The Last Party

Later, Madeline enters Perla’s office and hands her a pair of blood-stained underwear, which she found in Sophie’s hamper. Perla is horrified at the thought of Sophie starting her menstrual cycle. She preemptively resents the attention that Grant will lavish on her, as well as the attention that Sophie will draw from men as she starts to mature. Perla feels that she is in a losing competition with all teenage girls and that she is “falling apart” while they blossom. She has even noticed Grant looking at teenagers at the country club. The Folcrum Party re-creation will give her the opportunity to “remove the opponent from the field” (89).

Perla recounts her thoughts on marriage and relationships. Her biological father’s relationships with women were always short-lived and dysfunctional, but her adoptive parents, George and Janice, had a strong and healthy marriage. At first, Perla tried to fracture their bond, but when she was unable to do so, she decided to learn from them instead.

George and Janice took Perla in, introducing her to high-class society. Perla kept close tabs on their lives, learning just how much power their money gave them, and vowed to harness that power for herself.

In the present, Grant and Perla go out to dinner. On the way home, Perla recalls the day of their engagement: Grant had proposed at a Dave Matthews Band concert with a cherry ring pop. Perla was dissatisfied with the song playing as he proposed and later made him pick out a different song.

Perla and Grant discuss the tenets of a happy marriage. She tells him that he has been staying too late at the office and asks him to make sure he finishes his latest work project before Sophie’s birthday. Privately, Perla thinks that a married couple should love one another more than they love their child.

Perla asks Grant to take her out for dessert and drinks. He declines, saying that they have to get home to check on Sophie. Perla reacts angrily, giving Grant the cold shoulder until he relents. When they finally arrive home, Perla pulls Grant upstairs and into bed, ensuring that he doesn’t check on Sophie.

This chapter ends with an email from tfk@hotmail.com to info@murderunplugged.com. The email reads,

[S]tar light

star bright

the Folcrum party was a pure delight

I wish I may

I will I might

Make another birthday end in fright (96).

Dr. Valden visits Wally Nall, Leewood’s former best friend. Wally says that Leewood could be mean and brusque but not evil. He recounts Leewood’s rocky relationship with his late wife, Jessica, and their daughter, Jenny. Leewood and Jessica were both heavy drinkers and substance users who neglected Jenny, so Wally and his wife, Becca, began looking out for her.

After Jessica’s death, Wally became concerned that Jenny and Leewood were growing overly close, characterizing their relationship as “playing house” (101), with Jenny looking out for Leewood like a wife or mother. Though he doesn’t believe that Leewood molested Jenny, he was unsettled by their dynamic, as well as the intensity of Jenny’s personality. Wally says that Jenny was keenly observant, making the adults in her life feel surveilled. He recalls the day when he caught her watching a video of a decapitation, seemingly unaffected. Dr. Valden asks Wally if he believes that Leewood killed the girls. Wally responds, “Not a chance” (101).

At another session with Dr. Maddox, Perla recalls her pregnancy. She tells Dr. Maddox that Grant never wanted children and that Sophie was an unhappy accident. In truth, Grant has always wanted children, while Perla did not. She kept her unplanned pregnancy from him for as long as possible, planning to terminate it behind his back. Her plan was foiled when they got into a car accident on Christmas Eve, injuring Perla’s spine. Scans in the hospital revealed her pregnancy.

As Perla recuperated, she grew increasingly resentful of the baby, “[e]ating [her] nutrients [and] [f]ueling [her] husband’s joy” (101). She recalls the moment when a nurse handed Sophie to Grant and she realized that Sophie had the ultimate power over him. Perla believed that she would be able to use this power to manipulate Grant, not realizing “that power was going to grow up and have its own ideas” (101).

Dr. Valden visits Leewood on the following Tuesday, bringing a bag of Chick-Fil-A. He asks if Leewood and Jenny had a normal father-daughter relationship, which Leewood confirms. Dr. Valden probes about the night of the crime and why Leewood was found holding Jenny’s body. Leewood once again vehemently denies his guilt, stating that any normal parent would hold their dying child. Dr. Valden frustratedly reminds him that forensics teams found no outside DNA at the crime scene.

Dr. Valden offers to turn off his recorder and speak to Leewood off the record in exchange for a confession. He divulges that he has a secret: Leewood is dying and likely has only weeks left to live. Rather than his impending death motivating a confession, Leewood thinks that he is “almost to the finish line” (112). Confessing to the murders wouldn’t change anything for him now, but telling the truth would.

While lying in bed one night, Grant asks Perla why she never talks about her father. She responds angrily, stating that they had a complicated relationship. Inwardly, she thinks, “That portion of my life…it was nothing he ever needed to know” (114).

Perla coldly asks Grant why he never talks about his sister and her death. Grant is hurt and surprised, but Perla responds, “There’s a reason we don’t talk about certain things” (114).

As Perla makes dinner, Sophie asks her about Grant’s “famous sister.” Perla feels a twinge of annoyance. She tells Sophie that Grant’s sister isn’t really famous. Sophie asks if she can meet her, and Perla says that they’ll talk about it after Sophie’s birthday. Wary of rumors, she warns Sophie not to talk about Grant’s sister with her friends.

Murder Unplugged dedicates an episode to the emails from tfk@hotmail.com. Perla is pleased with the discussion being generated, believing that it will further muddy the waters after the fact.

Perla receives a call from Tina, the director of Tom Pullic Academy, where Sophie has been enrolled for soccer camp. Perla is annoyed, believing that signing Sophie up for the expensive camp was a mistake, as the training will interrupt her schedule and there is a non-refundable deposit on cancellation.

Feigning tears, Perla tells Tina that Sophie died the previous week in a car accident. She asks Tina to cancel the registration. Perla basks in Tina’s shocked reaction, “a small taste of what [i]s to come” (119).

Grant is horrified by Perla’s lie, believing that it’s bad karma. Perla defends herself, stating that she solved a problem. She does not believe in karma and is annoyed by Grant’s overblown reaction. Grant storms out of the room, but Perla is confident that he’ll forgive her, as he always does.

With five weeks to go before Sophie’s birthday, Perla refines her plan. She decides to hire a nanny to serve as her second suspect. She plans to choose a woman who appears unstable so that she can paint her as obsessed and envious after the fact. Perla places several ads for childcare, adding, “[R]eferences not required” (123).

Perla recalls the early days of Sophie’s infancy. She only kept Sophie because she knew the baby was holding her and Grant’s faltering marriage together. As Sophie grew up, Perla became a strict mother, teaching Sophie to take care of herself just as Perla once did. She recalls how she used to pack her own lunch and take money from her father’s wallet when she needed it. These moments “fortified the woman [she] eventually became” (125).

Over lunch, Perla and her friends discuss nannies. The women warn her against choosing a younger nanny, stating that it often ends in an affair. Perla conceals her smile.

Perla begins interviewing nannies for Sophie. After turning down several candidates for being too pretty (and therefore diverting attention from her), she selects a young community college student named Paige Smith. Paige is meek and plain, and Perla plans to boost Paige’s confidence to make her a more believable suspect. She recalls how Janice took her to a salon for a makeover shortly after her adoption. Afterward, Perla felt like a different person.

Leewood receives another letter from Grant. The letter contains a photograph of Leewood and Jessica. Grant asks Leewood if he ever loved Jessica and Jenny. He reiterates his plea for information about Lucy’s death.

Leewood looks at himself in the mirror and thinks he doesn’t look like a dying man. Leewood believes that something about Dr. Valden is off. He thinks to himself that “a wolf can recognize a fellow wolf” (133).

This chapter opens with a quote from a woman named Nikkila Matthews, who recalls seeing an ambulance speeding to the Wultzes’ house at three o’clock in the morning. By the time the ambulance arrived, it was too late.

Grant and Perla sit out on the back deck. She divulges her upcoming rhinoplasty and tells him that she will be bringing in a nanny to help with Sophie during her recovery. Grant is surprised because Perla “hates the idea of nannies” (134), but he acquiesces. Perla reassures Grant that he’ll love Paige. Inwardly, she thinks that on paper, Paige will appear to love Grant to the point of obsession.

Perla and Sophie go grocery shopping. Sophie asks why she is only allowed to invite two people to her birthday party, and Perla says that it was Grant’s decision. Perla makes her promise not to speak to Grant about this by gripping her shoulders until Sophie complains of pain. As she looks at Sophie, Perla realizes that she will miss her daughter, but she is not deeply affected by emotions like sadness. The only things she feels strongly are “envy, greed [and] passion” (137).

Dr. Valden visits Leewood again, frustrated over Leewood’s reticence. Leewood insists emphatically that he didn’t kill the girls at the Folcrum Party. He looks deeply into Dr. Valden’s eyes, and for a moment, he can tell that Dr. Valden believes him.

As she works out at the country club’s gym, Perla plots how she will arrange the bodies of Sophie and her friends on the bedroom floor. She thinks about Paige, hoping to make her comfortable enough that she begins talking to her friends about how great the Wultzes’ lifestyle is.

During another visit with Dr. Valden, Leewood accuses him of harboring secrets of his own. When Dr. Valden reacts strangely, Leewood feels that he has “hit pay dirt” (145).

On Paige’s first day, Perla gives her a tour of the house and then invites her to dinner. Over dinner, Paige reveals that she is a criminology student whose father works at Lancaster Prison. These revelations anger Perla, who believes that they will complicate her plan to frame Paige.

In a journal entry, Sophie muses that Paige’s sudden appointment makes no sense, as Perla hates nannies. Sophie wonders whether Paige will grow to love or hate her parents, stating, “I know which side I’m on” (151).

At her therapy appointment, Perla tells Dr. Maddox that she is growing wary of Paige’s interest in Grant. She implies that Paige dislikes Sophie. Dr. Maddox encourages her to find a new nanny in the six weeks before Sophie’s party, but Perla retorts that there is not enough time.

In an email from info@murderunplugged.com to tfk@hotmail.com, the hosts express their doubts that “tfk” was involved in the Folcrum Party and ask them to stop contacting the podcast unless they can provide proof.