On Saturday, Trey works with Cal in his workshop, but seems tired and quiet. Later that night, around one in the morning, she texts Cal asking him to come to her house. He arrives to find Trey and her friends—Kate, Aidan, Ross, and Ciara—holding Donie McGrath captive in the woods behind her house.

Trey explains that Donie has been harassing her family for weeks: throwing rocks, smearing manure on their door, destroying flower beds, and leaving a decapitated fox on their doorstep. She and her friends staked out the woods and ambushed him that night. Cal sends the teenagers away and interrogates Donie. Using physical intimidation to extract the truth, Cal learns that Eugene Moynihan hired Donie, on Tommy’s orders, to scare the Reddy family into leaving their home. After warning Donie to stay away, Cal, Trey, and Trey’s friends load him into Cal’s trunk. Cal drops the other teens off at home, and drives to the Moynihan house with Trey, where they dump the bound Donie on Tommy’s doorstep. Cal tells Tommy he is “just being neighborly” (155) and drives off.

On the way home, Trey has Cal pull over so she can sneak back and eavesdrop. She overhears Tommy telling Donie he was paid to get the Reddys out of their face and had failed. Cal warns Trey that Tommy might try using Child Protective Services against her family, and tells her to ensure her family stays above reproach and to avoid acting rashly. Trey agrees to wait and says she’ll tell Kate what happened, but not her other friends.

On Monday afternoon, Lena walks to Sheila Reddy’s cottage and tells her that Donie was harassing her family on Tommy Moynihan’s orders. Sheila reveals that Tommy recently offered her a manager’s job in Athlone, which she refused, preferring to stay near her new community in Ardnakelty. Lena explains Cal’s theory that Tommy wants Sheila gone because she knows something about Eugene that could damage his chances for winning a city council seat.

Sheila denies any damning knowledge of Eugene, but tells Lena that Rachel arrived at her house around six on the night she died, distraught. Rachel asked how Sheila had dealt with her husband Johnny’s criminal behavior toward others. Sheila admitted she had done nothing to stop Johnny’s crimes, acting only when she needed to protect herself—not the heroic solution Rachel seemed to want. Rachel was upset because Tommy and Eugene were involved in a plan that would hurt people around Ardnakelty, and she felt trapped, believing Tommy would ruin her if she tried to leave Eugene, knowing what she knew. Rachel wanted to tell Sheila what the plan was, but Sheila refused to listen. When Lena warns that Tommy might involve Child Protective Services, Sheila threatens to publicly claim Eugene beat Rachel if he tries, and asks Lena to back her up. Lena agrees.

Cal visits Garda Dennis O’Malley at the police station. Using his engagement to Lena as a pretext, he claims that she feels guilty about Rachel’s visit and needs details of Rachel’s death to ease her mind. Garda Dennis reveals that antifreeze is Rachel’s system was ingested less than an hour before death, and since Rachel died between eight at night and midnight, she couldn’t have taken it before seven that evening—well after she left Lena’s at quarter to six. Rachel made no outgoing calls or texts that evening, though Eugene called her several times. The Guards never pulled her phone location history because her death wasn’t treated as a criminal case.

At a café, Cal constructs a timeline showing a blank period between Rachel leaving Sheila’s around six-thirty and the earliest she could have taken antifreeze at seven. He identifies four concurrent activities by Tommy—harassing the Reddys, investigating Rachel’s death, launching Eugene’s political career, and a land-buying plan Francie had warned about before Rachel’s death—and concludes they must all be connected. Cal often has an “urge to fix stuff,” but he feels that his need to uncover the truth surrounding Rachel’s death “comes from outside him” (183). He knows that the Moynihans are “a threat” to Ardnakelty. Even though his feelings for his new home are “complicated,” there is no denying that Cal is a part of Ardnakelty and has “an obligation” to help where he can. He decides to speak with Eugene.

Cal attends Rachel Holohan’s funeral on Wednesday, surprised when both Lena and Trey join him. At the church, the Holohan and Moynihan families sit on opposite sides of the aisle, avoiding each other’s gaze. Father Eamonn warns the congregation against assigning blame for the tragedy and letting Rachel’s death “tear [the community] apart” (187). Outside, two separate receiving lines form: one for Rachel’s family, one for Eugene.

At the reception in the Kilcarrow Arms, Mart brings Cal to a table with their friends Bobby, Senan, and Francie. Mart points out Dickie O’Shea, the local member of Parliament, holding court with Tommy and Eugene, suggesting proof of Eugene’s political ambitions. Mart asks Cal if he has any “clarity” to share with the group yet. Cal says he’s still working on it, which satisfies them. They notice Trey approach Tommy’s table for a friendly conversation. Cal confronts her in the hallway, and she explains she deliberately offered to build Tommy furniture as a way of asserting that she lives here and won’t be driven out; she is “learning to speak Ardnakelty’s language” (201).

Lena joins her old school friends, waiting patiently for the moment when they start to question her sudden resurgence of “interest in local affairs” (195). She hopes to gather more information about Eugene and Rachel’s relationship, including what Eugene was doing that had so upset Rachel. She knows that the women won’t say anything outright; that isn’t the Ardnakelty way, but “Lena is still fluent in her mother tongue” and knows when the women are holding something back (195). Eventually, Mrs. Duggan, Noreen’s mother-in-law, then summons Lena and instructs her to visit with jam for a talk, making clear she knows about Lena’s recent inquiries and has something to share with her.

Cal finds Eugene drunk in the bathroom. Eugene insists he was home with his parents all evening and didn’t see Rachel. He rants about locals who can’t see the “big picture” and admits Rachel was worried about his and Tommy’s plan. He insists that he told his father she just needed time to come around, but Tommy didn’t believe him. Cal concludes Eugene suspects his father was involved in Rachel’s death.

After several drinks, Lena’s friends finally start talking about Rachel. One woman asks why Lena was investigating the rumor that Rachel was having an affair. She explains her questions were to ease her own guilt over Rachel’s visit, but the women warn her that asking questions is fueling speculation that she and Cal believe Rachel’s death wasn’t suicide.

Meanwhile, Cal and Mart notice they’re being snubbed by the McHugh brothers, and Cal realizes the room has divided into pro-Moynihan and anti-Moynihan factions. A fight nearly breaks out between Senan and Long John Sharkey, a Moynihan supporter. Cal intervenes and leads Senan away, exchanging a long, expressionless look with Tommy Moynihan as he does.