Chapter 22

Briggs drives the team home in tense silence after Dean reveals Redding praised letters from a student. Outside, Michael deflects with humor, but Cassie’s distress is obvious. Inside, Briggs assembles everyone, furious that they approached witnesses without authorization, and underscores that Dean faced his father at Briggs’s request for the case’s sake.

Lia lashes back, demanding to watch Briggs’s taped interview with Redding to parse the lies, while Briggs insists they are hurting, not helping. Briggs then receives a call: there’s a possible address for the professor’s cabin. Sterling and Briggs depart to pursue it, leaving Judd to keep the team in place.

In the basement, Dean asks how Cassie obtained the information she gave Briggs. Lia argues Dean never should have gone to Redding without her, revealing her hurt at being excluded. Pressed, Lia admits she and Cassie took a risk; Sloane quantifies their unsanctioned outing and notes Cassie’s conspicuous attire.

Dean demands details. Michael says he went along to keep Cassie safe from a student obsessed with Redding’s case. Cassie counters that Lia met two men from Fogle’s class. The argument exposes the group’s freelancing and conflicting loyalties—their intent to help Dean versus the danger they courted and the burden it placed on him.

Dean, already raw from Redding’s manipulation, interprets their actions as another breach and responsibility he never asked for. After a cutting exchange with Lia that leaves her pale and shaken, Dean leaves. Lia flees moments later, and Michael wryly declares the confrontation a disaster, underscoring the team’s fracture even as a promising cabin lead emerges.