All In

The killer is frustrated by the fact that he must wait before he kills again, but the pattern he is creating demands it. He knows that the FBI suspects the Grand Ballroom but is confident that they don’t understand his design. To assert his purpose, he carves into his own skin with the knife, welcoming the pain. Contemplating which FBI team member might have discerned part of his pattern, he resolves to follow through with the plan anyway.

On the day of Tory Howard’s magic show, the team finds two packages. The first contains six tickets to the show, a gift from Aaron Shaw. The second contains new FBI interview footage of Tory, now with a lawyer. Tory admits that she chose the restaurant, not Camille. She also explains that hypnotism is merely suggestion, not a form of mind control. A separate box then arrives for Sloane containing the expensive silk shirt she tried to steal—a gift from Aaron with a note that reads, “I’m not like my father” (180). The gesture strengthens Sloane’s resolve, and she agrees to attend the show.

The Naturals team attends Tory Howard’s show. In the auditorium, Aaron Shaw apologizes to Sloane for their earlier encounter. He is with a woman named Allison Lawrence. During a hypnotism segment, Michael and Allison are chosen as volunteers. Under hypnosis, Allison stops obeying Tory’s instructions and instead walks to the front of the stage while screaming the word “Tertium.” Suddenly, a stage light “shattered and popped” (186), and in the confusion, Allison whispers, ”I need nine” (186) before collapsing.

Judd evacuates the team, but Sloane disappears backstage. Cassie, Lia, and Dean follow, finding Beau Donovan attacking Aaron. Sloane intervenes before Tory arrives to break it up. Agent Briggs appears and announces he needs to question everyone.

After the show, the killer feels his power returning, believing his message was delivered. He reaffirms his plan: a ritual of contrition, devotion, and revenge.

Cassie awakens from a nightmare to find Sloane has covered the walls with calendars. Sloane explains a new breakthrough: The murders follow dates derived from the Fibonacci sequence, dictating 27 total killings. The next will be on January 12. Sloane admits to hacking FBI and Interpol databases, where she found an unsolved New York case from 11 years prior with nine victims killed on dates matching the sequence.

The next morning, Cassie updates Dean on Sloane’s discoveries. They theorize that Tertium refers not to a third victim, but to the killer’s third time enacting this nine-victim pattern.

Dean calls Agent Briggs, who informs him that the hotel’s head of security, Victor McKinney, has been attacked and is in a coma, with a series of numbers on his wrist. Beau Donovan is the primary suspect.

The team watches Beau’s interrogation footage, and Sloane notices the number on McKinney’s wrist—9095—is not part of the Fibonacci sequence. They conclude that Beau is a copycat and that the real killer’s pattern is unbroken.

Sloane sees that although the previous murders used the Fibonacci sequences for their dates, the numbers on the victims’ wrists are a new addition—a way to make the pattern more complex. Cassie makes a list of suspects that now includes Grayson Shaw, who is the right age to have committed the previous sets of murders. Cassie has a realization. She recalls that one of the Fibonacci dates—May 8—is the anniversary of the murder of Judd’s daughter, Scarlett. She asks Judd, who confirms that the serial killer Nightshade murdered exactly nine victims.

The killer loves that everything can be counted—everything except infinity. He runs his fingers over the pattern carved into his chest. He fixates on the number nine, which he was “always meant to be” (233).

Sloan confirms that the murder dates align with the pattern. Judd forbids the team from accessing the official Nightshade case file.

Soon after, Aaron Shaw arrives with security footage showing McKinney attacking Beau first. As he speaks, he receives a text and reports that McKinney has awakened from his coma.

The group forwards the security footage to the FBI. A global database search initiated by Sloane returns more than one case that fits the same pattern.

In total, Sloane’s search program finds nearly a dozen unsolved serial murder cases from multiple continents going back to the 1950s, all following the Fibonacci date pattern. The team realizes they are hunting a multi-generational conspiracy of killers, and that the cases they have found are, at best, half of the victims. Sloane arranges photos from the historical cases, and they discover another pattern: a repeating 21-year cycle of seven specific murder methods. They confirm the Las Vegas killer is following this established cycle in the prescribed order.