Tell Me What You Did

Poe drives to Stowe, a town 45 minutes outside Burlington, to meet her father, Bailey, and Grimm at a remote cabin. When she opens the back door, Bailey runs off into the woods. Poe reluctantly follows her. The sun is setting, and she’s wary of being in the woods in full darkness. As she searches on without finding Bailey, her anxiety grows, and she wonders if Bailey met Hindley in the woods. Poe picks up a rock and prepares to use it as a weapon. She senses movement and turns to see what she thinks is Hindley running at her on all fours. Poe prepares to attack, but when the figure comes into view it’s Bailey.

This chapter is a continuation of the live-streamed conversation between Hindley and Poe. Poe asks if they are done, but Hindley says he has one more question. He asks what she would do differently if given a change to redo her life. Poe says that she would’ve stopped her mother from meeting with Hutchins. Hindley asks if she would kill Avery again, if she knew she would get away with it. She replies that she would.

Poe and her father discuss Hindley. Poe’s father says that he no longer cares what happens to him and his sole concern is protecting her.

Poe calls Kip and apologizes for their argument. Kip has been in contact with Hindley, who is texting him from another burner number. Hindley repeated his demand for another live stream, wanting the stream to occur on Halloween night. He promised to turn himself into the police afterward if Poe cooperates. Poe feels conflicted about the risk of doing another stream and tells Kip to string Hindley along. She also asks him to share Hindley’s new burner number. Kip tells her that before Hindley hung up, he said, “tell her I’m close” (254).

Poe sleeps fitfully that night. She takes Bailey for a walk in the backyard, this time with a leash. As they walk, she calls Hindley’s new burner number. Hindley asks her to join a Zoom meeting. When Poe opens the link, she sees Hindley sitting in her home office.

Hindley tells Poe that he knew the house would be empty because he saw her father leaving with the pets. He tells her not to move from the bench where she is sitting, or he will hang up and come after her. On video, Hindley enters Poe’s bedroom and climbs into her bed. Hindley once again demands a second live stream episode on Halloween night. This time, he will be interviewing Poe. Poe refuses, but Hindley tells her she has no choice.

He goes into her kitchen and begins to line up her knives on the counter. While Hindley is distracted, Poe mutes the call, runs inside, and tells her father what’s happening. She yells at him to call the police before running back outside and resuming her position on the bench. Hindley is now in her garage, where he fills Bailey’s bowls with kibble and water, then mixes ant poison into each one. Poe takes a screenshot of the video before Hindley hangs up on her.

Inside, Poe shakily relays the details of the call. Her father asks how Hindley got past the security system. Poe responds that several people know her code, including Kip. A few minutes later, she receives a call from law enforcement. The police are at her house, where the front door is unlocked. The only damage is to Bailey’s dog door, which has been kicked in. An officer named Gadecki shows Poe a hidden video camera found on her roof gutter. Hindley presumably used this to spy on her comings and goings. The police suggest that she cover up the dog door, change her alarm passcode and re-arm the house.

Poe’s father offers to return to Burlington to board over the dog door. Poe thanks him and decides to head to Manchester.

Poe returns to Pine Grove Cemetery. This time, she visits her mother’s grave. There’s a framed photo on her gravestone, the same photo that Hindley wrote on. Poe is sure that Hindley is watching from behind one of the trees, but rather than scared, she feels exhausted and angry. She begins speaking to her mother, saying that she half-wishes Hindley would attack her so their cat-and-mouse game would end. Poe thinks of her mother’s last moments and begins to cry. She sits by the grave for a while before kissing the headstone goodbye and standing to go. As she walks back toward the car with Bailey, she sees a man standing nearby, pointing a camera at her.

The man isn’t Hindley, but Poe suspects that he might be working for him. She picks up a broken chunk of a headstone and charges toward him, screaming in anger. The man puts the camera down to run, and Poe notes that he is young, “no more than twenty-two” (278). Bailey charges him and tackles him to the ground. The man denies working with Hindley and says that he is paparazzi. The live stream has made Poe a local celebrity, and tabloids are paying well for photos of her. Poe asks the man if he saw anyone approach her mother’s grave, and he says no, leading Poe to conclude that Hindley left the photo within the last 24 hours.

Poe returns to the Stone Rose and asks for Alice. They sit down, and Alice divulges that her father was stabbed to death in London after drawing a cartoon of Mohammed. They discuss the violence that has altered their lives, and Alice tells Poe that “happiness is a choice” (285). Poe asks her for help, and Alice replies that she will need to know the details of Poe’s situation. Poe agrees to tell her everything.

Poe finishes telling Alice her story. Alice says that she works with a victim advocacy group and is familiar with the pathology of stalkers. Hindley will not stop pursuing Poe until he achieves whatever objective he has in mind. She advises Poe to stay at the Airbnb and not to trust anyone except her father. Alice suggests that Poe use her fans’ “hive mentality,” to her advantage, but not to rely on anyone except herself.

Poe asks Alice is she feels at peace. Alice says that she still isn’t sure. She shares that she feels pure peace when she closes the Stone Rose for the night and dances with abandon to her favorite music.

This chapter is a continuation of the live-streamed conversation between Hindley and Poe. Poe asks to see Hindley’s hostage, but he refuses. He also states that he will not be turning himself in to the police. He tells Poe that he wants to “spend some time alone with [her]” (293), in person.

Poe asks Hindley who he is. When he replies that he is Leopold Hutchins, she says that Leopold Hutchins is dead. Hindley says that he can prove he is Hutchins, because Poe has seen what he did to her mother and knows he uses a knife. Poe begs him to stop, but Hindley disconnects the call.

On October 30th, Poe wakes up early to snow falling. She discusses the weather with her father, who is worried that the roads might become impassable. He plans to drive into Burlington and stock up on supplies before the weather worsens. Poe asks him to get more wine, because “sometimes a girl’s gotta numb herself” (297). When he expresses concern, she admits that she feels angry and helpless. Poe’s father encourages her to “make some space” (297) in her mind for hope.

Poe joins a private Facebook group where her listeners are discussing Hindley. She makes a post as herself, thanking the community for all that they have done. She shares details of Hindley’s break-in and asks them to help her uncover his identity.

Poe reads through posts and comments, feeling increasingly depersonalized as she watches strangers dissect the details of her trauma. She knows that most of the posters don’t genuinely care about her or other victims. True crime and online investigation is simply “their choice of drug” (301), and her experiences are “watercooler talk” (301).

Poe closes her laptop and texts Kip that she misses him. He replies that he misses her too. When Bailey scratches at the door, Poe checks the time and realizes that she has been sitting for two hours, and her father is still not home.

Poe’s calls and texts to her father go unanswered. Half an hour passes before he responds that he is all right and will be home shortly. When he arrives, the front of his car is damaged as if he’s gotten into an accident. He tells Poe that a white van cornered him on the drive home, eventually hitting him and sending his car into the median. When the driver got out of the van, he recognized him as Hindley and saw that he was carrying a role of duct tape and a Taser. As Hindley approached, Poe’s father made the decision that he was going to kill him, but their confrontation was interrupted by a police officer who had seen the wreck. Hindley’s father noted his license plate number and gave it to the officer, along with a description of Hindley’s stalking and harassment.

Poe suspects that Hindley knows she is bluffing about the second live stream and planned to abduct her father as leverage. Together, they decide to return to Burlington, as their location is now compromised. Once there, they will speak with the local police.

Arriving at the farmhouse, Poe disarms the locks. She grabs a knife and checks each room, finding nothing. After getting the house back in order, Poe and her father drive to the Burlington police station to speak to Officer Gadecki. Hindley’s rapid escalation worries Gadecki. When Gadecki asks why Hindley is fixated on them, Poe’s father shares the story of his wife’s murder and Hindley’s confession. Gadecki asks about the purpose of the live stream Hindley is demanding, and Poe says she doesn’t know. She assures Gadecki that she isn’t going to do the stream. Gadecki says that the Burlington police department doesn’t usually dispatch a detail but agrees to keep watch outside the farmhouse himself for one night. Gadecki asks Poe if she’s considering leaving Burlington again, but she states that she is “done running.”

On the drive home, Poe passes a large house with a for-sale sign posted in the yard. The house belonged to her former neighbors, the Stohls, who recently retired and moved away. It is the closest house to Poe’s own. She has considered buying the place, but she is too preoccupied to give it serious thought.

Poe calls Kip and relays Hindley’s abduction attempt. She tells him to keep promoting the live stream but be ready to shut everything down at the last moment, as Hindley waits in the green room. She will record a message for the viewers, which will play before the stream is cut. Kip tells her that her case has been in the news, but none of the articles contain any new information.

Poe asks Kip how their relationship is doing. He says that he goes back and forth between feeling fine and being horrified that she murdered someone. Poe apologizes for complicating his life but tells him that she would not do anything differently if given the chance. She tells Kip that they are both going to move on with their lives, whether together or separately. She asks again how they are, and Kip says that they are okay.

After hanging up, Poe resolves to text Hindley. She plans to lie, telling him that he has scared her into doing the live stream. She messages “hey you fuck” (320), but Hindley never responds.

As Poe makes dinner, she is tempted to drink a glass of wine but decides against it because she wants her wits about her the next morning. Over dinner, Poe’s father floats the idea of doing the live stream. He argues that it might get Hindley to leave her alone, and that it’s another opportunity for Hindley to let his façade crack. Poe counters that Hindley will not leave her alone no matter what. She tells him that she wants to take him down herself.

Poe’s father asks how certain she is that Hindley isn’t the man who killed her mother. Poe replies that she is 70% certain. He asks if she enjoyed killing Leonard Avery. Poe knows that her father is worried she might be a sociopath. She believes that what her father is really asking is whether she could repeat the experience of killing someone and then moving on with her life. She answers that she could.

Poe drinks three glasses of wine before bed. She is infuriated at her own lack of self-control and admits to herself that she is “[her] strength of character has soft vulnerabilities” (327). She resolves to stop drinking on November 1st.

As Poe arms the alarm system, she notices Gadecki’s car in the driveway. She walks out to greet him and is overwhelmed by an image of Gadecki lying dead in his car, with Hindley ready to pounce in the shadows. When she reaches the car, however, Gadecki is alive and well. He tells her he will be heading out soon and reminds her to lock up the house.

Poe wakes at 2 am to a barrage of messages from Hindley, each reading: “Happy Halloween!” She replies calling him a fraud. As she is about to turn off her phone, Hindley texts her a link to a YouTube video.