Nobody's Fool

In the text, legal justice is often unable to offer the true restitution victims demand. Where the justice system fails, characters seek other ways to right the wrongs they have suffered. Sami begins his investigation into Anna purely out of a personal desire for answers. Since his belief that he had killed her derailed his life, he is now willing to do whatever it takes to learn the truth about why Anna is alive, even if it requires breaking the law. For example, his overwhelming need to understand for himself compels him to trespass onto the Belmond property because he “can’t risk” losing sight of Anna and the answers she holds. Sami recruits his own students to run surveillance on Anna’s house, which he acknowledges is an “ethically questionable” (94) use of his position to succeed in his own personal mission. Sami knows that after all this time it’s unnecessary for Anna to face judicial consequences for faking her death, but as long as he learns the truth, he will feel a personal sense of justice for the wrongdoing he endured.

The subplot surrounding Tad Grayson emphasizes the precarity of a legal justice system in which punishments necessarily depend on rigorous evidentiary standards and courtroom protocols. Sami is emotionally invested in the outcome of Nicole’s murder case and sees Tad Grayson’s original sentence as both legal and personal justice for Nicole’s death. Tad’s release now threatens to reverse that justice. There is little evidence left from the original case that could convict Tad again, and since Sami’s own reputation as a detective is tarnished, any official evidence he contributes won’t be taken seriously. Personally, Sami knows that Tad is guilty, but this personal certainty is not sufficient to convict him in court. Knowing that Tad likely won’t go back to prison, Sami takes solace in the deterioration of Tad’s physical body: “He rises slowly and walks creakily towards me. Like an old old man. I like that. I like that he’s weak and beaten” (73). Sami sees Tad’s physical pain from the conditions of prison as partial compensation for the cruelty Tad inflicted on Nicole. Sami refuses to help Tad prove his innocence, and instead, he recruits his class again to prove Tad’s guilt. Tad ultimately faces legal justice for his shooting of Anna and Brian, but Sami sees the arrest as justice for all of Tad’s crimes.

Before Sami learns of Thomas’s responsibility for Victoria Belmond’s death and the subsequent cover-up, he investigates Victoria’s decades-old kidnapping. Sami signs on to the investigation knowing that he won’t be able to convict the perpetrator and that Archie Belmond may dole out vigilante justice for his daughter: “The odds of me finding the people responsible are very low—but the odds I would find enough to arrest and convict after all these years are infinitesimal. Belmond wants to handle it himself” (172-73). Any crime committed at that time is likely beyond the reach of the legal system, so Archie wants to take matters into his own hands to ensure that his family’s wrong gets righted. However, Sami learns that Archie and Thomas themselves evaded legal justice all these years for Victoria’s death and cover-up. Hiring Anna to pretend to be Victoria isn’t technically illegal, but Sami cannot ignore the very real crime of Victoria’s wrongful death. Sami respects the restrictions of his NDA and doesn’t want to be sued, so to achieve a semblance of justice for Victoria, he works around the NDA’s wording and leaks the Belmonds’ confessions to his student podcasters. By drawing public speculation back on the Belmonds, Sami ensures that Victoria won’t be forgotten and that her killer will be held to public account.