Finders Keepers

Morris passes a restless night, haunted by bad dreams due to not knowing what happened to the notebooks. He returns to the motorcycle shop to retrieve his hatchet from the truck, prepared to use it on Andy if necessary. He goes to Andy’s shop, and Andy does not recognize him. At first, Morris pretends to be interested in buying books, but as Andy uses his computer, Morris threatens him with the hatchet. In the backroom, Morris slashes Andy’s backside with the hatchet. As Andy bleeds on the floor, Morris questions him about the notebooks, telling him he will survive if he tells the truth. Andy tells him about Pete and his plan to return to the shop Monday afternoon. Morris realizes that Pete has read the books, which fills him with jealous rage. He believes they were “meant for Morris and Morris alone,” and this “is a grave injustice [that] must be addressed” (278). In his rage, Morris hits Andy with the hatchet four times, killing him.

Morris cleans his hands and body, changes his clothes, and wipes the shop down for fingerprints. He wipes down the hatchet and leaves it in the back room of the bookstore. Morris finds that the store’s security system only saves the footage to Andy’s computer. He finds a DVD recording of each time Pete came to the store, along with an envelope of cash and a gun. He leaves the bookstore, taking the envelope, gun, DVD, and computer with him.

Restless on Sunday afternoon, Hodges visits “an old acquaintance” (284), Brady Hartsfield—the Mercedes killer—in a brain injury clinic. Although the hospital workers pity Hartsfield’s lack of mobility and brain activity, Hodges thinks it has allowed him to avoid standing trial, remaining in a comfortable hospital instead of prison. In 2009, Hartsfield killed eight people and injured 12, including Pete’s father, when he drove a Mercedes belonging to Holly’s aunt into a crowd of people. Afterward, he killed Holly’s cousin, who Hodges was in love with. As Holly stopped Hartsfield from blowing up a concert by bashing his head in, putting him into his current semi-catatonic state. Hodges taunts Hartsfield, asking if he is faking it and accusing him of killing his own mother. Hartsfield does not respond or even move; however, as Hodges leaves, a photograph of Hartsfield and his mother falls face down. Hodges resets it and asks if Hartsfield did it, but gets no response. Hodges leaves, and the picture falls again, as Hartsfield smiles.

Pete leaves his school trip to wander around the wood paths for the day. He feels “unadulterated fright” over his confrontation with Halliday and vomits several times. His teacher scolds him when he returns to the group but notes how pale and sick he looks. Meanwhile, after hearing Tina’s story, Jerome visits Hodges and asks to help figure out what’s going on with Pete. Hodges agrees to let him come to the school, where they will each watch a door for Pete to exit. Holly paces and obsesses over the notebook that Tina saw Pete reading. She calls Tina and asks if she can think of any friends or teachers that Pete might have talked to. Tina gives her Mr. Ricker’s name, but Holly decides not to call him yet.

Morris researches Andy’s house, planning to retrieve his car. He becomes increasingly paranoid about McFarland, but now refers to himself as “Morris the Wolf” (307). He decides he will kill McFarland if necessary. On Monday, he does not go to work or report to McFarland. He thinks of how “his life has taken a long, long detour, but he’s almost back on the mainline” (313). Once he has the notebooks, he will leave the city, possibly going to New Hampshire, to read the notebooks where Rothstein wrote them.

Morris breaks into the rec center basement, still planning to hide the notebooks there or use the building for an escape if necessary. Around mid-morning on Monday, Hodges is in court for a different case. Linda Saubers picks up Tina, who is sickened by her guilt over talking to Hodges. Linda takes her home, planning to ask her children about the money. In physics class, Pete is distracted by what he is going to say to Andy. Morris returns to Bugshit Manor and clears out his apartment, determined not to return, though he still worries about seeing McFarland around every corner. Jerome visits Holly and they discuss movies, distracted from their meeting with Pete. Meanwhile, Andy still lies dead in his office.