62 pages • 2-hour read
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Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of death and emotional abuse.
On Tuesday, October 13, Hank calls Camille to check on her. He tells Camille that the police are done with the Bayliss house, but Camille isn’t ready to return to the scene of the crime and doesn’t feel safe there. Hank also tells Camille that Sully wants to interview her formally on Wednesday, and he offers to host it in the conference room of the law office. Camille expresses her grief over Ben’s death and says she doesn’t know how to exist anymore, as so much of her identity centered on being Ben’s wife. Hank wonders if she, too, feels relieved by his death.
Ben’s client, Pete Sanders, CEO of a large private contractor company, demands to see Hank. Hank reviews Ben’s client file on Pete and sees that the files Ben kept at home are different from the files in his office, and the home files suggest that Ben intimidated witnesses. Hank meets Pete, who insists that Hank use dirty tactics to win his case and suggests that Ben used intimidation and corruption to win his first major case against the DA. Hank starts to review all of Ben’s files.
On Saturday, October 10, Aubrey enters the Louisiana State Penitentiary, or Angola, that has a long, brutal history dating to when it served as a plantation. Aubrey clears security and takes a school bus to another building in the compound to meet Paul.
Paul seems happy to see her, which makes Aubrey uncomfortable. He offers to answer any of Aubrey’s questions, and she directly asks him about the evidence that he claims exonerates him. Paul hesitates before revealing that someone told him that a gas station security camera caught the accident and saw that another man was driving the truck, but he wouldn’t say who it was. The man didn’t turn over the video as a favor to someone else. Paul says he’s supposed to keep the evidence quiet, but he told his mother, who began publicizing his case again. Paul worries for the man and his family. Aubrey knows the man is Kevin Foster, who has since died, but she doesn’t tell Paul. She thanks him and promises to look into it.
Aubrey gets back in the car with Deacon, and they return to St. Francisville. As Deacon drives, they review the plan. When Ben goes to Foster’s to open the safe, Deacon will be waiting for him and will surprise him and take whatever’s in the safe. Plan B, if Ben doesn’t go to Foster’s, is to break into the Bayliss house, steal the key, and the open the safe themselves. Aubrey cautions Deacon to be careful, and he promises he has everything under control.
Ben takes Margaret into the kitchen as Camille watches the cameras. Margaret tells Ben she’s worried that Silas plans to do something drastic because he believes that Foster sent the evidence to Aubrey before his death. Camille wonders why Margaret is involved in Paul Granger’s case and how she knows about Aubrey. Margaret also reveals that Eddie and Shane live with Aubrey, after saying that Silas has photos of Ben with them and the Mustang.
Ben says he knows Silas had someone follow him and Aubrey and accuses Margaret of switching allegiances to side with Silas. Ben reminds her that he was the one who told Randall and Silas about the new evidence when it came across Hank’s desk. Margaret tells Ben he needs to reassure Silas and Randall that he isn’t going to use the evidence against them. Ben, however, says he’s tired of being under Randall’s thumb, of taking the cases Randall dictates he take, of helping Randall get richer. He wants out and says he wouldn’t have agreed to be Silas’s alibi if he knew he’d be entrapped for the rest of his life.
Camille watches in horror as she realizes that her brother Silas was the one who was driving, the one who killed Aubrey’s parents. Margaret tells Ben she knows he has a plan, but Ben refuses to reveal it, as he thinks Margaret will tell Silas. Margaret leaves, and Camille throws up.
Ben receives a phone call from someone, and he asks them to send a picture. He looks at the picture and calls the person again, saying he’s leaving the house. The garage door opens and closes, and Camille runs downstairs and stands on a chair in Ben’s office to retrieve the camera. Ben appears and tells her that she’s not supposed to be there. Camille screams and falls next to the overturned chair.
The narrative jumps back to 10 years prior. Margaret and Silas appear badly injured at Ben’s house. They tell Ben that they were partying at Paul Granger’s house, and while many others went to hang out at the old cotton gin, Margaret and Silas wanted to get food. Paul was passed out, so Silas borrowed his truck and drove Margaret away until they crashed into another car. Margaret knew they were near Ben’s house, so she dragged Silas out of the truck and to Ben. Ben calls Randall, as only he can fix this mess. Randall disapproves of Margaret and Silas’s relationship, so Margaret returns to her house. Silas cries that he’ll never make it out of Corbeau.
Randall arrives, and Ben and Silas tell him the truth. Randall quickly invents a cover story: When the other kids went to the cotton gin, Ben picked up Margaret and Silas from Paul’s house, driving Margaret home and taking Silas to Baton Rouge to stay in the Everetts’ condo. Randall makes Ben agree to be Silas’s alibi in exchange for approval of his relationship with Camille and for financial help for Ben’s mother, who’s struggled since his father’s death. Ben agrees, and Silas asks Randall if anyone was hurt in the crash, but Randall doesn’t answer and leaves. Silas tells Ben that Ben doesn’t know what he’s done.
On Tuesday, October 13, Hank asks one of his paralegals, Scott, to help research the Paul Granger case. They look into Aubrey and her housemates, including Eddie and Shane, the men and a romantic couple that repaired Ben’s Mustang. They then review the facts of the investigation into Paul. They find that Kevin Foster, the former chief of police in Corbeau, took all the witness statements from the scene of the crime, and no one made a 911 call about the accident. Hank thinks that if he was Paul’s attorney, he would discredit Foster first.
He finds a note in Ben’s file that says that Foster visited Angola, and when he and Scott dig into Foster, they find that he’s died of pancreatic cancer, and his Facebook feed shows an abundance of religious posts after his diagnosis. Hank theorizes that Foster knew he was dying and wanted to make amends for his sins before death, which may have motivated him to help those he falsely incarcerated overturn their sentences. If the truth of Foster’s corruption got out, it could ruin Ben’s career and could serve as the motive for his murder. Foster ran unopposed for his last three elections but still took donations, and his largest donors were Randall Everett and Ben Bayliss.
On Saturday, October 10, Ben helps Camille up off the floor and asks why she’s spying on him. Camille tries to lie and says she came home because she felt sick, but Ben shows her a photo of Aubrey pretending to be her, which was the photo someone sent him before he pretended to leave the house. He tracked Camille’s iPad to the house and knew she was lurking. He demands that Camille show him every camera in the house, and he collects them in a bag before removing each individual memory card and putting them all down the garbage disposal.
He asks Camille again why she’s spying on him and turns the situation around by claiming all he wants is to get out from under Randall’s influence and provide Camille with a better life. Camille almost doubts herself but still wants to leave. Ben realizes the woman in the photo is Aubrey, and he tells Camille that she can explain to Randall why she’s involved Aubrey. Camille runs to her car and takes out the prepaid phone she bought at Target. She calls Silas and tells him everything that happened.
On Tuesday, October 13, Hank goes to the Rosary service for Ben. Hank sees Camille in the front row flanked by Ben’s family on one side and her family on the other. Lila saves Hank a seat in the third row and shows him a note from the Notes app on her phone with his schedule for the next day.
The priest begins speaking about Ben, describing him as involved with the church and charitable with his time and resources. Hank notes that Ben never did anything for free, and Ben’s files show that when he helped the church, he always got something in return, whether it was free lawn mowing for a year or free haircuts. Ben’s mother, Suzanne, sobs, and her new husband, William, consoles her. Camille wipes at her tears, but Hank can’t get a good look at her.
After the service, the Bayliss and Everett families form a receiving line to greet the mourners. Camille stands next to Margaret, but visibly rebuffs her attempts at comforting her. Camille endures until she sends a pleading look to Hank, who steps in and claims the firm employees want to speak to Camille. She takes a break with Hank, who asks her about her relationship with Margaret. Camille claims Margaret likes attention, and Camille keeps a distance from her entire family and made Ben promise to do the same before Randall got his claws into Ben.
Hank asks Camille if she knew why Ben wanted to dissolve their partnership, and Camille says she doesn’t know anything about Ben anymore. Camille’s mother, Marie, drags Camille back to the receiving line, where she stays until something startles her, and she runs to the bathroom. Hank watches as a woman he recognizes as Aubrey Price follows her in.
Camille tells Aubrey she shouldn’t have come to the Rosary. Aubrey asks Camille if she killed Ben, and Camille denies it. They confront each other about their respective lies, as Camille didn’t tell Aubrey that Ben caught her watching him via the cameras and Aubrey didn’t tell Camille that Ben brought the car to her housemates for repairs. Camille tells Aubrey that their search for answers has to be over, and they need to lie low to avoid suspicion. Aubrey wants the video of her parents’ deaths, but Camille pretends not to know it exists.
A woman interrupts them, and Camille whispers to Aubrey that she’ll visit her at the bar in a few days. She returns to the receiving line while Aubrey prepares to leave. She sees a man standing beside Camille and recognizes him as the man who flirted with her at Chantilly’s the night of the alibi.
Aubrey hurries home and meets with her housemates, telling them what happened. Vic the PI didn’t know about Aubrey’s plan, so he was the one to photograph her in St. Francisville. Eddie looks up pictures of men related to Camille, and Aubrey recognizes Silas as the man from Chantilly’s. Aubrey assumes that Camille set her up, and Serenity thinks it’s possible Camille killed Ben and is trying to make Aubrey take the fall. Aubrey thinks that Camille is more exposed than she is, making it unlikely Camille would kill Ben and frame her.
The group tells Aubrey not to talk to Camille anymore. Deacon offers to let Aubrey soak in his bathtub and even gives her a key to his room. Aubrey tries to relax, but thinks that she and Camille could easily have Ben’s murder pinned on them.
The truth of Ben’s role in the death of Aubrey’s parents emerges with Margaret’s visit to the Bayliss house and the flashback chapter of Ben’s point of view of the accident. Ben and Margaret’s character arcs thus inform the theme of The Relationship Between Class and Credibility in a Socially Stratified Community.
Ben, who is less socially prestigious and wealthy than Randall, makes a deal with Randall to protect Silas in exchange for Randall’s approval of his relationship with Camille and Randall’s assistance in creating a successful law career. Though Ben’s initially happy with the arrangement, by the time of his murder, he’s frustrated with Randall’s control. He even tells Margaret he plans to use the evidence Foster’s hidden against the Everetts, saying, “I guarantee you the first thing I will do is use it to extricate myself from underneath Randall Everett’s thumb, where he’s kept me pinned all these years!” (153). Ben grows up and escapes his naïve hopes that Randall would respect him and work with him, realizing that by helping Silas, he only incriminated himself and gave Randall leverage to hold over him in perpetuity. Ben gains credibility because of Randall, and Ben knows both his foothold in the upper levels of the stratified society of Louisiana and his integrity as a lawyer rest in Randall’s hands.
Margaret, like Ben, comes from a less affluent background than the Everetts, placing her in a similarly dependent position socially and economically. Margaret also benefits from the accident that kills the Prices, because her knowledge of Silas’s involvement makes her either a risk or an asset to the Everett family. Ben realizes that he and Margaret are the same in the aftermath of the accident, thinking, “In that moment, I begrudgingly acknowledge a camaraderie with her. We’re both fighting tooth and nail to remain in our relationships against the wishes of Randall Everett” (162).
Ben and Margaret want to gain access to the Everett family fortune and power, to solidify themselves as members of the upper stratums of Baton Rouge society. They both obtain their goal temporarily, but it eventually crashes down around them. The revelation of Ben’s involvement in the accident after his death adds complex dramatic irony to the narrative: Ben makes risky decisions about Silas’s secret without knowing that these decisions will lead to his murder, a fact that the narrative makes apparent to the reader by Chapter 3.
Ben also fights “tooth and nail” to keep his relationship with Camille, but he holds her in contempt and views her negatively, reflecting The Impact of Coercive Control Within Marriage. When Margaret asks Ben what Camille will think about the truth of Silas’s involvement, Ben says, “She’ll bury her head in the sand like she’s done her whole life. She loves to pretend she doesn’t know where the money comes from, walking the moral high ground, as long as her lifestyle doesn’t change. This is no different” (154). Ben views Camille like Aubrey does, as an entitled, spoiled rich girl with no grounding in the realities of life.
Ben thinks Camille is easy to control and naïve, but Camille knows more than Ben thinks. Camille has felt like something is wrong in her marriage for years, but she pretends to be happy in order to keep her financial stability. She’s not the totally complacent person Ben believes her to be, as she sensed something amiss without being able to pinpoint it. Camille refuses to “bury her head in the sand” any longer, and her coalition with Aubrey demonstrates a turn toward agency in her character arc.



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