Joe wakes stiff and sore and drives to Kathy’s apartment, where he finds Kathy and Jeremy playing Go Fish and is surprised to see Kathy letting Jeremy win, as the old version of her would never have done that. Joe asks Kathy if Jeremy can stay another day or two, and she is delighted. The conversation turns to Buckley, and Joe mentions having a half-sister named Angel. However, Kathy insists that Toke cannot be Angel’s father. She retrieves a locked box and shows Joe a letter that Toke wrote from jail, claiming he had had a vasectomy specifically so that no other woman could trap him into fatherhood. His letter also included a vow to disappear rather than paying Kathy any child support. Joe notes the grammar errors in his father’s letter (“make due” and “out come”) and states that Toke “writes like a fifth-grader” (272). Kathy smiles in response.

Joe drives to Bob Mullen’s office. Mullen tells him that Moody has been charged with second-degree murder; the police are using Joe’s statement as key evidence. Mullen will represent Moody. Joe asks whether Jeannie could have been having an affair around the time when Angel was conceived. Mullen recalls Jeannie’s mood shift during that time, as well as an evening when Toke came looking for her at the office after she had left work early. Mullen retrieves old phone records and identifies a number that Jeannie called repeatedly. They dial it with the caller ID blocked, and Jeb Lewis answers. Mullen hangs up.

Joe meets with Sheriff Kimball at the Sheriff’s Office while Bob Mullen goes to the courthouse to obtain Moody’s case file and the associated video footage of the deputies’ arrival at the murder scene. Meanwhile, Joe lays out his theory to the sheriff. He states that because Toke had a vasectomy, he cannot be Angel’s father, and he believes that Jeb’s repeated calls to Jeannie suggest an affair. Kimball summons Deputy Calder, who admits that Jeb asked him to cover calls during the period in question. Reviewing the autopsy and medical files, Kimball confirms that Toke and Angel’s blood types make Toke’s paternity of her impossible. Calder reports that Jeb has been visiting Angel in Mankato every other day, a fact that he hid from his wife. Kimball decides to bring Jeb in for questioning and orders Joe to keep the matter confidential.

Joe waits at Bob’s office. When Vicky rides up on her motorcycle, Joe tells her that Lila may have ended the relationship; he declines her suggestion to meet later, insisting that he loves Lila. Vicky comments that he could have told her he had a girlfriend, then leaves. Bob returns and reports that Jeb has been arrested for interfering with the crime scene; Jeb admitted to moving Angel into the house, then invoked his right to remain silent. Moody will be released. Bob then warns Joe that because Toke is not Angel’s father, by intestacy law Angel will inherit nothing from Jeannie’s estate. Joe, as Toke’s sole heir, will receive everything. Although Joe insists that he will share the inheritance, Mullen remains skeptical of his sincerity.

Alone in Bob’s office, Joe reviews Calder’s squad video. He watches Calder arrive and find Toke’s body, after which Calder directs EMTs to help Angel. Vicky pulls up on her motorcycle, speaks briefly with Calder, then parks at her family’s pole barn before joining her father Ray at the fence to watch the action. Joe suddenly recalls Vicky describing Toke lying on his stomach and realizes that she could not have observed this detail from her position at the fence. Reviewing the rear camera frame by frame, Joe spots a figure running from the trees toward the shed in a single flash of strobe light, occurring well before Vicky’s staged arrival on the motorcycle.

Joe drives to the Hix farm at dusk and confirms the sightlines that the video suggested. Vicky comes out of Ray’s house and sits on the porch, gesturing for him to join her. He sits and tells her that Jeb has been arrested and may be Angel’s father. He also reveals that Jeb “altered” the crime scene. Vicky replies that she could understand Jeb wanting to move Angel to the house, and at this point, Joe shakes his head and points out that he never mentioned how Jeb altered the scene. He confronts her about her knowledge that Toke lay on his stomach and shows her a grainy still from the squad video, which shows her running across the lawn. Vicky breaks down and confesses that before Calder came, she went to the barn. When the injured Toke insulted her, she struck him in the head with a gear.

Suddenly, Ray emerges from the house, sees Joe and Vicky, and declares that Joe is not Vicky’s friend. He tears Joe’s shirt open, exposing a recording wire.

Sirens approach. Ray tells Vicky to flee to a childhood camping spot, and she heads toward her motorcycle. Ray retrieves a shotgun and fires into the air to hold off the deputies waiting at the bridge. Vicky escapes on her Triumph, heading down a back trail. Joe tackles Ray, jams his thumb on the trigger to discharge the gun harmlessly into the air, and struggles with him. Ray moves to strangle Joe, but Calder pulls Ray off and handcuffs him while Kimball dispatches deputies to search for Vicky. The officers completely ignore Joe, who deflates, having expected their thanks. Calder coldly blames Joe for the fact that Jeb’s life is a wreck; Joe’s sleuthing has exposed Jeb’s affair, destroying his family, and his career has also been ruined. Calder says that Joe has already done too much “damage” and should just leave.

Joe spends the evening alone at the Caspen Inn, troubled by recent events but unable to hate Vicky. He takes comfort in imagining himself splitting Jeannie’s estate equally with Angel. He falls asleep, then wakes to the smell of gasoline as his room ignites. The door is barred shut from outside with a chain, and the sprinkler head has been sealed with epoxy. Realizing that Charlie is trying to kill him, Joe desperately shelters in the bathroom, breaks the mirror with the lid of the toilet tank, and chops through two layers of drywall into the adjoining bathroom, suffering cuts and burns as he forces his way through.

When Joe emerges, the astonished night manager mentions seeing the guest from room nine—Charlie—in his car around midnight. Outside, the other hotel guests—a displaced Jeb included—are gathering to watch the blaze. Joe spots Charlie observing the fire from a neighboring lot, so he tackles him in an alley and beats him, fueled by an inner voice demanding that he kill Charlie. Suddenly, Jeb pulls Joe off Charlie. Joe accuses Charlie of arson and tells him that because Toke was not Angel’s father, Angel is “nothing” to Charlie. Jeb confirms that he himself is Angel’s father. Jeb notes that Charlie smells of gasoline, so he restrains the man and calls dispatch to send Calder, declaring that he has just made a citizen’s arrest.

As they wait for Calder to arrive, Jeb finds dried epoxy on Charlie’s fingers. When Calder gets to the scene, he bags the evidence and arrests Charlie on suspicion of arson. Jeb offers Joe a spare shirt, and Joe apologizes for exposing his secret. Rather than blaming Joe, Jeb takes responsibility for his own actions and confirms that he suspected Angel might be his daughter. He explains that when he saw her, he panicked and moved her so that she would not be implicated in Toke’s death. Jeb has been suspended from his job. He tells Joe that Angel is showing signs of “lucidity” and invites him to Mankato, but Joe declines. Joe absently notes that his car has been destroyed in the fire.

Joe eats breakfast at a nearby café and learns that Vicky has been arrested in Yankton, South Dakota, after Ray’s recorded jail call to his brother revealed her hiding place. At Bob Mullen’s office, Bob mentions that he will represent Ray, not Vicky. While straightening the Moody Lynch file, Joe finds Jeannie’s typed suicide note. He reads it and recognizes key spelling errors, including the misspelling of “Bapoo” and the phrase “make due.” Startled, he takes the note and leaves the office. Sitting on a park bench, he considers discarding the note in order to preserve his access to the Hix inheritance, imagining using the money to help Jeremy and other people with autism. However, he realizes that keeping the money would be wrong, so he decides to bring the note to the Sheriff’s Office. However, he realizes that the “key” to the whole mystery is at Dub’s Repair, where Toke worked, so he goes there first.

Joe summons Sheriff Kimball and Mullen to Dub’s Repair. He shows them Jeannie’s suicide note and Toke’s old letter to Kathy, pointing out matching spelling errors and the misspelling of “Bapu.” Mullen concludes that Toke wrote the note. Joe argues that Toke killed Jeannie and faked his alibi. Greg Dubinski, the shop owner, demonstrates how Toke set up a fan, lamp, and balloon to cast moving shadows and mimic the presence of a working man on the surveillance footage. Dub confirms Toke set up the same rig the night he died, intending to stage Angel’s death as a copycat suicide. Mullen explains the slayer statute disinherits Toke from Jeannie’s estate, eliminating Joe’s inheritance. However, Mullen wryly notes that Joe is not without some form of inheritance, as Toke’s GTO now belongs to Joe.

Joe wakes at Kathy’s apartment. Over coffee, he tells Kathy that his relationship with Lila is uncertain, but he does not provide details. When he admits that he “messed it up,” Kathy says, “Joe, I know a thing or two about messing stuff up” (332) and speaks about her recovery. She shows him a family photograph that she keeps in her room, telling Joe that it motivates her to stay on track. She then urges Joe not to give up on his relationship with Lila. At Joe’s request, Kathy agrees to take care of Jeremy for a few more days. Just then, Allison texts Joe, asking him to stop by the AP office; Joe checks online and notes that the follow-up article has not been published.

Joe meets Allison at the AP office. He suspects that he is about to be fired, but instead, she reports that Senator Dobbins dropped his lawsuit because she bluffed him by threatening to publish the follow-up article revealing Penny as the source. (She never showed the article to Penny, whose identity has not been revealed publicly.) Joe still has his job, and he eagerly agrees to return to work the next morning.

Carrying a flower from Minnehaha Falls, he then drives to the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center to meet Lila after the bar exam. When Lila emerges, she sees him and shakes her head, walking away. Devastated, Joe turns away and sits in the grass with his head bowed. As he reflects on his mistakes, Lila returns and sits near him. She tells him frankly that he hurt her. They talk, and Lila reveals that she recently called Kathy, who urged her to give Joe another chance. Joe tells Lila that she will always be the love of his life, no matter what happens in the future or what she decides. As they talk, Lila gives Joe a tentative smile and invites him back “home” to the apartment.