Deadly Animals

In the morning, Colleen is angry that Trevor left the apartment in the middle of the night, and she takes her anger out on her daughters. As Ava and Veronica leave for school, a neighbor tells them that another boy is missing. Ava notices that Tom Shelton is absent from school, and she worries his younger brother is the victim. Ava overhears other students confirm her suspicion.

Delahaye and his superior, Detective Inspector Perrin, drive to the Shelton house. Perrin commends Delahaye for his work and reminds Delahaye—who fears Bryan is dead—that policework is often a game of luck. At the house, Perrin dismisses Constable Daryl Morgan, who has been with the family all night. Perrin questions Kelly, and Tom gives Delahaye a tour of the house.

Delahaye asks Tom about Bryan, who was loved by everyone. They look through Bryan’s treasure chest, where Delahaye finds drawings from Ava. Ava and Veronica frequent the house to read Bryan’s favorite book using different voices. The group played Wolf with other neighborhood kids, and Tom recalls a time when Karl and Nathaniel found them but let them go. Tom discovers a hidden sugar mouse in Bryan’s chest, but neither Tom nor Kelly knows how Bryan could afford the expensive sweet. Kelly re-enacts the sound of the door closing when Bryan went missing, which sets her on edge. Alan Shelton, Bryan and Tom’s father, returns from his business trip, and the family embraces him.

From her window, Ava sees new graffiti from Harry Ca Nab. John arrives at Ava’s apartment to talk about Bryan’s disappearance. Ava is sure Bryan is dead, and she eliminates Trevor as a suspect. The Sheltons plan to hold a televised press conference, but Ava refuses to watch. John leaves as Delahaye and Lines drive up.

Delahaye shows Ava the sugar mouse, and Ava finds the secret sweet suspicious. On a hunch, Delahaye asks Ava what she knows about German shepherds and Alsatian dogs, and Ava explains they are essentially the same breed. Delahaye reveals that the owner of Banlock Farm, Neville Coleman, used to breed German shepherds.

John walks around in the early morning hours to buy magazines for his mother. John likes being alone at that hour, but the recent abductions make him nervous. John sees Nathaniel hunched over a dead dog and tries to avoid him, but Nathaniel calls for John’s help. John helps Nathaniel carry the small dog off the street. Nathaniel tells John to take care of Ava, which makes John jealous. Nathaniel rides away on his bike.

Delahaye reflects on the outpouring of community and police support for the Shelton family. Delahaye once brought the family to Beacon Hill to escape the people coming to their house, and Alan Shelton accused Bob Aster of being the kidnapper. Despite finding no evidence of Aster at either crime scene, his absence from the village points to his guilt. Lines cuts Delahaye’s thoughts short when he informs the detective about the new evidence.

A local couple finds Bryan’s dressing gown under their van’s tire. Police bring a search dog to the scene to follow Bryan’s scent. Delahaye notices the dog is different than standard German shepherds, and its handler explains it was bred from Banlock shepherds. The dog finds a half-eaten chocolate mouse, which the kidnapper likely used to lure Bryan away from home.

Ava and John head to a lake to collect frog spawn. As they walk, Ava notices that the cows aren’t grazing in their usual field. She catches an odd scent and follows it to a streambed near a bridge. The smell of decomposition grows stronger, and she realizes she may be smelling a corpse. Ava tells John to be a lookout while she investigates.

Ava spies a blanket in the stream, and as she walks into the tunnel, she sees Bryan’s head poking out of the blanket. He is missing fingers, and his water-logged skin is pulling away from the muscle. Ava notices evidence under Bryan’s fingernails, so she secures a plastic bag around his hand and creates a small stone dam to protect it from the current. Ava says the Rabbit’s Prayer. On the bank, she sees more of the foot/paw prints. Ava tells John what she found, and John vomits. They run to a telephone box, and John calls the police, since Ava’s Miss Misty voice may be too suspicious.

Police collect evidence at the crime scene. Delahaye speaks with scene-of-crime officer Mr. Trent about the strange footprints on the bank. They also see child-sized footprints and vomit. Trent draws Delahaye’s attention to the bag in Bryan’s hand and the small rock dam. He supposes the bag and dam were an attempt to preserve evidence by a well-meaning bystander, but Delahaye wonders if it’s the work of the killer.

Trent unfolds the blanket, revealing the boy’s gruesome injuries and a small dog tucked in his arms. Detective Perrin wants to inform the family as soon as possible. An ambulance arrives, and the officers lift the boy and dog into a body bag. A commotion erupts on the road as Alan Shelton pushes through the police line, followed by Constable Morgan. Alan overheard Morgan’s radio call about the body and rushed to the scene. Alan breaks down, but he asks to see his son. Delahaye partially unzips the body bag, and Alan confirms the boy’s identity. He kisses his son’s head and says goodbye. Delahaye comforts the sobbing Constable Morgan and accompanies him to notify the Shelton family.

At home, Ava imagines the Shelton family’s pain. Veronica cries, but Ava is silent, having cried earlier. She had to act shocked when her family learned of Bryan’s death. Veronica climbs into Ava’s bed and reminisces about Bryan. Ava comforts her sister.

Delahaye and Lines drive to Joseph Sheldon Hospital after delivering the bad news to the Sheltons. At the hospital, the detectives talk to Maureen, Neville Coleman’s keyworker (a British term for a person whose work is deemed socially vital, in this case, equivalent to a caseworker), who saw something unusual on the night of Bryan’s disappearance. Maureen and her colleague heard a large dog barking in the Lanes, and when they went to investigate, they saw what looked like a dog, but the animal stood up to the height of a man. Maureen’s colleague thinks it was a man dressed as a bear, possibly on his way to a costume party. The detectives thank Maureen and wonder at the strange events.

Delahaye and Lines visit the morgue to hear Professor Simmons’s autopsy report. Bryan died hours after being abducted, and his body was in the stream for one day. A blow to the head rendered Bryan unconscious, and when he came to, he fought back against his attacker. Bryan died from the killer tearing into the flesh of his neck with his teeth. Simmons collects tissue samples from Bryan’s fingernails, and she expresses gratitude for the person who preserved the evidence.

Bryan’s clothes appear to be washed, and there are no signs of sexual assault. The killer evidently learned from his mistakes with Mickey, though the detectives are still puzzled by his motive. They consider the killer’s use of biting and connect his actions to the crime’s other animalistic elements, like the dog found in Bryan’s arms. Delahaye thinks Neville Coleman is key to understanding the murders. Delahaye and Lines leave the morgue, feeling revived by the new theories.

Ava thinks about the news report on the incident at Joseph Sheldon Hospital. A man who wore a bear costume came forward but insisted he was away at a party. Ava plans to get John’s opinion on a new theory after school. Ava’s classmate, Shawn, discloses that a group of kids plan to vandalize Bob Aster’s house because they’re sure he’s the killer. Ava understands their desperation for someone to blame, despite the lack of evidence implicating Aster. The Sheltons plan to move after Bryan’s funeral, and Ava thinks about the scar on her lip, which she received in a game of chase with Tom.

Shawn and a large group of kids walk toward Bob Aster’s house. Shawn overheard Alan Shelton say he was going to beat Aster up, so Shawn wants to get to Aster first to prevent the grieving father from going to jail. The kids yell at Aster to come out of his house, but no one answers. The boys break the windows with sticks and stones, and Shawn throws a Molotov cocktail into the house.

Delahaye and Lines walk through Bob Aster’s house after the mob attack. The house is drenched from fire hoses, but it appears Aster hasn’t lived in it for some time. Neither neighbor has seen Aster for a month, which isn’t unusual because Aster sometimes lives in the woods to escape attention. Lines finds Aster’s scrapbooks of preteen boys, as well as a polaroid of an unidentifiable boy. Delahaye theorizes that Aster reverted to his old ways and abducted Bryan to get back at Alan Shelton for prior attacks.

Ava calls John into the War Room. The friends consider overlapping facts in the crimes and conclude that the killer thinks he is a wolf. Ava lists historical cases of clinical lycanthropy, including Gilles Garnier and Jean Grenier, who both wore wolf-skins while killing their victims in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Ava thinks the killer started out killing animals, and that he worships dogs. John believes such a person would be readily identifiable, but Ava thinks the opposite: The killer is someone the young boys trusted.

Ava connects the murders to the incident of the “bear suit,” believing the figure was the killer in a wolf suit. The kids consider the major suspects, as well as Neville Coleman, who appears at the center of the crimes. John wants Ava to tell the police their theory. Ava is reluctant, but John gives her his house keys so she can use his phone.

Ava enters John’s house and checks her script before calling the police. Delahaye puts the call on speakerphone. Ava, her voice disguised as that of “Miss Misty,” draws the detectives’ attention to the canine elements in the crimes. She shares her theory about clinical lycanthropy and lists historical cases the detectives should investigate. She suggests visiting psychiatric hospitals to talk with experts.

Delahaye sees how the theory matches the evidence. Information about the boys’ injuries hadn’t been released to the public, so he assumes the caller found both Mickey and Bryan’s bodies. As Miss Misty shares her belief that the bear-suit man was a man in a wolf suit, she gasps at the sound of an ice cream truck. Delahaye detects Ava’s true voice. Delahaye considers revealing her identity but decides against it. The detectives treat the call as a new lead, despite its unusualness, and they plan to contact experts.

Delahaye meets with former Chief Inspector Harry Marshall at a pub. The pair exchange information about the case and about Neville Coleman. Marshall was a close friend of Coleman. Coleman joined the British Army young and got his first German shepherd during the Great War. Coleman joined the police force and worked his way up to sergeant. After saving enough money, Coleman bought Banlock Farm, where he raised a new breed of German shepherds for the police.

Coleman had a wife, Sophia, and a daughter, Tisiphone. Tiss loved the dogs and raised her own breed that had odd-colored eyes like her and Coleman. Sophia died when Tiss was a child. Coleman continued to work and eventually grew rich. Coleman hired a helper, Jip, who fell in love with Tiss and got her pregnant when she was 16 years old. When Tiss died in a car accident, Coleman had mental health issues. He became a recluse and let the dogs take over the farm, and eventually, the police removed him to a hospital. Coleman has no living family, and Marshall assumes the baby died with Tiss. Marshall shows Delahaye a picture of Coleman, Tiss, and their favorite dog Zasha. He is confident Delahaye will solve the case.

Paul and his boss, Charlie, drive to the Marlowe scrapyard. Paul meets Nicholas Marlowe, and Charlie chats with Nick about his son Nathaniel, who had an accident the year prior. Paul pets Nick’s dogs, which are German shepherds with odd-colored eyes. Nick asks the pair to set up pest traps in the house.

Before Paul leaves to explore the scrapyard, Nick gives him a jacket covered in his scent and warns Paul about the dogs. Paul gets lost in the piles of scrap and comes to a dead end. He turns to retrace his steps, but a pack of dogs blocks his exit. Paul steps back, but the dogs growl at him. Nathaniel appears from the dark and recalls the dogs with a growl. The dogs smell Paul, and Nathaniel offers to walk him back to the house. As they walk, Nathaniel speaks to the dogs with whines and growls. Paul turns to thank Nathaniel, but the boy disappears into the scrapyard.

At the park in front of her apartment building, Ava tells John about her family’s upcoming move. Delahaye arrives in his car, and Ava makes John hide. Delahaye asks about Ava’s theories about the graffiti around town and about where she was the day Bryan was found. Ava lies and suggests that the kids who reported Bryan’s body could be from a neighboring village, but she thinks Delahaye knows she’s Miss Misty. Delahaye doesn’t want to ask Ava outright because he thinks she would lie to protect her friend. Delahaye and Lines agree that Ava is an unusual but great kid.