Thornbird

A letter from Gabriel to his daughter is posted on the Free the Sparrows forum. In it, he reminisces about how they spent the day birdwatching on her sixth birthday.

The reality of her father’s death overwhelms Ryan, and she stays in bed all weekend. Hoping to provide closure, her uncle, Dan Shipley, takes her to her old family home. Ryan tells Dan she has some good memories of her father, like hanging birdhouses together. Dan reveals that a DUI in his youth made him unwelcome in Maggie’s family, prompting Maggie to run away to be with him and causing a lasting rift. He feels guilty, wondering if Ryan’s mother might have been saved if they had been closer. He also discloses that he and Leah Devereaux were high school sweethearts before she left him for JP James. Ryan angrily confronts Dan for letting her date Everett knowing this history, but Dan insists she isn’t responsible for her father’s crimes. Back at home, Ryan finds a photo online of a young Everett and Nikki at their mother’s funeral and is overcome with guilt.

Ryan breaks up with Everett via text message. She tells him things are moving too quickly and that she doesn’t want a boyfriend. Confused, Everett sends several replies asking for a real explanation. Ryan ignores his messages.

At school, Chase confronts Ryan at her locker, accusing her of leading Everett on. Later, Everett corners Ryan, demanding a real explanation for the breakup and assuming it’s because of the “baggage” associated with his mother’s murder. Ryan later sees him in the hallway with Sofia draped over him; Sofia catches Ryan’s eye and gives her a triumphant smirk. 

At Maggie’s real estate office, Ryan finds dozens of emails from people inquiring about the Thorn property. Meanwhile, Ryan’s friends, Ty and Mar, announce they are teaming up with Connor’s friend, Kabir, to search for the bodies and claim the reward money. In response, Jasmine declares that she and Ryan are now partners in the search.

A transcript documents Gabriel Thorn’s confession to Sheriff Halliwell. Gabriel refers to the murdered women as his “sparrows” and insists he did not hurt them. When Halliwell asks about Leah Devereaux, Gabriel wistfully recalls her beauty. Halliwell angrily orders Gabriel to stop smiling.

Jasmine theorizes that the victims’ bodies are at an abandoned lumberyard and persuades a reluctant Ryan to investigate it with her on Saturday night. Later, Connor reports that Everett uncharacteristically skipped football practice. Worried, Ryan goes to Everett’s house. Everett explains that a journalist from a big magazine writing a 10-year anniversary feature ambushed him after school and talks about the constant harassment his family endures. He shares memories of his mother and asks if he and Ryan can remain friends. As Ryan leaves, she receives a frantic text from Maggie telling her to come home immediately.

Maggie takes Ryan to her office to meet with two FBI agents, Tom Kulpa and Luke Foster. The agents give Ryan a suicide note from her father. In the letter, Gabriel asks her to “watch over” his “sparrows” and “make sure they are never disturbed” (233). He also recalls how he and his daughter used to identify bird song, wondering if he will soon hear the cry of a whippoorwill (a supposed omen of death). The back of the note lists three birds: An indigo bunting, a magnolia warbler, and a purple finch. Agent Foster accuses Ryan of knowing where the bodies are and implies she could be charged as an accomplice. Maggie furiously ends the interrogation and offers to keep the suicide note in her office so Jasmine won’t see it. She tells Ryan she can read it again when she is ready.

On the school bus, Ryan sees a student named Trevor wearing a jacket celebrating her father. Chase confronts Ryan again. When she questions his friendship with Everett, Chase reveals they bonded as children over their “dead parents,” explaining his own father died of cancer when he was five. 

After Principal Healey gives them both detention for being in the hall after the bell, Chase tells Ryan that he apprentices as a mechanic to help support his mother, who is a nurse. He offers Ryan a ride home, but she declines. That evening, Ryan lies to Maggie to cover her and Jasmine’s plan to go to the lumberyard.

Ryan and Jasmine drive to the abandoned lumberyard and enter the dilapidated former home of the owner, John Ellerbee. After losing a game of rock-paper-scissors, Ryan searches the creepy basement but finds nothing. When they hear a creak from inside the house, they are frightened and decide to leave. Already spooked and fleeing, Ryan realizes she dropped her phone and must go back into the house alone to retrieve it. A nervous Jasmine waits outside. Back inside the house, Ryan sees a dark figure move past a doorway. She grabs her phone, but as she runs toward the truck, she falls.

Ryan hits the bottom of a six-foot-deep trench and injures her ankle. Trapped, she has a flashback of her father explaining that beautiful birds must be caged because they don’t know “what’s good for” them (255). Jasmine finds a rope and pulls Ryan from the pit. They flee the lumberyard and sneak back home. At 2:00 am, Ryan receives another threatening text from an unknown number warning her to stop looking for the bodies or her identity will be exposed.

Ryan resolves to find the bodies herself to protect her cousins. She drives to her old family property to investigate her father’s studio but finds the area swarmed with true-crime tourists. 

Agent Foster from the FBI texts Ryan, and she agrees to meet him for coffee. Arriving at the meeting place, Ryan runs into Zed, who is just leaving the diner. He complains about the invasion of amateur sleuths and reveals that during the original investigation 10 years ago, Dan Shipley’s lie detector test results were “inconclusive.” As Ryan processes this, Natalie Singh, the daughter of one of her father’s first victims, exits the diner to join Zed.