62 pages • 2-hour read
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Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of graphic violence, death, and substance use.
On Saturday, October 17, Silas takes Camille to the Bayliss house to find Ben’s key to Foster’s safe. Silas quickly organized a ceremony in which the Corbeau Police Department will present Foster’s wife with a commemorative plaque, leaving her house empty for a few hours for Silas and Camille to enter and open the safe.
Camille struggles to enter her house, as her grief has made her positive memories with Ben shine brighter than the negative ones. She and Silas go in together, and the house smells like the antiseptic the specialized cleaning crew used. Camille leads Silas to the glass jar of markers on the counter and dumps them out, revealing the key.
Silas drives Camille to Corbeau, and Camille postulates that the safe is why someone murdered Ben. Silas agrees, but he doesn’t think Randall did it, as Randall would make sure he had the evidence from the safe before killing Ben. Silas quickly confirms Mrs. Foster is out of the house before breaking in, and Camille leaves a gift basket outside as a cover for their presence at the house.
They reach the safe, and Silas opens it to find it empty. They turn and find Deacon; he and Silas hold each other at gunpoint. Deacon agrees to talk if Silas lowers his gun. They both put their weapons away, and Deacon tells Silas and Camille about flipping Ben’s PI to their side by forgiving his debts and tracking Camille’s car. Deacon leaves to tell Aubrey that the safe is empty, and Silas and Camille wonder where the evidence went.
On Sunday, October 18, Hank can’t stop thinking about Aubrey’s presence at the Rosary and her connection to Camille. He calls Camille to check on her, and he tells her about the police searching Aubrey’s house. Camille gasps upon hearing Aubrey’s name, and Hank tells her that she must be honest with him. She asks him to pick her up in Corbeau so they can talk, and he agrees to meet her after lunch.
Hank goes to Angola to talk to Paul. Angola hosts a yearly rodeo in which the inmates can compete and host booths to sell their crafts. Hank finds Paul selling his leatherwares and asks him about his relationship with Foster and Aubrey. Paul admits that Foster was the man who told him about the evidence, and Hank informs Paul that Foster died. Hank asks Paul about the jewelry box and the typed letter, and Paul says he never sent that to Aubrey, as they can only mail things that fit in envelopes. Paul did give a jewelry box to Foster when he visited, so Foster must’ve sent the box and the letter to Aubrey.
Paul asks if the evidence was in the box, but Hank found it empty. Paul tells Hank that the box has a secret compartment in the bottom, and Hank promises to check it out.
Aubrey wakes up in Deacon’s arms for the second day in a row. They have grilled cheeses and coffee before they start cleaning Aubrey’s room after the police made a mess of it. Deacon goes out to get them food, and Hank calls Aubrey and tells her that Frank sent the jewelry box and about the jewelry box’s secret compartment.
Serenity’s boyfriend Frank watches as Aubrey discovers the USB drive hidden in the box. Aubrey asks Frank to borrow his laptop to see what’s on the drive, and Frank agrees. He gets his laptop and Aubrey hands him the USB, but the laptop is a Mac and requires a converter to read the USB. He goes to his truck to get the converter.
Deacon comes back, and Aubrey fills him in. He offers his laptop to Aubrey, but she says Frank is getting his converter. Deacon tells her that he passed Frank driving away on the road, and Aubrey sees that Frank’s truck is missing, meaning he’s left with the USB drive.
Camille slips back into her old family life, attending church with her family and the family lunch afterward. Camille tells her parents she’s meeting Hank later for dinner, and Randall throws Ben’s death in her face by telling her it would be a bad look for her to be seen at dinner a week after her husband’s death. Camille stands her ground, and her mother Marie offers to give her some food to give Hank. Camille privately decides to stay at a hotel, never come home again, and to tell Hank the whole truth.
After lunch, Silas asks Camille to talk privately in the shop across the driveway. Silas tells her that he has the USB drive with the evidence, as Frank is the man Silas hired to look after Aubrey. Frank steps outside while Silas and Camille open the drive and locate the video among the evidence. They watch it and see the cars crash, and Margaret climbs out of the driver’s seat of Paul’s truck. Silas realizes he didn’t remember anything from the accident before climbing through Ben’s window, and he assumed that he was the one driving, and Margaret let him believe it.
Silas opens a letter on the drive from Foster about Paul’s case that states that Foster found the video footage after Randall had already framed Paul and believed Silas was driving, so Foster didn’t interfere. Camille tells Silas she plans to tell Hank the truth, and Silas plans to handle Margaret himself.
Camille takes a moment before walking back through the shop. Margaret intercepts her after hiding behind some shelves. Margaret knows that she and Silas saw the video after she saw Frank lurking. Camille feels intense anger looking at Margaret, as all the tragedies of the past decade trace back to her bad decision. Margaret attacks Camille, shouting that Camille doesn’t get to return after years and pretend to care about Silas. Camille tries to defend herself, but Margaret knocks her out with something from the shelf.
Hank arrives early to pick up Camille after Aubrey told him about Frank stealing the drive. Hank isn’t sure who Frank works for, but he knows he’s a plant.
Hank parks near the shop, and the wind blows the shop door open. Hank sees Camille on the floor with blood pouring from her head. He sprints over to her and checks her pulse. She’s alive. Silas enters to find the scene. He gathers towels for Hank to use to staunch Camille’s bleeding. Frank appears, and Hank recognizes him as Serenity’s boyfriend. Frank calls ahead to a doctor in Baton Rouge as Silas and Hank put Camille in a car.
Hank paces and Silas sits still as they wait for news on Camille’s condition. The doctor tells them that Camille is okay but badly concussed, so they’ll keep her for 24-hour observation. Silas and Hank see her in her hospital room, and Camille tells them that Margaret hit her. Silas leaves to deal with Margaret, and Camille tells Hank the full truth.
Silas returns after a few hours, claiming that Margaret’s disappeared. Hank offers to take Camille home to stay with him and promises to visit Silas to review a few things the next day. Hank opens his phone to review the list of names of people who were at Paul’s house that fateful night, and one name sticks out.
The narrative jumps back to 10 years prior. All of Corbeau talks about the dead couple and their orphaned child. Ben visits the police station with his mother to give his statement corroborating Silas’s alibi. Foster has his nephew with him to shadow him, and he introduces himself as Nathan Sullivan, or Sully.
On Monday, October 19, Aubrey tries to return to “normal” at home alone, as the rest of her housemates have work. Sully shows up and claims to have more questions about the case.
Aubrey thinks it feels strange, and Sully’s questioning turns violent as he pressures Aubrey to tell him what she knows. He reveals that Margaret was the one who killed her parents, and Aubrey realizes that Sully killed Ben because Ben wouldn’t stop searching for the evidence, and he planted the knife in her house. Sully strangles her until Deacon arrives and fights him off. Sully’s gun discharges, shooting and killing Sully. Deacon tells Aubrey that Frank and Silas are on their way, and they were the ones who warned Deacon about Sully.
Frank and Silas arrive, and Deacon doesn’t attack Frank because he helped save Aubrey. Silas explains everything: Once Hank saw Sully’s name on the list of people from Paul’s party, he realized that Sully helped Foster do all of Randall’s dirty work, and Foster’s desire to confess threatened Sully’s reputation and career. Ben’s desire for the evidence stemmed from his attempts to free himself from Randall’s influence, and Sully killed him to keep everything quiet.
Shane and Eddie show up and almost attack Frank before the group tell them what happened. Aubrey thinks she can’t call the police and doesn’t want to risk Deacon going to jail for killing Sully. Silas calls a police officer loyal to him and assures Aubrey that she can protect Deacon if they spin a story that Sully was the one driving Paul’s truck that night, that he killed Ben, and then tried to kill Aubrey to cover his tracks. Hank will corroborate to protect Ben’s reputation and the firm’s reputation, as it looks better for Bayliss and Landry if Ben died trying to uncover a crooked cop. Aubrey will have to tell the police that Foster told her the driver was Sully. Aubrey agrees to protect Deacon.
Silas visits Camille and Hank at Hank’s house. He tells them about what happened at Aubrey’s and about their plan to frame Sully for driving Paul’s truck. Hank can represent Deacon and prevent him from imprisonment and close the case, making Ben look like a good man in search of justice. Silas will take over the Everett business and try to straighten everything up.
Camille asks Hank for a moment alone with Silas. She tells Silas she wants to buy Aubrey’s rental house and gift it to Aubrey. Silas wants to pay for the repairs to fix up the house, as they both feel guilty for their roles in harming Aubrey.
Camille asks Silas what he plans to do about Margaret, who’s still missing, and Silas tells her that she doesn’t want to know. Silas feels endless regret, and Camille realizes he’s become the man their father molded him into.
On Thursday, October 22, Silas visits Doug’s Tavern while Aubrey’s working. She’s so shocked to see him that she drops a bottle of vodka. Doug cleans up while Aubrey tends to Silas. Deacon sits nearby, and Silas drinks a beer as he cryptically discusses how Margaret has been struggling with something from 10 years ago and has been drinking. He receives a phone call from the Corbeau Police and tells Aubrey that Margaret has been in a fatal car accident. He then leaves.
Aubrey realizes that Silas meted out justice himself, and Aubrey isn’t sure that Margaret’s death is justice for her parents. Aubrey and Silas remain linked, as if anyone questions where Silas was when his wife died, he can point them to Doug’s Tavern, and Aubrey and Deacon.
The final chapters of Anatomy of an Alibi tie together the crucial themes, character arcs, and narrative events of the novel. After her failure to find the evidence in Foster’s safe, Camille decides to finally come clean with Hank about the accident, Ben’s involvement, and Camille and Aubrey’s switching places scheme. Camille trusts Hank, noting, “He’s bound by privilege to keep my secrets, but I think he would anyway because he’s my friend. While I trust Silas with my life, he’s wrapped up in this in a way that dictates his actions…I’m not” (298). Camille knows Silas is too involved in the accident to see objectively, and Hank provides Camille with a necessary lifeline to escape the oppression of her family.
Though Camille isn’t married anymore, as she is now a widow, she continues to experience manipulation on Ben’s behalf, illustrating that The Impact of Coercive Control Within Marriage doesn’t end when the marriage does. Camille stays in Corbeau with her parents after Ben’s murder, and Camille notices, “no one really wants to be here except my parents. Dad is reveling in having everyone home together like my husband’s murder isn’t what brought me here. Their mourning period is over” (296-97). Randall benefits from Ben’s death, as it ties up another loose end in Silas’s accident and forces Camille closer to home, putting her back under his thumb.
Randall even suggests that Camille cannot have dinner alone with Hank so close to Ben’s death, which makes Camille think, “His words hit like a slap across the face. Of course the first time he mentions Ben’s death, it’s used as a weapon” (297). Camille knows that Randall doesn’t care about Ben and doesn’t mourn him, but instead he uses the loss of Ben as a tool to guilt Camille into acquiescing to his will, exerting the same control Ben used to utilize to force Camille to kowtow to him. Ben’s ghost haunts Camille, and Randall uses it like a puppet.
Camille breaks free of this control and finds out the truth about the accident at the expense of Aubrey, invoking The Relationship Between Class and Credibility in a Socially Stratified Community. Silas hires Frank to steal the USB drive from Aubrey so that he and Camille can discover the truth while keeping it hidden. Silas uses his financial resources to subvert Aubrey’s plan to free Paul Granger and obtain justice by publicizing the evidence because he still doesn’t want to destroy his family’s legacy. If the contents of the USB drive became public, the Everett family would lose everything, and as much as Silas claims to hate Randall’s actions, Silas benefits from them. This decision once again reveals the role of socioeconomic class in the justice system: Silas, with the Everett power and money behind him, subverts the justice system to allow Paul Granger his freedom without imprisoning himself or Margaret. Sully provides the perfect opportunity to frame someone else for killing the Prices, and Silas backs Aubrey into a corner to get her to agree. Once again, money and influence protect Silas and Margaret from the consequences of their actions.
Deacon saves Aubrey from Sully’s attempt to murder her, but in doing so he kills Sully, a police officer. Aubrey knows immediately that the situation isn’t tilted in her favor, thinking, “I knew this couldn’t be avoided, but calling the cops has always been the absolute last resort. They don’t show up looking to help people like us. They show up looking to blame us. And all I can think is Deacon killed a cop” (325). Aubrey clearly sees that the police won’t look favorably on a house full of people with criminal pasts being involved in the death of a police officer. Silas offers her a way out, an opportunity to save Deacon, but it requires lying about who killed her parents and letting Margaret avoid facing prison for her crime. Aubrey must sacrifice her chance at justice for the man she’s falling in love with, forming a twisted subversion of the events of 10 years ago, in which Margaret used the man that she loved to avoid facing justice herself.
When Silas later orchestrates Margaret’s death and makes sure Aubrey finds out about it, this doesn’t sit right with Aubrey, who thinks, “I wanted Margaret to be held responsible for her actions, but I never said I wanted her dead. Is her death really justice for me? For my parents? I’m not sure” (337). The world will never know what Margaret did, and society will mourn her accidental death as a tragedy. The Prices’ killer dies, but the truth remains buried. Aubrey feels unsatisfied with this ending, and Silas steps into his father’s shoes, moving in the shadows to obtain the outcomes that best serve the Everett family legacy at the expense of those around them.



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