Contents
7. Eden
Overview
Eden is detained at the Hope Falls police station, where Sergeant Carter doubts her identity. He presents an active Instagram and local witnesses that support the impostor as the real Eden. Without ID or allies, Eden faces being held overnight, revealing she cannot even rely on her estranged daughter for verification.
Summary
Sergeant Carter escorts Eden from the gallery to the small Hope Falls station. Eden insists she is Eden Fox of Spyglass and that another woman is impersonating her, with Harrison complicit. Carter, skeptical but civil, begins basic questions and asks for ID, which Eden lacks after returning from a run.
Carter searches online and shows Eden an active Instagram, “Eden Fox Artist,” featuring weeks of posts of her paintings, their renovated home, and a pub photo with Harrison. He adds that the gallery owner, bakery staff, and even he himself recognize the other woman as Eden, having met her and received an exhibition poster.
Eden argues the photos were taken on her phone and that the locks at Spyglass were changed, but without her phone or social media presence, she cannot prove it. Carter suggests she may be confused or injured and stresses Hope Falls’s low-crime expectations, warning she cannot leave until her identity is verified.
Pressed for a corroborating contact, Eden first offers Harrison, whom Carter dismisses, then admits her eighteen-year-old daughter Gabriella exists but will not talk to her. With no verifiable ID or willing witness, Carter prepares to transfer Eden to Falmouth to be held overnight.
Who Appears
- Eden FoxClaims her identity has been stolen; cannot provide ID; rejects social media account used to validate the impostor.
- Sergeant CarterSkeptical local officer; presents Instagram and village confirmations; plans to hold Eden without verification.
- Harrison WoolfEden’s husband; appears on the impostor’s Instagram and previously denied Eden at their home.
- Impostor EdenWoman presenting as Eden; recognized by locals, runs Instagram with Eden’s photos, featured at the exhibition.
- GabriellaEden’s eighteen-year-old daughter; estranged, unlikely to confirm Eden’s identity.