Cal drops Trey home the long way to avoid the crime scene. At the gate, Johnny emerges from the trees, having been waiting to debrief her before facing the detective. Trey reports what she told Nealon, including her invented story about overhearing local-accented men at the fork. Johnny is delighted, recognizing she has steered suspicion away from him, and concocts a complementary story: he heard her go out, assumed she was meeting friends, and stayed home all evening. He confirms he retrieved Cal's camera from the river site and deleted the footage.

Trey asks if Johnny will leave now that Rushborough is dead and the scheme is finished. Johnny insists he must stay so he doesn't look suspicious, which suits Trey's purposes. She suspects he may have killed Rushborough but doesn't ask, knowing he'd lie. Despite her plan succeeding, she feels hollow, missing Cal, knowing she can never tell him what she's doing because it violates his code and her promise about Brendan. She heads off to begin seeding her false story among her friends so it will spread and reach Nealon independently.

At Cal's place, Mart arrives while Cal harvests carrots. Mart probes about Nealon and assures Cal that nobody in Ardnakelty will tell the Guards about the salting of the river—the rumor will dissolve into untraceable gossip. Mart claims he didn't kill Rushborough, saying it isn't his style, and would have preferred Johnny dead. He confirms he stored the gold offline so no purchase trail exists.

Lena arrives and they work through carrots together. Cal describes Nealon as competent. Lena reveals Johnny came to her house the previous night around eight, panicking after being warned to leave or be burned out, begging her to intervene. She refused and he left in a tantrum. Cal and Lena weigh Johnny as the killer—drunk and desperate, he might have done it—but Cal can't reconcile this with the body being deliberately placed in the road to be found, when Johnny would have hidden it.

Cal then tells Lena that Trey lied to Nealon, claiming to have heard local men at the murder site, deliberately turning the investigation onto Ardnakelty as revenge for Brendan. Lena feels awe and fear; Trey has found a loophole in her promise to Cal. They conclude there is nothing they can do—confronting Trey would only push her to hide more. They cook dinner together, aware of the townland and Nealon's investigation gathering pressure around them.