That Night

While waiting for Joe, Cathy regrets their decision to cover up the accident, wondering if they were too hasty. She considers the possibility that Will was deliberately coming to their villa with the warrant. When it is her turn, she is also interviewed by Matteo. She sticks to the barbecue story but, knowing there might be witnesses or CCTV, decides she must admit to the incident at the market, inadvertently contradicting Joe’s story. She tells Matteo that Frannie had a brief argument with a man who looked like Will. Matteo seems to already know this. Like Joe, Cathy is questioned about the early rental car return and has no logical explanation. After the interview, she trades places with Frannie, taking her nephew Paul so Frannie can be questioned.

The next morning, the siblings see police officers outside their villa. At breakfast, Joe is tense. He and Cathy discuss their police interviews. Cathy reveals that she told the police Joe was at the market, and Joe admits he denied it. They quickly invent a new story: Joe was there but did not see Will up close. Overwhelmed by anxiety and the mounting lies, Joe has a panic attack. Cathy calmly helps him through it outside the breakfast room. Just as he recovers, they witness a massive police presence arriving, including dozens of cadaver dogs for a large-scale search.

Joe and Cathy watch as the police and media set up for the search with the cadaver dogs. Cathy reassures Joe that the dogs cannot smell below six feet; she also confirms she has washed all their clothes. Joe suggests they buy a burner phone and text a false tip to the police hotline, claiming to have seen Will alive in another city. Cathy is hesitant, feeling they are taking too many risks. Their conversation turns to their deceased younger sister, Rosie, and they acknowledge that their desperate need to protect Frannie and her son, Paul, is connected to that past family trauma.

The narrative shifts to the present. The narrator is in Jason’s office. With the trial only two weeks away, Jason insists they must finalize her statement. It becomes clear to the reader at this point that he is her lawyer. He advises that her best strategy is to be completely straightforward and tell the truth about what happened, from start to finish, without any lies or attempts to control the narrative.

Back in the past, Cathy and Frannie are in Frannie’s room at the villa, unable to sleep. They watch a news report announcing that Will’s disappearance is now being treated as a homicide. The police were alerted by a forged cashpoint transaction detected by HSBC Bank, and the cadaver dogs have detected the scent of a body. Joe joins them, and they realize their attempt to create a false trail has backfired. As they panic, Cathy notices a text message on Frannie’s phone from Jason Granger Law, a criminal lawyer. She secretly googles the name and realizes Frannie has sought legal counsel without telling her or Joe. Before she can ask about it, Joe’s wife, Lydia, appears in the doorway, asking what text message they are discussing.

Lydia awakens to find Joe gone and overhears him talking with his sisters. Feeling excluded, she confronts them. Joe invents a story about a work problem with his colleague Evan, but it quickly breaks down, and he admits that something illegal is involved, refusing to give further details. Lydia demands to see his phone, which he refuses to give her. She gives him an ultimatum, remembering that her mother left her abusive father to protect her, and she has vowed never to stay with a man she can’t trust. She asks him again, but he still won’t comply. The next morning, Lydia’s suspicion grows as she sees Joe and Cathy talking secretively outside.

This chapter confirms that Joe did send the false tip to the police. He took an evening bus into the city, purchased a burner phone, and texted the hotline with a message claiming to be a bartender in Padua who had served William that morning.

The Italian police visit the villa and inform the family that they are free to fly home as scheduled. The news brings Cathy a qualified relief, as she feels certain that the ordeal isn’t over. Later, she watches Frannie by the pool, and a feeling of deep unease and suspicion settles over her as she thinks about her sister’s secrets and composure.

While packing, Lydia searches Joe’s iPad for clues. She finds no evidence of an affair but makes a critical discovery: The text and WhatsApp threads between Joe and his sisters have been deleted. This confirms her suspicion that the three of them are hiding a secret together. She resolves to confront Joe again and demand the full truth.

Before leaving for the airport, Cathy prepares to burn Will’s wallet and the warrant to destroy the evidence. Before doing so, she discovers Joe’s full name, Joseph Plant, written on a torn section of the warrant. She keeps an encrypted photo of the documents on her phone before burning the physical copies. At the airport, she confronts Joe, who claims to have no idea why his name would be on the paper but agrees they should investigate it on an untraceable computer once they are home. The family is tense as they go through security, and Cathy is particularly terrified that the sniffer dogs will detect something. She imagines confessing to a security guard but passes through without incident. At baggage claim in Birmingham, her bag is delayed. While waiting, she has a brief, flirtatious encounter with a man whose bag is also missing.

Back at the veterinary practice in England, Joe struggles to readjust to normal life. The smell of blood during a routine procedure nearly makes him sick, reminding him of Verona. His colleague, Evan Sawyer, complains about money problems and the strain of his second job as a delivery driver, a consequence of his recent divorce. Joe feels a sense of superiority over Evan’s money struggles but realizes that this feeling speaks poorly of his own character. They discuss a difficult case involving a toy poodle with strange, intermittent symptoms. Displaying his professional skill, Joe correctly diagnoses the dog with a rare disease, noting that its condition worsens under stress—he feels empathy for the dog, as he too struggles with stress. Joe allows Evan to take credit for the correct diagnosis. He thinks of all the animals he’s helped and wonders if the good he does will ever equal the harm of burying Will McGovern’s body.

At the clinic, Cathy is overwhelmed with guilt. Her mother, Maria, visits, and her anxious fussing increases Cathy’s tension. Frannie is also present, trying on clothes she bought online to cope with stress. Cathy takes a break at a café next door and runs into the man from the airport, whose name is Tom. They flirt, and she is drawn to his easygoing nature. As they talk, she sees Joe and Frannie walking by, looking secretive, which deepens her suspicion that they are hiding things. The interaction prompts a flashback to her youth, when she contracted mononucleosis. The illness was followed by the traumatic death of her younger sister, Rosie, who died from sudden infant death syndrome while under Cathy’s care. Her parents’ unspoken blame for the tragedy shaped her into a shy and self-sabotaging adult. Inspired by Tom’s carefree attitude, Cathy decides to overcome her anxiety and agrees to go out with him.

In the present, the narrator is in Jason’s office. He has received the prosecution’s evidence, known as disclosure. He informs her that there is a major problem: Joe’s official statement about the events in Verona contradicts hers.

Cathy goes to Frannie’s house to clear the air. She asks about the lawyer, and Frannie claims it was a precaution for all of them. Joe arrives, and it becomes clear to Cathy that he and Frannie have already discussed the lawyer without her. She feels isolated and resentful, realizing they are a united front. The evening ends with Cathy openly stating that they kept her in the dark, deepening the rift between them.

During a tense family evening at their parents’ house, Joe steps outside and receives a phone call from Carina, their neighbor in Verona. Carina informs him that the woods behind their villa are scheduled for a new property development. Realizing the construction will unearth Will’s body, a panicked Joe tells his sisters, and the three of them leave abruptly. They pull over on a dark road, terrified. Cathy tries to reassure them that it might take time, but they all feel that the discovery of the body is now inevitable.

The trial begins. At the Birmingham Crown Court, the narrator sees her parents and Joe for the first time since their estrangement. Her mother gives her a single, pained look before turning away. The proceedings commence, and the narrator prepares to face the consequences of their actions in Verona.

Lydia gets into her car, and as the engine starts, Joe’s phone call connects to the car’s hands-free system. She hears him speak to a woman before he quickly disconnects. Assuming he is having an affair, Lydia takes a photograph of the Italian number on the display, determined to find out who the woman is.

Arriving at the veterinary practice late one night, Joe finds Frannie waiting for him. She says she is worried about Cathy, who she feels is suspicious of them. Frannie suggests they should be nicer to Cathy to keep her on their side, noting that Cathy has so much power over them. Joe is shocked by the manipulative framing and pushes back, insisting that they are nice to her, but the conversation leaves him unsettled by the shift in their dynamic.

The narrator takes the witness stand to give her testimony. Overwhelmed by trauma as the questioning begins, she breaks down and asks for a five-minute recess. Outside the courtroom, Jason comforts her. In a moment of vulnerability, he reveals that he is in recovery from alcohol use disorder and attends daily AA meetings. His unexpected honesty and support give the narrator the strength to continue. She returns to the stand and states her name for the court record: Catherine Plant.

Tom texts and then calls Cathy, asking her out. On an impulse, she invites him to the vet practice. She changes into a dress Frannie bought and left at the office. Tom arrives, and they flirt as she finishes her duties. In the recovery room, they share a passionate kiss. As they prepare to leave, Tom astutely observes that Cathy seems to be the “odd one out” in her family, a comment that connects with her growing fears about Joe and Frannie.

Joe has a tense conversation with his mother, who is visiting the practice. Afterward, he discovers that Cathy made a serious medication error, writing a prescription for ten times the correct dose of a feline thyroid medication. As he confronts her, a breaking news alert appears on the television: The police search in Verona is now focused on the specific woods where they buried Will. As they stand frozen in shock, they realize their colleague Evan has been in the next room, listening to their panicked conversation.

The standoff with Evan is interrupted when a man brings in a French bulldog that has been hit by a car. Cathy and Joe rush the dog into surgery, with a stunned Evan forced to monitor the anesthesia. After they save the dog, Evan confronts them. Seeing no other option, Cathy confesses everything: Frannie’s accident, their cover-up, and the burial of Will’s body. Evan is horrified. Joe warns him that if he tells anyone, they will all go to prison. Alone later, feeling the situation is hopeless, Cathy considers falsely confessing to the crime herself to protect her siblings and end the nightmare.

Lydia calls the Italian number she photographed from Joe’s phone. She speaks to Carina, the Verona neighbor, who explains that Joe was asking about the new development. Carina also reveals that the construction is postponed because the police are conducting an intense search in a specific area near the dirt road. Relieved that Joe is not having an affair, Lydia remains oblivious to the significance of the police search near the villa and spends the rest of the day smiling.

Joe is haunted by the phantom smell of blood and a crushing sense of guilt. He confesses the entire story to Lydia—Frannie’s accident, the cover-up, and the body. Lydia’s reaction is unnervingly quiet, which deeply concerns Joe. The next day at the practice, Evan is visibly shaken. He questions Joe about the events, and Joe accidentally reveals that Frannie waited half an hour before calling for help after the accident. Evan, with his analytical mind, immediately focuses on this important, unexplained time gap.

Considering falsely confessing to the crime herself, Cathy seeks refuge at her parents’ house instead. It is the week of Rosie’s birthday, and she and her father share a rare, emotional moment where he seems to absolve her of guilt for Rosie’s death. Frannie also arrives, and she warns Cathy that her new boyfriend, Tom, could be an undercover police officer noting that it is “weird that he was in Verona” (248). Despite the warning, Cathy later meets Tom for a walk. They kiss passionately in a field during a thunderstorm, and she invites him back to her cottage.

Cathy’s testimony continues. The prosecuting barrister questions her condescendingly about the burial. Cathy confirms that Will McGovern’s body was buried in the woods by their Verona villa. She testifies that the property has since been sold and the profits were divided among the siblings. When Jason objects, the judge dismisses the concern, stating firmly that Cathy must answer the questions regardless of any family betrayal. Feeling defeated, Cathy tells them to proceed and ask her anything.

Evan confronts Joe alone at the practice. He blackmails him, demanding to be made a partner in the family business in exchange for his silence. Enraged and feeling trapped, Joe calls for an emergency meeting with Cathy and Frannie at Frannie’s cottage. While Cathy believes they have no choice but to give in, Joe is furious at the thought and punches a hole in Frannie’s wall. He feels the situation is spiraling out of control.