The Book of Cold Cases

Shea calls Beth, who is in Portland, from the Greer mansion. Beth tells her she knew she was there, as she was notified by the motion detectors on the property. Beth tells Shea that she killed Lily and did so because everything Lily did was her fault. Then she says that Shea feels responsible as well for Sherry Haines’s death, and Shea knows Beth is right.

While Shea is on the front lawn talking to Beth, the house’s front door opens and a light inside turns on. Lily’s ghost is inviting Shea inside so Lily can tell Shea her story. Beth tells her to go inside and then tell the story. Shea goes inside and up to the master bedroom. She opens the closets and takes out Mariana's clothes, heaping them on the bed. Then she goes to Beth's teenage room and destroys her records. When she returns to the master bedroom, the clothes are all back in the closet. Then, something grabs Shea and pushes her into Beth's childhood room, but when she steps over the threshold, she finds herself by the side of a road at night near Claire Lake.

Shea watches, without being able to help, as Thomas Armstrong gets out of his car to help Lily, whose car seems to have broken down. Lily shoots him twice and then drives away. Shea then finds herself back in Beth's bedroom and watches as Mariana’s ghost runs by, apologizing to Lily, and goes out the front door. Shea realizes that she is witnessing the scene before Mariana will be in the car accident that kills her.

Shea gets out of the house but then follows footprints around to the rear lawn. Lily is there and tells Shea there is no reason why she did the things she did. Lily grabs her hand and forces Shea to jump off the cliff.

Beth has been staying in a motel since the acquittal, waiting for the press to leave her alone, but now she has come home. When she goes into the kitchen, Julian's body is on the floor, and she is not sure if she is losing her mind. It is the first time she sees his ghost. When she goes upstairs Lily is in the master bedroom looking through Mariana's clothes. She tells Beth that she lives there now and that Beth will stay there with her and they will be sisters. Lily admits that she killed Julian, but she did it because Beth wanted her to. When she turns to run a bath, Beth picks up her father's heavy ashtray and hits Lily in the head with it then drowns her in the running bath.

When Shea regains consciousness, she is at the foot of the cliffs behind Greer mansion laying in the water. She is badly injured but gets to her feet and starts walking toward the town. She makes it to a playground, where a child and his mother find her. The boy asks her why she didn’t ask the lady behind her for help, but the lady is gone now. She passes out as the woman is calling an ambulance.

Michael is sitting by her bed when Shea wakes up in the hospital. He tells her that, despite her injuries, which are severe, she walked three miles. Esther has been to visit her and instructed Michael to call her when Shea woke up. Shea finally tells Michael the story of her attempted abduction but reveals that while she was hiding and recovering from the confrontation, Anton Anders found another victim, Sherry Haines, and raped and murdered her. She admits that she was Girl A and feels responsible because if she had gone home immediately instead of hiding for three hours, Sherry Haines might still be alive. Michael says that she is not to blame. Shea then tells him about Beth killing Lily with the ashtray but cannot explain how she knows the story. She urges him to call the police and tell them that Beth killed Lily because Lily was the Lady Killer.

This chapter opens with two newspaper articles that discuss a recent police search of Beth Greer's house. In one of them, she accuses the police of harassment and blames Shea, who is a blogger and has revived interest in the case. In the media, Beth says that she plans to sue Shea. Shea, who is now famous, knows Beth is toying with her. Shea also discovers that Beth has paid her extensive medical bills from her fall off the cliff. Shea has given Joshua Black all of her information about Lily, and he and the police are investigating. When she checks out of the hospital, Michael picks her up in his car, which she climbs into with little hesitation.

This chapter opens with a transcript from a true crime podcast on which Shea is a guest. She has gained fame as a true crime writer because of the Lady Killer case. Although she has been fired from the doctor's office, her career as a blogger and podcaster has taken off as a result of all the publicity. Michael's business has grown as well, and they are in a relationship. Esther is now pregnant, and Shea is still recovering from her injuries. Esther is worried that Shea is in danger from Beth, but Shea knows that Beth has a brain aneurysm and is not really interested in pursuing revenge or controlling what happens with the case. One night, Beth calls Shea, and they talk about Shea's article on the Lady Killer and a 60 Minutes interview. Beth tells her that Ransom Wells is dead, and they talk about Joshua Black, who is still investigating. She also finally tells Shea why she has never left the house or moved anything: because Lily would not let her.

Shea is standing in line at the drugstore when she sees on the news that Beth Greer is dead. Authorities believe she had a stroke while driving, but Shea knows it was the aneurysm. The day before, the DNA evidence from the remains had proved the body found at Claire Lake was related to Beth. Shea’s phone immediately begins ringing with calls from everyone in her life, including Michael. Michael also went with her to Anton Anders’s parole hearing, where Shea read a prepared statement, resulting in his parole denial. The following week, Shea gets a package in the mail with Beth's red shawl in it.

There is a new family in the Greer mansion. They have cleared out the furniture and renovated the space. The back lawn will become a patio, and there is a fence at the edge of the lawn before the cliff. The family has a busy life, but all the while strange things happen in the house—odd dreams and cold spots—they do not talk about. The daughter has seen footprints in the dewy grass, and no one talks about the fence or the fact that they always keep the curtains shut.