Chapter Seventeen

On Sunday morning, Cal recovers from the pub fight and keeps watch at home, mulling his ties to Ardnakelty and fears about losing his land. Trey arrives with her friend Kate; they reveal they canvassed partygoers and learned that around 9:30 p.m. on the night Rachel died, Zoe Greaney and friends saw Tommy Moynihan walking toward the old bridge, using his phone light, when no search was yet underway.

Cal tests their account, probing timing, identification, and motives for silence. Concluding it’s credible but not court-usable, he decides to press Eugene privately, believing Eugene knows more and may crack. Trey and Kate propose covert surveillance of the Moynihans from trees by Nance Maguire’s; Cal agrees for that day only.

At Cal’s house, Trey needles him about the pub fight and rumors smearing Lena; Cal is evasive about his and Lena’s strain. The girls head to their lookout and text bored updates as the Moynihans host relatives but otherwise stay in. Cal phones Alyssa with ordinary news, then sits up through the night awaiting visitors; none come, and his unease grows.

Shift to Lena: unable to sleep in her bed, she camps on the sitting room sofa with Sean’s shotgun within reach. In the night, a heavy thump hits her front door; footsteps retreat. On the step she finds a bottle of antifreeze and a bowl half-filled—threats against her dogs and her, inviting a staged suicide. Lena pours the bowl down the sink, leaves the bottle, and steels herself, sensing the river’s relentless presence as tension escalates.