knocks the man down but does not break the bottle. Scott enters the room, shuts the door, and strikes him again. The bottle breaks on the man's head. When the man fights back and punches Scott repeatedly, including a blow to the throat, Scott reverses his grip on the broken bottle and stabs him several times in the face.

After the struggle, Scott sees that the man is no longer moving. One blue eye remains intact, while the broken neck of the wine bottle is lodged in the other eye socket. Scott realizes that his own clothes are covered in blood and begins thinking about how police would investigate the scene.

Scott strips, showers, and changes into clothes from the man's closet. Because the man's shoes are too large, Scott puts on three pairs of the man's socks before wearing them. He retrieves the man's hotel key card from the floor, washes blood from it, and avoids stepping through the blood near the body.

Before leaving, Scott notices a security camera positioned down the corridor. He concludes that it may have recorded him following the man but not the actual bottle attack because of the camera's location. Scott turns away from the camera, takes the stairwell, exits through the basement parking lot, and reaches the street. The chapter ends with Scott deciding that he needs to do some shopping.

Quinn continues choking Amanda on the lawn. Unable to reach the axe, Amanda reaches into her jacket pocket, finds the screwdriver she brought earlier, and drives it through the back of Quinn's right arm. He releases her, allowing Amanda to breathe and get to her feet. Her injured knee prevents her from outrunning him, and Quinn remains between her and the back gate.

Amanda reaches the toolshed and pulls the door shut behind her. Quinn takes the axe and repeatedly strikes the wooden door while Amanda holds it closed from inside. As police sirens approach, Amanda times her movement so she can grab a ball-peen hammer. When the axe becomes lodged in the door, Amanda opens it hard enough to wrench the axe from Quinn's grip, then strikes him in the head with the hammer.

Quinn gets back to his feet, pulls the screwdriver from his arm, threatens Amanda, and rushes toward her with it. Amanda cannot run because of her knee and has no other exit. She takes the axe from the damaged shed door and swings it into the center of Quinn's chest. He falls, his limbs spasm, and he lies still. Amanda sees his eyes as dead, believes the job is done, and leaves without striking him again.

Amanda uses the hammer to break the lock on the back gate and escapes into the alley. When she returns toward her parked Saab, she sees the same dark Chevrolet Escalade she noticed earlier, now parked close behind her car despite other available spaces. A figure is still inside. Amanda decides not to risk being recognized and turns away toward the subway. As she rounds the corner, she hears a heavy car door close behind her.

Scott walks to a nearby Target and buys a large backpack, trash bags, disposable gloves, bleach, and a new set of clothes. He pays cash because he does not want the purchases recorded on his bank account. He then returns to room 1248 using Patrick Travers's key card.

Inside the room, Scott puts on gloves and searches the dead man's wallet. He learns the name Patrick Travers from a New York State driver's license, memorizes the address, takes $500 in cash, and leaves the cards and wallet behind. Scott pours bleach over the shower, the carpet, Travers's body, the broken bottle, and other surfaces he believes he touched. He cannot know that he has removed every trace, but he is trying to destroy fingerprints and DNA that could identify him.

Scott changes into the new clothes from Target, seals his bloodstained clothes and Travers's borrowed clothes in a trash bag, and puts the bag in the backpack. He leaves the room through the stairwell and returns to his own room two floors above.

Ruth wakes when Scott enters and asks what happened. Scott lies, saying he followed the man around town, overheard his name on the phone, and changed clothes after getting wet in the rain. Ruth says the name Patrick Travers means nothing to her. Scott does not tell her that he killed Travers because he thinks she is too fragile to hear it and because he does not yet know whether police will connect him to the death.

Scott tells Ruth that they need to leave the hotel immediately because the man she identified had been staying there. Ruth agrees. They pack their belongings, and Scott says they should take a cab to Grand Central and board a train out of the city. Scott carries the backpack containing the clothes and other evidence he still needs to dispose of.

Amanda enters the Christopher Street subway station and notices a tall, well-built man with sandy-brown hair moving quickly toward her. She believes he is the same man she saw in the dark Chevrolet Escalade near Quinn's house. Amanda boards a train before he reaches the platform and watches him as the train pulls away. She does not know who he is or why he was following her.

Amanda changes trains at Times Square and goes to Grand Central so she can make it harder to follow her. On an escalator she briefly makes eye contact with another woman who also appears frightened. Amanda feels less alone for a moment, then continues out through the MetLife Building after confirming that the man from the station is not immediately behind her.

Amanda reaches her apartment at about 2:30 a.m., vomits, removes the clothes she believes may contain blood spatter, and gets into a hot bath. She examines her swollen knee and bruised neck and thinks about what happened at Quinn's house. Amanda believes killing Quinn was justified at some level because she ultimately had to defend herself, but she also knows her father would say she made a serious mistake by climbing the wall and putting herself in that situation.

The next morning, Thanksgiving Eve, Amanda eats breakfast at the deli near the Ninety-Sixth Street station and again tries to call Naomi without success. She begins to notice that some ordinary interest in life is returning now that she believes Crone and Quinn are dead.

Amanda then sees a man who looks like Wallace Crone enter the subway station. She follows despite her injured knee and reaches the platform as the train begins to leave. Through the window, Crone looks directly at her for a moment. Amanda recognizes him and realizes that he is alive. The chapter ends with her conclusion that Naomi lied.

Ruth and Scott take a cab to Forty-Fifth Street, enter the MetLife Building, and go down toward Grand Central. Ruth remains intensely afraid of being outside and repeatedly checks whether Patrick Travers is following them. She thinks about a fearful summer she spent at her grandparents' house when she was twelve, but she distinguishes that childhood fear from the present because she believes the danger from Travers is real.

At Grand Central, Ruth and Scott learn that they have missed their train. Scott decides they will take the ferry instead. They take another cab and board a ferry that will dock at Red Hook. Ruth sits on the upper deck with Scott, where the cold and relative isolation make her feel somewhat calmer.

Scott steps away to the rail. Ruth first thinks he may be crying, then sees him vomit over the side. When she asks if he is all right, Scott says he is seasick. He then tells Ruth she is doing well outside the hotel.

Ruth says she knows Travers is not on the ferry but remains afraid that he is looking for her. She asks Scott what they are going to do. Scott tells her they should first get somewhere safe and then decide what comes next.

Amanda returns to her apartment after seeing Wallace Crone alive and drinks vodka while trying to understand Naomi's lie. The brief peace she felt when she believed Crone was dead disappears. Amanda decides that she still wants to kill Crone herself, but not until she understands what Naomi has done.

Amanda rechecks the online material she had previously found about Naomi, Rebecca, Frank Quinn, and Saint Patrick's. Her saved links now return 404 errors, and fresh searches produce no relevant results. When she examines a printed article, she notices that the address uses "usetoday.com" rather than "usatoday.com." She concludes that the articles were fabricated and then removed from the internet.

Amanda realizes that Naomi built a convincing false history that led Amanda to Quinn's house and nearly got her killed. She takes painkillers with vodka and goes to Naomi's apartment while repeatedly trying to call her. Naomi does not answer.

The building's front door is partly open, allowing Amanda inside. She reaches Naomi's apartment, gets no response, and uses a fire extinguisher to force the door open. The apartment is empty: no furniture, carpet, curtains, pictures, office material, or other sign that Naomi had been living there.

Amanda concludes that Naomi lied about far more than Crone's death. She leaves because she needs to understand what happened before doing anything about Crone. The chapter ends with two unanswered questions: who Naomi really is, and who the man Amanda killed the previous night really was.

Scott and Ruth travel by cab from Red Hook to Jamaica station, then take a train to Huntington. Scott tells Ruth they will continue to Port Jefferson, take the midnight ferry to Bridgeport, and then travel to Hartford, where he once lived with his parents. When Ruth asks why they did not simply take a train from Grand Central, Scott says he wanted to keep moving rather than wait there for hours.

While they wait at a Starbucks in the Huntington station, Scott works on his laptop and Ruth struggles to eat because of her anxiety. Scott goes to the bathroom after assuring Ruth that Patrick Travers could not have followed them. While he is gone, Ruth turns Scott's laptop around and sees that he has been checking breaking news from New York. When Scott returns, his hair is wet and he looks more composed. He then books an Airbnb.

They continue to Port Jefferson and board the last ferry to Bridgeport. Ruth and Scott go to the upper deck, where the cold air and limited number of nearby passengers help Ruth feel somewhat calmer. Scott tries to make her smile, and for a brief moment Ruth feels less consumed by fear.

Ruth then notices that Scott is no longer wearing the new backpack he had been carrying. It is not by his feet or in front of him. As she looks toward him at the rail, she hears a faint splash. The chapter ends there without Ruth learning exactly what Scott has done.

Farrow and Hernandez arrive at a Manhattan brownstone after their dispatcher alerts them to a home-invasion assault or possible homicide. Forensic technicians are finishing at the scene, and Farrow's worsening back problem slows him as he enters. Inside, the detectives see a broken kitchen window but conclude that no one appears to have climbed through it.

In the backyard, Farrow and Hernandez meet Detectives Donnelly and Carter of the Eighty-Sixth Precinct. Donnelly and Carter say neighbors reported hearing a man and woman fighting and believe the incident may have been a domestic dispute. The victim is male, which does not fit the established victim pattern in Farrow and Hernandez's investigation.

The detectives examine a bloodstain on the lawn, a damaged toolshed door, a ripped-off shed bolt, a cell phone left on the workbench, and a broken lock on the back gate. Donnelly and Carter explain that the male victim was found with a fire axe embedded in his chest. The victim is no longer at the scene because paramedics transported him to the hospital while he still had a pulse.

Farrow and Hernandez do not think the scene clearly matches the attacker they call Mr. Blue Eyes, but they also do not accept the domestic-dispute explanation yet. Farrow points to the broken window, damaged shed lock, and broken back-gate lock as details that do not fit a simple dispute between people who had normal access to the property. He asks Donnelly and Carter to share any useful forensic results. The chapter ends with Donnelly explaining that, if the victim survives, he may be able to tell police what happened.

Amanda sits in her apartment unable to sleep. She thinks about the life she had wanted as an artist, wife, and mother and about the six years she had with Luis and Jess before their deaths. She still cannot work, paint, or grieve normally, and most of what she feels is anger and pain.

Amanda is afraid to turn on the television because she expects to see a report about the man she attacked at Naomi's direction. She cries for him and considers calling Farrow to confess. She rejects that option because she has almost no evidence that Naomi manipulated her, Naomi has disappeared, and Amanda believes police and a jury would see only that she went to the man's house intending to kill him.

When Amanda finally watches the news, she learns that a fifty-five-year-old Greenwich Village homeowner is in critical condition after a home invasion and that police found him with an axe in his chest. Amanda realizes that the man survived. She feels relief that she did not kill him, but she also understands that he may be able to identify her and that police already have her mug shot and DNA from her earlier arrest.

Amanda estimates that police could find her within a few days if the victim identifies her or investigators recover evidence linking her to the scene. She decides to postpone any attempt on Wallace Crone and focus on finding Naomi. Amanda wants to know why Naomi manipulated her into attacking the man and whether explaining that manipulation could help her if police arrest her.

Ruth wakes at dawn in the Hartford Airbnb and finds Scott's side of the bed empty and cold. She finds him in the kitchen watching television. He is tense, barely speaks, and keeps his attention on the news.

A breaking-news report says that a senior adviser to the mayor of New York City was found murdered in a room at the Paramount Hotel the previous night. Ruth immediately connects the report to Scott's unexplained absence, his new clothes, their sudden departure from the hotel, the new backpack he carried, and the backpack's disappearance during the ferry crossing.

Ruth asks Scott what he did. Scott does not deny her conclusion. He says he did not mean to kill the man, that he lost control and hit him, and that the man fought back. Scott says he believed he had no choice because otherwise the man would kill him and then go after Ruth. When Ruth asks whether police are looking for them, Scott says he does not know but thinks he cleaned the scene well.

Ruth concludes that Scott killed Patrick Travers, the man she identified as her attacker. Her fear and shaking stop. She tells Scott that Travers can no longer come after them and says that Scott saved her. The chapter ends with Ruth kissing him and telling him she loves him.

Amanda considers two ways to find Naomi. One is to identify the man Naomi called Frank Quinn and determine how he is connected to her. Amanda rejects going directly to the hospital because police may be guarding him and because he may soon be able to identify her. She expects police eventually to connect her to the scene and wants evidence showing that Naomi manipulated her into the attack and that Amanda ultimately fought back in self-defense.

Amanda's second option is Matt and the support group. She asks Matt to meet her at a diner by claiming that she is in a very bad emotional state. During the conversation, Amanda says Wendy told her that her real name was Naomi and argues that the woman may have lied about that too. Matt agrees to contact Wendy after the meeting and mentions that his group records are stored in the trunk of his car.

When Matt goes to the bathroom, Amanda takes his car keys from his jacket and searches the files in his BMW. She finds Wendy's file and photographs the copy of the driver's license inside. The license gives the name Naomi Cotton, a date of birth, and the same apartment address Amanda already found empty. Amanda does not accept those details as genuine. She concludes that Naomi Cotton is probably another false identity and that the identification document itself may be fake.

Amanda also learns that Wendy joined the group two weeks before Amanda. She returns Matt's keys by dropping them under the diner table where he can believe they fell from his pocket. After leaving, Amanda reasons that Naomi was prepared for someone to trace her through the group, may have money or criminal contacts sufficient to obtain convincing false identification, and may be more dangerous than Amanda first understood.

On the subway, Amanda concludes that she still needs to learn who the man was and why Naomi wanted him attacked. She believes that information may matter if she has to explain the case in court. The chapter ends with Amanda deciding to take the remaining risk that night before police identify and arrest her.

Scott takes about an hour to calm down after admitting that he killed Patrick Travers. Ruth stays with him on the kitchen floor while he repeatedly asks how he could have done it. Ruth tells him that he did the right thing because she believes Travers would have remained free, continued hunting them, and possibly attacked other women.

While holding Scott, Ruth remembers her senior year of high school, when her mother, Beth, was being treated for stomach cancer. Ruth helped care for her through chemotherapy and planned to skip her senior prom if Beth received bad scan results. Instead, Beth emerged from the consultation room and rang the clinic bell used by patients who had been given the all clear. Ruth remembers the relief and joy of that moment.

Ruth connects that memory to how she feels now that she believes Travers is dead. She tells Scott that the danger is over, that he acted to save her, and that he should stop blaming himself.

Ruth then says she will go to the store alone to get breakfast. Scott is surprised and asks whether she is leaving him. Ruth says she is simply going outside by herself as she used to do because she no longer believes there is a reason to be afraid. She tells Scott that he has given her life back and that she intends to take it.

Amanda spends several hours icing her knee, watching news coverage, and planning how to trace Naomi. An afternoon bulletin identifies the critically injured Greenwich Village homeowner as Frank Quinn and shows a photograph Amanda had not seen in Naomi's fabricated articles. Fresh searches reveal almost nothing else about him. Amanda decides that Quinn is her only remaining link to Naomi and that she needs to search his house for evidence about his background and why Naomi wanted him attacked.

After dark, Amanda dresses in black and brings a flashlight, flathead screwdriver, pocketknife, and disposable gloves. She returns to Greenwich Village, checks for the dark Chevrolet Escalade and for police around Quinn's property, and finds neither. The front of the house is sealed with police tape, so she circles to the alley and forces open the back gate, which has been blocked from inside by a garden bench.

In the yard, Amanda notices that the toolshed and broken kitchen window remain much as they were after the attack. She remembers the burner phone she left in the shed and realizes police likely recovered it. She believes she handled that phone only while wearing gloves, but she knows leaving it behind was a mistake.

The back door is locked. Amanda tapes one glass pane, muffles it with her coat, breaks the pane with the screwdriver, reaches through, and unlocks the door from inside. She gives herself ten minutes to search. She finds utility bills but no photographs, school material, or other evidence supporting Naomi's claim that Quinn was a teacher. Upstairs, she finds a metal lockbox in the main-bedroom nightstand and a key that appears to fit it.

Before Amanda can open the box, she hears the front door close and voices and footsteps downstairs. She turns off her flashlight, crawls under the bed, and takes the lockbox with her.

Farrow and Hernandez return to Frank Quinn's house using keys obtained from Detectives Donnelly and Carter. Hernandez questions why they are there because they already agree the attack does not match Mr. Blue Eyes. Farrow says he also does not believe it was a domestic dispute and wants another look before deciding whether to take over the case.

Hernandez argues that they already have a full caseload and that the lieutenant will not want another investigation. Farrow points to the broken locks on the toolshed and back gate as evidence that an intruder was involved. Hernandez agrees to inspect the property with him but wants Donnelly and Carter to keep the case for now unless they fail to pursue the inconsistencies.

In the living room and study, Farrow and Hernandez find a sparse, orderly home. Hernandez finds nothing useful in the desk drawers. Farrow tells her that Donnelly's records search found no spouse, divorce record, or other family connection for Quinn and that his tax returns list him as a self-employed consultant with substantial money in the bank, but no clear indication of what kind of consulting he does.

Hernandez finds mail addressed to Frank Quinn in the hallway console. Farrow then decides they should check the upstairs bedrooms before returning to the backyard so they do not track mud through the house.

Amanda remains hidden under the bed in Quinn's main bedroom with the metal lockbox. She hears a man and woman downstairs and recognizes the man's voice as Detective Farrow's after he comments on the strong sleeping medication in Quinn's bathroom cabinet. Amanda realizes the detectives are searching the house and that she has no safe way to leave.

Amanda considers climbing out the second-floor front window, but her injured knee would not withstand the drop. She decides to stay under the bed and remain silent. Farrow and Hernandez search the nearby rooms while Amanda tries not to cough or sneeze from the dust and keeps her body still despite the pain in her knee.

Farrow enters the main bedroom where Amanda is hiding and walks to the nightstand. Amanda hears him open the drawer that had contained the lockbox. She watches his shoes turn toward the bed and sees him crouch.

The chapter ends as Farrow reaches down and takes hold of the bottom of the bedsheets, with Amanda still hidden directly beneath him.

Hernandez calls Farrow from the adjacent bedroom just as he is about to look beneath the bed. Farrow lets go of the bedsheets and leaves the main bedroom. He remains bothered by the half-open nightstand drawer because the rest of Quinn's house is unusually orderly, although the empty drawer gives him no direct evidence that anything important was there.

In the adjacent bedroom, Hernandez shows Farrow a bookcase containing books about counterespionage, former CIA and KGB officers, spy tradecraft, and cyber warfare. Farrow notes that similar books were stacked by Quinn's bed. Neither detective knows whether the collection reflects Quinn's work, criminal activity, or simply a personal interest.

Farrow examines a book presented as the work of a former British intelligence officer. Its index includes material about identity theft and how to commit or avoid it. Farrow suggests that Quinn might be involved in crime and says they should have someone examine his computer if he remains unconscious.

The detectives agree that the house does not appear to be shared with a woman and that the domestic-dispute theory is weak. They briefly consider whether the attack could have been a targeted hit, but Farrow says it does not look professional because a professional killer would not normally use the victim's own axe. Farrow decides they should check the kitchen and backyard once more before leaving.

Amanda waits under the bed until she hears Farrow and Hernandez go downstairs toward the kitchen. She opens the metal lockbox she brought under the bed with her, pushes it into the open, and crawls out.

Inside the box are five thick rolls of cash. Amanda takes three and leaves two behind. She tells herself that Quinn is wealthy enough not to need the money and that she now needs cash because her search has produced no useful information and she expects she may have to leave her apartment and the city.

Amanda stands despite the pain in her injured knee and moves toward the stairs. Because she remembers hearing one of the stairs creak but cannot remember which one, she decides not to walk down them.

She climbs onto the banister and quietly slides down. Halfway down she sees Farrow moving toward the back door. Amanda gets off the rail, tiptoes to the front door, and begins turning the latch as the chapter ends.

Farrow and Hernandez notice that Quinn's back door is open slightly. A glass pane above the lock has been broken but remains held together with black duct tape. They draw their weapons and check the backyard and toolshed but find no one.

Hernandez asks whether they failed to search part of the house. They rush upstairs with their weapons drawn. Hernandez checks beneath the bed in the guest bedroom and finds nothing. They then check the main bedroom and find an open metal lockbox on the far side of the bed, with keys beside it and two thick rolls of cash still inside.

Farrow says he cannot be certain whether the box was there during their earlier search because he had not gone around that side of the bed. He and Hernandez question why someone breaking in to steal would leave thousands of dollars behind.

Farrow looks through the bedroom window and sees one person in the distance walking away quickly with a limp. Based on the person's size and gait, he guesses the figure may be a woman. Farrow tells Hernandez about the limping person and orders them to move.

Amanda limps away from Frank Quinn's house while Farrow and Hernandez come after her. Hernandez is closing the distance quickly, and Amanda's injured knee gives way, sending her to the sidewalk. She gets back up but realizes she will not reach her car before Hernandez catches her.

A black Chevrolet Escalade pulls up beside Amanda. The driver is the same large man she saw watching Quinn's house the previous night and later following her toward the subway. He tells Amanda that she just came from Frank Quinn's house and says they are looking for the same woman. He says he can help her and urges her to get in.

With Hernandez only a short distance away, Amanda decides that getting into the stranger's vehicle is preferable to being arrested for attempted murder. She climbs into the passenger seat, and the driver accelerates away.

Amanda asks who he is. He identifies himself as Billy Cameron, tells her that she is safe, and says he will explain everything once he gets them away from the immediate pursuit.

Farrow sees an SUV stop beside the limping person he and Hernandez are pursuing. His back pain forces him to slow to a fast walk, while Hernandez continues running toward the vehicle.

The hooded person does not immediately get into the SUV. Farrow notices the hesitation before the person finally climbs inside and the vehicle drives away. Hernandez cannot get the license plate.

Farrow asks whether the person they saw was the intruder from Quinn's house. Hernandez says maybe and suggests handing the matter back to Donnelly and Carter, arguing that the case may still have been a domestic dispute and that the person they chased was probably the attacker.

Farrow rejects that explanation. He points out that the person hesitated before getting into the SUV, which makes him doubt it was a planned getaway vehicle. He also questions why the attacker would return to Quinn's house when there were no personal belongings there to retrieve and thousands of dollars remained in the lockbox. The chapter ends with Farrow asking what the intruder had returned to the crime scene to find.

Ruth leaves the Hartford apartment alone and walks through the neighborhood without the fear that has controlled her since the attack. She texts Scott to say she is fine, buys breakfast groceries and copies of the New York Post and New York Times, and notices that ordinary encounters with strangers no longer trigger panic.

While shopping and walking back, Ruth begins thinking seriously about a future again. Because Dr. Mosley told her she may not be able to conceive naturally, Ruth considers IVF, other fertility treatment, or adoption. She feels that she and Scott may still be able to build a good life.

Back at the apartment, the television reports that Patrick Travers was murdered at the Paramount Hotel. The report identifies him as a close campaign adviser to Mayor Anthony Toscano and discusses allegations that Toscano had ties to organized crime through Jimmy "the Hat" Fellini. Photographs show Travers, Toscano, and Fellini together at a private resort in Hawaii.

Before the date of the photographs is stated, Scott says police may interpret Travers's murder as a mob hit and therefore may not look for them. The report then says the final photograph was taken the night before Travers and Toscano flew home from Hawaii on September 15.

Ruth immediately realizes that Travers was in Hawaii on September 14, the night she was attacked in New York. Her coffee falls from her hand. She understands that she identified the wrong man and that Scott killed someone who could not have been her attacker. The chapter ends as Scott takes hold of her arms.

Scott sees Ruth react to the realization that Patrick Travers could not have been her attacker. Ruth screams, and Scott holds her while understanding that he killed the wrong man and that Travers's death did nothing to remove the actual threat to Ruth.

Scott becomes angry with himself and punches the kitchen cabinets until one breaks and cuts his knuckles. He then vomits into the sink while thinking about Travers's body and what he did in the hotel room.

Scott tells Ruth that she had been sure Travers was the attacker. Ruth says she thought it was him and that, in her mind, it was him. Scott says Travers may have been a bad person anyway because of what they just saw on the news, but Ruth rejects that justification.

Ruth explains that believing her attacker was dead had briefly allowed her to live without fear. Now that she knows Travers was the wrong man, that relief is gone and her fear has returned even more strongly.

The television then interrupts its current story for a live NYPD briefing about Patrick Travers's murder. The announcer says police have identified a suspect. The chapter ends before the suspect is named.

Billy drives Amanda away from Quinn's neighborhood and tells her he does not think police are following them. Amanda remains wary and asks who he is. Billy repeats his first name and describes the woman he is trying to find: blond, thin, in her late forties or early fifties, a heavy smoker and drinker. Amanda recognizes the description as matching Naomi.

Billy tells Amanda that he is a retired captain in the United States Marine Corps and that he met the woman online. He says the woman tried to trick him and that Amanda was also lied to and betrayed. Billy tells Amanda that he believes they are looking for the same person.

Amanda keeps one hand around the knife in her coat pocket and does not trust Billy yet. Billy acknowledges that she has no reason to trust him and proposes that they go somewhere crowded and public so she can feel safer while they talk. He says he wants to find the woman before she hurts someone else.

Amanda agrees to continue with him but remains on guard. Billy turns on the radio and drives to a diner at Second Avenue and Fifty-First Street. By the time they arrive, Amanda has brought her breathing under control but still has a firm grip on the knife.

Ruth and Scott watch an NYPD press conference about Patrick Travers's murder. Captain Roberts introduces Detective John Starkey and Michelle Travers, Patrick's widow. Starkey explains that a hotel employee found Travers dead in his room after noticing a chemical leaking from beneath the door and that police are seeking help from anyone who was at the Paramount Hotel the previous night.

Police show security footage of Scott in the hotel hallway. One image shows him from behind, and another shows him from the front while his face is turned away. Ruth recognizes him immediately but wonders whether anyone else could identify him. Starkey calls the man in the footage the main suspect and says police are still considering all possible motives, including organized-crime links.

Michelle Travers appeals for witnesses. Ruth says she does not feel sympathy for her and argues that other people should understand the kind of pain Ruth has endured. Scott tells Ruth that Patrick Travers was not the man who attacked her, but Ruth remains angry and says that seeing someone else suffer makes her feel less alone in her own pain.

Starkey then introduces NYPD media manager Dan Puccini. Ruth studies Puccini's face and blue eyes and experiences a sudden flash of the face she remembers from the attack. In Ruth's perception, she sees Puccini's lips form the words "Hello, sweetheart," the phrase her attacker used. Ruth points at the television and says, "That's him." The chapter ends with Ruth identifying Puccini as her attacker; the identification is not independently confirmed in this unit.

Amanda and Billy sit in a crowded diner while Amanda keeps hold of the knife in her pocket. Billy says he needs Amanda's help and tells her about his wife, Lucille. Two years earlier, Lucille invested most of their savings in a food-delivery app with Jerry Gould. Jerry had serious gambling debts and repeatedly asked Lucille for money. After she refused to give him more, police found Lucille shot to death in her office. Police described the killing as a professional burglary gone wrong, but Billy believed Jerry arranged a hit. Jerry had an alibi and was not charged. He sold the company for six million dollars after Lucille's death and did not share the proceeds with Billy.

Billy says grief led him to counseling and then an online support group, where he met a woman calling herself Felicia. She said her husband's killer had escaped conviction on a legal technicality. After they talked privately for about a month, Felicia sent Billy a copy of Strangers on a Train and proposed that they exchange murders. Felicia later claimed she had killed Jerry Gould and told Billy he now had to kill the man who supposedly murdered her husband.

Billy went to the target's house but could not make himself kill a stranger. When he tried to contact Felicia afterward, she had disappeared and the online material supporting her story vanished. Billy then learned that Jerry Gould was alive and had merely been locked in a janitor's closet for two days. He concluded that Felicia had pretended to kill Jerry in order to pressure Billy into committing a murder for her.

Billy tells Amanda that the man Felicia wanted him to kill was Frank Quinn. Billy began watching Quinn's house and later found a new set of fabricated articles accusing Quinn of killing Rebecca Cotton. That convinced him Felicia, now probably using the name Naomi Cotton, was attempting the same scheme on someone else. Billy says this is why he was watching Quinn's house and why he followed Amanda after seeing her there.

Billy also shows Amanda a year-old article about Richard Kowalski, who pleaded guilty to murdering Saul Benson after claiming that a woman named Deborah Mallory had recruited him through an online support group for a Strangers on a Train-style murder exchange. Police never found evidence that Mallory existed, and Kowalski later died in prison. Billy believes Felicia, Naomi, and Deborah Mallory may be the same woman, although he cannot prove it.

Amanda tells Billy that she backed out of killing Quinn, that Quinn attacked her when she tried to leave, and that she injured him while defending herself. Billy asks Amanda to help him identify and find the woman who manipulated them. Amanda gives him her name, agrees to work with him, and asks to see everything he has gathered about the earlier murder case.

Ruth points at Dan Puccini on the television and says he is the man who attacked her. She insists that Puccini looked into the camera and said, "Hello, sweetheart." Scott says Puccini did not say that. From Scott's perspective, Ruth is imagining the words and having a psychological breakdown, but Ruth remains convinced that Puccini is alive, knows she survived, and is coming for her.

Ruth tells Scott they have to kill Puccini and then tells him that he killed the wrong man and has to do it again. Scott realizes that Ruth needs professional help that he cannot provide. He embraces her while thinking about the innocent man he killed and the damage the mistake has caused.

Scott then moves to the living room, opens a third-floor window, and calls 911. He gives his name as Scott Gelman, confesses to killing Patrick Travers at the Paramount Hotel, gives the Hartford address, and falsely says he has taken Ruth hostage. He tells the operator that Ruth knew nothing about the murder, is innocent, and needs help.

Scott throws the phone onto the couch, apologizes to Ruth, and tells her he loves her. He climbs onto the windowsill while Ruth approaches him. Thinking about the shame of what he has done and the trial his parents would otherwise endure, Scott closes his eyes and pushes himself off the ledge. The chapter ends as he falls from the window; his death is not separately confirmed within this unit.

Amanda reviews screenshots of Billy's messages with Felicia. She recognizes the same sequence of emotional manipulation Naomi used on her: sympathy, shared grief, hypothetical discussion, and finally the Strangers on a Train proposal. Amanda concludes that the approach was practiced and carefully designed to use grief that was already present rather than create the desire for violence from nothing.

Billy brings in a large folder of material he has collected. It includes Felicia's abandoned address and phone number, records connected to her online account, and articles about Saul Benson's murder and Richard Kowalski's claim that Deborah Mallory manipulated him into committing it. Amanda checks several of the printed articles against the live websites and finds them genuine, which increases her confidence that Billy is telling the truth.

Amanda then finds a photograph she initially assumes is Frank Quinn. Billy tells her the man is actually Saul Benson. Amanda uses Benson's image in an online image search with homicide-related terms. After refining the results, Billy spots an image he thinks may show Quinn or Benson. Amanda opens the associated article and sees a photograph of a woman farther down the page.

Amanda recognizes the woman as Naomi. Billy recognizes the same woman as Felicia. The chapter ends with Billy telling Amanda that she has found her.

Ruth reaches for Scott as he pushes himself from the third-floor window, but she is too late. She hears him strike the concrete steps below and then looks down. Scott is motionless, bleeding heavily from the head, with severe injuries to his legs.

Ruth runs downstairs and kneels beside him while sirens approach. She calls his name, tells him he will be all right, and strokes his forehead. Police officers arrive and pull Ruth away while she is unable to answer their questions.

Ruth is placed in the back of a police car and watches paramedics take Scott away. The chapter does not state that medical personnel have pronounced him dead. Ruth is then taken to a police precinct, where she sits wrapped in a towel with coffee in front of her, shaking and struggling to process what happened.

Around her, the precinct remains busy with officers, detainees, and other frightened people. On a television, President George W. Bush speaks about a meeting with a foreign ambassador and wishes Americans a prosperous Thanksgiving 2007. Ruth remains in shock as ordinary public life continues around her.

Amanda and Billy follow the image-search result to a January 2008 article about the murder trial of Ruth Gelman. The article says Ruth was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy in Patrick Travers's death. Prosecutor David O. Rush alleges that Ruth identified Travers as the man who attacked her and that she and her husband Scott then planned and carried out Travers's murder. A separate federal investigation had already established that Travers was elsewhere when Ruth was attacked.

Amanda searches Ruth Gelman's name and reads additional coverage with Billy. From those articles they learn that Ruth was found not guilty by reason of temporary insanity, spent seven years in a psychiatric hospital, and was later released. Amanda then compares photographs of Travers, Saul Benson, and Frank Quinn and concludes that the three men look strikingly similar. She theorizes that Ruth repeatedly mistakes men with similar features for her original attacker and manipulates grieving people into killing them.

Billy questions why Ruth would continue after learning Travers was innocent. Amanda says Ruth may know on some level that the men are innocent but may no longer care because of the damage caused by her trauma. Billy says he does not want anyone else to experience the pain he suffered after Lucille's murder. Amanda explains that she feels the same way and tells him about Jess, Wallace Crone, Emily Dryer, and Luis's suicide after Jess was killed.

Billy recognizes Henry Crone's name from news coverage and expresses sympathy for Amanda. When they reach Amanda's building, Billy says he will send everything they have on Ruth Gelman to his private investigator and hopes to have an address by the next day. Amanda thanks him for helping her and for not judging her.

After Billy leaves, Amanda thinks that without him she would not have identified Ruth Gelman. She remains focused on finding Ruth before police connect Amanda to Quinn's attack, while Wallace Crone temporarily moves to the background of her attention.

On Thanksgiving Eve 2018, Ruth drives through Brooklyn in a black Mercedes after dyeing her hair red. A news update says Frank Quinn remains alive but in critical condition. Ruth hopes he dies and feels the same temporary relief she remembers from the morning in Hartford eleven years earlier, when she believed Patrick Travers was dead and thought her attacker could no longer reach her.

Ruth fills the car with gas, buys cigarettes, leaves the Mercedes in long-term parking, and takes an Uber to a newly prepared apartment. The move has already been completed for her, and she has enough money from selling her house to support herself without working. She plans to attend the Thanksgiving parade the next day because she believes it will be safe.

In bed, Ruth tries to recreate the sense of safety she associates with her treatment at Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center. She remembers Dr. Marin using EMDR therapy and teaching her to imagine a locked box where she could place frightening memories, including the face and voice of the man who attacked her. Ruth now imagines the blue-eyed man, and all of the similar blue-eyed men she has feared, trapped inside that chained box.

The relief does not last. Ruth begins to feel that Mr. Blue Eyes is still alive somewhere in the city and hunting her. She gets out of bed, checks the windows, and then empties her bag onto the bed. Inside are five cell phones, each labeled for one of her current false identities: Jenny, Rachel, Simone, Amy, and Sarah.

Each identity participates in multiple bereavement or trauma support groups. Ruth uses them to find parents, spouses, partners, or other grieving people whose loved ones were killed by someone they believe escaped justice. She looks for people already angry and vulnerable, then uses their grief and sense of injustice to prepare them for the same Strangers on a Train murder-exchange proposal she previously used with other recruits.

Ruth decides to return to Manhattan for the Thanksgiving parade and try to hold onto the fragile peace she gets after one of the men she fears has been attacked. Before sleeping, she replies to messages sent to her five false identities and turns off all five phones.

At about 2:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, Farrow works alone in the robbery-homicide office on the Frank Quinn case. He remains troubled by details that do not fit a simple domestic dispute or robbery, including the fact that the limping intruder returned to Quinn's house and left two large rolls of cash behind.

Hernandez returns to the office and learns that Farrow has formally taken the case from Donnelly and Carter. She is irritated but admits that losing the limping woman on the street bothers her too and asks how she can help. Farrow says he called the lab earlier and expects DNA results from the scene soon, then gives Hernandez a list of routine investigative tasks.

As Farrow prepares to continue working, his cell phone rings. He listens to the caller for about thirty seconds and then says the lab has returned the results. The chapter does not state the specific laboratory finding.

Farrow tells Hernandez that he is going home to rest and shower and then intends to pick up Amanda White. The chapter ends there, linking the lab call to his decision without yet explaining exactly what evidence points to Amanda.

On Thanksgiving morning, Amanda counts the cash she took from Quinn's lockbox and finds that it totals nearly seventy-five thousand dollars. She then reviews the articles she and Billy gathered about Ruth Gelman and compares the police sketch of Mr. Blue Eyes with photographs of Patrick Travers, Frank Quinn, and Saul Benson. The men look similar enough that Amanda continues searching for other victims with the same general appearance.

Amanda finds several apparently motiveless murders involving men who resemble the others. She identifies Sean Gardner, stabbed to death in East Harlem; Paul Beriano, an Uber driver shot at his front door in Queens; Paul Anderson, an interior designer; and Dan Puccini, the NYPD media relations manager Ruth once identified as her attacker. Amanda notices that the suspected cases appear to occur more frequently after Ruth's release from Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center.

Amanda cannot prove that Ruth arranged all of these attacks. She considers only Saul Benson and Frank Quinn definite later targets in the pattern she and Billy have uncovered, with Patrick Travers as the original mistaken target. Even so, she sees enough similarity in the victims and timing to fear that Ruth has repeatedly manipulated grieving people into killing men who resemble Mr. Blue Eyes.

Amanda consults a forensic-psychology book she previously read while trying to understand Wallace Crone. She reads about organized serial killers and about an accelerating cycle in which fantasies, victim selection, attacks, and temporary fulfillment occur more rapidly over time. Amanda does not diagnose Ruth, but she notes that the suspected attacks she has identified appear to be accelerating.

Amanda starts to call Billy, then remembers the bag containing her bloodstained clothes from Quinn's house and the second burner phone. She leaves her apartment intending to dispose of it. When her first dumpster route is blocked, she heads back toward her building and sees Detective Farrow coming out of it.

Amanda ducks into a twenty-four-hour laundromat. Farrow calls her phone, but she lets the call go to voicemail because she believes he is there to arrest her and worries he could hear the laundromat dryers if she answers. Farrow then waits in his car outside her building. After ten minutes, Amanda concludes that she has run out of time and needs to disappear, but her laptop and the stolen cash are still inside her apartment. The chapter ends as she looks for a rear exit and begins listening to Farrow's voicemail.

Ruth watches the Thanksgiving Day Parade from a window table at Stella 34 Trattoria in Macy's. The holiday atmosphere and the excitement of the children briefly calm her, and after the parade she buys a snow globe showing a family on a snowy hill.

In an elevator, Ruth rides with a mother, father, and two children. The father has dark hair and striking blue eyes. His appearance triggers Ruth's trauma response. She drops the snow globe, and the sound of glass breaking reminds her of the night she was attacked.

Ruth then experiences a distorted perception in which the entire family appears to stare at her with blue eyes and say "Hello, sweetheart." When the episode passes, the family is facing the elevator doors, and the little girl simply wishes Ruth a happy Thanksgiving. The threatening behavior is not independently established; it occurs within Ruth's perception during the episode.

Ruth follows the family out of Macy's and to George Towers. By watching the elevator indicator and the building mailboxes, she determines that they live on the tenth floor in apartment 1003 under the surname Granger.

Ruth interprets the family's presence and her own hallucinated experience as proof that the father is another version of Mr. Blue Eyes and that the family is taunting her. She blames Amanda for failing to kill Quinn and concludes she can no longer rely on recruited killers. Ruth decides that she will kill the Granger family herself, imagining that the father should watch his children and wife die before she kills him.

Amanda listens to Farrow's voicemail from the laundromat. He says he came to her apartment, needs to speak with her urgently, and wants her to come to the precinct. Amanda interprets his formal tone and presence outside her building as evidence that police have connected her to the Quinn case.

After Farrow drives away, Amanda throws the bag containing her bloodstained clothes and the second burner phone into a dumpster. She returns to her apartment and packs her laptop, the stolen cash, clothes, Sparkles the unicorn, and Luis's wedding ring because she expects she may not be able to return.

A man then knocks on her door and insists that she open it. Amanda assumes he is a detective and prepares to be arrested, but he never identifies himself as police. When she opens the door, he hands her an envelope and tells her she has been served. The papers are from Wallace Crone's lawsuit for damages.

Amanda leaves the apartment and uses a pay phone rather than her cell phone to call Billy. She tells him she believes police are looking for her and that she needs somewhere else to stay. Billy offers to let her stay with him.

Billy says his private investigator can find no current financial, utility, address, or phone records for Ruth Gelman, which suggests Ruth is operating under false identities. He also says he has already arranged a meeting for the next morning with Dr. Marin, Ruth's former therapist at Kirby. Marin will not provide confidential patient information but has agreed to receive information concerning Ruth's health. Amanda concludes that they need to get something useful from the meeting because she believes it may be their last available lead.

After leaving Amanda's building, Farrow returns to the precinct for a quiet Thanksgiving Day shift. The hospital reports that Quinn has deteriorated after bleeding and chest trauma caused a cardiac arrest and that he remains unconscious. Farrow looks over the unsolved files he refuses to send to storage, especially the Mr. Blue Eyes case. Because he has never been certain whether the attacks stopped or merely changed, he has maintained a standing order for Hernandez and himself to receive courtesy calls about Manhattan home-invasion homicides and attempted homicides. Over the past decade, perhaps two of those cases might have been connected to Mr. Blue Eyes, though Farrow cannot say that any were.

After finishing the shift and going home, Farrow wakes shortly after four the next morning with severe back pain and takes Oxycontin before showering and making coffee. Hernandez calls at 5:50 a.m. She says forensic technicians are still working on Quinn's heavily secured computer. The burner phone recovered from the toolshed was traced by batch number to a Midtown store, whose records show that two burner phones were bought together in a single transaction by one buyer. Farrow tells Hernandez he plans to find Amanda and still believes Quinn's laptop may contain answers about his identity and motive.

Farrow tries Amanda again but reaches voicemail. He reflects on the relationship he developed with her after Luis and Jess died and on his sense of obligation to victims and the people they leave behind. He remembers being the second officer on the scene when Jess's body was found and remains convinced Wallace Crone killed her. The forensic team's DNA news has left him worried about what Amanda is about to learn. The chapter ends with Farrow deciding that he needs to give her that news in person and be there to support her.

Amanda wakes in Billy's spare room in Queens and sees that he has already marked a New York map with roughly a dozen locations based on the additional possible victims she described the night before. After breakfast, they go to the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center to meet Dr. Marin. Amanda tells him Ruth tried to recruit both of them to kill men she believed were her attacker and argues that Ruth may be responsible for multiple killings. Dr. Marin initially refuses to discuss Ruth because of patient confidentiality. Amanda invokes the exception for a patient who poses a danger, but Marin says he has no evidence that Ruth is currently dangerous.

As the meeting appears to end, Amanda names Dan Puccini as Ruth's first victim after leaving the hospital. Marin immediately recognizes the name because Ruth had spoken about Puccini as the blue-eyed man who attacked her. He then agrees to help. Marin recalls that shortly before Ruth's release she received a visit from Jack, an old friend of Scott's who asked how much it would cost for Marin to lose a prescription pad temporarily. Billy and Amanda infer that Jack may know how Ruth obtained false identification. Marin agrees to contact Jack and ask him to speak with them, while stating that he will contact the authorities once Ruth is found.

After Amanda and Billy return toward Manhattan, Amanda receives a call from a man reached through Marin's intervention. He directs her to call back from a pay phone and says he helped Scott's widow when she sought new IDs. He gives Amanda the names and birth dates from ten of Ruth's most recent identities and adds that his contact also supplied Ruth with a gun for protection. Billy passes the identity information to his private investigator, who asks for three hours to search credit and other databases. With Ruth now known to have a gun, Amanda and Billy wait for the investigator's results.

Ruth's usual coping protocols, including tapping, breathing, and the metronome, are no longer containing the pressure she feels. She believes the only way to secure the mental "chest" holding back her traumatic thoughts is to kill the Granger family. She buys a gourmet fruit-and-cheese basket and plans to pose as a delivery person so the concierge will let her reach the tenth floor. Her plan is to wound Mr. Granger first, kill his wife and children while he watches, then kill him, and kill the concierge on her way out.

Ruth dresses in dark clothing and checks the pistol Jack obtained for her. She has never used it before, but the magazine is full, and she chambers a round before putting the gun in her coat pocket. Preparing to carry out the murders herself distracts her from the pressure in her head and quiets the thoughts she has been trying to contain.

Ruth realizes that she had never seriously considered committing the killings herself. The prospect makes her feel exhilarated, powerful, and unafraid. She takes her car keys and the gift basket and leaves her apartment to carry out the plan.

At the pizza parlor, Billy tells Amanda that Lucille was the Dolly Parton fan in their marriage. He began listening to her records after Lucille was murdered because the music reminds him of her. Billy then asks Amanda about Jess. Amanda tells him that Jess loved stuffed animals but slept only with a white unicorn named Sparkles. After Luis died by suicide, Amanda was hospitalized while Luis's parents buried both Luis and Jess, and Sparkles was accidentally left out of Jess's coffin. Amanda also tells Billy that she felt relieved when she believed Wallace Crone was dead and describes how the circumstances in which Jess's body was found remain fixed in her mind.

Billy then receives a call and circles one of the false identities on Amanda's list. One of Ruth's IDs was used for a credit check the previous week by a rental company. Billy's investigator contacted the company and learned that the credit check was connected to a recently rented apartment in Brooklyn. A DMV search also found a black Mercedes S-Class registered two years earlier under a different identity and address.

Billy considers the Brooklyn apartment the stronger lead because it is more recent and fits the timing of Ruth moving after Quinn's attack. He has the address, and Amanda tells him they should go find her.

Ruth drives the Mercedes toward George Towers with the gift basket in the back seat, obeying traffic laws because she wants to avoid being stopped. She reflects that she has always been careful when recruiting accomplices, especially online, but believes that if she succeeds tonight she will no longer need anyone else to kill for her.

At George Towers, Ruth puts on a cap and sunglasses and tells the concierge, Raymond, that the basket is a special delivery for the Grangers that must be signed for in person. When Raymond refuses to let her upstairs and starts to call Mr. Granger, Ruth strikes him repeatedly on the head with the butt of her gun. She then removes the silk ribbon from the basket, loops it around Raymond's neck, and strangles him until his arms stop moving.

Rather than use the old elevator, Ruth carries the basket up ten flights of stairs. As she climbs, the pressure in her mind intensifies and she hears a gentle voice telling her to stop. Ruth identifies the voice as Scott's, insists that the man upstairs is her attacker, and mentally muffles Scott's voice. On the tenth floor the sounds in her head stop. Ruth draws her gun, with apartment 1003 directly ahead.

Billy and Amanda leave the restaurant, and Billy calls Dr. Marin to give him Ruth's Brooklyn address and ask him to meet them there. Billy explains that if Ruth has relapsed, Marin says she must be taken into official custody before she can be readmitted to Kirby, so Marin intends to bring NYPD officers with him.

Billy warns Amanda that approaching Ruth could be dangerous and offers to drop her elsewhere. Amanda refuses. She says she may be arrested at any moment and wants police to know Ruth's role in what happened. Amanda also recognizes that she cannot avoid Farrow indefinitely. She intends to tell him the truth about why she went to Quinn's home, even though she ultimately injured Quinn in self-defense, and believes Farrow is the person most likely to believe her.

Amanda enters the Brooklyn address into the GPS, which estimates that they will arrive shortly before eight o'clock. Billy says he hopes they reach Ruth before she does something dangerous because she could already be selecting another victim. He accelerates and begins weaving through traffic as they head toward the address.

Farrow and Hernandez stand outside Frank Quinn's hospital room at Mount Sinai after Quinn dies without regaining consciousness. Because Quinn has now died from the injuries connected to the attack, Hernandez says the case is a homicide. Farrow still has not reached Amanda despite having the laboratory results he has been trying to discuss with her.

Hernandez also reports that technicians have broken through the security on Quinn's computers and that results should be available soon. Farrow then receives an unexpected call from Dr. Marin, who says someone close to Ruth Gelman has reported that she may be experiencing a breakdown or relapse involving paranoid hallucinations like those she had when she first entered Kirby.

Marin is traveling to a Brooklyn address and says Ruth may need to be committed involuntarily if she will not consent to treatment or cannot make that decision herself. He asks Farrow to come because Ruth knows and trusts him from his visits during her hospitalization. Farrow agrees and asks Marin for the address.

Amanda and Billy reach Ruth's recently rented Brooklyn Heights address shortly before eight o'clock and see a woman in dark clothing leave the building carrying a gift basket. After matching the license plate on her black Mercedes to the number obtained by Billy's investigator, they identify the woman as Ruth and follow her at a distance. Ruth drives across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan and enters another building with the basket. Billy gives Dr. Marin the new address.

Inside the Manhattan building, Billy finds the concierge behind the reception desk with a red ribbon tied around his neck. Billy removes the ribbon, and the man begins coughing before Billy can start chest compressions. The concierge says Ruth went to the tenth floor. Billy tells Amanda to call 911, remain with the concierge, and wait for Marin and police while he goes upstairs. Amanda reluctantly agrees. Billy takes the elevator toward the tenth floor while the concierge begins warning residents not to open their doors.

Dr. Marin arrives outside, followed by Farrow and Hernandez. Amanda explains that Ruth attacked the concierge and that Billy has gone upstairs. Farrow then gives Amanda the update he has been trying to deliver: police picked up Wallace Crone after an anonymous report that he was approaching children near an elementary school, but a search of his vehicle did not corroborate that report. Amanda realizes Ruth made the call to remove Crone from the street and then falsely told Amanda she had killed him.

Hernandez starts up the stairs, and Farrow tells her not to engage Ruth until he arrives. When the elevator does not return, Farrow and Marin prepare to take the stairs. Before they can go up, everyone hears a gunshot from above.

Ruth reaches apartment 1003 and finds the door locked. Before she can knock, the elevator begins rising toward the tenth floor. The man inside identifies himself as Billy and then as BillyCam2003, an online contact Ruth had considered recruiting through her Felicia profile to kill Frank Quinn. Ruth remembers rejecting him because he insisted on meeting in person. She had never spoken to him by phone, however, so his familiar voice unsettles her.

Billy removes brown contact lenses and reveals blue eyes. Ruth recognizes both the eyes and his voice as those of the man who attacked her years earlier. When he confirms this by greeting her as "sweetheart," Ruth draws her gun and fires. Billy jerks open the elevator gate, which catches the gun and knocks it from her hand as the shot strikes the elevator panel beside him.

Billy tells Ruth that he left New York after failing to kill her and continued killing elsewhere. He later recognized that Patrick Travers resembled him, learned about Saul Benson and other similar victims, and concluded that Ruth was arranging murders of men who looked like him. He says he tracked her because he would not tolerate becoming her prey and eventually encountered her online through the BillyCam2003 identity. He also tells her that her pattern had moved beyond searching for him and that she had begun killing for the pleasure of it.

As people rush up the stairs, Billy replaces his blue-eye appearance with fresh brown contact lenses. Dr. Marin reaches Ruth as she points at Billy and identifies him as her attacker. Seeing Billy with brown eyes, Marin interprets Ruth's accusation as the same paranoid behavior she displayed when first admitted to Kirby and injects her with a sedative. Farrow, Hernandez, and Amanda arrive as Ruth loses consciousness. Billy tells her she is going back to the hospital and says he will visit her.

Two months later, Amanda is working as the manager of a new art gallery and has begun stabilizing her life. One January morning she finds an unaddressed envelope bearing only her name in her mailbox, pockets it, and nearly slips on the icy sidewalk outside. Farrow catches her and asks her to join him for coffee before work.

At the coffee shop, Farrow tells Amanda that investigators found degraded blood and black-denim fibers on the wall behind Frank Quinn's property. The partial DNA profile is not strong enough for scientific certainty or court, but it partially matches Amanda. Farrow also notes that she was limping the night Ruth was taken from George Towers and tells her that Quinn was a mob money launderer who resembled Patrick Travers and the man Ruth was targeting that night. Amanda denies knowing Quinn. Farrow says the DNA could be a laboratory error and suggests he may let the homicide remain unsolved, but his questions about Amanda's knee and his warning that he may not be there to catch her the next time she falls make Amanda believe he knows she was involved.

Farrow then tells Amanda that Wallace Crone has been found dead after being stripped, tortured, and dumped in a dumpster, with a chemical odor suggesting he may have been drugged first. Amanda says she spent the previous night at a Dolly Parton concert with a coworker named Abbey; Billy had sent the tickets but did not attend. During the drive to Amanda's gallery, Farrow says Ruth is awaiting trial and is expected to face serious charges for attacking Raymond, attempting to kill the Grangers, and fraud involving her burner phones and false identities. He doubts police will be able to connect Ruth to every murder. Before leaving Amanda at work, he says he may never know who killed Quinn or Crone and that he has to let some cases go.

After Farrow leaves, Amanda opens the letter from her mailbox. Billy admits that he lied about having a murdered wife, already knew Ruth's real identity before meeting Amanda, and used Amanda as a buffer between himself and police and as someone Dr. Marin would trust. He asks Amanda to burn the letter and says that before Crone died, Crone admitted killing Jess. Billy closes by saying they are unlikely to meet again and signs off with the same "sweetheart" phrase associated with Ruth's attacker.

That evening Amanda goes to Coney Island with Billy's letter and Jess's toy unicorn, Sparkles. On the dark winter beach, she burns the letter and places Sparkles in the fire. As she sits alone by the flames, Amanda no longer feels afraid or alone. She thinks she briefly smells oranges and may hear a child's voice laughing in the wind, but the narration leaves whether that perception is literal unresolved.