Parents Weekend

The tire slasher is Bruce Lockwood, a police officer Amy had an affair with after meeting him at the hospital during Timmy’s illness. When she tried to break things off, Bruce became possessive and started following her. Amy admits she texted him after finding the tires slashed. He confessed and begged her to take him back. Keller finds a GPS tracker under the wheel well of the one tire he left intact.

Keller and McCray review the leads that haven’t panned out—including three sets of parents experiencing the consequences of infidelity, among other things—while they drive to East Palo Alto to see Mark’s father. At the halfway house, they’re told Andrew Wong is out for his morning walk. They find him at a bus stop near a middle school, watching a group of young girls. When Andrew sees them, he bolts, but Keller and McCray apprehend him.

Local police arrest Andrew for parole violation and allow Keller and McCray to question him while he’s in custody. He offers to give them information about Mark if they don’t prosecute him. McCray makes an unofficial promise to put in a good word with the prosecutor. Andrew says Mark came to see him on Friday afternoon and asked about getting a lawyer, but didn’t reveal why he needed one. McCray hints to Keller that his promise to help Andrew was insincere.

McCray tells Keller about his wife and children while they eat lunch at In-N-Out Burger. Afterward, Keller wants to meet with Alice Goffman, but Alice doesn’t answer her phone. Annie shows Keller posts on Rizz tracking the movements of the missing students’ parents, like “Blane’s father released from feebs custody, mother picked him up from station” and “Mark’s father in custody in E. Palo Alto” (213). Another post indicates Alice just entered the campus church.

Shay Zable from the San Francisco Daily approaches Alice in the church and says he’s doing a story on misinformation and how social-media sleuths are impeding the investigation. Alice declines an interview, but Shay manipulates her by referencing rumors about Felix, knowing she’ll want to contradict them. When Alice still says no, he resorts to threats, saying that if she doesn’t talk to him, he’ll report that her son is a murderer. Alice is fighting off a panic attack when Keller appears and calls Shay out for unethical journalism, libel, and obstruction.

Alice shows Keller the stolen file, which contains printouts of the posts from Rizz. The first post has a “Creep List” naming Mark Wong and Felix Goffman as campus predators, along with a faculty member, Professor Turlington. A second post accuses Libby, Stella, and Blane of enabling Mark and Felix. Alice also gives Keller the stained pink sweatshirt.

David Maldonado is out of the hospital and back at the Ritz, where a pretty blonde woman in her early thirties approaches him and strikes up a conversation. She says she’s there from Florida for a bachelorette party. Shortly after, David realizes she’s recording him with her phone. The woman asks if he thinks Cody did something to the five, if Stella is trying to punish him, and if he blames himself. As he walks away, she says he should blame himself.

Keller visits Jonathan Turlington, the mid-thirties professor mentioned on the Rizz creep list, at his home and shows him the printout of the Rizz post. He’d heard about but hadn’t actually seen the post. Turlington says being accused this way—anonymously on the Internet—is worse than a formal accusation, and emphasizes the importance of people’s constitutional right to confront their accusers. He also says he knows who made the post.

Keller hears the professor’s twin babies crying inside the house and helps his wife, Jill, get them to sleep in their butterfly-adorned nursery. Jill calls the accusations false and says Jonathan is a good man. According to him, Natasha Belov made the posts. After he failed her last year for missing too many classes, the administration got an anonymous report saying he pressured a student for sex, then stalked and harassed her. The university traced the report to Natasha, though she denied it. Their investigation exonerated Jonathan, but then this year the Rizz post appeared. He says Natasha was a troubled young woman.

The students are trapped inside a U-Haul truck, wrists and ankles still bound, though they finally got their gags and blindfolds off. In an effort to keep everyone’s spirits up, Blane shares the lies his mother told him after his abduction to help him feel safe. Stella’s father lied when he promised not to cheat on her mother again. Libby says her parents lied about loving her as much as Timmy. Felix’s mother lied when she said he wouldn’t feel like the weird kid anymore in high school. Nevertheless, the first thing they want to do when they escape is hug their parents.

Keller learns that Natasha was an excellent student for two years, but something changed at the end of her sophomore year. She began partying hard and ended up on academic probation this year, skipping most of her classes this quarter. She was reported missing on Thursday by an anonymous caller. Keller meets with the coroner, who believes Natasha drowned late Tuesday night and says her body showed no signs of trauma. Her phone was found in a waterproof case tucked into her underwear. She had residue of a red dye in her hair and on her clothes.

As a child, Felix barely spoke. The other kids in elementary school made fun of him for it, and his reputation as a freak followed him even after he began talking more. He always had trouble making friends, but his capstone group was different. Libby even helped get the “Creep List” post about him removed from Rizz. He did what he did because they’re his first true friends and he wanted to protect them.

Keller and McCray learn that the police have already released Natasha’s belongings, including her phone, to her parents. Annie shows Keller a video of a podcast suggesting the students’ disappearance may be a hoax. Blane and Mark have posted several videos to a popular site called PrankStool, including one called “She Thinks She Killed Her Friend Prank” (246), posted late Tuesday night. It shows Stella and Natasha passed out on the beach. Blane and Mark pour fake blood over Natasha and put a large rock in Stella’s hand. Stella wakes up, thinks she’s killed Natasha, and screams. Then McCray and Keller get an urgent call from Ken Akana and rush to respond.

Ken and Amy are at a new motel, a safety measure until Bruce Lockwood is found. After walking to a nearby convenience store, Ken returns to find Bruce’s truck in the parking lot.

From outside the motel room, Ken hears Amy say, “I’ll go with you. You don’t need the gun” (252). Bruce tells Amy he’ll help her find Libby, but they have to wait for Ken to get back. Amy says the marriage is over and Ken isn’t coming there, but Bruce knows it’s a lie. Hearing police sirens approaching, Bruce pulls Amy outside to flee. Ken signals for her to run, then tackles Bruce and throws him over the second-floor railing.

In a flashback, Libby meets Stella and falls under the spell of the confident, extroverted cool girl. Soon she’s infatuated with both Stella and Felix, and the three spend all their time together. When Stella becomes similarly infatuated with an older girl, Libby fears losing her friend, so she agrees to join them at Tuesday night’s bonfire. When Blane and Mark recognize Natasha and storm off, Libby and Felix take Stella’s side, only going for a walk after Stella and Natasha pass out. Libby is about to tell Felix she’s into him when they hear Stella scream.

In the present, the students are being marched at gunpoint to the sea cave, where Libby expects they’ll die.

After confirming Bruce Lockwood’s death, Keller gets home around 10:00 pm and catches up with Bob and his sister, Janet. Later, unable to sleep, she checks her e-mail and sees the geofence data came in. Only one additional phone was present at Rancho San Antonio Park when the missing students’ phones last pinged: Natasha Belov’s.

Keller is confused. Natasha’s body was found, with her phone, earlier that day. Then she remembers the police released her phone to her parents. She also remembers a comment Janet made that if she had kids and anyone hurt them, she’d make them pay, make them “suffer the same fate” (263). Keller tells Bob to drive her to the sea cave immediately because high tide is in less than one hour.

The five are in the sea cave, water now up to their chests. Their captors will shoot them if they try to leave. Stella apologizes for sharing her friend’s secrets with Natasha. She explains Natasha had a real stalker, plus she overheard Blane and Mark calling her “crashy.” Stella sympathized with Natasha’s hard life. Blane blames Stella for the string of events that led to Natasha running off when she woke up after the prank, wandering into the cave, and drowning. Felix wades toward the cave’s entrance, saying it’s his fault, not Stella’s, and he’s going to make it right.

At the sea caves, Bob urges Keller to wait for the task force and not endanger her own life. McCray arrives and says he’ll go in alone to protect Keller. Bob begs Keller not to go after him, but she does anyway. McCray stops on the trail and whispers to Keller that he sees someone. Then a gunshot explodes.

McCray’s been shot in the chest. As Keller applies pressure to keep him alive, Mr. and Mrs. Belov put a gun to her head and take her gun. Mr. Belov says Natasha recorded the last moments of her life on her phone after being chased into the cave. Felix appears and explains the prank. Unaware she wasn’t really dead at the time and trying to protect Stella, he’d carried Natasha’s unconscious body down the beach, then told the others she woke up and ran off.

Mr. Belov accuses Felix of harassing Natasha, having seen 37 texts from him the day she died. The harassing texts—which started over a year ago—came from a contact labelled Dr. Creep in Natasha’s phone. Felix realizes who was texting her. Mr. Belov forces Felix to take him to the person, leaving Mrs. Belov to guard Keller and the cave.

Any move Keller might make carries too much risk of Mrs. Belov shooting her, but Bob sneaks up and tackles Mrs. Belov from behind. Backup police arrive and arrest her. A rescue helicopter searches the sea cave while medics work on McCray, who’s still conscious. Keller tries to find out where Felix might have taken Mr. Belov by questioning Mrs. Belov. The woman reveals how their hearts broke as they saw hundreds of texts harassing and even threatening their daughter. In the texts, Dr. Creep called Natasha his butterfly.

Keller and Peters race to Professor Turlington’s home and follow a tactical team into the house. They find Mr. Belov standing over Felix’s bloody body and pointing his gun at Jill. Jonathan admits he and Natasha were together, but says he never forced her. She called him Tuesday night, and he went to help her but arrived too late. Mr. Belov says he’s lying and plays a video from Natasha’s phone showing someone chasing her. He’d originally thought it was the five students, but now realizes it was the professor. Keller concludes he must have caught her, drowned her, and dragged her body into the cave.

Keller tells Belov to drop the gun. Instead, he shoots the professor, forcing Keller to shoot him. Agents rush in and confirm that Belov, Turlington, and Felix are all dead. Keller calls Bob to tell him it’s over and she’s coming home.