Thirty

Pip sits in shock beside Jason Bell’s body, accepting that she chose to kill him and that he is dead. Needing help, she resists using Jason’s iPhone to avoid tying Ravi to the scene, finds Jason’s car unlocked, retrieves her rucksack, and discovers his burner phone. She calls Ravi’s house line, warns him to leave his phone at home, and to use only back roads without traffic cameras.

Ravi arrives, terrified by Pip’s condition and the body. Pip explains Jason abducted her, restrained and taped her like the DT victims, and that she escaped, then returned and killed him. Ravi pushes for self-defence and calling police, but Pip argues the system won’t believe her: the DT killer is “already” in prison, Jason was respectable and connected, and there may be no evidence linking him to the murders. She fears being charged with murder.

Accepting the risk, Ravi agrees they cannot go to the police and asks how to get away with it. Pip outlines the only viable path: manipulate time-of-death indicators—rigor mortis, livor mortis, and body temperature—by cooling the body, turning it before lividity fixes, and later warming it, so the medical examiner estimates death hours later while they establish alibis.

They debate logistics and acknowledge the plan’s extremity. Pip also admits she has multiple burner phones and has been secretly buying Xanax to sleep, and Ravi insists there be no more secrets. Ravi then points out the police will still need a killer even with a shifted time of death. Pip concludes the only way forward is to frame someone else.

Closing the loop, Pip names Max Hastings as the person they will frame for Jason Bell’s murder, setting their next move.