Cole goes for a run on the National Mall. He asks his Secret Service agent Doug Lambert to look into the young woman with the picture of Suzanne they had seen the other day. Then, Maddy joins Cole on his run. She asks Cole to speak to Senator Balquière of Louisiana’s grandson’s football team to encourage the senator to support her Grand Bargain bill. He agrees.

Retired detective O’Halloran calls Garrett. O’Halloran tells Garrett and Brea that Amber Keenan, a.k.a. Lillian Brady, was executed the night before by “pros.” He also tells them that someone confessed to Suzanne Bonanno’s murder.

Burton meets with Rachel Bernstein in the West Wing. He tells her to stop the vice president from spreading rumors about sabotage. Rachel says she knows about the Grand Bargain deal and that she could leak it to the press. As she leaves, she says she will do what she has to do to make his office her own.

Garrett meets with John DeMarco, an inmate who confessed to another inmate that he murdered Suzanne Bonanno. He is “slightly” connected to the Mafia. John tells Garrett that the confession was false; he just wanted to improve his reputation inside. John tells Garrett he knows who killed Suzanne.

Inmate John DeMarco tells Garrett to get in touch with his private investigator, Seymour Washington. In exchange for help with his case, Seymour will reveal where Suzanne is buried and who killed her.

Brea meets with Felicia Bonanno, Suzanne’s mother. Brea tells Felicia that Amber has been murdered. Felicia shows Brea a video of Suzanne as a cheerleader. Suzanne is wearing a tennis bracelet with Patriot charms in the video. Suddenly, Teresa arrives. She tells Brea that whatever questions she asked Amber got her killed.

Brea asks Felicia and Teresa about Tony Romero. Felicia describes him as a “charmer.” She was disappointed when Suzanne broke up with him. She says Teresa had a crush on Tony. Teresa says she did not tell anyone that Brea had spoken to Amber.

Garrett is driving home in rural Connecticut when a big car rear-ends him into a ditch. Two men whom he recognizes from Tony’s bar tell him to stop working on the book, and they fire a warning shot near his head.

The man surveilling Garrett, Jack Doohan, sees Garrett’s car in the ditch. He takes a picture and drives away.

Secret Service agent Doug Lambert tells Cole Wright they have identified the woman on the Mall with a picture of Suzanne. Her name is Joan Marie Cardinal, a low-income George Washington University student who was paid anonymously and has since flown off to Cambodia, a non-extradition country. They do not know for whom she was working.

Brea is at home when Officer Blaine from the Litchfield Police arrives to tell her that Garrett’s rental car was found abandoned in a ditch with his cell phone left behind. After he leaves, Garrett walks in.

Brea is relieved Garrett is alive. He tells her that he was rear-ended and threatened, but that he will tell the police his car slid on the icy road to avoid a police investigation. Then Pearce calls.

Shocked, Brea and Garrett take the call from Pearce, the president’s chief of staff. Pearce tells them he knows about the book they are working on. He tells them that the allegations against Cole Wright are “false rumors” from people jealous of his stardom, first as a star football player and later as first gentleman. He thinks there is a conspiracy to bring down the first female president and “deny her a second term” (154). They agree that Pearce will get a chance to respond to their findings before they publish in exchange for an exclusive if Pearce’s “conspiracy” claim turns out to be true.

Garrett and Brea meet with Seymour Washington, the private investigator. Brea takes a dollar from Seymour, symbolizing that she is his lawyer and their conversation is privileged. He tells them he will give them the location of Suzanne’s body and that he will reveal the murderer if they help with DeMarco’s appeal. He gives them a map.

Garrett and Brea go to the location indicated on the map. It is in a park near a memorial stone in Seabrook.

Garrett and Brea begin to dig. They notice the soil has been recently disturbed. They find no body, but they do find Suzanne’s tennis bracelet. This confirms she had once been buried there.

Policeman Steve Josephs pulls over a drunk driver, Herb Lucienne. The car is registered to Ken MacDonald of Portsmouth. Josephs’s supervisor, Sergeant Tasker, arrives and searches the car before it is towed. They find a skeleton wrapped in a blue sheet in the trunk.

At a nearby motel, Brea and Garrett discuss what to do with Suzanne’s tennis bracelet, which they had taken with them from the gravesite. Garrett does not want to call the police.

Detective Sergeant Marie Gagnon is called to the scene. She searches the skeleton and finds a wallet. Inside the wallet is Suzanne Bonanno’s driver’s license.

Jack Doohan calls his anonymous handler from a truck stop. He had followed Lucienne and called in the tip to the police that Lucienne was driving under the influence. He lets the handler know Suzanne’s body has been found.

Brea and Garrett get a call from their publisher, Nottingham Press. It is the owner, Reginald Hamilton. He tells them that their longtime editor, Marcia Dillion, has been fired and their book project cancelled.

Detective Sergeant Marie Gagnon interviews Herbert Lucienne. Lucienne tells Gagnon he is unemployed. Three days prior, he had found an envelope with instructions and the promise of $500. He was to pick up a red Sentra and drive it to a cottage on Lake Marie. He does not know where the instructions came from or that there was a skeleton in the trunk.

Brea and Garrett decide to keep working on their investigation. Brea receives a threatening text message from “A Brother” warning her to stop, but she ignores it. Brea decides to put the bracelet back where she had found it and to notify the police of its location.

Detective Gagnon believes Lucienne’s story. The chief medical examiner, Alice Woods, tells Gagnon that Suzanne was killed by strangulation and that she was likely pregnant at the time of her death.

Detective Gagnon informs Felicia Bonanno that they have found Suzanne’s body. Felicia asks why it took them 17 years.

Cole Wright tells his staff he wants to take a secret trip to Hanover, New Hampshire.

Garrett is driving home after an unsuccessful meeting with O’Halloran, who has suddenly stopped providing Garrett with information. He is stopped by the Secret Service. They hand him a phone and tell him the first gentleman wishes to speak with him.

Cole Wright tells Garrett to meet him immediately. Cole is agreeing to an interview.

Gagnon meets with Deputy Attorney General Hugh Bastinelli about the case. Gagnon tells him that the original files on the Suzanne Bonanno investigation have gone missing, and she has to start from scratch. They get a call from state troopers who have found a potential pre-dug grave site on Lake Marie on property belonging to Cole Wright.

Garrett is driving home, thrilled with what he learned from the first gentleman. He tries to call Brea, but it goes to voicemail. He leaves a message telling her he just interviewed Cole Wright.

Brea sneaks out to the location of Suzanne’s grave site and reburies Suzanne’s bracelet.

An unidentified caller calls the Seabrook police department and tells them where Suzanne Bonanno had been buried.

Brea drops the burner phone she used to leave the anonymous tip into the pond. She accidentally drops her personal cell phone in as well. She returns home and waits for the phone to dry. When she turns it on, she has several messages from Garrett and a threatening text from “A Brother” warning her to stop the investigation. Garrett wants them to meet at “our place.”

That evening, Gagnon goes to the location where Suzanne had been buried. She shows Bastinelli the bracelet they found. The crime scene techs also find a small fragment of bone and a watch. The watch is engraved “To CW, From BC, With love” (208).

Garrett goes to a cabin in Vermont to wait for Brea. They had had their “first off-campus date” (210) there years ago. He is waiting for a delivery of firewood. He hears a knock on the door. When he opens it, two men are standing there. They shoot Garrett in the head.

Brea arrives in Brattleboro and pulls up to the cabin. There are emergency vehicles everywhere. She sees blood in the cabin as the police pull her away. She knows Garrett is dead.